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Politicians want teachers to get paid according to their effectiveness as evaluated by students test scores. But I think those same politicians should also be paid according to their effectiveness.

In fact, they ought to be evaluated on their ability to produce an environment ripe for job creation and economic growth.

Sorting through an unlabeled file in my office drawer I found an old type-written music list. While I vaguely recall typing it out — I have no idea when I did it or for what reason.

It had to be sometime in the early 90s as some of the songs are from 1992 or so. It was around that time I was trying to start a DJ business, playing music at weddings, bar-mitzvahs and wakes or what have you.

Heck, maybe I was planning to make some cassettes or planning to see if I could figure out how to create a music CD. After all, the technology was pretty new at the time and I was working for a stereo and electronics shop during the time period.

The shadows were beginning to get long on the southeast side of our Klamath home. That’s where Goldie and I were at when things went horribly wrong.

With Goldie was her wire-haired terrier, Scotty. I had with me our next door neighbor’s Dalmatian, Daisy.

The neighbors were away for the week and had asked me to take care of her.  Aside from feeding Daisy, I also let her out of the back yard to let her run and play.

Goldie and I were talking when suddenly Daisy growled at Scotty. The next thing either of us knew — the two dogs were battling it out, teeth bared and howling in pain.

It seemed like minutes, but it was only seconds before my father broke the two apart, grabbing Scotty and sending me back to the neighbor’s to lock Daisy in her yard.

By the time I returned, Dad had Scotty laid out on the kitchen table, a large towel beneath his tiny battered frame. Dad, having trained security dogs for the U.S. Air Force, was examining the animal’s bleeding wounds.

Mom had ushered my sisters and brother outside onto the back patio. That’s where she sent me once I came in the front door.

Oddly, my siblings were very quiet, but Goldie was crying. I wanted to comfort her somehow because I felt certain that had I not let Daisy out of the yard, none of this would have happened.

But at 11 years old, I was too immature to react as I should have. It scared me to think that if I put my arms around Goldie and allowed her to cry on my shoulder it would only make things worse.

Jus’ as I was swallowing down my fright, Dad came out and announced that Mom had called Goldie’s folks and that they were on their way over. He also said the injuries were serious enough that Scotty needed to see a vet.

The moment passed and I missed an opportunity to behave as a young man should have in this situation. I took away a personal lesson from this, vowing never to forsake the chance if it ever arose again

Two years later as graduation from eighth graded loomed, our school suffered a shock as our basketball coach passed away unexpectedly. To honor his memory, our class dedicated our yearbook to him.

On the evening of our long-awaited exit from grade school, our classmate Lisa was to get up and read the dedication aloud to the gathered crowd of family and friends. Seconds after starting Lisa was crying so hard she could barely speak, so I stepped to the podium, put an arm around her waist and took up reading the dedication where she had left off.

Since I was having difficult time also, between Lisa’s sobs and the tears welling in my eyes, our soon-to-be former principal took over the reading. In coming to our rescue, and starting from the beginning , he allowed Lisa and I to take our seats.

In the end, I learned that a comforting hug is like a handshake — only in this case — it comes direct from the heart.

Because of my bad back, I don’t often go for lengthy walks anymore for fear I’ll get someplace and it’ll give out on me and I’ll find myself stuck waiting for help. However, after getting a mild form of cabin-fever, I jus’ had to get out of the house for a bit.

So, jus’ after the sun set I decided to walk around the block.

Halfway through my jaunt I was accosted by a man standing on the corner of a cul-de-sac I was passing by. He challenged me by asking what I was doing. I didn’t answer, instead, choosing to high-tail it out of there as fast as I could walk.

After ignoring him, he started following me, peppering me with the same question. I finally turned on him and brusquely stated: “If you continue to follow me, I will be forced to treat you as a threat accordingly.”

He backed off, but called 9-1-1 to report me.

Within five or so minutes, I found myself in the company of three sheriffs’ cruisers. An older male deputy, a younger deputy and a female deputy were out of their cars and standing around me.

