Why the WI teacher union complaints don't add up... It's in the math.

It seems that every time I travel to my homestead of Buffalo to visit my parents, I must invariably come armed for a debate on current politics and/or labor unions because the conversation inevitably turns down that road. My parents are vigorously pro-union and that is fine if that is what you believe in. Since I have moved out, I have done my own homework and have come to my own conclusions on unions (which are a little less favorable).

It is important to note that though I may have problems with unions, I do not have problems with the individuals who are in them. My parents both work very hard and are very good at what they do. I admire that. I however cannot admire some of the things that labor unions as a whole stand for and advocate.

During my last trip home I performed a thought experiment that I found very provocative. The scenario involves the case of teachers unions that urge cuts to administrator’s salaries as a means of closing budget gaps. Sounds good right? It’s similar to Gov. Cuomo’s recent proposal to cap superintendent salaries (which I actually agree with).

Well, let’s analyze this idea. Just to be fair, I am going to apply this analysis to the Brighton Central School district of which I currently reside in and I will use real numbers where ever possible (referencing and describing assumptions where possible). I am doing this to demonstrate my argument not with political rhetoric but with simple mathematics… a language in which it is far more difficult to lie because we all know how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Right?

The Brighton Central School district (as of 2010-11) with a budget of $62 million, teaches 3,512 students in 1 high school (gr. 9-12), 1 middle school (gr. 6-8), 1 grade school (gr. 3-5) and 1 elementary school (gr. K-2). The Brighton District has a reputation for being one of the better schools around the Greater Rochester Region (feel free to look at the stats on the school yourself).

Now let’s say Brighton is facing a budget crisis (which they may very well be… I am not sure if they are) and they need to make some cuts. There are 356 professional staff (which I assume means teachers) making a median salary of $59,871. For simplicity, let’s round that to $60,000 and not include additional compensation like bonuses, retirement, health and vacation benefits. (For additional info on average teacher salaries and benefits in various states.)

Let’s count one superintendent, one assistant superintendent (2 total) and one principal and assistant principal for each of four schools (8 total for the district) for a total of 10 administrators. The average salary for a superintendent in NY is $163,000. Let’s just round that up to $170,000 for simplicity and to capture some of the bonuses and added benefits. And assume both chief and assistant super’s make the same salary. Let’s assume our 8 principals (assistant and chief) make $100,000, which is rounded up slightly from the $93,000 figure I found (again, to incorporate bonuses, benefits, etc). I believe these are all fair assumptions. Feel free to point out where they are not.

Now here’s where it gets a little nasty: the district says “We need to cut teacher compensation by 5% to close our budget gap.” The Teacher Union says, “Screw you! Cut the compensation of those rich S.O.B. administrators instead! They are making all the money.” This inevitably leads to name calling, strikes, picket lines, yelling protests and potentially 15 state Senators hiding from their jobs across state lines in say... Illinois. But we’re smarter than that, so let’s put all that aside and look at the numbers, shall we?

On average, a 5% teacher pay cut looks like this:

Each teacher would loose (on average) $3,000 in pay per year while it would save the district just over a million dollars a year, or about 1.7% of the overall district budget. But teachers are middle class working folk, the administrators are rich snobs and make nearly double what the teachers make! Sock those S.O.B’s!

Here’s what a cut to their salary looks like. And we’re going to wring those rich bastards really good… with a 10% pay cut!

Awesome! We slapped those rich administrators with deep cuts of ten and seventeen thousand dollars saving the district a total of… a measly $114,000 a year (or 0.2% of the budget)!

Taking a closer look at the numbers shows that you would have to completely eliminate the salaries of the 10 administrators all together in order to have the same effect as cutting teacher pay a modest 5%..

Why is this? Well, teacher compensation accounts for a far greater percentage of the budget than administrator compensation.Take home message: In a business hierarchy, the people at the bottom are much more of a budgetary expense than the people at the top because there are far more of them. This same analysis could potentially apply to any corporation or business.

