"The Yin and Yang of 2012"

"Before I start this blog, several of you have asked to be on the mailing list for The Bailey Post and I will try to get you on the list asap. I also send this to facebook. If you know someone that might want to read The Bailey Post, just let me know where to send the Post to them. Get their okay first of course. I am up to 15 readers without advertising for readers so slowly but surely it's building."

2011 was a tough year (and it's not over). Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, the debt-ceiling debacle, drought,heat and fires in Texas, the European economic meltdowns and Charley Sheen just to name a few of the traumas we had to go through.
However, I see 2012 as being much, much better. I'm excited about 2012 and I hope we will see an end to some of the things that plagued us in 2011. However, to be totally fair, life is a yin-yang situation and sometimes letting go of something not so good, creates a void that can be filled with something that is either good or not so good.
So here is my tongue in cheek look at the potential yin-yang of 2012.

1. YIN: NASA reports that no more satellites are expected to fall from space on unsuspecting humans in 2012.

YANG: There is at least one huge space station expected to fall to Earth in about 2 years. Whereas the satellite was the size of a truck, the space station is the size of Haystack Calhoun.

2. YIN: We have an election in 2012. If you are happy with things, vote President Obama back in. If not, vote him out. You get your say in 2012.

YANG: The voting booths will officially open at 6am east coast time and CNN will declare a winner at 6:05am, followed by Fox at 6:06, CNBC at 6:07, and ABC,CBS, NBC at 6:10am. A winner will be declared based on a straw poll of 50 exiting voters in Lambfries, Maine. This will result in most people realizing it's pointless to vote at all and as a result the declared winner will be assured of winning.

3. YIN: 2012 will see the European Union bail out Greece and in so doing save the the rest of the world from a double dip recession.

YANG: Once Greece has been saved from itself, still waiting in the queue are Portugal, Spain and England.

4. YIN: The fashion industry will finally put an end to using the grotesquely emaciated, super models.

Yang: They will rely on computer graphic imagry to realistically simulate actual stick-figures. Clothes will be drawn on stick-figures. Their reasoning is, stick-figures don't have to eat at all. Tim Gunn approves.


5. YIN: In an effort to curb American obesity, The Congress will declare a "war on fat". Processed refined sugar products will be outlawed and so will excessive grease.

YANG: Much like the prohibition era, sugar speakeasys will spring up in the backs of drug stores, peoples garages, and in the back rooms of Home Depots.
If you say (into the peep hole) the magic words "Clogged Arteries" you will be allowed into the sin room filled with cream puffs, eclairs, candy corn, taffy, cake and for those in really bad shape there will be a room within a room where you can indulge yourself in fritters and fried butter.

6. YIN: More money will be given to Education in 2012. Seeing the error of their ways, legislatures from coast to coast will appropriate more money for schools.

YANG: State education offices will point out that since high State test scores exist despite the ratio of 42-1 in the classroom reducing class sizes is unnecessary. They will point out that money for education should go where it can do the most good.....more testing.
Now states will have 3 standardized tests per school year. More testing means lots more paper, manuels, pencils and personnel. However there still won't be any money left over for test security. You are still on the honor system.

7. YIN: Great news travelers. Airlines plan to stop the ridiculous policy of charging for bags. No more bag charges in 2012.

YANG: The airlines will also announce the day after the no bag charge announcement that they will need to start charging a fee for using toilets on the planes, for the cushions in the seat bottoms and for the use of windows. They will reason that running a continuously operating bathroom is very costly as is cutting holes in the airplane for windows.

8. YIN: Thank God reality shows like Jersey Shore, Housewives of Beverly Hills, The Kardashians, and Primped and Proper willl disappear.

Yang: Unfortunately a new wave of shows will replace them, centered on overindulged children (americans favorite obsession).
Shows like "My Bitchen Kid", "Little Miss Angel", "Mine's Better than Yours", and my personal favorite, "Who wants a Trophy?" In that show kids are given trophies the minute they are born, just for having.... well been born. Be advised parents you'll need a bigger bedrooms to fit in all those throphies.

