Via AP:

The school district that runs the nation's largest merit pay program gave oversized bonuses to nearly 100 teachers and is asking them to give it back. The president of Houston's largest teachers' union is telling members not to return the overpayments, which range from $62.50 to $2,790.

You've just doled out $15,000,000 in merit bonuses and now the bursar says you overpaid by a half percent. Do you:

1) Ask for it back (Accountant option)
2) Consider 1/2 percent close enough (Engineer option)
3) Take it out of the programmers pay check, one pound of flesh at a time (the option the administrator really wants)

Tough call, though in my experience with Uncle Sugar's bureaucracy option two never exists, even in theory. I've seen option three exercised - but I gather the military operates by different rules than the Houston School district.

One rule I know I don't operate by is the "finders keepers, losers weepers" rule advocated by the "educator", Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers:

"If it's the district's error, then the district should bear the loss," she said

I'm sure she practices this when she leaves her pocketbook on the counter.

Ms Fallon may have the force of law behind her on this one, after all, the article implies the school district can't garnish wages without teachers "sign[ing] forms authorizing it to deduct the money from their paychecks".

Don't assume what's legal is moral - but then you already knew that.

Attitude #58 of Government attitudes that bug me: "It's only fair" to increase your property taxes when you improve your property. Kate posts this at Small Dead Animals:

Woschnigg recently installed a windmill on his Guelph-area property to provide all his energy needs, and as a result is facing a property tax increase that will nearly offset his energy savings.

"We all pay property taxes," [Ontario Energy Minister Dwight] Duncan said yesterday in Guelph, arguing it's only fair that people should pay tax on the improvements they make to their properties.

The turbine will save him about $3,600 a year in energy costs. But the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation recently informed him the windmill will increase his property's assessed value by an estimated $59,000, Woschnigg said.

That will likely increase his taxes by roughly $3,000 a year, he added, leaving him with only a small net annual benefit from his investment..

It's only fair because the windmill requires additional police, fire protection, and road maintenance? It's a fact of life that taxes will go up, but I think it is a warped mind who thinks this is fair - even kindergartners understand this.

What I think would be fair is to tax neighbors who use rusted vehicles as lawn ornaments. Until then Woschnigg should rebuild his windmill out of cars on blocks - not only would he keep the energy savings he would reap the additional tax benefits of lowering his property's value.

Mark Steyn wrote once about people who sport “Free Tibet” stickers on their car bumpers:

[They’re] advertising [their] moral virtue, not calling for action. If Rumsfeld were to say, “Free Tibet? Jiminy, what a swell idea! The Third Infantry Division go in on Thursday”, the bumper-sticker crowd would be aghast.’

I thought of such moral vacuousness after reading a local group’s call to “Help end genocide in Darfur”. They would “honor the fallen and suffering Darfuris in a day of films, discussion and dance with a Sudanese dance troupe”

I would think a bake sale to raise funds to arm the oppressed Darfuris would be more effective.

Helping Darfuris defend themselves, however, seems out of the question since the “Save Darfur” group wants to discuss how to put United Nations peacekeepers in place – you know the same folks who didn’t lift a finger to stop the killing in Rwanda, Bosnia, Timor, etc. One would have to think a call for U.N. peacekeepers would only be made by the Sudanese oppressors. Who is “Save Darfur” really working for?

Meanwhile, in the 48th year of the campaign to free Tibet I found this 2007 merchandise sale at the Free Tibet website where “All proceeds from our merchandise range go towards our campaigns to help bring about an end to the occupation of Tibet.” Maybe the plan is to keep collecting money for the next two centuries, let the interest compound and then buy Tibet back from China – assuming there are any Tibetians left.

In his opinion piece on Darfur, Chuck Bruder calculates:

In the time that it has taken to read this, another Darfuri man or woman or baby has perished.

I wonder if he has calculated how many will die in 48 years of films, discussions and dance?

Mark Steyn picks up the Deseret News guest opinion on Darfur and recognizes what he has been saying all along:

...Meanwhile, the leftists don't accept it because, while they're fond of "causes," they dislike those that require meaningful action: Ask Tibetans about how effective half a century of America's "Free Tibet" campaign has been; or ask Darfuris, assuming you can find one still breathing, how the left's latest fetishization is going from their perspective:

"On Sunday, April 29, Salt Lake Saves Darfur invites the greater Salt Lake community of compassion to join with us as we honor the fallen and suffering Darfuris in a day of films, discussion and dance with a Sudanese dance troupe."

Marvelous. I hope as the "Salt Lake Saves Darfur" campaign intensifies in the decades ahead there'll be enough Darfuris to man the dance troupe. It would be truer to say that the greater Salt Lake community of compassion, like Sen. Obama with his light bulbs, is "working on" saving Darfur.

Of course I had the advantage over him this time since I subscribe to the Deseret News (just for the pictures mind you).

Mick mused on marriage, children, grandchildren and continuity. My story is less virtuous and so are my intentions. I write from the perspective of a grandfather and father of a herd of beautiful girls. I mean to start a political party with the sole policy of exploiting our children. We'll do it by borrowing trillions of dollars to buy votes from identity groups, provide ourselves with healthcare, pay the crowded retinues of perfumed senators, refurbish the UN, and all the other good works to promote the interests of self-important parasites and entitlement junkies. And this is the great part....we'll get all this bounty from the full faith and credit of our children and grandchildren. So what if it's immoral, they'll learn from us to do the same in turn. Wait. You say it's US policy already? It's just called something else? Damn!

As a BYU grad, I don't take offense that the University of Texas at San Antonio lifted parts of their honor code from BYU's. The question is, did UTSA copy the right parts:

Any consumption of alcohol, in any form, is a breach of the Honor Code. The following are examples of serious noncompliant behavior related to alcohol use:

- Being present where alcohol is being consumed by others

- Personal consumption of alcohol socially or as a consequence of alcoholism

- Furnishing alcohol to others

- Having alcohol in one's apartment

Recalling a deal sealed by your handshake is usually done to demonstrate your honor:

Mike Flagler, says he was hired on a handshake in the 1970s to help produce the events Wal-Mart holds each year for managers and shareholders, including entertainment portions of its annual meeting and important sales meetings. He filmed them as well.

Flagler cites his handshake, however, to prove nothing else stands between him and big bucks:

In recent months, Flagler has opened its trove of some 15,000 Wal-Mart tapes to the outside world, with an eye toward selling clips. The material is proving irresistible to everyone from business historians and documentary filmmakers to plaintiffs lawyers and union organizers.

…The best part, maintains plaintiffs lawyer Gene P. Graham Jr., is that "Wal-Mart has no control over this stuff."

With lawyers circling over 30 years of candid moments, Wal-Mart now stands in the market square with pants wrapped securely around the ankles. But for the grace of the candid camera and the lack of deep pockets, there go we. Though Wal-Mart was foolish not to secure the tapes when they had the chance, I still find the lack of honor, on the part of Mike Flagler and his handshake, the more troubling aspect of this story.