Once upon a time, a local school administration spent $35M on a bright shiny new office building by the sea, when half of the students in the district were schooled in trailers. Parents were understandably upset and complained. Bureaucrats don’t like their actions being questioned, so they developed an enemies list and exacted retribution on the children of complaining parents. These parents did two things: form a class and sue the administration, and start a movement to take back the school district, by recalling some school board members and electing others. These reformers won big and now control all 7 seats on the school board.
The superintendent was indicted for the enemies list. The new board settled with the parents on the enemies list.
Time goes by, and California’s fiscal situation deteriorates. The school district needed to cut their budget. All non-union employees took a 10% pay cut, and the board asked the teacher’s union to take a 10% pay cut. The unions refused, demanding the cut be only temporary and went out on strike. They miscalculated public sentiment, however, and folded after a week long strike, a big win for the school district.
The state and national teacher’s unions, however, saw a very, very bad precedent being set and vowed to not let this victory for taxpayers stand. They have poured enormous amounts of money into purging the school board, trying to recall some candidates and trying to elect others. This is Orange County, however, and they know they cannot win as the teacher’s union. They have found some useful idiot parents (and a recent high school graduate) to act as their stalking horses, and are trying to co-opt the language of the Tea Party movement, complaining about the settlement of the enemies list lawsuit, claiming that the primary reason for the new recall is fiscal conservatism.
These existing school board members are the proto-Tea Partiers, on the front line very early in the game against the power of the public employees union. If the unions are allowed to gang up and defeat these reformers, we are all in deep trouble.
NPR runs interference for their useless dirty socialist union whore teacher friends like this
but to be clear, they can’t recall and elect at the same time can they? Meaning there’d be a new race to replace anybody that gets recalled, right?
The old board was ousted before they had a chance to settle; they probably wouldn’t have anyway.
They are recalling and electing at the same time; the union goal is to get rid of 5 of 7 board members in one fell swoop. If the recall fails the election for those two seats is moot.
Trying to get between unions and the money tree–as hazardous as getting between me and the doughnut cart.
No, it was school district money.
Where is everyone? Is it the post, or is everyone absorbed in Sabrina & The Teenage Marxist?
The NPR affiliate didn’t really say that, did they?
Oh, yeah, they did.
My SIL is a public school teacher and hates the state teachers’ union. This is just on more reason why.
union whores stole a whole ginormous car company and failshit America barely paused to notice
Damned union thugs. None are allowed at Nissan USA in Smyrna. Nor in the new Volkswagen plant shaping up in Chattanooga.
The nearby Union Shopped Saturn plant, however, failed.
in California – I might be wrong – but I think you don’t have any choice but to join up with the union whores – people aren’t free like back in Texas – in California you have to pay union dues whether you want to or not cause California likes to shit on the whole idea of the individual…
Americans should remember this when brokedick California comes begging begging begging for monies.
It’s not quite the Taiwanese news animators but someone has done a nice little animation explaining the teacher’s union position.
Tennessee is a Right to Work state. However, that also means one can get fired if they don’t like the color of your socks.
Which is fine. Employees should realize they are there because of the employer, not in spite of him.
Where is everyone?
The night is young, west of the Mississippi at least. Your post is very interesting; I enjoy reading about local matters that limn national issues in microcosm.
This thread title calls for some Isley Brothers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRkw9UnVhug
Yeah, PWers are such racists we dig stuff like this…
I’m boggled:
Apparently, school boards are supposed to represent the interests of the teachers’ union, not the the parents and students…
Sorry, I should have put up the live version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tLp3p4okmg
Now back to the regularly scheduled discussion.
Krauthammer rightly says that the inflated compensation of public employees and the corrupting influence of the public employee unions will necessarily be one of the next great political struggles all across the nation.
But, you know, there’s a lot of people that don’t pat attention to him anymore because they think he’s some kind of GOP establishment sellout, squishy, candy-assed RINO.
What can I say? I agree with him completely. So I guess I’m suspect too…
Mr. Krauthammer is staunch he just got a little confused about Chris Christie’s super best friend Mike Castle and also he probably thinks Meg Whitman’s waterbaby forehead is sexy but he’s still staunch
Nice comment at the first Isley Bros. vid:
Yeah, baby!
