Not enough gifted minority students? Just lower the standards

I had enough of the word "P.C." (as in Politically Correct) from the first day I heard it, if a guy delivers my mail he's a mailman, not a Postal Carrier, my old College mascot was the Chieftains; how because someone decided they wanted to get offended at that, the new mascot is the redhawk... there is no hawk by that name in nature.

Lately another word has been rubbing me the wrong way "diversity". Everyone is throwing the word around, but precious few seem to know what it means. Here's a coupe official definitions

1) Merriam-Webster = The condition of being diverse
2) Wiktionary (business def) = the business tactic which encourages diversity to better serve a heterogeneous customer base

Ouch folks... OUCH! These definitions are piss poor; you never put the word you're looking for in the definition itself. They try to tip-toe around the real meaning of the word. Let's open up the TOMLAND dictionary and see what it says:

Diversity - Too many white people in the US are getting all the good stuff. We need to find a way to get non-whites a greater slice of the socioeconomic pie. We don't really have a good way to do it, and we can't tell you to "replace" white people with other races so we'll just use the word "diversity" in our policies and hope you understand that we mean EXACTLY that... "replace white people with other races" They've been getting it to good for a long time.

Ah Tom spewing out the racist rhetoric again?... Not at all. In fact I think that given the same IQ level and same environment all races are equal. The problem is that not everyone has the same IQ and not everyone has the same environment.

Let's take a look at today's Seattle PI article entitled "Poor students of Color less likely to be in Seattle's gifted program" As the title suggests, the article says that the makeup of students in the Seattle School district gifted program do not match do not match the racial and economic makeup of the Seattle Public Schools. Here's one of the article examples:

Only 5 percent of students in the Accelerated program are eligible for free or reduced lunch, while nearly 40 percent of the overall district student body qualifies. That measure reflects students in low-income families.

So what is the main way kids get into the gifted program? According to the article:

Families apply from kindergarten through seventh grade and typically test in the 98th and 99th percent on cognitive, reading and mathematics testing.

There you go... score high enough in the standardized tests and you're in. That's about a race neutral as you can get. But instead the school district says this method appears to allow to many privileged white kids in, and not enough minorities.

UGH.... PEOPLE... LISTEN UP! I'm going to break this down for you as simply as possible. The reason "Poor Students of Color" don't get in has precious little to do with color. It's has a lot to do with being "poor".

There are two reasons for this.. one you're going to want to hear, another you are not.

#1) IN GENERAL (not always) Families with less money are not only less able to follow up on learning opportunities that cost additional money, like music lessons, camps, tutoring programs, etc. But also have less time available (or less inclination) to guide their children in their formative years. This is because they're too busy trying to find more money so they can live. They are also more likely to either be socially stigmatized by their more wealthy classmates and/or make friends with others in their own socioeconomic circle which continues the cycle of poverty.

2) ALSO - I submit that as a percentage, the lower the income demographic the lower the overall IQ score for the family becomes......................(OK are you done yelling and cursing at me... now let me explain). You're right, there is no direct line between IQ and $$ but if you look at large demographics of people the more successful aka the ones with more $$ have a higher education and tend to marry around their own level of intelligence. Thus having a higher chance of creating offspring with a higher IQ score. If you look at the lower income demographic people also have children. But the parents of these children may not have finished high school, may have done damage to their children (physically, mentally or environmentally) by not providing a stable home. And the cycle continues.

TOM! That' can't be true , what about people who don't speak English as their native language, what about this guy I know down the street, what about.....

Yes yes, I'm talking in general here, there are always cases (both ways) that are different. As far as immigrants go, sure 1st generation immigrants may be held back by language. But their children will not be and once again it will come down to IQ and environment. Higher IQ will move up the socioeconomic ladder, lower IQ will move down and the cycle continues.

QUIT USING THE WORD "DIVERSITY" TO TRY AND FORCE OUT PEOPLE ALREADY QUALIFIED. WORK ON FIXING THE UNDERLYING ECONOMIC ISSUES AND THE REST WILL FOLLOW... BUT REMEMBER NOT EVERYONE IS "GIFTED"
Whether a child comes from a "better" or "worse" background dosn't matter. If you want to be fair stick with the standardized tests folks. They are truly diverse because they will include anyone regardless of ethnicity as long as the score is high enough.

I'm dressing up ...like vomit

Hello folks,

A little late, but CNN has posted an article about a DHS employee who has been put on leave after he wore a "racially insensitive" costume to an after hours Halloween party (hosted by another employee). You can read about it here

So what was the guy wearing? His Birthday suit perhaps? A cowboy with a real gun he shot in the house?....Nope. He was dressed up as a guy in a prison suit.

Yep a guy in a prison suite...on Halloween... oh the outrage! Oh the AGONY! Give me a break.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention he appeared black.


Should that make a difference? I mean blacks outnumber whites in prison by a factor of 8 to 1 according to this site. You could argue he was dressing up as just the average prison inmate.

