Pastor Nick Coleman

Nick Coleman published another screed yesterday. I have said before that I usually leave fisking his columns to others who do it better. Shoot - usually I don't even read his rantings because I recognize them to be the rantings of a bitter old man. However yesterdays screed needs to be addressed.

John Nienstedt, Coadjutor Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, has been quoted as saying he believes homosexuality is the result of some kind of childhood trauma. Today, he is inflicting trauma of his own.
That's the opinion of many Catholic friends and relatives of gay and lesbian people in the Twin Cities. They say they have been wounded and angered by comments Nienstedt made about homosexuals in the Nov. 15 edition of The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the archdiocese.

How's that for irony....Comrade Coleman publishes his opinion multiple times a week in a newspaper. When we "wing-nuts" complain to the Star Tribune about something that he has said in his opinion piece, we are out of line. Yet here he is complaining about the Archbishop prining an opinion in his own paper? How does that work Comrade????

Next Nicky goes into doctrine.

"Those who actively encourage or promote homosexual acts or such activity within a homosexual lifestyle formally cooperate in a grave evil," wrote Nienstedt, who is scheduled to succeed retiring Archbishop Harry Flynn in May. "If they do so knowingly and willingly, [they] are guilty of mortal sin."
Nienstedt went on to set three conditions for such church members to receive communion: They must experience a "conversion of heart," express "sorrow for their action" and receive absolution from a priest...
The catechism, in my reading, says homosexual acts cannot be approved but does not label them a "grave evil." Homosexuals, like all baptized persons, are "called to chastity." But somehow, the sins of homosexuals always get denounced before the sins of straight people. And if gays must be accepted with compassion and respect, those qualities seem notably missing from Nienstedt's statement.

First off Nick, gays have to accept doctrinal teaching in order to be accepted with "compassion and respect", not the other way around! All sinners - all mankind have to do so. That is the gist of ANY religious teaching!

Now I can not speak to the Catholic Catechism as I am not a Catholic. However, I have enough Catholics in my life that I have been exposed to enough to know that Nickolae is wrong again! Nick obviously has not read his Old Testament or if he has he conveniently skipped over this passage.

If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them.

That is Leviticus chapter 20 verse 13 and the emphasis is mine. Merriam Websters Dictionary defines abomination as "worthy of or causing disgust or hatred". A sin "worthy of or causing disgust or hatred" is considered to be a grave evil which the Archbishop says homosexuality is IS. Doctrinally, there is nothing out of line in what the Archbishop said!

Nick Coleman professes to be a Christian. His scorn for all things conservative speak volumes about him and his faith. For he has no love for his fellow man - at least not those who have a conservative world view. That much is obvious. Ephesians 4:15 (speak the truth in love) obviously has no meaning to Mr. Coleman. Then again Nick Coleman also professes to be an objective journalist. Given what we know about Mr. Coleman's journalistic objectivity (or lack thereof) maybe there is some insight into his faith as well.

Forecasting Failure

Earlier this year, during the last legislative session, many of us expressed concerns about the Governor spending the projected budget surplus. We all felt that it was best to have that money in hand, rather than being spent while only being "forecasted". Well today our worst fears came true!

Gov. Tim Pawlenty is bracing for bad news when state finance officials release an economic forecast on Friday.
Pawlenty is predicting a hit to the state budget, but says he doesn't know how bad it will be. He says the ailing housing market, credit crunch and high oil prices make him pessimistic.
Many economists, including consultants used by the state, are anticipating a year of slow economic growth in 2008. That would bite into revenue the state is counting on to meet its budget obligations.

Emphasis mine.

Here is a radical thought for the Legislature and the Governor. How about only spending the money that you (the state Government) have IN HAND. That is what the rest of us who live in the real world do!

"Only I Can Beat Them!"

The Star Tribune focused on this claim by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today.

Hillary Rodham Clinton maintained Sunday that she's the best candidate to win against Republicans, saying she has more experience battling the GOP than any other candidate in the Democratic field.
"I believe that I have a very good argument that I know more about beating Republicans than anybody else running. They've been after me for 15 years, and much to their dismay, I'm still standing,'' she said in answer to a woman's question about her electability. "I'm leading in all the polls, I'm beating them in state after state after state.''

