Some Thoughts On VW And Corporate Cheating

Recent news reports on VW test cheating have stirred up the usual defense of the miscreants. The problem is the regulation. No one was really hurt.

Balderdash!

And it is quite clear that this was no innocent mistake.

I want to share the attached thoughtful article on what should be done.

Are corporations really people?

American CEO's Are Forty Times As Productive As German CEO's

American CEO's Are Forty Times As Productive As Germans

At least that is what one might assume from the above graphic. That is, if you believe that capitalism dispenses rewards in a rational and proportional manner.

Then there's this:

Who was Tesla? He invented and designed the entire infrastructure to distribute electricity by alternating current, generate it more efficiently using the Tesla turbine, and invented radio. He had to fight all those "job creators" like Thomas Edison and Guglielmo Marconi to get his ideas adopted.

Water For Wal Mart

At last week's Town Board meeting, Oriental Town Manager Wyatt Cutler claimed that selling Town water to customers outside the Town (i.e. Wal-Mart) is good, because we make money for the Town. Reference was also made to the fact that the Town agreed to provide water to the Dollar General store, which is also out of Town. Commissioner Venturi pushed the same line.

It is true that the Town has been providing water to Dollar General since they opened.

It is not true that the Town made money from providing water.

It's like the old joke: "we lose money on every sale, but make up for it in volume."

In fact, during the decade from 2001 to 2011, the General Fund (Oriental taxpayers) was subsidizing the Water Fund (water users, including Dollar General) an average of from $35,000 to $50,000 a year.

It could happen again if the Town isn't careful to keep rates high enough to cover ALL of the expenses of operating the water plant, including depreciation.

The Intentional Destruction Of Public Education

I recommend everyone concerned with public education to read Jonothan Kozol's review in the New York Times of Diane Ravitch's new book:

This Is Only a Test

‘Reign of Error,’ by Diane Ravitch

By JONATHAN KOZOL

Published: September 26, 2013 

I also recommend following education issues Diane Ravitvh's blog: http://dianeravitch.net/

She also has a web site at  http://dianeravitch.net/

I recently tried to recall when I first heard newspaper commentary about how our schools were failing. I can't pin it down exactly, but my best recollection is that the drumbeat of criticism began about 1970. That was when, across the South, public schools began to integrate as required by the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. [Some may recall the Supreme Court's order that this be accomplished with "all deliberate speed."]  I had a few words to say about this back in June.

Across the South, White parents began removing their children from public schools to "home school" them or to enroll them in "Christian" academies. 

Now, across the land, wealthy Americans are engaged in a vast struggle to destroy public schools and replace them with corporate, for profit undertakings. 

One element in the attack on public schools is "Teach For America." The premise of TFA is that bright, committed college graduates can do what trained, experienced teachers cannot. In short, it is an attack on American public education. This recent article in Atlantic calls that whole enterprise into question.

Pamlico County - Two Wal Marts?

There may be news today on the Wal-Mart front.

Would you believe two Wal-Mart stores in Pamlico County?

I'm not sure even one makes sense in a county of 13,000, but two?