Thinking Right

By Mid-South Philosopher

February 29, 2008 8:05 AM | Link to this

Good morning, Jim,

Some interesting topics this mornings.

One you didn’t touch on:

I am not enthralled with John McCain, although, I am likely to vote for him in November. While apparently not possessing the level of incompetence of George W. Bush, he has numerous flaws. That being said, this guano about him trying to influence the Federal Communications Commission a number of years ago by writing a letter to that putrid body requesting them to make a decision in regard to a T.V. licensing deal for Paxson Communications, Cornerstone Communications, and Pittsburg Public T. V. is so ridiculous that it tests one’s sufferance of political campaign and journalistic stupidity. McCain’s letter DID NOT say for the FCC to vote the issue up or down…but just to vote!

I am firmly convinced that about half of the population of the Infernal Regions will consist of former government bureaucrats. These individuals are soulless, emotionless automotons, capable of the compassion of a stone wall. That McCain had the notion that his letter could have any reasonable impact on these zombies, is indicative of his own lack of intellectual moxie.

On another matter…

Silly Sonny is now calling for legislation to allow the citizens of school districts that lose their accreditation to oust their school board members through a special referendum. Why not really address the issue and limit the terms of office of school bored members to two four year stints. They should be able to do enough damage in eight years, and, if they haven’t accomplished all the good they want to do within that time it is not likely that they will be any more successful by hanging around another 20 years!!!

Still, on education…

Sen. Eric Johnson and Rep. Jan Jones have respective pieces of legislation that work toward reform of public education. As we are committed to the principle of the state paying for the education of all spawn in the state, regardless of the point of origin, and if we are going to provide stipends to reward the result of prolific copulation, legitimate or otherwise, then let’s go the full measure of reform and privatize ALL schools. Using the vouchers, parents could negotiate with the private institutions for the deal that best suits the needs of their offspring and their own schedules. Oh, all you educational reformists can still have your high stakes, standardized tests. Any school failing to meet the illogical expectations of No Child Left Behind two years running would be closed.

Of course, we all know that this is not going to happen. If it did, there would be no place to dump the trash!

On the issue of taxes…

It looks as though Speaker Richardson’s tax reformation plan is going to be re-worked in the Senate. I bet you a steak dinner that when the dust settles, we still have property taxes and new taxes on services. You can bet that the end result will be for the middle and working classes will pay more.

Don’t you just love the he*l out of politicians! Oh, by the way, they will make up the other half of the population of the Infernal Regions.

By Joe Bland

February 29, 2008 8:34 AM | Link to this

Also, drought is in the eye of the beholder with brown grass. Our pasture spent three years in the late 1990s looking awful and leaving the horses ticked off. So, it’s way too early to declare the current drought an epic disaster, especially with all the rain we’ve gotten in northwest Georgia in recent months.

By Craig also

February 29, 2008 8:44 AM | Link to this

“new family next door drives an SUV with an NRA bumper sticker”

as an out and proud lib, I gotta say, that’s pretty funny…

By jbmlaw

February 29, 2008 8:48 AM | Link to this

Good morning all. I fully subscribe to Jim’s sarcastic “change” note – I truly believe the sole appeal of Barack is the fact that he stands for nothing, save an unarticulated “change,” thus allowing each to project his wishes onto the candidate’s persona. One of Taranto’s three funny stories about Hussein yesterday highlighted the deception:

“Barack Obama has ratcheted up his attacks on NAFTA, but a senior member of his campaign team told a Canadian official not to take his criticisms seriously,” reports Canada’s CTV:

‘Within the last month, a top staff member for Obama’s campaign telephoned Michael Wilson, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, and warned him that Obama would speak out against NAFTA, according to Canadian sources.

‘The staff member reassured Wilson that the criticisms would only be campaign rhetoric, and should not be taken at face value.’

“Apparently the real enemy isn’t Canada, it’s cynicism.”

You’re probably wearing out everyone on the “tax on services,” Jim, but it is a battle that needs to be fought. Otherwise how do we not justify a tax on ATM fees, for example. And doctor’s visits? The tax alone on an MRI could run $400. I doubt that health insurance covers taxes.

Re: Dunwoody, the purported justification for consolidation of peoples, and elimination of local control, is “economies of scale.” In practice, however, the doctrine of “monopolist control” seems to predominate.

“Stealing from people who put their trust in you is nearly unpardonable.” Unless you are Marc Rich.

I do not fully understand why leftists cling to the notion that “one size fits all” is a tenet of education theory. But I lie - I am conscious of the voting bloc. Monopolist control, and all that.

I don’t know Lunsford, but we need to run him for governor.

The real perversity in the democrats’ plan to abolish real estate pledges (via bankruptcy) is that middle- and low-income people will never again be able to buy a home. Who could rationally take a $200,000 chance on any but a gilt-edged borrower?

As to the drought, surely that is no different from global warming. It is a religious conviction, not science, and thus beyond question.

By Redneck Convert

February 29, 2008 9:01 AM | Link to this

Well, I might of knowed Wooten wouldn’t say nothing about the good news that 1 out of every 99 people in the U.S. of A. is in jail or prison. Its about the only good news we’ve had for a spell. I say keep it up till we get to about 50 out of 100. That will mean most of Those People and the librul Democrats are behind bars. Law and Order—its the only way to go.

I think this Richardson is onto something. We need to shift taxes from the big property owners like jbmlaw onto more people. We’ll never get the Trickle Down going till most of the money is in the pockets of the people at the top. You can’t Trickle Down till you got something to Trickle Down with.

I’m with Wooten on this mortgage thing, too. If people can’t afford their trailer they oughtn’t to buy it. It got to the point just about anybody could buy a place. What’s the point of working and socking it away if it don’t give you a leg up on other people?

I got no use for schooling beyond the 5th grade, but if you are going to have it, give people the choice of where to send their kids. I don’t want little Sonny Zell George in a school where they teach librul stuff and this evolution and don’t let them pray and learn to be good Christians, and I bet other people don’t want that for their kids. So just hand parents the money and tell them to find a school they like. I bet we could have about 1,000 Christian schools spring up lickety split if we had that and pretty soon the whole state could be laughing at evolution and pointing to the Bible as the only science they need.

Anyhow, today I wish GA would drink less and go to church more. I got about two truckloads of beer to deliver for the weekend. It always goes to the bars in the neyborhoods where the most churches and Baptists are. My back is already sore.

Have a good day everybody and pray you don’t meet up with Realist somewhere. The guy is spoiling for a fight and you might spend the weekend in jail or a hospitle.

By Johnny

February 29, 2008 9:02 AM | Link to this

Of course Government hasn’t grown under the Bush and Regan administrations.

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 9:05 AM | Link to this

Oh, the sun is shining and Jim Wooten gives us a nice buffet this morning.

Ahhh Obama and CHANGE! I’ll have you know that Obama reminds me of ELVIS. Yep, Elvis Pressly. Both could enchant crowds by the thousands.. clap, cluster and swoon. Elvis threw sweaty hankies to the crowd. Obama throws water bottles. Elvis came out in silk and sequins and wiggled every bone in his body. Obama comes out like model aristoman, hand in pocket, strolling in casually as the pronounced gentleman scholar. Elvis sang like a fiery preacher. Obama speaks in the modulated tones of a Harvard soothsayer. Both had trouble with drugs. Those are similarities. But …the BIG difference…

Elvis Pressly served in the military and supported his country. His CHANGE was mainly in his hipbones.

Obama is anti-war and would not fight for his country. His CHANGE is the way Americans stand up for their homeland.

I will not vote for Obama. (Nor would I have voted for Elvis.) We have a man, John McCain, who has fought for this country and will never change American ideals. My vote will be for John McCain for President. Go, John!! (And peace to Elvis and Obama!)

By Hmmmm

February 29, 2008 9:15 AM | Link to this

McCain was born on August 29, 1936 outside American territory at the Coco Solo Air Base in the Panama Canal Zone. However, According to the Department of State website 7 FAM 1116.1-4 not included in the meaning of “In the United States” (TL:CON-64; 11-30-95):

a. A U.S.-registered or documented ship on the high seas or in the exclusive economic zone is not considered to be part of the United States. A child born on such a vessel does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of the place of birth (Lam Mow v. Nagle, 24 F.2d 316 (9th Cir., 1928)).

b. A U.S.-registered aircraft outside U.S. airspace is not considered to be part of U.S. territory. A child born on such an aircraft outside U.S. airspace does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of the place of birth.

c. Despite widespread popular belief, U.S. military installations abroad and U.S. diplomatic or consular facilities are not part of the United States within the meaning of the 14th Amendment. A child born on the premises of such a facility is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and does not acquire U.S. citizenship by reason of birth.

According to The Constitution of the United States, Article II, Section 1: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.”

By Diogenes

February 29, 2008 9:19 AM | Link to this

Good morning, Jim,

I wish to compliment you once again on your skill with rabble rousing techniques. Your comment: “Think about it. Nothing more terrifies liberals than the prospect of change from the failed policies of the past. Education. Social Security. Health care. You name it. Propose something other than growing government and cultivating dependence and they freak out” is in the finest tradition of making inflammatory statements without regard to substance. My compliments on your skills and techniques, but I suspect that your readers are far too intelligent to be taken in by such misrepresentations.

By Ron

February 29, 2008 9:23 AM | Link to this

Dusty,Obama reminds me of Creflo Dollar,That’s A,Jr.Republicans are going to make great strides in education.This is 2008,we’ve been here since 1776.Great strides in education have been promised before.It’s getting late.Change—I’ve told you before that the only change we’ll see is what’s left in our pockets.That’ll be all that’s left.Congratulations to Drudge.He outed a bad acter in Prince Harry.Way to go Drudge,you putz!

By SharonH

February 29, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this

Dunwoody is more than welcome to control their space, they just can’t do it with the Perimeter Mall District.

By Copyleft

February 29, 2008 9:34 AM | Link to this

“I truly believe the sole appeal of Barack is the fact that he stands for nothing…”

Of course you believe that, JBM—because that’s what you decided to believe loooong ago, and it’s what your right-wing masters have TOLD you to think. Despite all the evidence presented, right here on this blog, about Obama’s specific plans and positions on the whole range of issues.

You still stubbornly insist that Obama is “empty rhetoric” with no specifics, even after you’ve SEEN the specifics. You’re a drone, JBM.

And America has MovedOn from listening to partisan idiots like you.

By Mid-South Philosopher

February 29, 2008 9:37 AM | Link to this

One more tirade then I will be out-of-everyone’s hair for today.

Again, about John McCain…embracer of amnesty for illegal aliens that he is.

Neither the Congress nor the Supreme Court, in the exercise of their powers enumerated or implied in the Constitution, have ever intimated what the term “natural born” really means. Most of us have assumed that it meant born within the boundaries or territories of the United States or anywhere in the world as offspring of parents, who were American citizens.

Now some of our cutesy friends, who want to give John McCain grief, desire to question where or not he is a natural born citizen because he was birthed in Panama, albeit of parents of American citizenship, while his father was serving in the U.S. Navy and on active duty.

I argue that he is.

However, let us consider just what natural born means.

Does the term relate to physical birth of a person?

Is a child delivered by Caesarian section disqualified from becoming President. It is not natural birth is it?!?

Is a child conceived by in vitro fertilization really a natural born citizen.

The discussion opens up a whole can of worms. Just such material fit for consideration by the geniuses in the Georgia General Assembly.

Have a good day and a better weekend.

By jbmlaw

February 29, 2008 9:41 AM | Link to this

Dear Diogenes @ 9:19, the difference between you and the normal leftist posting here is that your epithets are not coarse. Thus there is virtue to be found in a pedant who posts without substantial argument.

Dear Dusty @ 9:05, funny and clever work, my compliments.

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 9:43 AM | Link to this

Hmmm@9:15

Ia that the best you can do? The only thing you have proved is the fact that Democrats are already digging for something, anything (!) to drop on John McCain.

Don’t waste your time here. Go help Nancy Pelosi(D) declare ANOTHER investigation(Myers & Bolton) in hopes of acting like a Congress. It won’t work but Pelosi(D) and Reid(D) have to do SOMETHING, otherwise voters will realize they are doing NOTHING.

By jbmlaw

February 29, 2008 9:44 AM | Link to this

Dear Copyleft @ 9:34, thanks for filling us in on all of the substance in Hussein’s campaign.

By Spence

February 29, 2008 9:44 AM | Link to this

Speaking of Social Security….

