It’s Friday and time for another round of Jon Stewart. It was a toss up between this one and the last Tea Party of the Year. The ornament program won.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Obama’s Socialist Christmas Ornament Program | ||||
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School Board Gives Green Light to Teacher Incentive Performance Award
From the Supervisor of Community Relations Office, Prince William County Schools:
On December 16, the Prince William County School Board approved the framework for a “Teacher Incentive Performance Award” (TIPA). This would provide a potential monetary stipend for all school-based, certificated employees included in site-based budgets at schools that meet specific eligibility requirements that will be developed later. The TIPA would be implemented beginning with the 2010-11 school year, subject to the availability of funding.
Work will now begin in developing criteria that meet the requirements set forth in the soon-to-be-released “Teacher Incentive Fund” grant program, a component of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Receiving such a grant would be essential for Prince William County Public Schools to successfully implement this initiative.
East Coast Serial Rapist Comes to PWC for Halloween
<————- Location of assaults in the area
A serial rapist who has been terrorizing the East Coast since 1997 arrived in time on Halloween to attack and rape 3 teenage girls who were out trick or treating in Dale City. This rapist has been on the loose and has attacked in 4 states: Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland and Virginia.
A video update has been added to the end of this post. It is a multi-jurisdictional police press conference containing critical information for the public.
His DNA connects him to the following crimes:
- Feb. 12, 1997 – 6800 block of Marlboro Pike in Forestville, Md.
- Aug. 20, 1997 – 4600 block of Silver Hill Road in Suitland, Md.
- July 3, 1998 – 2900 block of 31st Avenue in Temple Hills, Md.
- June 19, 1999 – Richmond Highway/Memorial Street in Alexandria, Va.
- Jan. 13, 2000 – 7300 block of Fordson Road in Alexandria, Va.
- July 8, 2000 – 1900 block of Beechwood Road in Hyattsville, Md.
- Nov. 20, 2000 – Timber Forest Drive/Edsall Road in Alexandria, Va.
- May 24, 2001 – Plaza Street in Leesburg, Va.
- Aug. 16, 2001 – 4500 block of 23rd Parkway in Temple Hills, Md.
- Dec. 28, 2001 – 3700 block of Rolling Hills Avenue in Alexandria, Va.
- Nov. 28, 2006 – Valley View Drive in Cranston, RI
- Jan. 10, 2007 – Smith Avenue in New Haven, Conn.
- Oct. 31, 2009 – 4300 block of Dale Boulevard in Woodbridge
White American Majority to end by 2050
The estimated time when whites were no longer a majority in the United States has been pushed back by 8 years because of the recession. Stricter immigration policies have slowed the flow of foreigners being admitted to the United States. The work force isn’t needed. The 9-11 terrorist attacks also slowed immigration. Earlier estimations in population shift did not take these 2 factors, terrorism and recession, into account.
White children will now become a minority in 2031 rather than 2023 and all whites will become a minority in 2050 rather than 2042. There are approximately 308 million people in the United States now. Two- thirds of those people are white. It is predicted that the total populations will grow to 399 million by 2050 and the demographics will shift to whites being 49.9% of the population. Blacks should make up 12.2%which indicates almost no change, and hispanics will go from 15% to 28% of the US population. Asians will increase from 4.4$ to 6%.
Ben Bernanke-Time’s Person of the Year 2009
Ben Bernanke, the 56-year old chairman of the Federal Reserve, has been chosen as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year 2009. He is credited with saving the economy. The Federal reserve is the central bank of the U.S. It is perhaps the most important and least understood financial force shaping America, and thus, the world economy.
Bernanke isn’t part of the Washington dinner crowd. He prefers to be a homebody, and his wife gets him to help with the dishes.
