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December 30, 2010 04:41 PM UTC

Thursday Open Thread

  • 138 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

“Arguments of convenience lack integrity, and inevitably trip you up.”

–Donald Rumsfeld  

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138 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

  1. It’s made national news blizzarding in the northeast.  And Denver is forecast to get real snow today.  

    a) clearly, global warming is a scam

    b) why were the Governor and Lt Governor of New Jersey out of the state? While the mayor of Newark was out in the streets with a shovel?

    c) it’s just snow people. Calm the f**k down- and if you don’t know how to drive* in it- don’t.

    *4WD, AWD or any other “drive” does not make your vehicle slideproof, nor immune to the laws of physics.

    If (when) you get stuck in front of me, I will have very little sympathy – unless its because of the guy in front of you.

    If you don’t have good tires on your car – don’t drive it in the snow. But just because you have studded snow tires doesn’t mean you know how to drive in snow.

    I used to drive a 1975 Pontiac Grand Safari station wagon – when I could afford the gas.  Chicago lake effect snow, midwest blizzards, Wisconsin back roads – I rarely got stuck, and when I did it was usually my own dang fault.

      1. It has always bothered me that significant weather events int he northeast get huge national coverage.  The only time it’s close for anywhere else is mudslides or fires in and around L.A.

        ANd those other things are true too.

        And my car broke (I should have kept that 75 Grand Safari) and …and…and…

        1. bald tires, no concept of how to drive when the roads are icy.  Even at town speeds they end up in a ditch, some times upside down.  

          The good news in a mountain resort area is that the towns and counties DO know how to plow snow.

          1. most of the flatlanders won’t attempt to head up to the mountains today and the ones that are already here are huddling in their condos, fearing for their lives.

             

      1. 1) If you want highly skilled, highly trained workers, you usually gotta pay for them.

        2) I can’t speak to NYC, but in Chicago everyone on the block would know it’s political payback or payoff.  Maybe the guy wanted his car thrashed.  Maybe he just didn’t play in the reindeer games in his ward.  

    3. Just because it is snowing does not give you the right to make turns from the middle lane.  

      Nor does it give you the right to think you are part of a Gran Prix when everybody else around you is going slow.

      However, snow does give you the right to do doughnuts in empty parking lots – that’s a given.

      When it snows in Colorado, it is obvious, who 1) lives in the suburbs, and 2) who is from out of state.

      1. My understanding is a pioneer license plate in the mountains indicates someone you want to be behind.  In town it indicates someone who sucks in good weather and is downright dangerous in bad.  It always makes me suspect it’s genetic and they didn’t want to stay, they had to.

        (If you have a pioneer plate in Denver and are going to complain, don’t bother.  I really am talking about you.)

        1. One of my favorites is the list of ‘You know you’re in Colorado when…’.

          All the typical observations made (PhD and bartending, eat ice cream in winter…), but the best is:

          98% of Americans scream before going in the ditch on a slippery road.  The other 2% are from Colorado and they say, ‘hold my drink and watch this’.

      2. I learned how to do doughnuts in the high school parking lot driving my mom’s ginormous station wagon with 12 people in it.

        The last time I did a doughnut was in a parking lot in Breckenridge about 7 years ago.  The police showed up.  The officer walked up to the car, shined his flashlight through the open window and saw three giggling adults.  He laughed out loud and told us “No more doughnuts!” and let us go.

        Oh yeah, there was also a doughnut on Berthoud pass a couple years ago, but it was unintentional.  Oops.  (I wasn’t driving)

        1. My last doughnuts ( or donuts) were in the huge parking lot right next to the Aline Inn at Frisco, near I-70.  

          No cops though. Just fun times and a bunch of grown men in the car laughing out loud like children. Fun times !  

      3. the absolute best way to learn how a vehicle responds when you’re losing the grip in snow or ice! And a blast to boot! I loved driving my old ’68 Chevy Bel Aire in the parking lots back home when I was a teenager. Great fun!

        1. Seriously.  “Mom!  I’m in a self taught driving class.”  Only in the ice you don’t screw up your emergency brake.  And it’s loads more fun.

          Haven’t wrecked anyone yet.

          Of course, today I’ve ordered gluten-free pizza to be delivered.  So I assume I won’t be wrecking anything until I try to walk Ms. Puppy tonight and realize I stumbled into the wrong shoes.  Take that, my own ass!