I am not advocating that we excessively cut teacher pay. It is a difficult and important job and if you cut it too much, no one will want to be a teacher. Same goes for working as a school administrator. I think in reality, cuts at all levels are going to have to be realized in order to close budget gaps.

There you have it. I probably pissed off a lot of people by pointing this out… but please let me know how the numbers are lying to us.

By the way, I would like to thank my math teachers for teaching me how to think this way. :-)

Yay for “tax cuts” or “tax status quo”

Big news this week. Hell must have frozen over because there was finally something that both congressional Democrats and Republicans could agree to, a bill extending the tax cuts put into place by former President Bush. The very same ones he vowed to repeal on the campaign trail (don’t have a link for that one yet). The bill also included maintaining the tax rates for those evil evil top 1% of earners. I know… how dare they work hard to be successful and not share with the rest of us lazy people who don’t want to work hard, right?

I’m not going to advocate the need for increasing taxes in these difficult economic times. I think that would probably make things a lot worse. People would have a lot less money to spend and the economy would probably start to slow down again. However this bill simply does not make ANY sense. First off, the bill that was just signed is not a tax cut. No one’s taxes are going down, they are just staying at the rates established by President Bush. It should be more appropriately named the “Tax Status Quo Bill”. The main reason why I have difficulty with this bill is because of the 13 month extension of unemployment benefits. Again, being in a position where you are on unemployment must be very difficult and (like tax increases) I am not advocating an elimination of extensions of benefits. It too would probably make things worse. But these two things coupled together simply makes no sense to me!

It costs money for the government to pay people who are temporarily out of work. The government gets its money from taxation. So we are going to continue to pay more of our money to people who are out of work but not increase the revenue stream that we are using to pay them? WTF? In what universe does this add up? This is like me quitting my job on Monday morning then going out to buy a 50 inch plasma screen television that afternoon. I would be bankrupt by Friday with that kind of logic.

The only way I can see this working is if the unchanged tax rates spur further economic growth thus prompting more tax revenue to be taken in by the government via Art Laffer’s supply side economic theory (nerd alert, nerd alert… I apologize). Don’t look now, but if this works, you “tax and spend democrats” have just endorsed supply side economics and turned your backs on your “soak the rich” ways. You may have some explainin’ to do!

I however remain skeptical as President Bush’s tax rates have not really spurred much growth over the past couple of years and they have left my paycheck and wallet feeling kind of light.

What ever happened to the phrase "In bad taste"?

Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach center in Gainesville, Florida is planning on burning copies of the Quran (the holy book of the religion of Islam) on September 11. How that is any sort of rational outreach to the rest of the world is beyond me. It's going to put our troops overseas in harms way. He should be prevented from doing this, right?

Well, this is where that annoying libertarian voice in me starts to speak.

People are free in this country to burn the United States Flag in protest, don white robes and burn crucifixes, burn copies of the Quran/Bible, etc., write and air satirical cartoons depicting Jesus and or the Prophet Muhammad, make art works depicting the Virgin Mary out of elephant dung... hell, even an Imam can build a Mosque adjacent to Ground Zero!

What's common between these things? For starters, they are all things that have actually happened (or may happen in the case of Terry Jones' plans)... read the list again, surprising to consider all of this as reality!

One may suggest that these actions are all done "In bad taste". Have we forgotten what this means? There are various things that we are free to do, but choose not to do them because they are simply in bad taste. It is these things that usually are not very helpful at fostering outreach and building bridges to begin with. How much outreach and "bridge-building" is Quran burning (or Mosque building at Ground Zero for that matter) really going to foster? However, the concept of "bad taste" does not seem to matter any more.

Since this is [unfortunately] the case, we are put in a position where we have to civilly disagree. By that I mean we can choose not watch the satirical cartoon and view the piece of artwork we find offensive. We can chose no longer to attend the Dove World Outreach center. Civility is key though because if you wish to disagree by physically harming those who offend you (like those over seas might do towards our troops), that too is "in bad taste" and it just continues the cycle over and over.

Episode #1: STFU already!

