Prediction #1 for 2006

The existance of the mysterious "Bat Boy" is confirmed.

It turns out that he is the result of a mad experiment gone terribly wrong (don't they all?) after it is revealed that there was a bizarre mating between Eva Young and PZ Meyers sometime in the early 1990's in an effort to prove the theory of evolution as scientific fact.

It is not determined which one of the two gave birth.

Unfortunately for Young and Meyers, their progeny finds redemption in Christ and is accepted into the Christian Brothers Monastery where he lives a life of quiet meditation.

Rumors of a strange half human, half zebra fish continue to be unproven throughout the year and Meyers refuses comment although his wife moves out of the family's home claiming that she's "just had e-fucking nuff".....

Poinkback Mountain

Ireland isn't France

I tuned into the Northern Alliance radio show on AM 1280 this afternoon...and wasn't pleased with what I heard.

Terry Keegan, the owner of Keegan's Irish Pub in the beleagered city of Minneapolis (and the site of tonights MOB Christmas party) has been a loyal advertiser for the NARN for as long as they've been on the air; and he's a good guy to boot.

But today, he ran an ad that encourages listeners to support a state wide ban on smoking cigarettes..Terry, buddy, get a grip!

Hennepin county just flinched a bit, it's not much, but it's a start. I understand that these bans are killing bars off in Minneapolis, and I understand the concept of self preservation but now is not the time to run up the white flag!

Get mad, get real mad.

Start inundating the cadres on the Minneapolis city council with complaints, run ad's that tell what is happening to your investments in their city and what the result will look like when there are only a handfull of bars (mostly large franchises) left.

If you are really ready to throw in the towel....I'm sorry, but you won't find me behind you on this one.

Baby steps with a big price tag

Fellow MOBster and Pioneer Press columnist Craig Westover presents a pretty thorough critique of Minnesota's first serious attempt to take public education seriously.

The plan, known as "Q-comp", started out as a set of well defined stick and carrot techniques to entice public school teachers to take pride in their professional skills by offering extra bucks for results..as in better student performance.

A stem to stern overhaul of the public school system is indeed long overdue.

The administration of these monopolies on our childrens futures have gone for far too long under the radar of public accountability; indeed, as Westover says "Some school districts have not evaluated a teacher in 20 years, noted Anderson, and the Department of Education's tough-love interpretation of the Q Comp program is "creating tension" with districts."

But as Westover also otes, the plan was pretty effectively gutted by Education Minnesota's legislative mascots before it was passed. Many districts have not taken the opportunity presented to them, even as half hearted as the "accountability" measures have appeared. Others, predictably, have attempted to put the type of specious plans in place that have always suited their money hunt in the past.

"Some districts went as high as 80 percent teacher evaluation with only 10 percent of performance pay based on standardized testing. One plan identified 73 individual criteria of teacher performance. "Safety and Arrangement of Furniture" in the classroom and the teacher's handwriting carried the same weight as "Knowledge of Content."

To their credit, the present managers of the Minnesota Department of Education have rejected such cynical actions, but for how long?

One thing that Westover fails to point out is that the person to whom the public school districts are accountable changes with the direction the political winds are blowing at any given time.

Right now, Alice Seagren is doing a very good job of making lemonaid out of the Q-Comp lemon, but what happens if and when Education Minnesota succeeds in once again getting one of it's paid minions into a position of authority over the schools?

The type of acountability that is necessary to unfortunately force all too many public school teachers to take their jobs seriously and to make teaching conform to the expectations of any other "profession" must be codified. Any leeway, any ambiguity that is left in programs such as Q-Comp will surely be explioted by the teachers union to the detriment of the students.

Having said all of that, I must add that even this baby step is welcome..we've got to start somewhere.

Hennepin County vests responsibility with Adults.

Smokers, bars revel in relaxed Hennepin County ban

One can almost hear the hue and cry coming from the left-wing nursery...hey nanny, can you give those kids a nook or something to shut them up?

Thanks.

Speaking of whiney children..have you all had enough of Heather Crowe yet?

MPAAT has been pouring gazillions of dollars promoting this womans battle with her "smokers tumor" on every television and radio station in the Twin Cities..every hour, on the hour we hear:

"I was a waitress for 40 years..the places I worked, the air was blue"

Ahhhhgggg..enough!

