Comments by Venti
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Posted on April 25 at 4:42 p.m.
yeah, I'm done with this site. I personally enjoyed this part of this article... "I will also disable comments on other stories that I deem are deserving."
I'm outta here people. Have fun in the "Jeffrey Hage Dictatorship." Nice "policy" Mr. Hage! Please refer to my comment on the "Should comments be silenced?" op-ed for further reference. BTW I wrote that before your article was uploaded to the site. Call it foresight, call it predictability, call it whatever. Either way, it's pretty weak. Bye, all.
Joel, please feel free to delete this account whenever you get a chance. Thanks.
Posted on April 25 at 4:20 p.m.
Completely agree with lookitup. There's a BIG difference between a drug user and a drug dealer. One is hurting themself. The other is contributing to the injury of another.
In addition, I think the "Who are you to judge?" argument is absolutely ridiculous in most cases. "Don't judge these people unless you have been in there shoes." Really? So I shouldn't "judge" a child molester unless I have personally molested a child? I shouldn't "judge" a convicted murder unless I, myself, have actually killed someone? Yeah, who's ever heard of "judging" people by their actions? Let's only judge them, no, get to know them, by the content of their hearts. That way people can simply do whatever they want as long as "deep down" they're a good person. Do you know how many "good people" there are on death row? Almost all of them. If you don't believe me ask their mothers or their sisters or their husbands or wives. They'll all tell you that deep down, these people are really good people. They just need help. As a society we have chosen to judge people by their actions. The line we've drawn between those actions that are acceptable and the ones that are not is made up of things we call laws. There is a reason we have laws against the production, sale and use of methamphetamine. One of the MANY reasons is because the consumption of the drug encourages and increases the production of the drug, which as you probably know, causes endless environmental hazards and health problems for the people around it. The only way that rehab works for any of these "meth heads" (and most drug addicts) is if they actually truly want to quit. How many of these people do you think would enter into a state or federally mandated drug treatment program truly wanting to quit using drugs? None. How many of them do you think would enter into a state or federally mandated drug treatment program with the intention of just doing what "the man" is forcing them to do so that they can get out and go find their next hit? Treatment only works for those who want to be treated and want to quit. For everyone else it's just a waste of time and a sure fire way to get them back on the streets buying and selling more drugs.
Posted on April 25 at 10:01 a.m.
On the flip side, most people who use meth don't have any desire to stop using it either. To say that people who use it, or illegal drugs in general, "don't want to" is a stretch. Maybe they fear getting caught? Maybe they don't like the effects it's having on their life or their family? But to say that they don't like or "don't want to" use the drug itself I think is boarding on simply being untrue. That's an inherent part of being an addict. You have an uncontrollable or abnormally strong craving or desire for what you are addicted to.
Posted on April 25 at 9:11 a.m.
Well, I guess the verdict is in. After reviewing the story "Drug Dealer Threatened Informant" it seems perfectly clear that whether the general readership of this site believes it should happen or not, the comments here WILL be silenced whenever the Daily Journal staff feels like it. Good to know. I'll check back much less often now. Personally, I enjoy the feature, but it seems to me like it should be either, or. If you are going to allow comments on stories, great, allow them and get rid of the vulgar or obscene comments. As far as "defaming" someone or an organization/company the same rules should apply as what applies to people in every day life. People are allowed to have their opinions and should not be "silenced" because they have a poor opinion of someone or something. If you are not going to allow comments, then don't allow them ON ANY story. Do not pick certain stories and determine "well, this seems like a fairly neutral and harmless story, I guess we'll allow people to comment on it." While on other stories that may be "controversial" (which, by the way, usually are so because they are the stories that mean the most to the people in this community) and decide "well, some people might disagree or get worked up over this story, so let's just not allow anyone to say anything about it." To me, that's worse than not allowing any comments whatsoever. Make up your mind, come up with some sort of a policy and stick with it. That's what businesses do.
Posted on April 24 at 1:27 p.m.
Huh, I think anyone familiar with this guy could have seen this coming since about 1996. Hopefully this will take him out of Fergus Falls (and any town) for a very, very long time. With any luck, he won't come back.