This is the first edition of something new I am going to try. You know how sometimes there are just certain voices in the world that just keep spouting off to the point where all you want to do is shout "STFU already!!!"? (That's STFU = shut the fu#@ up, for those of you not down with the abbreviations.) Well, here's a column (with hopefully many episodes to come) dedicated to those special people

1. Helen Thomas

Telling the Jews to "Get the hell out of Palestine." Oh my! Could you think of anything more controversial, racial or antisemitic to say? Now I know you are like 320 years old and probably pretty senile, but with all that experience being in the press corps, shouldn't you be better at being an unbiased reporter of the news? Though your stellar record indicates otherwise. So please...

STFU already!!!

2. Paul McCartney

Recently won an award from the Library of Congress (The Gershwin Prize) and upon accepting the award stated how after the past 8 years "...it's great to have a president who knows what a library is." HA HA HA... HA HA HA... oh, look at the celebrity make fun of President Bush's intelligence. So edgy and fresh. We've never seen that before. Except isn't Bush's wife Laura a librarian and a teacher... and didn't President Bush graduate from Yale, which I am pretty sure you need to know how to read in order to be accepted. Come to think of it, Paul, you never even went to college! You're no comedian Paul, so stick to writing songs (though thouse kind of suck anyway).

STFU already!!!

3. Arianna Huffington

According to you the Gulf oil spill was "...a thousand percent Bush-Cheny's fault." OMFG! Thousands of people blaming Haliburton and Bush/Cheny for the spill... really does nothing to solve the problem now does it? How far are people going to push this passing of the blame concept? Gulf oil spill... Bush/Cheny's fault, We're stuck in Iraq... Bush/Cheny's fault, I failed my math test... Bush/Cheny's fault, I have a paper cut on my finger... Bush Cheny's fault.

STFU already!!!

4. Barack Obama (Honorable Mention)

Not too long ago I herd a sound bite where President Obama gave a warning to the Jonas brothers about making a pass on his daughters. "I have 2 words for you... Predator Drones." OK, I am going to have to give the President props here. I withhold my STFU already! and instead deliver a Pretty damn funny! You know there are other fathers worried about their daughters out there who would love to have some Predator Drones at their disposal. he he he.

I can't believe I am compelled to write commentary about a spelling bee.

Neetu Chandak, 14 year old Seneca Falls student was recently eliminated from the Scripps National Spelling Bee when she spelled the word paravane incorrectly (incorrectly spelled p-e-r-o-v-a-n-e, for those of you keeping score at home). Incorrect, very sorry, good job, try again next year, end of story... right? Not exactly.

Mom stepped in and protested that her daughter was "mislead" when the judges told her that the word was of Greek origin. O.K., I suppose I understand since the Merriam-Webster dictionary has the etymology of the word placed in French and English origins, but one could argue that if she knew how to spell the word properly to begin with, the judge's actions would not be an issue. Does the average 14 year old even know how to spell this word let alone know if it is Greek, French or Swahili in origin?

I want to give the competitor the benefit of the doubt but this strikes me as a manifestation of society of coddling, entitlement and general protection from failure that some children are raised under. It's not just children doing this though. How many baseball fans this week bitched and moaned because Bud Selig would not (at the time of this post) overturn a botched call that would have given Detroit Tigers pitcher a perfect game?

Also buried in this article is this line:

"The audience gasped, shoulders slumped, and speller after speller was escorted offstage to the comfort room as the 48 semifinalists were whittled down..."

Comfort room?

I've played my share of competitive sports (mainly baseball for 9 years, didn't really get into the competitive spelling scene). I was on teams that had losing seasons (losing every single game) and winning seasons (winning every single game). There was no "comfort room" to retreat to when you lost. You just learned how to shake it off, dust your self off, learn from mistakes made and try harder again next game. Loosing was tough, but it made the winning moments so much more coveted and appreciated.

What are these kids going to do when they get into the real world where there is no "comfort room" to retreat to when bad things happen? There's no comfort room for when you lose your job or your business fails. There's no comfort room to retreat to when you are a surgeon who loses a patient on the operating table due to a mistake. And no amount of protesting from mommy is going to fix life's inevitable bumps and failures. You just need to learn from it and figure out how to move forward.

