West Wing on Education

I must be honest here. I do not actually understand what is going on at the West Wing Democratic Presidential Primary. Who is Baker and why is he a candidate now so late in the game? I have never heard of such a thing. But I will say good for him! If he can get the nomination without spending any of the millions of dollars in campaign money then he might get my vote (if he were not a democrat.)

But I digress. The title of this post suggested this would be about Education. Thirty-five minutes into the show there is a wonderful exchange between Josh Lyman and Ernie Gambelli, the president of the Teacher's Union. I'll let you read the transcript for yourself:

Ernie: Teachers' Unions are to the Democratic Party what bibles are to the Republicans. Essential. Non-negotiable.

Ernie: What makes you think you can come in here and ask for our help when Matt Santos wants to end teacher tenure?

Josh: Our school systems are in crisis. We have teachers who aren't trained in the subjects they teach. We've got teachers who are only showing up to pick-up a check.

Ernie: Raise salaries.

Josh: So you are admitting some teachers can be better.

Ernie: I'm admitting their salaries can be better.

On the nose! Arnie has portrayed the liberal professor with flare. A democrat only looking for tenure and higher salaries.

Gotta love the West Wing!

All debts public and private

I just pulled out my money clip to check, but yes U.S. currency is still marked:

THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS PUBLIC AND PRIVATE

Every denomination is marked this way. Why am I concerned about this? Well, Mike Boelsta had a scary experience a few weeks ago because some ignorant individuals failed to recognize his money as legal currency.

Was he trying to buy drugs you ask? No.
Was he in a foreign country where he could not speak the language, like New Jersey? No.

So what was the problem? Mike paid his bill with currency in $2 denominations. The ignorant employees at a Baltimore County Best Buy did not believe that we print a $2 bill.

So surely they called their manager and resolved the issue right? NO!

They called the cops. Surely they were better educated and cleared up the problem on the spot, right? NO!

The Baltimore County deputy arrested him, took him to the station and called the U.S. Secret Service. Finally a well educated officer of the law. He cleared up the situation and verified the legality of the currency.

Now, the law is very straight forward, however in practice it is not enforced the way it is written. I am not suggesting that EVERY business must accept green backs for service or goods, but they accept cash, in all other denominations from the $0.01 penny to the $100 portrait of ol'Ben Franklin. The U.S. Treasury has some guidelines that indicate a business may have a policy of only accepting certain denominations or only accepting checks or credit cards. However, the use of the word "policy" indicates it must be an established pattern of behavior previously determined or documented.

Ignorance of the law is not an excuse.. unless you are a police officer.

U.S. Code Title 31, section 5103
Thank you Gizmodo!
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