Teacher Really Aren't Happy With The Funding Cuts

Intermediate School teachers are not happy with the Ministry of Education and the funding cuts that have been set in the 2012 Budget.



Everyday there are new rumours that class sizes are going to increase and number of teachers will decrease, and this may be inevitable for some schools, but the decisions strongly rely on the PPTA and School Principal to decide where the money goes.

Here is TVNZ's Thursday report:



The simple reason is that this government is trying to get our books in order, and to do that means cuts. Cuts everywhere. And this includes the schools. There are fantastic privates schools that you could send your kids to and very soon there are going to be fantastic charter schools that you can seen you kids to as well. But just because the economy is going down the drain and in the attempts to turn the books around that doesn't mean that schools will not be touched.

My personal advice to the Minister of Education, Hekia Parata is that you give them two options. First is what you are doing now, cutting funding towards schools and they make the choice of where they want to put the money. Or, option two, we see and 10%-20% pay-cut for all employees in the public education sector. The choice is yours.

A Fun Time Had By All At The White House Today

To was the day where President Obama invited President Bush and Mrs. Bush back to the White House for the unveiling of the official 43rd President's portraits.

A grand old time was had by all as they put politics aside and recognised the hard work that it takes to reside in the Oval Office.

Jokes were flying from both President Obama and President Bush, which just made this a joyous occasion for all.

This video is very joyful to watch as the President and Mrs. Bush reveal their portraits to the world:

"Let My People Go!" Illinois State Rep. Mike Bost Demands During His Floor Speech

Finally, a politician with the GUTS not to hold back and line up with the cronies who believe that a bill needs to be past to see how it works.

Earlier this week Illinois State Rep. Mike Bost told his colleagues exactly how he felt with the back door tricks being played on the House. And he had every reason to do so.

Earlier in the day a committee voted on a pension reform bill that then put it up for a vote for the entire House; but Bost was furious since the hundred-plus-page bill wouldn’t be properly vetted.



The local CBS station describes why some are upset with the bill. But it is simply due to time, the very small amount of time that the Rep. are given to look at a bill before it is voted on, in this case it was merely a few hours to understand a bill more than one hundred pages long. The committee wanted the bill to be passed so that everyone could see what the bill does.

Here is our new Champion in the world of politics:

“Total power in one person’s hands – not the American way!” Bost began.

“These damn bills that come out here all the damn time, come out here at the last second!” Bost added as he threw papers. “I’ve got to figure out how to vote for my people!”

“You should be ashamed of yourselves! I’m sick of it!” he went on. “Every year! We give power to one person! It was not made that way in the Constitution! He was around when it was written! Now we give him – we’ve passed rules that stop each one of us! Enough! I feel like somebody trying to be released from Egypt! Let my people go!”

Who Pays The Taxes In New Zealand?

One of the more interesting pieces in the budget released last week was the outline of who pays the taxes in New Zealand. And the following chart from the Budget clears all of that up:

Source: http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget/2012/taxpayers/02.htm#_whopaystax
This chart clearly reveals that 8% of the population, 258,000 New Zealanders don't pay any taxes at all. And that the top 2%, those that earn more than $150,001 pay 19% of the tax burden. It also shows that everyone that earns more than $50,001, 28%of the population pays 72% of the total tax burden.

I found this chart very interest and thought that this piece of information, out of the entire budget, is the most import chart that should be shared.

John McCain Had The Final Word For A Memorial Day Protester

Jonathon Seidl at The Blaze writes:

John McCain was in San Diego on Monday giving a Memorial Day speech with Mitt Romney. But not everyone was happy the war hero was there. A heckler in a black POW-MIA shirt stood up and started shouting. He was quickly escorted out, but as he was leaving McCain had a word for him: “jerk.” The crowd erupted:

Twitchy has captured some of the best Twitter responses.

And how’s this for irony: the outburst came on the same day President Obama spoke out about Vietnam vets being denigrated when they returned home.

Eight Futuristic Dashboards

The “Exploring Art and Architecture with Avi Abrams” website has put together a blend of Dashboards, concept and old, to show how great that interior of the car can really be.

Abrams writes some of these dashes are works of art while others are so “wildly bizarre” they could actually pose as a distraction to drivers:

Today we are going to look at some amazing car dashboards – if, like me, you enjoy being surrounded by beautiful design wherever possible, then car dashboards (considering how much time we spend in our cars) certainly need to be comfortable and nice to look at. However, some dashboards transcend being simply “visually pleasant” and enter the rarified category of “objects of desire” usually reserved only for masterpieces of modern art.

