Monday, March 27, 2006

Capitol Hill Shootings

Get ready for the "Guns Kill People" onslaught. Here is my question... why is it that these mass gun killings always happen where nobody is armed? Why do we never hear about these things at shooting ranges or gun shows or NRA conventions? Why is it they always happen in gun free zones, schools and churches? Could it possibly be because the shooter knows there will be nobody there to possibly shoot back?

Here is a challenge to all you who belong to the anti gun crowd, go home and put a sign in your windows saying "This house is gun free". Be proud of who you are and what you believe in, come on, the rest of us would appreciate it.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

LPGA Golf 2006

I have had numerous "discussions" regarding the LPGA and its current status, mostly online. Personally, I find the LPGA way more fascinating this year than the PGA tour and the reason is you have a player, Annika Sorenstam, who in my opinion is the greatest female player of all time, who may just be at the absolute prime of her career, and you also have a batch of young players, Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie and Morgan Pressel, who are full of confidence, hype and expectations. Now I contend that Sorenstam is going to spend the next couple of years giving the winner speech while the youngsters watch and learn.

Now I just came across this on the LPGA website.

Sorenstam's career three-peats and more

Tournament Years Won
Michelob Light Classic 1997, 1998, 1999
McDonald's LPGA Championship Presented by Coca-Cola 2003, 2004, 2005 (attempting a four-peat in 2006)
Mizuno Classic 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 (attempting a six-peat in 2006)

Sorenstam's possible three-peats in 2006

Tournament Years Won
Safeway International Presented by Coca-Cola 2004, 2005 (also won in 2001)
John Q. Hammons Hotel Classic presented by Ford 2004, 2005 (also won in 2002)
Samsung World Championship 2004, 2005 (also won in 1995, 1996, 2002)
ADT Championship 2004, 2005 (also won in 1997, 2002)


Lets look at that in more depth. Sorenstam won 10 times last year. That means she will defend 10 titles. Now she already successfully defended the first of the 10 so its one down, nine to go. But for the remainder of the year, she has a shot to 3-peat at Safeway this week, 3-peat at John Q. Hammons, Samsung and ADT. In addition, she has the chance of a 4-peat at the McDonald's LPGA, A MAJOR, and 6-PEAT at Mizuno. How impressive is that?

Has anyone ever been so dominate in a sport?

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Seattle School District to Close Schools?

The Seattle school district is talking again about closing schools. They even list the criteria they will consider in making the decision.
Academic achievement, building condition and enrollment are among the criteria that will determine which schools may close.

But wait.... further down in the article:
• Academic achievement: a school's record in closing the achievement gap between white and minority students, Washington Assessment of Student Learning results and other test scores.

So by academic achievement, what they mean is everyone does the same regardless of race. So... it sounds like if one group does really, really well and another group does ok, that is not as desirable as all groups doing poorly.

So what is my connection to this? Well Andrew goes to one of the schools that was on the first list of schools to close, even though his school is at capacity and has the highest test scores in the district, outside the APP school. It's easy enough to go to the Seattle School Districts web site and see what schools do well and which do not. This is probably the best site to compare individual schools.
Just do not be fooled that test scores will really be used as criteria in closing schools because that just aint gonna fly in P.C. Seattle.