Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- Jed on Let immigrants run
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/23
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/23
Open thread
- By Phillip Brownlee
- Posted April 14, 2007 at 1:05 a.m.
- Filed under Open thread
- Permalink
- Comments RSS
- Both comments and trackbacks are closed
76 Comments
Kansas underground aquifer water should be bottled and sold for, guess what … PURE DRINKING WATER!
Our pure underground aquifer water should NOT be given away in massive quantities to manufacturers of ethanol and producers of coal driven electrical power … because we won’t have drinking quality water left in ten years. Kansans will resort to drinking recycled sewage treated effluent, polluted with lots of leeched salt, out of our surface rivers.
Dream on that our water supply is being protected by our elected leaders: Governor Sebelius, Senator Brownback, Congressman Tehart and three outgoing Sedgwick County Commissioners, Unruh, Winters and Norton.
A bottle of drinking water anyone?
Correct me if I remember wrong, but did not Punxsutawney Phil predict early spring?
Wonder where all that “global warming” is… coldest April on record in the south so far!
I heard this on the radio yesterday and thought it would read well here…
Let’s put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand. Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100.00 – $10/each.
If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:• The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing• The fifth would pay $1• The sixth would pay $3• The seventh $7• The eighth $12• The ninth $18• The tenth the (richest) would pay $59
So that’s what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve:
“Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20. So now the dinner for the ten only cost $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six, the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his “fair share”? The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But they subtracted that form everybody’s share, then the fifth and the sixth man would each end up being “paid” to eat their meal.
So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each mans bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:• The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)• The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings)• The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28%)• The eighth now paid $9 instead if $12 (25% savings)• The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings)• The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings)
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
“I only got a dollar of the $20,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth. “But he got $10!”
“Yeah that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar, too. Its unfair that he got ten times more than me!”
“That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for half the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore. There are lots of good restaurants in Europe and the Caribbean.
Golf,That story was already posted here and not too long ago.Are we having a senior moment?
I’ve heard that so many times it’s ridiculous. A better analogy would be that the first four guys ate bread and water, while the last guy ate caviar and lobster.
Well MOM,
I’ve said it a couple of times and I’ll say it again because it is soooo true.
If you pay them to be poor, they will remain poor.
I don’t know about that, my clients on Medicaid who have food stamps eat a lot better than I do sometimes! Plus they often have money left over for cigarettes and alcohol. A person can buy cigarettes and alcohol with a Vision card if you use the cash portion of it….such good use of taxpayer’s money!! Then we get to pay for their health care on top of it. Just their medications cost a bundle, one of my client’s medications added up to over $50,000 last year, and that doesn’t include all the other benefits she receives from us.Oh well, I’m not bitching, it’s job security for me!
So true, Gene! Why would anyone WANT to change when they get rewarded to be unhealthy and poor?
Since my employer requires a drug test for me to work here…and have the privlege of paying taxes to help support those who do not work, how about more drug tests? Let’s require drug testing for anyone on any type of public assistance whatsoever. If they fail, they get no benefits.
After all, I have to pass a drug test to provide them with money.. how about a little testing reciprocity?
Any one that recieves food stamps should be required to go to classes on how to shop.
We eat just about anything we want at our house and we eat pretty healthy all in all.
I search for bargains. I buy in bulk thins that will keep well in my pantry. I buy a lot of my meats from the ‘bargain bin’ at Whites.
It annoys the crap out of me to see someone buying sodas, potatochips and all kinds of junk foods with food stamps.
Hank
Well, Hank–
You claim to be for small government, but you want gov’t to tell people how to eat.
Unless you would be happy to trade places with them, you should just let them live their own lives without your meddling and “reforming.”
*****
And now for something really interesting: TeamBush blows its own PR Lie.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/13/bush-extensions/On Tuesday, President Bush addressed the American Legion and accused Congress of forcing U.S. troops to extend their deployments in Iraq:
The bottom line is this: Congress’s failure to fund our troops will mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines.
