What’s Wrong with the Middle?

Please go to my commentary on the Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-evans/moving-uphill-to-the-midd_b_112764.html

Your interest and comments are appreciated.

Los Angeles High Schools Are Failing

The Los Angeles Times had an article in June of 2006 stating that only 44% of city high school students graduated in four years. For all of California the rate was 71%. The drop out rate for the school system was over 25% versus a state rate of 14%. Of course the school districts excuses are just what you would expect. Primarily LAUSD focuses on the problem of non English speaking students that are mostly Hispanic.

The Los Angeles high school curriculum lacks occupational training. Instead the focus is on college preparatory classes. Their argument is that college prep classes also prepare students for jobs that do not require a college degree. The reality is that many students do not have the capacity to succeed in algebra, geometry, physics, and the other college required courses. Many of the students lack the reading and comprehension skills necessary for these classes. That is the reason there is a high drop out rate. The consequence is a major impact on our society. Teenagers join gangs, become drug pushers, or become petty thieves because they have no skills and no path to any kind of success in life.

Do you need to know geometry, physics, etc. to learn a trade or skill? Perhaps basic math would be helpful but there are many jobs that do not require a knowledge of those college prep classes. I am a college graduate from CSUN and I have never needed geometry or physics in any business administration function I held.

The San Fernando Valley Business Journal has a front page story in their July 7, 2008 issue discussing the shortage of skilled welders and metal fabricators. They say the shortage could be 200,000 people by 2010. The training won’t come from any of the local high schools.

Do all the jobs in banking, health care, tourism, and the entertainment industries require a college degree? Clearly the answer is no. Clearly the high schools of Los Angeles are a failure.

Installing A Husband

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a distinct slow down in overall system performance -- particularly in the flower and jewelry applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5. In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5 and then installed undesirable programs such as MLB 2.5, NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0, NCAA Football and Basketball 4.0, Fly Fishing 6.5, and Golf Clubs 7.1. (and possibly NASCAR 400.0 or 500.0 and Texas Hold ¡em 2007)Conversation 8.೦ no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail. What can I do?
Signed, Desperate
-------------------------------------
Dear Desperate:
First keep in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an Operating System. Please enter the command: 'I Thought You Loved Me.exe' and try to download Tears 6.2 and don't forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update. If that application works as designed, Husband 1.0 should then automatically run t he applications Jewelry 2.0 and Flowers 3.5. As a final backup program, you might try Bun-In-The-Oven (BITO) as a long term solution. Keep in mind that BITO can come in versions 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, etc. and requires you to sign a 9 month installation agreement followed by a 18 year maintenance contract. You should make sure your Husband 1.0 operating system is compatible with the BITO version before you install this program.But remember, overuse of the above applications can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Grumpy Silence 2.5, or even crash leaving you with no operating system. Whatever you do, DO NOT install Mother-in-law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources).Also, do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0 .In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly. You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance. We recommend Food 3.0 and Hot Lingerie 7.7.Good Luck,

Tech Support

Corn and the Economy, Serious Inflation

The National Corn Growers Association http://www.ncga.com provides a list of 22 categories of products that use corn by-products. An example is corn sweeteners marketed through Cargil http://www.cargill.com/products/food/ps_corn_sweeteners.htm. I am not familiar with all of these products that include brewing adjuncts, corn syrup, dextrose, etc. Of course corn growers see big opportunities in the production of ethanol.

The impact of the floods along the Mississippi River basin this year will soon impact all of our lives. The USDA reported today that corn harvests this year will be 87.3 million acres, down from last year's 93.6 million acres. Corn futures for July contracts have jumped 25% from $6.00 per bushel to more than $7.50 per bushel. My source is Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D91KDEN80.htm.

So what is more important? Is it an on going war in Iraq with a victory that the Republicans cannot define or is it the American economy?

The Death of Newspapers

Jon Fine’s weekly column in Business Week entitled Media Centric has been writing about the slow death of daily newspapers for the past two years. Here in Los Angeles we have seen the Los Angeles Times shrinking away along with its many smaller localized newspapers. The Orange County Register and the Daily News of Los Angeles have been the Times primary competitors. Sadly they too have been shrinking before our eyes.

The Daily News has had a 4 page opinion and editorial section every Sunday. It has featured some of America’s best columnists. Those writers have included Thomas Friedman, Richard Cohen, David Brooks, Bill O’Reilly, Maureen Dowd, and Thomas Sowell. Today they announced the shrinking of that section to two pages buried in the front section. http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_9661925?IADID=Search-www.dailynews.com-www.dailynews. . Clearly we will see less of their writing in print in the future. Blame it on the internet. The Daily News only printed about one third of all the letters I submitted to their opinion page but it was always fun to know that my letters might appear. That is why I was motivated to start two BLOGS. They are http://coastcontact.wordpress.com/ and http://coastcontact.blogspot.com/ /. The same items do not appear in both BLOGS. This entry is the exception.

Tell me again, this is progress, right?

“My Winnipeg”

“My Winnipeg” is a new movie reviewed today in the Los Angeles Times. It was made by a film maker that has lived his life there and according to the reviewer is perfectly happy to spend the rest of his life there. Of course I would not have read the review at all except that it is the birthplace of my parents and the home or birthplace of many of my relatives. I have not been there since the age of 9.

The Times critic gave the film a thumbs up. It can be seen a Landmark’s Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles. A search on the web tells me it is playing in other cities too but apparently not yet playing in Winnipeg.

http://www.mywinnipeg.com/ really is all about that city.

The Los Angeles review http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/la-et-winnipeg20-2008jun20,0,3238973.story

The Energy Crises

I just finished reading a full page article by Renee Schoof and Kevin G. Hall entitled “Understanding ethanol” printed in my local newspaper. It was distributed by McClatchy-Tribune but is not on line. The article answered such questions as What are biofuels? and What is ethanol?. Unfortunately the question Does using ethanol help the environment?, How long before ethanol becomes widely available? and others are vaguely answered leaving the reader wondering if these solutions will work.

I tried researching the issue on the internet and was disappointed in the results. I still do not know the cost to produce this gasoline alternative. The costs are clearly more than just the cost building the factories for processing and the costs of transportation. The impact on the food supply could negate any benefits. The web sites provided in the newspaper article were all posted by companies and organizations that are promoting ethanol including one that posted an article of concern about “Big Food’s campaign against ethanol.” www.ethanolrfa.org , www.iogen.ca and www.ncga.com/ethanol/main/index.asp .

zfacts.com has an array of facts that I cannot verify including this item "Ethanol Today," (8/'05) states "Five years ago, a US General Accounting Office report showed that ethanol had received $11.6 billion in tax incentives since 1968, while the oil industry had received over $150 billion in tax benefit over the same period.

Recent statements from presidential candidates and other politicians provide little or no leadership। There is a lack of information on the internet. This nation is in real trouble and no one knows the answers. Even worse, no one is prepared for the changes we face.

I have established a link to gas prices in California through gasbuddy.com to tell us how serious this problem is but you all knew that.