Richard Stengel, managing editor of Time, had the following to say:
History is composed not only of what happened but of what didn’t happen. The latter, of course, is impossible to really know. We do know what happened to the U.S. and world economies during the past year, and it wasnt pretty. We know the damage caused by the plague of subprime mortgages and the fallout from risky investment vehicles that bankers invented but did not understand, and we know that we ourselves probably borrowed and spent more than we should have. What we don’t know is what the economy and our lives would look like if a few individuals had not acted on our behalf and had simply sat on their hands. We don’t know what didn’t happen, but I’m convinced that the economy would look much, much worse
The following 4 individuals were runners up: General McCrystal, Nancy Pelosi, Usain Bolt, and the Chinese worker.
People have different feelings about Bernanke. What we all have to agree on is we have no clue what would have happened had another financial road been taken.
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Little Known Facts about Past Persons of the Year
My apologies. I embedded the wrong video. 12/17/09
Reminder, persons of the year are not always heroes. Quite often, they have been villans. The tradition started in 1927 and has featured people who have influenced the world, not necessarily in a good way. Click to see past selections.
Who is your favorite ‘person of the year?’ Who is your least favorite? Do you have your own story to tell? Who is the only person to be selected 3 times? When did the selection switch from Man of the Year to Person of the Year?
38 Arrested in Drug Sting in Northern Virginia
Almost 40 people were arrested the past week from age 18 to 54 for dealing heroin and perscription narcotics. Many of these people allegedly sold large amounts of heroin and presecription narcotics to high school students and young adults in Prince William County and western Fairfax County. Law enforcement noted how easy it was for young people to score drugs, often in retail store restroom, gyms, grocery stores, pharmacies and people’s homes.
Prince William County Law enforcement was alerted when there were a series of overdoses in the Manassas area, in particular, the overdose deaths of Matthew Mittong and Mindy Weakley. PWC 1st Sargeant Hess said that they couldn’t figure out how young people were making the transition from prescription drugs to heroin. According to the Washington Post:
Hess said police have found large numbers of local high school students, some as young as 15, who were regularly buying and using opiate pills before switching to heroin because it is cheaper and more accessible.
Police are concerned that teenagers are trying drugs such as Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin at parties thinking that because a doctor prescribes them they must be safe. Soon, Hess said, those teenagers are increasing their doses and later moving to heroin. “That false sense that it is okay can lead to very bad things very quickly,” Hess said. “Before long, they’re on the corner buying heroin. It’s a sad transition into the abyss.”
According to the News and Messenger:
In addition to heroin and prescription drugs, investigators said they also found cocaine, anabolic steroids, marijuana and guns.
Investigators said undercover officers were key in helping to identify who was selling the heroin, and prescription drugs. During the investigation, police said undercover officers made at least 50 purchases of heroin and prescription medication.
In addition to the houses raided in Dumfries and Woodbridge arrests were also made Tuesday in Dale City, Lake Ridge, Manassas, Nokesville and Springfield. [ED note: highlight mine]
All parents need to be aware this latest sting. The drug use seems to be ubiquitous. The article indicated that the drug use in this article was recreational and not the kind of use one associates with skid row and extreme poverty. In fact, many of the kids involved were very middle class. Click for the full story.
No parent can assume that their child would never. That is dangerous thinking. Many kids simply do not realize their own immortality or vulnerability until it is too late. Drugs rob people of their dignity, their status, their health, their families, their education and their careers. They turn decent people into liars, sneaks and thieves.
A list of all those arrested will be printed in the Wednesday edition of the News and Messenger.
Gay Marriage Passes in D. C.
Now gays get to be a miserable as everyone else is. Just kidding, just kidding.
The D. C. City Council predictably voted to legalize gay marriage in a 11-2 vote. Couples should be able to tie the knot as soon as March. Congress, which has the power over D. C. laws, could reject the action of the city council but the democrat-controlled congress has indicated it is reluctant to do so.
Gays and gay rights supporters have suffered a series of defeats in recent months. The latest defeats were in Maine and New York. According the News and Messenger:
David Catania, who introduced the bill and is one of two openly gay council members, called the bill a “matter of social justice” before the vote.
