Well, FEMA is both an incompetent, expensive, useless organization of make-work and government waste, or a super-competent, shadow-funded, evil organization prepared to round us up into death camps and let a European New World Order cake control of the US.
So... There's that. (Seriously, I'm sick of right-wing bullshit).
Well, FEMA is both an incompetent, expensive, useless organization of make-work and government waste, or a super-competent, shadow-funded, evil organization prepared to round us up into death camps and let a European New World Order cake control of the US.
So... There's that. (Seriously, I'm sick of right-wing bullshit).
As I mentioned on Twitter, apparently in the old days, the only people who went into finance (investment banking and the like) were rich idiot sons riding on their daddies' money as they were too dumb to get legitimate jobs as doctors, lawyers, "real" businessmen (as in those who actually go out and start/run a business producing desirable goods and services as opposed to just playing games with other peoples' money) and so on. Hell, just compare Mitt Romney to his dad, George. George got rich by saving American Motors from bankruptcy (he also gave excess salary and bonus back to the company and instituted a profit-sharing plan with the unionized work force at AMC). Romney rode on daddy's money and got into finance.
Granted, due to various improvements in algorithmic trading and the mathematical approach to finance that possibly started with Black-Scholes, there are certainly plenty of intelligent people in finance these days to go along with the rich idiots. Mitt, however, is definitely a rich idiot from the rich idiot era of finance.
Genuine round of applause for Chris Christie tolerating little bullshit with regard to Hurricane Sandy. First it was "evacuate or you're an idiot," now he's praising Obama's response to the storm.
He's probably trying to shore up his opportunity to run for Pres in 2016. He's toed the line enough to be a "Good" Republican and now is torpedoing Romney by supporting Obama at the last minute. It also makes him more appealing to centrists, for exactly the reason you've stated.
I'll take Republicans like Chris "evacuate and don't be a dumbass" Christie over Richard "rape is God's will" Mourdoch any day.
Amen.
Most Christians I grew up with agree with him. I probably said the same thing, during the aping parents stage of childhood. I am so glad to be done with Calvinism..
I'll take Republicans like Chris "evacuate and don't be a dumbass" Christie over Richard "rape is God's will" Mourdoch any day.
Amen.
Most Christians I grew up with agree with him. I probably said the same thing, during the aping parents stage of childhood. I am so glad to be done with Calvinism..
Eventually you have to grow up and accept that Hobbes is just a stuffed animal.
I'll take Republicans like Chris "evacuate and don't be a dumbass" Christie over Richard "rape is God's will" Mourdoch any day.
Amen.
Most Christians I grew up with agree with him. I probably said the same thing, during the aping parents stage of childhood. I am so glad to be done with Calvinism..
Eventually you have to grow up and accept that Hobbes is just a stuffed animal.
One thing I've worried about recently with our future is, I'm not sure if anyone on the forum has children in middle school or junior high but I really grown weary on what America's Public Education System has become. Especially for living in a poor, rural area of Virginia. I'm a college student, and I thank my parents that I don't have to worry about student loans, but I do worry over what could happen to education if Romney is elected because he views it more as an expense than as an investment.
Medicare is the biggest issue in between the two candidates, but I feel like Education is 2nd. Does anyone have any particular thoughts on what could hopefully improve our future?
I know what will make JCPS better. Charter schools.
Please explain why charter schools will automagically make things better.
Right now, JCPS has an abysmal graduation rate. Kentucky has an average rate of 78% while JCPS only has a 67% rate.* Charter schools can help identify better practices in teaching, and provide competitiveness as parents and children who want to learn will go there, and hopefully encourage non-chartered schools to improve to keep their competitiveness. We can always give existing schools charters, providing them with an onus to improve or lose the charter. Furthermore, charter schools have found success in New York and St. Louis, helping students achieve. I see no reason charter schools, if properly managed, could not help improve the educational standards in my city.
If you mean a handful of charter schools intermixed with the regular school system as living laboratories in educational practices as well as providing a place for particularly gifted/motivated/etc. students to attend with at least a partial goal of putting what they find to be working well into the school system at large, then I see your point.
However, a Stanford University study indicated that 83% of all charter schools performed no better than traditional schools with 37% actually performing worse than traditional schools. So while they may work in some situations, they are not a cure-all.