Bob,
I think most of us here agree with Krauthammer some of the time, I know I do, but a lot of times he does sound like a “GOP establishment sellout, squishy, candy-assed RINO”. I frustrates the hell outta me.
Is meya ever not a douchenozzle? That is all.
“It” frustrates me enough to cause fumblefingers…
Thanks Bob, you kicked off quite the funk-fest here.
Thanks Spiny, that is a great catch. School boards are here to represent the teacher’s unions, and per “Waiting for Superman” , teacher’s unions are here to make sure no bad teacher ever gets fired.
And BTW, Michelle Rhee, one of the superwomen from “Waiting for Superman”, resigned today after her patron, the DC mayor, was defeated a few weeks back, mostly by the DC teacher’s union.
Yikes. I went to school in this district.
motionview,
After reading background on the DC schools a while back, I’m surprised she was still there.
That the union is so brazen that they admitted that they are trying to stack the Board in a manner where the employer will then do the bidding of the employees is remarkable.
Remarkable? The “blatancy” is a bit more than normal, but…
Well, those of us in California have seen public employees’ unions do just that sort of thing for a good 30 years now. Why do you think this state is so fucked up?
Chris Cristie, the Mayor of Newark, and Mark Zuckerberg were on Oprah last week(?) discussing the Newark schools (Oprah had done a show two days earlier on “Waiting for Superman” and got blasted by her teacher’s union pals for “blaming the teachers”). Christie agreed to give the mayor free rein to hire and fire, whatever it took to improve the schools(current annual spending $22,000 per pupil), and Zuckerberg agreed to give the school district $100 Million. Clearly money is not the issue.
If the mayor is serious, Michelle Rhee would be reporting for duty as the new superintendent on Monday. I predict Mark will see his $100 million pissed away in spectacular fashion.
I would not bet against motionview’s wager. It will rival the Annenberg Challenge that Barcky and Ayres orchestrated.
I have more faith in Booker than in a couple of slimy leftist hacks like Ayers and Obama. I didn’t know him that well but we had common friends growing up. He’s not driven by some grandiose left wing agenda so much as the fact that he grew up in affluent Whitelandia and by virtue of guilt over it or what have you, took up the cause of making the shithole that is Newark a better place. His actual life has been a lot more impressive than Obama’s manufactured one.
What did DC voters have to say?
Sold!
The voters were lied to. They’ll learn when they’re schools continue to be the worst in the nation.
Or not. It’s their problem.
I wish Detroit would snatch up Rhee. Robert Bob is due to leave us. They are both from the same educational think tank.
Thanks Spiny, that is a great catch. School boards are here to represent the teacher’s unions, and per “Waiting for Superman” , teacher’s unions are here to make sure no bad teacher ever gets fired.
That’s why the unions in Detroit are fighting so hard to give back control to Detroit’s school board. They sued Robert Bob. A yearlong dealo, Granholm stripped them of power and gave the job to Bob. meanwhile, you’ve got one clown masterbating in front of each other (the president of Detroit school board) … and they want power back? They were busy wasting the money, but the unions are pissed that Bob is closing schools (much needed) and making tougher teaching standards. Similar to Rhee.
The powers that be in education count on stupid voters to back ’em.
Meya’s mendoucheity continues apace.
The powers that be in education count on stupid voters to back ‘em.
And why shouldn’t they? After all, they’ve been turning out stupid citizens for generations!
What did DC voters have to say?
As I recall, they said that they were turning the mayor out because he wasn’t black enough.
“In some ways, it is the complete collapse of comity, or willingness of people to interact in a civilized way,” said Michael Petracca, a professor of political science at UC Irvine. “It is like you feel your only choice to make your voice heard is to bludgeon someone in the head.”
No shit? And, naturally, it’s always the response to the Leftist provocation that gets flagged.
Was it the DC or Chicago schools that spend upwards of $22,000 per student? I blame Bush. And the teabaggers.
Teabagger O’Donnell refused to answer the question whether or not she belives evolution is a myth and she supports the right of schools to teach creationism.