The stock market has gone up about 2% in the last 7 years.

What would have been the better investment in those years, stocks or cd’s?

By MADMOMMY

February 29, 2008 9:45 AM | Link to this

Mid-South: I love how you just lump all children into one and think they are “trash.” I assume you have no children and for that I am thankful. I am sure some people in your town were without children and paid for your education (or lack there of) with taxes, so just close your mouth.

Jim, you make some fine points this morning as you do every Friday morning. We need to stop all this tax nonosense and just go to the Fair Tax and be done with it. How nice it would be to see how much we are really paying and hold people accountable for what they are spending and doing with OUR money!

Water is always going to be an issue and one that just grows and grows as our population and expectations on what our planet can do keep expanding. I think as Americans we need to start limiting how much of our resources we waste and start looking at the long term instead of short term measures. Look back at history and see what people did when the first settlers were here. Get some ideas off them.

John McCain is an American period. Let’s move on to something else more worthy of our time.

Obama-I see your mouth moving, but I just don’t hear what your are saying. I don’t see where your Change is going to come from when you just say the same thing over and over again. Start making sense.

Have a great weekend!

By Allah says Dump A BUCKET OF PIG BLOOD ON DUSTY AKA JMBLAW

February 29, 2008 9:46 AM | Link to this

All Americans are about to pay the price for the NeoScums war of extermination against Arabs and Muslims, especially in Iraq. The dollar is dying on world markets, and with it goes the last great advantage America had over the rest of the world. Without that advantage, America will have to pay for all the goodies of the world with real money, not freshly printed dollars. Take oil as an example: If we cannot pay for oil imports with green paper, then we must pay with whatever currency the oil producers demand. We do not have large reserves of foreign currency, we owe the rest of the world trillions of dollars already that we cannot redeem. So paying in foreign currency is out. Ok, we have 200 million ounces of gold at Fort Knox, what will that buy? Value oil at 100 bucks per barrel, and gold at 1,000 bucks per troy ounce. Each ounce of gold will buy 10 barrels of oil. We import more than 10 million barrels of oil per day, so the cost will be 1 million troy ounces of gold per day to feed our oil habit. The gold will run out after just 200 days. Then what? We have no silver reserves, the US Mint has to purchase in the open market each and every troy ounce of silver it uses to mint the Silver Eagle coins. We have no platinum reserves, and little else of value. Our wheat reserves are at a 60 year plus low. We still have a large navy, but that is an expense, not an asset. Each aircraft carrier requires a tanker full of aviation fuel every three days while at sea, even the nuclear powered carriers. We produce less than 5 million barrels of oil per day domestically, all else is imported. Your lifestyle is about to go down the toilet, and you can blame the neoscum and their mouth pieces like dusty, jmblaw, and the biggest idiot at the ajc, woodenhead wooten. I myself and well positioned and well provisioned to just sit back and enjoy the show…

By jbmlaw

February 29, 2008 9:48 AM | Link to this

Dear MidSouth @ 9:37, on the Canal Zone, do not be troubled (little joke – I feel about Mr. McCain much as you do) by the mists from the domestic fever swamps. McCain is a natural born citizen. I saw a long-ago court interpretation of the language, and almost anyone subject to jurisdiction and protection of the US government at the time of birth qualifies.

By Dick Cheney

February 29, 2008 9:48 AM | Link to this

Stealing from people who put their trust in you is nearly unpardonable.

Oh, I’ll get my pardon, don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, Jim.

By jbmlaw

February 29, 2008 9:50 AM | Link to this

Dear Spence @ 9:44, sounds like my stocks have done much better than yours. Need an advisor? (Just kidding – I know you are really just one of those controlling leftists who would inflict your mediocre judgment on the rest of us.)

By Mid-South Philosopher

February 29, 2008 9:55 AM | Link to this

MADMOMMY @9:45

The truth hurts doesn’t it.

Of course society…including unpleasant fellows like me should pay taxes for the education of our young. However, if we are going to use the “public” schools to educate our kids, on someone else’s dime, we have to give up some of our “choices”. My tirade was meant to take the most radical position and make folks on this blog think.

Don’t measure my peck by your bushel.

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 10:05 AM | Link to this

Well, I see my good buddy, Allah capone is with us again. How nice!

Allahluia, would you tell us about your experience in Muslim Schools which might be the same as the schools Obama attended? Have you also lived in Muslim predominated Indonesia and visited Kenya like Obama? This sounds like the one something about which you might have knowledge.

By Dustrag

February 29, 2008 10:11 AM | Link to this

Oh by the way, I are a bigot, and I don’t care who knows!

By Copyleft

February 29, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this

JBM: Just because you come onto the blog every day to repeat the same “Obama has no plan” lie doesn’t mean we’re obligated to post ALL those specifics, over and over again, every single day.

I know that tactic was popular in selling the Saddam-9/11 connection (“Keep repeating the lie”), but America has wised up. In other words, do your own research before spouting off.

By Ron

February 29, 2008 10:24 AM | Link to this

Copyleft,my good fellow,This is an opinion blog,research would get in the way.

By GayGreyGeek

February 29, 2008 10:35 AM | Link to this

Copyleft - jbm has no need for such sill things as “demonstrable facts”. Haven’t you figured that out yet?

All the Paleocons have left is their “The BogeyMan Is Gonna Get Ya!” efforts. As an example, look at the DustBuster’s posts today. It’s nothing but the latest Talking Points from the Tennessee GOP.

By MADMOMMY

February 29, 2008 10:36 AM | Link to this

Mid-South,

Thanks for a quick response and I agree with you on more than one point that you are making. Schools are going down the tubes fast and my child is only a year old, so I am sure by the time she does start school “public” will not be an option. Time for me to get a second job now in order to pay for “private” education since I am sure no one in office will have the guts to do what is needed to our education system.

Just think of how nice it would be if we could get a real system in place that could produce results, not just waste money and fill the room with hot air. I just don’t see people giving up their “power” anytime soon, since I think that’s what it boils down to.

Have a great weekend!

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this

Dustrag @ 10:11

You may be correct when you said “I are a bigot” referring to me, of course.

I honestly do not have a good feeling for Muslim terrorists. I don’t know whether it’s the turbans, the dashikis or the head-chopper machetes. Or maybe it’s the children used as shields or the Down’s Syndrome suicide bombers. Whatever..

My benevolence has grown VERY thin. What would you suggest?

By les Franks

February 29, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this

Well, think of this. If Obama is elected president, we will never have to listen to the media (left or right) criticize him. There will be no gridlock in Washington, and everything he wants, Congress will rubber stamp. There seems to be no lengths to which people will not go to avoid being called racist.;

By Glenn

February 29, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this

• From today’s column:

“One area where Republicans under the Gold Dome promise to make important strides is education.”

So let’s apply some common sense to your brand of conservatism, Jim. You and your gold-domed friends are telling the 21st Century Navy that in the age of flying drones and stealth vessels capable of waging war in space, the real question is how to rethink the battleship.

Sen. Johnson wants to allow sailors to take any battleship, and Rep. Jones wants to accelerate construction of experimental battleships. So long as it’s a battleship, experiment away!

These “promising” legislators, Jim, are dangerous buffoons with nice manners and paneled offices. This legislative agenda should be a no-brainer for you, but you have some kind of “thing”, some fetishistic turn-on, involving liberalism in drag.

Perhaps you’d be helped by a kind of sex surrogate who could gentle you into the sensuous world of actual education, thereby freeing you from the prurient schoolboy associations you make whenever someone with a gavel whispers the word “edju-kay-shun” in your ear.

Then, you might see that the only bit of legislation worth a damn here is the back-end piece of HB 881. Peel those fiscal provisions for a stand-alone bill, get the bill passed and signed, and forget the rest of the education portfolio for this Session. Then they’d have something bigger than they know.

Oh, but I forgot. Were your pals to do just that, then the conditions would be set for flying drones and stealth vessels and space combat. And that would blow the sheer fun of the steel and shining teak, the smell of fuel oil and fresh paint, the sheer irreplaceable clink and clang and claxon sounds of an honest-to-god BATTLESHIP.

Just like the good old days.

By YA Got THAT RIGHT!

February 29, 2008 10:44 AM | Link to this

FLAT OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By Ron

February 29, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this

Allah,are you off your meds,or are you trying to survive on dog food or something like that?

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 10:48 AM | Link to this

Gay Grey Geek@10:35

If you use paleocons one more time I am going to throw a Cambrian rock at you.

We don’t want any *talking points” from Tennessee. Georgia wants your WATER. Go straighten that boundary line, pronto. You’ve got part of OUR river.

By Sharia

February 29, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this

“(men ARE allowed to slap hysterical women for their OWN good, right)?”

that is correct Allah

By Artie O'Bammagh

February 29, 2008 10:56 AM | Link to this

“…a Ponzi schemer in California, 81 years old, was sentenced to 28 years in the slammer for his role in ripping off $190 million from victims in 25 states. Stealing from people who put their trust in you is nearly unpardonable.”

Jim, shame on you. Do your homework, man. Norman Hsu is not 81 years old.

By Jack

February 29, 2008 10:57 AM | Link to this

Obama reminds me of the character Robert redford played in the movie, “The Candidate”

“What do I do now?”

By Barack

February 29, 2008 11:07 AM | Link to this

But I don’t think that’s the issue, Jack. Because the issue is not…”What do I do now?” The issue is not…”My God, what have I done?”

No. The issue is…the watershed, and what, together, we are going to do about it!

By GayGreyGeek

February 29, 2008 11:09 AM | Link to this

DustBuster - Paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon paleocon

By Allah says Dump A BUCKET OF PIG BLOOD ON DUSTY AKA JMBLAW

February 29, 2008 11:11 AM | Link to this

Hey Dusty, just try to take one glass of Tennessee River water and see how fast the Tennessee National Guard can reduce Georgia to a smoldering pile of rubble…You want war, Tennessee can give it to you…Just ask the Ugly Mutts about their latest beating…

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 11:17 AM | Link to this

Well, Allah Dump @10:40

You constantly amaze me with your pleasantries. You’ve been to school??? Who’d a’thought it? A religious one at that!! I knew you could read and write but even RedNeck can do that.

As to your non-offer of help in times of economic crisis, no thanks anyway. I am sure you are rich and live in the best apartment in the project. But my family and I have no need of help. We’re kinda thrifty.

Now relax and do whatever atheist do, swat flies or something. And be sweet!!

By GaMF

February 29, 2008 11:18 AM | Link to this

Allah:

We are going to dam the Tenn. river and send it ALL to the Chattahoochie.

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 11:30 AM | Link to this

Allah capone@11:11

You are always full of good news. THE TENNESSEE NATIONAL GUARD is still in TENNESSEE? I thought they were overseas.

You libs told us that every military person in the USA was fighting in Iraq. That we had not a soul here at home to protect us.

NOW you tell us the National Guard is still thriving in Tennessee? That IS good news. I thought the Boy Scouts were protecting Tennessee.

By Allah says Dump A BUCKET OF PIG BLOOD ON DUSTY AKA JMBLAW

February 29, 2008 11:30 AM | Link to this

GaMF - Never make threats you cannot back up, loser boy….You cannot even deal with the feds over lake lanier, so what makes you think you can take on Tennessee? Just more neoscum bull sh*t….

By bobbylee

February 29, 2008 11:34 AM | Link to this

When Gordon County Commissioners raised milage rates by 41% a couple of years age, it is basically theft. The city and county school boards basically do the same thing year after year, spend more and more. Its time these folk have to endure tough times just like the rest of use who have to depend on the business cycles. Sales and income taxes are supposed to fund education, where this this get so mussed up ?

By Dennis

February 29, 2008 11:35 AM | Link to this

Mr. Wooten writes, “One area where Republicans under the Gold Dome promise to make important strides is education. The majority should most assuredly pass State Sen. Eric Johnson’s SB 458, which would give vouchers to parents of students in chronically failed schools and in a system that loses accreditation.”

Mr. Wooten understands failed schools just about as much as he applaudes the failed administration of George W. Bush.

You don’t have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.

By Shar

February 29, 2008 11:39 AM | Link to this

Glenn @ 10:39 - As always, your thoughts on state-funded education are interesting, impassioned and prescient. However, I’d suggest that there is, in fact, a place for the traditional approach. It’s just not the only game in town, nor even worthy of pride of place.