Let's say you don't agree with that, let's say the guy was just stupid. Let's say you think he's a jackass. That's just fine, everyone's entitled to their opinion. But I'm sure you can agree that getting suspended over an event that did not happen at work or on company property is just silly. Especially when the only "crime" was that some people found the costume offensive.

It's Halloween folks, people will dress up. Don't like it? Don't invite the guy to your party.

Another example of overboard "Political Correctness" NOT TOMLAND APPROVED

Ron Sims - Hang your head in shame.... SHAME!

While I usually like to take on more national issues; today I have to write about something that hits a little closer to home. This fall there is a huge initiative called "Transit Now" it will do much to expand the light rail line that already goes from SeaTac airport to downtown, will increase bus service and fund studies for even further expansion of light rail. Making Seattle much more efficient in terms of public transit.

I think this measure is great because it already builds onto the existing light rail, instead of some competing technology and increases the frequency of buses meaning less time waiting for your bus to arrive.

The funding for this will be a tenth of a percent sales tax increase and (maybe) a $80 per $10,000 vehicle value licence plate tax. That's fine, since the taxes come from a base that is most affected by the improvements.
So why the thumbs down? Why the title? As a co-worker mentioned to me, not all groups are in favor of this (no surprise there), but the surprise is that our King County Executive Ron Sims has withdrawn his support for the project. Ron has traditionally been in favor of mass transit projects and his lack of support is causing people to hesitate on voting in this initative.

Today the Seattle PI tells us WHY. Turns our Ron has drawn up the new 2008 budget for Seattle, and it turns out that Sims wants a TON OF TAX INCREASES including the same tenth of a percent tax increase that the transit now imitative wants. It doesn't stop there though, the list of increases is long:

• Sales Tax Increase = .1 %
• Property Tax Increase = 10 cents per 1,000 of assessed value
• Property Tax Increase (ADDITIONAL) = 5 cents per 1,0000 of assessed value
• Bus fare increase = 25 cents per trip

Of course Ron had to withdraw support for expanding transit service, how could you go before voters and ask for a sales tax increase when in a separate measure you're going to ask for sales, property, and fare increases just to maintain current service?

Clearly Sims was not interested in what's best for the working class of Seattle, this withdraw of the Transit Now initiative was clearly a political move to keep from looking like he's hiking taxes every which way.

The transit now initiative asks for a lot less taxes then Sim's general budget and would help a lot of people in the area., and worse yet, Sims wants to pay for a good chunk of it with more property tax which unfairly punishes homeowners. In fact, the additional $.05 cent increase is for financing of passenger ferries.

Now what does my being successful enough to buy a home have in common with passenger ferries? Why should you, fellow homeowner be punished for your success while you're lazy renting friends get a free ride. Taxes need to be at least somewhat related to the services they pay for.

Mr Sims.... Your ideas of backing off a better version of public transit to further your own budgetary agendas is clearly NOT TOMLAND APPROVED.

Peter, Peter - Promotion Eater

Hello folks,

I read a fascinating article today on howstuffworks.com. Ever work for a boss that you were convinced was an idiot? Have you every been pretty sure that you could do a better job then the person signing your paycheck?

A lot of people have, in fact someone back in 1967 wrote an article about it, it's called "The Peter Principle" and goes something like this:

"As a person continues his path of promotion, he's eventually promoted right out of his field of expertise and into a position where he's utterly and helplessly incompetent....At the point where his level of incompetence is reached, an employee's promotional trajectory usually ends, and he's stuck in a position where he no longer has confidence in his abilities and produces less work for the company than he did in the position in which he excelled. The problems created by this promotion are compounded by the idea that an incompetent manager will make incompetent decisions -- including deciding who to promote. Eventually....the higher levels of a bureaucracy become populated entirely by incompetent people.

Once an employee reaches his level of incompetence, in general, he won't be fired from the position, unless he's what Dr. Peter dubs a "super-incompetent" -- a person who's actually defined by his mistakes. Instead, the promoted employee is usually mediocre in his new position. He's able to cover up his incompetence....Since the bulk of the productivity within the company is generally carried out by the regular employees who form the base of the hierarchical pyramid, companies can operate indefinitely, so long as the incompetence of the higher levels doesn't present itself through catastrophic decisions.

I've been observing this principle almost from the day I started working at 15, but never thought to formalize what I had seen. Certainly I've never thought to put a name to it. But someone sure did... Dr. Laurence J. Peter, my hat goes off to you sir. Putting pen to paper so you can explain a often viewed but perhaps not well understood phenomenon and thus enlightening the masses just a little more; Tomland Approved!

Listen to this song... for $9,166 !!

Alrighty folks,
Today's Tomland article is brought to you by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America). Over the weekend the RIAA won a lawsuit against a single mother for $220,000. The crime?... Possibly sharing 24 songs over the Internet. If you do the math, that's an award of $9,166 per song.

