Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Election: Vote Tuesday!

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This Tuesday is election day. If you happen to live somewhere that is holding an election—like the entire Commonwealth of Virginia—be sure to vote. Virginians will be casting ballots for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, the House of Delegates, and various other local issues. While these elections consistently get less attention and fewer voters than elections for President of the United States, they are arguably more important. State governments have a huge impact on individuals’ quality of life, often much more so than the federal government.

As has been the case since 2004, Off on a Tangent will be providing live election-night coverage on Tuesday. Coverage will commence as the polls close at 7pm and will continue until I have made calls for all elections I’m following, or midnight (whichever comes first). In addition to live results for all races in which I have made endorsements, I’ll also report any worthy election night news in a ‘live blog’ form. If any races remain un-called at midnight, coverage will re-start with occasional updates (as time permits) on Wednesday.

I’ve stated my opinions about these races, but whether you agree with me or not it is very important that you exercise your right to vote. See you at the polls!

Birthday Sombreros!

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birthday-sombreroMelissa and I both celebrated our birthdays over the last week. Yesterday, we went out with my parents to Chevy’s—a Mexican place we like. Well, we picked right because both of us got these spiffy Birthday Sombreros!

I figure these will be good for the new job, or church, or just driving around the neighborhood. I’m sure some of the MS-13 gang-bangers up in Herndon will get a kick out of it.

Oh, MS-13 is Salvadorian? Hm. Maybe not then.

;-)

Rhee Is Right

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If you work for the Washington, DC, city government, you can usually be sure you’re doing something right if the City Council hates you. If you work for public schools, it’s also usually a good sign you’re doing something right if the teachers’ unions hate you. If you happen to be leading the Washington, DC, public schools (DCPS), and you manage to piss off both the City Council and the teachers’ unions, well, you’re almost definitely on the right track.

DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has managed to accomplish exactly this. Her leadership, now entering its third year, has drastically improved DCPS’s average test scores. The worst teachers and administrators are being weeded out of the system, while the best are being retained. Slowly-but-surely, waste, fraud, and abuse in the system is being eliminated. Johnathan Swift once said, “When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.” Well, the dunces are now in confederacy against Michelle Rhee.

I don’t really approve of what Rhee did in her most recent controversy—when the DC City Council instructs that something be done, no matter how stupid it may be, it should be done. But Rhee’s approach of actually trying to do her job, even in the face of moronic decrees from the Council and union bosses, is laudable. I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that some times the best way to get something done is to ignore the ‘process’ and just do it, especially in government (and other dysfunctional organizations) where the ‘process’ hurts more than it helps.

In this case, the DC City Council, the now-dissolved school board, teachers’ unions, former mayors, and educational administrators have conspired for decades to destroy the city’s schools. Rhee has been weeding through the school administrators, she doesn’t have to deal with the non-existent school board or former mayors, but the Council and unions are still thorns in her side. They helped make the mess; I’d humbly suggest that they shut up and let Rhee fix it.

House: Less Than One Month!

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We are less than one month away from the closing/settlement date on our house. Today we spent a big chunk of the day getting things lined up for the big move day[s] . . . we got the window treatments ordered, the alarm system ordered, the movers arranged, and so on. Since we had to be at the house to get quotes on window treatments and the security system, we also got to see how things were progressing.

We had been out there last weekend so not much had changed since then. They accidentally installed carpet on the third floor (which was supposed to be hard wood), which is a funny (and likely expensive) mistake for the builder to have made. They’ll fix it. Today we also discovered that one of our railings was broke (see the picture). Another mistake they will have to fix.

The construction manager (who we happened to run into) said the workers are sometimes like bulls in china stores, but that everything will be fixed up before closing. We have a pre-settlement walk-through a week before closing where we get to see its ‘final’ status and point out any lingering problems, then we get to go through once more the morning of settlement to make sure they actually fixed everything.

All-in-all though, things are shaping up nicely (pictures below).

Read more . . .

Post Office: Trouble! Sensor!

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random2random1Melissa and I dropped by the Post Office for a few minutes this evening so she could send a package from the automated doo-hicky. As usual, I walked around aimlessly out of sheer boredom. Post Offices aren’t very interesting at the best of times. After hours, well, they’re super boring.

I discovered two interesting things on the wall of the local Post Office. First, what appeared to be a fire alarm panel helpfully declaring that there was ‘trouble’. As far as I could tell, the building was not on fire so I didn’t worry too much about it. Second, a wall wart of some sort with a helpful sign identifying it as a ‘sensor’, featuring a button labeled ‘override’ and a rubber band.

Your tax money at work, I’m sure.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.