The problem is that, for the politicos setting the rules, control of the huge education budget is far more important and promising than the minds of the students. Anything that imperils political hegemony over the lion’s share of the state budget devoted to education will be turned to salt, without regard as to whether that salt is then sown into the fertile fields of youthful intelligence. The Speaker’s idea of snatching more education dollars from locals (property tax) to state functionaries (sales tax) will only make it exponentially harder to get the money back to the minute level where the future of the kid is more important than the patronage that money can buy.

By Redneck Convert

February 29, 2008 11:47 AM | Link to this

Well, I thank Sister Dusty for saying how good I write. Its not tough. You just peck one letter at a time and after awhile you got a word.

Its the first time Sister Dusty said something nice about me. For awhile I figured her mind was kind of messed up after looking at all the pee and blood of other people all day.

Anyhow, I don’t go along with a war against TN about the river, like Sister Dusty wants. Their football team has kicked our butt for two years running, and I figure they would do the same if we used our troops against their troops. Unless old Sonny held a prayer meeting before the war, like he done with the GA water plan. Still, it would be kind of iffy.

Well, time for my chicken weenies. Wootens blog is kind of dull today so I might not come back. Its just a pity that old man runs out of things to write about on Friday and has to talk about the morans down at the capital. I would like to see something about how this Osama guy is a towel-head that bows down to Allah five times a day and would surrender us to the terrists. But I guess once in a while Wooten needs to take a break and write about easy stuff that he sees when he strolls down to watch our legaslaters fight.

By jm

February 29, 2008 11:49 AM | Link to this

Speaking of crime stories, I am surprised Mr. Wooten did not trumpet the fact that Georgia is ranked second in prison population growth. With the current state of our education system, it won’t be long before we are number one.

By McCain Unable

February 29, 2008 11:59 AM | Link to this

I think I’ve been banned from this blog. Hard to get happy after that one!

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 12:12 PM | Link to this

Dear RedNeck@11:47

I do hope you enjoy your chicken weiners. In fact, I heard some news about chicken products. The Food folks are saying there is NO need to pull the feathers off of chickens. You know. Kinda like NOT wasting those sick cows ‘cause they are still tasty.

If your chicken weiners are a little crunchy and tickle going down, thank the good lord for thrifty feather savings.

Now, I’m going to lunch also. I think I’ll have a nice vegetable salad.

By Glenn

February 29, 2008 12:14 PM | Link to this

Shar, I agree with both your first, structural point and with your second, fiscal one. I agree also with my colleague Dennis, about Mr. Wooten’s missing the forest.

There is—-absolutely—-a place for the tried & true. (I’m a conservative, after all.) But we don’t have to be Deweyan experimentalists to see the common sense of replacing that which is obsolete with something better.

What Dennis and I agree on—-and what Jim still doesn’t get—-is that policy-makers are stuck on means, when they, like Jim, are unclear on what the means are for. The very simple shift in perception can be picked up from the nearest ATM, for example, or from Wal-Mart’s unveiling of a new panoply of storefront health clinics, or from a host of other, ubiquitous examples.

Because the point, in a sense, is ubiquity. Childhood education is the one service, in this now global service economy, that is not yet perceived as a service to be delivered. Once it is so perceived, then it truly is a far more straightforward matter than people such as Jim suspect, to set the conditions for service delivery; to plot out the places and people, the technologies and moneys, that you need.

That’s why I agree with you about the advisability of portable funding that follows the child, and why I support that portion of HB 881 which accomplishes that NEA-defying feat.

By Allah says Dump A BUCKET OF PIG BLOOD ON DUSTY AKA JMBLAW

February 29, 2008 12:18 PM | Link to this

The theme of the 2008 campaign: “Avoid Foreign Military Entanglements, Stupid.”

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 12:26 PM | Link to this

Theme of the Democratic 2008 campaign Forget 9/11, Stupid.

By GayGreyGeek

February 29, 2008 12:30 PM | Link to this

Oh, poor lil DustBuster doesn’t realize that even Rudy 9/11 failed with his The BogeyMan Is Out To Get You platform.

By Allah says Dump A BUCKET OF PIG BLOOD ON DUSTY AKA JMBLAW

February 29, 2008 12:36 PM | Link to this

Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, you ignorant sl@t Dusty….You are so dumb, you make Jim look smart…..

By Shar

February 29, 2008 12:43 PM | Link to this

Glenn: I agree, with the addition of another step. Starting with the means, as you say, is the fixation of political types since it relieves them of having to consider either what comes before, which is budget, or after, which is result. Meanwhile, the rationale for universal public education is predicated on the the areas that politicians want to shirk responsibility for — the enforced contribution of all citizens for the overall benefit to all of an educated workforce. Manipulating the middle, the “how”, is much more remunerative and much less likely to incur blame.

Therefore, what I’d prefer to see would be education policy that addressed the budget and the outcome, leaving the means to the most local possible source, which would preferably be parents. I would add, however, the element of responsibility. If it is the responsibility of taxpayers to fund investment in education and the responsibility of policy makers to agree on what that public, coerced funding should buy, the responsibility of those delivering and receiving the service should also be defined. Parents, students, administrators and teachers should have clearly defined responsibilities in getting the money in one hand and setting loose an effective young adult on the other, with consequences for nonperformance and inducements for superlative outcomes. Only with those parameters established can reasonable decisions be made on how to accomplish the ends.

By jbmlaw

February 29, 2008 12:50 PM | Link to this

Dear Copyleft @ 10:15, your fidelity to the mantra of “change” is admirable if misguided. As I noted in my first post, even when Hussein proclaims an intention to change – as in NAFTA – he is only blowing smoke. His contortions two days ago on Iraq should have been a clue for the true believers, also (I will remove all troops from Iraq, but wherever we find Al Qaeda we will send troops, and since Al Qaeda is in Iraq we’ll send them into Iraq….) Even McCain, not exactly a rocket scientist, can make a pretty good joke out of that argument. Must be something about Harvard, Hussein sounds Bushian to me. I suppose the question you and your sycophants Ron and GGG would have me answer for you is, “when is a change not a change?” Answer: anytime Hussein promises it. But I’ll join you, “Kumbaya Hussein, Kumbaya….” Wouldn’t want to allow rational thought to interfere with a good rally.

Dear Dusty @ 10:48, I think I disagree with you about our friend GGG’s use of the term “paleocons.” If you are simply objecting to the leftist trait of hurling epithets rather than offering argument, you are well grounded but pushing against the wind. They have nothing else. (I know Shar and Southern Democrat describe themselves as leftists, but they are not - they are truly centrists.) But GGG’s term itself is not anti-Semitic (in contrast to the brainless use of “neocon”). From a larger view, it invokes the image of those of us who would stand athwart the world yelling “stop.” Why not paleocon?

Dear Jack @ 10:57, good analogy. Someone yesterday sarcastically invoked “Chauncey Gardner” but yours is fair.

Dear Shar @ 11:39, your second paragraph is among most brilliant writings I have ever seen on this blog. You could delete most of the identifier nouns or adjectives and use the remainder as a template for argument against government intervention in almost any area (and I am not being sarcastic. You expressed eternal truths efficiently. I wish I had written your paragraph.)

By Casper

February 29, 2008 12:51 PM | Link to this

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 12:26 PM | Link to this

Theme of the Democratic 2008 campaign Forget 9/11, Stupid

No Dusty! Nobody has forgotten. Others have just not let it become the obsession that causes people like you to let it strip you of common sense. You chicken little one trick ponies have lost sight of the forest for the trees. There are other issues as well.

By Copyleft

February 29, 2008 12:54 PM | Link to this

Dusty, have you ever written a single sentence that wasn’t a lie?

Or… wait a minute…. no, it can’t be… you’re not actually stupid enough to BELIEVE what you type, are you?

Come on! I figured you were the cut-rate version of talknazi radio—you know, “I’m just an entertainer, I don’t really believe the crap I’m spewing.”

‘Fess up, please. You don’t actually BELIEVE all the nonsensical garbage you emit, right? It’s just an act, surely?

By jbmlaw'sneighbor

February 29, 2008 12:55 PM | Link to this

Did you guys know that jbmlaw’s middle name is Barack? How goes it Jamil Barack Mustaffah Law? Good to see you here.

By Glenn

February 29, 2008 12:56 PM | Link to this

Shar, I appreciate your considered response. You and I have just diverged in our thinking, and it’ll take me some time to boil down, to a few words, an explanation of the divergence.

By global warming scaremonger

February 29, 2008 1:03 PM | Link to this

“The BogeyMan Is Out To Get You platform”

That would be that junk science known as manmade global warming you fascist liberals are trying to pin into everyone’s personal lives, and down the road, into everyone’s wallets. Keep your nosy smelly feet out of my driveway and off my thermostat, hogs.

Haha! Look in the background of this pic of Shrillary. Finally Reuters gets something right without doctoring up a photo.

February 29, 2008 — WASHINGTON - Angry tribal elders in Kenya are calling on Hillary Rodham Clinton to “clear her name” over any involvement in publication of photos of Barack Obama wearing a turban and African garb on a trip to his ancestral homeland.

Good luck with that Kenya. You are witnessing how low this woman is willing to go for her quest of self-anointed power. What a shame so many in this nation, especially in Ohio, believe this woman will do something to reverse NAFTA that her so-called husband signed the US off on.

By TAFKAH

February 29, 2008 1:04 PM | Link to this

Wow. McCain continues to whip the conservatrons into line. Here’s the latest accolade from George Will:

Although his campaign is run by lobbyists; and although his dealings with lobbyists have generated what he, when judging the behavior of others, calls corrupt appearances; and although he has profited from his manipulation of the taxpayer-funding system that is celebrated by reformers — still, he probably is innocent of insincerity. Such is his towering moral vanity, he seems sincerely to consider it theoretically impossible for him to commit the offenses of appearances that he incessantly ascribes to others.

Such certitude is, however, not merely an unattractive trait. It is disturbing righteousness in someone grasping for presidential powers.

With friends like George Will, who needs enemas?

By Shar

February 29, 2008 1:12 PM | Link to this

Jbmlaw, many thanks. I’m not as convinced that you could apply the thought to the host of government intervention projects/agencies/programs, as education stands out as the singular area where the recipient (student) is not only subordinate to, and dependent upon, the source (teacher) but in addition has no realistic idea of what precisely the service received should entail, no parameters by which to judge its quality and no idea of where the money he/she should be receiving goes.

I think perhaps the gustatory metaphor I used, and which rather implies the universality you remark upon, is due to the fact that I was indulging in that most retro and belittled of occupations, baking bread. No doubt I have lost any shred of credibility I may have had in exposing the breathtaking backwardness of such a pastime, added to the stupidity of having to take the bread from the oven just before I have to run off to an unpleasing medical appointment. Ah well, the kneading, mental and physical, was satisfying.

Cheers and a good weekend to all.

By Louis The Lip

February 29, 2008 1:12 PM | Link to this

Dusty must be doing something right. She has the ire of the anarchist Farrakhan wannabe left against her.

Keep up the good work, Dusty. If you [we] are lucky, maybe this wacko will drop dead at the keyboard from a brain aneurysm before the week is over.

By Blogfather

February 29, 2008 1:15 PM | Link to this

Wooten’s data about droughts proves Al Gore’s theory about global warming. If drought frequency was not increasing then the last thirty years would have produced only one drought, not three.

However, what saves us from droughts is not Wooten’s barren assurances or his devining-rod data crunching, but rather the quantum mechanics of randomness and chaos. Where it hasn’t rained it is certain to rain. The exception to that rule is called a desert.

Sorry to rain on your parade, Wooten, why dont you find a witching stick and see if Dusty will chase it while you dowse your way out of the drought? Down girl. Bad dog. Bad dusty!

bad dog.

By jbmlaw

February 29, 2008 1:18 PM | Link to this

Dear Dusty, apologies for sloppy writing, @ 12:50 I used “invoke” when I meant “evoke.”

Dear neighbor @ 12:55, you’ve read my pro-immigrant posts – it’s Juan Bordello Mexicano law.

By Allah says Dump A BUCKET OF PIG BLOOD ON DUSTY AKA JMBLAW

February 29, 2008 1:31 PM | Link to this

Forget education, if we teach the brats to read and write, they will just grow up to waste time blogging on the internet…Do we really want to spend billions nuturing little dusty freaks, jmb clowns, woodenhead dolls? The children should be working on developing their lower body strenth, it will serve them well as plow mules in the near future….Someone has to plow the fields for mah cotton and tobacco, and someone else (ME!) has to reap all the profit from selling it to China and India…..for hard currency….Not worthless green paper….

