Desperate times make people stupid

We hear that the economy is bad.  We hear about wars.  During these times is when we should be pulling friends and families together.  Instead people are placing themselves as judge and executioner to prove some  personal point.  I looked at a Twitter account and here some of the first stories I found:

Libyan rebels fighting Gadhafi troops in Misrata say 8 oftheir fighters have been killed in clashes - Reuters
Up to 9 shot and a 19-year-old male killed when birthday party in Chester, Pa. turns violent - Philadelphia Daily News http://bit.ly/ggXsWXDutch shooting update: At least 6 dead; gunman ran through mall with automatic weapon before killing self -DutchNews.nl http://bit.ly/fBrbUH

I can understand people fighting for freedom.  I can understand defending your homeland.  But is with the arrogance of these people that believe they're purpose is to do something so horrific as too kill people indiscriminately?  Is an argument really worth killing people at a birthday party?

If you feel the need to kill move away from people.  There many places you can go to get away from your problems until you can deal with them.  If you feel the need to bring a gun to birthday don't go.  Gun rarely bring joy to party.

What is and isn't social media

I the last few minutes I received a post on Facebook:

We all have at least 60 friends on Facebook; However when it comes to needing someone to talk to, How many will actually be there for you? I can guarantee you, not even 15 of your Facebook friends will like this status. If you would be there for me, set this as your status & see how many of us there for you!!!

My reply was:

I understand the sentiment of your post but you have remember this is an asynchronous media. IE when you post something I may not even see it for hours or days. During that time more people will add their messages. If you want true conversation I would say invite some people out to lunch or meet up at church. Facebook, Twitter and other social media just quick ways of starting a conversation. The real conversations happen in the real world.

Social media is about the moment: "I'm playing a game now I need" or "Here's my quick thought."  While those thought snippets are getting posted so are twenty or thirty other thoughts by other people.  Theres no way can keep up with every conversation.

The real question becomes how do you want to use your social media?  If you want the maximum number of friends to play you RockYou/Zanga games then you loose intimacy.  If you want conversation then only friend people that want the same thing as you.  But don;t get upset if you friend people who don't want the same thing.

Can you pout some more?

Francine Lawrence, president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers, has notified the Ohio Department of Education that the union intends to pull out of the Race to the Top Program, she said Tuesday night.

Ohio was awarded in August $400 million in the federal Race to the Top competition, a program aimed at reforming schools. The Toledo district's share is $10.8 million.

Source: ToledoBlade.com, published on 3/19/2011

The issue is that the Toledo Public Schools (TPS) academic programs have been floundering for nearly two decade. Together with budget shortfall from a shrinking population TPS has to make drastic changes and make them now.  TPS is trying to negotiate those changes with local teacher's union but they're not budging.

Right now the TPS teacher union is waging a PR war against TPS to keep every single benifit they have negitiated over the last two decades.  This is the latest tatic to force the school board the give in their demands.  The problem is TPS doesn;t have the money and if Francine Lawrence and the Toledo teacher union drop this program the teachers loose even more and the school have even less to pay their teacher and maintain the facilities.

This a big game of chicken that Francine can't loose in. Why can't she loose? Simple: Her contract is set in stone and she will continue to earn her six figure salary until the day she retires.  So really right now she's heading negotiations for her legacy as she nears retirement and not the good of the children.