Sports--my quick take on the Mavs

We are past the All Star game and the trade deadline, so here comes the home stretch. During the All Star weekend I was thinking the Mavs needed to go 18-10 their last 28 games to make the playoffs. (50 wins), yet that may not be enough with how well many teams in the West are doing. Fans of western conference have got some serious basketball to watch these last few weeks. Can't complain though somewhere down the road the Eastern conference may be the dominant conference and we will be glad to keep the current playoff format
Anyway for the Mavs we got to keep Dirk in a groove, but not rely on him so much now so we can save him for the post season.
M. Ellis has got to step it up more,his assist total is a nice surprise, but he has to go back to attacking the basket and be "the man" for a few games as we approach the playoffs so Dirk can rest some and so he will be ready for the playoffs.

Marion seems to be doing well when needed and we will need him.

Calderon still needs to get more in the flow. His assist total should be higher I think for us to be even more effective. Especially if our defense stays marginal.

Dalembert is still hit and miss for now, but if he plays like he has shown at times in the playoffs we got a better chance than many are giving to them.

Carter is coming through and a bit better than I expected. Glad to see it for two reasons, we will need him and he has always been a good player so nice he is still a major contributor.

Ellis and Wright can be our X factors and if they continue to grow especially with defense and all the above still clicks, the Mavs may do much better than many are predicting.

It will take more defense and more rebounding, but I am excited.


I am still sticking with my prediction Indy will represent the East.

And we are right around the corner from March Madness, probably one of the most exciting sports events you can watch. Can't wait for March and the NBA playoffs, going to,be a wild spring.

Education addendum

One idea I wanted to stress a bit in education is that parents should be involved of course, but even more important that parents would be required to take some classes throughout their child's education. This does not have to be real intensive. These classes would be for parents and there would be a wide array of classes to choose from such as parent education for young parents; time management and work life balance for families where both parents work; or advanced classes in education theory for parents who already have graduate degrees.

The goal of these classes would be two fold. The first to help the parents help their children. And the second to engage the parents more in the education of their children. And being more involved that should help the parents get more involved with school boards and beyond. And again these classes wouldn't be overly time consuming such as a couple times a month.

All this is part of rethinking our educational system . My ideas in the original post are ideas and are open to improvement and adaptation as better ideas are presented. The goal is a better education system to make a better country. Or we can continue to let others continue to rob us of our country by the insanity that is Washington now. The more we know the better we become.


And on a secondary note there are many ideas out there, but I am going to put in a plug for one book called "The Whole-Brained Child". It is not a be all end all driver of my idea, but I do know some people who work in the child development field and they recommend it. And after reading through some of it, it can be helpful to many and especially to young parents. Some of the concepts do fit into some of the education models I would like to see developed. Give it a read if you have a chance. The intro is a bit redundant (yes something I am guilty of being, but they are professionals and I am a hack lol), but good to skim to help set up the book.

Again we must regain control of our country and educating us and our children is one part of the foundation to make our reclamation.

Two reasons

There are two times a man speeds. Either when he is trying to get to a girl or when he is trying to get away from a girl. There are two times a woman speeds, oh wait, a woman doesn't need a reason, she just speeds.

There are two reasons a man works. One because he wants something and the other because he wants to get away from something. There are two reasons a woman works, oh wait a woman doesn't have to work because what's his is hers and what's hers is hers.

There are two reasons a man gives flowers. One is because it's Valentine's day and the other because he is in deep shit. And, well a woman just doesn't need a reason to get flowers, they just need to be given.

There are two reasons a woman goes on a diet. One is because her best friend is on a diet, the other is when her worst enemy goes on a diet. A man goes on a diet for two reasons. The first because the fridge is empty and the other because the pantry is empty.

The two places people pray the most are(and this has been said before) a casino and a church. Unfortunately God doesn't hear the prayers in a casino because of all the clanking of coins at the next machine. The two places some people pray the least. One is casinos, mainly because of that clanking sound. The other is church, because well "I am at church, I don't need to pray, it's everyone else that needs to pray, not me".