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 1:41 PM | Link to this

Dear jbmlaw@12:50

I believe “paleo” as a prefix means ancient form or something like that. “con” can be the abbreviation of conservative or convict.

Since it is almost spring and I am kicking up my heels, I defer the “ancient” and refuse to be a convict. Conservative is just fine.

Actually. it isn’t the name. It is the REPETITION, that annoying habit of a one track mind. But then, I should be mindful of ol’ geek’s condition as he totters to the keyboard. Go for it, geek, you paleolib!!

By Allah says Dump A BUCKET OF PIG BLOOD ON DUSTY AKA JMBLAW

February 29, 2008 1:45 PM | Link to this

Charles Hussein Krauthammer says dump a bucket of pig blood on dusty…and save some for him…um um tasty pig blood….

By GayGreyGeek

February 29, 2008 1:49 PM | Link to this

Snert. DustBuster is complaning about others’ supposed one-track minds? I swear, she’s got a future as a stand-up comic ala Ellen DeGeneres…

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 2:09 PM | Link to this

Allah Loo,1:45

Glad to see you are reading Krauthammer. Now there’a an eloquent conservative. He pinned Edwards down like stepping on a bug or a liberal.

Yep, Edwards is a better flip-flopper than Kerry himself. Now that is hard to do. Obama doesn’t flip-flop. It isn’t necessary. He never takes a stand.

Oh, AlleyLoo, don’t worry about a brain aneurysm. You have to have a brain to start with. You are safe.

By Glenn

February 29, 2008 2:22 PM | Link to this

Shar,

I’ve mentioned the points on which we agree. With your 12:43 post come these points with which I must disagree:

• That the rationale for, and end of, universal public education is to provide an educated workforce;

• That education planning accordingly consists of a (business) input/output model: budget -> means -> student outcomes (in that order);

• That carrots and sticks should be administered in accordance with the desirability of the outcomes;

• That only when these parameters are established, and the responsibilities of “parents, students, administrators and teachers” clearly defined, should the means be determined.

• That policy-makers focus on means because that’s the easiest planning step.

I think that policy-makers focus on means because policy-makers are fish, and fish swim in schools. Jim is a fish also, and so evidently are you.

One does not explain water to a fish. And yet I’ve tried repeatedly to explain to Jim that he need not swim only in schools. Fish sometimes are better off in schools, and sometimes are worse off; worse off, when the school attracts predators who pick off any fish who strays, tarries or otherwise draws attention.

Water is plentiful on this planet, and any fish may swim in it wheresoever it wishes. But schooled fish, being schooled, see only the water between themselves and the immediately surrounding fish.

Were your thinking less pinched by your experience, less schooled-in, then you might not be assuming that children are accounts in which the public invests its collective moneys in the demand for economic prosperity. And you might not be thinking in terms of a workforce of teachers and administrators awaiting productive employment.

You are using a factory model that no longer fits a service economy. Children are not the service rendered; they are the clientele of the service. Those who are rendering the service are demonstrably incapable of doing so competently, and the factory model is incapable of sustaining the kind of “productivity” you assume.

By Dusty

February 29, 2008 2:44 PM | Link to this

Glenn@2:22

Forgive my interruption but I think you just posted something FISHY to Shar. Now she will have to answer with the Professor’s Pentateuch. She will have you hook, line & sinker.

Call a truce, Glenn. Send Shar a breadmaker. She’ll love it.

It is almost three o’clock. I leave you with all the liberal sharks, barnacles and crabs here. Now…cut bait!!

By George W Bush

February 29, 2008 3:08 PM | Link to this

What’s this about $4 a gallon gasoline, sparky? Next thing you’ll tell me is that there’s some kind of, I dunno, mortgage crisis or sumpin. {{{heh}}}

What’s that, heh? You don’t say….

By BadOleBoys

February 29, 2008 4:19 PM | Link to this

Change is GOOD. If the candidate on the ballot is 1)Republican, 2)Incumbent, and 3)Running anywhere in Georgia, then vote against them. You could lose one or two good people in the process but the bulk of them will not be any good. Cagle and Richardson are two that definitely need to go. Perdue is out already so good riddance. Don’t forget to toss out any County Commissioners that meet the criteria also.

By Allah says Dump A BUCKET OF PIG BLOOD ON DUSTY AKA JMBLAW

February 29, 2008 4:44 PM | Link to this

Now that dusty is gone, lets talk mean about her. I’ll start, ah hear her husband is having an affair with getalife.

By Blogfather

February 29, 2008 5:34 PM | Link to this

Bwa, first jbmlaw tells shar he likes her piece, then he proceeds to sh!t on it. That’s not jbmlaw anyway. How can I tell? Jbmlaw never grounds his arguments in the antics of semantics. He may put you to sleep, but he’s no clown act.

there is a troll maybe three or four who are impersonating everyone, even political foreskin.

See now the wisdom of having multiple IDs like me? I dont care if you dont know it’s me, as long as I get you to laugh, I’m good.

Okay, I’m officially declaring it miller time at 5:25 pm friday, Feb 29, 2008. Leapyear.

Leapyear. See how great february’s are? You get ground hog day, valentimes day, lincoln’s birthday, and you get leap year day. I just cant believe it’s leap year day already. I feel so festive on leap year day. you know? It’s so great. Leap year day.

Next month we get leapfrog day. And in april we get leap of faith day, followed by may’s leap of logic day, and of course, the penultimate leap day, christmas when we have the seven lords a leaping.

By Shar

February 29, 2008 5:49 PM | Link to this

Glenn @ 2:22 - I’m thinking in the business strategy mode - what are my resources, what are my goals, and only THEN how do I get there - with plenty of reality checks along the way.

I think that the traditional school setting teaches more than academics - kindergarten is basically a year of socialization into group behavior to acclimate kids to the basics of sitting through a lesson, raising hands, taking turns, etc. This offers an irresistible opportunity for agenda-setters to dump their particular idee fixee into the mix, and the concept of mandatory attendance at a single location makes the delivery of other services - health, DFCS-related, remediation, etc - far easier for those assorted bureaucrats. Schools are unable to protect themselves without irritating the bureaucrats and idealogues, both of whom have better access to politicians, and therefore money, than do teachers or principals.

In order to cram all this down the throats of six to seventeen year olds, it is imperative that they learn to be subservient and quiescent. Those that have spark, creativity or just plain antipathy to being railroaded are labelled as troublesome or worse, when what they may need is three hour classes under a tree somewhere while listening to Mozart.

It is well established that different people learn best with different presentation - auditory, tactile, visual, etc - and traditional schools can only deliver efficiently using the former. If the legislative yahoos really want kids to gain knowledge in something, such as driving, you’ll note that all three forms of teaching are mandated. Think of how most people explore an unknown item - they’ll say, “May I see that?” while holding out their hand, so that the visual exploration is amplified by the tactile. Once the item is examined they’ll ask for auditory information such as origin, function, etc.

Traditional schools have a place in the educational mix, but only if they can deliver against the goals that are set. I wouldn’t mind a few hours of large lectures if they were interspersed with small group, hand’s on projects that reinforce lessons, encourage retention and reward participation and creativity. Or internships. Or parcelling out those hours under a tree among parents. Or any other structure that will involve and imprint knowledge that students are most likely to need. The appalling drop out rate of our high schools is clear proof that the sole reliance on traditional schools, while critical for maintaining the bureaucratic status quo, is an utter failure in terms of reaching and exciting students. And without that, no goals are met and all funding is wasted.

By Apocalypse

February 29, 2008 5:52 PM | Link to this

Senator Jay Rockefeller Endorses Obama

by Sam Graham-FelsenFriday, February 29, 2008 at 02:46 PM CHICAGO, IL – Today, Senator Jay Rockefeller, the Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, endorsed Barack Obama for president, citing his judgment on the Iraq war and national security issues, and calling him the right candidate to lead our country during a time of instability at home and abroad.

Senator Rockefeller said, “Today, I’m proud to lend my support and strong endorsement to Barack Obama and his candidacy for President of the United States. Barack Obama is the most qualified person – Democrat or Republican – to lead our country in the face of enormous challenges – the very real threat of terrorism, economic uncertainty, and instability at home and abroad.

“As Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I am all too aware that the threats we face are unconventional. They are sophisticated. They are constantly changing and adapting. And they are very serious. What matters most in the Oval Office is sound judgment and decisive action. It’s about getting it right on crucial national security questions the first time – and every time.

“The indisputable fact is Barack Obama was right about Iraq when many of us were wrong. It was a tough call and the single greatest national security question, and mistake, of our time. Today, we remain a country at war, and countless mistakes over the last six and a half years have made us less safe. The stakes have never been higher, and that is why we must take a stand.

“I am not just supporting Barack Obama because of his strength on national security. I am equally proud of his commitment to rebuild America – so that we’re a country of equality and prosperity – where no segment of society is left behind. I know Barack Obama will fight and win the battle for health care, good paying jobs, and energy security.

“Barack Obama is a uniquely gifted, brilliant and strategic thinker, who genuinely understands the hopes and desires of the American people. There is nothing sheltered about his life; he’s always had to work hard, and he’s always fought to make his community and his country better.

“A leader like Barack Obama just doesn’t come along very often, and as voters who care passionately about the future of our country, we cannot afford to squander this opportunity.”

Senator Obama said, “Senator Rockefeller’s leadership in the Senate has strengthened our national security and advanced economic opportunity, and I am honored to have his support. Nobody understands the unconventional threats of the 21st century better than Jay Rockefeller, and I look forward to partnering with him as President to strengthen our intelligence community and protect our homeland. Together, we will work to reclaim the American Dream for working families at home, and to restore our security and standing abroad.”

By Glenn

February 29, 2008 5:54 PM | Link to this

Nope, ‘twas I playing the role of myself as “Glenn” and Shar playing “Shar”, with none other than jbm as “jbmlaw”.

And the semantics couldn’t have been less antic. More like cold fish.

By oops

February 29, 2008 6:00 PM | Link to this

Glenn@2:22 - unfortunately, your anaology of fish is somewhat flawed. A fish, like any other living organism can only swim and survive in water that at least meets its basic needs. You cannot take a tropical fish and place it in the artic and expect it to survive.

There is a basic premise, that you get out of something what you put in. That includes both teachers and students. I am sorry but sometimes the reason that little Johnny or Sally can’t learn, is that they are dumb as a rock. No matter how gifted the teacher, they will only be able to progress so far. One of the reasons that certain private schools can achieve the results they do is that they can be selective in who they choose to admit.

The ones who truly suffer are the true high fliers. With a disproportionate amount of resources dedicated to bringing up the rear, those at the front are drawn back to the pack.

By Blogfather

February 29, 2008 6:07 PM | Link to this

Shar, curriculum is the province of the tenured and elected. Not even Providence could get in a proviso.

Your daydreams are inspiring…..to a worm in the apple the teacher gets from obsequious students!

Dont blog about change that you cant accomplish. It frightens me. I dont like dreamers. Sometimes they go berserk. you know how to go berserk dont you, just put your lips together and blow.

Here’s looking at you, kid. We’ll always have Paris.

Hey! Did anyone get the two news items that sets up a mediocre bit: That model that they found in the river in Paris, and Hilton is being charged with the grisly murders in Florida.

Punchline: I always knew Paris Hilton was the devil.

By Glenn

February 29, 2008 6:09 PM | Link to this

Gosh, I never considered that!

The point is schools. What is dumb as a rock is bottling the water in obsolete schools.

Moreover, it’s your extention of the analogy which is flawed, as no water is as nutritious as the wide open sea. I said nothing regarding sink-or-swim, only about the stupidity of limiting e.g. healthcare to hospitals, or banking to main branches, etc.

By oops

February 29, 2008 6:26 PM | Link to this

actually - Water is plentiful on this planet, and any fish may swim in it wheresoever it wishes you did

By Glenn

March 1, 2008 8:11 AM | Link to this

Look, oopsie, if you take my wide-open-water reference as an invitation to make the little fishies swim alone, rather than to swim more widely, then OK, that part of the analog is broke.

I liked the military (naval) analogy better anyway; guys always like that kind of stuff, but that particular metaphor, schools as obsolete battleships, was created by an old friend who’s a history professor and a woman. (I made the attribution to her in my initial use of the metaphor.)