Posted on April 21 at 9:16 a.m.
melindakay wrote "two main reasons are the lack of good financial planning by the district and the community not financially supporting the district when asked."
Didn't the community just pass a $32.5 million dollar bond referendum to update and improve the educational facilities in the Fergus Falls school district? Which, according to the superintendent, was done because "each year the district was being forced to spend general education fund dollars, usually reserved for teaching and learning, to maintain our facilities." Seems to me the community was asked and responded quite favorably.
As far as financial planning goes... melindakay: are you by chance a school administrator? Because you should be. Specifically in a rural school district in Minnesota.
Posted on April 18 at 10:10 a.m.
Anyone notice Figure 3 in the link I posted?
"Interestingly, districts in the smallest 20 percent of size were nearly as stable as districts in the largest 20 percent of size."
Take this into account along with...
"As enrollment shrinks, districts lose revenue, but may not be able to cut expenses as quickly as revenues are falling. For example, the largest component of school district budgets is for teacher salaries. As enrollment declines, revenue is lost, but the expenditures for teacher salaries may not fall as quickly, as districts attempt to maintain class sizes, but are required by collective bargaining agreements in many cases to lay off the least experienced (and lowest paid) teachers, resulting in relatively smaller budget savings in proportion to lost revenue."
Is it really that surprising that people might be choosing to send their kids to places like Underwood as opposed to Fergus Falls? Speaking of open enrollment...
http://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/2...
melindakay, in your first post on this article you ask "When is Fergus going to stop cutting jobs every year? Whether they are hiring back or not, this is ridiculous. Teachers deserve much better." Now you are saying that "Fergus is losing students because people are losing faith in the district - for good reason, in my humble opinion. I wouldn't want to send my student to a poorly funded school that uses its resources unwisely, either." So basically you are claiming that District 544 is a poorly funded district (which is a direct effect of their steadily declining enrollment) and that the funds they do have they spend "unwisely" because they are cutting teaching jobs. So even though the the school district has lost over 25% of it's students in the last decade (which again, correlates to a proportionate loss in $$$) and is projected to lose another 375 students over the next 5 years bringing the total to almost 40% since 1997... http://www.fergusfallsjournal.com/news/2...... (which is not all due to open enrollment, some, yes, but much of it is also due to the fact there are simply less young people in the community), yet they should not be cutting teaching jobs because "teachers deserve much better?"
Posted on April 17 at 10:11 a.m.
www.house.leg.state.mn.us/fiscal/files/0...
"Statewide, by 2009, it is projected that 272 of 343 school districts (or 79 percent) will be
experiencing declining enrollment. However, much of that decline will be occurring in the rural
parts of Minnesota. As Figure 2 shows, 90 percent (28 of 31) of the districts in the Northeast
region projected to be in decline, while only 60 percent (29 of 48) of school districts in the
metropolitan region will be experiencing declining enrollment. Most rural regions have more
than the statewide average of 79 percent of districts in the region in decline, while the
metropolitan region is below this average."
Wierd how school district with higher rates of declining enrollment might have to cut teaching jobs at higher rates then the school districts with lower rates of declining, or perhaps even growing, enrollment. Who'da Thunk?
Posted on April 17 at 9:06 a.m.
Yes, wornout. If I were to wait for 20 minutes in a line and be checked out by a store clerk instead of immediately checking myself out in the self-check out isle, the price of groceries would definitely decline precipitously. It couldn't possibly be more likely a result of the ever-climing price of a gallon of gasoline (which directly effects how much it costs to bring your food to the store) or perhaps the outlook of our over-all economy that gets bleaker every day. Could it?
By the way, I don't own an SUV. The car I do own, I drive about once every other week. Usually to and from the grocery store or the laundromat. My cell phone, I have the cheapest calling plan available and never even come close to using all my minutes. Needless to say, I can count the number of times I've attempted both at the same time on one hand.
Would you like to pose your question again? Or perhaps you've figured it out already.
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Posted on April 30 at 1:48 p.m.
"I’m letting you know right now, I’m turning comments off on any crime or court story that contains the name of a suspect from here on out." - Jeffrey Hage, managing editor of the Daily Journal
On Assault with a butcher knife