Emphasis mine. Apparently Senator Clinton didn't look at the latest Zogby Poll.

All five of the leading Republican presidential candidates — including John McCain — would beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in a head-to-head match-up, according to a surprising new poll from Zogby International.
But Barack Obama outpolled all five GOP hopefuls — Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, and McCain.

OUCH - that is going to sting.

The "inevitablity" of Senator Clinton being the Democratic nominee seems to be less inevitable as we get closer to the Iowa Caucuses. Now is the time when things will get interesting...very interesting indeed.

The Truth Hurts

The "jackals" in the cartoonists corp are hitting Hillary after her "the boys are picking on me" gaffe.

However this one contains the hard truth about why Mrs. Clinton will most likely not move back into the White House.

Margaret Thatcher and Golda Meir and even San Fran Nan, don't whine when the "boys pick on her". If Mrs. Clinton can't stand the primary heat, how is she going to handle the pressure cooker of the general election.

Please Hillary! buck up honey. Women are stronger than this and if you can't take the heat - then stand aside for a woman who can!

Help Wanted

From Sue Jeffers

Help Wanted: Major Political party looking for a leader with principles. No experience necessary; Must love liberty, limited government and fiscal responsibility.

The values and principles of preserving freedom, life, liberty and property proudly defined Republicans of old. Fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, limited government and free enterprise defined us. There was a time, not long ago that Republicans unashamedly stood up for the rights of the unborn, the sanctity of marriage and individual responsibility. Has it become courageous to stand up for these principles, instead of being the right thing to do?

The republicans of today foolishly ignore the simple, tried and true conservative principles that have stood the test of time. Now, many republicans support energy policies based on shaky man-made global warming theories, amnesty for illegal aliens, minimum wage increases, universal health care (ten great leaps toward communism) and mass transit over roads and bridges.

The top republican leadership continues to betray us by supporting and even proposing liberal policies that only increase the size, scope and expense of government. The liberal solution to every problem is of course, more government. We've come to expect increased taxes, spending and legislation from liberals. If anyone had any thoughts that the liberal tax-and-spend stereotype was nothing more than an outdated cliché, just look at the 2007 legislative session. Unfortunately, bigger government is no longer the exclusive purview of liberals, they are getting lots of help from the “new” republicans, and conservatives are beginning to feel like we've been sold out.

Sadly, many republicans of today not only lack leadership, they cannot articulate the values and principles we once elected them to defend. They lack a message the general public craves. This past election should have reminded every incumbent and the GOP that the American people decide who is elected and we aren't happy with the choices we have been given.
We need just one leader to stand up for our liberty and freedoms. Just one leader to truly open the debate on accountability and spending priorities. Priorities like jobs, the economy, low taxes, and secure borders. Just one leader who knows more money will not fix a broken system, who understands fiscal principles and sound science must be the basis of laws. One leader who will eliminate pork barrel spending and useless feel-good laws, who will fight to secure our God-given inalienable rights of life, liberty and property, would be all it takes to rally the conservatives back to the fold and re-energize the Republican Party.

Anyone?

Now THAT Changes Everything

Yes indeed - this changes everything.

Two teams of scientists have given human skin cells many of the properties of embryonic stem cells—a development that could ease political, ethical, and medical concerns over the highly controversial research topic.
Like embryonic stem cells, the new cells—known as induced pluripotent cells—are capable of developing into most types of cells in the body. But the new lines can be created without the use of an embryo.

Emphasis is mine! Many folks said that science could do this. It's not a surprise. In the course of the debate, those of us who were against the use of embryo's for stem cell research or who were against the Missouri ballot measure that condoned cloning were vilified. To those that led the vilification charge, Katherine Jean Lopez has this to say.