And for those of you who actually have the day off I hope you have a good President's day. For everyone else, have you bought your mattress or new furniture yet with"x" number of months no interest? And for my readers outside the US you just have to be here to get that one.

Warm spring weekend here in North Texas, I hope spring is headed your way very soon.

Voter ID laws

I have to be honest I have not paid too much attention to voter ID laws until they just hit home. Recently the better half and I got letters saying there might be a discrepancy between our voters registration and our IDs. And these are minor. I can't find the letter again, but I think it was that one had my middle initial and one had my full middle name. If they are being this particular this is a bit much. I have been voting for decades so I am a bit upset.

This situation is not to prevent fraud. This is potentially a real problem. Even if they are just being over zealous in following the law it will cause some illegitimate headaches at the voters booth. Three groups are going to be most affected. The poor, who usually don't pay attention to these matters; the middle class, where people are so busy with 2-3 jobs and kids they put this at the bottom of the list of to dos; and two groups of non Anglo descendants Latinos and Asians. These two cultures sometimes have either changed names or have such long ones they may not always match from ID to ID.


And yes I know these are suppose to prevent fraud, but there maybe way more legitimate voters disenfranchised than fraud prevented. And for both Democrats and Republicans fighting for votes they are doing more harm than good with these new laws.





And now from the ultra bad pun dept: I find the tea party is not my cup of politics.

This is so obvious that somebody has probably said it, but what the hey.


And I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day.

Even when you get it right;

It is still a matter of perspective.

Henry Kissinger once said: ninety percent of politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

Dr. Kissinger, didn't you work for Richard Nixon?


Primary season is racing at us now, sooner or later someone is going to stick their foot in their mouth. Feel free to share any examples you might find.


Hope you are enjoying the Olympics.

Platform- Education and final thought

“I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” Albert Einstein

Education in the United States could be better. There are so many ideas and programs available to implement, yet we stick to mainly memorization and standardized testing as the primary drivers of our education system.

The ideas expressed here are just one example of what we can do to improve public education. I do want to state that everyone is to blame for what we have now. Top to bottom, left to right, democrat to republican to independent, basically the whole of our country should take some responsibility for our education system and I don’t want to say it is a failure, but we have the capability to do so much better than what we have now.

The current K-12 framework we can keep. And since there are so many preschool and Headstart programs we could start at this age anyway. Child development and how the brain develops should be incorporated into this framework.

As a child grows different parts of the brain become more active and developed. For example it is well known in education fields that language is very important in early childhood. We need to start here. Ages 3-5 should receive intensive language development. This includes foreign language since the earlier a child starts a language the better the child will retain it. This is more than learning to count to ten in a different language or saying a few common words. It needs to be true immersion into the language.

And most importantly; we need to teach English. And this means teaching how to speak well. Communication is so important to success in adult life, yet we spend too little time truly teaching our children how to communicate well. I always admire authors and writers that can bring home a point. I don’t think everyone will have the ability of Hemingway or the vocabulary of George Will, but it would be beneficial to the whole if we spent more time teaching the art of speaking English well at this age. And yes this includes proper use of grammar. No we aren’t going to have four year olds diagramming a sentence, but require our teachers to speak to our children in proper context and use of proper grammar. Children at this age will learn to speak and communicate as they are taught. This will take a concerted effort to make this change, but should be one of the first priorities.

The next major change is how we grade and standardized testing. Starting with preschool and for the first few years we should not concern ourselves with grades. And testing for this age should be to determine aptitude. Once we determine a child’s aptitude, follow up testing should reflect progress based on that aptitude. And we can still have basic standards to be met each year. And as mentioned brain development is important, but we must remember children develop at a different pace. This is one reason grades should not be the measure of young children’s development, but rather where they stand in a progression model from their first aptitude tests.