First of all, I'd like to point out that I hate the RIAA. With only a few cents of every dollar actually going to artists, this organization represents all that is greedy, wrong, and stupid with big business.

Just look at the size of the award; $220,000?!?!?! iTunes sells songs for 99 cents. So for 24 songs we're looking at $23.76 plus tax. Now even if some people downloaded the song from her computer (which the RIAA did not prove in their case). It would have had to be downloaded over 200,000 times in order to come up with actual losses of $220,000. The RIAA did not prove this either.

Finally, only a fraction of people who download songs for free would buy them otherwise. So we're not even looking at a dollar-for-dollar loss here.

Sure copyright is important, and sure artists need to make money but IF you wind up doing something illegal and get caught the punishment needs to fit the crime....

Greedy corporations forcing people into bankruptcy for something that cost 99 cents.... NOT TOMLAND APPROVED.

Steve Jobs is Crazy... Like a fox?!?

I've always been a big fan of Apple, they make great computers, great software and great music players. I'm also a big fan of business and the entrepreneur. I find just about everything related to running a business fascinating. That's probably why I've had quite a few myself. But I'm not here to write about myself today..

Lately I've been giving some thought to Apple's decision to lower the price of their iPhone from $599 to $399 and give a $100 credit to people that originally bought the iPhone before the price drop. On the face of it, this seems like a crazy move. Apple has sold over 1 million iPhones. (just under 1 million prior to the price adjustment). Let's take a look at that.

=========================================
$599 x 1 million = $600,000,000 gross sales
$250 x 1 million = $250,000,000 rough cost of phone
-----------------------------------------------------------
$350,000,000 NET PROFIT
Cost of rebate = $100,000,000
-----------------------------------------------------------
= $250,000,000 REVISED NET PROFIT
=========================================

So Apple has just taken a 30% reduction in profits. That's pretty substantial. Plus at the new price of $399 Apple is only making $149 from each new phone sale. That means that in order to make the same hardware revenue that Apple made off the first 1 million in sales they would have to sell 2.34 million iphones.

When investors heard about the price drop (and later rebate) they were not happy. Clearly they ran the numbers and saw the same thing I did. But if we look at the longer term outlook maybe this isn't so bad... maybe it's downright GOOD. Let's look at the rebate first

$100 rebate is not a cash rebate, instead you get a credit at the apple store. With Christmas coming up this rebate should be huge for apple. Suddenly getting someone an iPod is a much cheaper gift, with ipod nano's going for $49 after the rebate is applied. Or the low end macintosh mini going for $499 after rebate. $499 for a mac computer.. WHOA! In a nutshell the rebate should really increase sales this holiday season.

But Tom.... doesn't that increase sales still result in decreased profit per item? Yes it does, and I'll get to that in minute. But first I want to discuss what the new lower iphone price means.

At $599 the iPhone was the most expensive phone by far on the market. By lowering the price to $399 not only will the phone become more affordable (and in line with other high end devices) to people in the USA, but should be very attractive to people in Europe where the euro is at an all time high against the dollar. Plans are for the iPhone to be release in Europe in the coming months and with some countries having wireless service as their primary phone service this market is huge. It should help Appple hit their published goal of 10 million iPhones sooner then expected.

That brings me to the decreased profit per item issue.... Sure Apple is making less on the hardware side of things, but Apple has a second revenue source, content and subscriptions. Each iPhone is locked into a 2 year contract and Apple gets revenue for each subscriber. I haven't been able to find actual numbers, but even if it's just $1 per month (and the general impression is that it's much higher) that's an extra $48 for apple over the course of a 2 year contract. And frankly probably an extra $100+ over the life of an average phone. More phones in use means higher licensing fees each month. Also more sales of ipods means more people buying music from iTunes also another generator of profit for apple.

In chess there's a little joke that a player can yell out.... "SACRIFICE THE QUEEN FOR POSITIONAL". In essence you're telling the guy to give away his most powerful piece now for a better setup going forward. It's almost never a good thing to do this in Chess, although once in a great while the sacrifice is worth it. Will the sacrifice of immediate profit for potential future profit and better market penetration be worth it for Apple. We'll know in the upcoming months..........Sacrificing the queen for positional? Tomland can't say just yet.

Welcome back to Tomland - You're as fat as your zip code!

Hello everyone,

I've taken the summer off (hey it's not like I get paid for this). So what brings me back? Today's top story in the Seattle PI. We're talking front page, above the fold. The article talks about how Seattle's property values beat out income and education as predictors of Obesity. You can read the full article here.

The strongest predictor of obesity rates wasn't income or education but property values, the study found. Each additional $100,000 in median home value for a ZIP code corresponded with a drop in obesity of 2 percentage points.

It's further evidence, experts say, that weight isn't solely about individual behavior and that the environment you live in matters.

"If you have this mind-set that obesity has to do with the individual alone, then ZIP codes or areas really should not come into this. But they do, big-time," said Adam Drewnowski, director of the UW Center for Obesity Research.