The older deputy demanded to know why I was threatening people in the area and wanted my ID.  I told him I was NOT threatening anyone as I was simply on a walk around the block.

Again he demanded my ID and I told him no, because I hadn’t done anything wrong. Then he reminded me that my ID is actually property of the state and that I had no right to refuse his request.

My response was less than kind: “You are only an agent of the state and not an official representative of the state and unless you are arresting me for an unlawful act, I am legally refusing your demand based on my Fourth Amendment right.”

“Oh, so you’re a lawyer, huh?” he shot back.

“By asking that question,” I returned, “which I’m sure was intended to be snarky, you know I’m right.”

Then I turned to the female deputy, “What you should really be asking is what was the man who reported me as a threat, waiting on the corner for? Is he waiting to buy or sell drugs? Did he feel I was a threat to his stash of pot or meth?”

She looked at the two deputies with her, “He has a point.”

After a pause, she asked “Can I ask where you live?”

I answered yes and told her.

She then thanked me and sent me on my way. While it was hard not to, I refused to look back as I heard their cars turning around in the street to go talk to the man who had initiated the incident.

Personally, I hope the a-hole was up to no good and that they busted his arse.

My son lost his job on July 18th, shortly after International Gaming Technology sold to an Italian corporation. Fortunately for Kyle, he saw it coming as his former workplaces’ largest customer had been IGT.

That same night, following his layoff, the local news outlets reported the unemployment figures for the state were down. I don’t believe the state or the local news stations or the paper as it seems they simply report whatever tripe’s handed to them, no questions asked.

With that said, I think the economic crisis will get worse for Nevada before it gets better, especially as the state-wide layoffs begin when IGT officially leaves the state. After all Nevada isn’t the business-friendly refuge it used to be.

A friend of mine and I were talking about political commentators, when he said he believed Glenn Beck was ‘hate-monger’ and ‘race-baiter.’

“Really?” I asked, adding “When’s the last time you listened to him?”

He answered rather proudly, “I never have.”

“So how do you know that he’s a a hate-monger and race-baiter?” I countered.

“I’m going by what others have said about him,” he replied.

There was along pause in our coverstion. In the end we left it at that as we both knew it was bout to get ugly.

In my opinion, this is exactly what is wrong with the U.S. Each of us form an opinion before we know what we’re talking about and it is generally done so on someone else’s word.

We each NEED to do our OWN homework BEFORE simply agreeing with what we believe is the ‘correct’ opinion.

And yes, I have listened to those political commentators I don’t agree with. While I dislike it tremendously, I learn information from them that I would otherwise never have heard and thus my opinion would be lesser for it.

For the last five-years I’ve been watching the United States financial crisis as it grew larger and larger, than slowly faded from the headlines. And while many officials have claimed the ‘worst is over,’ I’m not too sure about that.

USA Today published an article featuring a chart showing the internet bubble, the housing bubble, and an unnamed bubble labeled a ‘stock market bubble.’

While the article doesn’t say there is a stock market bubble occurring in the U.S., it does say, “the Fed’s monetary policies have caused stock prices to soar, doesn’t mean there’s a bubble.”  It also says those same monetary policies will likely deflate as part of an overall correction of the market.

Scary.

Since late 2008, Glenn Beck has been warning us about jus’ such a bubble. I know, I know – you think Beck is a nut-job and fear monger, but in all truth he’s hit the nail on the head more times than most people want to admit.

While still at CNN, he describing what was heading our way:

“Look, you must allow the bubble to burst. I know it means pain. But we didn’t take the pain for the dot.com bubble. We moved that pain. It never goes away. Think of it as a disease. You’ve moved that pain and you just took a painkiller, and all of the disease was pushed into the September 11th housing bubble. So, all of that pain, what they do? They just made money cheaper and cheaper and cheaper so they could get people to buy homes, spend money, go out, rack up your credit card bills…

Now that bubble is much, much bigger. Now we’re facing the collapse of that bubble. And how are we trying to solve the problem? Instead of allowing it to collapse, we are creating a third and I believe, the final bubble. And that is, the money bubble. The pain is going to be much, much worse. Because what you’re designing now, you are un-tethering from every bit of free market system that we have. You are un-tethering from the Constitution. You are cutting the ties to anything that made America America.”

