Sarbanes-Oxley For Colleges

George Mason Law School professor Todd J. Zywicki is suggesting that it might be wise to apply the Sarbanes-Oxley regulations to universities.

Sarbanes-Oxley is the intrusive and pointless, feel-good law enacted  in 2002 in response to the corporate scandals of the 1990s. The reporting and record keeping mandates it imposes are burdensome and expensive, and considering how most of those involved in the ’90s scandals wound up in prison, unnecessary.

Still, Zywicki points out that the reasoning behind instituting the regulations for business are just as apt for American higher education and that there is no good reason to exempt the schools from them.

He says that while it has been traditionally assumed that universities are charitable organizations run with “an eye on the public good” they have evolved into big business riven with self interests and presidents making seven-figure salaries.

He says that their boards of trustees “have all but abandoned any pretense of governing”.

Read his reasoning here

And go here to see what he says fits with the situation at  Penn State.

Surprise, Surprise — Electronics Recylcing Law In Effect

As of Thursday, January 24, electronic devices can no longer be thrown away with other trash, reports State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).

Passed in 2010, the Pennsylvania Covered Device Recycling Act requires consumers and businesses to recycle covered devices, such as computers, laptops, computer monitors, televisions and tablets. Trash haulers will no longer take covered devices unless a municipality has a curbside electronics collection program that ultimately sends the devices to an electronics recycler. They also may not be taken to, or accepted by, landfills or other solid waste disposal facilities.

Consumers may continue to recycle their electronics through a county or municipal electronic recycling program, if one is available. Consumers should first contact drop-off locations to see what types of electronics will be accepted at a given location. Some retailers are offering recycling programs as well, Cox said.

Poem Of The Day

There is a good chance that you’ve seen The Gods Of The Copybook Headings written by Rudyard Kipling in 1919 as it flies around the web with a fair amount of frequency in these Obama years.

If haven’t though it is below.

“Copybook heading” refers to the inspirational or educational phrase placed at the top of the pages of copybooks used in English schools during Kipling’s day.

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,

The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Women In Combat And The Fools Who Rule Us

Obama’s Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Jan. 23, lifted the long-standing ban on women in combat to the cheers of a lot of rich and government-connected people who will not have to feel the consequences of the decision.

Does this mean that women will have to register for the draft and be subject to combat involuntarily?

Apparently, yes.

It would have been nice if they let us know their thinking back in November dontcha think?

Anyway, people who believe sexual differences are insignificant, emotions irrelevant and that combat is somehow an experience to desire now rule us.

The only word to fairly describe  them is “fools”.

A few weeks ago, Joe Eastman of Broad Street Ministry, who is a retired naval officer, spoke to the Independence Hall Tea Party Association about his group’s mission for homeless veterans. He said more women are using their service. These veterans have been traumatized by sexual assault. It was not done at the hands of the enemy.

Expect more of this. Conversely expect a percentage of females to start playing up to male superiors to avoid undesirable jobs like combat. Expect resentment among their male peers. Expect less focus on getting the job done. With gays now openly serving expect unworldly 18-year-old males to be subject to sexual harassment and assault.

Expect bad things because that’s we are going to get.

A Nomination for ‘National Human’

The 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade—the court case that legalized abortion—brought back to my mind a decision I had made while working on an article for the Cape May County Herald back in the 1990s. Looking back, I think I made the wrong choice.

I had occasion to interview a zoologist who headed up a program that looked after injured turtle eggs. Specifically, it was those eggs that were damaged by passing automobiles that had hit female turtles as they crossed a south Jersey highway to reach their nesting spot.

He described how the interns that participated in this program were literally—literally—in tears as they picked up the injured eggs and brought them back to the facility where they were nursed back to health so they could hatch.

At the time, I was tempted to ask what I thought was a very obvious question, but my journalist’s objectivity prohibited me from taking the interview in a direction that was never intended. In hindsight, I now wish I had taken that path, because it would have made for a far more interesting and illuminating article, albeit one that would have no doubt annoyed my editor.

The question I wanted to ask the zoologist was, “These interns seem very respectful of life in general, would you say they are the type of young adults that one would find tearfully protesting in front of abortion clinics?”

My expected reaction would have been a terse and emphatic, “Oh no!” followed by the obligatory, “They would likely see that as a woman’s decision.”

But it never got to that juncture. I bit my tongue and carried on the interview as though I actually cared about foraged turtle eggs and the valiant attempt to save unborn reptiles.

I recently was shown a poster that stated the fine for destroying an eagle’s egg is a quarter of a million dollars or up to two years in prison. Seems fair. After all, it’s our national bird, whereas the country really doesn’t have a national human.

At any rate, that’s where this culture stands, or so it appears—careful with those bird and reptile eggs; we could be losing hundreds, even thousands every year. The eggs inside a human? In the US alone, there are more than 3,000 abortions a day.

But here’s a curious fact: In most states, if a pregnant woman is murdered, the assailant is charged with two counts of homicide: one for the killing of the mother, and one for killing of the unborn child. Amazing how the crime turns—not on the life of the innocent victim—but on the identity of the person deciding that a life should end. Even an innocent one.

(Excerpted from Good Writer’s Block)

InLiquid’s 13th Annual Silent Auction Is Feb. 15

Get you’re lucky charms and bids together for InLiquid’s 13th Annual Silent Auction & Benefit 6:30-9:30 p.m.,  Friday, Feb. 15  in the Ice Box Space at the Crane Arts Building, 1400 N. American St., Philadelphia.

This annual festive reception is not one to be missed in the art community of Philadelphia. Over 150 artist submissions from local artisans and galleries have submitted an array of artwork, jewelry and design items to be auctioned off.
 
To celebrate its Bar Mitzvah year, InLiquid is incorporating new organizations and artists to watch into its signature event. On Feb. 14, InLiquid will host in partner with Second Thursday at the Crane, the Young Professional preview night of the Benefit with entertainment provided by RAW Artists and MC’d by The Spruce Foundation’s new co-President, Rudy Flesher. Following the YP night, the Benefit evening will have new curated sections with “Local Artists to Watch” for jewelry. Philadelphia art galleries that will be host curated sections of the Benefit include: Paradigm Gallery + Studio, Larry Becker Contemporary Art and Center for Art in Wood.

Newspaper Guild Buyout Package

Philadelphia Inquirer gossip columnist Dan Gross resigned, Jan. 16, as head of the Newspaper Guild of Greater Philadelphia to take a  buyout package.

“My decision was not based on fear but on opportunity,” he said.

Perhaps he has gotten an offer to captain an Italian cruise ship.

Interstate General Media L.L.C., the parent company of the Inky, Daily News and Philly.com,  has told the 550 members of the Guild. whose rank and file includes newsroom and advertising employees. that it wants to cut $8 million in wages and benefits from their contract which expires in October.

Those greedy capitalistic war pigs. Look for the union label! Strike brothers!

And welcome to Obamaworld where your pay is less and your costs are more.

 

Newspaper Guild Buyout Package

Salute Our Troops Broadcast And Lunch

Teri Adams of the Independent Hall Tea Party Association points out that WPHT 1210 AM and Dom Giordano are hosting a 2013 Salute Our Troops!
Live Broadcast Luncheon, 11 a.m., Presidents Day, Feb. 18 at the Crowne Plaza Valley Forge, 260 Mall Blvd, King of Prussia, Pa.

Tickets are $25 and can be gotten here:  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/5210859822#