I do think that Dewey was mistaken about keeping children in idealized environments—-classrooms—-well beyond early childhood. And calling the world a classroom is just a perverse form of the Pragmatists’ error. The fishies should swim, as soon as possible, in the worlds of authentic experience.

And I absolutely agree with you: they shouldn’t have to swim alone.

By AJC Management

March 1, 2008 8:14 AM | Link to this

{{{{For some readers, fairness in news coverage is a bigger concern than accuracy. We share that concern, and we understand that allegations of bias threaten our credibility. I often hear from readers who say we should stick to reporting the facts and let readers make their own conclusions.-Angela Tuck, Urinal Ombudsman}}}}

You reckon?

{{{{Perceptions about bias in news coverage are influenced by a person’s own biases. But that doesn’t mean we dismiss reader concerns about fairness. Editors and reporters at the AJC have daily discussions about how stories are framed, where they appear in the paper and how photographs are used. But there are times when we miss the mark.-Urinal}}}}

We try so hard!

And here’s our proof:

{{{{In recent days, The New York Times has been criticized for its story about McCain’s ties to a female lobbyist. It cited anonymous sources, which in my view should never be used to insinuate an affair. The AJC decided not to run the Times’ original story, but we did run a follow-up story about McCain’s reaction to it.-Urinal}}}}

Which was:

{{{{McCain says reports he was too close to lobbyist “not true”-Urinal 2/21/08}}}}

Yeah, the Atlanta Urinal Constitution is “not” biased, nope, “not” at all.

(Dear Dimwits of Atlanta: The urinal Ombudsman thinks you are stupid. She is correct. That is why you see fairy tales such as this^^ to “prove” that the Urinal is not a house organ for the demokrat party, when it so obviously is. But you go right on ahead and chew your cud.)

~~~~~

Look at the special way that the code pinkos use to say “Turkish troops withdrawal from Iraq.”

{{{{Truckloads of weary Turkish troops pulled out of northern Iraq on Friday as Ankara ended an eight-day cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels. Washington and Baghdad welcomed the move, but Turkey warned the forces would return if necessary.-Urinal}}}}

So much emotion, so much hysteria, what a wonderful work of fiction, Turkey warning the United States.

Yep, Pulitzer prize material.

~~~~~

Trust me, I’m not defending Ku Klux Rodham here, I just need to make a point:

{{{{“The US government must apologize to us as a clan and the old man,” Mohamed Ibrahim told Reuters, referring to a highly respected tribal elder who is also shown in the photos.}}}}

So we have to “apologize” because our little World of Hate is distributing photos to smear Obambi as a “Muslim.”

{{{{Gunmen kidnapped Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, 65, as he left Mass in the northern city of Mosul on Friday. Ninevah provincial police said the attackers also killed three people who were with the prelate.-Urinal}}}}

When do we get apologies for this?

The same Muslims grievance mongers, whining like liberals about a freaking picture, have nothing to say about the world wide murder and destruction that their followers have wrought upon us?

And what kind of cowardice does it attribute to us by not calling them on it?

Guaranteed some pinko was sent abroad to mount the floor before the easily offended mass murderers, soothing their hurt feelings.

When are we going to shame them, like we have been shamed so many times, for their acts which are far, far away more grievous than anything they’ve ever had on us?

Cartoons?

WTF?

~~~~~

Why even have a Congress?

{{{{Rep. Henry “Suckie Face” Waxman (D-Calif.) called on the State Department to explain why federal officials certified the $736 million U.S. Embassy in Iraq as complete, even though the mammoth complex is still plagued by construction defects.-Whiny Times}}}}

Oh, O.K:

{{{{U.S. Capitol visitor center nears completion- When the doors finally will open to the public is a major point of contention surrounding the project, which was originally scheduled to be finished in 2005. Hantman predicts a ribbon-cutting this fall, but auditors at the Government Accountability Office say the date will slip. “We think it’s going to be early 2008,” says Terrell Dorn of the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress. The other sore point is cost. Government auditors estimate it will be close to $600 million. The original, 1999 price tag: $265 million.}}}}

Let me guess at what the liberals argument will be: Washington D.C. is in a war zone, right?

~~~~~

{{{{A stark new Hillary Clinton ad portrays her as the leader voters want on the phone when a crisis occurs in the middle of the night, “while your children are safely asleep.”-Urinal}}}}

Yes, Ku Klux Rodham, the 3:00 in the morning telephone “crisis” veteran: ”Where TF are you, Billy?”

~~~~~

{{{{The American Red Cross says it paid for a large number of hotel rooms in San Diego County that volunteers never used during last fall’s wildfires. Spokeswoman Laura Howe refused to say how much the charity overpaid or how many reserved rooms went empty. But the disclosure was a new blow to the Red Cross, which was criticized for its handling of donations after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and for its inconsistent response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.-Urinal}}}}

Well, well, reserving rooms to make positively sure that shelter was available to any needy victims is now a horrendous crime.

This is excellent proof that NO MATTER WHAT THE U.S. DOES liberals will be there to whine about it.

By Archangel Tuckbane

March 1, 2008 8:25 AM | Link to this

Angela Tuck could no more distinguish a story’s “fairness” from its “accuracy” than she could tell the DNC-AJC from journalism.

By JohnD

March 1, 2008 8:37 AM | Link to this

I love to drop in and see all the Libs with their panties in a wad over the latest, whimsical left-wing “theory”.

Global Warming? Debunked!

George Bush as a conservative? Clearly Debunked?

needsalife is still dreaming of a Hillary Presidency? Even the left-wing dolts have awakened! She is a loser with no experience at anything other than spending taxpayer money.

The Liberals are crying over the pictures of BO (now there is an appropriate set of initials) as a Muslim. But wait, the pictures were apparently published by the Clintons. Liberals eat their young!

BO is for CHANGE! But change to what he will not reveal. Perhaps from public schools to Mosques.

Republicans are poised (yuck, how inappropriate) to nominate John McCain who is more liberal than Joe Lieberman. Will McCain choose Teddy Kennedy as his “running-mate”?

Does anyone need more evidence of the failure of the electoral process than the names McCain, Clinton and Obama? OK, there are still the 535 Congress Clowns. The evidence is now overwhelming.

All right, before you left wing nut jobs start complaining I offer only problems but no solutions (now I sound like a liberal), here is the solution.

Prior to convening Congress each year we hold a drawing from a list of all the accredited colleges and universities and send 535 student government presidents to Congress.

I know! You will claim we then will have nothing but a bunch of drunken, woman-chasing (Hill would be in heaven), immature, eotistic, self-centered, DO-NOTHINGS serving in Congress. Sounds familiar does it not?

By AJC Management

March 1, 2008 8:39 AM | Link to this

My goodness, the code pinko smears on Lewis have begun in earnest:

{{{{Looks like John Lewis has spent too much time with Zig Zag Miller.-Urinal Vent}}}}

Does this even make sense?

Lewis is backing another demokrat, one that is even more of a liberal than Ku Klux Rodham is.

Does the World of Hate not know these things?

Does it matter to the World of Hate that they are “insulting” the black coalition wand ripping apart the demokrat party with their mindless spewing?

Is there anything that I can do to help?

~~~~~

Gee, the first good solution I’ve heard to reducing traffic congestion:

{{{{A proposal that would allow police to seize vehicles from illegal immigrants could help remove egregious drivers from the roads, some metro police officials say.-Urinal}}}}

Ride the bus, Amigo.

~~~~~

{{{{Because fuel is expected to be more expensive, Georgia Power is seeking an increase in the costs it passes on to customers. The move would raise the average power bill by 2.8 percent. The new fuel-cost charge would generate an additional $222 million over 12 months, Georgia Power says. Worldwide demand for coal —- particularly from China —- is the main reason fuel is pricier, according to the utility.-Urinal}}}}

Great, just what the economy needs.

Thank you nuclear scare mongering liberals!

~~~~~

{{{{Faith & Values: Scholars tackle modern religious extremism-Urinal}}}}

So who do you reckon the coward libs at the Urinal are going to “take on?”

{{{{The Jewish zealots of Jesus’ day hid daggers in their clothing, stabbed Roman collaborators in crowded public places, and fled among the panicked crowds in what was a backwater colony.}}}}

Spineless pieces of wormy S&%$ liberals, hate mongering scumbags.

{{{{Technology allows modern killers with religious motivations, such as Mohammed Atta of Sept. 11 infamy, to take down entire buildings full of people far from where they grew up.-Urinal}}}}

Where’s the word “Islam” at, gutless wonders?

Nothing like a little Jew hating is there AJC?

Filthy mofo.

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 8:40 AM | Link to this

Curly of countless names, a thousand word diatribe whining about liberal whiners?!

i.e. wherefore and whereas, why the willfully wanton, wearisome, whimpering and witless whining, whiner?

Whatever. Wag and wonk away, you wong winded widdle woozer.

By Blogfather

March 1, 2008 8:44 AM | Link to this

We liberals sure are terrified that someone might propose something other than growing government or cultivating dependence.

Just how big a crook is this Glen Richardson guy? I haven’t read one good thing about him or from him. Is he the posterchild for the entrenched networking and corruption in government? Is he a bad-idea magnet?

This is the main reason we need Obama. Our capitalistic republic is too easily taken hostage by pirates and stooges. The masses dont need opiates to be controlled, they are duped because they’re dopes. Throw in the 90% who suffer from ADD, and Glenn Richardson could be Osama Bin Laden with a mask on, and nobody would know or care. Huh? Duh. I almost won the lottery. I think Hannah Montana should have won the grammy. Duhhhh.

By Glenn

March 1, 2008 8:48 AM | Link to this

Angela Tuck could not be more of a lying POS.

What if the DNC-AJC, and not the NYT, were to break the story? And what if the DNC-AJC were to report, straight, that McCain had taken cash from the lobbyist to do her bidding? And what if the story were to report that he had done so, illegally and repeatedly?

Because that in a nutshell is what the AJC, with Angela Tuck’s help, knowing that it was all BS, did to Rudy Giuliani a few months ago. The felonies were different, of course, and Giuliani did not commit his alleged crimes as an officeholder, but Tuck and the sharks upstairs hid behind the Public Figure Doctrine just as they would do had they reported this hypothetical smear of McCain.

Tuck was perfectly asinine—-in every sense of the word—-throughout. And the Public Figure Doctrine does not, and never did, justify such reckless disregard for the truth as the DNC-AJC exhibits by employing Angela Tuck.

And incidentally, I don’t really give a damn about Rudy Giuliani.

[Hoover 08]

By JohnD

March 1, 2008 8:51 AM | Link to this

AmVet,

He of the misnomer, nom de plume, still lurks with nothing to offer but the third grade ramblings of a “wannabe”.

By JohnD

March 1, 2008 9:00 AM | Link to this

Casy Cagle and Glen Richardson seem to have become the focus, on the state level, of the looney Left.

So you lefties are angry when a Republican starts to propose legislation that is rightfully in the Democrat Domain?

By @@

March 1, 2008 9:06 AM | Link to this

This was priceless Jim — a young high school student here in Clayton County, a member of the Clayton County Coalition of Students who are looking to oust our B.O.E. members:

Lindsay Snipes

“Instead of sitting back and saying this is an adult problem, we want to be productive,” she said. “This is our future.”

That’s ^^^ putting the idiots in their place, and the idiots aren’t the kids.

To finish up a discussion I was having with IN THE NEWS from Luckovich’s yesterday…

ITN (I know you’re here. You couldn’t imagine a day without blogging at the AJC):

Your question?

Tell me how you poll all those fertilized eggs? How are you sure they all don’t “reject” and “denounce” your support?

The strongest instinct (unless you’re a leftist lemming) is self-preservation. Ask this little one.

No bigger than a ballpoint pen. Look at those tiny feet.

In humans, and other creatures that rely on socialization as a part of their defense mechanisms, (self preservation instinct), there does seem to be an instinct to defend the “group” from harm. When an organism acts in a way that ensures the survival of it’s species it also improves the odds that it’s own genetic material will remain viable and helps improves it’s own odds of survival.

You’ve abandoned mankind ITN and for that you should be ashamed. Abortion for the sake of convenience is wrong. Abortion under extinuating circumstances, I can reluctantly accept.

RU486! If a guy refuses to use a condom, then he should carry “the morning after pill.” He should pay to play. The woman should “personally” assume the risk of any consequence in using the pill.

Political parties should stop buying votes with the deaths of the unborn.

Disgusting!