          1. but I wiped out last winter or the one before in my own driveway on the way to check that mail. Damn that black ice to hell anyway! Amazing how quick it all happens too. Still not quite right since.

            (no comments MADCO…)

      4. The first metro area snow arrives and it’s time for:

        “Because I’m from [fill in location], I know how to drive in [fill in type of driving condition].”

        and

        “Because you’re from [fill in location], you don’t know how to drive in [fill in type of driving condition].”

        Pffft!

        How ’bout this:

        If you don’t have a good reason to drive your car, don’t. And if you do have a good reason to drive your car, no matter where you’re from or the driving condition, use your goddamned turn indicators. Especially right before a doing donut, intentional or otherwise.

    4. I am not out there on the roads during rush hour anymore but when I was it seemed that the vehicles in the ditch were more than likely to be brand new pickups with young drivers who apparently thought that 4-wheel drive and lots of power meant that they could do anything.

      And if it wasn’t them being dumb it was the woman who stopped right in the middle of 225 and was flailing her arms and screaming.  Granted the ice on the road was 1 inch + but she could have at least pulled over before she panicked.  It took me 3 hrs to get home from work that night but I didn’t stop in the middle of 225!  

        1. Why was the governor of New York in the state when a disaster happened? He might have gotten in the way of the rescue teams! And what if he got himself all tuckered out before the next, even more serious crisis? Is he trying to make the state less prepared in case of a terrorist attack? Why I heard it says in the Koran that…

      2. he gives up NJ and gets some righter states that a) value the market solution to crises, b) don’t  care what he could have done on the ground in the middle of it, and c) could not care less about Jersey being snowed in.  Like maybe, oh, say Florida.

  3. This is brilliant.  Thank you for once again, selflessly trying to do your jobs as best you can for the good of us all.

    Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts — a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned.

    Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.

    “They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important,” said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot.

    Boy – if they can do for education what they’ve done for snow removal…oh…wait…

        1. because he’s not an all-out fascist. But they hate unions more.

          You’d have to be an idiot to believe something even the Post doesn’t seriously bother sourcing.

            2. then you can be convinced of anything about your enemies, no matter how ridiculous or how little evidence there is.

              Hallmark of an idiot. Good job, I’ll use you as a demonstration next time.

                1. Yes, I’m actually a New York sanitation worker, and New York’s streets aren’t getting plowed because I’m sitting at home in Boulder doing math when I should be riding around in a truck.

                  You’re a genius! I know your show of acting like a complete moron has fooled a lot of people here, but there’s just no denying your brilliance anymore.  

                  1. with your non-sequitur mention of doing math in Boulder.  But that explains a lot.

                    And what does that have to do with a NYC Sanitation employee sleeping in his truck during a blizzard anyway?

                    1. for any moron to smugly and obliquely claim superiority based on finding out something about me everyone else has known for years. Yay the internet!

                      As for what any of this has to do with a NYC sanitation employee sleeping in his truck, why absolutely nothing! I thought that was part of the joke, and why you brought it up for no particular reason.

                      I’m starting to think your whole “acting like a complete moron” schtick might not be as clever a ruse as I’d imagined.

                    2. sxp151 just flew all da way in from Jummany.  Boy are his aams tied!  He will be here all da week!

      2. There are three other articles on the Post blasting Bloomberg, his Deputy Mayor Stephen Goldsmith and their failures.

        And boy, are there some biggies including failing to declare NYC a snow emergency, refusing to order buses to stay off the streets, refusing help from the National Guard (Bloomberg claims they wouldn’t have been of any help since they don’t have snowplows), sending a dozen fire companies to a training session instead of leaving them on the streets to assist, and cutting back and privatizing snow removal with private contractors that had never worked a major storm and had 2 weeks training.

        Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani not only declared a snow emergency and ordered all nonessential vehicles off the road, he took 3,300 city buses out of service so they wouldn’t block sanitation trucks and rescue vehicles.

        Giuliani also asked then-Gov. George Pataki for help. Pataki dispatched 400 national guardsmen with 100 Humvees that were used as ambulances to transport medical supplies and health workers.

        If Bloomberg and Goldsmith had done the same, we wouldn’t have had hundreds of stuck buses and ambulances blocking main arteries.

        Goldsmith is determined to cut the number of sanitation workers and use more private contractors for snow removal – something Doherty has resisted.