9. YIN: Finally after all these years of waiting, Creationists will emerge from their annual "Cocoon Convention" and announce that they have accepted the "evolution" theory of existence.

Yang: They will, however, also say they came to this conclusion because God told them this over the loudspeaker at lunch on Friday.

10. YIN: Narcisstic, self-agrandizing blowhards like Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck will finally be taken off the airwaves.

Yang: Well,the bad news is they will be replaced by Howard Stern and
Geraldo Rivera.

"Red Shirting - Kindergartners"

Of course it would come to this. Of course it would!!! Are you familiar with the sports term "Red-shirt Freshman". Refers to an incoming freshman athelete (4 year college) that is allowed to be around the team, practice with the team but just not suit up on game day. That way at the end of their freshman year in college they haven't technically used up a year of competitive eligibility. They can still play 4 years of sports. It's a way of getting five years worth of maturity in 4 years of playing. All the colleges do it and we can debate later about the relative merit or lack of merit of giving atheletes 5 years to play 4 years.

I want to focus on something more assinine and is the current rage. Parents in an effort to give their little "Jimmy Crack-Korn" kid an advantage deliberately hold their kid out of Kindergarten until they are 6 years old. These kids are referred to as red shirt kindergartners. That way when little Suzi Creamcheese enters kindergarten as a 6 year old (in some cases 6 1/2) she will be bigger that the other 4 1/2 or 5 year olds, have had another year of preschool (or home school) and in theory will immediately go to the top of the class. She or he will excel against the younger kids and all the way through school because they will be a year older all the way through. They'll graduate at 19, having presumably kicked the ass of all the younger kids along the way.

Some parents will say, well I want my little "Tawonda" to have a a fair chance, or they'll say their kid is developmentally behind and need more time. Maybe but probably NOT! This sounds like a scam PUSD parents would cook up.

Am I saying some kids wouldn't do better if they started later in age? Of course not; not all kids are ready for kindergarten at age 5. The one size fits all has always been one of the bad philosophies of American education. If it can be proved a kid is developmentally behind and another half year or year would help them be closer to being on par with the other kids of course do it. What I object to is the blatent scamming parents are doing as they look for yet another way to circumvent the rules and try to get an advantage for little "Skipper".

All this would be less of an issue if schools would simply ability group instead of age group. Put little "Basil" in with like ability students. If/when he has shown the ability to move up put him in a higher group. It matters less that "Guido" is 15 and "Lippy" is 16 in a class. It matters more if "Guido" has a 130 IQ, and is on track for UCLA and "Lippy" has an IQ of 85 and on track to change my tires in about 5 years.

The thought for so long has been: don't hurt the little kiddies by having them be in the "low" group. Instead put them in with the Mensa kids and they will push themselves to do even better. NO most of them don't. They spend their entire school career asking the smarter kids for help on homework, help on test prep, seeing teachers during tutorial and wondering what happened to them that they are so far behind and don't understand the in class discussions. I think most would rather be at the top of the average or low group than be the academic caddy for the superstars. Red shirt Kindergartners? Grade "F"

"9/11 of Course"

