Important Note:
Opinions are fun. My friends tell me I am someone with lots of opinions and that's fine since I don't get mad at others when they disagree with me. In this same spirit I am interested in hearing yours views as long as you are able to share your views without boiling over. I look forward to hearing from you. I tend to write in the form of short essays most of the time, but contributions do not need to be in this same format or size. Some of the content here will date itself pretty quickly, other content may be virtually timeless, this is for the reader to judge.
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The Creativity Crisis
Posted at: Aug/08/2010 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Education, Perspectives,
How Creative Are You? For years America has bragged about its creativity. We have produced everything from the automatic coffee maker to the Ronco food chopper, and a million products in between. These products have created new industries, phenomenal wealth, and untold numbers of jobs. Along the way we have replaced radios with televisions and televisions with flat screen entertainment systems.....read more…
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The need for Public Sector Pay & Pension Reform
Related Category: Politics & Gov,
Let me set the table. It is the summer of 2010 and we have been in a recession for 20-24 months. Our financial system is rebuilding itself slowly after 15-20 years of unregulated greed at the expense of declining “financial service”. Anytime the tide is really low you get to see all the trash that has accumulated just beyond the beach. In a similar manner, that is where we are now. During the.....read more…
How and Why I write
Posted at: Aug/03/2010 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Self,
I thought I should share this in case my actions and experience have the chance opportunity to inspire others. First of all you should know that I am mostly a very technical person. The majority of my education is in the engineer disciplines. This is because I like math and physics based challenges where you get to test your work in a clear and measurable way. Writing on the other hand is very.....read more…
I did not need to hear those words
Posted at: Jul/28/2010 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Perspectives,
Way back in 1972 (I’m old enough to remember), George Carlin released an album of stand-up comedy entitled “Class Clown”. The only really memorable routine on the album was titled "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television". In this comedy monologue Carlin lists these seven words expressing amazement that the words on his list could not be used, regardless of context. You can look up the list f.....read more…
Are video games really a learning tool?
Posted at: Jul/19/2010 : Posted by: mel
Video games have a bad reputation. Many parents (including myself) have feared for years that their kids were spending too much time zoning out with the PlayStation, Xbox, Game Cube, etc. Having grown up without these same distractions I was sure for many years that my boys needed to be catching frogs like I did rather than playing “Frogger”. After watching my boys for a number of years I am begin.....read more…
Arizona & A broken immigration policy
Posted at: Jul/13/2010 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: The Law,
Let me paint the canvas for you. In April of 2010 the state of Arizona passed a controversial law dealing with immigration issues and the border it shares with Mexico. The law is mandated to take effect no later than August 1st of this same year. In early July the Justice Department of our federal government claiming “preeminent authority” filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to block impleme.....read more…
A strange shift of priorities
Posted at: Jul/11/2010 : Posted by: mel
Related Category: Education, Society,
I am going to venture into education again. I know, it would seem like this subject has been talked to death. I have definitely written on the subject previously. This time my concern will be more sociological in nature. In California which is where I live, as with many states the primary source of school funding is from property taxes. When revenues fall class sizes grow and viable resourc.....read more…
Attribution and the Internet
Posted at: Jun/22/2010 : Posted by: mel
Are you confused, that’s alright…I have had this notion in my head for weeks and only just had it congeal into a more or less logical thought. Bear with me on this, what I am really talking about is the age old challenge of providing public safety and security. Let me be clear, “Attribution” means that when someone does something bad we can attribute it to them. Why the emphasis on .....read more…
Do we need Term-Limits?
Posted at: Jun/09/2010 : Posted by: mel
In this day and age of political frustration Term Limits regularly boils to the top of public debate. I have mixed feeling about the entire matter and on a fundamental basis view term limits as ridiculous. Think about it, term limits are intended to force regular replacement of “elected officials”. If these people are elected, can’t we get rid of them any time we want by simply voting them out?.....read more…
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The Rebellious Child
Posted at: May/22/2010 : Posted by: mel
I have boys and between them and their friends I feel like I see the “Rebellious Child” more than enough. Don’t worry, this is not about my kids, this is about the law. I guess I should begin with a short story as it were “ripped from the headlines”. There is little doubt that Terrance Graham was a wayward, rebellious child. At 16, he helped rob a restaurant in Florida and was sentenced to a .....read more…
