Thursday, June 03, 2004

Teach the Children Well

“Orange High graduation remarks plagiarized."

Who did the plagiarizing?

"Orange County school board Chairman Keith Cook plagiarized much of the speech he delivered at Orange High School’s 2004 graduation ceremony.

The speech, which incorporated lessons from the movie “Titanic,” was virtually identical to a 1998 speech given by Donna Shalala, then U.S. secretary of health and human services. Cook did not attribute his remarks, made Friday night at UNC’s Smith Center, to Shalala.

When asked Tuesday by a Herald-Sun reporter where he got his speech, Cook said, “I wrote that."

Oops, got caught.

Via The Obscure Store.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/03 at 02:56 AM
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An Educational Renumeration Lament

In a column for MotherJones.com, Dave Eggers laments teachers needing to take on second jobs to make ends meet, as if the teaching profession is the only profession where individuals need to take on second jobs, and states the following as a comparison statement.

”... We pay orthodontists an average of $350,000, and no one would say that their impact on the lives of kids is greater than a teacher’s..."

A couple of things.  First, the orthodontist is paid by the market, not the state run machine.  The orthodontist is paid by how many smile challenged butts can be run through the dental chairs in the office.  One who worked on my kids, had eight chairs, filled with butts at all times, eight hours per day, and could put a fresh smile challenged butt in the chair every fifteen minutes.  Payment expected at time of service, or, per your orthodontal installment contract.  As for whom has a greater impact on kids lives, look around you, what’s more important, appearance, which can be seen, look at those smiles, or education, which cannot be seen, or measured, until someone opens their mouth and begins spouting off, with a nice smile?

Are teachers under compensated?  Maybe, but they cannot expect to get rich off the public’s nickels.

“Reading, Writing, and Landscaping."

Via Arts & Letters Daily.

Update: There’s always Vegas.  “Crossing the Border Into the Middle Class." No degree required.

"With the food server’s course now under her belt, Ms. Diaz has made an impressive leap in status and income. Busing tables, she made $500 a week, or $25,000 a year, but as a waitress, her wages and tips total about $20 an hour, or $40,000 a year.

Ms. Diaz is doing so well that her husband, Manuel, a burly six-foot construction worker, says he jokingly tells friends: “She’ll be earning so much that I’m going to be able to quit my job and take care of the house. So when she arrives home, there will be steaming food on the table."

Posted by John Venlet on 06/03 at 02:19 AM
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Wednesday, June 02, 2004

How Will This Data Affect the Fat

“Obesity Rising Among Poor in Developing World- Study."

Via Yahoo News.

Must be something in the water.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/02 at 03:02 PM
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Deliver Pizzas, But Don't Protect Yourself

I’ve never delivered pizzas, but if I did, I would definitely carry a handgun.  Not to protect the pizzas, but to protect myself.  I guess I wouldn’t be working for Pizza Hut if that was the case.

"A pizza deliveryman won’t face charges for fatally shooting a would-be robber several times when he was approached in a high-crime area, but his employer, Pizza Hut, has fired him for violating a company policy against carrying firearms."

At least some former Pizza Hut customers understand.

""I hope those of you in the media will realize the incredible unfairness of a huge company telling its employees – in essence – they must agree to die for the company rather than use legal reasonable means to defend themselves,” Rick Whitham, an Indianapolis attorney, told WND. He says he saw Pizza Hut’s action as “clear discrimination against those who choose to lawfully exercise a legal, heavily regulated right.”

Whitham wrote to the company: “I don’t spend my money with businesses that openly discriminate against people such as myself who understand that the police have no affirmative duty to protect any particular citizen and that no company is worth dying for – particularly yours."

“Pizza man saved by gun, but fired for packin’ heat."

Posted by John Venlet on 06/02 at 02:12 AM
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Tuesday, June 01, 2004

Mortgage Scaremongering

USA Today has an op-ed posted, unsigned of course, titled “Take ‘sticker shock’ out of home-loan borrowing." Right out of the gate, the op-ed summons up the big, bad, mortgage bogey man.

