For all Johnny Cash Fans

On 20/02/2011 3:40 PM, Stu wrote:

Toronto's SkyDome has a curious history. The government gave them the
land for it and pumped another $30 million into the project. It ended up
being being sold for a fraction of the value. Rogers paid less than the
government initially put into it and now.... it is the Roger's Centre.

Hamilton is now working on a deal for football and the PanAm games.
There was a lot of controversy over the location of the new stadium, but
they eventually agreed to spend the money on upgrading the old Ivor Wynn
stadium. It is goign to cost many millions of dollars, and most people
expect that there will be cost over runs.
 
?
"sf" wrote

Want copies of my W-2? Amazing how you go on making comments with no facts.
Please don't make foolish statements when you have no idea what my salary is
or was or lack of bonus, etc.
 
On 2011-02-19, Ed Pawlowski wrote:


Yes, the concept is a good one.


No doubt due to the fact the same ppl that graduated business schools
with "take no prisoner" MBAs which joined big corps were the same
graduates that settled into mgt for the bigger unions. Then it jes
became a battle of the MBAs for the rank and file's assets.

The first signs of rebellion I saw were West Coast machinist unions
that told their local mgt to go piss up a rope, they were gonna settle
no matter what union mgt said, and they did it. The prez of one local
even got canned for not holding the national party line against these
rebellious R&F'rs.

The other revolution was more enlightened corporations, mostly in the
high-tech sector, that rightfully realized that giving the worker good
wages and bennies would eliminate the unions and their mgt bureaucracy
altogether, thereby saving all that money wasted on that whole level
of bloodsucking fatcats.

Unfortunately, traditional business, as taught in the great business
ivory towers of the USA, is still of the philosophy of opposition and
confrontation rather than cooperation. So, the bottom line is to
still treat the working class like beasts of burden rather than
willing partners. Likewise, since they're unworthy worker drones,
anyway, jes toss 'em aside for cheaper models.

Now we are a Third Word Nation. Poverty, hunger, no production to
export, except weapons, which are too damn sophisticated and expensive
for anyone else to afford, so they now make their own as the means
....read computers.... makes it possible for any country to become a
super power if they're actually making products for export and can
generate revenue. Which we no longer can!

(somebody turn the hose on me!)

jes one last tidbit for thought:

"Life will continue on this planet until pollution ruins the
atmosphere and sewage makes the seas a barren, watery desert. Then
life on this fragile little pebble orbiting this modest star will come
to the end that the Creator must have intended when he made man.
Watching our Japanese televisions, listening to our compact laser
discs, wearing our designer clothes, we'll all starve"

-- Stephen Coonts, The Minotaur, 1989


......and here I thought I had the hot skinny with my cynical insights
on our futile future. Silly me. So, go out and party and buy that H2
and toss empty water bottles everywhere. We're all gonna die
.....shortly!! ;)

nb
 
On 20/02/2011 3:40 PM, Stu wrote:

Toronto's SkyDome has a curious history. The government gave them the
land for it and pumped another $30 million into the project. It ended up
being being sold for a fraction of the value. Rogers paid less than the
government initially put into it and now.... it is the Roger's Centre.

Hamilton is now working on a deal for football and the PanAm games.
There was a lot of controversy over the location of the new stadium, but
they eventually agreed to spend the money on upgrading the old Ivor Wynn
stadium. It is goign to cost many millions of dollars, and most people
expect that there will be cost over runs.
 
On 19/02/2011 2:53 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

Yep. The bastards even flew into Washington on private jets to beg
congress to bail them out. Oops, sorry, that was the company CEOs.

The foreign competition didn't just cheaper cars. They offered better
cars. I gave up on North American cars and my last three cars have been
Japanese. They engines last longer, bodies don't rust out as fast, their
service is better and they don't screw you on warranty work.

Let's not forget those huge bonuses. heaven forbid that people at the
working end of a business be paid a wage they can live on and support a
family, but CEOs are getting millions of dollars in bonuses while their
businesses are going down the tubes because of they way the same people
are running them. Some of the CEOs of the most disasterous companies
were such unabashed thieves that they paid themselves bonuses with
federal bail out money.

Edgar Bronfman got as $3 million bonuds in 2008 when his company Warner
Music Group lost $56 million. The board voted for the raise because the
thought he had done a good job in tough times. I wonder if they used
the same rationale to reward their workers.

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc saw it's stock plunge 31% and the companmy
posted a $1.1 Billion loss. CEO Ara Hovnanian was paid a $1.5 million
bonus.