By JohnD

March 1, 2008 9:11 AM | Link to this

Who’s your Blogdaddy @ 8:44

This is the main reason we need Obama. Our capitalistic republic is too easily taken hostage by pirates and stooges. The masses dont need opiates to be controlled, they are duped because they’re dopes.

We NEED Obama? You are the DOPE!

We need someone with no answers? Obama speaks nicely, sort of your new Bill Clinton, except Clinton at least took the time to actually offer his solutions.

Obama does nothing but speak for “change”. Perhaps he means a change to Sharia Law rather than the Constitution or and end to tax exempt status for churches and only for Mosques? No one really knows.

He is less accomplished than Hillary Clinton. Now that is saying something.

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 9:28 AM | Link to this

That ALL of Curly’s “information” is unsourced, is probably just a highly evolved, self-preservation instinct!

The already sizable laughter factor would go off the scale if he did cite his erudite publications and websites, I am certain.

Speaking of dumber than a rock - global warming debunked?

Hmmmm….I must have missed that one.

Where was that published? In the Cobb County Cretin? Right next to the article proclaiming the Garden of Eden story proven? (And Elvis and the aliens were there to photograph the half-eaten apple!)

And news flash! The ONLY people who EVER considered this President a “conservative” were the other self-deluded frauds and completely repudiated non-conservative “conservatives”!

So the “faithful” and the “base” hate McCain? Who cares? They are essentially just a minor irritant, if not completely irrelevant, in this election year.

Sorry neo-con apparatchiks, no candidates for you!

Just go vote for the junior Senator from NY as the always delightful Ms. Coulter and Mr. Limbaugh command you!

By Glenn

March 1, 2008 9:37 AM | Link to this

So AmVet, if human beings are changing the weather, what should they do to change it favorably? What should you and I do, in our daily lives?

By Apocalypse

March 1, 2008 9:40 AM | Link to this

Bill Clinton Endorses Obama!

Okay….not really but he may as well have……….

On October 25, 2004, President Clinton spoke out against the politics of fear. What he said then remains true today:

“One of Clinton’s laws of politics is, if one candidate is trying to scare you, and the other one is trying to make you think, if one candidate’s appealing to your fears, and the other one’s appealing to your hopes. You better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope.”

Think.

Vote Against fearmongering.

Vote for hope.

Vote for Barack Obama!

By Ron

March 1, 2008 9:47 AM | Link to this

One thing that both Clinton and Obama helped accomplish was keeping Canadian tar sands oil out of the U.S.,thereby ensuring dependency on Middle East Oil.That was a major accomplishment for them.John McCain cannot be faulted here because he didn’t vote at all.The tar sands is only one of the largest known oil deposits in the world.

By Apocalypse

March 1, 2008 9:52 AM | Link to this

That oil is not pure. It is way too expensive to convert it into crude dude.

By Disabuse Your Illusion of Obama

March 1, 2008 10:02 AM | Link to this

“This is a story of two Americas with two sets of laws, one for the rich and powerful and another for the rest of us,” said Clint Krislov, the depositors’ attorney, in a recent interview. “My clients will all be dead, before they get back their money, given the Supreme Court’s recent decision to uphold the lower court, which put the predatory owners on the front of the line, if any money is recovered.”

Obama has now put one of these “predators” in charge of his campaign finances; doubtless she – or someone else of that ilk – will be placed in charge of the nation’s finances if he makes it to the White House. Thus once again, it appears that any hopes that an Obama presidency will produce genuine structural change in a system designed to perpetuate harsh injustices on behalf of a privileged elite will also prove to be a tragic and painful illusion.

And so the question returns to the individual conscience: do you choose to support the chance – the hope – for some mitigation of the system’s evils? Or do you reject the system altogether? Again, this is a balance that each person must strike for themselves. But it should be done with eyes wide open – and no illusions.

By Glenn

March 1, 2008 10:06 AM | Link to this

@@,

You’re in deep territory, with your reflections on eugenics and the repercussions of that movement. Maybe you even understand how people who so reflect for a living can go through periods of seeing only the darkest part of the spectrum.

The husbandry is so pervasive. It’s still here, right in our midst. In every neighborhood we have defined precincts dedicated to its pursuit.

It’s even found sometimes in Jim’s columns, and sometimes in this blog. Yesterday, for example, Shar advocated it in the interest of general prosperity. Old Dixie meets Henry Ford.

You know what would be a ripping good thing? A Hippocratic Oath, of sorts, for educators. All of them.

Whaddya think?

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this

Glenn, as an individual I continue to do what I have been doing for a long time - conserve, recycle and promote self-education on the topic.

The first part, I think, is difficult for many Americans, as their culture of complete avarice and self-obsession does not really allow for a lot of it. I believe that is slowly changing. Thanks in large part to the third part of my plan - ongoing education from a vast array and countless number of CREDIBLE sources. For example the HIGHLY respected publication, National Geographic.

Massive habitat destruction, long standing rampant pollution of the air, sea and land resulting in countless diseases and deaths, enormous number of species that have been completely eradicated, holes in the ozone layer and a host of other ecological problems are NOT myths.

And that the worst offenders are given a complete pass by the ideologically aligned and the duplicitous power brokers and their ignorant supporters is to me, beyond disgusting.

Recycling is easy, but in some cases requires some effort and (GASP!) cost.

It’s at least a start.

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 10:45 AM | Link to this

Also I have no quarrel with those who have legitimate arguments against man-induced global warming. And though there is SOME validated evidence, I think, based on the mountains of contrary supportive evidence, they are wrong. But I am not yet sure.

I do however VERY much suspect the motives of most who do the shrillest nay-saying. Especially here, but elsewhere too. We all know there is a lunatic fringe of extremists out there who believe that if this theory, ANY theory, is supported by the hated liberals and academicians, they will knee-jerk like oppose it.

Based on many months of reading some of these posts, I am absolutely convinced of this and all of their self-righteous teeth-gnashing is to me completely transparent and discredited.

I guess for me, my friend, the issue is simply too critical to trust to the heretofore proven deadly and dangerous science-distrusting and dogmatic simpletons.

By Allah says Dump A BUCKET OF PIG BLOOD ON DUSTY AKA JMBLAW

March 1, 2008 10:54 AM | Link to this

As a former Catholic, I am outraged by John McCains anti-Catholicism, it shoud disqualify him from the office of President.

By AJC Management

March 1, 2008 10:58 AM | Link to this

Blog Stalker: Say, don’t lose your world renowned “civility” or “high mindedness” in response to this reply, but considering that most of my information this morning was lifted directly from the pages of the AJC, yes, I agree that it can be considered “unsourced.”

As far as the other two bits that came from different sources, surely you are not positing that the D.C. Capital Visitor’s Center is on time and under budget, are you?

By Dusty

March 1, 2008 10:59 AM | Link to this

Dammit, now I’ve got vomit all over my nice new mu mu, thanks to that nasty allah character. Makes me want to slap a catholic, in the name of John McCain, of course.

By Glenn

March 1, 2008 11:00 AM | Link to this

AmVet, good on you. I’d like to do better at the same.

One quibble. There’s no such thing as self-education. Autodidacticism, yes, but education is a social notion.

And that’s where things get invasive, intrusive, officious. So that’s where the power lies, in your eviro ethic. And that’s where the power maniacs would go.

By @@

March 1, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this

Glenn:

One would like to think that all teachers are invested in education for the right reasons, but too often that isn’t the case.

Down my way we’ve got students whose parents are placing the blame on the SEC, and their children are following by example.

We’ve got school board members who are deeply embroiled in a teachers’ union called MACE, and they have produced NO UNION by any stretch of the imagination. Ever since they (MACE) showed up on stage, our system has been in jeopardy.

We now have students who have strived to achieve, and are fed up with what it is adults can’t seem to remedy. I’ve been waiting for them to show up on the scene. They’ve invested in their own future, while the B.O.E. members are invested in personal power.

Granted, I am in the field of Special Education, with all the limitations that are presented by my students. I think, though, that that gives me an advantage. Not all children learn through a set standard of teaching so it challenges me to think outside the box. One of the exercises that challenges our minds (the teacher’s) every three months, is a competition.

Prepare a creative lesson plan that addresses three areas of instruction—cognitive (the 3 R’s), fine motor, gross motor, self-help, and speech. Our Director of Education selects an age-appropriate child from our student body. If the child responds positively to our competitive/creative lesson plan, then it’s a winner and should be duplicated (not exactly) but similarly. If we can combine those areas into one lesson all the better. I could give you an example of how I do that now if I wasn’t on my way out the door.

We take from one another, the best we have to offer, and strive to outdo one another in the next competition. Raise the bar, and have fun in the process.

For those leftists who believe that “challenged” children have nothing to contribute I would say….

Since when has meeting a challenge become an objective to be disposed of? The challenges that they face are the challenges that I meet.

I LOVE MY JOB!!!!!!!

How’s that for my Hippocratic Oath.

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 11:08 AM | Link to this

The ONLY thing I am positing, Curly, is that you NEVER cite your sources.

Moreover, you do not link to them for any corroboration that what you contend is not mere mental masturbation.

Not that you have a history of cherry-picking, exactly what you want to share and exactly what you don’t. OR taking things completely out of context!

If you had more faith in your positions you would not be inclined to try and hide what you don’t want anyone to see.

I’m just making an observation, Curls.

Plagiarize away. It is all good fun to watch the desperation of someone without a “conservative” candidate left in this election!

Tally Ho!

By Yo, Slow Witted Glenn

March 1, 2008 11:12 AM | Link to this

Read yesterday’s wall street journal, it has an interesty story about what makes Finnish High School Kids So Smart, dispite the fact that they do not start school until they are seven years old, no classes for the gifted, no honor society, no school uniforms, no valedictorians, no tardy bells, and they rarely get more than a half hour of homework per night. I won’t give the plot away to you, but it does not involve paying the teachers much money, despite what the dead beat teachers in America would have you believe….

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 11:20 AM | Link to this

Glenn, clearly I lack the acumen and vocabulary that you have, so self-taught (rather than self-educated) it is!

I don’t always need the constructs (and constraints) of academia to make observations and learn new information. That is my point. And one that I encourage others to follow.

To me there is some ironic humor in people whose world-view is formed extensively (primarily?) by the radio and TV talking heads or other “personalities”.

Whether they be Pretty Boy Hannity or Al the Goracle.

Sadly, though I see it a great deal.

By AJC Management

March 1, 2008 11:42 AM | Link to this

Blog Stalker/ Psycho: That’s the best you can do?

{{{{By AJC Management March 1, 2008 8:14 AM U.S. Capitol visitor center nears completion- When the doors finally will open to the public is a major point of contention surrounding the project, which was originally scheduled to be finished in 2005. Hantman predicts a ribbon-cutting this fall, but auditors at the Government Accountability Office say the date will slip. “We think it’s going to be early 2008,” says Terrell Dorn of the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress. The other sore point is cost. Government auditors estimate it will be close to $600 million. The original, 1999 price tag: $265 million.}}}}

This goes in your webpage url (the little box at the very top that starts with http://:) http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en

Now cut and paste this into the search box: “U.S. Capitol visitor center nears completion- When the doors finally will open to the public is a major point of contention surrounding the project”

Wallah, just like magic: U.S. Capitol visitor center nears completion- By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

I suspect your little crying jag/ family threatening is not because of my sources but because you cannot honestly debate what I say.

Maybe you’re weak minded, no?

Get back to me when you have something of….substance.

By Akmed

March 1, 2008 11:52 AM | Link to this

The decadence of Rome will live on in WashingAss, DC visitor centers….and in Robert Byrd’s taxpayer funded monuments through out HillBillyland that carry his name…like the Fat Bald and Ignorant fingery printery center in clarksburgakawhopland west virginy.

By MomCat

March 1, 2008 12:04 PM | Link to this

@@ - I just read your comments at 2:29PM yesterday (Luckovich). How in the name of blue blazes did you get Margaret Sanger’s “Negro Project” from my comments of 11:20AM. PLEASE! I was simply pointing out that Margaret Sanger was one of the first with enough intestinal fortitude to risk her reputation to see that birth control was available to ALL women. What she “evolved” into, I don’t know. Certainly any advocate of eugenics has strayed off the mark. Hitler the insane tried this scheme during his reign of terror. Others have also been proponents of this insanity. I agree when we attempt to come to a conclusion about any issue, we should look at the “progress” we have made. Individuals, political parties etc. do change; some for better and some for worse. Example: The old (racist) Southern democrat has changed to the new Neocon Republican. I also agree political parties should stop using the abortion issue as a tool to get votes. The R’s could have changed anything they chose until the last November election. Heck they probably still could. I also believe abortion should be a last resort and in extenuating circumstances. Now “ain’t” I in an agreeing mood today? Any political party today indicating they are the great moral advocates due to their stance on the abortion MAKES ME SICK!

