Still Hating America.

[Secret_Agent_Man]

I see that Canadians and Italians are somehow involved in this shameless scheme now. Oh, why do they Hate America and smear our fine soldiers so?

"DEAR SIR/MADAM,

HOW ARE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY? HOPE ALL IS WELL.MY NAME IS ( SGT 1ST CLASS ) TIMOTHY KWAMI, I AM AN AMERICAN SOLDIER, SERVING IN THE MILITARY WITH THE ARMY 3RD INFANTRY DIVISION TROOP I IRAQ. WITH A VERY DESPERATE NEED FOR ASSISTANCE, I HAVE SUMMED UP COURAGE TO CONTACT YOU.

I FOUND YOUR CONTACT PARTICULARS IN AN ADDRESS JOURNAL. I AM SEEKING YOUR KIND ASSISTANCE TO MOVE ALLUVIAL GOLD DUST WORHT US$9.7MILLION AND CASH OF $20,000,000.00 MILLION US DOLLARS TO YOUR DESTINATION BELIEVING YOU CAN NOT BETRAY THE TRUST I AM WILLING TO IMPOSE ON YOU AND AT THE SAME TIME, AS FAR AS I CAN BE ASSURED THAT MY SHARE OF THE MONEY AFTER SALES WILL BE SAFE IN YOUR CARE UNTIL I COMPLETE MY SERVICE HERE. THIS IS NO STOLEN GOLD OR STOLEN MONEY RATHER IT WAS A WELL PACKAGED ARRANGEMENT BETWEEN US AND A WELL POSITIONED KING IN IRAQ AND THERE ARE NO DANGER INVOLVED. NOW BELOW IS THE OFFER.

COMMODITY---ALLUVIAL GOLD DUST.
QUANTITY-----100-875 KG
QUALITY------22 KARAT PLUS
PRICE--------5,500 US DOLLARS PER KILO
PAYMENT------I ACCEPT AT LEAST 15% OUT OF THE TOTAL COST OF THE SUPPLIED MERCHANDISE IN OTHER TO CATER FOR SOME EXPENSES AND TO DEFRAY PART OF THE PRODUCTION COST, AFTER TESTING AND SUBMISSION OF ALL RELIVANT EXPORT DOCUMENTS AT THE POINT OF SHIPPMENT.

THE US$20 MILLION HAS ALSO BEEN DEPOSITED IN A FINANCE COMPANY AND I WILL OPEN UP ON WHERE THE FINANCE COMPANY THE MONEY WAS DEPOSITED TO YOU UPON YOUR RESPONSE.

THIS GOLD WAS DISCOVERED AT A FARMHOUSE NEAR ONE OF THE SADDAM OLD PALACES IN TIKRIT-IRAQ DURING A RESCUE OPERATION, AND IT WAS AGREED BY STAFF SGT KENNETH BUFF AND I THAT SOME PART OF THIS GOLD INCLUDING THE MONEY BE SHARED AMONG BOTH OF US BEFORE INFORMING ANYBODY ABOUT IT SINCE BOTH OF US SAW THE GOLD AND THE MONEY FIRST. AFTER SHARING? US$20 MILLION BECAME MY SHARE FROM THE TOTAL MONEY THAT WE DISCOVERRED. THIS WAS QUITE UNFAIR THING TO DO, BUT I TELL YOU WHAT ? NO COMPENSATION CAN MAKE UP FOR THE RISK WE HAVE TAKEN WITH OUR LIVES IN THIS HELL HOLE. OF WHICH MY BROTHER IN-LAW WAS KILLED BY A ROAD SIDE BOMB LAST WEEK.

WHEN MY SHARE WAS GIVING TO ME, AND TO CONCEAL THIS KIND OF GOLD BECAME A PROBLEM FOR ME, SO WITH THE HELP OF A BRITHISH CONTACT WORKING HERE, AND HIS OFFICE ENJOY SOME IMMUNITY, I WAS ABLE TO GET THE PACKAGE OUT TO A SAFE LOCATION ENTIRELY OUT OF TROUBLE SPOT. I WANT YOU TO TELL ME HOW MUCH YOU WILL TAKE FROM THIS GOLD AFTER SALES FOR THE ASSISTANCE YOU WILL GIVE TO ME. AGAIN, WHAT PERCENT WOULD YOU LIKE TO TAKE ONCE THE TOTAL CASH MONEY DEPOSITED TRUNK BOX GETS TO YOUR CARE?