Really? The price of a house is the best prediction of obesity? The problem with the front page article is that the logic is flawed. Home value is not a predictor of obesity at all, rather it is the end result in a long line of other symptoms.

Relevant to this discussion, a fundamental economic reason for obesity is wealth. The poor eat more junk/fast food then the well off. This is because poor folk have a harder time paying $30 for that fresh fish special and an easier time paying $5 for the extra value meal and McDonald's. Of course often lack of money also leads to lack of education which can go hand-in-hand with choosing to spend the $5 on fast food, instead of spending it at the grocery store. This lack of education often means lower paying jobs which translates into cheaper housing.

So... is the value of your house really a predictor of weight? NO it's just a visible by-product of lower eduction and income. These are the real issues at hand.

What amazes me is that while Seattle has the most bachelor degrees of any city in the country, this flawed logic makes it to the front page of Seattle's paper. Bad writing, and bad logic... NOT TOMLAND APPROVED.

That'll be $2.... What! They don't make a $2 bill... do they?

In today's news a man was arrested by trying to pay his bill at best buy with $2 bills. You can read the article here. Apparently, the guy was protesting getting charged $114 for a car stereo installation.

He's a tour bus operator and has a lot of $2 bills laying around. But when he handed them to the cashier she thought the money was fake and called the police. The police noticed the bills' serial numbers were in sequential order and cuffed the guy to a pole while they tried to figure out if the bills were real.

Sure, $2 bills aren't common anymore but this is just silly.
Stupid people doing stupid things, never tomland approved.

Damm straight I want fries with that!

Hello Folks,

Turns out today is that today is the 67th anniversary of that great restaurant franchise.... McDonald's!

I'd like to give a big two thumbs up to this fine culinary institution for providing me countless dirt cheap but satisfying meals. My personal favorite is the double quarter pounder value meal, but of course I can't forget their fries. I'm not sure what horrible things go into them but they sure taste great... hot, salty ahhh....

Mmm McDonald's, seriously Tomland approved!

Eeny, meeny, miny, moe... I can see your camel toe!

Hello folks,

America is experiencing a crisis. Well actually not just one; but today's revolves around being naked. (You remember, the way you entered the world). With people so fixated on body issues these days, and the cost of joining a nudist colony it appears that the nudists are finding it hard to find new recruits. Especially folks under 30. You can read about it here

The good news is, the nudists are getting the word out with "young ambassador" programs and heavy discounts on membership.

Well, being naked isn't for everyone, and while there are plenty of people I would love to see naked, others not so much :) Of course no one's advocating going to work in the nude, just keeping it in enclosed communities and other private areas.

Encouraging people to get out there and be "free" as long as everyone's OK with it, sure that's Tomland approved!

Bitch slapped by Big Brother... Ouch!

Hello folks,

In today's news a gas station owner in Wisconsin was offering senior citizens a 2 cent per gallon price break and discount cards that let sports boosters pay 3 cents less per gallon. You can read about the article here

Sounds good right? A guy helping out local sports teams and giving senior citizens a break. I mean, nothing huge, what's 2 cents off when the price of a gallon of gas is around $3.40? But a nice gesture.

Well the government doesn't see it that way. Apparently the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection says those deals violate Wisconsin's Unfair Sales Act, which requires stations to sell gas for about 9.2 percent more than the wholesale price.

What's that folks.... multiple businesses setting fixed prices? When private companies do this it's called PRICE FIXING but I guess when the government does this it's THE LAW! Free market society my ass.

The government setting our gas prices... NOT Tomland Approved!

I'm sorry for bringing people over from Africa and enslaving them.... NOT!!

Hi Folks,

So I came across a CNN article that talks about the University of Virginia celebrating Thomas Jefferson's birthday by apologizing for the school's use of slave labor between 1819 and 1865. You can read about it HERE.

I'm sick and tired of people apologizing for things they did not do, to people who were not wronged.... "What do you mean Tom?" "Slavery is horrible, and it's an outrage the university was built on the back of slave labor, isn't it?"

That's true, slavery is wrong. I don't condone it, but here's the problem folks. Slavery in the USA happened 150-200 years ago. That means that everyone who was a slave during that time has died. It also means that everyone who owned slaves in the USA has also died.

Heck, I was born in 1978, I have no part in this history. No slave picked my cotton or called me "massa" and there's no way I'm going to apologize for "enslaving" someones ancestors because I didn't do it. Besides, who would I apologize to even if I felt like it? The 20 year old black guy selling weed on the bus home? The guy in my mailroom who is from Africa, but immigrated here 5 years ago? Maybe Oprah...?

My point is that no one on the U of V's board had anything to do with the decision to employ slave labor in the making of the school and there's no one left to apologize to. IT'S ALL OVER FOLKS! The time to apologise would have been back in the 1800's when former slaves would have been around to receive such an apology.