The very next day, his own Pentagon announced that all U.S. Army soldiers in Iraq would have their 12-month tours in Iraq extended by 3 additional months.
What explains the strange timing? As Atrios noted, when the Pentagon announced its new policy on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Gates said he was angry that the news had been leaked to the press. That has sparked suspicion that the deployment extension was actually supposed to be announced after Bush had vetoed Congress’ Iraq legislation “so that he could try to claim it was their fault.” In that scenario, Bush’s remarks on Tuesday were just meant to prime the pump.
This speculation was fueled by Wednesday’s White House press conference, where Dana Perino explained the strange timing by claiming that President Bush had been in the dark about this major policy shift until the morning it was announced:
Q So why did he tell the American Legion that people would be staying in Iraq longer because of the Democrats, when his own Pentagon, 24 hours later, was going to keep people there longer?
MS. PERINO: Well, one, I don’t know if the President knew about the — the meeting — remember, yesterday morning is when Secretary Gates came and talked to the President. […]
Q And so the President didn’t know about his own policy until Wednesday?
MS. PERINO: I’m not aware that the President knew that there was going to be — that Secretary Gates had come to any decisions.
In other words, somebody in the Pentagon spoiled BushCo(TM)’s plans to blame the Democratic Congress to do what the failed Bush policy was forcing them to do anyway.
As Shakespeare said prophetically about Bush, “he’s an endless and infinite liar, an hourly promise-breaker.”
I think rather than food stamps, there should be big warehouses all over the city where the poor get free food…no junk or fast food, just healthy nutritional foods. They could have stations set up to educate regarding healthy eating and how to prepare nutrious meals.I get so tired of seeing moms at Quik trip, buying their kids pop and junk food for breakfast with a Vision card. At least the other way, the taxpaers money would be well spent.
I think rather than food stamps, there should be big warehouses all over the city where the poor get free food…no junk or fast food, just healthy nutritional foods. They could have stations set up to educate regarding healthy eating and how to prepare nutrious meals.I get so tired of seeing moms at Quik trip, buying their overweight kids pop and junk food for breakfast with a Vision card. At least the other way, the taxpayers money would be well spent, and children would be healthier.
Sorry for the double post!! I made some changes.
Interesting comments, capt. Unfortunately, if I’m paying for their groceries I should be able to have a little input.
Teaching someone how to eat healthy and economically with my money is a little different than “meddling”.
Hank
Reported on the news this morning: FEMA is discarding six million (that’s NOT a typo) MRE’s they had stockpiled for emergencies.
Discarding. Not giving away to a food bank or anything like that. And it’s not even like Bush can blame Michael Brown at this point.
The incompetence of this administration is mind boggling.
Another thing, poverty is more of an attitude than condition. In the US poverty is a temporary thing for someone with the desire to spend the effort to improve their condition.
If I was to change places with someone one poor food stamps in ten years they would have squandered all I have worked for all my life and I would be in pretty much the same status as I am in now.
Twice in my life I have been completely broke with little more than I could carry in a sea bag and I recovered. It’s an attitude, not a condition.
Hank
Yeah, Hank, good point. You pay for it so you should have some input.
You mean like I pay for the military and don’t want them killed for nothing in Iraq?
Like I want the NIH to be able to do cloning and stem-cell research so I might have a chance for a replacement heart or a cure for Alzheimer’s?
Like I want colleges and universities to stop spending billions of dollars for a few prima-donna coaches and players and get back to actually educating people?
You mean input like that?
Because I always hear you talking about how we’re a “republic” and not a “democracy” and so we ordinary citizen have to just sit down and shut up.
Exactly capt.!
I agree with everything you just wrote, except I don’t remember ever telling you to “sit down and shut up.”
I might have, but I don’t think so!