I HONESTLY WANT THIS MATTER TO BE RESOLVED IMMEDIATELY,PLEASE CONTACT ME ON MY PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS AS STATED BELOW AND FURNISH ME WITH YOUR POSTAL AND TELEPHONE NUMBER FOR IMMEDIATE PROCEED OF THE DEAL: EMAIL: timothykwami1@canada.com

GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

TIMOTHY KWAMI (Sergeant, US Army)

EMAIL ADDRESS: timothykwami1@canada.com

**************
Registrati ad Alice Basic e scarica Alice Messenger,
il nuovo instant messenger che ti fa chattare GRATIS con i tuoi amici!
Per maggiori informazioni vai su:
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S_A_M

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Spanky, check out Obama on the campaign trail:

• The inevitable anti-No-Child-Left-Behind question from a teachers union member brought a balanced, but tough response from Obama--more $$ for teachers, yes, but more responsibility from teachers, too. "My sister is a teacher," he said, "and she tells me that you go into any school and everyone [on the faculty] knows which teachers are good and which are not so good." I remember wanting to jump out of my skin when Howard Dean answered similar questions in 2004, pandering wildly to the teachers unions, promising the moon and refusing to say ask anything of them.

Joe Klein in Iowa.

But why would he say that if it is so easy to get rid of bad teachers?

The real wonder is why the teacher's union are so against "merit pay". In other words, paying teachers more to teach students that historicaly other teachers have had a hard time getting to learn, and rewarding them if they succeed. Of course in order to know which students are hard to teach and to know if the teachers have taught them anything you would need annual testing, so maybe the negativity of the one out weighs the benefits of the other (in their simple minds).

[Secret_Agent_Man]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
Stop it. Else I'll start thinking that you don't like women with power.

Start Thinking?

He's been doing this since any of us have known him. [Psst. He uses other names sometimes!!]

S_A_M

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Secret_Agent_Man
Why do you think this is different than what I said, instead of just longer?

S_A_M

I think you missed the key point of they want a stable Iraq only after the US has left Iraq completely humiliated. And the best way for now to achieve that goal is to totally destabilize Iraq. So right now their number one goal is to destabilize Iraq and no amount of diplomacy is going to change that, making Kerry's comments completely absurd.

If that was in your post, and I missed that, I am sorry.

[Adder]

Originally posted by Spanky
But why would he say that if it is so easy to get rid of bad teachers?

For the record, no one ever said it was "easy." People said that you were wrong when you said it is "impossible," and questioned where the alleged fact that it isn't happening that often is a problem with the system or a problem with those who administer the system.

The real wonder is why the teacher's union are so against "merit pay".

Really? That is a wonder to you? You can't understand why teachers would prefer lockstep compensation to a system that necessarily involves some subjective evaluation of their performance?

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Adder
Really? That is a wonder to you? You can't understand why teachers would prefer lockstep compensation to a system that necessarily involves some subjective evaluation of their performance?

Ask a simple question...

Perhaps someone should send the younger members of the Teachers Union that speech from Cisco's general counsel to give them a little taste of where protectionism for the old guard leaves the younger workers later.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Spanky
The real wonder is why the teacher's union are so against "merit pay".

If they wanted merit pay, they wouldn't be teachers.

[Adder]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Ask a simple question...

Perhaps someone should send the younger members of the Teachers Union that speech from Cisco's general counsel to give them a little taste of where protectionism for the old guard leaves the younger workers later.

Right. Nevermind that the dude (1) doesn't seem to recognize what technology has already done to the practice of law, (2) seems to see what we do as merely pulling a model off the server (which might be true of some corporate practice, I admit) instead of a something that requires judgment, analysis and strategic thinking, and (3) even he doesn't see the entirety of his legal services moving toward commoditization.

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Adder
For the record, no one ever said it was "easy." People said that you were wrong when you said it is "impossible," and questioned where the alleged fact that it isn't happening that often is a problem with the system or a problem with those who administer the system.

For the record:

When did I say impossible? I said it was difficult. The main point was that it was harder than it should be and you guys argued that statement.

I had a simple thesis. Right now there are three obvious things that can be done to improve our educational system

1) End social promotion
2) Make is easier to get rid of bad teachers
3) Annual testing (to figure out who is teaching and who is not, and so we can set up a bonus plan for teachers that are willing to go to teach classes and get even more bonuses if they succeed in teaching those tough classes).

I also said that the teachers unions were standing in the way of those three reforms.

I was accused of just using Republican talking points, oversimplifying or placing too much blame on the unions. I was also told my point of getting rid of bad teachers was off, because it wasn't so hard to get rid of bad teachers

It doesn't need to be impossible to get rid of bad teachers for my thesis to work. It just needs to be difficult. When I alleged it was difficult you guys jumped all over mean with data supporting the fact that it wasn't that hard to get rid of bad teachers.

So are you now admitting that it is too hard in many school systems to get rid of bad teachers, and that if the systems are changed to make it easier to get rid of bad teachers that will improve our education system?

Originally posted by Adder
Really? That is a wonder to you? You can't understand why teachers would prefer lockstep compensation to a system that necessarily involves some subjective evaluation of their performance?

Subjective? That is the key word isn't it. Of course, it is the teachers unions that insist on it staying subjective. If we had annual testing, it wouldn't have to be subjective. So what is wrong with having annual testing, so then the decisions on merit pay can be based on hard facts. Would you approve of a merit system if we had annual tests?