If folks want to be boneheaded about it, why stop there? Trace the history of everyone at the school. Any Russians out there? Might want to apologise that one of your Alumni's ancestors might have been responsible for sending millions to their deaths in in the Russian gulags. Any alumni of Roman decent? Romans were a HUGE slave society, why aren't you apologizing for that atrocity.

Remembering history and learning from those mistakes is a very good thing... Making stupid apologies for something that isn't your fault is NOT TOMLAND APPROVED

My Cat Died Yesterday

Normally I use the blog to post things relevant to larger social issues. But today I'd like to post a little about my cat Wendell. I bought Wendel as a Christmas present for my (at the time) girlfriend (now) wife 10 years ago. Turns out Wendell stuck around thru the rest of our college years, our marriage, our first house and a ton of other life changing events over the last decade.

Although Wendell didn't like to be held at all (he was a big fan of his own personal bubble) he loved get scratched around the ears and under the chin. He wouldn't hesitate to jump on the table and get a little taste of your dinner and whenever you got home would be waiting on the stairs to give you a few welcome meows before going to lay down on the couch. He also loved to sit over my wife's head at night. We had pillow especially for him that he used.

Over the weekend we found that Wendell seemed to develop a paralysis of sorts. He couldn't walk or stand and really only seemed to have full use of one of his four paws. Turns out he had a serious problem with his spine and according to the vet at best a 25% chance of recovery from this episode with the problem progressively getting worse as the months went on. With this prognosis we chose to put him down; which lets face it folks is a nice way of saying we authorized the vet to kill our pet.

What for me was especially hard is the fact that mentally Wendell seemed alert and happy (although frustrated at not being able to move). Even though medically speaking it was clearly more humane to put him down when thinking of his quality of life, the fact that his mind was alert made it that much harder.

I miss our cat very, very much. The house feels incredibly empty without him. Although I'm not sure what the afterlife looks like (or if it looks like anything) I really hope that he's up there somewhere laying around and eating big bowlfuls of favorite foods, including some nice chunks of Teriyaki chicken.

My can dying yesterday... so not Tomland approved that even my most thumbsdown icon doesn't come close to being unapproved enough.

Cowboys and Indians? More like Cowboys and Jail

Alright folks, many of you may remember playing with toy guns as kids shooting away at your friends or imaginary villains with imaginary bullets.

Ah, violence it's part of human nature. Eat or be eaten, kill or die. Sure, we like to think of modern time as more civilized, and maybe it is. But there are sill plenty of violence out there, rape, theft, and killing. Don't forget war. Lots of wars out there and our country actively recruits young men and teaches them to kill other people. It's the reality of life as we know it.

Along those lines, I ran across this article in the paper today. Apparently a mother went into her sons classroom with a toy gun and scared a few of the kids (maybe) by shooting off the toy gun in the classroom. I can't say for sure but the gun didn't seem to be one with the gunpowder caps in it, so no huge noise just the clicking sound of a toy gun. I also like to take a second to point out that for years now all toy guns must have a large orange cap at the barrel so folks know it's a toy.

An odd laps in judgment from a mother to be sure, and the school as banned this person from school grounds for a year. And the banishment seems like a fitting punishment. However that isn't the end of the story. Apparently the police were called now the mother is being charged with assault and faces up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.

JESUS CHRIST folks; a year in prison and an assault record!?! Let's get real, no children were harmed in the making of this story and no real weapon was brought into school. I remember my preschool used to have a chest full of nice looking 6-shooters for kids to play with. 20 years down the line society has turned around 180 degrees and now threatens to jail a mother who has essentially done the same thing many children did as kids.


Being an idiot (whether it's the person committing the offense, or the people handing out the punishment).... Not Tomland Approved.

Holy Crap! 150,000 people died yesterday!!!!

But we only care about 33 of them.

As I'm sure you've all read, a student shot and killed 32 fellow classmates yesterday. If you haven't read about it you can do so here. At one point CNN mentioned it was the worst shooting in US history. Actually that's not correct, check out what happened in 1812

But that's irrelevant to this article. I agree the shooting was a horrible act and my condolences go out to the families of the victims.

However, this got me thinking... how many people die every day? I mean, there are billions of people in the world, there must be a lot of folks dying each day that I don't know about, or care about. Turns out there are.

According to the census bureau one person dies every 1.8 seconds, giving a daily global death rate of roughly 150,000 people a day. You can read a little about that here. Of course big media can't give time to that many people every day, but today I will... Folks please take a second to think about the fact that a whole lot of people died every day, probably a good 10 people while you were reading this article.... On the plus side, about 4.1 people are born every second giving a daily birth rate of over 340,000

Death, not very fun but an important part of life. Tomland has mixed feelings on this one, and had to create a new neutral icon for it.

2+2=5... duh!