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 12:31 PM | Link to this

family threatening?!!!

How’s the weather down there in Looneyville?

GFY - Good for you! You DO know how to cite sources and include links!

I am duly impressed. But will this epiphany last the day? Methinks not.

Ironically, here’s a link “of…substance” that is right up your dark and nasty alley:

WASHINGTON — A White House official who serves as President Bush’s middleman with conservatives and Christian groups has resigned after admitting to plagiarism. Twenty columns he wrote for an Indiana newspaper were determined to have material copied from other sources without attribution.

Timothy Goeglein, who has worked for Bush since 2001, acknowledged that he lifted material from a Dartmouth College publication and presented it as his own work in a column about education for The News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, Ind.

http://newsmax.com/newsfront/Goeglein_Plagiarism/2008/02/29/76885.html

By Dusty

March 1, 2008 12:32 PM | Link to this

Well, since someone posted for me @10:59, maybe I should post something of my own. But I can’t stay here very long.

@@.. I like your Hippocratic Oath for teachers. A great goal it is.

CONSERVATION…this week on “This Old House”, a recycling/demolition company in New Orleans was separating a house too wrecked to save. They were taking windows, doors, good flooring, large cypress foundation beams and anything that could possibly be used again. They had a large warehouse area with usable material for sale.

I was really pleased to see the efforts at reducing land fill, saving building material, and making them a part of new and rebuilt homes. Also pleasing was the number of volunteers shown at the building sites. I felt like this was a real American effort at conservation along with the good effort of helping others (and a bit of profit-making from these endeavors.) It doesn’t get any better than that.

Bye now. See ya’ later.

By joops

March 1, 2008 12:40 PM | Link to this

Glenn, I would like to introduce you to something called the Bell Curve, in which you have a small group of people at the ends and a whole bunch of people clustered around the middle. That is our eductation system. No matter what you do, you will still have the Bell Curve. For the majority of people (those clustered around the middle), the current model works. Can it work better, of course. However, whatever method you apply, at the end of the day, you will still have that Bell Curve.

BTW, the Bell Curve also applies to educators, there are some very good, some very poor but most are clustered around the middle. The belief that all those gifted and enthusiastic teachers will magically appear if vouchers are used and the free market takes over is a fantasy.

Rather than fix the parts that are broken, your intent is to scrap the whole system and through the baby out with the bath water.

By Alan Roebke

March 1, 2008 12:48 PM | Link to this

Today’s Crop Insurance makes Farm Subsidies Obsolete.

In 2008, American farmers will select from government subsidized crop insurance that ensures profit on this year’s crops. This insurance will easily deliver twice the financial security and price guarantees offered by the traditional farm subsidy programs now being debated in Washington. While costing taxpayers more than $6 billion to subsidize the premiums alone, which also cover millionaire operations, as today’s farmers operate under historic profit margins and booming prices.

Yet Farm State Congressmen seem content to deceive their colleges and the public by failing to add the reality of crop insurance into the farm bill debate. Hidden, are these facts: the Farm Bill delivers a target price of only $2.63 per bushel for corn and about $6/bu for soybeans, while Crop Insurance in 2008 will deliver at least a $5.26/bu price guarantee for corn and about $13/bu for soybeans. Even in 2007, crop insurance trumped the farm bill safety net. So if USDA baseline projections are right, crop insurance formulas will continue to champion the proposed farm bill for the next five years. The farm bill debate has actually become more about political insurance for those in power, instead of economic assurance for farmers as was its original intent and which the public has been led to believe is still its intent. Yet the farm bill currently being debated serves only to deliver more direct cash and fine print perks to friends of the farm lobby, as Crop Insurance delivers an awesome safety net that is kept off the radar!

Taxpayers deserve to know the truth; that is why I’m running for Congress!

Alan Roebke (REB-key) Republican candidate for Congress (Ag Chairman Collin Peterson’s District)

Alan Roebke can reached at: alanroebke@chaska.net Campaign support can be directed to: “Alan Roebke for Congress” 625 Ravoux Rd, Suite 9, Chaska, Minn. 55318

By JohnD

March 1, 2008 1:03 PM | Link to this

AmVet

For you and the others here who read only blogs:

The ice caps, heretofore provided as evidence of Global Warming by their reported decrease in volume, are actully larger and more dense as recently reported. The seas will not rise due to the meltdown, Florida will not disappear, Arizona (absent a well-placed earthquake) will not become beach front real estate and Al Gore is truly a fraud.

I guess debunked was actually a much too kind word. Fraud, Fraud, Fraud.

I conserve, recycle and take all reasonable steps to protect the planet but I will not support nor align with the Al Gore USA haters.

By JohnD

March 1, 2008 1:10 PM | Link to this

Left Loons

Now floating through cyberspace is a speech by your darling, BO.

My fellow Identity-Americans.

As your future President I want to thank my supporters, for their… well, support.

Your mindless support of me, despite my complete lack of any legislative achievement, my pastor’s relations with Louis Farrakhan and Libyan dictator Moamar Quadafi, or my blatantly leftist voting record while I present myself as some sort of bi-partisan agent of change.

I also like how my supporters claim my youthful drug use and criminal behavior somehow qualifies me for the Presidency after 8 years of claiming Bush’s youthful drinking disqualifies him. Your hypocrisy is a beacon of hope shining over a sea of political posing.

I would also like to thank the Kennedy’s for coming out in support of me. There’s a lot of glamour behind the Kennedy name, even though JFK started the Vietnam War, his brother Robert illegally wiretapped Martin Luther King, Jr. and Teddy killed a teenage girl. And I’m not going anywhere near the cousins, both literally and figuratively.

And I’d like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her support. Her love of meaningless empty platitudes will be the force that propels me to the White House.

Americans should vote for me, not because of my lack of experience or achievement, but because I make people feel good. Voting for me causes some white folk to feel relieved of their imagined, racist guilt.

I say things that sound meaningful, but don’t really mean anything because Americans are tired of things having meaning. If things have meaning, then that means you have to think about them. Americans are tired of thinking.

It’s time to shut down the brain, and open up the heart.

So when you go to vote in the primaries, remember don’t think, just do.

And do it for me.

Thank You.

Now Left Lemmings, don’t go into vapor lock. I am sure this is meant as a joke. Well, maybe and maybe not. That BO is just a funny guy and I do not mean that in a gender-bending way.

By AJC Management

March 1, 2008 1:12 PM | Link to this

{{{{By AmVet March 1, 2008 12:31 PM Ironically, here’s a link “of…substance” that is right up your dark and nasty alley: WASHINGTON — A White House official who serves as President Bush’s middleman with conservatives and Christian groups has resigned after admitting to plagiarism.}}}}

Dearest Mr. Amvet: There seems to be some confusion over which words in my posts are attributed to others and which ones are my own. If this confusion has been caused by any neglect on my part, then allow me to apologize for my mistake.

For future reference, any words that are not my own and that I am using to further the discussion or to make a relevant point they are clearly delineated by the use of brackets such as these {{{{}}}}.

My own words will have no brackets.

Again, I apologize for any confusion.

By JohnD

March 1, 2008 1:16 PM | Link to this

Mr. Roebke,

I know of quite a few Minnesotans who fled the harsh winters for the warmer climes in AJC land. Sort of like those who fled New Orleans due to the strong winds.

What say we load them all on buses come election day and run them back to Minnesota to vote for you? Sort of like what the Honorable Mayor of New Orleans did to aid his re-election.

Oops, that may be a tactic only open to Liberals (Democrats)!

By Adam Smith

March 1, 2008 1:31 PM | Link to this

Yes, no more free american food for the starving people of the world, but we can and do afford to give Israel a ten billion dollar per year welfare check so its people can live a nice comfortable western european lifestyle in the midst of arab poverty….hey how about we give the ten billion dollars to the arabs instead, so they can live a nice comfortable western european lifestyle in the midst of jewish poverty?

By Adam Smith

March 1, 2008 1:38 PM | Link to this

Ok, Stupids, this is all you really need to know about money, a quote from Ludwig von Mises:

“Sooner or later, credit expansion, through the creation of additional fiduciary, must come to a standstill. Even if the banks wanted to, they could not carry on this policy indefinitely, not even if they were being forced to do so by the strongest pressure from outside. The continuing increase in the quantity of fiduciary media leads to continual price increases.

“Inflation can continue only so long as the opinion persists that it will stop in the foreseeable future. However, once the conviction gains a foothold that the inflation will not come to a halt, then a panic breaks out. In evaluating money and commodities, the public takes anticipated price increases into account in advance.

“As a consequence, prices race erratically upward out of all bounds. People turn away from using money which is comprised by the increase in fiduciary media. They ‘flee’ to foreign money, metal bars, ‘real values,’ barter. In short, the currency breaks down.”

By Adam Smith

March 1, 2008 1:41 PM | Link to this

Akmed Abdul, another of my economic heroes, nailed it when he said, “Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.”

By Bush Derangement Syndrome

March 1, 2008 1:44 PM | Link to this

Hey AmVet, for a whineyas-sed neo-Marxist lib whining about links, take that up with the Atlanta Urinal Constipation - or whoever T.F. runs this blog - they only allow two links per post. By the way little liberal sweet cheeks, it sure is fun watching your wretched miserable liberal a-ss get owned here.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has risen more than 4% in the past decade, but global warming has practically stopped. It confirms the theory of “solar” impact on changes in the Earth’s climate. I guess that explains why we had no hurricanes the last two years when the Gorebot “scientists” said global warming was going to cause more of them and they would be more powerful post-Katrina. Uh huh. Folks, it’s real simple here. Whatever a pig tailed liberal supports, just go for the opposite. You can’t go wrong. Case in point:

Police will be trained on the importance of the Koran and Sharia law to Muslims under Government plans to tackle extremism.

WTF for? Why? Many people would consider the idea of “tackling” threating “extremism” is a bullet through the head - we’ve fought World Wars over extremism. Brits and Europe, it’s prayer time right now, isn’t it?

Get out and enjoy a beautiful spring-like day you sorryass-ed wallet stealing no-life neo-Marxist liberal RATs.

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 1:48 PM | Link to this

Curly, your intellectual dishonesty never ceases to amaze.

You have been observed constantly not citing the sources of your information. You certainly aren’t required to, but that and that alone is the topic at hand.

No one to my knowledge has said you failed to indicate that the aforementioned plagiarized information is cut and pasted from elsewhere.

You know that defending the habit of plagiarism is not going to get you anywhere. (Other than possibly as the liaison between the President and the religious right!)

So instead you spin and try to change the subject to some new-found confusion over which of your words are plagiarized and which are your “analysis”?

There is NO confusion over which Code Pinko words are yours, I assure you!

BTW, “words attributed to others” - nice euphemism.

The issue Curly, is that you don’t attribute them to their creator or source.

Truly laughable.

And desperate.

By Bush Derangement Syndrome

March 1, 2008 1:49 PM | Link to this

My own words will have no brackets. Again, I apologize for any confusion.

AJCM: go easy on AmVet. When you deal with a mind numbed liberal demonRAT, you have to have compassion for the less fortunate amongst us who cannot think for themselves and need politicians to do it for them.

By Bush Derangement Syndrome

March 1, 2008 1:55 PM | Link to this

“You know that defending the habit of plagiarism is not going to get you anywhere. (Other than possibly as the liaison between the President and the religious right!)”

Kindly take note how AmVet doesn’t even attempt to address what ACJM posts, and attempts to discredit him with a false accusation of “plagiarism” when it’s clearly evident everything ACJM has posted is taken STRAIGHT from the wingnut liberal media. Like, what, only liberals can lift words from the New York Slimes and Atlanta Communist Manifesto?

Ok, I’m done. Really.

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this

That you feel compelled to hide behind a new and different name every week doesn’t mean you have any more credibility.

Actually it exposes quite the opposite trait, as well as the obvious coward factor.

But hey if it makes you feel like you’re helping your lost and impotent cause, keep posting all the information you desperately find about shrinking icebergs or non-shrinking icebergs or how cold it was this morning!

