Stealing Education

I listen to a lot of talk radio, and one of my favorite stations is in New Jersey (narrow that one down), even though I live in Pennsylvania. So I know a little more about the goings-on in NJ probably more than your average PA citizen.

For instance, I know that the Governor is absolutely hated by the NJEA, the teachers union. And I also know he cut the sate budget for school spending drastically, at a time when it needed to be done in order to balance a horrible deficit. Most states are out of money these days, PA included.

Just these past few days I've heard a commercial from the NJ teachers, sponsored by the union, saying that the student scores are higher than ever, and more students are being placed in AP classes than in years before. And all of this in the face of a bad economy, which really means all of the budget cuts that were made the previous year. They are saying that teachers are problem solvers and that they have figured out how to teach even in these tough economic times. Included in these budget cuts are cuts to programs and staff layoffs. And yet the children are still learning, and learning better than before.

So with all of this information, if it's all true, I have only one question:

Why did they need all of that money in the first place?

All the best,
Will

Soldiers, Oil and Money.

In case you live under a rock and haven't noticed, gas prices are extremely high these days. Locally it's around $3.89 per gallon, but at least that's been holding steady for about a week. In my Explorer however, that's around $50 to fill my tank almost once a week. I happen to be one of THOSE people, who burn gas without caring about the ozone or the pandas in Guatemala or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I CARE about our planet, but my gas usage is not single-handedly destroying entire rain forests.  And Al Gore is not my savior.But that's another topic for later, let's get back to gas and oil.

Oil prices are extremely high, which cause gas prices at the pump to be high. President Obama has said that he will release some barrels from our reserve to lighten the burden on our wallets, but we'll see if that really happens or not. Speaking of Presidents, didn't George W. Bush supposedly start the war because of oil? If he did, where are the lower gas prices. One would think that a war started years ago to gain territory so that we could get cheaper oil would have paid off by now. And since Obama has continued that war for even longer than he said he was going to, shouldn't we have seen something by now! Surely there must be a gas rebate check in the mail to me from the Iraq and Saudi governments.

But we can't just blame the Presidents past and present, the auto companies must shoulder some of the blame. The giant boom of SUVs years ago is certainly part of the problem. But now my current focus has turned to these new Hybrid cars. they run on part gasoline and part electricity. Sounds great! So where are they? My problem with these cars is the cost to savings ratio. I would need to save enough on gas to balance out the cost of the car. And if they are so great, and save us so much money on fuel, and are SO wonderful for the environment...why are there not more of them? One or two per manufacturer seems to be about the average. Why don't they just make most of them hybrids? Have one regular gas guzzler, and then five or six different gas sipping electric cars in their lineup. Seems to me, that would be an easy way to make them cheaper, and to sell more of them. And what about the SUVs? I would like an Explorer that gets 60 mpg in the city. Now that would make my day! And I wouldn't care if it ran half on electric, on water, or even on Pixy Sticks.

And what about Natural Gas? I'm sure some of you are saying, what about it? Well, many public transportation systems have been using it for years. It's cheaper and it's cleaner. Take that hippies! But it's not used as much or as readily available in the US. And natural gas is much easier to find here in the US and would require little or no dependence on foreign oil. Here in Pennsylvania you could toss a lawn dart and find a spot to drill a gas well, well almost. I even thought about converting, but I would have to put my own filling station in the garage, because I have no idea where else to get it.

So here are my thoughts for the auto makers:
Make more hybrids, even if the electric only kicks in on Tuesdays on the highway at 50mph, we would still save money.
Make more vehicles that run on natural gas, it's much more gentle on the internal parts and oiled spots (maybe that's the problem, not as much maintenance after purchase)
Why are they so expensive? (that's not a suggestion, just wondering, I have not yet bought a new car that was less than 5 years old)

Well, that's all I've got for now.

All the best,
Will

Welcome!

I suppose before I start writing anything, that I should introduce myself. More importantly instead of welcome, I should say thank you! Thank you for reading whatever my brain spews out onto the keyboard in the form of words and sentences.

I should also apologize in advance to anyone who disagrees with anything I write about. But that's what opinions are for. Opinions are designed to be argued and disagreed with, so if you disagree with me, tell me, and I'll thank you for it.

I was born into a family which I later learned would lean very Democratic, though I myself turned out to be a Republican, much like Alex P. Keaton. I would call myself more of a conservative, possibly more middle ground than others, but nonetheless, it's who I am.

And I will let you know that my name may or may not be Will Carlton, it's for you to decide, but the internet can be very anonymous, and I welcome that anonimity from you as well if you so choose to use it. For it doesn't really matter what your name is as long as your thoughts come through. So feel free to comment anonymously on what I say, as long as your comments are on topic and concise, they will remain untouched. However spam will be my mortal enemy.

So I decided to write a blog for no other reason than to get these thoughts out of my head that are constantly running around. Hence the title of Venting my Brain. Let them loose and see what happens with them.

I hope you enjoy! That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

All the best,
Will