“Diversity is our strength” has become a dangerous mantra.
It has indeed, because the diversity that is being pushed isn’t one which includes assimilation into the larger culture, but instead insists upon non-judgmental acceptance, in many cases and a "separate-but-equal" treatment. That does not contribute toward what has always been the strength of this nation. Cultures are assimilated into the larger dominant culture and those cultural practices which are in consonance with our dominant culture are absorbed and those contrary to it are discarded. The diversity demanded today requires we treat all cultural practices as acceptable inviolable artifacts which we must allow to be practiced because they are important to a certain group, no matter how small the group or how contrary to our heritage the cultural practice may be. My respects to you both, because you’ve hit a major point here, and one I’ve been trumpeting for 20 years, now. My only anger is with the word ’becoming’. The fact is, it’s always BEEN a dangerous mantra... and I’ve always taken as an indication of just how dangerous, to be the amount of hell I caught for speaking such words starting in Reagan’s day. My advice: Gird your loins, you’re going to need it.
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Written By:
Bithead
URL:
http://bitsblog.florack.us
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czuvwvua said: lzprauzeuzak I’ve never disagreed with anything more in my lifetime. Do you have a link to back that up? |
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Written By:
tom scott
URL:
http://
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Tom, the current round of comment spam is really strange. It appears to have no point. Perhaps just a probing attack to see if it sticks, so they can dump the real stuff later. |
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Written By:
Billy Hollis
URL:
http://
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Heh... I think you give them too much credit.
Considering the mentality we deal with in spammers, it’s more likely simply bad code, in my view. |
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Written By:
Bithead
URL:
http://bitsblog.florack.us
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1. It is not the responsibility of your fellow citizens to buy health insurance for you and your family. If you are stupid enough to believe that you are not already paying for the health care of your fellow citizens, who, among other things, walk into emergency rooms long after an ounce of prevention would have prevented a pound of cure, then you are stupid enough to vote Republican. "Diversity is our strength" has become a dangerous mantra. Oh please run on this. Please. There is no relationship between the amount of money spent on schools and the quality of education. STATE SPENDING PER PUPIL 2005-06
Top five states
National average $9,138
1. New York $14,884
2. New Jersey $14,630
3. District of Columbia $13,446
4. Vermont $12,614
5. Connecticut $12,323
Bottom five states
47. Oklahoma $6,961
48. Tennessee $6,883
49. Arizona $6,472
50. Idaho $6,440
51. Utah $5,437
Here’s something you can do to test your theory, McQ. Check out the states with the highest and lowest per capita income. See if there is any correlation between per pupil spending and those incomes. (Hint - there is.)
Most Americans are not so stupid to believe that spending on schools is meaningless. It’s such a weird position to take - spending is meaningless - that it is amazing wingnuts still take it. As economist Robert Samuelson recently pointed out, the United States faces a crisis that will become a catastrophe if we don’t take immediate steps. The problem is that even if you accept the premise, the GOP has nothing to offer. After all, the GOP thinks it’s a good idea to spend $10 billion a month in Iraq. And Bush has run the debt up $9 trillion.
Americans understand that an aging population is going to cause problems. They just don’t think the party of the rich is the one that is best equipped to do anything about it. It is not the government’s responsibility to take care of you from cradle to grave. Terry Schiavo, opposition to medical marijuana, opposition to assisted suicide, opposition to gay marriage, opposition to gay adotption, opposition to gays in the military, opposition to abortion rights, support of sodomy laws, etc.
No, the GOP does not believe that it is the government responsibility to take care of you. It’s just the government’s job to control the most intimate aspects of your life. Seriously. The GOP wants to control what medicines you can take, who you can marry, how you die, whether you can choose to give birth, whether you can serve in the military if you are gay, and so on.
Sorry, McQ - if the GOP really believed in keeping the government out of people’s lives, you might have a point. But the GOP doesn’t believe that. Not for a second. And Americans are waking up to that fact. |
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Written By:
mkultra
URL:
http://
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Sorry, McQ - if the GOP really believed in keeping the government out of people’s lives, you might have a point. But the GOP doesn’t believe that. Not for a second. And Americans are waking up to that fact. LOL - And your alternative is what - Democrats?!?!?! - LOL!!! |
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Written By:
SShiell
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http://
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too bad that mcain is a fakepublican and he wont say any of this. |
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Written By:
slntax
URL:
http://
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MK Ultra,
Check out some podcasts at Econtalk.org by Prof. Hanushek about education. Spending more per pupil does not lead to better outcomes, sorry. There have been several "experiments" like in Kansas City and St. Louis where massive amounts were spent per pupil with no results.
I suspect if there were clear results from spending, it would end up being a very non-partisan issue, i.e. everyone would support it. Instead, education spending has supporters who are deluded that more means better, and then there are the teacher unions.
Also shot down is the "less students per class" theory, which empirically isn’t shown to be effective. But, as an ex-teacher, I can say would seriously be awesome - reduced workload and same pay!
