A big chunk of what I am as an adult is tied to 2 very bad years of public education a the hands of 2 incredibly poor teachers.

My 2nd grade teacher was, to put it simply, a monster. She was angry, she was mean, she flew into rages that - owing to her imposing height - were enough to cause us to cower in fear of her. My strongest memory of her is of a math lesson (definitely a serious struggle for me throughout my primary education) where she stood over me holding a ruler in her hand, screaming and pointing out to the entire class that I just didn't get it. There may have been a root cause for her anger, but it wasn't my fault. I was sent there to be taught, not ridiculed.

My 3rd grade instructor was worse. I'd get bored & stop listening. Her solution? She created a day-dreaming chart just for me. When she caught me, she made a check mark on the very public chart.

I regard both women and the institution they worked in with complete contempt. A system that allows their like should be destroyed.

Yes, we homeschool.

Oy!

Why must those with a record contract feel so compelled to weigh-in on matters they are so utterly clueless about?  You can almost imagine the scene when the lyricist awakes in an alcohol and/or drug-induced stupor, rolls over the groupie, yaks into the trashcan, wipe his mouth, and begins writing this little ditty.  Lovely.

Pyromania, indeed.

Preeecisely.  This is, I think, the significant long-term upside to the left's fixation with not procreating.  Sooner or later, they will be gone.  They are either too stupid to recognize this or so very certain that this life is all there is, they just don't care.  That they will have denuded the landscape of their progeny leaving it to the more-fertile right is all the better. 

Were I a South Carolinian in the 1st district, I wouldn't have voted for him in the primary. I certainly would have today, however.

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."

Um, folks he gave this speech to The Ohio State University graduates. I assure you they neither understood anything he said nor remembered it.

Perhaps if we'd all just quit repeating it, no one else will either.

That said, Denise, I was arrested at the Jefferson quote. Remarkable foresight of those founders. Truly remarkable.

Oh, and please forgive the OSU snark. Buckeye is a four letter word up here.

1.

There's been warming, cooling, warming, cooling... There is certainly change. To think we control it is the height of folly. Only a creature as full of himself as man could think he could fundamentally damage a planet put in just the right corner of the galaxy, at just the right distance from its sun, orbiting that sun at just the right speed, rotating on an axis that is tilted at just the right degree, with a moon that seems to keep the vast ocean tides in check.

How God must look upon us and chuckle at our arrogance and, perhaps, weep at our ignorance.

Romans 1:19-21

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

I fight an ongoing battle against our culture that grows ever-more comfortable with the "7 dirty words you can't say on television". The words of my now nearly 100 year old grandfather ring in my ears: "People who use such language are too stupid to know better." I now know that is not typically true, as folks far more intelligent than me freely use such language, male or female, mixed company, whatever.

What I can't shake, however, is the sadness of it all. We have a beautiful, versatile language with so many wonderful words at our disposal. Every day, we use less and less of it. We get more and more profane. It lowers everyone of us to the lowest common denominator.

Can we really say our culture is enriched by this? Think about "Gone with the Wind" and its groundbreaking use of profanity. Is it better now, with the wanton use by seemingly everyone?

Finally, there've been points made on this thread about the fact that certain places (baseball lockerrooms) or vocations (military, construction, comedy writing - sorry, Rob) just demand vigorous use of profanity. Doesn't that make them sheep, led by the crowd? Just sayin'

While tempted to leave the last word to the expert driver (yes, you Dave Carter), I feel I must weigh-in.

In town, I do my level best to stick closely to posted speeds. Nothing frosts my glass more than someone speeding through my suburban neighborhood (often a teen driver texting whilst listening to "music" with bass only that I can feel even with his windows rolled up).

On the interstate, however, I will go as fast as conditions allow. The enforcement is so irregular and arbitrary, its's worthless and serves only to pad whatever municipality sets up a random speed trap. As has already been pointed out by others, here in SE Michigan we assume 75 (our beloved mother road) is the minimum we should go on our freeways - most of which are sparsely populated nowadays.

Finally, I know I've read that an overwhelming % of our interstate system was designed for 80 mph speeds and that at least 1 mile of every so many had to be straight enough to land a SAC bomber. I choose to think of those as acceleration lanes.

Just got a new one, too C.J. and was pleasantly surprised at the relative (for the Feds) speed.

I also noticed the quotes & scratched my head at a few. I was also noticing how difficult it now is to read the actual data on the main page due to all the laminating, squiggly lining, and other anti-counterfeit measures they've layered on.

