Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
- Thread starter GasBandit
- Start date
Some people will say anything to get hired.
(Mitt) Romney ‘Seriously Considering’ 2016 Bid With Focus On Poverty
--Patrick
(Mitt) Romney ‘Seriously Considering’ 2016 Bid With Focus On Poverty
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
All I've got to say about Obama's SOTU address last night, is that the jab about how he "won both elections" that every internet site is retweeting/youtube memeing this morning seems a little misplaced, given the midterm results. Are we just pretending those didn't happen now?
"ignore the facts and figures I don't like, put spotlights on what makes me look good" has been a political staple since, what, Julius Caesar? *shrug*
(Haven't seen the SOTU or any comments on it yet, for the record)
I just hate that people think it's so funny. It was worth a grin, in context. Anyway, he did win both elections, he didn't say, "The Democratic Party hasn't lost any elections," so I don't know why you're surprised a politician is boasting about his own victories.
GasBandit
Staff member
The commonly held idea, though, is that the midterms was a referendum on his presidency. And yeah, I'm not surprised he yukked it up and tooted his own horn during a SOTU address, I'm just a bit weary of people treating it like some kind of major coup the next day.
Well, in actuality, it was more along the lines of when all the R's starting applauding that he couldn't be elected again, he deftly pointed out that he couldn't be, since he'd been elected twice already.
I"m just a bit weary of people treating it like it was a disrespectful and uppity thing to do at the State of the Union address.
*cough* "YOU LIE!" *cough*
I"m just a bit weary of people treating it like it was a disrespectful and uppity thing to do at the State of the Union address.
*cough* "YOU LIE!" *cough*
GasBandit
Staff member
China will 'never let textbooks promoting Western values appear in our classes,' education minister says - @AFP
No different from idiots trying to have the Apocalyps taught in science class as an "equally valid" theory as the Gnab Gib.
...wait, I'm confusing things again, aren't I?
On Arrakis, that's a killing word.
This seems like the elite of China (who send their kids to the west for school anyway) trying to sabotage the middle and low class's ability to compete in the global economy.
Kinda like how public education in the U.S. keeps getting gutted while the people making those decisions can afford to send their kids to private school.
Except that helps no one because America doesn't have the right kind of economy to support entire generations of undereducated and nigh unemployable workers. China's entire economy basically depends on an underclass with no other options because it's the only way the Communist Party can retain control.
I don't know. Something seems off. So I found the actual article in Chinese on Xinhua. He's speaking at symposium with a bunch of university heads attending. He said things that aren't really new. "Promote socialism" and "Keep a good attitude in class" among other things, like what's above. However, he didn't really elaborate on what textbooks would be off limit, or how it would be implemented or...anything really. Until something actually happens, this is another example of "putting on a face" and making large declarations with little substance. I've actually taught in some of the universities listed in the article and I find it hard to believe something major is going to happen. Not to mention, of course, the extreme numbers of academies, tutoring centers and private institutions who take one look at regulations like that and shrug. I mean, before I came back to the states, I was teaching in an international school using British curriculum prepping kids for IB, and I had them doing group debates on the South China Sea presenting themselves as various involved nations to great approval from the administration.
That being said, Xi Jinping is a complete hardass. Hu Jintao was a much softer president, although to look at him you wouldn't know it. Xi puts on a nice smile and is taking great pains to look like he's cracking down hard on corruption (Which is Chinese complaint #1), so a lot of people are happy to go with the flow, for now. I suppose if anything insane WERE to occur, it would probably be under Xi.
GasBandit
Staff member
Best Comment Ever: Gas is under $2/gallon and Suge Knight just killed a guy. The 90s are back, baby!
Gas is back at $2.09 up here.
GasBandit
Staff member
Image Google via NYDN
Apparently, threatening to use your “magical powers” to make someone disappear warrants a suspension at a Texas school.
Nine-year-old Aiden Steward was suspended from Kermit Elementary School after telling a classmate he could make him disappear with a ring from The Lord of the Rings movies.
Odessa American spoke with Aiden’s father about the incident.
His father, Jason Steward, said the family had been to see “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” last weekend. His son brought a ring to his class at Kermit Elementary School and told another boy his magic ring could make the boy disappear.
According to Steward, the principal told him that threats to another child’s safety would not be tolerated – whether magical or not. Principal Roxanne Greer declined to comment on the matter.
New York Daily News reports that Aiden has previously received two in-school suspensions for referring to a classmate as black and bringing his favorite book to school: “The Big Book of Knowledge.”According to Steward, the principal told him that threats to another child’s safety would not be tolerated – whether magical or not. Principal Roxanne Greer declined to comment on the matter.
“He loves that book. They were studying the solar system and he took it to school. He thought his teacher would be impressed,” Steward said.
But the teacher learned the popular children’s encyclopedia had a section on pregnancy, depicting a pregnant woman in an illustration, he explained.