Maybe I am being too harsh, but perhaps learning from failure is a passing concept.

What is the price of our rights and political representation?

Governor Patterson is resisting the urge to hold a special election to replace the disgraced congressman Eric Massa in the 29th district (my own district). His reasoning... the state of New York can not afford to hold a special election because of their budget problems.

Whether this is really for budgetary reasons or political reasons, essentially the Governor of New York State has placed a price on the voting rights and representation of every voting resident of the 29th district. How does that feel?

Normally, I am all for fiscal conservatism. I think that budgets, both state and federal have ballooned beyond sustainable levels and must be brought within control. There are however certain things that budgets MUST account for... police and fire departments, military for security and defense, education (keeping expenditures here reasonable), running the court system and maintaining the process of our representative government.

That means that special elections, despite them being an unexpected cost burden, must be held in a timely manner. Anything less is a reckless disregard for the voting and representation rights of the electorate in the particular district in question.

The consequences? Well... just think, throughout the final votes on the health care reconciliation bill, I had absolutely no elected official to contact and cast a vote on behalf of my district.

So I say to you Governor Patterson... I hope that our rights are worth for all those savings you will accumulate in your state budget. I would love to know how much money you saved for denying me of my vote and representation.

PBO - SOTU Address - 2010

Being the "arm chair" politician that I am, I of course watched the State of the Union address last night. I was pretty wiped out after playing volleyball, so I only watched until 10PM.

Three remarks I must make.

1. Not once in the time that I watched the speech did the President look directly into the camera and into the eyes of the American people viewing at home. He looked left... into his teleprompter. He looked right... into his teleprompter. It looked like he was watching the pendulum of a grandfather clock swinging... left, right, left, right. Mr. President, I beg of you... TALK TO US. Don't speak to us like a an anchor reading us the nightly news.

2. A noteworthy funny moment that I picked up on while watching. While describing the deficits built up over the past decade, the poor economic growth and getting into two wars without proper funding he never once said "I inherited this mess from President Bush/previous administration". He didn't use any of those words explicitly placing blame on Bush (but the message was clear without much subtlety). This was evident when immediately as the Pres said this, the camera showed Sen. McCain turning to his right and saying "Blame it on Bush". You could not hear him but you could clearly read his lips. It was the comical event of the night and made me laugh out loud. Mr. President, I beg of you... quit blaming the last guy in charge before you arrived. Not because I am a "Bush lover" but you knew what was going on before you took office (I recall you being a Senator, and I think they work in D.C. as well). You applied for the job of President, you knew the problems facing the office of the Presidency, you got the job... TAKE RESPONSIBILITY!

3. I went to sleep before seeing this one but... you called out the Supreme court!? WTF? As I recall from my grade school social studies class, the Judicial Branch (Supreme Court) is one of three branches of government that are co-equal in power. You can't tell them what to do. It is their job to interpret the laws passed by the legislative branch and how they are enforced by the executive branch. Why call them out on a ruling they made? Mr. President, I beg of you... go READ A COPY OF THE CONSTITUTION you took an oath to uphold.

Obama... Nobel... WTF?

Can someone please explain to me what this president has done to deserve being bestowed the Nobel Peace prize!?

Here's a quote from the AP:

"President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to build momentum behind his initiatives..." (emphasis added)

So let me get this straight, Obama was awarded the Nobel prize as a means to building momentum in achieving his initiatives. Has he actually achieved any of his initiatives? I think Saturday Night Live answered that question last week.

So basically the Nobel Peace Prize has now become one giant "A for Effort" award. It's like giving the Buffalo Bills the Vince Lombardi trophy in the hopes that it will put momentum behind the team towards winning the Super Bowl!

On a related note, I have been doing some thinking... I am officially announcing that I am planning on curing cancer in all forms all over the world over the next year. For this lofty well intentioned initiative, I humbly accept the 2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
HA!

Absolutely disgusted with our elected officials...

A few examples of condesending behavior among our elected officials.

