quote:

Originally posted by george sitts:
Fram,

No, I am not the original speaking (or emailing) from the grave. But then again there are all kinds of relationships aren't there?

Incidentally, you aren't related to the folks at Fram Oil Filters are you?

What's in a name after all?

George:

I had the opportunity to sit down in the other George Sitts' chair several years ago. After I had done so, I regretted it. A very eerie experience.

That is why I asked you.

Fram,

Always one interested in family history, when and where did you sit in George Sitts 'other chair'?

I didn't realize that the electric chair had been preserved in South Dakota but would be interested in seeing it.

quote:

Originally posted by george sitts:
Fram,

Always one interested in family history, when and where did you sit in George Sitts 'other chair'?

I didn't realize that the electric chair had been preserved in South Dakota but would be interested in seeing it.

George: My work once gave me the opportunity to tour/inspect a few prisons and correctional facilities in a few states, including South Dakota. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30 years ago, "the chair" was in a room deep in the bowels of the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls. It was not on display for public viewing.

I have no idea where the chair might be today. I would suggest you call "the Sioux Falls pen" if you want additional information.

quote:

Originally posted by Lanjoma:
I believe that education is important, and yes, I feel we can always improve it. Sooo when I make a point that we should focus more $$ on education then bombs, you disagree with this?

My premise was wouldn't it be nice if we could put more $$ in books then bombs.

I do not buy, for one minute, that we put more money into education then defense. One of the main reasons is because I don't believe that we know the true cost of all of our $$ spent on it...covert ops, CIA stuff....you know...the old 10,000 hammer trick.

Lanjoma, this is really a futile debate at its core, but let's see if we can carry it out.

I say futile because you are comparing apples (defense) to oranges (education). Your question about "should we spend more on bombs than books" can be answered two ways. The first, from an idealistic standpoint is "no, we shouldn't". In an ideal world where differences could be settled by diplomats and scholars, this would be true. We don't live in a world that resembles this in the least. Secondly, defense allocations come primarily (the vast majority) from the Federal govt.; education does not.

I would certainly hope that our Federal government would spend more money on defending the nation than it does on schools. There is no alternative to a federal military and education (I assume by this you mean schools) of course is almost entirely subsidized at state and local levels.

It has been this way since the days of the Federalist papers and will always be, unless our society corrodes to such a level to not allow it.

With respect to how much goes where, I will concede that military spending encompasses $10,000 hammers, the VA, CIA and many things vilified by the left in this country during the Reagan years. It also includes the welfare of hundreds of thousands of active members, air craft carriers that are small cities and enough munitions, jets, tanks and supplie vehicles needed to wage war.

One hundred and fifty years ago the United States suffured a half million deaths in the Civil War. We have fought two wars in Iraq plus Afghanstan and unfortunatly have lost approximatly 5,000 service people, a remarkable testiment to what all of those dollars have helped equate to human life. We have probably literaly saved the lives of millions of people, not just Americans, by having the capability to confront and crush those who don't like your vision of mankind.

In reality it is difficult to fully calculate the true costs to taxpayers since John Maynard Keynes couldn't have picked a better area to generate economic growth from than military spending. Those "bombs" we have bought had to be developed. Some of this country's greatest minds have been used in developing materials and technologies for the military which have certainly spilled over into everyday life. Many major corporations and tens of thousands of people rely on the military for their livelihood, an aggregate tax base of gigantic proportions.

Would you include the training and advanced education the military provides and private companies in the defense arena demand from their employees as "education" spending? I would and I can assure you it doesn't come from my property taxes and has gone for building a much better trained contributor to this society than has my overly expensive piece of paper from MSU.

In return, I would expect that the spending on education can then be expanded to cover athletics, capital costs, operations of these capital expenditures, pensions and benefits, materials and everything else associated with modern "education". This would require us to include every dollar spent on "activity fees", athletic/band equipment, computers required "to learn", sanctioned trips (lots of cookies sold), bequests from donors (check out the huge sums of money donated)and the huge sums of dollars the corporate world spends in training (educating) the American workforce. What is the additional costs associated with Federal government training programs, tax-credits for education...etc.

Do we have any idea how much of the advanced college degrees cost that isn't paid for by the government? Student loans are ultimatly paid back.

If there is any truth in the debate about education spending in this country it is that it has expanded expotentially in the past 30 years and has not given us our money's worth.

It's ironic that a government and society that is continually maligned for having it's priorities wrong leads the world in universities, post-high school degrees, advanced degress and certainly OPPORTUNITY for an education.

As I have said and maintain, we have absolutely no idea how much money is spent on "education" because it is inconceivably vast in scope that we don't bother trying to figure it out.

I digress; back to the point. When people talk about $10,000 hammers it elicits an angered response from the rest of us because it exemplifies everything bad we have been told about the vaunted "Military Industrial Complex". Many opponents of a strong military have used the "zero sum" argument, suggesting that $10,000 hammer could have put Johnny through College. It doesn't work that way and for good reason.

That $10,000 hammer is an anomaly and the enormous costs associated with weapons programs/machinery also take into account the huge costs of the kind of research and development that has given us the military advantage needed to have kept the world at relative peace during the past 60 years.

Can anyone possibly imagine how much it must cost to man, feed, arm, train and provide for the millions of past/present and future soldiers? We need to provide three squares, a roof AND training just to keep a force in peace time. Equipment/systems become antiquated and the whole objective of our Armed Services is to be ready...willing...able to engage in battles anywhere in the world. For fifty years after WWII we faced an adversary (the left argued this adversary didn't exist) who certainly didn't adhere to your hopes with bombs vs books.

