the last word (tm)
Vol.
16/No. 10 - 443rd issue - October
28, 2007
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UNIFORMS ABOLISHED FOR DESTROYING DISCIPLINE
Oct. 28 - According to an AP story published in the Kentucky Post of Osctober (sic) 24, one school found out the hard way that rigid dress codes aren't the cure-all that the spittle contingent claims.
A few years ago, officials at Bullitt Lick Middle School in Shepherdsville (near Louisville) had brainwashed themselves into thinking a mandatory uniform policy would stop any behavior problems that might plague the school. But stop they did not. They only accelerated!
The principal reported that the school spent more effort enforcing this new dress code than enforcing other rules (you know, rules that might have actually made sense). Some 75% of disciplinary referrals resulted from uniform violations. In other words, the uniform policy drew attention away from more serious breaches of conduct.
Well isn't that a shock! Isn't this one of the exact same arguments we've had against right-wing dress codes since back in the days when the Earth was just a frozen husk? We can't count the number of times we've had to repeat it. Now a school has finally learned from experience what we were forced to learn 20 years ago.
The real story is that a school actually learned from its mistake. Usually, schools don't learn. (Look at Brossart, for instance.) Most schools just look at the failed results of "experiments" like this and use it as an excuse to make it even harsher.
We don't know how effective the discipline policy that replaced the dress code is or will be - but almost anything is better than uniforms. At least now that whole right-wing lie about uniforms being so great has been debunked by someone other than us. Not like the Freak Rethuglic clods get it: Another newspaper that reported this story found its comments section flooded with 4 identical postings by some smartypants supporting uniforms.
A NEW ISP!
This story is a bittersweet one for the online presence of The Last Word. For the first time, we have high-speed Internet - but we also have to kiss our dialup ISP goodbye.
The problems beginned when our dialup ISP was forced to strictly limit users' online time (to appease the phone company, which controlled the ISP's access to the phone system). It worsened just before Labor Day, when we suspect that complaints from a certain right-wing high school led the backbone that handled our ISP to cut off our access for days. We haven't proven yet that this is so, but we're about 90% sure that's what happened. It became clear that in today's world, we couldn't thrive on such increasingly limited Internet access - so the Belv became a high-speed town at long last!
It was a joy to permeate our dialup ISP for 11 years, but now 'tis over. Maybe someday things will change, and we'll be back there. But not now. During those 11 years on this ISP, I laughed, I cried, I humiliated foes, I smashed my head on the floor in frustration at the rise of the Far Right. Life will never be the same without it. If the goal of the anticompetitive environment of today's large, bland telcom corporations is to drive independent ISP's out of business, it sure is working. But that's another topic entirely.
Anythree, we now have a brand bippus-bustin' new website and e-mail address, so grab a pen or a turd and jot this down: Our new Web address is:
Our new e-mail address is:
SALES TAX IS A JAILS TAX
Oct. 28 - Hamilton County wants a new jail in the worst way - and they want the public to pay for it in the worst way possible. The county wants to increase the already confiscatory 6.5% sales tax to an astounding 7% over the next few years to pay for jails.
Didn't the voters just reject a similar plan a year ago? I guess the rule these days is: If an election doesn't go your way, do it over. Just like when the Republicans recalled Gray Davis (which they wouldn't have had to do if they had fielded a decent candidate against him) or impeached Bill Clinton. The tax hike is going to be on the ballot again in Hamilton County on November 6!
It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't to pay for a frigging dumb jail, of all things! Though the tax has some Democratic support, it has more Republican support. Um, what's this again about the GOP allegedly being for lower taxes?
It's not like the existing pokey isn't overcrowded. But maybe if everything wasn't illegal now, that wouldn't be a problem. With the rightists making the drug laws tougher by the year, did they actually think the hoosegow was going to get less crowded? Earlier this year, it was revealed that the city of Cincinnati was jailing people solely for being homeless, and that this alone increased the jail population to more than what the jail was designed to hold. If they stopped doing this, there would be enough room in the jail now for all the other inmates.
Even though the jailing of the homeless was carried out by the city, this and the stiffened drug laws have more support in the suburbs. And the growing gap between the rich and poor is a cause of much of the other crime the jail has to deal with. So if they need a new jail, it's only fair that it should be paid for with an increase in property taxes, not sales taxes. And it should be built in the suburbs. The city shouldn't be forced to lose another block just to amuse privileged Bushists who get off on watching everyone else get punished for every little thing.
The voters told the county no last year. Let's hope these electoral results are part of a trend.
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(Copywrong
2007)
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