Two members voted “I do” when their names came up, and when the vote finished a packed chamber erupted into cheers and clapping. The “no” votes included former mayor Marion Barry, now a council member.
If Congress does not reject the bill, the district will join Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont in issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. They will be able to wed in New Hampshire starting in January.
Gay marriage supporters have had less success elsewhere recently. Maine voters overturned the state’s same-sex marriage law last month. Earlier this month, the New York state Senate rejected a bill that would have allowed gay couples to marry. And New Jersey’s legislature, which had been working on a same-sex marriage bill, postponed a recent vote when the measure appeared headed for defeat.
Tuesday’s vote in the district came after several months of discussion, including two marathon council hearings at which some 250 witnesses testified.
Opponents included the Archdiocese of Washington, which said it might have to stop providing adoptions and other services because the law would force it to extend benefits to same-sex couples. But most who testified in this overwhelmingly Democratic city were supporters.
Is this a matter of civil rights and social justice? Does gay marriage or civil union hurt those of us who are not gay? Are there legal implications to being married that gays have not been able to partake of? How will Virginia with its defense of marriage amendment react to having a gay marriage neighbor right across the Potomac River?
BOCS Meeting 12/15/09
The following appears on the December 15 Agenda for the BOCS Meeting: item A is detailed. Item B is currently unavailable.
You may access the agenda at the following CLICK. Choose current agenda.
Sesquicentennial Celebration
A. RES – Transfer, Budget and Appropriate $77,353 from Non-Departmental Transient Occupancy Tax Funds to the Department of Public Works to Fund Expenses for 2010 Events and Programs to Support the 150th Sesquicentennial at County Historic Sites and to Match the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership’s STEM Educational Grant Request– Thomas Bruun – Public Works Department
B. RES – Consider Proposed Memorandum of Understanding Between Prince William County and Virginia Civil War Events, Inc. – Angela Lemmon Horan – County Attorney
Note:
Item A deals with the Prince William County Committee. It provides for TOT funds to be transferred to Public Works and itemizes what each amount is allocated for.
Item B is the Creston Owen group, Virginia Civil War Events. No mention was made of a presentation. The information appeared to be incomplete.
Interested parties should make every attempt to watch this section of the BOCS meeting.
Gangs on Tribal Lands
Set aside the romanticized Quileute Reservation seen in the Twilight Series for a darker version of what is happening on some reservations. Many native reservations are known for extreme poverty, poor living conditions, broken homes, lack of basic infrastructure, chronic illness, substance abuse, unemployment, and now gang violence. Today’s New York Times featured some very troubling exposure to gang life style on the Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation in South Dakota.
CLICK TO VIEW THE VIDEO. (NYT video does not embed easily)
Tribal leaders are attempting to combat gang behavior that has existed since the 90’s when funds targetting crime were severely cut back. Lakota cultural experts have been hired to work with middle and high school age kids in the tribal schools. The students are taught the language and the culture. Yet once they leave the school room, the gang is on the outside. Gang members have adopted the style and behaviors of inner city gangs but they have different motivations.
The tribal lands gangs don’t fight for turf or big bucks. They fight over scraps. Robbery, looting, general theft, burglary seem to be the gang crimes. Goods are then sold. All gang behavior is self destructive to any society. On the Pine Ridge Reservation , it is estimated that over 5000 youth are gang members or have gang affiliation. In a land already fraught with too many of society’s ills, gang presence is just not needed.
From The Ledger:
The Justice Department distinguishes the home-grown gangs on reservations from the organized drug gangs of urban areas, calling them part of an overall juvenile crime problem in Indian country that is abetted by eroding law enforcement, a paucity of juvenile programs and a suicide rate for Indian youths that is more than three times the national average.