Senator Barbara Boxer of California making condescending and subtly racist remarks towards Harry C. Alford (who runs a Black Chaimber of Commerce organization that does not agree with "green jobs initiatives")



Disgusting... but wait, there's more! The condescension is not limited to black people, it also applies to the military! (See the next video.)

Pardon my language here but... you dumb bitch! Who the hell do you think you are? You didn't earn the title of Senator, you were given the title by those who elected you!

But wait, there's more... from Sen. Schumer this time!

Well Senator I chatter quite a bit about this stuff with my friends and family. I am an American and I actually do care about the "pork spending" of this government. You better watch your ass sir, because your constituents are going to wake up one day soon and throw your sorry ass out on the street come election day.

And who could forget our lovable pudgy little fuzzball that everyone just loves, Barney Frank!

Here we see him talking down to a Harvard student... but it is important to note that in this exchange he admits that as a young student, this young man does indeed have the right to free speech and the liberty to ask him a questions. OH GREAT ALMIGHTY CONGRESSMAN FRANK... THANK YOU SIR SO MUCH FOR GRANTING US LOWLY STUDENTS THE RIGHT TO QUESTION YOU! WE BOW AT YOUR FEET FOR THAT HONOR.

My favorite part of this whole exchange... the young woman who says stop bringing up labels and answer the question. Congressman Frank's response... "I believe labeles are important".

All of it... absolutely disgusting!

Where's the modern day Tea Party going to begin?

It's been a while since I have posted anything here, mostly out of laziness. But this time the inner rage is bubbling up again and motivating me to post.

There has been lots of discussion among my family and friends about the actions of the government and the potential for this year to be a very bad year economically. This video clip is just one example of how pissed off yet silent people are being about this issue. And listen to how the IGNORANT CNBC anchors just make light of what Santelli is saying!

I am mad as HELL about the American tax payer having to pull the weight of the lazy scumbags who were dumb enough to get into mortgages they can not afford. I am mad as hell about the trillions of dollars spent by the government that will guarantee that my unborn children will now be slaves to crippling taxes and high inflation.

I am MAD AS HELL... and I can't be silent any more.

What is happening to the NFL!? Here comes a lil' dose of inner rage!

Packman Jones... Plaxico Burress... Michael Vick... Marshawn Lynch...

NFL players turned criminal!?

PLAXICO!!??? How the hell do you shoot your self in the leg with your own gun, turn your self in... then plan to plead "not guilty" to possessing said firearm? WTF!? So glad to hear the Giants are shelving this guy. I hope they outright release him by the end of the season... if he's not in jail (which he should be).

No doubt these guys are good players on the field. That's why they are making the millions that they are. But you would figure that with those millions they could afford to get involved in some lawful activities off the field as opposed to something completly off the wall like, oh, I don't know... dog fighting!

Is it my imagination, or is the Fox NFL pregame show sounding more and more like an episode of America's Most Wanted as they have to spend increasing amounts of time running down the list of player fines, suspensions and tangles with the law?

Honestly... what the hell is wrong with you people?

I am sorry readers... but I can't stop.

So I recently herd some feedback from some family members that I need to relax and start focusing my mind on something other than politics and news. HA! I wish it were that simple. If I had it my way, ignorance would be my day to day bliss.

I know I know... politics has become the obsession of this blog over the past couple of months. I am not alone in this either.

Why can't I stop thinking, learning and analyzing. It's just my nature. I like to know and learn everything I can about how things work (which is probably why I am a scientist).

September 11, 2001 changed me in a profound way. That historic event happened while I was a freshmen in college. During the months following, I was naturally drawn towards trying to understand this screwed up world in terms of history (where we have been and where we're heading), politics, religion and philosophy and what is right and just in the world. This experience shaped me in strong ways and influenced me to seek out knowledge through various courses I took during my years at Nazareth. Since then, I have continued to build on this by reading an endless pile of books and articles. I will probably never have all the answers by the time I die but there's no doubt I am going to die trying to find them!

So in closing... Historical election... *insert generic encouragement here* Exercise your right... *yada yada yada* Go vote...

