Danger in Numbers

The following is taken directly from an April 18, 2012 email to parents of students at West Des Moines Valley Southwoods Freshman High School:

Dear VSW Parents/Guardians:

At a community meeting on Monday evening, it was suggested that building principals share the following information from the WDM Substance Abuse Coalition about April 20th with our parents:

4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) is a term used as a discreet way to refer to the consumption of marijuana and a way to identify oneself with the drug subculture. Marijuana users observe 4:20 as a time to smoke together and April 20 has become a counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume marijuana.

4:20 has become a code for a time to get high, a symbol of marijuana and its culture. Teenagers believe they can talk about getting high in front of their parents without them knowing by using the phrase 4:20. Fortunately, your teenager will not have that option. April 20 events are international and 4:20 has become a worldwide "burn time." For parents, it's a red flag, a warning sign that your teenager may be into something that could harm their future. When you see the symbol 4:20 or your child wearing excessive green clothing on April 20, beware of what it represents. April 20 has now become National Pot Smokers Day.  Our pop culture is pro-marijuana, as evidenced by the success of movies and celebrities who flaunt their use. This makes it more difficult for parents to get anti-drug messages across to kids. Use 4:20 as your opportunity to get a dialogue going about drugs, and not just marijuana.

Isn't that awesome/crazy/stupid!  When I read this, I knew immediately there was a high (no pun intended) probability I would blog about it.

This email is asinine for a lot of reasons, many of which I've written about before.  (Just click on the labels.)  These reasons can be put into two main categories:

1) School administrators who think it's their job to govern kids 24/7.  Like I've said before, what happens outside of school or school functions is the responsibility of parents.  If the parents choose not to raise their children the 'right' way, that doesn't make school administrators their surrogate.

Trying to educate parents on pop culture like this is nothing more than a thinly-veiled attempt to do a parent's job.  I love how the author notes at the beginning that "it was suggested that building principals" share this information.  Who suggested it, one of the principals?  Had to be I guess, because if a parent knew about four-twenty, they'd already have a grip on communicating about it.

2) People who think any suggestion of marijuana means the worst.  It's a "warning sign" if your kid wears "excessive green clothing" on 4/20?  A warning sign of what, that they follow pop culture or that they must be a pothead?  You mean like if a girl wears a short skirt she must be a slut, or if a boy wears a sideways cap he must be a gang member?

And how about the statement that "our pop culture is pro-marijuana"?  I see a helluva lot of pop culture that "flaunts" drinking too much, or using violence, but smoking pot?  Not so much.  Regardless, smoking pot would be less harmful than either of those other two things, but our society is much too repressed to admit that!

So kudos to you, Valley Southwoods Freshman High School administrators, for drawing attention to this falsely dangerous calendar date.  You've truly earned the ridicule that the students are going to point in your direction on four-twenty.

School's In...For...Summer!

This week the Iowa legislature got its shorts in a bunch over the earliest date schools should be able to begin their school year.  It's been fun to watch.

For many years, Iowa law has mandated that elementary and high schools are not to begin classes prior to September 1st.  However, schools can (and do) apply to have that mandate waived, which it always is.  Consequently, many schools in Iowa have begun to start within the first half of August, and all before September 1st.

No problem - local control, everybody's happy, right?

Enter the special interest groups, namely the tourism lobby.  Schools are now starting so early that they conflict with family vacations, and more specifically, with the Iowa State Fair.  The Fair and the tourism industry want the starting date mandate enforced.

The debate between local control and tourism quickly deteriorated into dumb versus dumber arguments.  If you support tourism, you're accused of being against education.  If you support local control, you're accused of being against common sense.

Of course, the goofy teachers' lobby had to get involved, letting everyone know their precious Spring Break may have to be eliminated if schools have to start later.  Do they not realize that outside of central Iowa, most school districts don't even have a Spring Break?  And how is a Spring Break good for education?

In the end, a compromise bill has been crafted to mandate that schools not begin classes prior to the last Monday in August.  So the debate ends with all parties missing the obvious answer - we should be looking at year-around school.

This is the 21st century, with air conditioning and technology.  It's time to accept that kids don't need all summer off.

Good for education?  Yes.  Good for tourism?  Sure.  Good for teachers?  Talk to the hand.

Remember December

Remember December?  It was only a few months ago.  Equity markets had just finished a volatile and generally poor year.  European nations were arguing over how to deal with a mountain of sovereign debt, while the rest of the world fretted over how that debt would affect global markets.

Most market analysts expected further tough times in early 2012. Financial magazine Barron's warned, "For investors frightened by the stock market's volatility in the past six months and tired of worrying about places in Europe once given little thought, 2012 promises scant comfort—at least in the first half."

As an investor, if you had taken that advice and left the stock market, you would have just missed one of the best short‐term equity rallies in recent history. The S&P 500 index was up 12% in the first quarter of 2012, its biggest first‐quarter percentage gain since 1998.  Broader equity market benchmarks also made record or near‐record quarterly gains.

Why the turnaround in markets so far in 2012?  The primary drivers have been signs of economic stabilization in Europe, along with signs of economic recovery in the U.S.  But the most important thing to know is that a few months ago, virtually no one predicted either of those to happen.

This brings me back to my oft‐repeated investment philosophy:  No one knows how markets will perform going forward, because that requires an ability to accurately predict unforeseen events.  Since the future is unknown, it’s best to maintain your pre‐determined asset allocation, in the most diversified and lowest cost manner available.

Market discipline works both ways, of course.  Just as it was wrong to assume the market pessimism of last year would continue into early 2012, it would not be prudent to anticipate that the rest of this year will resemble the first three months.

You can always guess, of course, but experience reveals that isn't a very good investment strategy.   Remember December?

Get A (Private Industry) Job!

A recent story on 60 Minutes covered the plight of former space shuttle employees in Breverd County, Florida, home of the Kennedy Space Center.  In short, the end of the shuttle program has led to severe unemployment and the subsequent closing of many local businesses.

The people interviewed are angry and feel betrayed because the government led them to believe a replacement space program, called Constellation, would allow them to keep jobs.  The economy and budget cuts kept that from happening.

There is one thing these folks are having trouble understanding - Americans like me don't care about their feelings!

Are you kidding me?  The 7,000 (yes, 7,000) people employed by NASA's shuttle program, and the businesses they patronized, have sucked at the taxpayers' teat for the better part of three decades.  They made good wages with fantastic federal benefits.  And yes, I'm sure most of them were good civil servants.

Unfortunately, it didn't occur to those employees, nor to the businesses around them, that Uncle Sam might not always need them.  How did they not see this coming?  Everyone has known for years that the shuttle program was going to be shut down, and they made no contingency plans?

Yes I know, they were counting on the Constellation program.  Well, let me introduce you to a million other people who also lost their private employment jobs when the economy went south in 2008.  I don't see them sitting around hoping for the government to create other jobs in their county.  (Check that, thousands of them are sitting around collecting benefits from me.)

Just because these folks were denial doesn't mean anyone should feel sorry for them.  They had plenty of time to learn another trade, or revamp their business.  And if they didn't then, they do now.

I for one am glad to see that the flow of dollars from my pocket to theirs has stopped, during a time when the U.S. is so far in debt that it has rightfully contracted its space exploration program.