I’m going to stick my neck out and add to his prediction:

The date September 13, 2015 is the next Shemitah year. Known as Elul 29, it happens every seventh year of the Hebrew calendar and is a time when debts are to be forgiven and the land, in the agricultural communities of ancient Israel, was to be given a rest.

Elul 29, 2015 also represents the eve of the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashana at sundown. This begins a period known as “the days of awe,’ which lasts through Yom Kippur a week later and is a period set aside for serious introspection and to consider the sins of the previous year and repent.

Also, an astronomical phenomenon, a blood red moon – or tetrad – is expected to occur that evening. The last one took place in 1967-68, when Jerusalem was reclaimed in the Six Day War and the one before that was in 1949-50, right after Israel became a nation.

The economic calamity associated with the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center began September 17, 2001 when Lehman Brothers, one of the nation’s largest financial firms, collapsed.  This date coincides with Elul 29 on the Hebrew calendar.

Likewise, September 29, 2008, marked the next big crash also falling on Elul 29. On that day, stocks skidded with the Dow slumping nearly 778 points, in the biggest single-day point loss ever.

I’m seeing a pattern and hope you see it too and will plan accordingly.

The National Football League has suspend Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice for the first two games of the 2014 season, following Rice’s arrest on aggravated assault charges against his then-fiancée in February. Rice was arrested after surveillance video showed him dragging his unconscious fiancée out of the elevator of an Atlantic City hotel/casino.

Police have video of Rice punching his then-fiancée, Janay Palmer, before they entered the elevator. Rice was indicted on aggravated assault charges but, as a first time offender, was allowed to enter a diversionary community service program that will allow him to avoid jail time.

However, the Minnesota Vikings have suspended special teams coordinator Mike Priefer without pay for three games, saying he has to donate $100,000 to ‘lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender’ rights groups, in response to former punter Chris Kluwe’s allegations of anti-gay slurs and taunts made by Priefer. The coordinator can attend sensitivity training and get his suspension reduced to two weeks if Vikings ownership determines he is ready to return.

It’s pretty sad that an incident of physical harm verses an incident of verbal ignorance could come to such different disciplinary results. Whatever happened to sticks and stones may break my bones, but names and faces can’t hurt me?

ISIS/ISIL claims one of the goals of its insurgency is to reverse the effects of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. Islāmic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said that “this blessed advance will not stop until we hit the last nail in the coffin of the Sykes-Picot conspiracy.”

The Sykes-Picot Agreement was a secret treaty between the UK and France, with Russia playing a minor role. It laid out a plan for control of the Middle East should the Russians, French, and British defeat the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Britain was given control of the coastal strip between the sea and River Jordan, Jordan, southern Iraq, and a small area including the ports of Haifa and Acre, to allow access to the Mediterranean. France received control of south-eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Russia was to get Istanbul, the Turkish Straits and the six Ottoman Armenian provinces. The controlling powers were left free to decide on state boundaries within these areas.

Further negotiation to decide international administration was pending with Russia and other powers, including the Sharif of Mecca. However, following the Russian Revolution in October 1917, the Bolsheviks exposed the agreement.

Marian Verna “Kitty” Woods was born in Fortuna, California, May 26th, 1942. She married Donald Fulton in March 1960 and started their family, son Ed and daughter Terri, moving to Crescent City in 1964.

I knew her as Aunt Kitty as she was my Mom’s cousin.

Kitty returned to school and received her degree at College of the Redwoods and graduated in 1982. She worked for the County of Del Norte in the Auditor’s Office for about 16 years, retiring in 1994.

She was preceded in death by her parents as well as both her sisters, Joan and Gail. She passed away July 8th, 2014 at the age of 72.