To make the point Rush (Limbaugh) made was not mean or heartless, just as George W. Bush and Mitt Romney are not heartless for their leadership in highlighting alternatives to embryo-destroying stem-cell research. It was an honesty check — a worthwhile and fair one considering the disingenuousness that is characteristic of this debate.The stem-cell debate has been a Petri dish of deception. For one thing, where embryos will be created for embryonic-stem-cell research, reporters, iticians, activists rarely used the accurate term — cloning — to describe the Brave New World they were, sometimes with taxpayer money, seeking to create and expand. They needed taxpayer money because that’s not where the private money wanted to be — because it wasn’t a sure bet. Surer bets were — and increasingly are — alternatives to embryonic-stem-cell research. As Limbaugh put it last year on his radio show: “Not one disease has been impacted by embryonic-stem-cell research. Three pages of this, ladies and gentlemen. A total blank slate here, and these are all the diseases where adult stem cells have proven beneficial. You can see a blank slate versus the text: brain cancer, ovarian cancer, skin cancer, testicular cancer, tumors abdominal organs Lymphoma, lymphoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia. . . . That’s just some of the cancers adult stem cells are showing promise. Zip, zero, nada versus three pages of these things.”

Now before you go on the "ah-ha you DO get your talking points from Rush" accusation know this. I had this discussion long before Mr. Limbaugh got into it in 2006. As far back as 2005 I have been arguing with hEsc supporters that the market needs to do it's thing and it is clear that the market is having much better success with the hAsc research. Hopefully now this discovery (made in part at the University of Wisconsin Madison) will put the emphasis on hEsc aside for research that is really coming up with the cures that we need.

Livin' la Vida...

I'm taking a break from painting and prepping the house to sell to post on a couple of things.

This first post is going to be a compilation of environmentalist insanity. First is the story out of Britian about a woman who had her self sterilized because she believes that having children harms the environment.

Had Toni Vernelli gone ahead with her pregnancy ten years ago, she would know at first hand what it is like to cradle her own baby, to have a pair of innocent eyes gazing up at her with unconditional love, to feel a little hand slipping into hers - and a voice calling her Mummy.
But the very thought makes her shudder with horror.
Because when Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet. Incredibly, so determined was she that the terrible mistake" of pregnancy should never happen again, that she begged the doctor who performed the abortion to sterilise her at the same time.

It should surprise no one that Toni works for an environmental charity...

Then there is this interview with environmentalist extraordinare Robert Redford where he calls the patron saint of the new environmental movement (Al Gore) a "johnny come lately".

Redford was an early convert to the environmental movement, and talks proudly of having campaigned on it since 1969. "It was not a happy easy time, because those were the days that the oil and gas companies pretty much controlled the show on propaganda. Anyone speaking about solar energy would be smashed down as being a radical, a tree-hugger and granola-cruncher or what have you."
He is notably cynical, however, about Al Gore's recent award of a Nobel Peace Prize. He's making a lot of money, he's having a belle époque, a heroic moment," he says. "It must have been really hard for Gore to suffer all that [losing the presidential election], so he found another thing to come back with: the environment. He had a lot of money behind him, because in Clinton's administration there was a lot of money. With that he was able to build himself a new campaign and pick an issue. And he picked an issue that just happened to arrive at its moment in time." The less-than-subtle subtext is that Gore is an arriviste, while Redford has been out there, a grizzled loner, bearing the jibes and right-wing clobbering before the environmental cause was fashionable. Asked why he thinks Gore is not going back into politics, he says: "What's most important - to be a hero to your country and go save it . . . or do you want to be happy and rich and be a hero and not get into the political scene?"

I have never had problems with environmentalists like Redford or Ed Begley Jr. They both "walk the walk?". If you have ever seen the lifestyle that Begley Jr. lives, you would have no doubts about his commitment to "the cause".

And lastly, speaking of the "jet setting" Al Gore (because you know he will be there).

Tempo Interaktif reports that Angkasa Pura - the management of Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport are concerned that the large number of additional private charter flights expected in Bali during the UN Conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC) December 3-15, 2007, will exceed the carrying capacity of apron areas.
To meet the added demand for aircraft storage officials are allocating "parking space" at other airports in Indonesia.The operational manager for Bali's Airport, Azjar Effendi, says his 3 parking areas can only accommodate 15 planes, which means that some of the jets used by VIP delegations will only be allowed to disembark and embark their planes in Bali with parking provided at airports in Surabaya, Lombok, Jakarta and Makassar.

