School Blog

Archive for November, 2001

by: Geoff Ficke

One of the signal economic thinkers of the 20th century was the Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman. His many books and papers, interviews and television specials have left us a valuable trove of thoughts and observations that should serve as guideposts during our current difficult economic times. His death has left a void that no contemporary thinker has been able to fill. That is most unfortunate, especially now. 

Recently, I revisited my copy of Professor Friedman’s signature work, Free to Choose. It is still as pertinent, fresh and poignant, as it was the day it was first published. His reasoned defense of economic and personal freedom, strictly limited government and the rule of law need to be reviewed and protected fiercely by each citizen, that values these sacred rights. 

“Thank heavens we do not get all of the government that we are made to pay for”, stated Professor Friedman in one of his most oft quoted observations. The simple, but powerful clarity of these 17 words serve as testament to the deep understanding and concern he possessed about the ever-expanding role of centrally planned, distant government and the excessive price we pay for it. We see the detritus of insatiable government in every aspect of our lives, and yet, we seem incapable of slowing, preferably stopping the rapid growth of this corrupt, inefficient monster.

The Federal Government is nearing a 3 trillion dollar annual budget. No one really knows the exact amount of deficit spending we incur each year, but it is massive and growing. The more revenue the government realizes, the faster spending increases. We have un-funded liabilities of somewhere around $53 trillion for Medicare and Medicaid, and $25 trillion for Social Security. These are just estimates; no one can state the absolute accurate numbers. And, remember the government refers to these obligations as “un-funded liabilities”, not debt as private citizens and industry would be required to report and account for. 

In 1976, President Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education. Before then, education was largely a local affair. This boondoggle has grown massively since its inception in employees, budget, programs and un-funded mandates. Less than 7% of the $60 Billion annual budget for the DOE is returned to state and local schools as grants. The rest is consumed in “bureaucracy heaven”. Can anyone seriously argue that public school performance has improved since we were blessed with the Department of Education and the thousands of theoreticians, consultants and knowledge brokers that this cesspool supports? You can actually graph the decline of graduation rates, the increase in truancy, lowered standardized test scores and achievement tests from the date we were blessed with the DOE.

The government enjoys natural monopolies in many areas. The Postal Service, the Passport Office, AMTRACK, The FAA, and so many more government agencies provide we citizens with one stop shopping. In every case, the result is subsidy, waste, and mismanagement. Waiting up to 90 days to receive a passport is ridiculous. The Postal Service and AMTRACK require subsidies every year, while FedEx, UPS, and the railroads make billions of dollars in profit each year. Why would any thinking person believe that government should be expanded into even more areas of our lives.

Thomas Jefferson, a soul brother to Milton Friedman said, “He is governed best who is governed least”. And yet, an ever-growing segment of our citizenry constantly seeks to redress perceived grievances and personally poor decision making by petitioning politicians for outcomes favorable to their desires. We know with absolute certainty that government is too large, inefficient, duplicitous and wasteful to solve problems. 

Government is not in business to solve problems: it is in business to institutionalize problems! Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Welfare, Food Stamps have all grown exponentially. The problems these programs, and many others, were supposed to address have grown even more exponentially. Bureaucracies are not in the business of solving problems and shrinking, then going out of business as they successfully complete their mission. The very core of the nature of a bureaucracy is to grow insatiably. 

As more citizens abdicate their personal responsibilities and seek government support, there are all too many politicians, lobbyists, issue advocates and social engineers ready to comply and satisfy this sycophancy. We see many people campaigning for a government takeover of the health care system. When government provides free health care: that is when health care will get really expensive! How in the world can so many people, be so blind about so much. 

My Compan

Sally Marks, co-author of the upcoming book, Erase Negativity and Embrace the Magic Within is scheduling free presentations on how to eliminate negativity from one’s life.

The presentations can be customized toward a specific audience or follow a standard format on the following topics: cleaning up speech, thoughts and actions; reducing anger; the importance of choosing good friends or gossip control.  The interactive talk can be customized to range from 15 to 40 minutes.

The book Erase Negativity contains a series of interviews of individuals who have transformed their lives.  The interviewees range from meth addicts to successful entrepreneurs.  Marks’ presentation will touch on the stories offered in the book, as well as include straight forward advice and simple exercises to guide the listener toward a more optimistic way of living.

The following is an excerpt from her book:

To improve his employee’s work ethic, as well as their outlook on life, Ed implemented a training program to help his stylists improve their attitudes and earning potential.  He also tried to serve as a positive role model.  Many of the cosmetologists came to look at him as the father they never had.  They would ask his advice about buying a car or taking out a mortgage.  On more than one occasion he would escort them to their cars or homes to defend them against abusive boyfriends and ex husbands.  However, when it came to financial matters, he went from protector to pragmatist.

