Rubber Rooms, Rubber Heads

(warning, rant ahead)

NYC's Dept of Education gets an 'F'.

AP: '700 hundred NYC public school teachers, accused of offenses ranging from insubordination to sexual misconduct, are being paid their full salaries to sit around all day playing Scrabble, surfing the Internet or just staring at the wall, if that's what they want to do.'

And thats just the beginning...

...salaries of $70,000 or more, the city Department of Education estimates the practice costs the taxpayers $65 million a year. The department blames union rules.

"It is extremely difficult to fire a tenured teacher because of the protections afforded to them in their contract," spokeswoman Ann Forte said.

City officials said that they make teachers report to a 'rubber room' instead of sending they home because the union contract requires that they be allowed to continue in their jobs in some fashion while their cases are being heard. The contract does not permit them to be given other work...

Sheesh, if I lived in NYC I'd be livid... just last week NY mag had an article about how parts of the city are desperate for more teachers.

But because their cases are heard by 23 arbitrators who work only five days a month, stints of two or three years in a rubber room are common, and some teachers have been there for five or six.

NY needs to fire their heads of the NYC Ed. Dept.

Who couldn't see that hiring arbitrators for more days per month will be a heck of a lot less than $65 mil/year?
(sorry, rant over)

link: AP news article, via Yahoo

Free Comic Book Day

Get a kid a free comic book today.

Ask for an all-age comic, like 'Owly'... let retailers know that demand for child comics still exists. Its tough to find learn-to-read comics for kids now that the 'adults'_*cough* have taken over the market.

<- Click for U.S. store locater.

*To find stores outside the U.S.,
the international link is HERE.

Kneed To Pay For Parking

_{original picture credit to albanpix.com}
Welcome to the really 'Short Stay Car Park'... Shrunken 3ft-tall parking machines were installed at a short-stay car park in Sheringham (UK) to make them accessible for the handicapped. Guess what? The wheelchair-bound drivers hate these midget meters too. The Daily Mail article.

Going Green

'Jetting to Green'... Wait, what?'

Go Green with an -airline-? Its a nice thought, but it struck me funny that JetBlue is advising you to reduce your impact.
* Note their list does -not- include 'stay home' :

Plant shade trees to protect from summer sun.
Explore installing a solar water heater for your home.
Encourage recycling efforts.
Re-use envelopes, jars, paper bags, scrap paper, etc.
Join a car pool or use public transport.
Reduce your use of air-conditioning.
Rent or borrow items that you don't use often.
Start a garden; plant a garden instead of a lawn
Compost kitchen waste, or give it to a friend who can.

*gotta love that last one...
I can just hear it... "Happy St. Patrick's Day!... I wanted to give you something that would turn green (eventually) so here's my kitchen trash!?"

Just Say Bleep

Equality for the deaf; they get censorship too!
Deaf actress Marlee Matlin, when told about the PBS censorship policy requiring additional visual pixelization (for the deaf) of recognizable lip movements of sworn words:

"I've been reading the lips of bleeped-out words of angry baseball players and stoned rock stars on awards shows for years and it's been hilarious. Everyone is always asking me what the bleeped parts are... Just say no to pixelization!"

That made me LOL. - 'Go Marlee!'

*Know what else makes MM unique? 'Jodi' is the only character on TLW not suspected of killing Jenny - so of course she totally did it.

SuperSonic Me

Or Ms. Fearless Supersonic Angel if you're nasty...
Yup, its silly. But hey, since I'm now a Superhero, I've decided my Super Quest is going to be to fight to give comic books back to kids. All the recent 'comic book' movies are inappropriate for kids -and- not any fun. And that's beyond silly. Link to do: Your very own SuperHero Makeover.
*hero link rec'd by Lisa, thanks!

eta: Oh No, not more no-fun 'kid' movies?!:

Ant-Man (2010), Avengers (2011), Black Hole (2010), Button Man (in production), Deathlok (2011), Doom Patrol (soon), The Flash (2010), Hack/Slash (2009), Iron Man 2 (2010), Madman (2009), Nick Fury (2010), Red Sonja (2009), Ronin (in production), Spider-Man 4 (2011), Thor (2009), Watchmen (2009), Whiteout (2009), The Witchblade (2009), X-Men: Wolverine (2009)

Anyone else think these 'comic' flicks sound depressing?

No Comic Relief in Sight

[rant] on not-so-comic comix. Pardon my soapbox.

Kid fun turned into adult controversy,
... By grown-ups that just won't grow up!
Some found my blog simply because I use a comic-style profile pic. That seemed odd, but after 5 minutes on Google it appears that more adults are having issues (excuse the pun) with comic books than ever before:

Females Read Comics, Yes!
Comics vs 'ISM's: Racism, Sexism, etc.
No Censorship!
Comics are too 'Corporate'!

When did comic book publishers abandon the 10-yr-olds?
Now they pander to immature 'adults' with their odd love of overendowed men and women in inked spandex.

Where are 'Casper', 'Dennis the Menace' or even 'Pokemon' comic books for the under-12 set? Looks like only the dull Disney talking animals survived the coup. 'Sorry kids, no more fun comics while you've got the flu.'

Then Hollywood followed suit! Silly storylines - rated 'R'? Marketing a kiddie story 'Catwoman' as 'sexy' then surprised when it bombed? Raise your hand if you're tired of comic book movies.

Reminds me of those 'basement-dwellers' crabbily fussing because a child-friendly character, Jar-Jar Binks, was added to 'Star Wars'. The complainers had no concept of the fact that their beloved series is a simple 'good guy vs bad guy' kid movie. As yet another comic book character would say: 'Doh!'

Get the 'adults' (and their issues) out of this kid zone. Give comic books back to the children, and force those that are locked in an adolescent time-warp to finally grow up. [/rant]