BUT... if you are planning to go vote for McCain because he's not black or has a woman for VP , or planning to vote for Obama because he is black or stands for "hope"... do the country a favor and stay home. Don't even bother voting. If you are that ignorant... you have not yet earned the right to help guide our country by casting a balot.

Mr. Jones' Neighbor Rediscovers the American Dream.

Yesterday I was feeling pretty sad. As I thought more and more about the economic news of the past few weeks, some things began to become clear to me. Usually clarity brings about a sense of calmness and understanding, but what has become clear to me this time brought on only sadness.

The perilous state of our economy during the past few weeks has left many losing a great deal of their hard-earned wealth. This is manifesting its self in lost jobs, foreclosed homes, lack of available loans and lost value in retirement funds and savings.

I have a theory about what this could mean.

There is discussion now about the American Dream being lost. The dream is one of owning your own home, a nice car and having that well paying job that will propel you into a life of luxury. It is essentially the dream of keeping up with the family next door… keeping up with the Joneses. It is about having the bigger house, the greener lawn, driving the nicer car and going on the more exotic vacation than the Jones family next door. You work long hours of overtime at your high paying high stress job to fund the efforts to keep up with the Joneses. In the process you fail to notice your son growing up. You miss his little league games. He loses out on having an attentive father. Without the attention and motivation he needs from his parents... he drops out of high school, becomes addicted to drugs. Your daughter ends up getting pregnant as a teenager because her parents were never home. And since you are working so much, your wife is lonely and resorts to sleeping with Mr. Jones next door. While all this is happening, you are overtaken with impatience and greed on this quest and you manage to bury your self in tens of thousands of dollars of credit card debt living beyond your means.

Now that the economy is sliding downhill, we as a nation stand to lose many of these things that we have so readily associated with the American Dream. Call this what you want... fate, coincidence or devine providence but our nation needs this. It is only then, when we have lost these material things, that we will learn as a nation what is of true value to us. Our families... husbands and wives, sons and daughters. Our friends. Our faith. The conversations and moments we share with the people we care about. Our freedoms as Americans! The things that we are blessed with that have little or no material value but are priceless to us.

It makes me so sad it nearly brings me to tears. How much are we going to have to lose as a nation before it is that we realize what we have?

My mind has been tied up with a few logical quandries at the moment.

O.K. I am so frikin fired up lately about the news! I have been struggling to wrap my head around it and learn about it enough to the point where I can understand it. Let's delve into it shall we.

Last week the U.S. House of Representatives voted on a $700 bailout for troubled assets. (How a country in trillions of dollars of debt can consider the idea of spending $700 billion of money that they don't have is beyond me... but that's another issue!) The House of Reps voted this bill down 228 to 205. They said it was a blank check, too much money and lacked oversight.

The House decided to send this bill to the Senate for further debate, revision and vote . They added about $150 billion in spending to the bill and voted for it 74 to 25.

The House of Reps then went ahead and... voted in support of this new bill totaling $850 billion dollars ( 263 yes/171 no).

WTF!? Do not think about the logic behind that for more than 5 minutes or else you will start to experience the symptoms of an anyerism and blood will shoot out of your ears. The human brain is not cabable of such things.

Secondly there is this story that is FINALY getting some attention:
The relationship between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers.

Now that's a bit of a lengthy article. Basically it presents a professional and political connection (not just a coincidental one as presented by the media) between Obama and Bill Ayers. Ayers being a domestic terrorist, founding member of the Weather Underground (Wikipedia that), having bombed the Pentagon, police stations and robed banks. He has never expressed regret for this. Actually... (as mentioned in the story) on the morning of September 11, 2001, New York Times published a profile about this man where he says he only wishes he blew up more buildings and planted more bombs!

If you don't want to read the article, watch this Anderson Cooper video clip. Keep in mind... this is coming from the rather liberal biased CNN and not the typically conservative FOX news network. (Trust me... you will be suprized.)

Now I am not advocating any one political party here... I'm advocating common sense.

Wouldn't common sense dictate that if a political candidate chose to work with someone who is a self admitted domestic terrorist, they are demonstrating a lack of good judgment? A lack of judgment that may not befit them for the position of the highest public office in the land?