I have two words for the attendees and hosts of the UN Conference on Climate Change (and Governor Pawlenty).....tele-conference! The technology is there and it would certainly do wonders for the planet if you were all to (as Messers Redford and Begley Jr. have done) PARK.THE.JET! Or fly commercial.

Happy Thanksgiving 2007

I thought I would share with you a few things that I am thankful for this year.

• I am always thanful for my readers and commenters.
• I am thankful that our aging parents are still around - even though it may not be for long.
• I am thankful for the Junior Logician and the Logical Husband.
• I am thankful to have one of the best Representatives in the MN House as a Rep and friend.
• I am thankful for the insanity that a 6 month old puppy has brought to our lives. Thanks to Sarah and Ruth S. for bringing Jack into our lives.
• I am thankful to be a part of True North. I still can't believe that Derek and Andy and Mitch would have asked little old me to be a part of this amazing project.
• I am thankful for all of the new friends that I have made in the last year.
• I am thankful to have been a part of a discussion that can only help our community move forward in the aftermath of the school board/referendum elections this fall.
• There is so much more that if I were to list it would take all day...

Thank you to all my readers and commenters for a remarkable year.

Lady Logician (aka Cindy)

Happy Carcinogenic Thanksgiving…chow down!

A Thanksgiving wish from Sue Jeffers.

A carcinogen is defined as a substance that at high doses causes cancer in lab animals. These turkey day favorites can all be defined as carcinogens.
· hydrazines (mushroom soup);
* aniline, caffeic acid, benzaldehyde, hydrogen peroxide, quercetin glycosides and psoralens (your fresh vegetable salad);
* heterocyclic amines, acrylamide, benzo(a)pyrene, ethyl carbamate, dihydrazines, d-limonene, safrole and quercetin glycosides (roast turkey with stuffing);
* benzene and heterocyclic amines (prime rib of beef with parsley sauce);
* Murfural, ethyl alcohol, allyl isothiocyanate (broccoli, potatoes, sweet potatoes);
* coumarin, methyl eugenol, acetaldehyde, estragole and safrole (apple and pumpkin pies);
* ethyl alcohol with ethyl carbamate (red and white wines).
*benzofuran, caffeic acid, catechol, l,2,5,6,-dibenz(a)anthra- cene with 4-methylcatechol (coffee).

You also consumed a few poisons…solanine, arsenic and chaconine in potatoes. Hydrogen cyanide in lima beans and the hallucinogenic compound myristicin found in nutmeg, black pepper and carrots.

Shouldn't our state legislators get on this? Of course not! All are carcinogens and all are produced by Mother Nature. But before the scary headlines from the latest junk science by press conference fraud appear let me tell you that you are all safe. The dose is the poison.

By next year our hyper-sensitive legislators might have banned smoking outdoors and in private homes, instituted smoking cameras issuing tickets by mail and fighting the dreaded second hand fat.

To all, may God bless you and yours and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Down to the Crossroads

This post has been percolating in my head for the last few days as a result of a couple of dust-ups that have happened around the MOB lately. While some have poked fun at the participants, I kept thinking that there was more to be "learned" from the situation.

Both parties stand at a cross-roads. Fundraising is down, down to the point where the State DFL party is having a hard time making payroll and they are on the brink of losing a core constituency - the unions! (H/T MDE for those two stories). The MNGOP is facing it's own challenges. I touched on them back in May when I posted on the case for political "purists" - the part of the base that puts principle over party! I made the case then and I restate it now....the pricipled conservatives and the party over all Republicans need each other in order to win elections!

What both sides need to do now is to take stock of the state of the GOP today. We have, when you look at the stable of candidates running for President, representation of the "big tent" principle that we have been espousing lately. We have two candidates who have been elected (as Republicans) to office in very blue states, we have a former Senator who (as a lawyer) worked for a firm that represented a pro-choice organization, we have a couple of Representatives running on border enforcement, we have Southern governor who has some seriously "liberal" views on health care and we have a Libertarian Representative who wants to withdraw from the world and go back to an archaic monitary standard. All of these candidates do have their one or two "conservative" issues, but they also have their areas of concern (for principled conservatives).

The RNC/MNGOP are focused on one thing and one thing only...who can beat Hillary! There are many problems to that thought process.