        But hey, let’s blame the unions because it’s so much easier than actually addressing what actually went wrong here. Simple minds, simple solutions, no?

        1. to blame the unions instead of the move towards privatization.

          And certainly, if unions in New York have somehow done something that made someone in Colorado mad, we should probably get rid of all unions here.

        2. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12…

          At 3:58 a.m. on Christmas Day, the National Weather Service upgraded its alert about the snow headed to New York City, issuing a winter storm watch. By 3:55 p.m., it had declared a formal blizzard warning, a rare degree of alarm. But city officials opted not to declare a snow emergency — a significant mobilization that would have, among other things, aided initial snow plowing efforts.

    2. NYC is doing a favor to the rest of America by putting overpaid and/or incompetency on the front page!

      There is nothing redeeming about a labor union in the 21st century.

            1. Hollywood unions are filled with millionaires. So since they’re composed of better people, they’re better.

              Unions filled with working schmucks like teachers, who live paycheck-to-paycheck and no longer have any job protection, are obviously doing it wrong.

              David’s always on the side of the winners.

              1. winners like ot stick together. And some losers like to stick with winners so they can make everyone else think they’re really winners too, but that’s another point…

                1. First off, the vast majority of guild members in Hollywood don’t make a ton of money. (Don’t act Republican, check facts rather than MSU.)

                  Second, the unions in Hollywood have been successful in figuring out how to get a fair piece for their members while keeping their industry very successful, and working with rather than fighting the future.

                  I think what is killing most unions is they’re desperately holding on to a world that doesn’t exist anymore. And when there are models that work in today’s world, they trash talk them and find excuses to not change.

                  Anyways, don’t blame others for the problems due to unions not being willing to evolve. Yes there are many who don’t like unions, but that doesn’t excuse union’s unwillingness to evolve.

                  1. that the average actor’s salary was ~$5k/year. That was probably 20-25 years ago, so let’s be generous and say it doubled to $10K.

                    But that really doesn’t jibe with the gist of your point as I understood it which was millionaire union members. Or did I completely misunderstand your first post?

                    What is killing most unions is the willingness of American politician’s to sell them down the corporatist river of outsourcing and off-shoring.

                    When capital flows freely and easily all over the world, labor does not have those same advantages. So the capitalist has an unfair advantage. And global free trade agreements cement those unfair advantages, including poor worker protections in many developing countries as well as poor environmental protections.

                    Hollywood actors don’t face those same issues because French and Hindi and Chinese speaking actors just don’t sell as many movie tickets in the US as good old American actors for the most part.

                    But it is always easier for the businessman to argue it is simply that unions haven’t kept up with the times than it is to acknowledge the deck has been stacked against them for decades.

                    Your rhetoric continually reminds me why there is such a schism in the Democratic party between conserva-Dems such as yourself who think they are oh so liberal and the others in our party who actually try to fight for the rights of the working and poorer classes.

                    So I don’t blame other for the faults you claim for the unions. I blame them for failing to acknowledge the real plights of working people in this country.

                    And I would never fault you for saying have a nice day, unless of course it was in the context of a sarcastic comment as in your subject line. Then I’d say it was bullshit.

                    1. First, the guilds have done a superb job of getting the workers a fair percentage of the money in a business where the supply of people wanting to work far outstrips the demand.

                      Second, the guilds have embraced the concept that people are paid according to their specific ability rather than trying to equalize pay by job category. Accepting that pay will vary substantially by person goes against the grain for most unions yet it’s a fact of life for most jobs today.

                      Third, they focus on making sure those hired get a fair deal, not that there will be N people hired.

                      I think this is because Hollywood has always been this way. Now that so many other jobs are also no longer cookie cutter positions, I think unions would do well to study the guilds.

                      And the capitalist in many ways has less of an advantage today. Thirty years ago a Mark Zuckerberg could never have started his own company in his dorm room. But today there are an incredible number of new companies that require a bit of time and a couple of bucks for systems on the cloud.

                    2. not every field is like sports or entertainment. In fact it was only sixty or seventy years ago that Hollywood stars started to get to take a cut of the profits they generated. Before then they were little more than pretty well paid serfs to the big studios whose owners made huge fortunes on their stars earning power. It was much more recent that big league sports got free agency. And they are unionized too.