Remember that the recent economic meltdown had nothing to do with
autoworkers. It was caused by other economic factors like the housing
bubble and subprime mortgages. Then there was the deregulation of the
banking business. Regulations that had been instituted in order to
ensure stability in the financial sector were removed and a bunch of
unsafe practices put the economy at risk. Note that Canadian banks
didn't run into the same problems because our government maintained is
regulations.

gm



Too bad. How many other local businesses went down the tubes when GM closed?
 
On 19/02/2011 2:53 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

Yep. The bastards even flew into Washington on private jets to beg
congress to bail them out. Oops, sorry, that was the company CEOs.

The foreign competition didn't just cheaper cars. They offered better
cars. I gave up on North American cars and my last three cars have been
Japanese. They engines last longer, bodies don't rust out as fast, their
service is better and they don't screw you on warranty work.

Let's not forget those huge bonuses. heaven forbid that people at the
working end of a business be paid a wage they can live on and support a
family, but CEOs are getting millions of dollars in bonuses while their
businesses are going down the tubes because of they way the same people
are running them. Some of the CEOs of the most disasterous companies
were such unabashed thieves that they paid themselves bonuses with
federal bail out money.

Edgar Bronfman got as $3 million bonuds in 2008 when his company Warner
Music Group lost $56 million. The board voted for the raise because the
thought he had done a good job in tough times. I wonder if they used
the same rationale to reward their workers.

Hovnanian Enterprises Inc saw it's stock plunge 31% and the companmy
posted a $1.1 Billion loss. CEO Ara Hovnanian was paid a $1.5 million
bonus.

Remember that the recent economic meltdown had nothing to do with
autoworkers. It was caused by other economic factors like the housing
bubble and subprime mortgages. Then there was the deregulation of the
banking business. Regulations that had been instituted in order to
ensure stability in the financial sector were removed and a bunch of
unsafe practices put the economy at risk. Note that Canadian banks
didn't run into the same problems because our government maintained is
regulations.

gm



Too bad. How many other local businesses went down the tubes when GM closed?
 
On 2011-02-19, Ed Pawlowski wrote:



Why shouldn't they be?

Middle mgt types were being paid $30-60 hr to come up with rah-rah
production slogans, make up weekly work schedules, and formulate
nonsense mission statements ....and getting $5-25k yrly bonuses, ta'
boot! I don't even wanna talk about the upper mgt types getting
multi-million dollar raises for steering the industry to doom.

nb
 
On 2011-02-19, Ed Pawlowski wrote:



Why shouldn't they be?

Middle mgt types were being paid $30-60 hr to come up with rah-rah
production slogans, make up weekly work schedules, and formulate
nonsense mission statements ....and getting $5-25k yrly bonuses, ta'
boot! I don't even wanna talk about the upper mgt types getting
multi-million dollar raises for steering the industry to doom.

nb
 
On 21/02/2011 3:06 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

It was interesting to note that the premier of our province who was in
such a conflict with the teachers had been a teacher but with a curious
career history. In this province, graduates from teacher's college are
hired on a temporary contract and usually have to teach for a year or
two to get a permanent contract. This guy taught for a number of years
but was never given a permanent contract.
 
On 2/21/2011 10:44 AM, sf wrote:

Not that unusual. My niece got a job in a local school district last
year and was doing a extra work beyond what was required. She was
quietly pulled on the side and told it made everyone else look bad.

This is probably the twentieth time I have heard the same thing.
 
On 2/21/2011 11:09 AM, Dave Smith wrote:

If you have a graduate degree typically you hold a professional job in
the private sector and you do whatever is required of you without
watching the clock. Typically that involves working late on projects or
traveling or whatever.

So if you are a schoolteacher with a graduate degree are you an hourly
worker or a professional?
 
On 21/02/2011 3:28 PM, George wrote:



Indeed. You do what is needed to do the job. Teachers are higher to
teach a particular curriculum. Elementary teachers are usually assigned
to a particular grade in which they have to teach all the subjects while
high school teachers are more likely to be assigned to teach one or more
subjects. When it comes to the chess club, the science club, the variety
show etc... they are extracurricular activities... outside of the normal
requirements.
 
On 2/21/2011 10:42 AM, blake murphy wrote:

That would work for me. Last week a friend wanted to move into their new
house. In order to do that an occupancy permit is now required. Their
modest house has a driveway which connects to a state road. In order to
get the occupancy permit they need a copy of the DOT driveway approval.
Friend asks me if I would meet his wife at the DOT office since they are
typical bureaucrats and I tend to be persistent if someone intentionally
tries to play with me.

