Fletcher Christian, that’s one of the most ominous for sure – the conflict of Islam and Constitutional guarantees of free speech/no established religion. No doubt, Pres. Obama’s sympathies will greatly enhance the Islamists aims, starting perhaps with banking:

“Brigitte Gabriel: US Treas. Dept. to Host Shariah Compliant Financing Forum”

The First Amendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Sounds OK? Then what happens when one of the religions permitted to be freely exercised has as a central tenet the establishment of religion? And as another a ban on criticising its prophet?

Further; the Constitution has a clause (I forget which one) outlawing slavery. What is the practice of dhimmi except slavery? And thus an Islamic state in the USA would necessarily throw away another of the parts of the Constitution.

I am quite sure that many other countries have similar problems with their legal systems. It’s about time that we acted to plug the holes; and the simple solution is to ban Moslems from public office, and preferably to expel them all.

One need only think of the damage to come from the Supreme Court alone, after BHO’s picks take their seats.

Remember that tired old Constitution contains a “fatal flaw.”

Nothing more needs to be said about that.

I turn 60 in 12 days. At that time a portion of my retirement planning kicks in; I become eligible for the military medical care benefit (Earned benefit, not an entitlement, not a right) from 24 years active/reserve duty. Since my current income is large enough to qualify for redistribution, will I be able to maintain my savings rate for the 4 or 5 years needed to insure I do not become part of the problem?

Fear, with no adrenalin to help…

When we went to public schools in CA, they were near the top in the country. Since then, with the advent first of the NEA, and next one party rule, and unchecked illegal immigration, CA schools now rank at the bottom of the country.

The same thing has happened in Hawaii, although only recently have we witnessed the influx of significant numbers of illegals, so Hawaii’s public schools have yet to reach the depths attained in CA, but the trend has been steadily down since the advent of the NEA.

Obviously not co-incidence that these states’ unionized public schools have trended down together in one-party states.
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Agency Fee Rebate

Last week I received my agency fee rebate from the CTA. At the risk of repeating myself (I do have over 3500 posts on this blog so far!), several courts have held that I cannot be compelled to pay for a union’s activities that do not relate to union organizing or employee pay, benefits, and working conditions. I pay full union dues each school year, and in about January of the following year an arbiter decides which union expenses are chargeable to me and which are outside of the allowable categories. My percentage of those disallowed charges is my agency fee rebate, and I receive that rebate check from the CTA each fall. Please click on the agency fee label for more details in general, and read this post for more specific information.

I received almost $400 last year; this year I received only $330. These rebate amounts are calculated but by an arbiter paid for by the CTA. CTA is required by law to pay for this, and it seems exceedingly unlikely that they would pay an organization that consistently ruled against their interests. I question the impartiality of the arbiters CTA hires.

The arbiter looks at the expenses for the NEA, the CTA, and the local union, and determines which are chargeable to agency fee payers and which are not. Here are the rebate percentages from last year:
NEA–48.59%
CTA and local–38.7%

Here are the percentages from this year, an election year:
NEA–53%
CTA and local–29.1%

The figures above are percentages that CTA’s hired arbiter calculated are outside of the approved categories.

Given CTA’s expenditures since the summer, I expect that next year’s rebate percentage will be significantly higher in the CTA/local category. Given that I have no reason to trust the American Arbitration Association in this arena, though, there’s no telling.

As I said, I received $330 back. I’m going to spend over half of that by rejoining the Association of American Educators, through which I receive better liability insurance than I would through CTA. I learned about AAE from the California Teachers Empowerment Network, a grassroots organization of teachers who serve to counter and balance the one-sided information teachers get (often from the state union that’s supposed to look out for their interests).

I hope we can. Maybe the enemy ought to be reminded, somehow, that we can bring about the predictions of the Three Conjectures all by ourselves. And maybe, just maybe, we will be lucky enough to find another Thatcher or Churchill. We don’t deserve it, and neither does the USA.

Interesting times are coming. Pity we’re not Chinese.