                      But most people aren’t movie stars or sports stars or Mark Zuckerbergs or Bill Gates or Sergey Brins either. Most people have to work for a living and often the work is mundane but necessary (think of the janitors in your office building). The work isn’t glorious and they’ll never get rich doing it. But they deserve respect and a living wage and health care nonetheless.

                      And many of these jobs are much more indispensable than movie stars or sports stars too. What happens if the garbagemen go on strike, or firefighters or policemen, or ambulance drivers or… well pretty much the blue-collar back-bones of our society in general. Things start to suck for everyone else pretty quickly.

                      Your industry is especially notorious for undervaluing all except the very top tier, generally the owners and senior executive corps. Generic programmers are interchangeable cogs in the machine and whether they are American or Indian or Vietnamese doesn’t much matter to Apple, or Dell, or Microsoft or Google or IBM, etc. But low wages leading to huge profits and accumulation of truly staggering wealth by a very, very few does seem to matter above all.

                      So I’ll stand by my position that we need a more equitable society and fairer distribution of wealth within it. Unions all help greatly in attaining that goal, as do progressive (read liberal) politicians who understand basic concepts like justice and fairness. First among these was FDR, would that we had one like him today.

                    3. I think most jobs (and the percentage continues to grow) have become ones where there is a large disparity in the productivity and therefore valuation between those who plod along and those who do a superb job.

                      This difference determines which person a company hires and how much they are paid. Unions fighting this are fighting a losing battle. Whether you like or dislike the change is irrelevant, it’s happening and success will only come from working with it.

                      As to:

                      Generic programmers are interchangeable cogs in the machine and whether they are American or Indian or Vietnamese doesn’t much matter to Apple, or Dell, or Microsoft or Google or IBM, etc.

                      When I was at Microsoft in the early 90s the WSJ had a story showing Microsoft had produced more millionaires than all of Wall St. The High Tech industry pays a lot of people very well, but it is based on how good you are and how successful the company you work at is. In other words, it’s in your own hands.

                    4. those millionaires at Microsoft were made on stock options. Bill made billions, as did Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer and others, but you can’t really suggest that the secretary at Microsoft was so far superior to all the run of the mill secretaries working in other companies that hse “earned” her millions in stock options. That’s not really your argument, is it?

                      And time will tell if your prognostications will prove out. There is a large and growing backlash against the kind of economic imperioalism you are preaching above. The political forces it is unleashing (the tea party on the right, agitation within the Democratic party on the left, anti-glaobalism protests at nearly ever World Bank or G7, G8 or G20 conference, etc, etc, etc) will likely tip over your vision into a much more egalitarian view of value and wealth distribution.

                    5. Yes there is always an element of luck. So being an admin (they never had secretaries) early on at Microsoft turned out better, although probably not in the millions.

                      But the vast majority – yes they earned it. When start-up companies go big, shouldn’t the workers who made it possible get a fair share of that profit?

                      To be honest I’m not sure where you are on this. Do you think it would be better if all the startup employees just got standard wages and the billions in created value go only to the founders and investors? I would think you would celebrate the fact that more get the benefits of the success.

                      I don’t think the answer is to stop people from the possibility of great success from taking significant risks (many startups fail). That’s killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Rather, the answer is taxation to cover the cost of giving everyone the opportunity of superb education so they too can fully participate in the economy and make their a good (or great) living.

                    6. I am responding to your argument that the Darwinian lawys of the marketplace, or the “invisible hand” of Adam Smith if you prefer, should be all that drives pay and job security.

                      By your standard, eveyone else who doesn’t work for Microsoft or Google or some small start-up which strikes it really big (which would be the overwhelming majority of us) should just suck it up and accept the fact that we’re unfortunate losers and have to survive on the slave wages we can earn. That seem to be the essence of your argument. If you’re not incredibly talented and gifted as an actor, a sportsperson, an artist or software developer or businessperson, then you should just shut up and accept your fate. Or you could try to glom onto those who are so blessed and see if you get lucky and strike it rich that way.

                      What I suggest is that there are an enormous number of people who will never benefit at all under your system because they are not so blessed. And under your syustem, they should just resign themselves to their fate and forget about things like collective bargaining, unions, fair wages and a decent styandard of living with good health care.

                      Because under your system, ther eis no way for everyone ot achieve these things. it just wont happen. We’ll be at civil war first as all those left behind start realizing the royal shaft they got.