I learned early on in life that you can judge a lot about a person by the friends that they keep. I learned that from my parents.

Cathartic... I feel better now. (Slightly.)

Suze Orman is an iddiot...

I have been meaning to blow off some steam regarding the recent near catastrophic meltdown of our nation's economy. I am not going to sugar coat it... things are bad. Things are very bad... for our country and banks. Not necessarily for every average American though. Admittedly we are all paying more for food and gas. It could be worse... 35% unemployment rate and actual soup lines (as in the Great Depression). But if you are smart about your money, you understand how to make financial sacrifices and be disciplined during tough times... do you really need that big screen LCD HDTV that you will be putting on your high interest credit card?

What ever you do, resist the urge to listen to "experts" like Suze Orman. She made an appearance on Lary King and said this (emphasis added):

King: Is this a good time to get into the market?

Orman: No. It's not a good time to get in with brand-new money. I would let these markets kind of wash themselves out. On the other hand, if you're investing in a 401k every month with small amounts of money, that's OK as long as you don't need the money for 10, 15, 20 years. If you just got an inheritance and you have $50,000, should you be putting it in the stock market now? Are you kidding? These are the markets that you just sit on the sidelines and wait on the sidelines and stay away from them until everything works out.

I am no CNN expert, but I do know this... even during the Great Depression the stock market posted an overall gain. And typically in the long term, the stock market delivers a 11% rate of return. So anytime is a good time to get in the stock market... so long as you are going to keep your money there for a while... not until tomorrow, or next month, or even next year. Try 5 to 10 years... or even better a 401k that you are not going to touch for 20 years! And if your 401k has lost a big chunk of its value due to the recent market troubles, and you were hoping to retire in a few years... FIRE your fund manager because they are too stupid to know that your investments should not be in such volatile places when it's so close to your retirement!

As I mentioned I am no CNN economic expert... actually, I am a chemist. But all you need to do (and these CNN experts should do the same) is learn a little history and basic economics.

Watch this video here and get some real advice about what to do about your economic situation. I have been reading this guy's blog for a while. Smart guy... he's no CNN expert though. I( think that's a good thing.)

Breathe in... breathe out... just be smart... everything is going to be alright.

There's no better way to celebrate yourr nation's independence than by blowing up a small part of it! (With fireworks of course)

So I am averaging about one post per month. Those stats are not so good! I have had some requests from friends to keep posting the random adventures and experiences we have been having. With the summer months upon us, my continued training for the marathon and my new job it's hard to find time to write.

Recently I had to say goodbye to my friends Erin and Tim who left Rochester to search for jobs in Boston. I wish them the best luck in that. Now I have more reason than ever to post since a few more friends are now out of town.

Today I just want to wish everyone a happy Independence day and encourage you all to reflect upon the great country that our courageous founding fathers have created 232 years ago today. I certainly hope you don't take on the unamerican attitude of this bastard who to my amazement published this article in a Philadelphia newspaper.

Sorry about that... I just had to inject some of my recent inner rage.

Oh great! Something else for the church to make me feel guilty about.

I doubt anyone really heard about this gem of a news story because later in the day everything was overshadowed by allegations of NYS governor Eliot Spitzer being involved in a prostitution ring (!!! yeah... that one really took me by surprise), but did anyone hear about the new modern 7 deadly sins proclaimed by the Catholic church?

Click here and here to read more about it.

The new list of the 7 deadly sins are as follows:

1. Genetic modification.
2. Human experimentations.
3. Polluting the environment.
4. Social injustice.
5. Causing poverty.
6. Financial gluttony.
7. Taking drugs.

(The bold items I have particular problem with.)

It is things like this that cause me to have problems with the Catholic Church. I want to be clear that it is the Church I have problem with and not the Religion. The Church is run by man who is fallible and subject to political and social influence in order to establish Church doctrine as they see fit.