“Often they would come to me crying that they weren’t making enough money,” said Ed.  “I’d look at their time sheets and I would point out how they left early one day and called in sick the next.  I would explain that the first rule of earning money is to show up and work!  It sounds obvious, but this was actually new information for a lot of them.  They had never connected the dots between hours worked and dollars earned.”

Ed tried to instill a sense of pride and work ethic in his employees, and also taught the stylists to view things from the customer’s perspective.  That not only meant giving a good haircut, but also making sure the salon looked clean and inviting.

“As the owner, it is your job to establish the atmosphere. In my case, I want a clean, but neutral look that no one will find distasteful.  And that includes not playing loud music with offensive lyrics.”

Unpleasant noise also applied to internal grumblings.  Instead of listening to the hair dressers complain about how another employee didn’t take out the trash, he would tell them to be proactive, take out the trash themselves and set a good example.

In addition to being an author, Marks is the president of Marks Public Relations, a public relations agency specializing in the promotion of small businesses.  The award-winning journalist, comedy writer and author graduated cum laude from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and has published numerous articles and stories in local, regional and national publications.

For more information call MPR at 480-664-3004 or email markspr@cox.net. A blog about the book is also online at www.erasenegativity.blogspot.com.

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She’s lying on the edge of the bed, posing like a pinup model, wearing a pink bikini style panty. She came home from work, tired and cranky, but now she was another woman, confident, passionate, lusty, and free to be a little wild….

It’s common for women to feel repressed and bound by the social roles assigned to them by their environment, whether it’s being a mother, a lover, or a career woman. Identities are as fleeting as the latest fashion trend. Personal style and fashion complement one another, moreover fashion is centered on the concept of self-expression—you are what you wear—but what about your underwear? If the basis of psychology is rooted in the notion that our external actions represent very deep and powerful forces acting within our subconscious mind, wouldn’t it be logical, then, for a woman’s undergarment to represent what she is really feeling at a particular point in time? Her “unmentionables”, in fact, have much to say about her inner life and emotional state of mind. Soft, smooth, and delicate fabrics suggest that she is very feminine. While boyshorts may indicate that she is sporty and playful with a hint of aggression.

The idea that a woman’s underwear and lingerie reflects her personality is not new. There have been occasional magazine articles, quizzes, blogs, websites, etc. that have asked readers to identify their “panty personality”. Pantyology is an informal school of thought that focuses on consolidated and articulated these various ideas and concepts concerning the underlying psychology behind female undergarments. While sounding cheeky and humorous, it is the serious attempt to uncover a woman’s authentic personality.

It’s an interesting concept. I also think it will promote women to be more self-aware and empowered as consumers. It will also put the clothing companies on notice. As women become more in touch with their personal sense of self and style, they will not be easily persuaded by trends, and the fashion companies themselves will be forced to listen to their consumers rather than simply mass produce merchandise and sell poor quality garments at expensive prices. Maybe it will also encourage more local production and less globalization and outsourcing. After all, if you’re an American, wouldn’t you feel more represented in a pair of panties made in the USA? But then again, maybe there is an appeal to escape into the exotic with something imported. I’m not sure what the answer is, maybe it’s all psych—I mean panty-ology.

Unless global high school biology curricula have changed, Collagen has tended to be one of the few important things that go unmentioned over the duration of the typical high school biology course. Yet looking at it carefully, collagen turns out to be one of the important components that make human (and for that matter any animal) body, and which no one can claim to have a good working knowledge of the human body without a knowledge of.

Did you know, for instance that more than a quarter of the body’s protein content is actually made of collagen? If you didn’t, then this will be for you the first important and surprising fact about collagen. It gets even more interesting when it is mentioned collagen is the main substance that makes the connective tissue in the typical animal body: which is another way of saying that collagen is to the animal body what cement is to a concrete structure!

The second fact about collagen that you might find surprising if you have never gotten to hear it is the fact that collagen – being the main component of connective tissue in the body – tends to be the substance that is responsible for some of the miracles of the medical science like the skin reconstruction surgery that is taking place nowadays; and which is restoring the self-esteem of victims of fire accidents (and other accidents) who would otherwise have had to live the rest of their lives greatly disadvantaged, ‘looks-wise.’

