Archive for November, 2006

In the Middle of a Political Drama

Published at 11/17/2006 in .Family & Personal and .News & Events. 2 Comments

This week has been an interesting one to say the least. Unless your a resident of Indianapolis, and specifically in Perry Township, you may not be aware of the drama that’s developed this week in our school system.

The quick synopsis is that 4 school board members have railroaded the other three members and have voted to put our award winning school superintendent on administrative leave. My wife has become deeply involved in our son’s school and the PTA. Through some developments for his school, we become acutely aware of some of the behaviours and actions of our school board as we pushed for renewing the Edison School’s contract for our school.

In a complete shock to the township, these four board members completed their task and are now pursuing and investigation and ultimate firing of our superintendent. As this surprise agenda item was added to the regularly scheduled school board meeting this past Monday night, hundreds of parents and teachers attended showing their support for what our superintendent has done for the township. I ended up speaking to the board. They didn’t allow comments from the community to be expressed before vote and didn’t allow the other three board members to table the motion so additional time could be used to gather details and information from the other four board members. But after the vote, I spoke along with many other parents, teachers and educators and expressed our frustration and astonishment at the actions of the board.

From that moment, our home phone has rung off the hook, our e-mail accounts have been filled, I’ve developed a website that’s gotten significant attention in the community, all showing support and appreciation for what we’re trying to do to assist our schools. We’ve even received some ambiguous threats from a single individual via e-mail.

It’s been tiring and exciting at the same time. Stay tuned for more information. If you’ve got any ties to Perry Township or Indianapolis, I encourage you to help us increase awareness as much as possible.

ALERT Phone Scam

Published at 11/16/2006 in .Business, .Interesting Stuff and .News & Events. 3 Comments

My mom just alerted our family to a scam she just experienced, but foiled for the perpetrator. An FYI, be on the alert if you get something similar. I couldn’t be more proud of my mom either, she handled this perfectly! She’s a smart one!

Out of curiosity since you didn’t know who Charles Davis is at 800-829-7750, I called the number (since they already had our number - and I didn’t give him your number this morning when he asked for it; I just said “he’s moved and I don’t have his phone number”).  Anyway, a lady answered “Hello” when I called, which I found rather unusual.  I asked, “Who is this?” and she said, “Just a minute” and put me on hold.  Then a man answered and said his name was Lou Hudson.  I asked him for the name of the business and he refused to give me one, asking me my name.  I wouldn’t give him my name but told him I was returning a call.  I asked 3-4 times for a business name and he said, “If you’ll give me your account number, I can help you.”  I said, “If I don’t know what business it is, how could I give you an account number?!”  Again I asked him for the name of the business and when he wouldn’t give me a name, I said, “It must not be a legitimate business. I will report this.”  Then I hung up and Googled the phone number.  This is the website:  http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff71505.htm
Beware!  He doesn’t have your phone number, but this is definitely a scam team!

Iraq or DC?

Published at 11/16/2006 in .Humor and .News & Events. 0 Comments

Regardless of where you stand on the issue of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, here’s a sobering statistic.
 
There has been a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths.
 
That gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.
 
The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 persons   for the same period.
 
That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq.
 
Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington

I received this from a family member and thought it was too “on target” to not share.

Ben Stein’s State of the United States

Published at 11/15/2006 in .Interesting Stuff and .News & Events. 3 Comments

The following was supposedly written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary. If anyone has facts as to if this is in error, please let me know.

Herewith a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty litter. I often ask
the checkers at the grocery stores. They never know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why are they so important?

I don’t know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at all about Tom Cruise’s wife.

Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica are. If this is what it means to be no longer young. It’s not so bad.

Next confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution, and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him?

I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too.

But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.   In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her “How could God let something like this Happen?” (regarding Katrina)  Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

In light of recent events…terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide) We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said OK.

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.”

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell.

Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it… no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards .. honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

Perry Meridian School Superintendent Ousted

Published at 11/14/2006 in .Business, .Family & Personal and .News & Events. 1 Comment

Here’s a link to the story about my last post.

Source: IndyStar - Perry schools chief placed on leave