Hank
I agree, Hank (for once!). There’s nothing wrong with educating people in how to have healthier lives and giving them the incentive to make positive changes in their diet.I get so mad sometimes about how we fall down in this area. Just one example of the hundreds I’ve seen: I was at Hunter Health Clinic one day to talk to a doctor about one of my clients, I had to sit for what seemed like forever in the reception area that was absolutely packed with lower income young mothers with children, old people, etc. who were also waiting to see their doctor. On the TV in the reception area they were watching Jerry Springer. I imagine it was the staff that turned it to that station for their own enjoyment. Not only did I think it was inappropriate to be airing this kind of trash TV to a captive audience made up of all different ages, but they could have used this opportunity to educate people as they waited. Why couldn’t the staff provide a DVD with educational videos for people to watch? They could cover every subject from good nutrition to diabetic management, from disease prevention to child development. Such a missed opportuntiy to give people info that could change their lives in a postitive way. This is what frustrates me about how the system works, just giving people handouts with no real effort to really help them does nothing to change our society in a meaningful way.
Again I agree with you, Hank (can you believe it?)..poverty is more of an attitude than anything. Most people can make it in this country if they have the discipline, right attitude, and they’re willing to work hard; and many of those who make poor choices will never change.
Hank you also had things that nobody could take away from you.
You had job experience that someone was looking for. Take that away. It’s easy, I’ll tell you how.
Tell everyone you apply to that you’ve only worked at McDonalds. And not in any management. See how far you get.
Mary you should put the Springer episode in the form of a suggestion to the director of Hunter Clinic. You are very right about the content and the opportunity to have something informative up instead.
You all blame the poor at the same time you bitch because we dems want to raise the minimum wage!
Hypocrites much?
Good post, p_mom.
Just because some succeed doesn’t mean everyone can, any more than just because Mike Tyson became a famous a boxer from a disadvantaged past, everyone can do it.
Also, the chief cause for catastrophic bankruptcy and poverty among the middle class is not laziness, it’s a health crisis.
And I’m saying that as a non-poor person anymore.
Now that I’m back to work, we’ve made quick work of getting our bills paid back up. But still, it’s not a cake walk yet.
The choice to work at McDonalds is no one’s but your’s. If you choose to go into a profession that isn’t in demand, it’s still your choice. I can’t begin to tell you all the young people I know who have degrees in Psychology, English, Communications, and Computer Science, none of which will guarantee you a high paying job. Try Nursing, Engineering, or any other technical degree and you won’t have much problem. My husband is always frustrated that he can’t find people with technical skills to hire, but when he posted a position in the want ads for an IT person, he got almost a hundred resumes. Those degrees are a dime a dozen..but just try to find nursing staff for the hospitals.Believe me, the high paying and secure jobs are out there, you just have to look in the right field.
Yep political mom, you’re correct.
And how do you suppose that I got that work experience?
Yep, in high school I worked for minimum wage.
My first job was in a trim shop when I was 14. The man wouldn’t hire me so I made a deal with him. Every day I’s sweep out his business, empty the trash and he could pay me in scrap material and show me how to upholster cars.
Two months later I was working for him part time. Parlayed that job into a job at a body shop.
Willingness to work. Then experience.
Also had a good job washing dishes at a Root Beer stand. Worked up to assistant manager. For an eighteen year old kid my ‘fast food’ esperience looked pretty good on my resume!
90% of being a good employee is showing up every day willing to work. There is not a doubt in my mind that if I was 18 again I could start in any fast food place and end up owning one of my own in ten years.
Really!
Hank
PM, raising the minimum wage isn’t going to do much to help the poor, it takes a heck of a lot more to support a family these days. While I agree that people need fair wages for the work they do, anyone expecting to support themselves or their children with minimum wage will be struggling, always.
Mary, so are you saying that since raising the minimum wage will never be enough, that we should leave it at $2.65 an hour?
Which brings me to this point…I need to quit sitting on my ass now, because I have to go to work!!
OK, one last post.Tom, it doesn’t matter, minimum wage will never be enough to support a family.But yes, I think people have to get a fair wage..so raising minimum wage would be a good thing…but it’s still not going to enough.
Okay, thanks for the clarification. Have a productive day :)
Pmom…Nothing hypocritcal at all about a desire to see the food stamp recipients buy things other than junk food with their taxpayer supported vision cards. You brought up the minimum wage, we were talking about responsibility in food purchases with taxpayer provided assistance. What is the link?
