Adam Wienieski
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On the article Hudson School District's Director of Student Services Resigns
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On the article Hudson School District's Director of Student Services Resigns
Adam Wienieski
10:15 pm on Friday, May 17, 2013
Wages are not "frozen." Teacher salaries go up about 2 percent a year and unlike the private sector nobody has to give back wage gains because business is slow. After 25 years public school teachers can retire early, often with paid health care until they reach Medicare eligibility and defined pension benefits income it would require two or three million dollars to duplicate.
Teachers leave for many reasons including the dumbed down curriculum and administrators who couldn't manage their way out of a wet paper bag. Pay, benefits and job security, however, are easily on a par with what's available in the private sector. The cost of our public schools has gone up every year for the last 30 years while test scores are flat (and probably more fraudulent than ever.) What are we getting for that exponential investment?
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On the Blog Post Space Heater Safety Tips
Adam Wienieski
7:26 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2013
ReplyFor $40-$70 at most big box retailers you can get an oil filled heater that is much safer in my mind than the forced air types with an electric resistor (e.g. ceramic.) These are permanently sealed electric powered units filled with diathermic oil that work like the radiator in a car, not to be confused with liquid-fuel powered heaters. They have the additional benefit of not drying out the air.
Here's two examples of what I'm talking about:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/DeLonghi-ComfortTemp-Radiator-White/12534596
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On the Blog Post America’s Gun Obsession
Adam Wienieski
1:05 am on Sunday, December 23, 2012
@Schmitzy, put your money where your mouth is.
According to Professor Gary Kleck of the Florida State University School of Criminology and Criminal Justice there are approximately two million defensive gun uses per year by law abiding citizens. See -- http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdguse.html
I know facts and logic aren't your strong suit (that would be name calling and demagogy) but show me your link proving that in the US you "have a 22 times greater chance of being killed with a firearm than other countries, aside from Zaire?" Hell, I'll settle for one that proves your previous 19 times greater claim.
Russia's gun homicide rate is four times that of the US and they only have 10 percent of the gun ownership rate. The gun homicide rate in Brazil is five times as high and nearly all of Africa has far higher murder rates with far fewer guns. The world is full of gun loving baboons or Schmitzy is full of something else.
Here's the African countries -- http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/IHS-rates-05012009.pdf
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On the Blog Post To Hell with the 2nd Amendment
Adam Wienieski
4:53 pm on Sunday, December 16, 2012
@ Schmitzy The historical intent of the founding fathers is clear.
"Arms in the hands of individual citizens may be used at individual discretion for the defence of the country, the over-throw of tyranny, or in private self-defense." -- John Adams 1788
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On the Blog Post To Hell with the 2nd Amendment
Adam Wienieski
4:26 pm on Sunday, December 16, 2012
Herr Schmitz needs to understand two things:
1) It's easy to blame the guns but Adam Lanza did not have a gun fetish, he was mentally ill.
2) The 2nd amendment is not limited to duck hunting and the national guard. There is an individual right to keep firearms for self-defense and against the day the Kings soldiers kick in your door or the progressive national socialists get frisky again – you know, "Forward to the Past" or some such nonsense.
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On the Blog Post To Hell with the 2nd Amendment
Adam Wienieski
3:34 pm on Sunday, December 16, 2012
Agreed, it's "amendment" not "ammendment." At least BC is consistent, he misspelled it the same three times.
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On the Blog Post To Hell with the 2nd Amendment
Adam Wienieski
3:34 pm on Sunday, December 16, 2012
Agreed, it's "amendment" not "ammendment." At least BC is consistent, he misspelled it the same four times.
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On the Blog Post To Hell with the 2nd Amendment
Adam Wienieski
3:26 pm on Sunday, December 16, 2012
The second amendment is not obsolete because natural human rights are not invalidated by a standing army or the passage of time. The 2nd enshrines the first law of nature, the individual and collective right to self-defense. It doesn't "grant" this pre-existing right or turn it into a states right exclusive to a national guard. The founders intended to keep arms for the preservation of the republic and their persons.
James Madison proposed an amendment that read "The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable." Would you interpret this to mean a collective right to free speech is satisfied by state run media?
The rights of conscience in matters of religion, freedom of thought and expression, assembling to consult their common good and relief FROM government were codified in the 1st amendment to the constitution. It's easy to forget in a day when 48 million Americans depend on food stamps and a majority believes the government should provide them with everything they need that the country was founded on the idea of limited power for the state and maximum liberty for citizens.
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On the Blog Post To Hell with the 2nd Amendment
Adam Wienieski
9:03 pm on Saturday, December 15, 2012
Actually Brian, this is an accurate representation of your logic divested of its overwrought emotional context. You seek to control the malevolent side of the human condition by limiting the means through which it can be exerted; a fool's errand.
The sociopath in this case could have plowed his mother's SUV into a group of children waiting for the school bus. Instead he chose an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle mechanically similar to a hunting rifle to do his killing.
Love of guns was not his motivation and he was not criminally insane as in too delusional to know right from wrong. He shot his mother in the face then drove to a school neither of them had anything to do with to kill innocent children.
That meets my standard for evil, and a gun is still the best way to stop an evil psychopath. Like the poor, the mentally ill will always be with us. That doesn't justify depriving me of my money or the natural and constitutional right to defend myself.
Adam Wienieski
10:50 pm on Sunday, May 19, 2013
Teachers' and administrators salaries are not frozen they're adjusted for inflation; that's a Cost Of Living Adjustment that can only ratchet higher not a freeze. As a public employee you may not be aware that many private sector employees actually saw reductions in pay and benefits due to the Great Recession. There was no stimulus package to prevent layoffs or give backs.
"Back In The Day" of early teacher retirements was up until 2012 for most school districts after Act 10 was signed into law in 2011. Teachers hired in the 1990's could retire at age 55 with 15 years worked and get "big stipends on top of their regular state retirement, plus health care coverage until they were eligible for Medicare." Some of your peers are suing the taxpayers to restore this expensive scam -- http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/204504951.html
We certainly spend more money on pay and benefit packages for teacher and administrators than in the past but what do we have to show for it? Schools in Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri and Illinois spend only average amounts per pupil and their college bound high school juniors and seniors achieve impressive SAT scores. While college track students from big spending public schools in New York, New Jersey, DC, Vermont, Delaware and Connecticut score much lower on the SAT. The "percentage of school age children being educated" is the same in both cases. Clearly, financial inputs do not equal cognitive outputs.