I've grown to loathe the fact that so much of our correspondence is now in both English & Spanish. I've come all the way from thinking its a good idea that my church has a completely seperate minister & worship service for Spanish-speakers to questioning the wisdoms of it. The only chance any of those with Spanish as their primary language has at an upwardly-mobile (other than cash under the table) lifestyle is to learn the language of the majority as is the case in virtually every other country.

Why, for goodness sake, would the ultimate symbol of American citizenship, (El Pasaporte) come with instructions in ANY other language. At least the Canadians can blame the always-agitated Quebec issue for their annoying (to this non-Canadian) bi-lingual everything. What really is our excuse? Exhaustion?

Dedicated iPad fanatic here, Fred. Ditto the frustration about Ricochet.com's loathsome support for mobile formatting. I've virtually eliminated my use of any other electronic device to produce or consume electronic content. I read all my news on the iPad my favorites being Flipboard, Zite, Drudge, and WSJ. I take all notes via Evernote which also serves as my "oh that's interesting. I should save that." web clipping/email saving application. I use Notability to annotate .pdf files (class notes, sermon outlines, etc.). I browse the web mostly with google chrome. I read all books on either Kindle or iBooks apps. Netflix, Amazon video, and hulu + work fantastic on the iPad. I also use a slim logitech keyboard I got from Costco for $79 that allows me to do more power typing but I find the onscreen keyboard very acceptable. Weather.com app gets regular work from me as does facetime, youversion & olive tree (both bible apps), My Fitness Pal for calorie tracking, facebook &/or hootsuite apps for social media consumption/posting. Keeper for password/sensitive information storage. Join.me, webex, slideshark are all fantastic to join online meetings and all have added abilty to present from your ipad.

Ah, Mollie.  I knew I liked you best of the Richochetti!  Our 1970 Worldbook set was a trusted companion to me after school.  I never thought of my time invested reading them, looking at the pictures, building the "layover" pages to complete the makeup of the human body - I never thought of it as learning something.  I was exploring!  World Book encouraged (I guess I already had it) a lifetime of incessant curiosity and the belief that I could find the answer.

To this day, I fume at the arrogance of the educators who banned their unbelievably practical use for research. I remain convinced it was a conspiracy to make me hate the classroom and loathe those who taught in them.  I learned much more on my own.

Occasionally these two do something politically heroic.  Most of the time, they've merely shown themselves useful idiots more concerned with who's inviting them to dinner than protecting the constitution and doing their doggone jobs.  

Their constituent's could solve that problem.

Very tough road here in MI. I'd imagine his half-wit brother, Sander, will run just to keep the family name suckling directly from the teat of government. I see very little on the GOP horizon here that could win a statewide election. We re-elected Debbie Stabenow most recently and she's utterly dreadful and beneath contempt.

I would not wish that on the Governor & Mrs. Romney.  As a resident of the northern suburbs, it sure looks as though the only hope for Detroit is for some type of cataclysm to drive all the people out, all the structures vaporize, the land lays fallow, and then the phoenix arises.  

The city is more like a corrupt African capital than the US.  Rotten to its very core.  In fact Gen. 6:5,6 actually comes to mind.

Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to get me. I read this in the WSJ and found myself immediately on the defensive. I own guns (more recently than I had a mere 6 months ago. Thanks Mr. President ;-). The solution to the issue of crimes perpetrated by criminals using guns is this: PUNISH THEM, quickly. Then leave me alone with my property. We're overcomplicating this as conservatives. We must deny the premise, push back hard, and remember we've got many, many more fellow citizens who silently agree with us and are completely serious when it comes to defending our right to protect ourselves, our families, and our property. We are growing less silent by the day.

You specifically asked about elevator pitches. We now talk about "twitter lines" in presentations like this which is the really "short attention span" concentration focuser. Once you've gotten your personal value proposition (what YOU bring to THEM that helps them make more money, be a better firm, etc. Oh, and none of that fluffy stuff either, only hard core hard facts and the more insightful about their firm the better) you're a long way towards having a great 2 min. elevator pitch (assuming you can ever get 2 minutes of focused attention from anyone). Also, I took a look at your LinkedIn profile and would be more than happy to make some recommendations if you want to discuss that via private message. LinkedIn is, IMHO, far more important than your resume - in my field (staffing) it IS your resume and I'll review it, pretty carefully, before I ever consider talking to you. Your summary on LI is your elevator pitch, so make it punchy, provocative, and leave me DYING to talk to you. Finally, others have encouraged you to look at contingent labor or temporary positions. I've had a 20+ year career there and heartily agree. Try it.