• "New London's CAPT scores were also well below state averages and were either flat or suffered decreases....The number of students hitting goal in writing is down nearly seven percent from 25.5 to 18.4, while science scores are down one percent."
• "New London Superintendent of Schools Nicholas A. Fischer, in his second week on the job, said the test results are a sign that the district "has some work to do."

Obama unveils $4 billion school improvement plan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama on Friday announced a competition for $4 billion in federal grants to improve academic achievement and reverse a decline in U.S. public schools.

"In an economy where knowledge is the most valuable commodity a person and a country have to offer, the best jobs will go to the best educated, whether they live in the United States, or India, or China," Obama said.

The president wants states to use funds from the competition, dubbed the "Race to the Top," to ease limits on so-called charter schools, link teacher pay to student achievement and move toward common U.S. academic standards.

Charter schools receive public funding but generally are exempt from some state or local rules and regulations. They are operated as an alternative to traditional public schools.

"America will not succeed in the 21st century unless we do a far better job in educating our sons and daughters," Obama said in an address at the Department of Education.

The $4 billion education grant program was created under the $787 billion economic stimulus plan passed by Congress and signed into law by Obama in February.

"Rather than divvying it up and handing it out, we are letting states and districts compete for it. That's how we can incentivize excellence and spur reform and launch a race for the top in America's public schools," he said.

The United States has one of the worst high school dropout rates in the industrialized world, and its students often rank below those in other Western nations in reading and math.

Obama has portrayed the drive to improve education as part of a broader push to promote economic growth in the face of a deep recession and the worst U.S. financial crisis in decades.

(Writing by JoAnne Allen and Ross Colvin)

• Michael Jackson: a tragic figure, exploited to the grave and beyond, even by the likes of the Today show and all the others.  A contrary view...that he was never a victim...was offered in a recent WSJ article.
• That "renowned" Harvard professor was evidently a product of affirmative action.  "Stupid is as stupid does". 
• By the way, if you want to learn more about the highly vaunted Harvard University, read The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion At Harvard, Yale, and Princeton", by Jerome Karabel, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
• And then we have "Obamanation".  On December 1, 2008 in this section I wondered aloud about who Barack Obama really is.  I'm starting to see...and the picture is not reassuring.  On both the national and international stage, he has displayed signs of political and personal immaturity as well as a worrisome reliance on the politics of race.  His insistence on a quick vote regarding massive Health Care reform is nothing less than reckless.  Not reassuring.  Are we going to have to suffer through another Carter era?  This time we can't afford it; and our children and grandchildren may not survive it.  As we learned a long time ago in typing class: "Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country." 
• Many good articles regarding the Health Care Reform derby are appearing in the WSJ.  Very briefly: the projected "savings" from elimination of "waste" (aka rationing of our medical care by bureaucrats) are grossly overstated; the greatly increased cost of greater utilization is grossly underestimated; and maintenance of quality of care is taken for granted despite the guaranteed debilitating pressure on all parts of the delivery system.  And who is taking about the patient's own personal responsibility for his or her health?  No one...not now, and not during the last 30+ years.  That's why we're in this fix.   
• Meanwhile, the world dithers on with its problems...and that's the "good news".

While there are clearly issues within the current legislation which make it far from perfect, it clearly aligns with many policies for which the ACP had advocated for many years (and I had the fortunate opportunity to be part of the ACP’s Health & Public Policy Committee from 2003-7, so I am familiar with much of the debate which went into the development of several of these policv papers) and therefore it is felt to warrant our support at this time.

Even the AMA (typically not pushing to change the status quo in most situations) had decided to publicly support this current bill. At times, controversial political decisions need to be made to keep one’s place at the decision-making table. I sincerely hope the health reform debate continues to move forward based on good data-driven evidence and policy and not misleading propaganda and political “hot-button” reactions.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making
my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 &70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.


I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.
They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful.
But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers,
or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and
compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.
 
I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.
So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their
hair could turn silver.



As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore.
I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever,
but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day(if I feel like it).
MAY OUR FRIENDSHIP NEVER COME APART ESPECIALLY WHEN IT'S STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART!


MAY YOU ALWAYS HAVE A RAINBOW OF SMILES ON YOUR FACE AND IN YOUR HEART FOREVER AND EVER! FRIENDS FOREVER!

• I hope that this administration knows what is going on with the leadership of North Korea, which is trying mightily to provoke us.  We should not be provoked.  We should merely be prepared. 
• President Obama in Russia.  I hope this doesn't turn out to be an innocent in a house of mirrors.  Just remember: Russians are not Westerners / Occidentals; they are Orientals.  They play by rules different from the West...and they play for keeps. 
• Sarah Palin has bigger cojones than do most of the leaders of the Republican Party.  She is a definite contender for 2012, especially if this administration continues to undermine this country's financial base and future. 
• At least Colin Powell has noticed this.  After a year of silence since his unfortunate endorsement of Obama for President, he is again starting to be quoted on national affairs.  "Come on in.  The water's fine". 
• But what really got my goat today...primed by an editorial earlier this week in The Day (www.theday.com) stating that the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (located as the newspaper is in New London, Ct.) should do whatever it takes to increase the "diversity" of the student body of that fine institution...is the information provided in a reply in the Sunday, July 5 edition of the paper.  It is authored by a retired Coast Guard Captain and a graduate of the Academy class of 1953.  It is titled: "The Down Side Of Striving For Racial Diversity" (The Day Sunday, July 5, 2009, Voices and Views, pE3).  This is another "must read".  It turns out that there are two tracks for appointment to West Point and especially to Annapolis, despite what the U.S. Supreme Court decided in the Baake case and its progeny.  And the differences in qualifications are marked.  This is insanity...and it is patently unfair to those minority students who earn such distinction on their own valid merits.  As the man says: "We report.  You decide."  I decided a very long time ago.  But the Black community continues to support a Public Education system that shamelessly continues to turn out mediocrities instead of educated citizens.  And then there is Judge Sotomajor who aspires to join the USSC after applying the same ignorant approach in her decision, just overturned by that same USSC, in the New Haven Firefighter case.  Wild.

• "Obama's Health Cost Illusion", Editorial Monday, June 8, 2009, Opinion, pA16.
•  "ObamaCare Sticker Shock", Editorial Friday, June 19, 2009, Opinion, pA14.
•  "Parsing The Health Reform Arguments", by George Newman, in Opinion, Wednesday July 1, 2009, pA13.