And even though we are keeping children in grades K-12 or preschool through 12, not all children will spend time in each subject in their respective grade. A child that does well in math should be allowed to attend math classes in a grade above him or her part of the time. We want to encourage and challenge our children. If this same child struggles in language development, then he or she would stay at their grade level for those classes. This will cause some administrative changes and some more work, but we are talking about educating our children. Most of the regular activities in school would be done at their grade or age level.

Pre-school through primary grades would stress development not grading as a way to move a child forward. Children would move up in grade based on their age, but class level would be determined from testing levels. There would continue to be minimum standards that children would need to meet, but we would not hold children back if they have aptitude or ability at a higher level. Course curriculum would also follow normal child and brain development. Some types of classes would have more emphasis later on in the education process.

And starting with preschool we need to start introducing certain subjects to help our children become educated or having a more well rounded education. This means art, theatre, music, physical education and especially with preschool motor skills development. We should not view a well rounded education as a luxury, but as a necessity. As a country we talk heavily of exporting democracy, but for us to continue to thrive as a democracy (or republic) our populace needs to be able to understand issues and make decisions based on the individual’s ability to think well and for them self.
And as the child grows up we incorporate more and more to achieve this goal.

As a child goes through elementary education we also look at aptitude testing now to help children and their parents determine what opportunities work best for the child. We will not change our core system at this point, but help parents and teachers understand what subjects down the road may best benefit the child, always understanding that a well rounded education will be part of the program. It is a fact of life, some people will be better at building or working on computers and others will be better at writing programs for computers. This is a simplistic example to show why it is okay to start determining what we should look for in aptitude testing. We are not hurting children to have this knowledge. We should not say they need to follow this path. Any child should still be able to choose the direction they want to take in life, but having knowledge helps people to understand what they can do and what they would need to do to be successful in any endeavor they choose.

By the fifth grade or so, grading can be used to help determine the success of a child. It is true that at some point others will be seen as more accomplished and they can be recognized. Grading at this level should reflect that children are not smarter because they make all A’s, but are making more effort and rewarded for showing this effort. Some people complain that we hurt our children by rewarding all children no matter if they win or lose. I would not want to stress the winning or losing aspect to young children, but the reward for hard work. It is a part of our adult life that at some point there are rewards for doing more especially financial rewards. Our education system does not need to teach that money is the most important aspect of life (again the importance of a well rounded education), but rather achieving goals and what they accomplish in their chosen field or career should be the barometer of their success. You will not see this in the curriculum of a fifth grader, but the idea of being successful through effort should be recognized.

Starting with middle school some major changes take place. We need to introduce more classes that reflect the development of the mind at this stage. Middle school children are more aware of the world around them and as any parent or teacher of a middle school age child knows, the question “why” develops. Unfortunately it becomes why this or why do I have to do that. Instead we should focus this energy into courses that encourage their curiosity. Philosophy, civics, ethics, current events, history, and science should now take center stage in their education. Yes we keep math and language, along with a well rounded dose of arts and physical education, but we start stressing in large doses how to view the world around them. We open up literature to a variety of topics. I had not mentioned it before, but reading development would be very important in the elementary years. The child’s ability to read would serve them well now in middle school and the introduction of these broader topics. And again grading is used as a measure of success of effort, not to say someone is better than another. And this could include letting a child earn an A based on their aptitude in a given subject. For someone with high math skills it should actually take more for them to earn an A or they should be allowed to take more advanced math classes, for someone who struggles with math aptitude earning an A should be based on their efforts to achieve minimum standards that are set. This goes for reading and language. For the other classes A’s are earned by effort since if we set a strong foundation in elementary school then everyone should have some preparation to take on the new courses.