First person asks "why do you need a copy of the approval?" I describe
why. He notes "that is processed in Harrisburg so it will take 3 weeks
to get a copy. I ask if the computer in front of him connects to
Harrisburg and he tells me the permit is processed by someone else. I
ask who. He says DOT, I remind him this is the DOT office. He says "I
need to ask "Fred", "Fred" comes over and says "this is all really
impossible and my friends will just have to wait". I ask "but isn't this
a computer record?" The two did everything they could to give me the
bums rush. I then ask to speak to their manager. They said he was busy.
I then asked to speak to their managers manager. Guy comes out and I
tell him what we want. One minute later we were walking out with a copy
of the driveway permit.
 
Ed Pawlowski wrote:

I've seen a lot of complaints of low teacher pay over the years. Where
I grew up the public school teachers made above average for the
community. Maybe that's low for a college grad but it's rarely started
that way. Maybe that was an exceptional district. They sure claimed to
be an exceptional district but who doesn't.


I point a lot more to crappy ciriculum changes than to poor teachers,
but yes the best ones should make more and the worst ones should be
dismissed. Neither would have much effect on the majority of teachers
but it would start a gradual increase in quality.
 
On 21/02/2011 4:33 PM, Doug Freyburger wrote:

\

Yep. There are a lot of dumb things done in education that are thought
up by the high priced help who like to make changes just for the sake of
making changes. I remember at one time teachers here had to deal with
aims and objectives. The high priced help came up expectations and
outcomes. Basically the same thing, but a lot of changes had to be made
to say basically the same thing.





I have to wonder how much the whole system could benefit from getting
rid of the bad students. They wouldn't be there to hassle the teachers
and the other students and dragging the whole system down.
 
"Dave Smith" wrote

Easy there man. Next thing you know, you'll be expecting parent to take some
responsibility in raising their children.

I moved away from Philadelphia 30 years ago, but it used to be, the Catholic
school system was one of the top 10 in the country while the public school
system was in the bottom 10. One reason was, the parochial schools could
kick out the bad guys, but the public schools had to take them.
 
On 21/02/2011 5:24 PM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:


When my wife was teaching special ed they RC board did have special ed
classes. They used to send the kids to the public board. Some of the
special ed students drag down the school average marks. The separate
school board could expel problem students but then the public board
would have to take them.

A friend of mine taught at a rough school and a couple times he was left
as acting principal. He got in a lot of trouble because he suspended a
kid. He had seen the kid hiding in a door well and when a girl walked
by he held out an aerosol can and a lighter, and ignited the spray,
basically a mini flame thrower. The police should have been called and
the kid should have been charged.

Problem was that it had been a problem school with a reputation for
violence and the principal wanted to get credit for making it less
violent. The board operational defined violence as the number of
suspensions. She figured that her school would not be branded as violent
if she did not suspend any students. So he was the bad boy.


FWIW... the staff at that school hated the teacher so much that almost
every one of them applied for a transfer. A dozen of then were
transferred to one particular high school in a nearby town and were
stunned to show up at their new school and find out that she had been
transferred there too. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.
 
Ed Pawlowski wrote:

That's how top 10 colleges work. It's openly elitist and thus not
allowed in a public school system paid for by taxes. With a long term
result of decay that seems obvious in hindsight.


No child left behind mapped to a different level. ;^)


Where I grew up the ratings where the opposite. Over time I have
learned the way it was when and where I grew up were the exception not
the rule.
 
In article ,
"Ed Pawlowski" wrote:


Yeah, get rid of the losers like this guy:

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1726.html

X was high-spirited and had a stubborn streak, which annoyed everyone.
His childhood was unhappy, he was chubby and did poorly in school; he
talked with a lisp and stuttered. His father, a brilliant scholar, found
him to be a disappointment, and also had little time for him.

At age 12, X entered Harrow school, a private secondary boarding school.
He was the lowest boy in the lowest class. However, X began to blossom
at Harrow. He discovered a love of literature and writing, which he
would enjoy all the days of his life. X?s father, observing him at play
with his toy soldier army, impatiently judged his son to be of limited
intelligence. Thus, he decided his boy was suited only for a military
career. X, after failing the entrance exam twice, entered the

Who?

As prime minister, the Right Honorable Sir Winston Leonard Spencer
Churchill successfully led Britain through World War II.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA
[email protected]
 
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