1) You are going to alienate large portions of your base with this thought process. The conventional wisdom is that Mayor Giulliani is the "only" candidate that can beat Hillary. Current polling does confirm it. However, there are parts of the base (the pro-life, pro-traditional marriage) that have concerns about the Mayor's stands on their issues. Then there are many who think that national security is THE issue of concern (myself included) and the Mayor is their candidate of choice. The RNC/MNGOP need to figure out how to resolve that conflict.

2) Hillary! may not end up being the nominee. Current polling shows that Senator Obama is leading Senator Clinton in the all important Iowa caucuses. Large portions of the Democrat Party base is dis-satisfied with Senator Clinton and her patented "triangulation" and they are starting to look for someone who has the appearance of saying what he/she means and meaning what he/she says!

Rather than focus on defeating Hillary, the RNC/MNGOP needs to figure out how to bring all of the factions back into the tent and make them work together toward a common goal. They need to bring the best of all of the candidates into the discussion. They need to bring REAL fiscal reform in DC (Rep. Ron Paul) and they need to bring REAL border reform (Reps. Hunter and Tancredo) into the discussion. They need to tie those two issues into national security (Mayor Giulliani) and how all three work into federalism (former Sen. Thompson) and they need to make sure that the social issues (abortion, traditional marriage) are part of the conversation as well. They need to realize that the Republican base is not all about "God, Guns and Gays", that there are bigger issues out there that need to be addressed. They need to realize that ideas are what sell - not fear.

If the RNC and MNGOP can figure out how to unite the factions for something positive (as opposed to voting against Hillary or Al Franken or Barak Obama) they will be able to unite the rest of the country behind whoever our nominee ends up being. Let's let the factions debate the personalities while the parties look at the ideas that these personalities represent and figure out how to work them into the eventual over-arching campaign. If they can do that, we can win.

Random Snark Alert!

I was packing yet another box of kitchen stuff and listening to Alix Kendall on the the Fox 9 Morning News when the impossible happened. Alix actually reported that violence in Iraq is down 55% since the beginning of the troop surge! And her head didn't explode!

It must be getting cold in a very hot place right now.

Fighting Pork

My friend Gary wrote about the pork laden Transportation/HUD bill that contained $300m for the 35W Bridge and how certain representatives are taking others in his delegation to task for voting against the bill. I thought it would be enlightening to take a look at some of the numbers and let the readers decide.

$105.6 billion - that is the total amount of spending in that bill. Of that $105.6 billion, $300 million of it was for the bridge!

2300+ - that is the number of pork projects (some say 2314, others say 2380 we'll just go for the low) that were included in this bill including:

$700,000 for the Chicago Theater on the Lake
$500,000 for the Los Angeles County Fire Museum
$400,000 for the Riverfront Boardwalk in Green Bay WI.
$700,000 for streetscaping in Joplin, MO.
$550,000 for the demolition of an abandoned church in Raytown, MO
$750,000 for the Detroit (MI) Engineering Theater

That is only a partial list of the projects that were for more money than was "earmarked" for the 35W bridge. That does not include the hundreds of $100,000 earmarks for various states theaters, cultural arts centers, streetscaping, opera houses, aquatic centers and music academies. This is also not a partisan issue. Republicans such as Mel Martinez ($350,000 for the Cuban American Historical Museum), James Inhofe ($140,000 for the Native American Cultural & Educational Authority Cultural Center and Museum) and Kay Bailey Hutchinson ($140,000 for the relocation of the Tom Green County Library) were bellied up to the trough along with the Democrats!

Missing from the bill was $300,000 that was needed for Native American Housing - isn't that what HUD money is SUPPOSED to go to?

This is exactly the type of spending that I was talking about when I said that our priorities were all mixed up! Here was a transportation and housing bill where most of the money went to everything BUT transportation and housing! I mean really - what does a $1million Woodstock Museum really have to do with housing or transportation Senator Clinton?

Imagine how many "structurally deficient bridges could have been fixed with the money that went to these other projects. Once you have done that, you might want to give Senator Coleman, Representative Ellison and Representative Oberstar a ring and ask them what these museums have to do with housing and transportation.

The Saga Continues

....on the front page of yesterdays Star Tribune.