Closely related to the second fact about collagen, another fact about it that you might find surprising is the fact that collagen harvested from beef cattle can actually work for humans, and is in fact the collagen that is employed in making the previously described reconstructive surgery possible. Not all beef cattle will do for this purpose though: as the employed animals have to be free an illness called BSE, which unfortunately tends to be very common among cows, meaning that only a few ‘certified’ animals can be used for harvesting collagen to be used for reconstructive surgery and other medical applications. Of course, there is also the possibility of getting collagen harvested from dead people (cadavers) and aborted fetuses; but this is hardly more appealing than the use of collagen from beef cattle, not to mention anything of the fact that the said collagen harvested from dead bodies (cadavers) and aborted fetuses tends to be much more expensive than the collagen harvested from the animals.

The fourth surprising fact about collagen, and this might be interesting to you even if you have no interests in cosmetic or reconstructive surgery is the fact that there have been studies suggesting that regularly taking collagen (in the form of the supplements it is sold in) can greatly enhance your skin quality, maintaining that youthful look which people have been known to submit to the surgeon’s scalpel in a bid to re-acquire. As with any claims of this nature, there has controversy around the fact that collagen can have this particular effect: but anyone taking the collagen supplements in question has nothing really to lose for taking them, but everything to gain should the said effects indeed start manifesting on their skin!

Indiana Jones Action Figure Article:

I get a lot of enjoyment from collecting all kinds of action figures including a little collection of Indiana Jones action figures. It goes without saying that, you gotta have at least one Indiana Jones action figure for a collection based on that character. I love to study up on the background of the action figures I collect, so here is a brief account of the Indiana Jones story…

Doctor Henry Walton Jones (also called “Indiana”) is a fictitious adventurer, professor of archeology, OSS agent, in addition to being the main character from the Indiana Jones media franchise. George Lucas dreamt up the fictitious personality in devotion to the action roles from the Nineteen Thirties film series. The fictitious character first came along in the 80s motion picture Raiders of the Lost Ark, to be followed by Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom also from the 1980s. Additional motion pictures following were The Last Crusade, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, & Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Furthermore the many better regognized motion pictures & TV shows, videogames, comic books, novels, Indiana Jones action figures, and other media similarly have him. Indiana Jones is also included in the theme park ride referred to as Indiana Jones Adventure, that is in comparable forms in Disney.

The Indiana Personality is largely well known as played by Harrison Ford. He’s additionally been played by River Phoenix as the young Indiana in The Last Crusade, plus by Corey Carrier within the TV serial The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Doug Lee has done Indiana’s voice to a pair of Lucas Arts video games, plus David Esch added the voice to Indiana Jones & the Emperor’s Tomb.

Especially distinguished aspects of the character are his famous whip, fedora, bomber jacket), extensive understanding} of many early languages and civilizations, dry wit, & his huge fright of snakes.

In his position as a faculty teacher, He is studious and learned wearing a tweed suit, teaching about extinct cultures. However at the prospect to retrieve crucial artefacts, he evolves into “Indiana,” a nearly superhero-like figure he’s made up for himself. Producer Frank Marshall said that Indiana Jones is surely an imperfect persona. Indiana has faults plus gets harmed. That’s the charactoristic that fans enjoy: He is a real persona, not a fictitious persona with unrealistic powers. Steven Spielberg stated there was the readiness to allow our principal character to become injured & to express his agony & to get rage out or sometimes be his own object of his jokes. Indiana Jones isn’t a flawless winner, and his faults made the movie-goers feel that, with a little more exercising & a touch more heroism, they could be similar to Indiana Jones.

Jones created his magnificent hero to break away from the tedium from instructing at college. Each of Jone’s sides fight each other in school of thought, creating a dichotomy. Ford stated that the enjoyment of acting as the Indiana persona was thanks to Jones being both a romantic plus a fault-finder. People have split Jones into possessing the personality of a super hero, a treasure hunter, a man on a mission, a lone wolf, a hardend detective all wrapped up in a single mortal man..

Like varied roles in Spielberg’s films, the character has some autobiographical characteristics from Spielberg’s life. Jones doesn’t have a real father figure because of the man’s distorted family relationship with his father, Henry Sr.. his anger is misguided at the likes of Professor Abner Ravenwood who’s Jones adviser at the Chicago University. The teen Jones found his own style on a person fromthe Last Crusade introduction, once getting his fedora. In the Temple of Doom, the the character becomes the dad during a transient family with Short Round & Willie Scott. the character is rescued from the Kali from the loyalty of Short Round. Jones also saves various kids from being slaves.

There is so much to the Indiana Jones tale. Too much for this one article. Stareing at a Indiana Jones action figure, I can understand he has seen a heap of action in his time. Indiana Jones action figures are a nice collectible as a result of of the long cavernous saga of the character.

For more, come visit my Indiana Jones Action Figure blog!