Tom, dear.
The minimum wage problem has been solved! The dems have congress and they’ve passed the bill!
Hank
Yes Mary, we all know Nursing is so in demand that they’re kicking out good students for stupid reasons.
Hank darling,
Kansas still has a $2.65 minimum wage. There are just under 20,000 Kansans who earn just that, most of them in agricultural work.
There was an attempt to pass an increase this legislative session, but it failed 58-59. Several representatives were absent the day of the vote.
Oh and lets not forget how all the hospitals with the smoking bans are driving out good nurses who happen to smoke as well.
They’d rather pay double for non-smoking temp nurses. Not only is that more dangerous for the patients, and more expensive, hey as long as those nasty smokers are gone.
Wrong Hank. They passed it through the House; it is still at the mercy of the Republicans in the Senate and White House.
Maybe the Democrats should tie minimum wage to Bush’s war funding bill.
Tom dear,
I don’t believe it.
Where did you get this TTBOI?
Hank
Yep Ben,
Now the democrats will get a taste of their own medicine! What comes around goes around!
Maybe there’s some emails they haven’t investigated yet. That should make ‘em happy!
Hank
Bush has already promised to sign the minimum wage bill. Let’s raise it to $30/hr. I could use the extra money!
Hank
The thing is…
In my earlier story about 10 men going to dinner – and I don’t care if it’s been posted – the poor aren’t eating bread and water while the rich eat caviar. It’s the other way around.
If that story was written with even MORE accuracy, the four men getting dinner for free would have ordered appetizers, salad, dinner, dessert and 3-4 cocktails. The man picking up the bulk of the tab would have consumed a couple of pieces of bread.
Hank, agricultural entities are exempt from the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act, as amended, and thus from paying the federally mandated minimum wage thereunder (as well as overtime pay and a few other things the Act otherwise governs). This exemption then places the state minimum wage law into play for employees of such interests, if the state has one and if such law, by its provisions, does not exempt agriculture, for example.
There are a number of other exceptions under FLSA, but as Kansas is an ag state, I, like Tom, use it as an example.
…and drank water
P mom,I don’t know what you have against nurses but it has been good to me. I have to admit though if I had it to do over again I’d have become a physical therapist. As far as the hospitals banning smoking for patients and employees, it is about time. Contrary to how you represent it, the hospitals have tried to help their employees quit by providing them with stop smoking programs and giving them plenty of notice beforehand. Naysayers predicted smokers would all quit but where are they going to go? At the end of the day they still have to pay their bills. Maybe the smokers will become more productive. No one is hiring temporary nurses because the smoking ban caused nurses to quit. They are hiring them because the average age of the staff nurse is 47 and nurses are getting out of the profession and either retiring or getting in to less physically demanding jobs. Since there are so many more options these days for women fewer are going into nursing. Also there are not enough nurse educators to increase the number of students needed to meet even current demands for nurses. Who would choose to go into nurse education and make even less money that a staff nurse? It is not nice to make fun of us even if you don’t like what Mary says.
Yes Mr. Tolle, I know. It’s the 20,000 figure I don’t believe. When I was 17, I spent two months plowing 12 hours on and 12 hours off six days a week. The farmer paid me $2.00 an hour plus room and board. even 45 years ago, you couldn’t find anyone to work cheaper than that!
I truly believe that Tom’s figures are BS. Most of the workers that work for $2.65 an hour are waiters or waitresses. A good waitress in a busy restaurant will make many times the minimum wage in tips.
I believe Tom’s 20,000 figure is either very misleading at best and a down right lie at best.
Hank
Hank, I believe under FLSA, someone whose compensation is based upon “tips” has a minimum wage of $2.13/hr. I’d need to check this out, but memory serves this is the correct amount.
I hope Tom can substantiate his numbers; the same may come from the Kansas Employment Security Division numbers, I don’t know.
