RIP

Son Seals, Rodney Dangerfield, Ray Charles, Captain Kangaroo.

We lost a lot of good ones this year.

RIP

2005

and no New Year's resolutions for me. I can't seem to keep 'em.

May the new year bring Peace, health, and prosperity to everyone.

Low On The Scale

It would seem that Dr. Ramesh Krishnaraj, our recently retired Director of Health, got a raw deal.

He must be fuming to know that the $63,000. severance he got from the Guilford County Board of Health and the taxpayers of Guilford County, ranks so low on the resignation/ouster payscale. Maybe that was because Dr. K only worked one year vs. Raines working five. I don't know but surely we could have come up with a better package than this, now that we don't have to dole out the Dell incentives. After all, it's only taxpayer money.

I guess my ranting will be for nothing though. This week's Rhino has an article and makes some good points on why this whole arrangement might be illegal, but I won't hold my breath.

As I don't get all my local news coverage from the Rhino weekly, I am curious as to why the News & Record hasn't had much to say about this.

Welcome Home

My brother-in-law is now officially out of Baghdad and back home in Texas, safe and hopefully sound, with his wife and three kids.

Welcome back Harold.

Sometimes prayers are answered.

We'll pray now that you don't have to go back.

Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you and yours have a safe and happy one.

I miss the Christmas'es past. I miss having little kids around.

I miss the first fire trucks, train sets. I miss the first tricycle, and bicycle. I miss getting woke up 15 min. after the presents had been put under the tree. I miss the excitement and the "screams" of joy of seeing what Santa had delivered under the tree.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy Christmas. It's still a special time for me. A time to be with family and friends, and I cherish every moment.

My son is 17 now. His Christmas list consisted of, set of weights, clothes, speakers for his car, foosball table and punching bag and stand.

I miss the old Christmas'es.

God they grow up fast........

Terry Seems Exasperated

Looks like all the talk and media coverage about all of this violence is finally getting to Terry and he is ready to do something about it.

What, I don't know.

"If you expel all these children, they will be on the street or in the High Point jail."

So. If they really wanted to learn and be in school, that's where they would be. They wouldn't be fighting, cussing the teachers, throwing erasers at the teachers and being generally disruptive to the whole process.

"But they have a right to be in school in North Carolina."

Yes they do. And my child also has a right to be in school. In a SAFE, SUPERVISED, LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. That is not the case at Andrews High School at the present time. Especially when you have a hint of violence and 200 students leave campus.

Then, when there is a fight and the police are called, all you want to do is criticize the police for responding and taking care of the problem. You say they send too many cars? Six cars equals what? Six or at the most eight officers? I don't think that's too many when you have probably 400 students in the school and the possibility exists that the fight could escalate into something much worse than two or three kids fighting. Especially when you say that outside interference from the community was responsible for some of these fights.

Now the specialized programs at Bennett College, A&T, and Greensboro College.

I commend you for setting up these programs in Greensboro and hope they are working for you.

What I would like to know is while you were setting these programs up in Greensboro, WHY you left High Point out?? Did they not have a problem then or were they just put on the backburner like they have been so many times since the "school merger"? Or were you just too busy with your High Point Lottery or bus hub planning? Or were you just going to wait until the parents and the community said, "We've had enough of this shit!", before you did anything about it?

Seems like you dropped the ball on that one, Terry.

"The solution is education".

This may be Terry. One last question though. When 66% of these kids have parents or guardians at home teaching them not to let anyone "mess with them" or "push them around", what are you going to do? Make the parents come to school too?

Toney Baker

This in the USA Today this morning.

What Mr. Lemming failed to mention in the article is that with 10,241 career yards Toney became North Carolina's all time rushing leader and ranks 2nd nationally.

Although he didn't win a state championship ring while at Ragsdale, he had an awesome four years.

Congratulations Toney and Best of Luck.

Big Box Attitude

What is it with the attitude of some of the "big box" retailers here in High Point/ Greensboro??

Yea, I know It's Christmas. Yea, Iknow you're busy. But don't you want me to get my shit and get the hell out of your store where some other fool can come in and put up with all your BS to hand over their hard earned money to you?