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Written By:
Harun
URL:
http://
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It’s funny....I have been noticing for some time now that there seems to be a seismic shift (albeit a very s-l-o-w one) in consumer sentiment toward less spending in all areas. Of course, a good bit of that is the increase in fuel, food, etc. but it is more than that too. Gary Schilling recently predicted a huge drop off in spending and I think he may be right. As one might expect it will mean a serious downshift in the economy but that might be a blessing allowing us all to stop and think once again. For example, we might have a real discussion about energy policy instead of mindlessly spending as we have become conditioned to do by unscrupulous marketers and the clueless pols who maliciously ignore the fact that deficits are caused by too much spending and an unwillingness to make hard decisions on priorities—-not insufficient tax revenues.
The question to answer is ’why’ will the public pull back? I think the answer is that the American public is finally realizing things can not go on as they have...borrowing money you do not have to buy crap you don’t need. That shift will eventually permeate and overflow our expectations of government services too causing the pendulum to revert to the ’norm’. All of this will take some time—-years most likely—-but I think it will happen and be a good thing. At least, that is my hope. |
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Written By:
Unscripted Thoughts
URL:
http://
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Oh please run on this. Please. Gee, THAT didn’t take long. |
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Written By:
Bithead
URL:
http://bitsblog.florack.us
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Well, you don’t live up to your NOTICE if you delete a post, now do you?
Nothing I said was remotely in poor taste. (I suppose McQ is still smarting from the fact that he was wrong about the Somalia debate we had, particularly that there were in fact American agents on the ground, in addition to locals. The same scenario has occurred several times before in Somalia.)
Anyway, I had complemented the post above, and added several similar Say-nots of my own. Maybe McQ objected to my use of God and Jesus in a Say-not!
Just bad sportsmanship, I guess.
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Written By:
mannning
URL:
http://
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"See if there is any correlation between per pupil spending and those incomes. (Hint - there is.)"
How about something a little more relevant; the correlation between per pupil spending and student achievement? (Hint- there isn’t a significant positive correlation). It is amusing that you included The District of Columbia in your top five list. It shows how much you really know about the subject. |
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Written By:
timactual
URL:
http://
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To continue, it is pretty obvious from your choice of criteria that tax revenue, not actual education, is the variable to be maximized. |
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Written By:
timactual
URL:
http://
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Well, you don’t live up to your NOTICE if you delete a post, now do you?
Nothing I said was remotely in poor taste. What are you talking about?!
I have no idea what you said and certainly didn’t delete it.
The possibility exists that you ran afoul of our banned words and the system didn’t let your comment post.
If you’d like, you can send me the comment you’re complaining about and I’ll ensure it gets posted. |
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Written By:
McQ
URL:
http://www.QandO.net
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Well something happened to my post, but not from any wording of mine.
First, I had complemented your post, as it is very perceptive of our times.
Second, I had added several more of like kind—prohibitions such as:
1) don’t show your patriotism, it is so tacky,
2) don’t talk about God and Jesus, or religion, that is so passe,
3) for heaven’s sake, quit yammering about drilling and pumping oil,
4) leave education alone, all it needs is a lot more money all around.
(problem is, much of the money appropriated doesn’t trickle down to the student level, it is absorbed by the huge and highly inefficient education infrastructure. Dollars/student is not a good measure for this reason.)
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Written By:
mannning
URL:
http://
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Well something happened to my post, but not from any wording of mine. OK, if you say so - I have no reason to doubt that.
But it wasn’t because anyone here deleted it. If you’ve ever read any of MKultra’s comments, you’d know we have a very high level of tolerance concerning what is said in the comment section. |
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Written By:
McQ
URL:
http://www.QandO.net
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Well,
The Minneapolis and St. Paul MN school districts annual spending per student is somewhere in the range of 14,000 - 15,000. Their juniors pass the state standardized testing minimum somewhere below 40%. Or another way, 60% failed to pass the standardized test.
Meanwhile, Catholic school Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul, MN last year had tuition of under $8,000 per student and over 90% of their class of 2008 was accepted to a university.
So more money is not predictive. |
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Written By:
Loren
URL:
http://
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The Minneapolis and St. Paul MN school districts annual spending per student is somewhere in the range of 14,000 - 15,000. Their juniors pass the state standardized testing minimum somewhere below 40%. Or another way, 60% failed to pass the standardized test. So more money is not predictive. MK doesn’t want to actually tie the amount spent to the OUTCOME - are you people INSANE?
If we did that there would be government programs too numerous to mention that would be whisked away into oblilvion like so many ’choices’ at an abortion clinic. |
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Written By:
looker
URL:
http://
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"Your neighbor is not responsible for your health care"? Foolish libertarians—you and your neighbor are responsible for whoever and whatever the Hive says you are! All will be responsible for all, under the Obamessiah, Submit now, or face our re-education camps in the future! |
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Written By:
Bilwick
URL:
http://
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In the end, more than freedom, they [the ancient Athenians] wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all - security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.
Edward Gibbon
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Written By:
Puckman
URL:
http://
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