[DOUBLEPOST=1422915048,1422914951][/DOUBLEPOST]So, thanks, Kermit, TX, for reinforcing the rest of the country's perception of us all being fucking retards.But the teacher learned the popular children’s encyclopedia had a section on pregnancy, depicting a pregnant woman in an illustration, he explained.
I was friends with someone (family friend a couple years my senior) who worked at the local city library when I was in high school (the two were practically across the street from one another). They were ultimately forced to move the book "The Complete Book of Breast Care" into the restricted section because it kept getting pilfered/defaced.
--Patrick
Two much face palming for words. I usually feel like there is more to the story than we get but I suspect this reveals the gist of it pretty well. Honestly, my wife and I are so on the fence about homeschooling that we would probably just pack it in and go for it by the time we heard about a third suspension for non-issues like this.
Image Google via NYDN
Apparently, threatening to use your “magical powers” to make someone disappear warrants a suspension at a Texas school.
Nine-year-old Aiden Steward was suspended from Kermit Elementary School after telling a classmate he could make him disappear with a ring from The Lord of the Rings movies.
Odessa American spoke with Aiden’s father about the incident.
His father, Jason Steward, said the family had been to see “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” last weekend. His son brought a ring to his class at Kermit Elementary School and told another boy his magic ring could make the boy disappear.New York Daily News reports that Aiden has previously received two in-school suspensions for referring to a classmate as black and bringing his favorite book to school: “The Big Book of Knowledge.”
According to Steward, the principal told him that threats to another child’s safety would not be tolerated – whether magical or not. Principal Roxanne Greer declined to comment on the matter.
“He loves that book. They were studying the solar system and he took it to school. He thought his teacher would be impressed,” Steward said.[DOUBLEPOST=1422915048,1422914951][/DOUBLEPOST]So, thanks, Kermit, TX, for reinforcing the rest of the country's perception of us all being fucking retards.
But the teacher learned the popular children’s encyclopedia had a section on pregnancy, depicting a pregnant woman in an illustration, he explained.
GasBandit
Staff member
The american school system was specifically designed roughly 100 years ago to create a workforce of mediocre minds, content to be labor drones.
I disagree. I would argue that it is designed to try and perform the minimum amount of education to the maximum amount of students. It is factory education (like factory farming). I don't describe it that way entirely negatively. It has its efficiencies. But it results in a pretty...standard...assembly line product.
GasBandit
Staff member
... That's kinda what I was trying to say, but put nicer.
I guess to me the emphasis is on the efficiencies and workflow, the process, rather than designed for a particular product outcome (to keep with the analogies). We accept the product as good enough (and then complain about it). Basically, any teacher will tell you we can produce better graduates, but it will take more....craftsmanship, which is expensive and time consuming.
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, certainly, a teacher would say that.
But our education system was not designed by teachers. It was designed by John D. Rockefeller and his closest friends.
"In our dream we have limitless resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand. The present educational conventions fade from our minds; and, unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or of science. We are not to raise up among them authors, orators, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians. Nor will we cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up from among them lawyers, doctors, preachers, statesmen, of whom we now have ample supply."
-Frederick T. Gates, General Education Board
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Get your filthy indoctrinating Chinese schools out of here you filthy traitor!
(am I doing sarcasm right?)
Later, the school guidance counselor was said to have burst into Steward's home, asking "Is it secret? Is it safe?!"
Image Google via NYDN
Apparently, threatening to use your “magical powers” to make someone disappear warrants a suspension at a Texas school.
Nine-year-old Aiden Steward was suspended from Kermit Elementary School after telling a classmate he could make him disappear with a ring from The Lord of the Rings movies.
Odessa American spoke with Aiden’s father about the incident.
His father, Jason Steward, said the family had been to see “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” last weekend. His son brought a ring to his class at Kermit Elementary School and told another boy his magic ring could make the boy disappear.New York Daily News reports that Aiden has previously received two in-school suspensions for referring to a classmate as black and bringing his favorite book to school: “The Big Book of Knowledge.”
According to Steward, the principal told him that threats to another child’s safety would not be tolerated – whether magical or not. Principal Roxanne Greer declined to comment on the matter.
“He loves that book. They were studying the solar system and he took it to school. He thought his teacher would be impressed,” Steward said.[DOUBLEPOST=1422915048,1422914951][/DOUBLEPOST]So, thanks, Kermit, TX, for reinforcing the rest of the country's perception of us all being fucking retards.
But the teacher learned the popular children’s encyclopedia had a section on pregnancy, depicting a pregnant woman in an illustration, he explained.
It's important to have a zero tolerance policy towards Sauron.
It was designed with the input of many women and men. But the bottom line (the cost) is what defines the boundaries of what we can do. We didn't need Rockerfeller to tell us that much. This cost isn't just federal dollars applied, but also how we allot that money, with a larger and larger portion going towards administrative costs.
GasBandit
Staff member
That last part is the real kicker. Other nations spend less per student with better results.
GasBandit
Staff member
The US's debt will be 75% of GDP this year. In 2008, it was 39.3%
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-unchained-1422924306
http://www.wsj.com/articles/obama-unchained-1422924306