“In Kansas, of the 1.4 million individuals in the labor force, only 19,000 are not covered by the federal minimum wage, according to Beth Martino, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Labor. Those employees are covered by Kansas state minimum wage, which is $2.65 per hour.”
http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2007/jan/11/minimum_wage_vote_pleases_lawrence_workers/
ps: I love you too, Hank. Now stop calling me a liar.
Thanks.
I’m not at all making fun of NURSES. You should know my issues with the nurse educators out there, we’ve discussed it in the past.
And yes, nurses do leave the hospitals and go into home health, or nursing homes as well.
Oh, one error in my upthread post about the House vote. It was 56 to 62, not 58 to 59. The 58 to 59 vote was on an attempt to amend the wage increase onto another bill.
P mom,I truly don’t know what happened for you but have extracted from some of your comments that something happened when you were in school and that you were not able to get your degree. I guess you are telling me that it was a nursing program. Is there not anything that can be done to change what happened?I don’t know about home health but I know that many nursing homes have gone “no smoking.” I think it will probably continue. Even Medicaid has agreed to pay for Nicotine patches once a year to help their residents stop smoking. Most of the facilities my company owns have gone no smoking for any new residents and I hope to one day see us go no smoking for employees. What people do at home is their business but the rest of the world should not have to deal with it, in my opinion.
I think the 19,000 workers that fall under that minimum wage are service and farm workers. I know when I worked in the summer as a kid on a farm I got paid minimum wage. Most of the workers that worked for the farmer were kids.
I don’t know the number of service workers, but I would say they probably get tips in addition to their salary.
It’s probably an easy thing to find out the demographics of the minimum wage earner, but it’s Saturday and I’m doing other things. :)
One thought though, if farmers used to higher kids at minimum can no longer do that and let’s say have to be $5.00/hour…
How much will that affect their ability to survive as a farmer. As in any business, salary is often the biggest part of running a business.
Republican, it would have the obvious effect, should the state minimum go to $5.00/hr. From some ag clients, though, there is a severe lack of potential employees available irrespective of the wages offered.
Vaughn,
I think you touch on an important point quite by accident. Would more US citizens take ag jobs if the wages were higher? For someone from an impoverished 3rd world village, $2.65 an hour could look like something worth risking crossing the border for. For anyone else, though?
Hank–
I plugged 2 dollars for 1962 into the inflation calculator and got this:
What cost $2 in 1962 would cost $13.02 in 2006.
So your $2.00 an hour job plus room and board would be worth 13.00 an hour now plus room and board.
Those are the facts.
Tom if you required farmers to pay more in an hourly wage, they would have to raise the prices of their marketable items.
The price of their marketable items is not necessary controlled by farmers but by those who sell commodities. Therefore, if the Commodity traders don’t want to pay the increase in price, the farmer will have take the loss.
It was hard work capt. Like most farm work.
I was the cheapest labor available then!
Hank
KSGoofNut repeats a pervasive lie of the Bush administration:
there are no taxes except INCOME taxes.
Of course, the biggest tax to the middle class is the Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Then there’s a whole host of other taxes like sales tax, phone tax, property tax (which renters pay too through their rents), Wichita arena tax, tag fees, toll road fees, gas tax etc. etc.
Since those taxes don’t affect the rich much, TeamBush doesn’t harp on them.
Right, Hank.
And it’s not hard work now?
Why should you have deserved the equivalent of 13 dollars an hour and today’s seasonal farm help are lucky to get half that?
There is a church-based national program where food can be purchased at a reduced cost, no matter what your income. $25 per medium size box of “good” food that is worth well over $50 and includes a variety of meats. I haven’t tried it yet, but those who have say it is well worth the money. It can be paid for with cash, check, and food stamps.
Hank,Food stamps are paid for by the Dept. of Agriculture, not directly from your tax dollars. Much of it is given because of over-production.
The ironic thing is that the money that does help the poor constitutes 1% of your tax money. (That’s 1 cent on each dollar.) The rest goes to all other government spending, including military and welfare for corporations.
Mary,Fast food can’t be purchased on a Vision card. Junk food, yes, but not fast food. If you’re saying that all monied people eat healthy food, try again.