There are two takes on Chris Lind in the Prior Lake-Savage school district.
To detractors, Lind is a man who made a vindictive and successful run for the school board after he was fired for proselytizing to students on campus -- and the cause of last week's resignation of popular Superintendent Tom Westerhaus.
To supporters, Lind is a man of faith and integrity who provided a welcoming ear for students in trouble, someone whose love for children led him to seek a position on the board that fired him.

Now I have said all I have to say on Chris' firing before - I see no need to restate any of it.

For all of it's faults, the Star Tribune South Metro reporters have done a very fair job of reporting the issue. Except for this quote:

Jackie Underferth of Prior Lake was more outspoken. "I wouldn't trade one Tom
Westerhaus for 10,000 Chris Linds," she said.

What you do not get in the story or the quote above is Ms. Underferth's bias toward the board and to the Superintendent. You see, Ms. Underferth is one of the founders of the levy advocacy "Stand by Me" Committee. Ms. Underferth has long been an active advocate for the school district. Don't get me wrong...I see nothing wrong in her activity. I actually applaud her involvement. I think if everyone in the community spent HALF as much time actively involved as Ms. Underferth has, this would be a much better place. However, if we are going to report the biases on one side (Pastor Jim Barringer who spoke on Chris' behalf) we really should report the biases of the other!

Of course there is another explaination on why Ms. Underferth's relationship to the board and the Superintendent was not reported. It could be that she did not disclose that relationship to the reporter. I think it is a question that needs to be asked.

In the interest of my own full disclosure. I know Ms. Underferth and Mr. Lind. I admire both of them for their dedication to the children of our school district and I think they should both be commended for putting their beliefs into action. Heaven knows that there are many in the district that love to complain about how things are going but they do not do anything about it (and before you say anything - YES I am involved in the community - more in the city and county than the school board but...).

Having said all that, I would never say what Ms. Underferth said about someone that I disagree with. I can appreciate that we need to hear from as many voices in our community as possible. To completely dismiss someone as unworthy because they do not agree with your point of view on an issue (in this case school funding) is one reason why there is so much bitterness about school funding.

Education Open Thread

WOW! I think I tapped into something this weekend with my post Levy Fall Out. Since I am going to be very busy today and will have little time to blog, I am going to leave you with this Education Open Thread. Call your friends and neighbors and let's start an open, respectful discussion on what ISD 719 can do, moving forward, to solve their current budget crisis. I will be inviting members of C-A-G to the comment thread and I will issue an open invitation to anyone from the school district or the Stand by Me Committee to comment as well. The ONLY thing that I ask is that comments are respectful. Random snark and insults do nothing to further dialog and will be deleted!

Have a great day and a great discussion. I will check in with you all later!

More Election Fall Out

After a couple of conversations with fellow residents and a re-reading of the "Dear Colleague" letter I came to a realization that I missed something in the letter. As my Anonymous commenter pointed out, the Superintendent resigned because of the results of the school board election, not the levy referendum failure. You see the Superintendent of Schools decided that he simply would not or could not work with incoming board member Chris Lind.

However, with the school board election on Tuesday, I have decided I can no longer work in this district. The election to the board of a former employee, whom I had progressively disciplined and ultimately recommended for final dismissal from employment in our district last summer, confirmed for me that it was time to move on. The community has spoken through this election, and therefore I will seek employment elsewhere to more successfully continue my 35+ years in education. I want to make it absolutely clear that this resignation is NOT due to the failed referendum.

For those of you who haven't followed Chris' story you can read my posts here and here. This paragraph really shows what our Superintendent of Schools is....a man who simply can not live with the consequences of his decisions. He wanted to make an object lesson out of Chris and it backfired.

WDFL - excuse me - WCCO did a story on it on last nights 10pm news that was typical of their style of reporting - biased. The only person who got quoted on the air was the Superintendent and even though he tried to come across as calm and thoughful (and the angle of camera shot tried to help with that perception) he came across as arrogant and petty.

I really don't know if it was the Superintendent or WCCO, but either way the story put the issues that the district has dealt with in the last year in the worst possible light. Way to go guys.