That’s what you’re fighting for, tebaggers. Take this country back, to the 18th century.
Teabagger O’Donnell refused to answer the question whether or not she belives evolution is a myth and she supports the right of schools to teach creationism.
Because if you ask CNN, the biggest problem facing America today… is creationism.
AJB’s comment should be deleted because he DIDN’T STICK TO THE SUBJECT, or give an OT warning.
And, because it’s stupid.
Three strikes.
People as stupid as AJB should have to pay for oxygen offsets for all of the oxygen that they waste, that could otherwise be used by sentient beings.
*yawn* Sorry, zoned out for sec. Was AJB trying to say something, just barking at squirrels again?
No, that line from Billy Madison, pretty much sums it up. Rhee seems quite competent as an administrator, we can’t have them, people might get ideas
AJB needs to understand that O’Donnell could believe that the moon was made of cheese, and that the Post Office was using mind control satellites to make people stop sending e-cards to their friends, and she’d still be the better candidate!
AJB needs to understand that his brand image has been poisoned to the point where those who belong to his group are desperately trying to distance themselves from the association, and that no amount of condescension, muckraking, or insult is going to help.
AJB needs to understand that we understand all of this already. AJB needs to understand that he makes himself a laughingstock every time he hits the Say It! button. AJB needs to understand that bourbon is a sometimes food.
Or, someone could just delete his comment.
Carin – AJB has its marching orders. The evil witch teabagger must be destroyed, no matter what the topic. One little lass in DE that is behind by 15 points or so sure does worry them.
Teabagger O’Donnell refused to answer the question whether or not she belives evolution is a myth and she supports the right of schools to teach creationism.
Whereas Michelle O is calling on all prayer circles to “cleanse the spirits” mon.
That’s what you teabaggees are fighting for.
<a href="”>Keeping the spirits clean. You go girl. Ba haa haaa ….
Crap. link didn’t work. second try. I fraked up the first one.
Meya, shouldn’t you be cleansing the spirits?
Where’s nishi? Is she aware of the theocracy in the White House?
meya, you knew your gov’t aid was going to run out sometime. And now you’re lashing out. It’s understandable.
Castle’s is just as insulated a mind as the mind of any living leftist, so of course he had no inkling of his own fate. His world view obviously isn’t better than O’Donnell’s who could see Castle’s defeat where Castle could not. And none of that required close knowledge of the modern synthesis in biology.
Dirty spirits are what’s holdin’ my man Barack back. Gots ta clean ’em up!
This is what the ‘baggers are fighting for – (all true, google!):
1) Eliminate Federal funding for colleges and Universities – Dick Armey
2) Outsource American jobs oversees and prevent the Democrats from bringing jobs back to America by using foreign funding to attack their candidates.
3) Government should not prevent private businesses from discriminating on the basis of race. – Rand Paul
4) Gays and single sexually active women should not be legally allowed to teach. – Jim DeMint
5) Victims of incest rape should be forced by the federal government to bear their rapists child. – Angel, Palin, Paul, O’Donnell
6) Evolution is a myth, icreationism needs to be taught in schools. – Christine O’Donnell, Michele Bachmann, Palin
7) Eliminate the minimum wage. – Joe Miller, Michele Bachman
8) Raise the social security retirement age. – Rand Paul
9) Impose a $2000 Medicare deductible. – Rand Paul
10) “Second Amendment remedies” are needed against government – Sharron Angle
11) Masturbation is equal to adultery – Christine O’Donnell
12) Abolish public schools and the Dept. of Education – David Harmer, Rand Paul
Hush, meya. Your pathetic idiocy is tiresome.
It is too stupid to interact with.
YOU CAN GOOGLE IT.
AJB – Did you buy that oxygen offset yet? I wonder which leftist rag he is copying and pasting from …
And here’s what AJB the teabagee is fighting for (all true – bing it)
Separate room at work to let teabagger put balls in his mouth (AJB)
Booger-flavored Cheetoes in the snack machine (AJB)
Force McDonald’s to bring Angus Wraps and Pies to AJB’s house (AJB)
Invent new exercise that happens when your on the couch watching The View (AJB)
Bring back West Wing! (AJB)
By all means, focus your attention on the birthers meya, you can’t go wrong.