                      My system would allow for success and luck to be fairly compensated, but not by discounting those less fortunate.

                      In fact, if Bill Gates had paid fair taxes on that enormous wealth he recieved (as income, compensation, and not at artificailly low capital gains rates whenever he decides to cash in his shares…), then he wouldn’t be quite as ricj as he is. he’d still be enormously wealthy, but the rest of society wold also have benefitted fromt hat enormous income too.

                    7. I think most people have the capability to do a stand-out job at something. I also think the job market is evolving so that more and more companies are looking for people who can excel.

                      Does this mean everyone will be a millionaire? No. But I think as jobs evolve like this, specific employees become more valuable and are then paid better. This is where I think unions are blowing it – there’s a major opportunity if they work with this change.

                      Yes people should do their best to get fair wages and a decent standard of living. I just don’t think old-school unions and collective bargaining are the way to do it.

                      I think (correct me if I’m wrong) you want what the white middle class had in the 50s & 60s – jobs were clearly defined, wages were decent, and if you met the job criteria you had a clear predictable road of advancement ahead. And most people could meet the expectations.

                      But that job world is disappearing, for a bunch of reasons. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is irrelevant, it’s going away. So the trick is to figure out how to structure things in this new world.

                      And I would say one big step is it’s no longer about protecting workers, it’s about setting workers up to get a fair share for engaging in the system.

              2. Hollywood unions are filled with millionaires.

                Actually the vast majority make much less than a teacher.

                teachers, who live paycheck-to-paycheck and no longer have any job protection

                Teachers still have significant job protection once SB-191 is implemented. There will be a process with clear steps for teachers to keep their job. No job protection is what the rest of us face where we can be fired at any time for no reason (and I have been).

                David’s always on the side of the winners.

                Nope. I’m on the side of the students in public K-12 schools and there’s no way they’re winning right now.

                1. except to complain about teachers. Students are pawns to you. Some of us actually care about whether they learn and are less interested in using them politically. Have a nice day.

                    1. It’s a common theory. It explains why you post so much more often about teachers than about students, and why your allies are other people who openly display contempt for teachers.

                      And you aren’t “fighting” to improve the schools or even “fighting” to fire teachers. You’re posting on a blog. Why do comfortable people always have to pretend they’re on the battlefield? Is it insecurity? Guilt?

                    2. Though Colorado isn’t as bad as bigger union states, teacher’s unions are the biggest single obstacle to improving education for kids.  By definition, they have their member’s interests in mind – not their students.

                      No one that I’ve read is bashing teachers as individuals.  But I am bashing the larger group, the union.  Though you can throw union activist teachers in there as well.

                      You are on the wrong side of this issue and the wrong side of history.  Even Obama sees the writing on the wall.  And others like the afformentioned Mayor Booker.

                      You are either seeing the evidence and siding against it or intentionally remaining ignorant.  I’m not sure what’s worse.  But your attitude sucks either way.  

                    3. and therefore have student interests in mind every single day.

                      You have never proposed any specific ideas for education reform that teachers are supposedly getting in the way of. You have never expressed the slightest bit of concern for students, just contempt for teachers. Why should anyone care what you think if you won’t address the issues in greater depth than a football fan trashing another city’s team?

                      You’re just like David, except also an idiot on top of that.  

                    4. actual teacher evaluation where the results matter, more time in class, and less bureaucracy to start?

                      You obviously don’t have the intellectual curiosity to wonder how the hell places like Harlem Success Academy or KIPP schools (for example) are able to succeed with really high test scores and really high graduation rates – in the same neighborhoods with the same parents as those shitty public schools that you continue to hold up as the model of everything that is good.

                      Maybe because those shitty teachers and good teachers in shitty systems still get paid (as long as they don’t work longer than ‘x’ hourse and minutes).  And ultimately, that’s all you care about.  You twit.

                    5. I’m not interested in repeating my views on education reform to some wanker just because he showed up late to the conversation. But I note new ideas like “less bureaucracy” shows you’ve been thinking really hard about this stuff, and not just repeating whatever simple-minded right-wing slogan you heard last.

                      And “twit” is only funny when I write it. Come up with your own material, or fuck off.

                    6. the most serious guy in your math dept. and therefore also the most popular guy at your department holiday parties.