At the high school level it should really open up for the children. And here is where the aptitude testing in elementary school has the opportunity to bear fruit. There should always be a core curriculum that even at this age should include reading, math, language, arts, and some physical activity, but children can use the results of their aptitude testing to choose classes that might benefit them as an adult. Overall a high school graduate should meet certain standardized results in their education and create a foundation for either university studies or advanced schools in certain areas. For example, does a person that will build computers need to take advanced philosophy, not necessarily unless they want for their personal growth, but rather as long as we did well through 12 grades they can concentrate more on the skill set in specialized schools. A person that chooses business school and university studies does need to take more advanced classes of ethics and philosophy for reasons such as a person who manages people needs to have a more well rounded education than someone who works a specialty. A professional degree such as doctor, engineer, or attorney etc needs this since they make decisions that affect people so having a stronger ethical foundation is a bit more important. I would say we don’t discount not having a requirement of university type classes in a specialty school, but not as much emphasis.

The changes are not monumental and work with the framework we have now. The importance is looking at how a child develops and incorporating curriculum that follows this development. We use age and grade level as the foundation, but not allow this to dictate what each child can accomplish by letting them move up in certain subjects for part of their day. We do not discount the concept of a well rounded education and starting with the first day of school becomes part of their routine. High school still leads to children choosing higher education, but they can choose from a wider selection of higher education choices including the development of specialty schools that may take the place of community colleges or work along side them to allow these students to continue to develop a true well rounded education.

The goal is to graduate students from high school that are prepared for the world and are ready to make educated decisions for their life, their community, and their country. Yes we can do better in math and science which is needed, but if a scientist has no concept of ethics how is this scientist ready to benefit humanity.


Some final thoughts:

I have a hard time with the concept of liberal and conservative in today’s world and especially when compared to the liberal and conservative of our constitutional writer’s time.

People say the democrats are the liberal party and there is much talk about there being a modern liberalism which I do not like. I prefer the constitutional time’s definition where liberalism is the expansion of rights. The ideas that gave us the phrase….the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness…and the idea we do not want heavy central rule.

Nowadays the democrats are developing an autocratic central government where they feel man cannot take care of himself and needs the government to make all the rules. To me this is far from being a liberal. The irony is the original conservatives wanted a more powerful central government.

And today’s conservatives are an interesting bunch. First to me conservative has a root word: to conserve. And that means we should be conserving the original values of our constitution. This does mean less federal government, but also reliance on man doing what is best for man. It also means there is a responsibility to govern by both liberals and conservatives when elected. For either group you need to represent the people who elected you. The modern conservatives rely on a mantra to say they are conservative, but this has no substance in true conservatism or basically they produce no governance to achieve conservative rule.

It is easy for someone to say I am a conservative because I want less taxes, less government, I support the right to bear arms, etc, but when you let the government expand and don’t do anything to solve problems, but just want to cut you are failing at representing the people that elected you. Even though we do not want too much government, society still has problems, a country has issues that need to be addressed. The goal of a conservative would be to find solutions to the problems without an over reliance on taxable programs. Hopefully some of the ideas I have expressed in previous posts at least meet this philosophy for that is my goal.

So basically democrats are not liberals because they are changing the definition and republicans/tea party are not conservatives because they fail to produce true conservative agenda in actual public policy. Failure to truly represent your electorate is a failure to your cause. And yes this means actually doing something other than whipping up your electorate into a frenzy with a few catch phrases. As a conservative I want less government and to pay fewer taxes, but moving forward takes an effort to achieve these goals that neither party is willing or seemingly able to produce.

It is time we moved on and for the many independents in the world I ask and encourage you to think about my thoughts and if not what you want, what would you do. Our country needs us to step forward and remove these two political parties that have become self serving in their rule and are failing the country in their representation of what is needed to keep us a great, growing, and wonderful republic.

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And some of my next posts will go back to some hot sports opinions and hopefully I will do one shortly on a bit of history and philosophy of the original Progressive Conservative Party, why I feel my ideas fit into a modern version and some differences from then to now. And with primary season about to go into full swing I am sure I will comment fruitlessly about all that.

Have a wonderful weekend

Addendum to Economic Development--killing two birds with one stone

Another idea I have had is related to helping areas affected by poverty. It is a combination of a variety of bank type companies plus some other ideas that seem to work.