Capt.
I’m not sure that you can get farm help, seasonal or otherwise for $6.5 dollars an hour.
If yo read my post, farmers couldn’t get people to work for less than $2.00 and hour.
Besides, I dispute your $2.00 then equals $13.00 and hour now. It was a flat $2.00/hr. No benefits. No over time. No breaks. I ate lunch on the tractor.
Hank
RD,
I’ve purchase that ‘box of food’ several times. I’ve also helped put the boxes together at the church. My VFW also offers that food, anyway it used to.
It is a pretty good deal, but you end up paying for some stuff you normally wouldn’t buy for half price at the store.
Hank
1) The federal government has no control or influence on sales, property, arena, tags, tolls or other taxes. Those are all state or local.
2) If you’re calling for a reduction of SS and Medicare taxes – I’m all for it.
3) Same for federal gasoline taxes.
Of course, those tax cuts would be equally offset with reduced spending.
For once, Capn, you make sense.
Hank,
A loaf of plain white bread in 1960 was $0.20; now, it’s $1.00. That’s a 500% increase. A gallon of gas was $0.31; today it’s $2.69. That’s over 800% increase. Saying $2 in 1960 has the purchasing power of $13 today is not a stretch, and is probably pretty dang accurate.
We’re talking about wages, not purchasing power. With out benefits and overtime $2/hr at 72 hours a week would probably equal around $6/hr with benefits and overtime.
Thanks for contributing though.
Hank
“Willingness to work. Then experience.”
Damn it Hank, stop doing posts I agree with.
Whether you have a degree or not, you have to be ready to start at the bottom and work your way up. I worked in a cowhide plant for a couple of years starting out and I made darn good money (not many people will do a job like that).
Like you said, plan on being at work every day and on time. That’s SOOO important. I’m continuously amazed at how many people don’t “get” that. Dependability looks good on your resume. So does being in the same job for 2-3+ years.
Fact is, college or not if you’re willing to work hard and you’re dependable, you’ll get ahead.
Hank,
The $2.65 minimum wage is exempt from overtime. Just FYI.
If all the undereducated people went into the professions, professional jobs would be paying about as much as the fast food industry. Over supply in the labor market leads to declining wages. America has to have poor struggling people to function.
Good point Tom, most of the people I know who have real money are not the ones with college degrees…I know many sucessful business people who don’t have a formal education, just a lot of ambition and a willingness to work hard.
I mean’t XXX, sorry Tom.
This guy was working for damn near minimum wage:
At Gary S. Johnston’s funeral, his sister, Sabrina, spoke of how her big brother always lived his life to the fullest and stood in as her protector many times. ¶ “Whenever I would fall he would pick me up, wipe my face and tell me ‘It’s OK,’” she said. “He was my best friend. He was my hero. I will miss him every day.” ¶ Johnston, 21, of Windthorst, Texas, was killed Jan. 23 near Fallujah. He was a 2003 high school graduate, attended Midwestern State University, and was assigned to Okinawa, Japan. ¶ He played football, basketball, baseball, and ran track. He had won various state championships in 4-H Shooting Sports and the Amateur Trap Shooting Association. ¶ His senior year he played on both defense and offense as a linebacker and fullback, and was named to the all-district team. He even played part of that season with a broken arm. ¶ “You couldn’t change him,” said friend Shawn Talley. “Even if he was hurting on the inside, he was still smiling on the outside.” ¶ He is survived by his parents, J.B. and Angela. ¶ “He was always there to help,” said classmate Chance Schroeder. “You needed a ride home, and he’d come help.”