Hush, meya. Go stalk another site.
Funny that the entire “birther” idea was started by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
OFF TOPIC, but froim BJls daughter …
‘mornin everyone. I just talked to dad and he may get out of the hospital this afternoon. The dr expects to have the pathology back tomorrow. We are all trying to speak positively but we are all afraid to be too hopeful which is silly. I guess it’s human nature to feel like some sort of cosmic balancing act is happening. You can’t be too hopeful too happy too sad too anything without some sort of great equalizer turning things around. The rational side of my brain berates me for being stupid and illogical yet refuses to remove the constant low grade feeling of dread I have. I’ll update when I know if he’ll be released today.
Is there any clear evidence that Obama is not an idiot?
Shall we take these one at a time?
It’s important to know what you’re fight for, right?
1) Eliminate Federal funding for colleges and Universities – Dick Armey
SPITZER: Would you have the federal government pay for higher education?
ARMEY: No I would not.
SPITZER: You would not have any funding?
ARMEY: No. I don’t think the federal government’s involvement in education has benefited the students of America.
2) Outsource American jobs oversees and prevent the Democrats from bringing jobs back to America by using foreign funding to attack their candidates.
GOP blocks bill that would prevent outsourcing of American jobs
Foreign corps are funding the GOP attck ads.
this reminders me that bumblefuck hasn’t signed a trade agreement since he took office and set about turning America into a giant fuckhole
Holy crap! AJB just posted a comment that had four, count ’em four, references to the government’s role in education in it! And get this — the original topic of the thread is about government education systems run amok!
AJB WAS ON TOPIC! OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!eleventy!!
OK.
Why, when there are no jobs thanks to your idiot Obama, does tuition at this so called higher-learning mill continue to rise? And why are you talking about using our money to subsidize these over priced snake oil malls when the value they claim does not exist?
You’re the type that buys something because someone else says you have to buy it. There’s another name for that – see Obama.
Note how it is just spitting out the thinkregress asshattery. The same crap that Gibbs and Obambi are spewing, that has been shown to be uttter nonsense and aggressively dishonest and hypocritical. You really are pathetic, AJB. Now, you really need to buy those oxygen offsets. I have them for sale, you can get a volume discount.
Seems pretty easy to settle. How long did it take the new board to dole out money for being on a list?
That was an enemies list Meya, where children were retaliated against at school because of their parents political activity. Can you imagine if a group students were retaliated against at school for left-wing parental politics? The “CUSD seven” would be a weekly story on OlberUnderFuhrer, lionized by MadCow, and have their own blog on PuffHo.
It’s important to know what you’re fight for, right?
Rather than try to tell us what we’re all about, why not try telling us what you’re all about? C’mon, AJB, this stuff is obviously important to you. Do you have a philosophy, a platform, a manifesto that we can read to know what it is you have in store for us when your grand day of victory finally comes?
I’m sure I speak for many when I say I’d just love to know what the voices in your head are telling you to do.
Which amendment in the Bill of Rights was it that gave responsibility for university education to the federal government? I can’t remember, my old brain is just too full up with modern stuff at the moment.
Xenophobia is the new black, apparently.
Armey’s claim that the “federal government’s involvement in education” hasn’t “benefited the students of America” is wildly false. The FreedomWorks chairman’s statement ignores the billions of dollars in federally subsidized loans and grants that enable tens of millions of Americans students to be able to afford to go to college. In the 2008-2009 academic year, federal student loan disbursements totaled $75.1 billion. The same year, “$18.4 billion in Pell Grants averaging approximately $2,973 to 6.2 million students.” A whopping 19 million college students applied for federal assistance this yea
So … where does this money come from? The federal government money tree? Those billions of dollars in loans and grants … have merely been paper shuffled around. From the people, to the government, back to the schools.
So explain to me why the federal government needs to do this? And, where in the Constitution it says that they should?
