So, instead of blathering about another tax increase, lotsa snow shoveling or a bunch of other not-very-fun things going on. Here’s a few photos.

Here’s the Crane-Phillips house yesterday:

And a bunch of sledders at Unami Park in Garwood:

And a picture of Downtown in the late afternoon:

There.

So thanks to the family and friends of the school board, we’re going to spend gobs of money to get new roofs and boilers.  So here comes another $12 million in debt.

Yay.

I’ve been saddled with other matters of late. Trying to keep things together has taken a front seat to snark about our little town.

Why is it that we need to replace all eight roofs and HVAC in each school now?

What happened to all those preventative maintenance tasks over the past 20 years that should have been completed that could have extended the lives of the roofs?

Why does each household need to pay about a hundred bucks a year for a wildly expensive project that for some buildings may not be needed?

What happens when there are the inevitable cost overruns? Will we each need to pay $120 a year?

This will pass, but it shouldn’t. And with precious little snowflakes in the system the “you’re not a concerned parent” line will not work on me.

I don’t think the Board of Ed, Superintendent and Facilities people are thinking about how the right job could be done at the right price. They saw the state money there and want to lap it up as does the thirsty contractors who would like the work.

Enough. This should have been addressed in annual maintenance and budgeted for over the past 20 years.

Fire some administrators and you’ll get the money for the roofs pretty quick.

I’m voting no. So when this nonsense passes 1,500 to 1, you will know who the one is.

One “plus” of the Stimulus and the fact that tax revenues are down significantly this year:

The IRS is auditing more people. They have more resources now and are using them to look under America’s collective couch cushions.

Now, is there a trend that they are looking at center-right bloggers, small business owners and global warming skeptics?

Maybe. You can add one more data point to each of those lists.

This was interesting for the true schadenfreude value of it all.

And thank God for the person at East Anglia University who either hacked or leaked this information:

The temperature data that the “hockey stick” researchers used is a useless mess.

This post is head-shaking and snicker inducing despite the implications of all this for the global economy.

The first red flag in research is when someone won’t share their data. These guys wouldn’t and this is likely why.

The second red flag is that others are not getting similar results looking at similar data (in that case more correct data).

The third red flag is that their “models” couldn’t predict current weather patterns (meaning that the models were not effective).

The fourth red flag is that Al Gore made this his life’s work. And in my opinion Al Gore is a neat mix of not very bright and completely bat*^%# crazy.

I’m not saying that global warming is not a potential problem (although I think global cooling has worse implications for humanity outside of longer ski seasons).

The main thing is that these guys who are claiming that we’re on the brink of catastrophe are idiots who should have similar credibility as that Korean clone guy.

UPDATE: Here’s a comment from my very smart friend Frank:

Here’s my favorite quote from the email chain you sent:

“The problem is that the synthetics are incorporated at 2.5-degrees, NO IDEA why, so saying they affect particular 0.5-degree cells is harder than it should be. So we’ll just gloss over that entirely ;0)

“ARGH. Just went back to check on synthetic production. Apparently – I have no memory of this at all – we’re not doing observed rain days! It’s all synthetic from 1990 onwards. So I’m going to need conditionals in the update program to handle that.”

Just so you know…”conditionals” are an oft-used term for Bayesian update probabilities to handle data that comes from expert opinion rather than fact.

Translation into English: it looks like their data (at least their rain data, but maybe more) after 1990 (when temperatures started going down again) were “synthetic” or…faked. And in order to compensate for that, they used probabilities adjustments that their temperatures weren’t right. That would mean their models would have a standard error dependent on how strong they thought their guesses were.

In practice, what that means is the same guys making up the temperature data were making up the number representing how sure they were of their made up data (Bayesian prior standard deviation).

That calls into question their entire model. Totally bogus.”

So 68% of Jerseyans think that government programs should be cut in lieu of taxes being raised.

Good for them for seeing the problem.

The question is how Giuliani-esque will Chris Christie be? How bold will he be? Corzine will go down as one of the most timid governors ever. Christie has a chance to strike a very bold contrast very quickly. But what can he realistically achieve?

Will he renegotiate the union contracts?

Will he continue his anti-corruption tear through the NJ Attorney General that he appoints?

Will he be able to start the long-needed thinning of staff in Trenton?

Will he stand strong despite a relentless media that will be “outraged” over every layoff and highlighting the “good works” done by a program (even though those “good works” were also done in three other departments and for a ton of money in each)?

NJ is like a runaway supertanker towards the abyss. Can he change the course?

We’ll see. But at least there is a chance of him doing something, whereas with Corzine, there was none.

I am a leaf raking madman today. Breaking for lunch with 6 loads already in the street. About 8 more to go, though.

And I am happy that the global warming scientists are feeling some heat.

Because there’s a chance that the Dems may appoint him to replace the ancient Frank Lautenberg.

And they think that there would be an edge for Corzine since he would be the “incumbent” for the next general election.

Love it. Wouldn’t be a hoot if he lost again?

What conclusions can we draw from the fact that 35% of New Jerseyans actually think that the state will get better over the next 10 years?

Are they:

A. Delusional

B. Hopeless Optimists

C. Idealistic Christie Supporters

D. Retiring from state jobs very soon

Why is there such a mental block for people when posting online or when writing in general with they’re, their, and there?

Here’s a handy sentence that I have posted to help clarify the usage:

They’re losing their cookies over there.

Not to be the grammar police, especially since I’m not perfect, but I just hit my limit for today on this.

/vent