I'll keep my remarks brief concerning the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. Like most people on the West Coast I was just getting up and at some point I caught on to what was going on. I did not think terrorism until I saw the second huge plane hit. Even at that I didn't know if it was home grown (Timothy McVeigh, Unibomber etc.) or foreign. What shocked me was the buildings collapsing. I thought they could withstand an explosion. The flame retardent material on the steel girders blew off when the planes hit. But why use any flame retardent that will fly off at all? Maybe that was state of the art in 1974 when the towers went up. It just seems to me any type of explosion would have blown it off. Every one above the impact zone was doomed. Now we find out they had no way down and no roof top access. No roof top because the doors were locked. No downward access because all the elevators were bunched in the middle of floors and when one went down the others went as well, except for one stairwell in the South Tower. If that stairwell had been disabled, add another 300-800 more lost people. Why were firefighters going up? The average fireperson carried 100lbs of equipment and it was going to take 2-3 hours to climb the stairs. How exhausted would they have been when they got to the 78th floor? What could they have done? Did every floor have high velocity fire hose hook ups? Hand carry down the wounded? Another 2-3 hours (at the least) and how many could go down? Mostly they headed into this fire scene blind and one thing about firefighters, they don't go into burning buildings blind. That is they would have some idea of the risk and who, what,where and how of going in and getting out. Then again, what else could they do, stay on the ground floor and watch jumpers? Most of the firefighters lost never even made it to the floor they were assigned to. It's a matter of record that Osama Bin Laden told his people his purpose in attacking the Towers and Government buildings was not to just kill and scare the American people. No, all along he said that he couldn't defeat America in America. He wanted to provoke America so they would go into Afghanistan. It was there that he planned to kill Americans, drag out the conflict and bleed America dry financially. He did the same thing to Russia years before. He provoked them, they went into Afghanistan and he did his guerilla warfare thing. He killled many, financially drained the country until they finally gave up. Bin Landen got his wish because we did go into Afghanistan and then Iraq as well. He did kill US troops, prolonged the war, bled us dry and now we are going to (hopefully soon someday) pull out. We should never have taken the bait. There will be endless shows and video this next week. There will be endless testimonials, and remembrances. It is a compelling story to be sure. They are all compelling: Boston Massacre, Firing on Fort McHenry, The Alamo, Fort Sumter, Sinking of the USS Maine, Luisitania, Pearl Harbor, Gulf Of Tonkin, and 9/11. Each gave us the emotional resolve and the moral authority to get into a war. Complacency=Vulnerability. Vulnerability=Opportunity and Opportunity=Tragedy. I respect the lost and I admire those on Flight 93 who fought back. I also lament the way things have turned out in this country since 9/11. I won't get sad, misty-eyed, or feel a need to show everyone how patriotic I am, how much I'm still bothered by 9/11.. Look I wasn't there, I didn't know anyone that was there, I knew no one that lost their life nor did I know anyone that knew someone that lost their life. So for me to to blast Greenwood's "I'm proud to be an American" song and wear my once every ten years flag shirt would be hyporcritical. We are americans everyday, by going to work, being self supporting, helping those that can not help themselves, raising our kids right, trying to be good partners and friends; in otherwords by doing exactly what those 2,977 other people were doing that day ten years ago.

"Obama on the eve of....."