Hello folks,

In today's news, the lawmakers in Washington state have voted to delay a requirement that students pass the math portion of Washington's WASL test in order to graduate from high school. You can read the article here

Now those of you outside Washington state may not be familiar with this test, basically folks in Washington wanted to establish some minimum standards required in order to graduate and they came up with the WASL test. Think of those "achievement tests" they used to give out in many schools (California achievement test where I grew up). You can read about the WASL and it's history here

Now I think the idea of forcing a student to have some minimum amount of knowledge before graduating is an excellent idea. I'm sure you can all remember the slackers in your school who barely showed up to school, didn't do any homework, didn't pay attention in class but managed to snag that diploma with a D+ average.... And after that they either:
a) Got pregnant and promptly applied for food stamps
b) Resigned themselves to working for "The Man" as a Subway sandwich artist (that's right, they're artists now)

Here's the problem though; the reason the lawmakers are suspending the math portion of the bill is because it turns out that in 2006 about 50% of students failed to pass all the sections of the WASL. Math and Science were the biggest problem areas (passing of the science section is currently not required)

There's one of two things going wrong here, neither make me very happy:
1) The test is actually WAY too difficult. Personally I doubt this, but for arguments sake let's say that's the case. Then re-write the test and be done with it.
2) The students are not learning enough. I'm pretty sure this is the real problem. Multiple studies confirm that America lags far behind other countries in terms of educational standards, especially in math and science.

People say that a High school diploma is pretty worthless these days, you really need a college degree; and they're right! How can a high school diploma mean anything when we're letting folks that can barely read and do simple math graduate?

If 50% of the kids fail to graduate they'll get a wake up call real quick. In this day an age nothing gets done unless there's an epidemic. Well half the kids failing their senior year would definitely draw attention. Curriculum's would be updated, kids would study more. And the value of a high school diploma would shoot up.

Coming up with standards and then going back on them because you're afraid of the consequences, NOT Tomland approved.

I no speaka English Senior

Hello folks,

It's been a while since I've posted anything since I've been out of town... working. I hate work, but that's not what today's post is about. No, today I came across an article about Newt Gingrich drawing some negative press about using the word "Ghetto" in an interview regarding the learning of American language. You can read the article here

-- bilingual education should be replaced with immersion in English "so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto."--

Damn straight. Unfortunately Newt is a politician so he had to backtrack a little in order not to loose votes. But I don't have to worry about that, so let me say what old Newt can't.

Folks, if you live in the USA you'd better learn English. It's simply idiotic to think that a whole county is going to change their ways for little old you. Why should Joe Taxpayer pay for multi language classes, special programs and reprint all my documents into your native language? Why should my children be required to learn a different language to communicate with you? You are the visitor in MY country, you need to communicate with me, not the other way around.

To take this a bit further, when it comes to ILLEGAL immigrants into the country, not only do I not care about you, I don't want you in my country, get the hell out! I don't want to spend millions on your medical care, your education, I don't want to see your national flag flying out of your window. If I did, I'd move to your country (where I'd do my best to learn your native language)

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against imigrants. America welcomes you, as long as you come in legally, obey the laws of the country and do your best to fit in, instead of forcing others to bend to your wishes.

Pretending you're Christopher Columbus and have just landed in the New World; announcing that you have claimed this land as your country... NOT tomland approved.

Happy Birthday TP!

That's right folks, 150 years ago Joseph Gayetty sold the first factory made toilet paper (Gayetty's Medicated Paper) in the USA These were loose, flat, sheets of paper, pre-moistened and medicated with aloe; each sheet has Gayetty's name printed on it.

Before the invention of toilet paper, people were forced to use old corn cobs, leaves, paper (if available) and if nothing else was around, their hand!

Of course inventions take a little while to become popular, it wasn't until the early 1900's that toilet paper became even somewhat common place. I bet if you ask your grandparents, or anyone older then 75 they can probably remember tearing a page out of the sears catalogue to wipe themselves; and maybe they can regale you with graphic stories of other things they used.

The point is, toilet paper has to be one of the most useful inventions in recent history and I'd like to take a minute to wish it a very very happy birthday!

Being reasonably confident that the person I'm shaking hands with is not covered in feces; that's EXTREMELY Tomland Approved!

You can pry that paper dollar from cold dead fingers

Ugh, another Monday and another stupid writer that thinks he's doing the world a favor by defending another stupid idea. Today's article comes from the fine folks at Slate Magazine. I usually enjoy this online publication. It's full of good articles that are well written and bring up a lot of good points.

However a recent Slate article about how the US needs to phase out the paper dollar and start using a coin is misguided at best, idiotic is much more like it. Take a minute and read it here.

After spending over half the article going into the failed history of coin dollars the author starts going into "conspiracy theory" mode of how Missisipi Cotton Farmers are lobbying hard to keep the old greenback.