While many crimes go unreported, the police on the Pine Ridge reservation have documented thousands of gang-related thefts, assaults – including sexual assaults – and rising property crime over the past three years, along with four murders. As federal grants to Pine Ridge have declined the past decade, the tribal police force has shrunk by more than half, with 12 to 20 officers per shift patrolling an area the size of Rhode Island.
Somehow this video of gang membership is more disturbing than city gang video. Perhaps it is the sense of dispair already existing on many reservations where social problems are at their highest. To see young people whose ancestors were Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other proud Native Americans emulating the dregs of society is just disgusting.
Arlington School Cancels Taliban Debate
After a rash of parent complaints, a principal at Swanson Middle School in Arlington cancelled a debate assignment where students were asked to take the Taliban point of view during a mock UN Security Council session. Principal Chrystal Forrester and 2 other teachers, presumably the ones who made the assignment, have said the assignment was “clearly a bad choice for a debate topic.”
An email was sent out to the parents of the Swanson 8th graders with the following message, according to the Washington Post:
Recognizing the pain that has touched many of our families and neighbors due to the terrorist attacks on the United States and acknowledging the sensitive nature of the conflict in Afghanistan involving many of our dedicated members of the U.S. armed forces, we have eliminated this topic as part of the U.N. unit of study effective immediately,”
Open Thread–Saturday, December 12, 2009
We have decided to keep an Open Thread up on the blog at all times so that people who have comments to make that don’t fit a Post topic, they will have a place to put it. So when the Open Thread starts rolling off, we will post another one, realizing no one wants to travel to the bottom of the screen each and every time.
Also, look at the top of the page, right below the black banner, in the far left hand corner. Hopefully everyone recognizes this icon as the home symbol. Clicking the home icon will take you back to square one and back to the first post.
Hopefully, contributors will keep us apprised of community events here, especially during the holiday season.
Sesquicentennial Plans Presented to BOCS
Tuesday, December 8, Creston Owen, chairman of the newly formed Virginia Civil War Events Inc. presented his organization’s plan to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of First Manassas. His organization, made up of volunteers, has a 9 day plan to draw tourism to the area. His primary goal is to bring people to Manassas and Prince William County and to keep them coming back. The events sound grand. Also speaking to the board were Ed Clark, superintendent of Manassas National Battlefield Park and Brendon Hanafin, the county’s director of historic preservation who both added background information.
Funding will be the county’s primary obstacle. Many popular programs have already shut down or throttled back to bare-bones operations because of fiscal hard times. According to the Washington Examiner:
Still, funding presents an issue, even this early in the process. The cost per year for the county’s support and the events is estimated at $95,000.
All of the county’s financial support would have to come from the transient occupancy tax, said Budget Director David Tyerar. The TOT is a levy on tourist facilities such as hotels, motels and boarding houses that offer rented guest rooms for fewer than 30 consecutive days. Three of every five cents go toward tourism-related items in the county.
Creston Owen made a wonderful presentation to the board. His enthusiasm, knowledge, historical background made me want to write him a check on the spot. I am convinced he could sell ice cubes to Eskimos. The county chair warned that money was very scarce.
What if Manassas ponies up and the county does not? What if the county gives hard earned county money to this group? How loud will the hue and cry be from groups that support the Senior Day Care Center or transportation for the seniors to go to the senior citizens centers (different from senior day care)? It seems like the county is between a rock and a hard place.
O’Reilly takes on Law and Order over Immigration Episode
The video speaks for itself.
Isn’t art supposed to imitate life? I watched that episode of Law and Order. The rhetoric sounded to me an ordinary day on at least one local blog. On the other hand, as you saw in the video, O’Reilly was named as one of the haters who stir up people on the right about illegal immigration. I am not so sure O’Reilly is all that vitriolic on this subject. He is actually rather tempered from what I have witnessed. However, his outrage and tantrum over Dick Wolf weakened his case.
The plot can be seen at this site. And to set the record straight, Law and Order SVU has only been on the air for 11 years. The show often incorporates current issues into the plot as the detectives try to solve crimes committed against special victims.