                      Probably includes a lot of inside jokes about how kick-ass tenure is and how much poor kids suck.  When the punch line includes ‘twit’ probably makes you the funniest too.

                      Hey douchebag, you wanted to talk about the issues in greater depth.  How do you explain how these charter schools out-perform your beloved select shitty public schools with the same budgets?  I’m giving you an out with the ‘bureaucracy’ excuse.  Otherwise, it’s your fault.

                      You, sir, are the Linda Lovelace of the human race (no offense meant to Linda Lovelace).

                    8. Is a public school, dipshit.

                      From their web-site- “Harlem Success Academy Charter School is a free, public elementary school   founded on a simple premise: Every child can succeed.” (emphasis mine)

                      And they spend A LOT of money educating each kid. They don’t delude themselves that education can be bought cheap, they actually spend tons pre pupil.

                      And finally, there is growing evidence that their results just aren’t that great especially when considering the enormous monies thrown at the rpoblem of educating these children. And what success they’ve had is not at all apparent that it is repeatable on a large scale in a large district like NYC. There just isn’t enough money to be had to do what they do district-wide.

                      So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

                    9. and posted on the wrong thread.  Otherwise, seek medical attention asap.

                      My point is, dipshit, that there is evidence that public schools can operate effiently and successfuly with the same budgets, in the same neighborhoods, and with the same students as traditional public schools that are presently doing lousy jobs.

                      From the same site that you mentioned:

                      At Harlem Success, we take a different approach. In order to meet our ambitious expansion goals we hold ourselves to strict spending guidelines. We believe our schools can do more – for less. We aim to provide an excellent education for the same or lower per-pupil rate than the New York City public schools. Part of it involves thinking smarter.

                      But rather than replicate the successful models on a broader scale, your solution, and that of the teachers’ unions, is to maintain the status quo in those f*cked up districts and imprison those kids – both figuratively and often literally.

                      You pointed out yourself that they are public schools, ergo, not well-financed private schools.  Where do you think they get their money?  What planet are you from?

                    10. I was reading about here

                      But from that series of articles, there is a theme identified with a lot of these charter schools:

                      …the cost of its charter schools – around $16,000 per student in the classroom each year, as well as thousands of dollars in out-of-class spending – has raised questions about their utility as a nationwide model.

                      I couldn’t find any independent data on the HSAs.

                    11. All of the studies show the top two influences on how a student does in school (in order) are:

                      1. Mother’s educational level.

                      2. The teacher.

                      Nothing else comes close to those two. As that’s where the results comes from, that’s where we focus. Anything we can do to get mom’s to focus more on their kid’s education. And anything we can do to get the kids the best teacher.

                      As to effort, as I’ve said before, I have put a lot of time into school committees as well as doing room mom duty. I also substitute taught when the Boulder Valley teachers did a walk-out as well as helped teach a class one semester (as a volunteer).

                    13. There are two retired teachers in my family. Over the holidays we visited both and asked them about differences in students when they started teaching vs near retirement.

                      Independently, and uncoached, both immediately said the main difference was in attitudes of the parents. Too many parents now do not support teachers and consider their darling little Johnny an angel.

                      Teachers cannot enforce any kind of discipline without support from the parents. Teachers can’t force students to learn, especially if parents are providing lessons to the contrary.

                      Every teacher I know would love to be able to implement whatever “tricks” DavidThi has in mind to perform miracles in the classroom.

                      Cause we all know that if we destroyed all unions every child would instantaneously be above average. Simple answers are just so damn attractive.

                    15. An engaged parent and a quality teacher is gigantic. (Although the studies I have read show it’s an engaged mother – there is no correlation of success with the father’s educational or income level.)

                      Anyways, anything we can do to get parents more engaged, I’m all in favor of. And in previous interviews I asked both Governor Ritter and Senator Johnston if there was anything we could do on that. Both replied that we need to really push adult Ed. Having a mom get a GED may not increase her earning power much, but it could indirectly have a major impact on her child.

    3. Crickets.  What a surprise.  

      Where are you, Alan?  Any of you other big Labor supporters/paid employees?

      Maybe instead of a graphic about McInnis’ mustache or some hilarious pens, you could make a funny photoshop of an ambulance that took 9 hours to get to a woman in labor who lost her baby.

