And I ain’t even been to Georgia lately.

Yet, I seem to be taking someone to court for some reason.

People really fall for this crap?  Even if I had been in Georgia lately, I probably wouldn’t forget filing some papers with the court a scant 11 days ago.

But then again, there may be big bucks in this, I should click on the link just to be sure, no?

Mr. Peabody’s Way-Back Machine: I-80 across the Utah border.

To what era would you attribute these comments:

“We’re dropping [our] moral and ethical standards in favor of a more national [set], and I don’t like it,”… they contain “code words for socialism.”?

• A) 1950’s U.S. Senate Committee Hearings
  
• B) 2011 Utah Senator
  
• C) Both of the above, because there’s really no difference between the two.

If you chose C) then you are right, because they really sound like something Joe McCarthy would have said back in the 50’s and yet they were said just this week by Chris Buttars, a Utah State Legislator.

Reported in the Salt Lake Tribune article, Buttars was referring to a new set of academic standards that 39 other states also plan to adopt.  Developed by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers, not mandated by the Federal Government, the idea is that states need to become better aligned in their math and English curriculum because of an ever increasingly mobile population.

Personally, I agree with the goal.  I’m definitely not for the ultra micromanaging I’ve heard of in other cases, where every teacher should be teaching the exact same thing, with the exact same vehicles, on any given day.  Individualism aside, that doesn’t even allow for adapting to classes that learn faster/slower than others and would mean moving ahead even if the majority of students still don’t get it.  But, at least in math, to know that any student coming into my class has already gone over monomials, inequalities and other things that I have covered, would be quite helpful.  There may still be things that I have covered that their old teacher didn’t, or vica-versa, but at least common standards would help minimize these.

And, regardless of whether or not you agree with them, playing the communism/socialism card is just sooooo 1950’s.

Are you on crack?

or just a total moron?

This silver Pontiac Sunbird pulls up to pump 5 and the guy gets out with a lit cigarette. Now this is stupid enough, but since people usually immediately throw the smoke on the ground and stomp it out I didn't think much of it. A couple of minutes later I look out there and he's pumping gas with his left hand and holding the lit cigarette in his right hand. I actually had to get on the speaker and tell him to put it out. "Welcome to Chevron, smoking is not allowed at the gas pumps." You can just imagine what I wanted to say.

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the gene pool.

.... I read this in the Salt Lake Tribune yesterday. A 21 year old guy comes out of his house to find someone has spray painted obsenities on his brand new Aveo. Now, instead of thinking "Hey, you really can't hurt the looks of something that ugly", he gets mad. His second mistake was not going straight to either the police or the parents of the three 12 year-olds he believes did it. Nope. Instead he gets his 16 year-old cousin, finds the three kids, puts them in a headlock and throws them in the back of the car. Then they take them to an auto bodyshop on Redwood Road and they call one of the kid's mothers. Demanding $1,000 for repairs in return for her kid.
.... After about an hour, the kids were returned safely and the duo was arrested. Not suprisingly, they've been charged with kidnapping. Duh.

Are you kidding?

I'm addicted to ksl.com car classifieds.  There are an amazing amount of 1969-1979 cars out there for sale in Utah, and I'm always dreaming about the next one I'm going to pick up, regardless of how little money I have.  Saw this one on there for only $499.99, or anything that can maim or kill.

1978 Buick Regal. This is the car that started it all. The grand dady of the low Riderz. Listen up all you teenager wannabe smoothies. This is the car for you. Turbo V6,Carbed. Easy to work on, will turn out to be the ultimate pimp mobile. Big Back seat, fast, and fun. Head turner when you get done w/ it. Call: ***** *** @ 801-***-****, no messages, texts ok. Runs, but needs works. Will consider trades for cool stuff like guns, ATVs, Drums, explosives and stuff.  Thanks!!!! Check it out !!

Ummm, duh!

So I'm all ready for the final semester of my Master's degree.  I've got my backpack and I head up to the U for class yesterday.  I get there and park in the usual place, and start to feel a little uneasy because the parking lot is kind of empty.  Not completely, but just a lot less than I'm used to.  My uneasyness is releived when another student from my cohort pulls in and we walk to class together.  It's almost 5:00, when class is supposed to start, and the two of us are getting a little concerned, so the other student calls her friend and leaves a massage questioning whether or not class starts this week.  Standing there, wonderning how long we're going to wait, and a third student shows up, so we relax, assured that certainly 3 of us can't be wrong.  Yeah, right.  A couple of minutes later the friend calls back, just to inform us that we were a week early.

.

Well, I put the blame squarely on my friend and fellow student, because if she wasn't going to be gone next week (the first week of school), I wouldn't have been expecting to be going up to school alone the first day.   I would have e-mailed her confirming our meeting at Trax, and she would have, in a nice sarcastic way, let me know that maybe I should have checked the schedule because I was a week off.

.

Just kidding, my friend.  But I do have to admit that this would not have been the first time I've relied on her to keep me on schedule.  If I paid her a buck for everytime she reminded me of when something was due over the last 2 years, she'd be able to afford that trip to Paris.

"We stand for things" - Davenport, Iowa, Aug. 4, 2004

A hundred sixty nine days left of what is arguably the worst presidency in the history of our country. Let me put it this way - less than half the people in Utah are happy with our president. (According to the Rasmussen Report on June 23, 2008, only 45% of Utahns think GW is doing good or excellent). When you consider that even George the First at his worst hit 68%, (Deseret News, May 25, 2003) that says a lot. So, in honor of the dwindling number of days left of this walking embarassment of a leader, here are some of the quotes I've gleaned from my "GWBush Official Countdown Calendar";

• "I don't know all the facts, I want to know all the facts. The best place for the facts is to be done is by somebody who's spending time investigating it" - Washington, D.C., July 2005


• "Give me a chance to be your president and America will be safer and stronger and better" - Marquette, Michigan, July 13, 2004 (campaigning for reelection)


• "Justice ought to be fair" - Washington, D.C., 2004


• "No more public scatology." - In a personal note to future Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers, July 18, 1997.


• "I wish I wasn't the war president. Who in the heck wants to be a war president? I don't." - Washington, D.C., 2004


• "These people don't have tanks. They don't have ships. They hide in caves. They send suiciders out." - Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 2002


• "I think war is a dangerous place." - Washington D.C., 2003