Levy Fall-Out

I got an email from a friend of mine asking if I had heard the latest School Board news. Apparently, stung by the defeat of the twin referendums, ISD 719 Superintendent Tom Westerhaus has decided to resign when his contract ends in June of 2008. In his "Dear Colleagues" letter he lays out the reasons.

I am also being criticized for what I did and did not do to ensure passage of the referendum. While I'm not exactly sure what else I could have done, if in any way I contributed to the failure of this referendum, I am truly sorry and apologize to you for that. Perhaps I am most guilty of providing too much information, something that I always believed was more important to do than not providing enough information. Rest assured that we are reviewing what was done in this election to learn for future elections.

So letting the voters know what they are voting for is a problem and the district is "reviewing what was done in this election"?

The process of budget-cutting will soon unfold, and I know for certain that process will not be easy. Please bear with us as we address the difficult task of balancing a budget with less general fund support from the state than a majority of Minnesota districts.

Emphasis mine. The Superintendent still doesn't get it! It is not the state's fault that the district is in the straits that it is in! The problem lies with a school board that builds monuments instead of schools. It lies with a school district that is more concerned with hiring administrative staff as opposed to hiring teachers! It is not the state's fault that the spending priorities of this school district are out of whack.

I can only hope that the new superintendent is smart enough to "get it". We have an aging population that can not afford the continued "cost of living" increases that the school district and the county seem to think that they are entitiled to! Never mind the fact that we do not get a cost of living increase....

The attitude of entitlement that comes out of the school district is what the voters rejected. Will the board learn?

It's Crunch Time

OK guys and gals - it's crunch time. Sunday is Veterans Day and the final day of the Project Valor IT fundraiser! In an effort to boost donations, the folks at Soldiers Angels have a little offer for you. I will let Holly Aho - captain of the Marines team - tell you about it.

...as of today, anyone who donates more than $25 to the fundraiser on behalf of any team will receive a Soldiers' Angels gold coin as a gift. There are different coins for each service branch. The donor will receive one that matches the branch they donated on behalf of. Donors MUST use the fundraiser donation links/buttons to qualify.

The goal was $60,000 per branch and we are way short! If you haven't done so already, please give generously! The soldiers that you help have given their upmost....a few dollars is a small price for us to pay.

Oh, one last thing...GO ARMY!

Prude?

Last week, Captain Ed interviewed (scroll down for the podcast of the interview) logical lady Carol Platt Liebau about her new book "Prude: How the Sex-Obsessed Culture Hurts Young Women (and America, Too!)". Her Townhall column yesterday gives us a taste of what is in the book.

On “A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila,” both straight men and lesbians vie for Tila’s affections. To do so, they engage in a variety of sexually explicit activities features lewd behavior among the contestants, encouraged and applauded by Tila herself, including group sleepovers and raunchy rounds of “Truth or Dare.” It is the most popular show in its time period among people 18-34, and no doubt has many younger viewers.
Certainly most young people understand that what they’re watching is more than a little over the top. But seeing the behavior also normalizes it – and allows women like Tila to set standards for young people all across the United States. When the culture tells girls that sexual decision making comes down to nothing more than “if it feels good, do it,” they become pressured to conform to a sexy ideal that’s as unwholesome as it is difficult to attain.

This attitude is not just harming our daughters. As the parent of a adolescent boy, I can attest to that. It is hard to teach a young boy that treating girls as strictly a "sexual" object is a bad thing when the girls are sexualizing themselves!

As a parent (and a product of the beginnings of the feminist movement) it is imperative that we quit turning our girls into sexual objects and make them into self-reliant, proud young women who are valued for their contributions to society. Anything less should be unacceptable.

Doors

There is an old saying that says "A door closing leads to one opening elsewhere" or something along those lines. Well today a door is closing.

Back in September, the Logical Husband was told that his job here in the Cities was going away in March of next year. Two weeks ago, the Logical Husband was interviewed for and offered a job in Salt Lake City, Utah. After much prayerful consideration (along with a serious discussion about pulling the Junior Logician out of school in the middle of a year) we have decided that this is the best move for our family.

I have to admit that I never anticipated ever leaving Minnesota. In spite of my Chicago upbringing, I have become quite fond of the state. It is going to be tough to leave friends (some who are close enough to call family) but it is something that needs to be done.