That is fair enough Lou, I am thinking more of what you said, but I do see the point that they may not succeed. That is of course no reason not to try.
While I'm not a big fan of the "we need to keep abortion legal because rape exists" opinion (I'm of the opinion that we need to keep abortion legal under all circumstances, mind you), this scathing satire is probably the best argument in favor of that opinion, though it is a bit difficult to read.
I think that's too narrow a take on that article, chaosof99.
The way I see it, the real gist of that article is that a woman should have control over her own body, and that applies to abortion just as much as it applies to not being raped.
Question : If a President wins the electoral college vote but loses the popular vote does it have an impact on their mandate/agenda?
For the D's probably, for the Republicans see Bush II
That's actually a personal question rather than a political one. It really depends on the sort of person that is getting elected. If the person is thoughtful, they'll realize that they do not have overwhelming support. If they are not thoughtful, they will not care and only see that they won.
That is fair enough Lou, I am thinking more of what you said, but I do see the point that they may not succeed. That is of course no reason not to try.
True, but it needs to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism. I spent a year as a substitute teacher during which some high-priced "educational consultants" were peddling their latest snake oil to the school department I was teaching in at the time. Additionally, my mom, two uncles, and two aunts were also teachers within the same school system and were also dealing with this same snake oil. They also experienced many other sales of snake oil from various educational consultants both before and after my substitute teaching year. Without significant empirical evidence to the contrary (and it seems like said evidence is lacking), I can only assume that charter schools are more of this educational snake oil that only makes the folks proposing/selling/etc. them wealthier while depriving students and school systems of money and resources that would be better spent elsewhere. I mean, one of these consultants marketed something called the "Links" system for education. This "system" basically consisted of expensive pre-printed paper containing a vertical line down the middle and a "Links" logo at the top. The purpose of this "system" is that the students were supposed to "link" concepts on the left and right sides of the line. One of the teachers I worked with said she had already been doing this for years -- by telling students to fold their standard-issue lined paper lengthwise.
That's not to say the school systems couldn't use some reformation -- even my teacher relatives admitted (they're pretty much all retired now, so the reforms really wouldn't affect them anymore) that the educational system as it stands is not perfect and that they would love to see reforms implemented that both made them better teachers as well as helped the students become better learners. However, they've all become quite jaded about many attempted reforms due to some huckster in a slick suit coming in to the school board, selling the department on their latest snake oil, and the department then foisting off that crap on their students and teachers.
Considering our school board has been vehement about NOT implementing charter OR neighborhood school I dunno if they're not snake oil or if the huckster isn't convincing enough. Has the local conservative talk show host sold on the idea, and she does better research than me (I've been trying to find transcripts of her talking about charter and neighborhood schools).
Comments
Granted, due to various improvements in algorithmic trading and the mathematical approach to finance that possibly started with Black-Scholes, there are certainly plenty of intelligent people in finance these days to go along with the rich idiots. Mitt, however, is definitely a rich idiot from the rich idiot era of finance.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/in-wake-of-storm-christie-breaks-from-attacks-to-praise-obama/
Either way, he deserves credit for it, no?
Medicare is the biggest issue in between the two candidates, but I feel like Education is 2nd. Does anyone have any particular thoughts on what could hopefully improve our future?
* http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120808/betterlife03/308080107/Graduate-rates-Kentucky-rise-slowly-JCPS-slips-slightly
However, a Stanford University study indicated that 83% of all charter schools performed no better than traditional schools with 37% actually performing worse than traditional schools. So while they may work in some situations, they are not a cure-all.
The way I see it, the real gist of that article is that a woman should have control over her own body, and that applies to abortion just as much as it applies to not being raped.
That's not to say the school systems couldn't use some reformation -- even my teacher relatives admitted (they're pretty much all retired now, so the reforms really wouldn't affect them anymore) that the educational system as it stands is not perfect and that they would love to see reforms implemented that both made them better teachers as well as helped the students become better learners. However, they've all become quite jaded about many attempted reforms due to some huckster in a slick suit coming in to the school board, selling the department on their latest snake oil, and the department then foisting off that crap on their students and teachers.