Samson's Flow

I'm probably going to have a sports-gasm tonight. Blue Jays play the first postseason game i've seen since I was 4 years old. Sabres play in the home opener to begin a season that I actually am excited about and get to root for wins. Oh and some random Football game. Let's Go Buffalo!! :w00t:

I'm sorry you got matched up with the Jays, we'll have to be rivals for the next week or so. Although I am expecting a quick 4 game series in the ALDS. Jays all the way baby!

The Blue Jays haven't been in the playoffs in nearly 20 years, and as a Jays/Bills/Sabres fan, you can understand my excitement in finally having someone to root for in the playoffs. I've never seen any of my teams win a championship and it is very rare that I even get to see playoff/postseason action. all you damn Yankees fans don't know what it's like to be a fan of team that just assumes they will be in the playoffs on an annual basis. Not only did the Jays beat the Yankees to win the division, they also may just win the whole freakin AL title. I'm pumped.

:thumbsup: :beer: Clinched the AL East and soon to be clinched the AL Pennant. It's down to Jays and Royals.

Back from a brief hiatus - and probably won't be back again till the start of the season, but just wanted to say a quick Go Jays! to my friend in NS. I look forward to our first playoff appearance in a long time. :thumbsup:

Thanks bud. Not only that, but they scored more than 10 runs each game this weekend. LAA didn't know what hit them...

I know it is a local level tax item. Without further budget transparency it is difficult/impossible to determine prioritization. Hence your rhetorical question comment. But I would say that education should be a priority over some other items that I am sure are excess spending at the local level. Easy gents...

This is why I appreciate having multiple voices in the conversation. The tax base can only afford it if we re-prioritize education spending over other items in the budget. I agree we can't raise the taxes higher to pay for everything we ideally want, but there should be a focus on the items that improves the lives of the greatest number of the population, and I would argue education levels is one of those items. That is probably a bit of my idealism, but thats what discussion is for.

:lol: "long term government program viability" was my gentle way of saying we're totally screwed with respects to the funding and disbursement of Medicare/Social Security programs.

It seems LGR has taken up my argument with gusto. I seem to be noticing a difference in the perspective of the "older" guys compared to those of us of a younger generation with continually increasing loan debts and uncertainty over long term government program viability. Interesting. Edit: I especially agree with the bolded, which doesn't seem to have been included in your original comment. The wealth inequality in this country is a primary driver for much of my complaints.

Thanks, that was more in line with what I was thinking. That $50k range is not much of a living salary to support a family after already going through enough years to reach 'career midpoint'. Especially when as you mention, new teaching graduates surely have mountains of student loan debt to pay for. There are much more lucrative career paths than teaching. Edit: I would also add that I am sure those specific "good" districts get the top echelon of quality teachers to fill their open positions due to the higher comparative wage scale. Which may have been part of your point previously.

That was highly entertaining.

That is the way I watch it. My point was that I often find myself watching something else live on tv before I think to watch it on demand.

Thanks for that information. I was not aware that the teaching salary got that high. I was always under the impression from the "living on a teacher's salary" comments that the wages were relatively low.

Of the people I know who went to college to become a teacher, most of them knew going in that they would get relatively low wages. Having that expectation/understanding going is one factor why the schools have been able to continue with their current wage scale. The lack of funding and education budgets is a major factor here as well. I'd also argue that there is an inherent "we're going to help the children/make an impact" thought when choosing to be a teacher. You certainly don't get that in other career paths. Only to the extent that you get the highest quality of the pool of candidates willing to accept that wage scale. Certainly if the wages were much higher you would get a much stronger pool of candidates - no?

Valid point. The teacher job description has become more babysitter and less educator in the last few decades.

I think we shouldn't confuse quantity of competition for quality. There are plenty of recently graduated individuals with teaching degrees seeking jobs, but there are very few that have the expertise and ability to truly teach and make an impact. All of those subject matter experts are out making real money in the corporate world, not in the academic world. In my estimation, today's teaching graduates have been trained on how to teach specific curriculum to pass standardized tests and not actually facilitate learning and a growth of the intelligence base of our young folks.

Neo - sorry but I see D4rk's method having a much higher probability of succeeding. It has been shown that public perception from the citizens does not change quickly, and even if the informed citizens seek change, the vast majority of uninformed citizens tend to lean towards the status quo. For something this important there needs to be some sort of "push" factor to get things moving, otherwise policies and mindsets will not change.

Yes, but it pains me to see me succeeding in this career when others don't make nearly enough doing things that I see true value to society in. My career doesn't help society other than allowing a certain major bank to charge more fees and make more profit.

Agreed. I love John Oliver's show on HBO, but I tend to miss too many episodes since they aren't as easily accessible (I have other things to do on a Sunday night) for me. the ones I have caught have been entertaining and informative.

I read this this morning (or the morning prior, can't recall) and totally agree with Neo's stance that the answer is that teaching is no longer viewed as an upper-echelon level career. All of our smartest folks are pursuing careers in medical, engineering and worst of all finance (<- that's me so I know far too well) roles since that is where you can make the most money as a result of your intelligence. Go back a few centuries, and the smartest people were teachers and philosophers and were held in high regard by the general public. In our modern society, teachers are not held in that high regard by the general public. As a result, the free market compensates teachers in the same tier as the labor trades. This is a systemic error in my opinion, but will not change until the market has higher demand not only for teachers, but for highly qualified/intelligent individuals. As much as it pains me to say, education is too important to wait for a market correction, as I think that without a nudge from a centralized force, the current market compensation will remain where it is for teaching professions. There just isn't the demand from the populous to allow for higher wages. This is basically my view on why religion was created. As such, I view much of the religious teachings as more of a way to explain explainable phenomenon at the time mixed with a best-practices for treating others and attitudes for a successful/harmonious society.

Foligno. Everyone will see his size and remember the year he was part of our best line for a few months and wonder why he isn't contributing as much. It's a Stafford situation all over again. He scored a lot once and still has the tools but he isn't amazeballs all the time.

Don't worry I've been to Toronto many times (i'd venture more than 50 times - mostly work related) so I am well aware of the costs. I probably should have said sometime soon, as even when the Jays were bad the Yankees home games were pretty popular tickets. I guess I miss the days when I could scalp a ticket walking up for less than 20 bucks... :cry:

It's pretty amazing how adding price and shifting the rest of the rotation back one has allowed the rest of the starters to pitch so much better lately. Is it sustainable? we'll see, but as soon as Price came on board, Dickey has been pitching really well and Marco Estrada is suddenly a solid starter despite his journeyman status with the Brewers the last few years. I haven't even mentioned how moving Aaron Sanchez to the bullpen has further strengthened the back end. All of these are basically stemming from the addition of an ace in Price. Big series against the Yankees starting tonight. Wish I had the time to get up to Rogers Centre this weekend...

Yeah buddy! Let's put the rest of the AL East far in the rearview mirror.