Case in point. Head into High Point this afternoon to electronics retailer called "Circuit City" to pick up a few more things on my sons Christmas list. First stop was for 5 1/4" speakers for his front car doors on his car. No problem. Had them. Pioneer. Just what he wanted.$49.95 but had to pay for them at the auto stereo installation area.

Well I got some more shopping to do so the clerk says "no problem, go get what you have to get and come back here and we'll check everything out here."

O.K.!

So approximately 50min later with 1 DVD player, 4 DVD's, 2 CD's, and a pack of blank cassette recording tapes, I made my way back to the auto stereo area to get the speakers and checkout. Speakers were already waiting, handed clerk my debit card, started checking out-------oops---can't check anything out but the speakers--everything else will have to be checked out up front. I said no problem. Give me the speakers and I'll check them out up front too. He said they have to be checked out back here. I just flat out told him that wasn't going to happen unless he bought them. Left the speakers and everything else laying on the counter and hit the door.

Can't believe a store would let a $50 pair of speakers lose a $500 sale. Why should I have to checkout twice to get out of a store. I am the customer and I am not, under any circumstances, going to put up with any bullshit trying to give you my money!!!

Proceeded to second electronics retailer (Best Buy) and bought exact merchandise that was attempted to be purchased at first store. NO PROBLEM THIS TIME! One stop checkout. Thanks Best Buy!!

A NEW THREAT

A new threat to our troops and the people returning to the city of Fallujah.


I hope things get better, but I don't know......

Fiscal Responsibility??

Another fine example of Guilford County's fiscal responsibility with the taxpayer dollars.

And they wonder why we bitch and gripe!

I hope things get better, but I dont know.....

SAFETY

I must be missing something here.

Automobiles on the road are supposed to have four wheels, right??

And if you are driving down the road and one or two of these wheels falls off, it would make for a dangerous situation, right??

Not everyone agrees with me here.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2004-12-10-durango-dakota-recall_x.htm

So what's next? Doors and fenders falling off while you are driving down to the coast. Maybe the steering wheel coming off in your hands. Can't wait.

I hope things gets better, but I don't know...

Dumbing Down

That's it! Just cut off your thinker. Don't know if the re-attachment will work. Brain may be dead from lack of oxygen. Let's hope not.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6692249/


I hope things gets better, but I don't know...

And The Truth Shall Set You Free

In response to comments made by Guilford County School Board members Deena Hayes and Amos Quick, as to why African American students were being suspended at a higher rate than white students, an African American teacher offers this little tidbit of information.

http://www.gotriad.com/forum/message/1766/?UserSectionID=13

Just takes some people a little longer to catch on I guess.

I hope things get better, but I don't know...

Ramadan

the Holy month. The month of contemplation, spirituality, and brotherhood. The month that unites all Muslims in fasting, feasting, worship, and prayer.

Well, not all.

http://www.iranpressnews.com/english/source/001327.html

I hope things get better, but I dont know...

Time To Act

http://www.news-record.com/news/now/andrewsfight120104.htm


http://www.news-record.com/news/local/hp/andrews_120204.htm

It's time for the Guilford County School System to act NOW to get these "thugs" OUT of our school system so the other students can do what they are there do to do. This kind of crap has been going on all year and it's time you do something about it. We have had teachers, students, and principals/asst. principals assaulted this year at school and what have you done about it?

The only thing I know of is assigned police escorts for the principals at the ballgames. Big F'n deal!! What you need to do is identify who is causing all this frigging trouble and get them the hell out of the school system. They know the damn rules, just like my son does, when they come in there and if they can't abide by them, out they go---simple as that. Might not look too good on your suspension reports to the State of North Carolina, and then again maybe that's why we're NOT getting anything done about the problem.

One other question. Why is it that Andrews seems to be the school that is having the most problems?? Thought with all this busing you were going to do, bringing in students from Southwest etc., we were going to have a "melting pot" of different ethnic and social classes. Seems to me like you still have a bunch of "thugs."

I hope things get better, but I dont know...

I'll 2nd This Thought----Any 3rd's??

It's time for some serious changes here.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB110185330853087227,00.html?mod=todays%5Ffree%5Ffeature


I hope things get better, but I don't know...