Shuttle where are we going ?

"Paul F. Dietz" wrote in message
...
Christopher M. Jones wrote:

But if you don't have kids, educating the children of others isn't
necessarily going to benefit *you* (or your loved ones).


Where do you live where you don't have to intereact with
or rely on other people on a near constant basis? Just
curious.

I live somewhere where lots of people vote against school
funding referenda, since it will raise their taxes. I selfishly
want my children to have a good education, so I find this
galling. An understandable consequence of human nature, but
still galling.


Funny enough, just voted on our school budget. I noticed as I was there
that a lot of senior citizens were voting at that time.

The budget was defeated.

Now it simply may have been the time of day, but I have my suspicions.


Paul

On Thu, 20 May 2004 20:00:33 -0500, "Paul F. Dietz"
wrote:

I live somewhere where lots of people vote against school
funding referenda, since it will raise their taxes.

....Locally, when residents voted against raising school taxes or any
other school-related bond issues, the general answer/excuse given in
exit polls about why they voted "no ****ing way" generally went like
this:

"Hey, teachers get paid too much for the **** jobs they perform. I was
in school, I saw how much a bunch of anal-retentive jerks with sticks
up their asses the majority of them were. It may be 20 years since I
was in school, but from what my kids tell me it ain't no different
now. When teachers stop acting like a bunch of ****headed little
Hitlers(*) and go back to teaching instead of playing little power
trip games, we'll start talking about more money. Until then, they can
do with what they get, and that's too much as it is."

....And they do have some basis for their view. Almost daily we see in
the news stories about how one teacher gets suspended for doing
something stupid, and you hear all the time from your own kids or the
neighbors' kids how some old bat has some really odd, strict rules
and/or nobody wants to have for a teacher because she's more
interested in being a dictator than concentrating on making sure the
lesson is learned. Most of that, especially in Texas, came about when
they unionized. Now it's hard to fire a teacher unless they've done
something really obvious - read: something the press would have a
field day with, like beating the kid senseless with a shoe, or having
sex with him in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart.

(*) This is a paraphrased quote. Godwin's Law does not apply.
OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

On Fri, 21 May 2004 01:32:50 GMT, "Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)"
wrote:

Funny enough, just voted on our school budget. I noticed as I was there
that a lot of senior citizens were voting at that time.

The budget was defeated.

Now it simply may have been the time of day, but I have my suspicions.

In my state (Washington), senior citixens with low incomes are exempted
from the schools portion of their property taxes. They have to apply for the
exemption, and there are a few levels of it, depending on income.

Since seniors generally have a higher voter turnout than younger people,
I suppose the loss of tax revenue is made up for by fewer "no" votes
motivated by concerns over increased taxes for those with fixed incomes.

Dale

"Dale" wrote in message
...

In my state (Washington), senior citixens with low incomes are
exempted from the schools portion of their property taxes. They
have to apply for the exemption, and there are a few levels of it,
depending on income.

Since seniors generally have a higher voter turnout than younger
people, I suppose the loss of tax revenue is made up for by
fewer "no" votes motivated by concerns over increased taxes for
those with fixed incomes.

I have often wondered at this fundamental distortion within out society
between the dependent young and old where the old can vote but the young
can not.

Perhaps those over 70 should not have the vote like those under 18, thus
balancing the representation of age. No representation without
taxation. :-)

This would definitely result in the better education and welfare of
children with the considerable long term and society wide benefits
derived, (higher standard of living, lower crime rates, etc.) These
benefits would ultimately actually improve the lot of old people.

Some side effects of this might be a culturally younger and more
vigorous society, less wedded to the past and more focused on the
future. Such a society might be more interested in the progress of
technology and the advancement into space.

Pete.

On Thu, 20 May 2004 16:22:07 +0000 (UTC),
(Eric Chomko) wrote:


I take it that you are speaking exclusively about manned spaceflight,
right? It seems that the unmanned spaceflight is doing just fine.

So's manned atmospheric flight. Remember the first "A" in NASA?

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer

On Thu, 20 May 2004 23:03:48 -0700, Mary Shafer
wrote:

So's manned atmospheric flight. Remember the first "A" in NASA?

....Yeah, but since you retired, it quit being womanned as well :-(

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" writes:
Funny enough, just voted on our school budget. I noticed as I was there
that a lot of senior citizens were voting at that time.

The budget was defeated.

Now it simply may have been the time of day, but I have my suspicions.

Younger people generally give "I had better things to do" as an excuse
for not voting. Senior citizens, on the other hand, seem to have more
free time to vote.

Jeff
--
Remove "no" and "spam" from email address to reply.
If it says "This is not spam!", it's surely a lie.

jeff findley wrote:

Younger people generally give "I had better things to do" as an excuse
for not voting. Senior citizens, on the other hand, seem to have more
free time to vote.

I've noticed the school referenda do better in the November general elections
than they do in the earlier primaries. High turnout helps, probably because
it makes the younger working parents more likely to vote.

Paul

"Paul F. Dietz" writes:

jeff findley wrote:

Younger people generally give "I had better things to do" as an excuse
for not voting. Senior citizens, on the other hand, seem to have more
free time to vote.

I've noticed the school referenda do better in the November general elections
than they do in the earlier primaries. High turnout helps, probably because
it makes the younger working parents more likely to vote.

Without a doubt. Unfortunately this also reflects on how high a
priority education is to many parents.

Jeff
--
Remove "no" and "spam" from email address to reply.
If it says "This is not spam!", it's surely a lie.

Mary Shafer ) wrote:
: On Thu, 20 May 2004 16:22:07 +0000 (UTC),
: (Eric Chomko) wrote:


: I take it that you are speaking exclusively about manned spaceflight,
: right? It seems that the unmanned spaceflight is doing just fine.

: So's manned atmospheric flight. Remember the first "A" in NASA?

But can NASA hold a candle to the Air Force in that regard? The Blue
Angels looked pretty good at Andrews last week despite a problem with
number 5.

Eric

: Mary

: --
: Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer
: