Statement of Principles


Nevada government keeps getting bigger and BIGGER. We deserve minimum, strictly limited, constitutional government in this State.

Forget all this blather about a $3B "shortfall". The budget for the '12/'13 biennium should be no more than $200M.



Thursday, December 31, 2009

Government Employees Recommend .. MORE Government

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

More gaming & mining taxes? A personal income tax? Don't state employees have to sign loyalty oaths anymore? Those professional coffee-drinkers give to new meaning to the phrase "public servant".

The problem is *not* that Nevada taxes are too low, it's that spending is too HIGH. How high? I conservatively estimate that the biennial budget, which feeds the general fund and is only ~1/3 of total state spending, is 20X too much.

I don't want to hear anything more from imbeciles like that guy who wants to reorganize the Taxicab Authority. If we abolish public education we'll save BILLIONS per year.

While CCSD Fails, Rulffes Ponders Bureaucratic Minutia

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Rulffes said the schools might be restructured as empowerment schools .. He wasn't sure if the schools would necessarily be classified as empowerment schools.

That's why we pay him the big bucks. Maybe Rulffes should hire a consultant to study the issue?

Almost All NV Public Schools Are "Low Achieving"

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

NV Department of Education bureaucrat St. Clair sort of said The definitions [of persistently low-achieving schools] are broad enough that all schools in some Nevada districts could be nominated

And probably >85% of CCSD schools. In the real world failure is *punished*. Public schools have incentives to FAIL.

$1M/yr Kruger Gets Knee Surgery

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Get well soon, then resign!

I have no problem with pro athletes/coaches making millions. I don't care how much Bishop Gorman's coaching staff or players make. I *do* care when Nevada taxpayers (one of whom I happen to be) are FORCED to pay for it. I've already bought *your* tickets.

The public sector is not supposed to be a place to get rich. That's what the *private* sector is for. I'm spreading FACTS. You folks who always want to tax *other* people to pay for your favorite programs are the true hateful ones.

BTW, did any of you hoop fanatics catch that story out of SUNY-Binghamptom about how the school fired an English prof for not giving their thug basketball players special treatment? She also complained that the coaches were text messaging the "student"-athletes during class.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

No More Taxpayer Supported Brain Injuries

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Dr. Robert Cantu, a Boston-area neurosurgeon [and $1,000/hr "expert" witness] said The threat of lawsuit for inappropriate care is real, but I would also like to think that enlightenment is also driving it"

This tragic case was settled for $7.5M. Nevada taxpayers fund football many times over (CCSD, UNR, UNLV, etc). The Democrat trial lawyers are in power. The permanent brain injury class action lawsuit is coming. We're going to be legally on the hook for perhaps BILLIONS of dollars.

It young men want to scramble their gray matter, we can't stop them. But we shouldn't act as *enablers*. No more public funding of football. If you want to play football enroll at Bishop Gorman or some non-NSHE football school.


Hey UNLV Athletics Boosters. Better start shredding documents, wiping your disks, deleting e-mails and calling your lawyers! You deep pockets are guilty of a lot more than just being football fanatics. You've been giving these future cerebral hemorrhages summer/permanent jobs in your firms, slipping them cash, and so forth. You've been profiting from blood money. I can't wait until the legal beagles start hitting you with Discovery Motions.

Hey Ed Bernstein types. What are you waiting for? UNLV football donors and players rosters are a public record.

Sorry, folks. Football warning labels do not provide immunization from civil liability. Just ask the tobacco companies. Separate sports and State.

Monday, December 28, 2009

GOP Tactics: All Wrong!

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

GOP tactics are *all* wrong.

Their political ("how to get elected") consultants advise them to talk small government and vote BIG. That's a choice between Goldman or Sachs, but it's enough to win >80% of their increasingly senile membership's votes.

To the restless, small government wing of the party, they say Support us! Wait 'til we're in the *majority*. That's Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football. 25 years ago NJ Republicans won a veto-proof majority in Trenton. What did they do?

Answer: NOTHING.

The GOP maintained control of the House for ~12 years. What did they do?

Answer: make govenment BIGGER.

The Republicans stand for *nothing* except "not Democrat". Nice to know we can count on them to deliver small government.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

UNLV Football Players in Speedos

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Football is WAY overfunded.

Maybe only two or three members of the Men's swim team are serious students. Less than 20%. The rest are filling up classes for the football players who can read.

The Women only a little better. I expected much more. The last D1 gal swimmer I met majored in Industrial Engineering and took a job with Fortune 50 firm. Her jock boyfriend was also pretty smart. Don't remember his major.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

UNLV Athletics Does NOT Score A Profit

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

This talk about D1 sports "profitablity" is obfuscation.
  1. Players don't get paid (at least not officially). You can't talk about profitability in a way that makes business sense.
  2. Fuzzy accounting. Such analyses always overlooks the true cost of D1, including lowered academic standards, ridiculous departments maintained to provide academic cover for jocks, distractions to the Administration, and so forth. Perhaps Forbes would care to estimate how much we're going to be liable for when lawyers representing these disgruntled, brain injured jocks someday sue us in a class action.
  3. The Nevada Constitution specifies a funding mechanism for state colleges: DIRECT TAXATION (or tuition/user fees/fines/donations). UNLV is NOT allowed to operate semi-pro sports teams in lieu of taxpayer support, any more than it's allowed to operate a hotel/casino for that purpose.
  4. Sports revenues (tickets, TV, merchandising, etc) should revert to the STATE's general fund, not to UNLV's. It's up to the crooked politicians to decide where the money goes next.
Why do you sports fanatics insist that the rest of us pay for your bizarre form of entertainment? I don't ask you to pay for my theatre tickets.

UNLV Football Team Cram Session

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum
  • DE Malo Taumua said I'm really excited about this guy coming from a good program at Montana. [Majoring in Criminal Justice. Not Serious.]
  • NB Ronnie Paulo said, I think it's a good move. [Majoring in Afro-American Studies. Not serious.]
  • The nine other players asked to comment couldn't put together coherent sentences.
The team might be home for the holidays, but they're certainly not studying, nor do they have reason to. Only a small minority intends to ever graduate. The rest are here for one reason only: TO PLAY FOOTBALL.

The University of Nevada is supposed to be about producing the next generation of applied scientists, not inductees at Canton.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Coach Bobby "Sinecure" Hauck

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Send Hauck back to Montana. We don't want him here unless he is willing to work for $100 per game. The public sector is *not* supposed to be a place to get rich.

UNLV is taxpayer supported benevolent institution. The "charity" is supposed to benefit students, not WELFARE QUEENS like Hauck, Smatresk, Livengood, etc.

Division I sports corrupts the entire mission of higher education.

UNLV Welfare Queens

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Send Hauck back to Montana. We don't want him here unless he is willing to work for $100 per game. The public sector is *not* supposed to be a place to get rich.

UNLV is taxpayer supported benevolent institution. The "charity" is supposed to benefit students, not WELFARE QUEENS like Hauck, Smatresk, Livengood, etc.

Division I sports corrupts the entire mission of higher education.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Hauck Interviews for UNLV Football Coach

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Hauck's agent, Michael Watkins ..

The public sector is not supposed to be a place to get RICH. If Hauck is so talented let him see employment in the NFL or one of those non-NSHE football schools.

CCSD's Good Students Are Being Cheated

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Many students achieve in SPITE of CCSD. The *typical* student is being horribly cheated. Unfortunately, he won't realize it until he struggles with more rigorous college programs or has to compete in the workplace against those who were better prepared.

You can blame CCSD's problems on the (Draft) Board if you like. And it's true. They *are* a bunch of idiots. But what do you think would happen if you replaced them with the Directors of Warren Buffett's firm?

Not much.

CCSD would *still* have to comply with all these regulations covering attendance, finance, testing, discrimination, Title X/X+1/X+2..., and on and on and on.

They could never find (much less recruit) a Superintendent capable of satisfying all the legalities and political constituencies, who could also deliver excellent student performance. Not even with a compensation package worth $100M per year. The best *anyone* can do is to hire politicians like Rulffes and Garcia.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

$886K Census Worker For Hire

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Should we be surprised by any of this nonsense? The crooked politicians and their cronies would have us spend ourselves into oblivion if they could get away with it.

According to [Greg] Ferraro's website, he is "recognized as one of the top lobbyists in the Nevada Legislature". He is also GOP-connected to the hilt.

Sickening.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Legislature Filled With Government Payrollers

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

These part time legislators have full time jobs outside the legislature.

Their outside work says a lot. Many are affiliated with public education. Many are lawyers. Many have spouses who benefit from big government.

Don Gustavson is the only pro-freedom guy in Carson City. He's a retired truck driver. We need more like him!

Hey CCSD Teachers: Go Private!

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Hey, "outstanding" CCSD teachers! Parents know who you are. Quit CCSD, get a cheap strip mall location in the neighborhood, open a private school, and take your students with you.
  1. Flex schedule
  2. No CCSD bureaucrat interference
  3. Teach the cream of your crop
  4. No guard duty
  5. No stupid pedagogy
  6. No forms
  7. No CCEA backstabbing
  8. Get paid what you're worth (sliding scale in some cases)
  9. Work exclusively with good students
  10. No continuing education rules (unless you set them)
  11. No Master's degree
  12. Leave CCSD with even fewer high achievers
You'll wonder why you didn't leave sooner!

Homeschooling Avoids Trouble

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

We homeschool.

No funny business. No kid-kid sex, teacher-kid sex or sex ed. No background checks or paid leaves. No baggy jeans or hoochy skirts. No PussyCat Dolls or gangsta' rap. No magnets, empowerments or charters.

NO RULFFES.

Just quality education for a fraction of the time/money CCSD requires.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Pay Score: Kruger $1M. Players Nothing

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Kruger makes $1M per year. How much do the players make? Only the government can get away with paying six figure athletes LESS than minimum wage.

Hey starters: tell the Coach you want a share of the money. He gets paid a premium for hiring you to WORK for nothing. Like any good (bad) CEO.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Public Education. A Marketer's Dream

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Bank of Nevada [is] sending volunteers to local high schools to talk to teenagers about personal finance

Volunteers? More like *salesmen*. Public education is a POLITICAL institution. Veterans see memorials, marketers see customers, unions see job, politicians see votes, generals see enlistees, and so forth.

School kids are a captive audience. An advertiser's dream.

Friday, December 11, 2009

How To Get Rulffes' Attention

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

I didn't know that were NRS for public school gum chewing and cell phone usage. There must even be green regulations specifying the cotton content of the paper being pushed around by all the bureaucrats. How can anyone take this stuff seriously?

We homeschool. No bake sales, RD-certified junk food, Ritilin, suspensions, forms, conferences, etc. No funny business; just learning. Kids doing fine, thanks. All for a FRACTION of what CCSD gets per kid. And we don't cost taxpayers a cent. Indeed, we buy are own materials and PAY sales tax on them.

Do yourselves a favor. The next time a drone pulls you out of work to tell you that your kid is suspended for being a kid, tell him you're NOT COMING BACK -- especially if they're in elementary grades. Once CCSD starts losing headcount (per capita state funds) over these peccadillos they'll become a lot more flexible about enforcing them.

Meet The New Board. Same As the Old Board

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

You can blame CCSD's problems on the (Draft) Board if you like. And it's true. They *are* a bunch of idiots. But what do you think would happen if you replaced them with the Directors of Warren Buffett's firm?
Not much.

CCSD would *still* have to comply with all these regulations covering attendance, finance, testing, hiring, affirmative action, diversity, naming, harassment, Title X/X+1/X+2..., and on and on and on.

They could never find (much less recruit) a Superintendent capable of satisfying all the legalities and political constituencies, who could also deliver excellent student performance. Not even with a compensation package worth $100M per year. The best *anyone* can do is to hire politicians like Rulffes and Garcia.

Ex-CCSD Employee Hired Back As Busybody

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Billie Rayford, the associate superintendent who oversees empowerment schools, said her staff did not have the time to do the work that McCormick-Lee will be doing.

That is because her staff is too busy overseeing implementation of the Cat 5 Hurricane Contingency Plan filed by the Assistant Deputy Coordinator for Climate Emergencies. Freedom from busybody interference -- from the likes of McCormick-Lee -- is what the "empowerment" program was supposed to be about in the first place.


As Aldous Huxley wrote, an experiment is a failure only if it does not test the hypothesis in an objective way. We already knew how a school would operate under minimial CCSD involvement. It's called PRIVATE education. But that's not why this "experiment" was a failure. It's because CCSD couldn't give up control even for a test specifically designed for that purpose.

Don't bother voting out any of those powermonger clowns. Their replacements would be just as bad. They really should be called the "Draft" Board, in that they *force* kids (who have better things to do) to show up.

Hey CCEA: do us a favor and STRIKE!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Derelict Rulffes

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Rulffes said We would be derelict in our duties if we did not aggressively go after grant money for our students.

I don't care about the bureaucratic derelictions CCSD will be guilty of in the future. CCSD is now, always has been, and always WILL BE derelict in its primary duty to teach the 3R's. Maybe if Rulffes wasn't so busy chasing after unconstitutional federal education grants he would recognize that.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

What's Wrong With Public Education

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

To make Nevada eligible for a grant, legislators must repeal a law that bans using student test scores for purposes of evaluating teachers.

This situation represents everything that is WRONG with public education. Washington politicians dangle unconstitutional education money (pork) in our faces. Our crooked politicians scramble back into (yet another unnecessary) session to get their hands on the loot, so they can redistribute it to their friends. CCSD hires more education lawyers to file exemptions and figure out how to comply, grant writers to beg for more money, and administrators to provide "oversight". A new bureaucracy composed of statisticians, IT, etc gets created to manage all these new teacher evaluations. CCEA hires labor lawyers to challenge any evaluation criteria which might threaten the job of an incompetent teacher. And on and on and on. Is this a NIGHTMARE of central planning or what?!

Somewhere along the line a CCSD 12th grader is expected to learn how to construct a simple sentence and convert a fraction into a real.

What The Chamber of Commerce *Really* Wants

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Hundreds responded with calls for    (the GOP's favorite device for controlling the economy: the US Tax Code)
  1. tax relief of all kinds
  2. easier access to capital   (more federal regulations)
  3. expanded federal loans and grants   (bailouts)
  4. more spending on emerging green industries   (corporatism)

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Race to the BIG Government Top

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

The $4.35 billion Race to the Top grants are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus package.

Public education is a *political* institution. Left wingers use it to fight global warming, right wingers use it to fight bogeymen, and (this month) Obama uses it to stimulate the economy. The constituency for the 3R's long ago fled to private schools.

CCSD In Lockdown

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

The schools look like prisons, minus the orange jumpsuits. Recess looks like rec time, minus the overhead sharpshooters. I *love* it when the principal (warden) orders a LOCKDOWN!

Football Program Good For Coaches and Staff

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Sanford's tenure was great for all the shnooks who make money off the program. Sanford and his staff, sports marketers, instructors hired to teach these dunderhead players, concession suppliers, etc.

Attention prospective Coaches researching UNLV: WE DON'T WANT YOU HERE. Not unless you're willing to work for $100 per game, and recruit from the ranks of the applied science majors. UNLV is a state university, not a NFL farm club.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

NSC Is CCSD's 13th Chance

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

community college's traditional mission .. allowing anyone who wants an education to sign up for one.

NSC's traditional mission is to buy votes for crooked politicians.

The reason NSC is overflowing is because it's *undercharging*. NSC tuition should be more like $500 per credit. Though NSC services are worth little, its cost structure is totally bloated. Those who take classes there should bear the burden. Besides, NSC provides *remedial* education. Nevada taxpayers already pay for K-12. How many times must we pony up to teach the 3R's?