This guy gave up a real future to serve:
NEENAH, Wis. (AP) _ Jon B. St. John II was nearing graduation from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse when he suddenly decided to enlist in the Army a year and a half ago. ¶ His family says it has now been informed by the military that the 25-year-old soldier from the Town of Vinland was killed Saturday by an explosive device near Baghdad in Iraq. ¶ “He had six credits left to graduate when all of a sudden he says he was tired of school and had been looking at the Army. He gave us 36-hour notice and he was out the door,” his father, Jon St. John Sr. said Monday. ¶ “He wanted a change in life. He felt the Army would give him direction.” ¶ The younger St. John, a member of the 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas, joined the Army in June 2005 and was deployed to the Middle East last fall, working as a machine gunner atop a Humvee, his father said. ¶ His son knew the danger of joining the military during a time of war but felt it was the right thing to do, the senior St. John said. ¶ “We were proud that he took that initiative, and we could see he was proud to have done it,” the father said. “He felt it was something that needed to be done.” ¶ St. John graduated in 1999 from St. Mary Central High School, where he played varsity football and tennis. ¶ Social studies teacher David Meixl remembered his dry sense of humor. ¶ “In some ways, he was a salesman, he just had that type of personality _ warm, inviting, low-key,” Meixl said. “He wasn’t so much a class clown but every now and then had some antics.” ¶ St. John later attended the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley before going to UW-La Crosse. Meixl said that he was a little surprised that St. John enlisted because of his personality. ¶ “He just seemed a bit more reserved,” Meixl said. “I saw him more on a business track.” ¶ But Sue Simonsen, St. John’s former high school principal, said she was not surprised _ once he set a goal, he went after it wholeheartedly. ¶ “He was one of those guys you had to stay on, keeping him focused on schoolwork,” Simonsen said. “I know when Jon had a goal in mind, it would be when he kicked into gear and got someplace.” ¶ Simonsen, who now works about 15 miles from the school St. John attended, said his death brought the war home to friends in the Town of Vinland, a close-knit community with a little more than 2,000 residents. ¶ “I feel really bad that we’re losing our young people to a cause,” Simonsen said. “It becomes more personal when all of sudden you know somebody who’s over there, giving their life for our freedom.” ¶ He attended Lakeview Elementary School, where he played soccer, and Shattuck Middle School, where he excelled in math, before going to St. Mary Central, his father said. He played guitar and piano, was extremely well read and made the Dean’s List at the UW-La Crosse, the senior St. John added. ¶ His son also enjoyed snowmobiling and loved hunting grouse and deer in Bayfield County, he said. ¶ “He was an excellent shot, with a rifle or a shotgun,” St. John Sr. said.
Repub — this one’s for you:
Army Staff Sgt. Jason R. Arnette, 24, died from injuries sustained when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near the vehicle in which he was riding Saturday (March 31).
Sgt. Arnette, a 2001 graduate of Amelia County High School and an Air Force- JROTC cadet, was the son of the late William Russell Arnette Jr. (who died a year and one day prior to his son) and Michelle Arnette, of Amelia. Friends and family say he was proud to be in the U.S. Army Infantry.
Sgt. Arnette was an infantryman. After completing boot camp at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2002, he was assigned to 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, at Camp Greaves, South Korea. In November 2003, he was reassigned to 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, also known as the “Golden Dragon” battalion. He was in the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. Sgt. Arnette served three tours in Iraq: from December 2003 to March 2004, from January to June 2005 and from August 2006 until his death. His last tour was scheduled to end in August 2007.
He will receive a posthumous Purple Heart for the incident that took his life. His other awards include the Army Commendation Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Korea Defense Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Non-commissioned Officer Service Ribbon, Army Service Ribbon and Combat Infantryman Badge. His military education included an EMT/paramedic refresher course, warrior leader course, Combat Lifesaver course and Dragon Anti-tank Missile Trainer course.
Sgt. Arnette is survived by his mother, Michelle; his wife, Shenandoah Skye; two sisters, Tonya and Shelby-Grace Arnette; one niece, Chloe Donovan; and one nephew, Jake Donovan.
“It is a pretty good deal, but you end up paying for some stuff you normally wouldn’t buy for half price at the store.”
True enough, Hank. At one of the churches here in town, the “menu” is listed online. As I mentioned, I haven’t tried it, but if I should decide to, I’ll check out the menu first and do some comparisons. No reason to pay for a bunch of food that wouldn’t get eaten.