I’m kinda getting really antsy to hear treatment has started I think they need to start Saturday morning with the drugs and the radiation to bonk the tumor on its little tumor head
wtf with all the comments at 8:41 y’all are weirdly synchronized
I’m kinda getting really antsy to hear treatment has started I think they need to start Saturday morning with the drugs and the radiation to bonk the tumor on its little tumor head
SECOND!!
Thanks for the BJ update, JD.
3) Government should not prevent private businesses from discriminating on the basis of race. – Rand Paul
Kentucky senatorial candidate Rand Paul questioned whether the government should have made it a crime for private businesses to racially discriminate against customers, such as when restaurants refused to serve black patrons who organized sit-ins at lunch counters in protest. He argued that by including this component (Title II) in the Civil Rights Act, the federal government infringed on the rights of private property owners.
“Does the owner of the restaurant own his restaurant? Or does the government own his restaurant?” Paul remarked.
I agree with you Abe about Booker, the Mayor of Newark, he did seem very sincere to me and I think Christie took a strong look at him before teaming up to try to fix those schools. However, at core in Newark there are two problems: uninvolved parents and the teacher’s union, and Booker seemed to be very reluctant to directly address either of those issues.
Not to even mention the evidence that supports the notion that federal aid has directly cause the skyrocketing price of a college education.
Which results in the poor people (who qualify for those loans and grants) and the really rich people being the folks who can afford to send their kids to college.
The middle class? Not so much.
Does that dildo have an “OFF” button?
Oh, and off topic again, but I spoke to him on the phone as well this morning. Some swelling on the left side, and a little dizziness, but he is eating normal food, talking well, and feeling well. He says he lost about 35 pounds since this all started. He really seems to be in good spirits, with a sense of humor intact. Cautiously optimistic. Pathology report tomorrow will tell how to proceed.
No, alp, it does not, he keeps jamming his dildohead right up his sqeakhole, after yelling “Hey, watch this!”
No AJB. You started it. I want you to explain why the federal government should be involved in redistributing our tax dollars in regards to college education.
4) Gays and single sexually active women should not be legally allowed to teach. – Jim DeMint
Not to even mention the evidence that supports the notion that federal aid has directly cause the skyrocketing price of a college education
That ain’t a “notion”, Car in. It is a fact.
AJB don’t you have some wildly unsuccessful blog you can discuss your party line talking points on? With your ferret and gerbils madly applauding your deep insights?
I’m winning!!!
If these evil teabagger Republicans are so crazy and evil and stupidheads like AJB claims, clearly they will get waxed in the upcoming elections. Surely the Dems are standing up proclaiming loudly for all to hear how wonderful Barcky and SanFranNan and Hairy Reed are, and displaying their party affiliation prominently on their ads. Surely Soros is spending huge amounts to retain control of the House and Senate. Surely.
STFU AJB. You posted your stupid list. No sense reposting them again.
Gads you’re insufferable.
Obama won’t release his transcripts because he has something to hide.
Let’s take this one at a time:
1. Obama is hiding something
2. Obama is trying to hide the fact that he’s an idiot
Would Big Government teach the evils of Big Government when Big Government is in charge of what is to be taught? Seems unlikely on its face, doesn’t it? How about Public Sector Unions? Will they teach the truth about themselves, openly and without distorting bias?
3. It’s not working
AJB is a good little footsoldier. Apparently thinkregress and Barcky like the idea of enemy lists.
5) Victims of incest rape should be forced by the federal government to bear their rapists child. – Angel, Palin, Paul, O’Donnell
Teabaggers give rapists’ rights over the victim.
This is a breath-taking display of a closed-loop output generator.
thinkregress, alternet, rawstory and their little footsoldier, AJB
6) Evolution is a myth, creationism needs to be taught in schools. – Christine O’Donnell, Michele Bachmann, Palin
The GOP war on science continues. Ignorance championed over science education.
Please, for all that is holy, someone please delete AJB’s stupid, repetitive, idiotic lies that he’s not interesting in discussing anyway.
These are YOUR candidates positions. Are you in denial?
7) Eliminate the minimum wage. – Joe Miller, Michele Bachman
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/10/04/ak-sen_joe_miller_wants_to_eliminate_minimum_wage.html
More faster AJB!!
You aren’t interested in discussing any of these ideas.