When I go to church on Sunday am I supposed to feel guilty now because I do not drive a hybrid car? Am I suposed to feel guilty because I am a scientist and believe that human experimentation and genetic modification has lead to advances that have helped improve the quality of life for millions of people? Am I supposed to feel guilty because I am working hard and have a job and am financially well off?

Hmmm... honestly, I don't think I am going to lose a wink of sleep over it.

I'm sorry Pope... I still believe in God and the Religion, but your Church is not going to have this sheep amidst its flock.

VIDEO COMPLEMENTS OF PAT CONDELL: "More demands from Islam"

I have a desire to share this. I am not going to deal with accusations of me being a hate-monger or racist so I am not going to state my opinions on this piece but I encourage you to form your own opinions.

Problems with coil springs on 2002 Ford Taurus Cars? I hear ya... please read this!

(For the information about the coil springs... skip the next few paragraphs.)

Wow... it has been SO long since I have last written something here. You must accept my deepest apologies as I have been quite busy these days. The clock is ticking as I have the deadline of my thesis defense a little over a month away. My thesis is a little less than a half written and I still have a few lingering experiments to do! Every ounce of my energy right now is going into completing this goal. Not to mention, I have been trying to fit in a job search while all of this is going on!

Since my last post, I have celebrated Valentines day with Emily by exchanging gifts and making a home made pizza dinner. We also went out to dinner the day after to The Crystal Barn. This restaurant has been on our list for quite some time. VERY fancy place that we both enjoyed. Then I took a trip back to Buffalo to my parents house. That's where the story of my life gets a bit interesting...

Once again I am put into a position where I can use this blog as a "virtual soap box" to shout out to the world regarding a problem that must be fixed. That problem is the factory installed front coil springs on 2002 Ford Taurus automobiles.

While backing my 2002 Taurus out of a parking spot in my driveway I noticed that the car was making some odd sounds and not backing up normally. I thought I was stuck in the snow in the driveway so I looked at my tires. I discovered that the front driver side tire was completely flat and pretty badly damaged. Later I found out that the front driver side coil spring broke and punctured the tire. You can see a nice chunk of the spring in the picture below. You can also see a rather large gash in the tire from where the spring punctured it and did damage when I backed up. Thank goodness that this did not occur while I was driving at highway speed as I was planning to do while traveling later that afternoon!



Well... after replacing both front coil springs, both front tires and the front sway bar on the drivers side the repair bill totaled over $500 (including labor). That's quite a chunk of change!

It gets worse. To add insult to injury it turns out that this problem is not uncommon with my type of car. (Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C) A recall has been issued for Taurus model years 1999 to 2001. The dealer told me they could do nothing to help.

Well, I have saved all my receipts and filed a complaint with the NHTSA. I urge everyone out there who has googled "2002 ford Taurus" and "coil spring" and ended up here to take the actions I have taken. If enough people complain about this problem, Ford will likely extend the recall to the 2002 model year. Let's just hope it does not take a family on a highway getting killed in an accident from this malfunction.

Needless to say, I have lost much of my faith in Ford automobiles as this is the third problem that I have been told by mechanics is common for Ford Taurus automobiles. I will NOT be buying a Ford again until they can demonstrate to me that they are making a higher quality product.

The inner rage is welling up over this one!

I am a little pissed and I need to write about this while I am fired up!

Apparently there is some recent controversy over the online encyclopedia website wikipedia.org for showing pictorial representations of Muhammad in their entry for the Islamic faith. Check out this short New York Times Article. The article cites over 80,000 people (over 100,000 at the time I wrote this) have signed a petition for removal of images... most remaining anonymous. Pictorial representations of the Prophet Muhammad are forbidden in the religion of Islam

Wikipedia has politely refused to give in to political correctness in this case because they are a neutral unbiased organization that does not give into specific requests from specific groups.

My response...

GOOD!

The last time I checked... Muslims do not run the world (thank goodness) nor do they control the imagery that all other people are allowed to look at. This may be against your [Islam's] religious beliefs but not necessarily those of the rest of the world. Political correctness is going to destroy us if we let it get out of hand. WIKIPEDIA... DO NOT GIVE IN! STICK TO YOUR GUNS ON THIS DECISION!