This is where the door opens. The industry that the Logical Husband and I are both in is in decline here in the Midwest, but it is growing and thriving in the West. Plus the move puts me back in the mountains! I was born in Denver and to me the mountains are home - even though I haven't lived in the mountains for a long, long time.

So while it will be hard to leave my friends (especially my dear, dear friends in the MOB) this is the opening of a new adventure for the Logical Household.

Needless to say, blogging will probably be light for a few days as I prep the house for sale.

Well It Is Done, For Now

According to the Scott County website, the Prior Lake/Savage ISD 719 levy referendum will go down to defeat. Because the levy did not pass, the bonding referendum will also not pass. Now that the taxpayers of the district have spoken, it is my fervent hope that they a) open the books for the residents to see and b) they go back to the budget with a sharper pencil so that the next time they come to us (and trust me, they will be back) it will be a more realistic number that the citizens of the district will be comfortable with. In addition, it appears (according to Channel 9 News) that the Lakeville, Stillwater, Inver Grove and Robbinsdale levy referendums will go down to defeat as well.

While this is a victory for the beleaguered taxpayer, we should not celebrate. The school districts ARE facing challenges - rising fuel prices, growing unfunded state and federal mandates are just the tip of the iceberg. However, if the school boards want the taxpayer to pony up for the rising costs, they boards are going to have to start showing a good faith effort to do what the average Joe and Jane Taxpayer are doing...they need to start making serious cuts in overhead. Cutting teaching staff is not cutting overhead! Cutting administrative budgets is! Cutting paraprofessional staff is not responsible budgeting...turning down the thermostat and turning off lights is!

Show us that you are sharing the pain and we will be more than happy to work with you. Threatening our children is a sure fire way to alienate the parents!

Time for the school boards to wake up and realize that the taxpayer is not an endless ATM that they can tap at will.

Vision Casting

I was on the phone with my friend Gary Gross the other day, when the conversation took us to one of my more “favorite” subjects…the Republican Party’s attempts to win elections by frightening us. I’ve written about this in the past. This “tactic” that the state party and several of our candidates have been using tell us all the reasons why their opponent is someone to be afraid of. It doesn’t provide what the electorate is looking for…a positive vision for the future…something to vote for, as opposed someone to vote against.

Regardless of party we have all gotten the calls…”you don’t want to vote for ______. He/she will be a rubber stamp vote for President Bush” and “you don’t want ____ as Governor…he’s too liberal!” What do these calls really tell us? They tell us that both parties are bankrupt of ideas and have nothing more to hang their hats on than petty partisanship. Neither side has a “vision” of where this country can or will go.

Think about some of the “great” politicians of the past. John F. Kennedy had a vision…that one day man would walk on the moon! Franklin Delano Roosevelt saw a day when paralytics could walk again and he founded the organization that came to be known as the March of Dimes. His cousin Theodore is the founder of the National Park system. Ronald Reagan was able to paint a vision of America as the “Shining City on a Hill” – a beacon of freedom that soon lead to the fall of the Iron Curtain! These men had one thing in common…they were vision casters! They had a forward vision of America and they articulated it in such a way that the American people were willing to follow! These great leaders didn’t demonize their opponent (that’s not to say they didn’t have surrogates do it for them), they laid out their vision to the country and the country followed.

Pessimism did not build this country! An attitude of “fear and loathing” does not win the hearts and minds of the American voter…the “can do” attitude of our Founding Fathers and the early English, Dutch, Spanish and Swedish settlers did! Tell us what you want to accomplish – or if you are already in office…tell us what you accomplished. A lot of our incumbents do have accomplishments – why are we not talking about them (Chairman Carey – I hope you are listening!) You have ideas…tell us about them. Tell us how you want to make this country (and Minnesota) a better place to live in. I guarantee that will resonate more with the public than “____ is a bitter, angry ex-comic”!

We need a vision caster today to lead the Republican Party out of the doldrums that it is in…someone who can remind the country that our greatest days are ahead of us, not behind us. We need someone who has a plan to take this country (and this state) in a forward direction.

We don’t need anymore “politics of fear”. Instead, let’s try the politics of hope! It works every time.