Remember in the Movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”, the company George owned was a building and loan. Basically the people owned shares in the company that they borrowed from to build their houses. Imagine blending this idea with the modern credit union and add a dose of a mutual insurance company. Make the main goal to help locals create their own businesses. The basic idea behind this is the best way out of poverty is to create wealth or create ways to develop own sources of income.

There is an organization called NACA and I am sorry I do not remember what the initials stand for, but their primary purpose is to help people own a home. They do not just lend money though, they help people work through a program so by the time they purchase the house they have a sound financial foundation.

My idea then is to create an institution ( and new regulations may be needed unfortunately) that caters to small businesses and offers savings to people in targeted neighborhoods. They would not loan money to people to start a business, but would bring in experts in a variety of fields to help people establish a financial plan, marketing program etc so that once the business started it was set up to succeed. And this would be a for profit institution allowing the people in the neighborhood to be part of the institution combining the building and loan concept with the credit union. As the institution starts making loans and if done right they are set up to be successful, then the people/customers who would be able to own shares begin to see increase in their shares, ie wealth building so to speak. This probably won’t be large wealth, but they own something with value in two ways. It creates a savings portal for them along with the increase in share value, plus they are contributing to enhancing the neighborhood because overtime these small businesses have the chance to grow, add jobs, bring in new money to the neighborhood, and the owners develop a keen sense of who they are and what they can contribute to themselves and the neighborhood.

The institution helps the potential business owner through a variety of steps long before the business opens the door. The first few years of a new institution being introduced into the neighborhood would not be highly profitable and outside investors would be limited and must contribute more than just money to the start up. Overtime the idea would be for the local residents to share in the growth and as stated above begin to build savings and wealth. This would be a very productive way to really fight the war against poverty versus spending tax dollars just trying to feed people for a day.

And possibly could start to rid one of the worst financial businesses out there, the payday loan companies, which take a bad situation for someone and make it ten times worse.

Another benefit goes to the original investors and people who lend their time and talent to help the start up companies begin. You want this to be a for profit institution, but must plan on long term strategies so their must be rules about how you can invest in these institutions. The original investors get tax breaks upfront and even tax breaks when they sell so the locals can buy in. The people who lend their talents could get tax breaks in other ways.

I want to mention this thought first as the precursor to how the second group gets tax breaks. I think we need to restructure the tax code for retirees. Since we pay tax dollars into social security it really shouldn’t be taxed as income even if the retiree has a job or other income. There are certain rules when social security income can be taxed, but all taxes for SSI should be eliminated. Next many retirees fall into two separate groups, some that got by in life and need a job while retired and those that did well either as small or mediums size business owners or those that saved well from probably a professional job. I am not talking about large family wealth or the so called 1% level of being rich. They have their own tax situations that are not part of who I am trying to help in this situation.

Basically many of the group that was successful (upper middle class) still pay some taxes on their retirement income. Now since they were professionals or business owners these would be the people who might have the time and talent to lend to this new institution. They can either claim a tax credit for time given to the institution (and yes we would need to create a checks and balance system to make sure they truly contribute to get their tax break) or if they represent management or board members and contribute they could get a tax break on earned income for the specific earnings from the institution. This allows retired people who still want to contribute an avenue to help without burdening them with new taxes or it reduces their taxes lets say from retirement income such as IRAs or 401ks etc. And finally for those retirees who need the extra income, they can have a part time job in the institution and pay no taxes on this income up to a certain amount. The idea being we want people to contribute to the growth of neighborhoods in decline and also receive benefit for their efforts. This works to the philosophy of helping people become self sufficient which should be the goal of any anti poverty program.

The government is not the owner of these institutions, but the people. Again working to use government to create the avenues to fight the problem, but not burden society with excessive taxes or instituting programs that just drag on and do not solve the problem. Which is what I was hopefully stating was the big problem with the current war on poverty programs the federal government administers.

Another idea that can be made practical to solve problems and gives the reader a sense of what a progressive conservative idea can accomplish.

Next up: Education and final thoughts