The Loudoun County Raunchy “12 Days of Christmas”
The Christmas displays at the Loudoun County Courthouse in Leesburg has become quite the center of controversy and political statement. That’s too bad. What ever happened to peace on earth, good will towards men? With all due respect for the 1st Amendment Establishment clause, some people are getting out of hand.
First off, to the Rotary Club’s credit, they have pulled out of the mix, withdrawn their application for a display which would have been a Christmas tree.
According to : Leesburg Today
One request that is no longer on the table is the Rotary Club of Leesburg’s Christmas tree that has graced the courthouse lawn for almost 50 years. Club President Ron Rogos confirmed Monday that the club has pulled its application to place a Christmas tree on the courthouse lawn.
Rogos said the Rotary Club Board of Directors made the decision Thursday, Dec. 3, electing to place the tree somewhere else, at a location still to be determined.
“We are a service organization with a long tradition of doing good things. We don’t get involved in policy-making or political decisions; all we are is a service club,” Rogos said. “The best way for us to keep doing what we’re doing is put our tree up and put it up somewhere else.”
Seven requests have been received by Loudoun County since their vote to overturn the ban on all courthouse displays earlier this month that had been implemented by the Courts Grounds and Facilities Committee. Amongst the usual Christmas Tree, interfaith and creche requests are 2 requests that many citizens are very unhappy with. One such request is from Richard Wingrove representing Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Wisconsin based group for separation of church and state. The request is to display:
…a six-foot mesh banner reading, “At This Season of the Winter Solstice, May Reason Prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural World. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”
The above display pales by comparison to the next request from Sugarland Run resident Edward R. Myers. Myers has put together a display that includes a parody of the 12 Days of Christmas:
12 Day of Christmas” song to include “12 master debaters, 11 cunning linguists, 10 percent jobless, 9 niggardly noobs, 8-speech as gay tweets, 7 teabagger tools, 6-ting safety screws, 5 birther-control rings, 4 sucky health care, 3-dom disappearing, 2 many bills and a red FCUK to you too.” The FCUK is the trademark of French Connection United Kingdom.
The point, Myers said Tuesday is to force the Board of Supervisors to stop and think, noting that his signs, which he requested be hung on the fence around the courthouse in time for Saturday’s Leesburg holiday parade, are “like an onion with a number of layers.” In his application, Myers said he wanted his sign hung in celebration of the anniversary of the signing of the Bill of Rights, Dec. 15, which includes the protection of speech.
“I think mixing religion and government together to make a commercial Christmas is idolatry. I wanted to make something that would offend the Board of Supervisors for being so dismissive of the [committee] that thought through this issue so carefully,” he said, “while at the same time having a public display that would not offend children.”
Because, Myers said, it is only what people put into the words themselves that would make anyone construe his signs as obscene.
“It’s a play on words, with an innocent veneer, that people with dirty minds might read into it,” he said, noting, “free speech is kind of a hobby of mine.”
I respect the establishment clause folks until they get outrageous. These requests seem over the top. Too bad it has to be all or none. I see nothing wrong with Christmas trees, wreaths, mennorahs, frosties, sleighs, mistletoe, and holly on public property during this time of year. These are symbols of many holidays. Manger scenes are probably best displayed at churches. That seems more appropriate.
The 2 displays that are causing such contention in Loudoun County certainly explain why the Court Grounds Committee chose to ban all displays. Too bad people can’t exercise good taste. They ruin it for everyone. It might be their legal right to display offensive material but doing so defies wisdom and good taste. Those 2 qualities, unfortunately, cannot be legislated or codified.
Is this the time of year to make a point? Was the Rotary Club taking the high ground to pull out of the fray? Should all displays be banned or should the county be able to use its wisdom to decide what is appropriate and what is not? Will the voters make these supervisors pay at the ballot box next supervisor election cycle?