Tomorrow night President Obama delivers his jobs creation plan. He has chosen to do so at a joint session of congress as opposed to the oval office or White House press briefing room. Either he decided this had to be done or his advisers told him it had to be done. Will the jobs creation plan include budget cuts, tax increases, neither or both? We will have to wait to see. Here are my thoughts on President Obama on the eve of his speech, but first I have to do a disclaimer: Sometimes if I am critical of Obama some people think I just don't like the guy. If I praise anything he has done, others wonder why in the world do I like the guy. To think either of those two things is to miss the point on how I think about him or any president. I neither like Obama nor dislike him, personally. I don't know him (obviously) and I have no real idea what he is like. All I have to go on are photo's, videos his speeches and what others say. But what others say about him is often determined by whether or not they like him, belong to the same political party, believe in his idealogy or even his faith. My concern with this President is the same concern I have had for all the Presidents before him. 1. What do they say they believe in 2. What do they say they are going to do for the American people 3. How are they / how have they done on the job? 4. As the "leader" of the free world how well are they leading? In other words I care about results not party idealogy. I don't care much about who the person was before them and I don't care about gender, color of skin, tie, whether or not they are the type I'd drink a beer with at a barbeque, or crack peanuts with in Georgia, or oogle women at the water cooler. I want the country to prosper in general, citizens to prosper individually. I want our kids and grandkids to prosper, and to have a hope filled future. I want the "american" brand to stand for good things, be respected around the world, and be based on integrity. I am disappointed with President Obama at least for now. Everyone knows he inherited a mess and it was a big mess already in progress. We know all the reason: the wars, the economic meltdown, housing irregularities and so forth. He inherited all that and more. Still and all he has not delivered on what he promised: For instance: He said financial regulations needed to be put in place immediately to prevent wall street looters and irresponsible greed barons from ever causing the damage done this time.. He said, it would be one of his first priorities. Deregulation of Wall Street began under Clinton, then escalated greatly under Bush to the point where wall streeters virtually had unlimited freedom to do whatever they damn well pleased and boy did they. Some lawmakers and analysts think laws were broken but no one has been held accountable. RESULT: He has never put in place any financial regulations or restrictions. He went the other way, bailed out some of the worst ransackers and looters by giving them countless millions of dollars. What did Goldman Sachs do? What did Bank of America do? They took the money, bought up the companies that failed and many other smaller banks and became richer than ever and awarded their corporate execs millions (I mean many millions of dollars) in bonuses. It's business as usual at Wall Street. In fact, Timothy Geitner is still in charge and remember Geitner was the right hand man of both Hank Paulson (Bush's appointed Secretary of the Treasury, and former president of one of the Corporate raiding companies before that) Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan. Paulson was the thief that pushed for deregulations to begin with. He got what he wanted and the rest is history. Obama said he would end the wars especially in Iraq. Result: While there has been a drawdown (military speak) in some places, the wars go on. Afghanistan had the biggest loss of American military personnel (in a month) just last month. Obama championed his Obama care health plan and one of his important must haves was the single payer option but in the end he gave it up to appease Republicans. Even at that (2) Republicans had to be bought off at the last minute (One was Ben Nelson from my old homestate of Nebraska) to get the necessary votes. So the cornerstone of that plan is/was no more. He championed the need to recind the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy but when it came down to it he allowed them to keep their money. 3 years later the tax cuts are still in place. Even Warren Buffet said, what are you doing, the wealthy should be paying more. Only 8% of his white house staff has any real business background (owned a company, ran a company etc) 8 % when previous administrations averaged 45-50%. The point is he is surrounded by people that don't know much about finances, business, and economics in general at a time when we need the best minds working 24/7. Now to be fair, Under his watch Bin Laden is gone, Al Quada seems to be on the run (at least some) and Michelle Obama has pushed hard for Americans to take their health seriously and stop childhood obesity. Then too he is not a personal embarrassment when he meets foreign delegations. (Bush mangled the English language and even threw up on the Japanese delegation). However, my biggest concern is leadership. Remember Rudy Giuliani walking the streets of New York City calming people, issuing orders, taking charge of that city during September 11. He is widely praised for showing strong leadership, remaining calm under pressure, being with the people, and getting the city back on it's feet.Truman said, "drop the bomb". Rooseveldt calmed americans by saying "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself", Churchill got London through the blitz, Kennedy rolled up his sleeves and got us through the Cuban Missile Crisis (some say his recklessness created as many problems as he solved). Obama seems disconnected. He seems aloof. He cooly walks to the podium with no sense of urgency. He speaks in the same way when he tells us Bin Laden is dead as he does when addressing the debt ceiling. Like it's all academic and theoretical to him. The recent Hurricane that went up the east coast causing an estimated 6-7 billion in damage had many freaked out but we heard nothing from Obama from that Sunday to the following Friday when the Hurricane was bearing down on NYC. Then his people released an announcement that he had decided to cut his vacation at Martha's Vineyard one day short and come back to Washington late Saturday instead of Sunday. Mayor Bloomberg is evacuating much of NYC (unprecedented action) and Obama is apparently sailing on the waters at Martha's Vineyard. This is a critical hour for America and has been for at least 4-5 years: the economy, wars, 1 in 5 kids meeting the definition of being below the poverty line, schools are financially broke and in disarray, prisons so crowded they have to let prisoners go, and the list goes on. I do hope Obama's plan is a good one. I do hope he can rally all of us. I do hope the Republicans will stop their crusade on getting Obama out of office so all americans can benefit. Do what's right for Americans, get people back to work, stop the wars, reduce the insane deficit, get people with money to pay their fair share again, stop selling America to China, stop political partianship and brinkmanship, do what one of our great leaders said (stop asking what this country will do for you and start asking what are you going to do for this country)? It starts with the President and goes down to every person, including me.