      1. This article has exactly one source: a New York Republican (even sleazier than a regular Republican).

        It reads like an old-fashioned Pravda article. “The government is just fine! A handful of bourgeoisie provocateurs listening to Emmanuel Goldstein has admitted to conspiring with the counterrevolutionary lackey pig-dog cossacks! They have profoundly apologized and will be executed forthwith for the good of the people! Their names are being withheld.”

        You have to really be a union-hating twit to fall for such tripe. As someone with a spouse from a former Communist country, it used to be funny to see just how bad their propaganda was. It’s not so funny when it’s coming from Rupert Murdoch.

    2. Senator williams got into an accident that resulted in a tragic death.  Accidents happen.

      Stapleton fled the scene of an accident.  There’s no excuse for a hit an run.  Period.

          1. Any other likely candidates to replace Senator Williams.

            Tragic accident clearly not intentional.  Suzanne Williams will be forced to resign and all the prayers and heartfelt sentiment notwithstanding we might as well start speculating.  Nancy is number two in the House Democratic leadership but would give it up in a heart beat for a shot at the Senate

          2. If you say the same thing over and over and over again, it becomes true, regardless of the facts.

            Repeat after me:

            “We have the greatest health care system in the world.”

            “Global warming is a hoax.”

            “Cutting taxes boosts the economy.”

  5. I hope it’s just a coincidence that your Christmas cheer ran out shortly after the hot-buttered rum?

    You get an early shot at FPE, and three days later you want to be Colorado’s freakin’ driving Czar?

    (I know, I know, I know . . . I’m . . . on . .  the . . . list)

      1. My wife and kids are away at the in-laws, so I originally thought I might head up to Keystone for some New Year’s eve night skiing.  Now, given the butt-numbing cold that’s expected, it looks like it’s New Year’s Eve in the city for this wussy.

        Here’s a “Vodka Bouillon” recipe from the November 2010 Ski magazine I haved wanted to try.  I’ll pass it on to you haler souls who actually make it out (or to the less-hardy, like me, who might try it out at home).

        3      cups beef stock

        3/4    cup tomato juice

        1-1/2 tsps. onion juice

                (or onion powder would do, I think)

        1/2   tsp. black pepper

        1/2   tsp. salt

        1/2   tsp. Worcestershire

        4     tbsps. lemon juice

        6 oz. (jiggers) Vodka

        Heat all ingredients except the lemon juice and vodka in a sauce pan, simmer for 3 minutes.  Add lemon juice and vodka, stir well, and simmer 1 additional minute.  Transfer to thermos.

        Stay warm on the inside out there.

        1. The chef that trip is the ex-wife of a friend, and he got me int he divorce so I have no idea how to stalk find her.

          I’m staying home- but that’s the ticket.  Unless RSB already pardoned everyone- you are off the list.

  6. None of this means that the president has erased the meaning of the elections. Voters clearly wanted to put a brake on excess spending and government that seemed to be growing out of control. If the elections were held again today, I would imagine that the results would be much the same.

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINIO…

    Maybe that quote isn’t actually untrue because the people who voted probably felt the way Gergen thinks.  However, the Democrats took a shellaking mainly because they didn’t manage to convince their base of how important it was to make the effort to vote in the midterms.  That is shown by the stats showing who voted and who didn’t in the midterms and this is comparing a presidential election to a midterm election.  The Dems really need to step up their game for 2012.

    http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.n…

    Instead, Democrats’ troubles were almost entirely caused by conservatives turning out at higher rates in place of moderates. The share of conservatives of the electorate increased to 42 percent in 2010 from 34 percent in 2008, according to the exit poll. And just 13 percent of these conservatives voted for Democrats, as compared to 23 percent in 2008.

    The DNC, the State Dem organizations and OfA didn’t get serious enough about telling Dems that the Republicans were really serious about getting out the vote.

    But, the shellacking was NOT because most Americans “wanted to put a brake on excess spending and government that seemed to be growing out of control”.

    1. I answered truthfully and correctly and walked out of the interview. No I didn’t swear. No I didn’t get called back. No, I don’t use that company for anything.

    2. They were for jobs to trade options at the Chicago Board of Trade.  (For the non-financy types, options on futures are derivatives of derivatives.  OMG!!  They must be extra evil!!)

      The questions I specifically remember:

      1.  Two cars are racing around a one mile track.  They will do 2 laps.  Car #1 is going 60 mph.  Car #2 goes 30 mph for the first lap.  How fast does car #2 have to go on the second lap to catch up to the first car.  Yes, I answered it correctly.