I’m perfectly OK with eliminating the FEDERAL minimum wage. There, you wanna discuss that?
Should we start considering that AJB is in a manic phase?
8) Raise the social security retirement age. – Rand Paul
Jeff is pretty busy getting stalked by some crazy fuck so AJB is taking the opportunity to spam this thread with his party line talking points. Never let a crisis go to waste, eh AJB?
9) Impose a $2000 Medicare deductible. – Rand Paul
http://www.libertysflame.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=13744
“That was an enemies list Meya, where children were retaliated against at school because of their parents political activity. Can you imagine if a group students were retaliated against at school for left-wing parental politics? ”
The article didn’t specify what this retaliation entailed besides being on the list. Over in PA they just settled for like half a million for taking pictures of minors in their bedrooms. Again, probably not their money.
I can do this too:
You aren’t interested in discussing any of these ideas.
I’m perfectly OK with eliminating the FEDERAL minimum wage. There, you wanna discuss that?
“Second Amendment remedies” are needed against government – Thomas Jefferson
(from Shit Jefferson Said, Vol. 3
10) “Second Amendment remedies” are needed against government – Sharron Angle
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2010/06/what-are-sharron-angles-2nd-amendment-remedies-to-reids-oppression.html
11) Masturbation is equal to adultery – Christine O’Donnell
Why do you think there is a Second Amendment, if not to occasionally deal with an out of control government? It ain’t about huntin’ y’know.
(He pointlessly asked the random output generator.)
12) Abolish public schools and the Dept. of Education – David Harmer, Rand Paul
These are your positions. Thank you for supporting them and showing America whoand what you are.
Y’done? Or are you going to run the list a third time?
I get it. AJB is actually a teabagger; after all, he only wants to talk about Tea Party candidates.
He’s a meta-moby!
These are your positions. That is the same way Yelverton argues. Abject idiocy. Thank you for vomiting in public, AJB. Now, you really need to buy some oxygen offsets, as you have abused more than your daily allotment.
Unfortunately, I can’t take credit for this.
Back in the mid-eighties, National Lampoon magazine had a letter to the “editor” –
It said that all answers to any question should be rejoined with “So’s my dick”.
I absolutely subscribe to this answer – to ANY question.
It works just as well as common sense when you are talking to an Obamaqphile.
Deaf, dumb, and blind. Who could ask for anything more?
Thing is, once we get the federal government out of our schools and universities, then it won’t matter what people in Washington think about science curricula. Nor will it matter whether people in Washington think gays should be teachers. States can set their own standards. Parents can choose the schools they think will best serve their children’s needs.
Similarly, once we get the federal government out of private-sector commerce, it won’t matter what people in Washington think the minimum wage should be.
Once we get the federal government out of social engineering, behavioral modification, and the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, it won’t matter what people in Washington think about masturbation or sexual preference.
And once we get the federal government out of the retirement planning and health insurance businesses, it won’t matter what people in Washington think deductibles and retirement ages should be. (The nice thing about this particular point is that we need not do anything to make it happen, except to stand back and watch the thing spiral out of control ’til it comes crashing down.)
Do you get it, AJB? If these candidates think that government shouldn’t do these things any more, then what do I care what they think about the stuff that they’re not going to do any more?
Wow, a lot of lunacy going around now and days. Ahh, the days of Obama to be sure. Anyhow, the little guy thinks that the things on his list (the true ones that is) are a bad thing? He has to be lonely. So, so lonely.
Thanks for the update on BJ, JD. He is in my prayers to be sure.
“Second Amendment remedies” are needed against government – Nat Turner
No, Squid. He does not get it. He is incapable of ever getting it. But well said, anyway, for any potential lurkers straddling the fence between liberty and statism.
Squid’s being all reasonable and stuff again. What’s with that? We’re wingnuts, we’re supposed to be frothing with rage.
At least, that’s what I’ve heard.
The leftoids scoff at your attempt at reasoned argument Squid.
One thing that I really wish our Tea Party candidates would learn is how to deal with the snares that their interviewers invariably lay before them. Please, if you’re out there, take my advice: every time you’re asked about gays, or masturbation, or creationism, or witchcraft, or any other bullshit that’s designed to make you look bad and get ratings for the guy asking the question, don’t answer directly. Just say, “I believe that’s none of the federal government’s business.”
