My Morning Wooten

Oh such fertile ground today.

Nevermind my recent assertion that you’ll never be rich if the job requires your actual presence to make money. Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees, having walked out of a 10-year $252 million contract signed originally with the Texas Rangers, signs a new deal for $275 million over 10 years. It’ll pay him $32 million in 2009 and 2010. That’s rich.

Criticism of the rich by Free Market Jim? Let's go to the numbers first. 3-time MVP. Holder of 12 Major League records. 8 seasons of 40+ home runs. 11 seasons of 100+ RBIs. Career batting avg. of .306. Some might say with those numbers he's simply earning what the market will bear.
And as far as being present to earn your pay, Rodriguez has rarely missed and game and he did not walk out on Texas. They traded him. Perhaps your fact checker walked out on you, Jim?

Shocking, yes, the news that almost one in four — 24 percent — of the out-of-state college students improperly classified as in-state for tuition purposes are also collecting HOPE. A state audit sampled students enrolled from out of state and found that 28 percent had been reclassified as residents between the spring of 2004 and spring of 2006. Each improperly classified student cost taxpayers about $7,300 per year

Is it hate on education day or hate on lottery day? We may have to look further to clarify...

A Princeton student who claimed to have been beaten by two men because he’s a conservative admits he made it up. His injuries were self-inflicted. So common are “hate” hoaxes, especially those involving graffiti, that the first question to ask is whether “victims” have agendas.

Hate hoaxes are common? Maybe this one should be taken with a grain of salt considering Jim's current accuracy batting average.

Quote on ethanol from an executive with the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association: “We think there will be a day when people ask ‘Why in the world did we do this?’” Congress has just passed an energy bill mandating production of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022, up from 6 billion now. The technology doesn’t exist to get cellulosic ethanol from switch grass and wood chips, though Congress is counting on 21 billion gallons of it after 2015. Meanwhile, corn in the tank is pushing up food prices, by $47 per person in a year, according to one study. Why in the world did we do this?

Actually the technology to produce cellulosic ethanol in substantial amounts has existed since 2004 and a Canadian company just announced the opening of a plant which will in its first year produce 10 million gallons. Well above what is considered "commercial". Jim's batting average may have just slipped below the Mendoza line.

Thinking Right connects the dots, so you don’t have to. Headline Sunday: “Cocaine terms may be reduced” for 700 Georgians in federal prison for crack cocaine offenses. The first wave hitting the streets starting March 3. Headline Monday: “Freed offenders repeat crimes.”

No, Jim, I think I will connect the dots myself. As of 2003 55% of all Federal prisoners were incarcerated as a result of drug offenses. According to the U.S. Department of Justice the average sentence for a violent offender is 63 months. For a drug offender the average sentence is 75.6 months. This disparity is most likely due to mandatory sentencing laws resulting from the get tough on drugs movement. The ulitimate result of the difference is violent offenders are usually let loose early so we can keep the crackheads locked up. How about those dots?

Headline: “Vouchers popular, limited.” OK. Expand them. The next headline should be: “Vouchers popular, sufficient.”

Ah Jim the copy editor returns. If we could only find Jim the fact checker.

Headline on ajc.com: “77 Fulton teachers overpaid.” Just 77? I’d say all being paid for advanced degrees unrelated to their teaching field are being overpaid.

Yep. It's definitely hate education day. Yeah, as anyone who has ever completed an advanced degree will tell you, there is no learning in that exercise beyond the narrow scope of your field. For those of you without advanced degrees or who happen to be AJC editorial writers, the previous would be sarcasm.

New Jersey’s in the process of ending capital punishment. If you agree, see the movie “No Country for Old Men.” Or read the trial transcripts of those on death row.

Yes. Let's read those trial transcripts. Let the first 150+ read be these.

Whew! That's enough to fill Santa's sleigh twice over!