Why even bother?

I was out of town this past week and missed this article about the fundraising for Superward 6 in Norfolk but luckily for all of you my sister-in-law told me about it. 

Here is the summary:

Winn $163,000
Amiral $15,000
Calabrese $1,200
Scaccia $770

And no, I did not put an extra zero in Winn's column or take a zero  away from Scaccia.

Those numbers tell me two things.
1.  Winn certainly has the establishment support.
2.  Calabrese and Scaccia don't understand how elections work. 

Kids, put a fork in this election because it is done.

Sure, there is a lot of anti-incumbency sentiment out there.  However, with three candidates opposing him the anti-Winn vote will get split and he will cruise to an easy victory. 

Sorry, but that's the reality.  This joker will get re-elected and Norfolk voters will continue to wonder why things aren't getting better. 

Random Observations

1.  The NFL schedule came out this past week.  Teams are allowed a maximum of five prime time games on TV.  Teams that have a winning history or a or a big fan following get all five.  Teams that do not have a history of winning or big fan bases (sorry Jacksonville but I am looking at you) are lucky to get a couple.  Denver with Peyton Manning at QB is scheduled for five prime time games. Do you think the NFL thinks Peyton won't be able to perform this year?

2.  I heard this weekend that city council members of Norfolk get a car allowance.  The amount is in question.  Figures ranging from $100-$800 per month were thrown out.  Wouldn't it just be cheaper to just have taxi cabs pick up the council members for the meetings?

3. Why do pre-teen boys not understand the concept of a clean kitchen or a properly loaded dishwasher? 

4.  The Avengers movie is coming out May 4th.

If you aren't pumped to see the movie after that trailer I can't help you.  As much as I am looking forward to this movie, I don't see myself seeing it opening weekend.  I hate crowds and I don't have a costume.  Does anyone plan on going that first weekend and which Avenger will you be dressed as?

My response

After yesterday’s post, there was a LOT of traffic.  After processing the comments on the page, the emails and conversations, this is my response:

Mr. Scaccia, I believe your sentiment is clear.  You regret the words that you used, but you stand by them.  You don’t like homeschoolers.  I get it.  I find it odd that you consider us arrogant and yet your post was extraordinarily arrogant.  I think bashing homeschoolers is going for the low hanging fruit.  It’s easy to make fun of those geeky homeschoolers, right?  I mean, they’re a weird bunch. 

Here’s an analogy.  If you wrote a ten point blog on why you hate gun owners but at the end say you support the second amendment and my right to carry, I am going to have a hard time buying the claim.  If you were in a position to limit gun ownership, you could not be trusted to vote in favor of gun owners.   So while I appreciate your immediate response to my post, your alleged support of school choice is not credible. 

I would like to offer a simple editing check for future posts where you talk about hating a group.  Whenever you feel the need to post an “I hate fill in the blank group” you need to replace the blank with the Jew or Christian or Muslim or whatever group strikes your fancy and then read it to yourself. 

Politically, Mr. Scaccia, you don’t get it.  I don’t know Barclay Winn’s stand on homeschooling.  He may also hate them with as much passion as you do.  But I do know that Norfolk is a fairly homeschool friendly city.  Norfolk has a number of homeschool programs, many of which have expanded each year.  My gut feeling is if you were on city council you wouldn’t support these excellent programs (which are, by the way, revenue sources for the city).  You might even oppose them because damn it there go those selfish, intolerant maybe even racist homeschoolers taking resources away from the public schools. 

To quote my wife, “I wonder what kind of public school teacher he was.  Given that post and his Alt Daily diatribes, I’d be concerned about him teaching our kids.”

The bottom line is I don’t trust you, and we won’t be having coffee. 

Politics 101

About until about twenty minutes ago I fully supported Jesse Scaccia for city council. He had posted some good stuff and he seemed like a better alternative to Barclay "Blow $150M on Light Rail" Winn. Then I read his blog post titled: The Case Against Homeschooling.

He has backtracked on the post saying it was satire and he respects the rights of parents to homeschool.

Now I am in a quandry.  Either, he doesn't believe what he writes (which I don't respect) or he does believe what he writes (in which case I really don't like).

Today's lesson in politics: You write it.  You own it.  Be prepared for the consequences.

You wrote:

"Homeschooling is selfish."

"Homeschooling parent/teachers are arrogant to the point of lunacy."

"Homeschooling could breed intolerance, and maybe even racism."

 

You can offend me.  That's OK and if you want to have a debate on the merits of homeschooling or deficit reduction or increasing taxes I am fine with that too.  But that post is insulting and demeaning to myself, my wife and a lot of my friends.

So Jesse I will not be supporting your campaign.  I can't trust someone who says they respect homeschoolers and then craps all over what they do.  
 

Happy Easter/Passover

Here's wishing a Happy Easter and Passover to everyone.  In honor of this holiday weekend I would like to share with you Jim Gaffigan's excellent analysis of the origin of the Easter tradition.

They don't get it

Wow.  In the middle of a budget crunch and lack of money for schools, Norfolk turns around and creates a military liaison job that pays $100K.

I am not going to argue the merits of whether or not this is a good idea.  It may be a great idea and something that the city desperately needs.  However, up until now the city has not had this position and we had been OK.  I am curious what the business case is for spending this money.  By what metric will CAPT Andrews' performance be measured?

The first thing you should do when you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.  By the same token, the first thing you should do when you don't have enough money to pay the bills is to stop racking up additional charges.     

You can't complain about not having money for schools on the one hand and then turn around and make up city jobs on the other. 

This isn't rocket science people.  It's plain common sense.