Get real; the push for a dollar coin comes from the bean counters who say it makes more fiscal sense to use coin; and that's true.... but the problem is that carrying around a bunch of coins in your pocket is just annyoing! Which would you rather have, 9 $1 bills folded in your pocket or 9 heavy coins jingling around everywhere you walk? Who likes coins anyway? There's a movement out there to abolish the penny. Why? Because no one likes carrying around pennys and they certainly don't like carrying around bigger and heavier dollar coins.

Contrary to what this author at Slate seems think the dollar coin was not abandoned multiple times due to lack of acceptance in private industry. It was abandoned because people who get these coins hate them. They refuse to accept them and when they are forced to take them (think of those stamp vending machines at the post office) they immeiatly find a way to turn them in and get paper $.

I'm not just talking out of my ass here; my wife worked for years in the food industry and she's seen many an irate customer with these coin dollars. She now works for a bank and the complaints are the same.

Trying to take away my paper money and replace it with coin? Are you insane? There's no way this is Tomland Approved!

Why are you reading this? You should be dead!

Sure we all know that the air we breath filled with smog, the water we drink contaminated by pollution, my milk is pumped full of cancer causing steroids, and even the fruit and vegetables are laden with harmful pesticides that should have done me in by now...

But toxins take years to build up in the body; according to idiots like the "The National Playground Safety Institue" you probably should have died back in elementary school. Why? All the horribly unsafe playground equipment of course. Metal jungle gyms, high monkey bars, and other dangerous items like the Tornado slide have been replaced with safe, plastic garbage.

I loved the tornado slide. I slid down it, climbed up the wrong way... climbed the support beams and fell down a few times that's what being a kid is all about.

Frankly I'm not sure where these idiots get off... I played on the super dangerous playground equipment, you did too. And look, we're both alive to tell the tale (whew!)...Come to think of it, the folks that are causing all the old equipment to be replaced must have also used the same playground equipment and (except for some stupid ideas, I'm sure as a result of falling on their heads to much as children) are OK.

If you look on the Internet you'll see about 200,000 children go to the emergency room each year for playground related injuries and about 15 die every year.... yep 15 out of millions. I know it sounds cruel but perhaps those 15 were a little dee-dee-dee if you know what I mean. Look folks, sheltering your children from reality is not helping them.

To all the idiots that feel the playgrounds they themselves grew up with are to dangerous for kids I say look... you are obviously a misguided idiot, but not enough of an idiot to have died on the monkey bars" maybe you should have done everyone a favor and just let go of those bars.

Destroying my childhood playgrounds to make them "safer" not tomland approved.

Free Speech? Not in the USA

Ahh free speech. Guaranteed by the first amendment of the US constitution.

Wikipedia says freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent human right to voice one's opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment. The right is enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is granted formal recognition by the laws of most nations.

That would be nice; especially since there are quite a few things (and people) that really tick me off and I'd love to blog about them. The problem is that I work in corporate America; for a bunch of lawyers actually. So of course I know that my company would more then likely fire me in a heartbeat if I started commenting about them in a negative way. Don't believe me? Here's a nice article about companies firing their employees for exercising their free speech

Of course I'm not going to say anything about my place of work, not the name of the business, not how much (if at all) certain aspects of my day job make me angry or how certain people are assholes. Nope, not a word.

Now, theremaybe be good aspects about my job too; but you're not going to hear those either because only being able to comment on the positive and not the negative is called censorship, not free speech.

See, corporate America is a bit different from the rest of America. Corporate America will kick you out for a whole host of reasons including; and not limited to; because they feel like it (it's called at-will employment folks)

But today's writing is not about any of the other multitude of reasons that companies will fire, sue, or otherwise make life difficult for their employees... it's about free speech, or lack thereof. I'd like to write more, but I can't because just in the same way Stalin and Hitler terminated countless people that spoke against them, if I proceed further with this article I may join the countless jobless blogers who's companies have terminated them.

Stomping all over my guaranteed freedom of speech? Couldn't be less Tomland approved!

When "The Man" sticks it to you, stick him right back

Hello folks,

As you know, The Man has been out to get all of us since they day we were born. I t turns out there's not just one man, but whoever is twisting that dagger of unfairness into your gut at the time gets elevated to "The Man".... (Of course you know the scuffle with The Man has a happy ending thanks to my "Tomland Approved" guy to the left of this article)

So a few months ago I bought a Nokia E70 for my wife. She specifically wanted this model of phone but it wasn't carried by Cingular. So I got an unlocked phone straight from Nokia. Considering I paid almost $400 for the thing I expected it to work properly. Of course that means I had nothing but problems getting it to work.

The worst part was that I could not get any support for the phone. Cingular told me they didn't know how to configure it (despite having an almost identical model availble for sale) and Nokia said that they didn't have the configuration settings on hand and only Cingular could provide them. At the end of the day I had to sign up for a new plan and get different equipment which came with a substantial discount.

It was a classic blame someone else defense. Of course Nokia was happy to take my $400 for the phone and Cingular was more than happy to continue charging me for my plan.