But trust me, and you can take this to the bank, the rest of the planet laughs at you ignorant science-hating sad sacks, not with you…

And that you know that fact, and that your ilk has no significant place at the table of those who will make all of the decisions going forward, must be a real burn. Globally warmed or not.

By RW-(the original)

March 1, 2008 2:53 PM | Link to this

Blowhard,

I see that your hypocrisy knows no bounds. Isn’t this where you began plagiarizing an entire article from the Christian Science Monitor without ever once citing your source or even giving any indication they weren’t your words?

/Just passing through, but feel free to waste this beautiful day flaming away.

By Glenn

March 1, 2008 3:13 PM | Link to this

AmVet,

Yeah, I agree about autodidacts. Most of my heroes are self-taught, and none of them is a credentialist. A celebrated Equal Protection ruling declares that the American thing is to “measure the man [sic] for the job, not the man in the abstract.” That’s pretty much what I think about most education credentials. (Union cards, military ranks, baseball stats, merit badges, religious ordinations—-those credentials certainly do not measure a person “in the abstract”, as, say, a high school diploma does.)

joops, “introduce you to something called a” graph. A bell curve is a graph, but a graph is not a bell curve. Is that clear?

Just pulling your leg, as usual. He-he. I just love fu@#!ng around when the topic is the fate of children; don’t you? Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

The bell curve, as applied to all things pedagogical, is predicated upon an assumption of scarcity of means educational. If you’d take the trouble to contemplate that sentence for a moment, I think you’ll agree that the sentence is not sententious, but seditious.

Were you, for example, not to assume scarcity as you do, you would see that the schooling system in this country attempts a bell curve but falls flat every time, with the result that the majority cannot benefit from that system because more than a third are ritually expunged from it, while roughly half of those remaining are not promoted by the system and do not receive adequate services. To exponents of the bell curve, this status quo is hunky dory.

And no, I don’t believe that we should dismantle the system; only that we should scrap the battleships and retrain the personnel for The New Navy. In fact I believe that we should do so in keeping with the finest customs and traditions of the Naval Service.

At this point, to be stuck on battleships is to be stuck on stupid. If you think that my suggesting that we scrap the battle wagons means that I want to scrap the system, then you’re stuck on battleships. That’s a real problem.

Yo, Slow Witted @ 11:12, thanks for the tip on the WSJ piece. I’ll read it with interest and will get back to you.

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 3:39 PM | Link to this

Well, I dispatched Curly’s first pack mutt and now the always lurking, AmVet obsessed (just passing through? yeah, sure…), fetch on command, rickie rong winger thinks he’s also a big bad attack dog!

What next, the alpha b!tch?

I just love taunting these toothless witless pound puppies…

By Glenn

March 1, 2008 4:20 PM | Link to this

MomCat, I too cringed when I read your reference to Margaret Sanger and your derogation of the Comstock Laws. Sanger’s purpose was eugenics. Comstock’s was public decency. Mr. Comstock, not Mrs. Sanger, is the natural ally of today’s American feminists. But alas, our feminists are myopic on birth control and confused by pornography.

Sanger, one of the most internationally prominent eugenicists in history, dedicated her career to seeing to it that the wrong people did not breed and that the breeding of the rest be managed—-by her, for example. For Sanger and her eugenicist friends it went without saying that the “wrong people” were, e.g., Negroes, and hence @@’s references to Sanger’s and to (the later) Planned Parenthood’s efforts targeted at that population.

Comstock was out to stop, among other things, the traffic in pornography. When he sought a legislative route to this end, it was inevitable in his day that the underground market in birth control literature and devices would be swept into the regulations. They were.

With Sanger serving as the dust pan, the courts progressively swept the birth control provisions out of the Comstock Laws. The jurists presiding over the cases brought by Sanger were themselves outstanding eugenicists.

By Glenn

March 1, 2008 5:01 PM | Link to this

Yo, Slow Witted Again, very interesting, the WSJ article. Surprisingly reproduceable here, but only in a private or charter context; otherwise you’d have to burn the Ed Codes and jail the NEA. Reproduceable because it’s distinguished from our system mainly by what it does not do. Cheaper, too—-as you say.

When systems engineers go into public schools to run e.g. time/motion studies on the hourly activities of teachers and students, actual instructional time/day at the secondary level consistently runs to a bit less than 30 minutes. Even with teenagers, the largest chunk of time is spent on “custodial” functions—-policing kids. A great deal is wasted on interruptions, as for example from intercoms announcing further instructional interruptions scheduled for later that day or week. Throw in a growing number of organized “extracurricular” functions, and the interruptions that come from breaking down, dispersing, remixing and reassembling learning cohorts ever 45-50 minutes, and you have an engineer’s nightmare. The outside observers of this invariably come out shaking their heads.

By Blogfather

March 1, 2008 5:14 PM | Link to this

Glenn, your mother must really have indulged you as a child. STFU!

By slow witten Glenn NOT

March 1, 2008 5:18 PM | Link to this

You read the article, yet you still do not get it - the american method of the teacher standing in the front of the room speaking to the students for 30 minutes or 50 minutes is a large part of the problem…It is not active learning on the part of the student, it is active talking by the teacher, and mind numbing bordom for the students..IT is NOT reproducible here…the students here do not have the same desires and self motivation that the Finns have…Our students are zombies in comparison…sitting stone face while the authority figure rambles on, mindlessly….a BA in education is not a good enough degree to teach…they need a real undergrad major like math, science, chemistry, physics, even economics, and a Masters in education…American Teachers are the PROBLEM, not the SOLUTION…Fire the education majors now, and bring in people with real degrees, not mindless education majors….

By AJC Management

March 1, 2008 5:43 PM | Link to this

These are not my words, you angry bitter little wanker:

{{{{It should be noted that a third of the survey’s “converts” have gone from one Protestant congregation to another. In short, America is not, on the whole, giving up serious worship for the sake of New Age platitudes. Half of Americans who grew up without any religious affiliation adopted one in adulthood. Clearly Americans are still convinced there is a such a thing as religious truth — and it’s worth their time to search for it. Sorry, Mr. Hitchens.}}}}

{{{{The Pew survey confirms what scholars have been saying for years about the winners and losers in this religious economy: Religions that demand the most of people are growing the fastest. The mainline Protestant churches — with their less exclusionary views of salvation, looser rules for sexual conduct and sermons about social justice — have lost membership, especially since the early 1990s. The more traditional evangelical churches keep growing.}}}}

~~~~~

{{{{One reason Mrs. Clinton is not doing well this year is the widespread dread at the prospect of having to listen to her hopelessly wooden voice for the next four, even eight, years as Big Sister hectors the rest of us direct from the Oval Office. Always for our own good, of course, which of course she knows better than we ever could.}}}}

{{{{There’s a reason the word Clintonesque entered the language as a synonym for disingenuousness. It’s also why Americans reject the presidential candidate whose nomination, we were told not long ago, was inevitable.}}}}

{{{{It should be noted that a third of the survey’s “converts” have gone from one Protestant congregation to another. In short, America is not, on the whole, giving up serious worship for the sake of New Age platitudes. Half of Americans who grew up without any religious affiliation adopted one in adulthood. Clearly Americans are still convinced there is a such a thing as religious truth — and it’s worth their time to search for it. Sorry, Mr. Hitchens.}}}}

{{{{The Pew survey confirms what scholars have been saying for years about the winners and losers in this religious economy: Religions that demand the most of people are growing the fastest. The mainline Protestant churches — with their less exclusionary views of salvation, looser rules for sexual conduct and sermons about social justice — have lost membership, especially since the early 1990s. The more traditional evangelical churches keep growing.}}}}

~~~~~

{{{{Democratic opposition to Nafta and free trade is not driven by any real facts on the ground, but by special interest politics. Lead by the Teamsters and the AFL-CIO, organized labor blames trade for declining membership. This is misleading at best. The share of American workers belonging to unions has been eroding steadily since the 1950s.}}}}

I do agree with them, though.

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 5:51 PM | Link to this

Whose words are they plagiarist?

Bwa.

Jesus Shaves.

By Bush Derangement Syndrome

March 1, 2008 5:58 PM | Link to this

“That you feel compelled to hide behind a new and different name every week doesn’t mean you have any more credibility…Well, I dispatched Curly’s first pack mutt and now the always lurking,”

Hey AmWay sales weasel, don’t sell yourself short. I want you to do a self-assessment after today. It is apparent you have wasted an entire beautiful Saturday worrying about what some “neocons” have said on a RIGHT WING BLOG. Didn’t I tell you to get out and enjoy asshat?

I want you to:

1) Realize how REALLY important this blog is to personal lives.

2) Realize how REALLY important your words are on this blog.

3) Ask bloggers like me how much we really give a RAT’s A* how much we care what you smellyassed liberals care about bloggers like me.

Let me know how it works out for you, sweet cheeks.

By AmVet

March 1, 2008 6:05 PM | Link to this

Irritable Bowel Syndrome, what is apparent to you is obviously sheer lunacy to most, so the middle part of your moronic morphing moniker is correct!

That you think this is a right wing blog merely provides more evidence!

Outnumbered, out-gunned and outsmarted.

Just your typical garden-variety, never-served, never-will, flat-earther, neo-con Bush apologist not man enough for the task!

Fetch boy! Or better yet, roll over and play dead!

See you after your fake church services tomorrow!

By joops

March 1, 2008 6:08 PM | Link to this

Glenn, since you like graphs, does the term asymptotic mean anything to you? Education means and resources are finite, not infinite. Under those constraints, the current model does the best job of servicing the greatest number.

As for scrapping the battleship, the navy at least waited until they had a proven replacement first. Even after that, the battleship was retooled and kept around. I am sure you recall that the USS Missouri saw action during the first Gulf War.

Right now, there is not a proven replacement for the current system.

By jbmlaw

March 1, 2008 6:12 PM | Link to this

Dear AmVet @ various times, did you post any argument today, or did you merely spew epithets?

By Glenn

March 1, 2008 6:15 PM | Link to this

No, slow witten, it is you who don’t get it. The factors you cite not only are reproduceable here, but they have been done here for far longer than the Finns have done them. In Georgia, as I said, they’d have to be done outside the constraints of the NEA and the codes in part because you’d need personnel different from the ones protected by those constraints.

There are many conditions for learning cited in that article—-too many even to list, much less discuss—-here, and no one (not even your favorite one) of which is responsible for the “success” seen in Finland. I quarrel with that success, because part of the point YOU are missing is that the article is based on a false premise: that the test scores signify what the WSJ thinks they signify.

Yes, the little sailors’ time aboard the battleship could be much better spent—-we agree on that—-but in the end they are still aboard a friggin’ battleship. They are still sitting ducks.

Also, the Finns always have been wholly unaware of the immensely important role played by the structure of mass schooling in bringing about the downfall of the Soviet Union and the ushering in of Finish prosperity.

Incidentally, until the early childhood ed fad cought on there recently, Japan likewise held back children until the age of seven. The great developmental psychologist and stage theorist Jean Piaget found that this is the thing to do.

By Bush Derangement Syndrome

March 1, 2008 6:16 PM | Link to this

“Well, I dispatched Curly’s first pack mutt and now the always lurking,”

One other thing, AmWay weasel, you and disgusting fascist nazi liberals like you will not ever, EVER quell the voice of Conservatives. Just tryin’ to help you out here, “pal.”

By Glenn

March 1, 2008 6:43 PM | Link to this

Absolutely not, joops. You’ve been jooped. The means of education are not finite, much less scarce. You only think that because you’re WAY schooled up, so you immediately assume “the means necessary to run the school system we have now”. Big mistake, joopster.

You say that there are no proven alternatives. Were that so, then there would be no proven system at all except the one we have had since 1934, when the U.S. adopted universal compulsory public schooling. And that system is proven only in the sense that it is a proven failure. It is actually, and demonstrably, worse than a failure; it is counterproductive.

But you’re mistaken when you say that there are no proven alternatives. There are, and have been, and they have proved not only effective, but far cheaper than our own. In any event, I did not suggest a change of system, only a move from dreadnoughts to a more modern system.

And your citing Reagan’s Missouri is a disingenuous example of nothing, as you know.

You still think that if we take away your battle wagons to which you cling nostalgically, our whole naval system goes away, leaving us defenseless. Horse manure. We should use a battleship, when and if we do, just as Reagan and his successor did. Rarely, symbolically, and, when absolutely necessary, futuristically instead of nostalgically.