Maybe if we could have convinced the likes of Communist Russia to abandon their perceived destiny 50 years ago, the world would look different, but they didn't. They...and in turn their satellites...used up every drop of their talent and resources in a pursuit to carry out a vision of the world that would have rendered "education" in the sense we know it useless.

Iraq, Iran, N. Korea, Syria and many other countries today follow the same path. Take whatever resources you have and divert it to financing a military with one primary purpose....exporting their will.

For better or worse, the United States has assumed the role of keeping powder kegs from igniting throughout the world at a minimum. We have done so at enormous costs in life and resources and all we have to show for it is freedom, economic prosperity and the single largest destination in the world for those who live in countries where formal education doesn't exist in even the slightest context like it does in the United States, a country where just about anyone and everyone can train in any field their talents allow.

Education? It doesn't cost anything to read a book or two and for all of us to learn about the world around us, past and present, a little bit.

These 16 Police Comments were taken off actual police car videos around the country:

#16 "You know, stop lights don't come any redder that the one you just went through."

#15 "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch after you wear them a while."

#14 "If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your birth certificate a worthless document."

#13 "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired."

#12 "Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? Because that's

the speed of the bullet that'll be chasing you."

#11 "You don't know how fast you were going? I guess that means I can write anything I want to on the ticket, huh?"

#10 "Yes, sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't think it will help. Oh, did I mention that I'm the shift supervisor?"

#9 "Warning! You want a warning? O.K., I'm warning you not to do

that again or I'll give you another ticket."

#8 "The answer to this last question will determine whether you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"

#7 "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy and corn dogs and step in monkey poop."

#6 "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets a toaster oven."

#5 "In God we trust, all others we run through NCIC."

#4 "How big were those 'Just two beers' you say you had?"

#3 "No sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to, but now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we can."

#2 "I'm glad to hear that Chief (of Police) is a personal friend of yours. So you know someone who can post your bail."

AND THE WINNER IS....

#1 "You didn't think we give pretty women tickets? You're right, we don't. Sign here."

~Cool Chick~
I really do enjoy your list, and I believe others do too. I really liked the last comment

Hello Everyone...
I was just reading the news.
I was somewhat taken aback at the homicide which recently happened in Manakto, and no one has posted on.
The Free Press, I feel could give more information upfront. A murder in Mankato is not an everday occurence, but it was treated as such. -Or maybe it was away to put it on the back burner -out of sight, out of mind.
It was a terrible thing to happen. But it would have been nice if they would have given more info. Such as, how long had this guy lived here. We can surmise, since the last charge, but how much longer before then? And the woman's history? Sorry FP but your articles are lacking...

Where is the new Petco located? I saw on tv that it is now open in Mankato.

quote:

Originally posted by Breez:
Hello Everyone...
I was just reading the news.
I was somewhat taken aback at the homicide which recently happened in Manakto, and no one has posted on.
The Free Press, I feel could give more information upfront. A murder in Mankato is not an everday occurence, but it was treated as such. -Or maybe it was away to put it on the back burner -out of sight, out of mind.
It was a terrible thing to happen. But it would have been nice if they would have given more info. Such as, how long had this guy lived here. We can surmise, since the last charge, but how much longer before then? And the woman's history? Sorry FP but your articles are lacking...

ty, Joe for posting more info... when a community gets hit by something like this, it affects them. Needless-to-say, several of us probably have had contact with her or the man charged. So very sad...

quote:

Originally posted by olderchick40:
Where is the new Petco located? I saw on tv that it is now open in Mankato.

I haven't seen it, but I haven't been out driving much since Christmas, but it is probably on the hill =) I'm sure they have the same phone number, give them a call

I just watched the old (1981) movie, "Absence of Malice," with Paul Newman and Sally Field.

This movie should be required annual viewing for all newspaper reporters.

When I think about it, this movie probably should be required weekly viewing for all television reporters.

quote:

I haven't seen it, but I haven't been out driving much since Christmas, but it is probably on the hill =) I'm sure they have the same phone number, give them a call

I think that you mean Pet Expo-they didn't move-Petco has, or will be opening here in Mankato.

I believe you will find Petco, when it opens, located in the strip mall which currently houses Famous Footwear, TJ Maxx and others.

I believe it is located at the end of that mall next to Pier One.

Thanks, I missed the "announcement" if there was one and the address isn't given in the tv ads.

I see that New Ulm is getting a Pizza Ranch now too, they should have the pizza business covered! The one I miss the most is the Ye Ole Pizza Inn-they had the best pizza around along with other menu items and they were open for the bar rush on weekends.

Boy, it is really snowing! Cool Chick, I'm happy you got your info. It is hard for me to fathom more than 1 petstore in town. But then again, maybe not thinking how much I care about our Daughters doggies =). It is amazing how they become apart of the family. And take on the the owners traits =) . I have seen speciality shops for doggie do's, and they are not cheap. Our Daughter has a wardrobe for her little one; has just about as many clothes as her owner... too funny. However, she makes all of them, and sells some on Ebay!
I was just going to tell you Cool Chick, the addie was Madison Avenue. But George gave you much better directions. You might want to check out the site on the web tho. Often the websites have email newsletters with discounts coupons. I get them for Gordhmans, Hobby Lobby, JCPenney, Old Navy, ect... wherever you shop in town, try their website. Hobby Lobby often has a coupon for 40% off any one item. One time I saved over 200.00 with that!

~Hope everyone is safely tucked in for the night~