"Consumers can find out upfront the cost of most services they buy. Many lawyers charge by the hour, Realtors take a percentage of a house sale, and credit card companies must disclose their rates and fees.

But when the biggest purchase most folks make - a home - is involved, consumers can only guess at the fees they’ll pay for a mortgage, appraisal, title insurance and other items needed to finalize a loan. Because of lax federal rules, mortgage lenders, title companies and others involved in the transaction can hide behind “estimates” of fees that can turn out to be hundreds or thousands of dollars higher at settlement."

The op-ed ends, natch, with the call for more govmint, since those mortgage lenders are nothing more than predators with weak estimating skills.  I call bullshit on USA Today.

I’ve written more than my share of mortgages over the past fifteen years and I can unequivocally state that the Good Faith Estimates I wrote for my clients were, 95% of the time, accurate to within $200.00, usually within $100.00 or less, and at times, that $200.00 margin of error was in the borrowers’ favor.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  Some loan officers can’t estimate worth a damn, and some lenders do not care if their loan officers can’t estimate worth a damn, but those loan officers and lenders who don’t give a damn about the erroneous quality of their estimates, are not going to keep clients.

Some advice.  If you go to a mortgage closing, and the final figures are way off, say more than $300.00 to $500.00 out of line from the estimate, raise holy hell right at the closing table.  Tell the lender you will not close unless they adjust their fees downward, to within a reasonable range of the estimate.  Also, look very closely at the HUD-1 Settlement Statement. Look for a line item on the HUD-1 that is labeled Service Release Premium (SRP) or Yield Spread Premium (YSP).  The number shown will, typically, be in parentheses, indicating monies being paid to the lender after the loan closes.  If that number is more than 2% of the loan amount, you can bet your sweet bippy the lender will adjust your costs down and take the hit himself.  Nobody gets paid if the loan doesn’t close.  Granted you don’t get your mortgage either, but believe me, the lender, the loan officer, the title company, the Realtor, everyone wants to get paid, and the only way they will is if you sign the documents and close on the loan.  Stand up and bitch, state you won’t close, demand satisfaction, you’ll probably get it.  And you won’t need the govmint’s help, either.

Some final words of advice.  Remember the old adage that you get what you pay for.  If the Good Faith Estimate looks too good to be true, well, it may very well be too good to be true.  Also, choose a lender wisely.  Ask your friends who have recently taken out a home mortgage, or your work associates.  Ask questions and you’ll get, or find, answers.  Or, drop me note, I’ll look at your HUD-1, as compared to your Good Faith Estimate, gratis.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/01 at 03:32 PM
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Grains of Salt in Headlines

I’m fairly certain that many individuals have heard the phrase, and understand the implications of, “You have to take what is said with a grain of salt.” Can you tell what the grain of salt is in this Reuters headline?

“Iraqis, U.S. Reach Deal on President; Blast Kills 25."

Via Google News.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/01 at 02:40 AM
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Outside of Reality

"A Portland lawyer says suffering by African Americans at the hands of slave owners is to blame in the death of a 2-year-old Beaverton boy."

The above, is the first sentence from an article in The Oregonian titled “Judge rejects slave trauma as defense for killing." You read that headline and think, great, a judge who is not swayed by irrational claims.  But then you read the secondary headline.

"A Washington County judge threw out a PSU professor’s novel theory at pretrial but said she may consider it at trial."

The theory.

"Randall Vogt is offering the untested theory, called post traumatic slave syndrome, in his defense of Isaac Cortez Bynum, who is charged with murder by abuse in the June 30 death of his son, Ryshawn Lamar Bynum. Vogt says he will argue—“in a general way”—that masters beat slaves, so Bynum was justified in beating his son."

“Novel theory?” The theory is well beyond novel.

Via J. Bowen, at No Watermelons Allowed, who titles his post “Grudgenetics.”

Posted by John Venlet on 06/01 at 02:23 AM
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