“Do you think gays should teach in public schools?”
“I don’t see why that should be a federal issue.”
“Do you think masturbation is a sin?”
“I think it shouldn’t be the topic of federal legislation, and that’s about as much thought as I’m willing to give it.”
“Do you support raising the minimum wage?”
“I think that economic decisions of that kind should be made at the local level. There’s no way that a single policy from Washington can possibly be best for every local economy.”
“Do you think creationism should be taught in schools?”
“I think that’s up to the School Board. I’m kinda busy trying to figure out how to get our grandchildren out from under a crushing debt burden that threatens their future well being.”
Trust me — you stay on my script, and you’ll be fifteen points up in the polls before the poor bastards even know what’s happening.
Ho, hum. Squid is of course correct, but what the Hell — it’s an hour or so before I can head out to the bank and the County Clerk’s office:
Having an education is a symptom, not a cause — it is a symptom of having the ability to absorb an education. Colleges and universities are a convenience at best, a place where the information is concentrated and easier to find than searching all over hellandgone for it. Federal funding for “education” is based on the notion that it’s a cause, and the result has been (1) handing out a lot of sheepskins to people who didn’t get an education because they weren’t capable of absorbing it and (2) at best diluting, at worst eliminating the concentration factor because the information is hard to absorb and therefore inegalitarian. This makes a University degree worthless except as evidence that the individual is either a member of a victim group and therefore entitled to it regardless of whether or not that person has absorbed any information, or that the individual is prepared to sit still and be victimized both monetarily and psychologically. What we should do is award a PhD in astrophysics to everyone at age 18. This would make a PhD in astrophysics worth exactly what a BA in “Black Studies” is today, i.e., zero.
Considering that Democrats in general, and Barack Obama in particular, are the most blatant users of foreign funds to support their campaigns, the attack is somewhat, ah, hypocritical.
More to the point: businesses, and therefore jobs, get relocated overseas because of tax burdens, the costs of regulatory compliance, and rhetoric that makes them feel unappreciated and unwanted. The Democrats’ solution to the problem is tax the bastards till they scream and make them fill out more paperwork, ’cause they’re a bunch of demonic oppressors! It is perhaps a trifle cynical to predict a low success rate for this tactic.
Alternatively, private business should be required to discriminate on the basis of race, especially by hiring the manifestly unqualified, uncooperative, and deliberately destructive.
Children and adolescents have a hard enough time learning without having distractions, especially distractions they are unable to ignore, shoved in their faces, and sexual behavior of whatever type is an un-ignorable distraction. If your sexuality is important enough to you that you must constantly and explicitly express it in public, you don’t belong in teaching regardless of the polarity thereof.
That’s a lie in all four cases; none of those people (even if you spell Sharron Angle’s name properly) has ever expressed such a sentiment.
What has been expressed is an unwillingness to pay for abortions. The hysterical objection to that is based on the Orwellian notion that anything not Federally subsidized is forbidden, and we aren’t quite there yet. It is a curious attitude from anyone who thinks Code Pink is a contributor, or has any respect for the “not in my name!” movement — both of which object to their Government financing activities they find reprehensible.
Flat lie in the cases of Bachmann and Palin, supportable by misinterpretation of O’Donnell’s stated views. Evolution is a theory (one which I consider supportable but unprovable, as do most thinking scientists) and should be taught as a theory rather than Incontrovertible Word of (nonexistent) God.
Anyone who can support (2), above, has no business sneering at “irrational beliefs”.
It has been repeatedly and incontrovertibly demonstrated that the effect of the minimum wage is to (1) increase unemployment among the low-skilled, including teenagers and minorities, (2) decrease tax revenues by forcing actual employment out of the system, (3) increase inflation by adding cost to products. There is no evidence anywhere that the minimum wage has any positive effect whatever.