You may or may not be surprised to learn that Heather is no stranger to the nanny state wars; in fact, she's a well known commodity in her native Canada.

What has me wondering is why the anti-smoking crew has to resort to misinformation in promoting a message that no one is arguing against..hey, smoking is not good for our health..got it.

So why make up diseases? Try looking up "smokers tumor" anywhere. There's no such thing. Why not just leave the facts, such as they are, speak for themselves and let adults make their own decisions?

Seems simple to me.

Good luck to Heather, whom it seems may not be dying after all...yes, good luck and shut the fuck up.

Whats wrong with this picture?

Last Thursday, a Southwest airliner slid off a runway at Chicago's Midway Airport and continued into an adjoining street where it hit a car, killing a six year old kid.

One can imagine the grief that the boys parents are enduring...unless you're working on a contingency basis:

Crash Victim Family Lawyer Seeks Witnesses

CHICAGO -- An attorney for the parents of a boy killed when an airliner slid off a runway and into their car urged witnesses and passengers Sunday to contact his office. Lawyer Ronald Stearney Jr. said it was too early to say if Joshua Woods' parents would file a lawsuit, though autopsy results released Sunday determined the 6-year-old died from the impact of the plane hitting the car.

"It depends on how things unfold," Stearney said. "The first thing we have
to do is bury the boy."

Bury the boy first...Yeah, that would be nice, wouldn't it.

So why is this lowlife out scraping the pavement for witnesses today..and why did I hear him giving a press conference yesterday wherein he recounted how the boy was "happily singing Here Comes Santa Clause" moments before the jet hit the car he was riding in?

I wonder why it is that I feel the need to shower right now...

Not that you'd know it if you live in the US but...

..according to a Malaysian report of a British poll, 71% of Iraqi's say that their lives are pretty damn good and 61% expect them to get better next year.

"BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqis are personally upbeat but they remain concerned about security and half the population would prefer a single strong leader to democracy, a poll showed on Monday."

"In the poll, commissioned by the BBC and other news organisations, 71 percent of respondents said things were currently very good or quite good in their personal lives -- a surprising finding in a country that is still largely at war. "

"Asked if things would get better in the coming year, more than 60 percent said yes, while only 12 percent said no. "

As you can see by following the link, one has to have access to the news services of Malaysia to know any of this. I suspect that the US MSM will follow up tomorrow with a headline something like this:

New Poll Shows that 71% of Iraqi's tortured into delusions of happiness.

Laugh now, but just watch and see if I'm not at least close.

Back in the saddle

Someone out there might have realized (after a week or so) that Pair O' Dice has been unmanned for awhile.

Well that's because I have been studying like a madman to prepare for an engineering license exam...sorry; it was fourier transforms, feed-forward control and safety integrity levels for a healthy income increase or rip moonbats for free.

You do the math (I'm done for awhile).

I had considered not even bothering with blogging anymore, but then came this..

Al Franken: 'We have to win on values'

...from the man who pocketed million$ that were supposed to go to help poor kids and the elderly.

Seems that now that Franken has had a taste of how lucrative misappropriation of funds can be, he's decided to take the dive himself:

What you guys probably don't know is that I've formed a PAC, called Midwest Values PAC, MVP. I'm going to be raising money for progressive organizations and candidates -- here in Minnesota, in the Midwest and around the country.

Oh, yea..like I'll miss out in this windfall.....

I feel that it is my duty, as a patriotic American to stick around and sort out who Franken and his pals will be bilking next. Since he has operated within the confines of the young and the elderly..you know, the most vulnerable, I suspect that he will continue to prey on them until he and his minions have perfected their scams before spreading out into the general populace.

Parents, watch your children; children, keep an especially close eye on your elderly parents...

Al is coming to town.

You better not shout, you better not try
to keep your piece of the American Pie...
Al's moonbat troupe is comiiing...to town.

He's makin' a list, he's checking it twice
He's gonna find out where the elder-ly folks keep the "ice"

Al's moonbat troupe is comiiing...to town.

He knows when kids are hungry..
He knows there's cash to take..
He knows where the donation box is kept, and he'll take it for the moonbat's sake..soooo..

You better not shout, you better not try
to keep your piece of the American Pie...
Al's moonbat troupe is comiiing...to town.

It's going to be a great new year folks!