So I put the thing up on ebay and sold it for $450, netting a profit in the end. Sure it was a learning experience, but the best part was walking away from an ugly situation a few dollars richer.

Taking the dagger The Man is sticking in you and shoving it in his bloated, corporate gut... Tomland Approved!

Tax'em Till they Die!

I was reading a lovely article today regarding the fact that the decline in smoking has been a headache for government because they are forced to raise cigarette taxes in order to keep generating enough revenue. The article can be found here

Well the solution is simple, raise them federal taxes! Not just a little either, double it, or triple it! After all, smoking is an addiction so the vast majority of people will eat the cost and keep smoking. They can't stop. And by increasing the federal tax rate and then reimbursing the states everyone will be hit equally.

Sure the smokers will really grumble, but the other good news about the decline of smoking is that there are less voters out there that smoke, making the non-smokers the vast majority of a congressman's voting block.

Making it more expensive to blow smoke in my face... Definitely Tomland approved!

Fluff

Hello folks,

Well I was going to write a fluff article today, something nice an safe about it being a sunny day. But instead I came across a whole different kind of fluff... apparently a bus driver in Seattle was arrested for voyurism. The article can be found here

In a nutshell, the bus driver saw a woman entering her appartment and then a light turn on shortly after. He walked over to the light and came across a different couple watching a pornographic movie. The couple saw him and the guy ran out (doesn't say if the guy had cloths on or not) and chased after him. The bus driver took off, but the police tracked down his bus and arrested him for voyurism.

Well, despite my name being Tom, I do not condone peeping. But... if you're not going to pull down your blinds while watching porn, having sex, or doing something else you woudln't do in front of your mother, don't be surprised if someone takes some time out of their day to watch the show!

Well, regardless of how you feel on the topic; the article iteself is good for 2 minutes around the water cooler, so that gets 1 thumb up. You could say the entertainment value of it all is Tomland Approved!

Racist math problem? Maybe YOU are the racist

Hello folks,

I came across a article today that really made me angry. Apparently there's been a big hubub regarding a math teacher in Seattle. You can find the original article here and the updated article here

For those of you who don't like to read, here's what the topic is about. Apparently a math teacher put the following question on a test:

"Condoleezza holds a watermelon just over the edge of the roof of the 300-foot
Federal Building, and tosses it up with a velocity of 20 feet per second."
The question went on to ask when the watermelon will hit the ground,
based on a formula provided.

Enough people got angry about the question that the teacher was suspended for a week. However the most recent article says the administration lifted the suspension.

So am I angry that the teacher's suspension was lifted? If you think that you don't know TomLand very well. Better read more posts.

----------------------------

According to one of the many offended people "The question propagates a racial stereotype and denigrates Secretary of State Rice"

To that I say bullshit! First of all, I don't see Condoleezza Rice weighing in on the matter. Perhaps if Condi feels slighted then she should speak up. I'm willing to listen to people that speak up for themselves. I'm a lot less willing to listed to folks that think they speak for others. The person quoted in the article doesn't know the Secretary of State and as such shouldn't presume to speak for her.

But let's move on to the 2nd part of the topic... the propagation of a racial stereotype. To be honest besides a stereotype that black people like watermelon I'm not exactly sure what the specific derogatory thought is. I did a search online and (in very vague terms) this watermelon stereotype also seems to associate with laziness and uncleanliness. Seems like the top 10 hits on the Internet can't explain it either.

I'm a very well read individual, I have a great grasp of the English language and an excellent vocabulary. I also can surf the Internet with the best of them. Despite all that, off the top of my head I couldn't tell you why this "stereotype" is demeaning.

For those people who think I'm wrong and this type of question is just plain wrong I say this:

I don't see a problem with certain ethic groups being associated with certain foods, I take the context at face value. If you're reading into it, you're the one that propagating racial stereotypes, as such you're the racist.

Trying to get folks fired because you're the one with a chip on your shoulder; definitely NOT TomLand approved.

What the blog's about

So, my name is Tom (Tomas actually. For the longest time the wife's been saying that I live in a place called Tomland where everything goes my way. If things are good they're "tomland approved" if things suck they're NOT tomland approved.

She jokingly mentioned that I should make a blog called Tomland and write stuff on it, if I thought the topic was good we'd put a smiley face next to it, if not we'd use a Mr. Yuck sticker....

We'll I've done one better I've got modified Mr Yuck and Mr. Smiley stick figures. Not more then once per day I'll post about a new topic, whatever strikes me that day....To the side of every entry I'll add one or the other so you can quickly see if the particular topic is Tomland Approved.

In what I hear is typical Tomland fashion, I'm starting this post with Mr. Yuck... why you ask? Isn't the blog great? Isn't this the germ of an idea coming to fruition? Yeah it is, but you'll see the URL is tom-land.blogspot.com and I HAD do do it that way because tomland.blogspot.com was already taken!

Someone taking MY URL? Definitely NOT Tomland approved.