There is no more money. You already spent it all. The original actuarial assumptions behind the Social Security retirement age were that most people were dead before age 65, so the payouts would be minimal. Now that overall life expectancy is ten years longer and adult life expectancy fifteen years more than the original assumptions, plus the addition of every disabled class from AIDS patients to sufferers of pathological hangnail, something has to be done to redress the actuarial balance. The alternative is not continuation of the system; it is no Social Security at all for anybody.
See #8.
We now have a political Establishment which considers itself empowered, and therefore entitled, to take anything from anybody for any reason or none, and do with it as they please. This is exactly the situation contemplated by “the Tree of Liberty must be fertilized by the blood of patriots and tyrants”. No sane person regards the prospect with anything but loathing, but if you’re going to indulge in adolescent fantasies of assassinating Bush, Cheney, and the rest of the leftoid demonology, you need to be tolerant (!) of the opposite and equal effect.
This is unremarkable Christian doctrine. What should concern you is that interpretations of the Constitution, notably the “Interstate Commerce” clause, place masturbation within the purview of Federal Regulation.
The Department of (the National) Education (Association) is a thinly-disguised upper management level for th “educators'” Union, and serves no purpose other than transfer of Federal funds to provide six-digit salaries to “managers” and Union “officials” who couldn’t teach a frog to hop and would be insulted if anyone asked them to.
Eliminating leftoid-based Government indoctrination a/k/a “public schools” is probably not doable from a political point of view, but given the number of people who yank their kids out of “public education” given the slightest opportunity to do so — most particularly including those most avid to support “public education”, i.e. the Ruling Establishment, but also low and medium income people whenever vouchers and similar provisions exist — might get more support than you immediately imagine.
Regards,
Ric
“Just say, “I believe that’s none of the federal government’s business.””
But is this O’Donnell’s position?
Most of what you said is spot-on, Ric, but I think your contempt for higher education is misplaced at best. You seem to think one learns nothing in college, which is very far from the truth. Not every major is a bullshit one.
“You seem to think one learns nothing in college, which is very far from the truth.”
perhaps that was his experience. but unlearned whining about “black studies” gets you real far though.
I suppose it would be too much to ask for AJB or meya to show us where O’Donnell advanced legislation or even proposed Federal solutions to the pressing crisis of masturbation. Surely, she has called for it to be illegal, or something to that effect, otherwise your breathless spleen-venting might seem a bit contrived and dishonest.
JD, I’d like to see a case of Palin doing the things AJB attributes to her when she had the actual executive authority, as Mayor or Governor. Note to AJB: cites from anyplace other than official government documents aren’t proof.
AJB – Can we build a wall to keep our workers in. I also want to keep foreigners out – especially those who teach languages.
#133
perhaps you should have stayed with ‘womens studies’,maya
I actually completely disagree with Ric’s response to this. What my child’s teacher says and does in the privacy of their own bedroom is their business and none of mine. But it should stay there. A teacher’s sex life should be invisible when they’re on school premises.
Bingo! Frankly, though, I don’t give a rat’s ass what O’Donnell’s views on masturbation are, provided said views don’t affect legislation in any way. Why should anyone else?
As far as I’m aware, Darwin’s theory is taught as a theory. That there are no viable competing theories tends to make it stand out as something akin to Natural Law, and I am of the opinion that this needs to be explicitly clarified in teaching. Creationism isn’t a viable competing theory, because it doesn’t attempt to explain anything. There isn’t even any sort of cohesive theory, and you’ve got the young-Earth creationists just as much at war with the old-Earth creationists as both of them are at war with evolution.
That said: let the kids think for themselves. Or not, as they choose.
I tend to think of evolution as somewhat like gravity: we know that species evolve, but we don’t know every last thing about how this happens. Gravity: we know that mass attracts mass, but we don’t know exactly how. Gravity, however, is a more solid theory because it is highly testable; one can make predictions and take measurements; actually refute current theory if that’s what the experimental data support.
Gravity has the advantage of being a measurable force exerted between every two pairs of mass in the universe, with results that can be observed in the laboratory or in the next galaxy. Therefore: highly testable.
Evolution is, however, negatable. You can’t really design experiments very well to test it, but you can use data of opportunity from the ongoing experiment (i.e. the fossil record and currently observable microevolution) to negate the current theory if that’s what the those data support.