[Adder]

Originally posted by Spanky
For the record:

When did I say impossible? I said it was difficult. The main point was that it was harder than it should be and you guys argued that statement.

I had a simple thesis. Right now there are three obvious things that can be done to improve our educational system

1) End social promotion
2) Make is easier to get rid of bad teachers
3) Annual testing (to figure out who is teaching and who is not, and so we can set up a bonus plan for teachers that are willing to go to teach classes and get even more bonuses if they succeed in teaching those tough classes).

I also said that the teachers unions were standing in the way of those three reforms.

I was accused of just using Republican talking points, oversimplifying or placing too much blame on the unions. I was also told my point of getting rid of bad teachers was off, because it wasn't so hard to get rid of bad teachers

It doesn't need to be impossible to get rid of bad teachers for my thesis to work. It just needs to be difficult. When I alleged it was difficult you guys jumped all over mean with data supporting the fact that it wasn't that hard to get rid of bad teachers.

So are you now admitting that it is too hard in many school systems to get rid of bad teachers, and that if the systems are changed to make it easier to get rid of bad teachers that will improve our education system?






Subjective? That is the key word isn't it. Of course, it is the teachers unions that insist on it staying subjective. If we had annual testing, it wouldn't have to be subjective. So what is wrong with having annual testing, so then the decisions on merit pay can be based on hard facts. Would you approve of a merit system if we had annual tests?

You should run for office.

[Replaced_Texan]

Originally posted by Spanky
But why would he say that if it is so easy to get rid of bad teachers?

The real wonder is why the teacher's union are so against "merit pay". In other words, paying teachers more to teach students that historicaly other teachers have had a hard time getting to learn, and rewarding them if they succeed. Of course in order to know which students are hard to teach and to know if the teachers have taught them anything you would need annual testing, so maybe the negativity of the one out weighs the benefits of the other (in their simple minds).

I was recently reading a study about ICU beds in hospitals. The study suggested that ICU beds are inefficient and there are suggestions to either do away with them, or only let critical care specialty physicians admit patients to the ICU. Massive corporations who are sick of healthcare costs rising (and ICU beds are more expensive than regular beds) are insisting that hospitals start thinking about closing down the ICUs and/or totally changing how they're managed.

I have a problem with applying the results of this study to all hosptials. Most hospitals in the country have a very small number of ICU beds in their census. It makes sense, then, that they may be inefficient. But there are tertiary hospitals in large medical centers that have hundreds of ICU beds and know how to run those units effectively and efficiently. Additionally, tertiary care hospitals are intended to take care of extremely sick people, who are, in turn, very expensive to take care of. The physicians staffed there are generally super-specialists and know how to effectively and efficiently manage critically ill patients. Applying the results of general hospital study to tertiary care hospitals is asinine in my opinion. Tertiary care hospitals need to be evaluated against other tertiary care hospitals, not all of the hospitals in the country.

I suspect that the same could be said for teachers. Put a teacher in a classroom full of kids that have been, for various reasons, difficult to teach, I think that she should be evaluated on different standards than teachers in general.

[Penske_Account]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
Stop it. Else I'll start thinking that you don't like women with power.

I will not admit that I have not fully wrapped my head around the concept of a woman with a strap-on, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate a freaky beeyotch in the bedroom and/or the boardroom.

Why do you assume my constructive critiques of Madames Hillary, Pelosi et al are based on gender bias as opposed to incompetency bias? Maybe you should examine your own bias?

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Adder
Right. Nevermind that the dude (1) doesn't seem to recognize what technology has already done to the practice of law, (2) seems to see what we do as merely pulling a model off the server (which might be true of some corporate practice, I admit) instead of a something that requires judgment, analysis and strategic thinking, and (3) even he doesn't see the entirety of his legal services moving toward commoditization.

Hey there, Francis... I wasn't disagreeing with you. Just an observation...

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Spanky
But why would he say that if it is so easy to get rid of bad teachers?

Who said it's easy to get rid of bad teachers?

[Spanky]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan

I suspect that the same could be said for teachers. Put a teacher in a classroom full of kids that have been, for various reasons, difficult to teach, I think that she should be evaluated on different standards than teachers in general.

Whoever said she shouldn't be? If you have annual testing you know which classes are tough and which ones are not. If a teacher is able to do better than the previous teacher that taught a similar type of class you give them a bonus. If a teacher fails to teach a certain class anything, you move them to a type of class that traditionally has been easier to teach (a classroom in an affluent neighborhood etc.). If they fail in that environment then clearly teaching should not be their chosen profession. If you have a teacher that is doing really well in an affluent school, you offer them a bonus to go to poorer school. If they don't work out in the poor school you send them back to the affluent school, but if they are successful at the poor school you give them a bonus and continue to give them bonses if they keep succeeding.

But you can't do any of this without data. And annual testing gives you that data.