How Did Any Of Us Over 40 Survive Childhood Without The Government And Trial Lawyers ?

Don’t Believe the Hype About “Dangerous” Christmas Toys

Welcome To The Season Of Bogus Scare Stories

 

 

 

 

” Of course, if it was just a few trial lawyers practicing the sky-is-falling business, the whole idea of super-dangerous toys wouldn’t have gone so viral. But the U.S. Public Interest Research Group also publishes an annual “Trouble in Toyland” survey—this year in its 27th iteration—making it seem like anyone who thinks toys are pretty safe is a soon-to-be-sorry sap.

Just like W.A.T.C.H., the survey warns about string: “Drawstrings on children’s clothing lead to deaths and injuries when they catch on playground equipment, bus doors or cribs.” How big a threat do drawstrings pose? “From January 1985 through June 1997, the CSPC [Consumer Product Safety Commission] received reports of 21 deaths,” says the report. That’s 21 deaths over the course of 12 years. Still, “CSPC recommends parents remove drawstrings from all children’s upper outerwear sized 2T to 12 and buy clothing with alternative closures, like snaps, buttons and Velcro.”

Let me repeat that recommendation: Remove the drawstrings on all children’s clothes up to age 12.”

Related articles

• YMI “Hoodies” Sold at dd’s Recalled For Strangulation Hazard (todayinchildsafety.com)
• Bon-Ton fined $450,000 for drawstring error (wfmz.com)
• 27th annual survey finds dangerous toys on store shelves (cnn.com)
• Playground Safety for Your Children (mylittlemr.com)
• Report warns of dangerous toys on store shelves (bangordailynews.com)
• Burlington Settles Lawsuit Over Unsafe Clothes (todayinchildsafety.com)

More And More Billions … Less And Less To Show For It

Private (Union) Takeover of Public Schools

 

This Is Where Our Billions Are Going . Not To The Children , But To The Fatcats 

    Behold the top ten leadership position salaries . Click on the graphic to go directly to the source . Note that the NEA has over ONE THOUSAND employees with an average compensation of nearly $90,000.00 per year . Remember … that is all tax money … the schools generate NO revenue of their own . 

 

 

 

 

  Let that sink in … $88,831,667.46 per year for salaries and benefits alone . That does not include operating expenses such as utilities , rent/mortgages , transportation or anything else . Staggering isn’t it ? And that number amounts to just , wait for it … 13.91% of annual spending .

 

 

Look Here

 

 

 

  Yes , you read that right . In fiscal year 2011 the NEA spent nearly $392 MILLION and none of it went towards the education of your child or mine . 

 

 

 ” President Barack Obama and the Democrats have portrayed themselves as supporters of public education, but their policies have turned public schools into strongholds for powerful private groups of teachers unions, critics say.

“The union is not some branch of public government—they’re just a private corporation,” said James Sayler, a 20-year public school teacher and founder of Colorado Educators for Bush in 2000 and 2004.

“Should a school district give away public authority to a private organization?” Sayler asked. “The unions, with the blessing and cooperation of the Democratic Party, have privatized education.” ”

 

 

   Don’t let anyone tell you that the unions aren’t Big Business . What else can you call an entity that burns though the better part of half a BILLION dollars a year ? It sure ain’t no “mom and pop” operation now is it ? 

 

And that brings us to the most galling aspect of the union (taxpayer funds) spending … Political spending . You haven’t forgotten where all this money comes from , have you ? Remember schools , teacher and unions GENERATE NO REVENUE … Every dime they spend comes from us , the taxpayers .

 

Read this and weep as you see that we are given the bill  to pay for them to lobby for ever greater salaries and benefits with our own money .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A staggering amount of TAXPAYER FUNDS no matter how you look at it .Yet we are forever told that we need to throw more and more money into a system that produces less and less per dollar of investment . 

 

Related articles

• How Teachers Unions Lead the Way to Better Schools (inthesetimes.com)
• Really? The Road to Serfdom? (cafehayek.com)
• Report: Nonteacher Hiring in Public Schools Grows 7 Times Faster Than Enrollment (usnews.com)
• Ann Romney: We Need To ‘Throw Out’ The Public Education System (thinkprogress.org)
• Teachers Fill Marxism Conference to Map Future Indoctrination of School Kids (godfatherpolitics.com)
• Recipe for Privatization of Public Education (dianeravitch.net)
• Milwaukee among tops in nation for charter school enrollment (jsonline.com)
• An Urgent Message for Voters Who Support Public Education (dianeravitch.net)

Money , Politics , Unions

  If corporations and their stockholders are evil for contributing millions to both parties over the past decade , what does that make the union’s donations of billions in mandatory dues to one party over the same time period ?

” A report by the Wall Street Journal looks at the amount of money spent by unions on
political organizing and finds it is actually four times the amount reported in FEC filings. Since 2005, unions have spent $4.4 billion on direct donations and organizing
activities, nearly all of it on behalf of
Democrats. “

More Neighbor vs Neighbor

   Yesterday Ann Althouse showed us a letter that she received that was an attempt to shame her into voting which produced a similar letter from one of her readers about using public info on political donations to shame , intimidate or silence voters .

Things are not sitting well with the progressives these days , considering the depths that they will sink to in order to try and win . I’ve followed politics for a long time and have never seen the likes of these tactics before . Reeks of desperation .

“A reader emailed me:

I got the same thing on donations about 2 weeks ago (see attached).  Ugh

A group of “researchers” using a Harvard University return address (108 Littauer Center – I checked and Harvard has that center.) is sending out campaign contribution information showing one Republican donor (me) and multiple (blinded) Democratic donors.  This reeks of intimidation tactics, i.e. “we have your name, etc and we will spotlight you”.  They claim this is information from “my neighborhood” – I know I live in a very Republican neighborhood so these names could be pulled from anywhere, e.g. the big UVA Democrat areas several miles from here.

Have others received similar notes?  They do it under the guise of “research” but the timing and tone seem very fishy if not illegal.  Is this research being funded by “stimulus” funds by the Federal Government?  I am sure there are other questions here.

I have not gone to their website for fear of tracking, etc.”

 “ADDED: In the Comments, The Drill SGT points to this article, from a couple days ago, in The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Hey, Here’s Who Your Neighbors Gave Money to. Sincerely, Harvard.” “