Original “dashboards” were simply wooden barriers to protect the horse carriage driver from splashes (or “dashes”) of dirt thrown up by the horse’s hooves. Much has changed since…

Modern dashboards are significantly more than just arrangements of knobs and dials around a steering wheel. At their best, new concept dashboards feel more like clouds of futuristic worlds, enveloping the driver and lifting him into a stratosphere of high style and impeccable taste.

 What I have done is picked out eight different dashes, which, I'm guessing, all are concepts so it is just a press release from the auto company say 'SEE WHAT HOW TEAM ARE DOING!'

Here is my favourites:

Renault DeSir's concept car's interior is all about flowing shapes and typical French visual harmony. Renault always have great concepts, and I tend to be bias towards Renault since I drive a little Renault.

 Mazda concept, the 2007 Mazda Ryuga has some sort of futuristic space fighter interior

There are a few too many intersecting planes and angles here for our liking, but the Toyota FT-HS makes up for the resulting visual complexity with an austere, yet highly ergonomic, driver's seat

The Citroen C-Cactus features some incredible, flowery cut-outs (even on the bottom of the steering wheel column), and can probably compete with the VW hippie van for "flower power" appeal

The Citroen Revolte concept car sports a futuristic dashboard, which is only slightly marred by the awkward rectangle of the computer display

A very inviting 2009 Cadillac ELR interior: appropriately edgy and high-tech, and yet luxurious enough... Prestigious design, done right

All curves and bulbous surfaces, like a spaceship escape pod, 2009 Nissan Qazana is "so bizarre it almost looks French" (Side note, it doesn't look French, it is too Nissan bubble like to look French)

This great Japanese pod, 2007 Nissan Roundbox, is like an impossibly hip living room, art studio and maybe even "cloud-based" workplace all rolled into one (Side note: it looks like a little kids play car. I think this will only do well in Japan, there is noway I will be driving one!)

Check out the rest of Abrams’ post with more dashboard images, also appearing in Yale University’s Out of Order magazine, here.

 

MSNBC Attempts Apology After Questioning Referring To Fallen Soldiers as Heroes

If you haven't heard what MSNBC host Chris Hayes said during his show on Sunday you can see what happened here.

After Hayes revealed that he was uncomfortable with referring to fallen US soldiers as 'Heroes', he has now written an apology on a blog post on his shows MSNBC website.

His apology only came after huge backlash from the public and a number of veterans' groups.

In his blog post he said he apologies for not living up to his own “standards of rigor, respect and empathy.”

He says he was trying to discuss the divide between the military and civilians but ended up reinforcing a stereotype of a pundit talking about something he hasn’t experienced.

This is the full statement from Chris Hayes:

On Sunday, in discussing the uses of the word “hero” to describe those members of the armed forces who have given their lives, I don’t think I lived up to the standards of rigor, respect and empathy for those affected by the issues we discuss that I’ve set for myself. I am deeply sorry for that.
As many have rightly pointed out, it’s very easy for me, a TV host, to opine about the people who fight our wars, having never dodged a bullet or guarded a post or walked a mile in their boots. Of course, that is true of the overwhelming majority of our nation’s citizens as a whole. One of the points made during Sunday’s show was just how removed most Americans are from the wars we fight, how small a percentage of our population is asked to shoulder the entire burden and how easy it becomes to never read the names of those who are wounded and fight and die, to not ask questions about the direction of our strategy in Afghanistan, and to assuage our own collective guilt about this disconnect with a pro-forma ritual that we observe briefly before returning to our barbecues.
But in seeking to discuss the civilian-military divide and the social distance between those who fight and those who don’t, I ended up reinforcing it, conforming to a stereotype of a removed pundit whose views are not anchored in the very real and very wrenching experience of this long decade of war. And for that I am truly sorry.

 At least Hayes acknowledged that he steered in the wrong direction with his panel question on Sunday. It didn't take too long for him to realise he was wrong and being very arrogant. But nowhere during that apology did he use that word 'hero', nowhere during that apology did he refer to our fallen soldiers as 'heroes'. The question being, is Hayes apologising due to pressure and he still stands by his original, uncut comments?