      2.  What’s 285 * 67.  The ability to do Quick math was a big part of the job.

      3.  How many fax machines are there in the city of Chicago?  I was doing okay on the thought process, but then whiffed on the multiplcation and had the wrong number of zeroes.  DOH!  (This was with D.E. Shaw.  The guy who ran residential mortgage trading for Lehman Brothers works there now.  I guess they’re not as smart as I always thought they were.)

      I worked in the Bond Options pit for nearly 2 years.  It was a bunch of big burly college football team guys who were math and engineering majors at Ivy League schools, MIT, etc. On a slow day in the options pit, we would do fun mathy problems to wile away the hours.  (There were also a lot of fart jokes.  Fridays were always bad.  Tuesday mornings were also bad during football season.)

      Here’s my favorite:

      You have 10 bags, each containing 10 identical gold coins. The bags are labeled 1 through 10.  The coins are all 1 oz. coins – except that the coins in one bag are counterfeit and weigh .99 oz each.  You have a digital scale and can use it exactly once.  Then it self-destructs like Mission Impossible.  How do you figure out which bag has the counterfeit coins?  

      A few hints:  Yes, the coins are identical.  No, you can’t tell the difference by putting them in your hand.  Yes, you can take them out of the bags.  No, it’s not a stupid hokey trick answer.  There is a legitimate mathematical solution.

      1. if you take the coins out of the bags and decide which ones to weigh, do you have to put them all on the scale at once, or can you load the scale one coin (or more) at a time?

          1. Put a different number of coins on the scale from each bag, for example, 1 coin from bag #1, 2 coins from bag #2, and so on.  Then it IS a math problem – the multiples of .99 oz in the total weight will determine which numbered bag has the counterfeit coins.

            Did we win a prize??

          2. You take 1 coin from bag 1, 2 from bag 2, 3 from bag 3, etc.  If the total weight is .01 oz less than expected, it’s bag 1; .02 oz, bag 2, etc.  Am I right?

      2. two from bag number two,

        three from bag number three,

        four from bag number four,

        etc., etc., right up through 10 from bag ten

        the final weight of the total 55 coins will indicate which bag is the bag of short coins.

        e.g., if the weight is 54.99 oz, then the phony coins are in bag one,  if the weight is 54.98 oz, the phony coins are in bag two, etc., etc.

    3. And the interviews I’ve given too. The key thing is to see how people work through it, not do they get the right answer. And the ones that answer “I don’t know” and then don’t try – that is the end of their chances.

      The best are where people start off in the wrong direction and then figure that out and get it. That shows not only that they can think, but that they don’t lock into a solution.

      One I use in Boulder – why does Foothills go over Pearl rather than have an at grade intersection.

      1. Because I was a lawyer.  And lawyers don’t do math.  I would have turned on my heel and left if I had been asked such a question.

        Re Foothills and Pearl: What’s the answer?  (I would have stomped out of that interview, too.)

        1. Start-ups are a different world and you want to find people who are a good fit. We need people who can fulfil multiple roles and can think imaginatively – across disciplines.

          So it is a good filter for our environment. (I’ve used that question when hiring our accountant/office manager – they didn’t have to know why but they did need to come up with some reasonable guesses.)

          1. But if I got a question like that in an interview, I would realize that the interviewer and I were fundamentally incompatible.  Unless I could make a joke about it; then I might stay.

            Seriously, is there an answer to the question about Foothills and Pearl, or were you just asking to see what kind of thought processes people would use to puzzle it out?  I thought about that for awhile and even went to Google to take a look and see if I could figure out a reason, and I couldn’t, so I went to bed.

            1. When we interview interns I spend a good part of my time making it clear what the work environment is like so that someone who’s not a good fit doesn’t come on – saves them & us anguish.

              As to Pearl – it’s the railroad tracks – they cross so close that going over the tracks requires going over Pearl.

  8. Is to send Jane Norton a donation… I’ve now received 2 emails this week begging for dollars.

    . Your contribution of $100, $250 or $500 would be an enormous help in paying off our campaign debt. It would mean even more in helping me to continue the battle for the heart and soul of our Nation.

    You hear that suckas? If Jane doesn’t get her bucks she’s not going to continue fighting.

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