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GLOBAL WARMING ALERT

Today is April 30 and it is snowing in Denver.

Conclusive evidence that the world is getting warmer.

Why Pat Tillman is important

Dennis Prager does a better job of explaining it than I can.

Pat Tillman

This is one story that gets to me in the most profound way. Former NFL player Pat Tillman died in combat yesterday while serving as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan.

In 2002, He walked away from a $3.6 million offer from the Cardinals to join the Army and turned down an even bigger offer before that from the Rams. By becoming an Army Ranger, he intended to go to where the most dangerous assignments would be.

This man had what popular culture holds dear - money and fame. His life shows what how trivial those things are in the end. He lived and died for duty, loyalty and protecting this country.

God bless Pat Tillman.

Real Heroes

This is the kind of story that makes me proud to have been in the finest fighting force in the world. Sergeant Sagredo is "hard corps."

God bless the Marine Corps.

Why are these heroics not reported in U.S. media?

EARTHQUAKE!

A UCLA scientist is predicting a major earthquake will hit Los Angeles before September 5th.

Senator Ted Kennedy immediately called for investigations into how much President Bush knows about earthquakes and demanded a full release of any memo's revealing connections between L.A. earthquakes and Haliburton.

Meanwhile, Presidential hopeful John Kerry said, "I voted for earthquakes before I voted against them. But this election isn't about earthquakes, it's about jobs. My time in Vietnam taught me that earthquakes hurt the economy. And George Bush lost 2..no 3...wait, 10 million jobs because he ignored earthquakes during his administration. I will support earthquakes that create more jobs."

Blogger?

It's been a week since I've written anything here. I must be reading too much to write. I'm reading opinionjournal.com and hughhewitt.com and overlawyered.com...even a little lileks.com. They pretty much say everything before I get to it.

Oh, then there is the enworld.org message boards, but only go there if you are into roleplaying games (not the dress up as the opposite sex kind, I mean the Dungeons & Dragons kind).

Marines die in Iraq

As a former member of the Marine Corps, stories like the death of up to 12 Marines in Iraq are close to my heart. While I mourn their deaths, I'm grateful for their sacrifice. Their sacrifice shows that they are making and have made America safer.

How? Our enemies are busy engaging our forces overseas. Notice terrorist bullets aren't flying here. Iran is backing the thug in Iraq. That is where their resources are going.

Al Qaeda is trying to infiltrate the Iraqi population. The fact that they are fighting our troops in Iraq means I can sleep safe here at home. Our Marines and Soldiers are in harm's way there to keep us safe here...and it's working.

God bless the Marine Corps.

I'm published! (kind of)

In February, I interviewed science fiction author Mitchell Graham for sffworld.com, a site devoted to science fiction and fantasy.

My article was published on the web site today. If you're interested (and I know you are) you can read it here.

Danger around every corner

One of my guilty pleasures is Dear Abby. There is one kind of letter I can't stand though:

Dear Abby,

Yesterday I was walking through the living room and saw the cover was off my box fan. I thought it would be fun to stick my head in the whirling blades. I ended up in the hospital with lacerations from my forehead to my chin.

Abby, please tell your readers to make sure they keep covers over fan blades and to never, ever stick your face in a fan.

Signed,

Stuck my face in a fan and now I know better

Dear Stuck,

You are right. After reading your letter I immediately put covers back on all my fans. Hopefully, others can learn from your mishap.

Readers, don't stick forks in power outlets either. You may permanently damage your silverware.

Dinner

Tonight I used some left over London Broil to make some French dip sandwiches. Then I caugt myself; can you make French dip out of London Broil? That's like trying to make a rum & Coke with Pepsi. It just can't be done.

That was before I realized, I don't eat French dip sandwiches anymore. I'm still eating Freedom dip sandwiches.

Mmmmm. Freedom London Broil dip sandwiches.

Less teachers or more taxes?

The local school district, Littleton Public Schools, sent me a nicely designed pamphlet threatening to cut 9% of its teaching staff if voters don't approve a tax increase sure to be on an upcoming ballot.

This is a common tactic by school districts and teachers unions. They offer only two choices, fire teachers and increase class sizes (with the threat of lower tests scores as a result) or increase taxes. School administrators must be the most highly trained and productive workers in the world. Their jobs are never mentioned as possible costs savings. It's amazing since the teachers are the ones in contact with students, yet adminstrators seem to have the most job security in education.

What it really comes down to is that voters wouldn't bat an eye if administrators jobs are threatened. If teachers might get laid off, well that's another story. It's all about money. The voters are much more willing to raise taxes if that is the only alternative to losing teachers.

Here is something strange. The Littleton Public schools is consistently in the top three districts in the Denver Metro area in test scores while have the lowest funding per student in the metro area. It just demonstrates that throwing more money into schools does not relate to quality education. I'll be voting against the coming tax proposal.

Back to test scores, here is a study that found there is no relation between small class sizes and high test scores. What happens is that more teachers need to be hired (not a bad thing for the teachers union) so students are getting more individual attention but its from poorer quality teachers.