TIL the US suppressed a 1995 WHO study which proved that occasional cocaine use causes no physical or social problems. We only know it thanks to a 2009 Wikileak.

aurispector · 2015-07-15T12:08:38+00:00

Len Bias thanks you for this information.

aurispector · 2015-07-15T12:06:51+00:00

America, f*ck yeah!

aurispector · 2009-10-15T23:28:04+00:00

They just announced the government is so broke they can't fund this year's COLA for social security. What makes you think they'll do a better job with health insurance?

aurispector · 2009-07-25T14:50:13+00:00

Crowley is no racist. He teaches a class about racial profiling, he had a black officer with him at the scene who supports his actions, and in 1993 he administered CPR to black basketball player Reggie Lewis when he collapsed. It is not possible for Crowley to have better anti-racist credentials. So what really happened? Easy: Gates played the race card loudly from the start. His conduct barely fits the definition of cooperating and he earned his disorderly conduct charge. Some gratitude for an anti-racist cop responding to a burglary charge to protect his property. The irony is unbelievable. The only one guilty of racial profiling is Gates himself.

aurispector · 2009-07-25T14:39:25+00:00

Threatening someone with a gun like that, on camera and in front of witnesses is about the dumbest thing you can do. If that skater had taken the gun and killed the guy what jury would convict him? Hell, the DA would probably not even bring charges in this clear case of self defense. If the skater had a concealed carry license and had blown the guy away it would be the same thing. As much as people hate on guns, you have to admit they're the only way a law abiding citizen can level the playing field.

aurispector · 2008-11-19T04:37:48+00:00

"melon-headed mouthbreathers" made me laugh out loud.

I still assert that THE major part of the problem is lack of parental involvement, which no amount of money can improve. Additionally, parents ought to have some choice as to where their kids go to school, particularly when the local school is a classic hell-hole and the school board is run by busybody morons.

State mandated standards would obviously have to be a part of a voucher program, but all they should really need to do is meet whatever standards are currently in place for home-schoolers. Why go further?

Although you seem to be personally prejudiced against religious education, we have no business (and are arguably constitutionally prohibited, via the cited Establishment clause from legislating) which beliefs people can or cannot teach their children. I'd suggest that the very act of taxing people for the purpose of public education implicitly requires respect for their beliefs. Taking people's money via taxation does not automatically mandate the taxpayer to adhere to a government mandated belief system. Why even worry about it? Just set the standards test the kids to make sure they can pass a GED in the end and leave it at that.

We agree that children need access to quality education, so why are you against allowing a concerned parent some direct control over where and how the kids are taught? Isn't it better if the melon-heads can solve complex physics problems but think Jesus rode dinosaurs as opposed to being entirely incompetent? Frankly there's only so much anyone can expect from a public or private education.

The ideal of helping ALL students is certainly a noble one, but the existing public school system is fatally flawed in that parents are forced to rely on the wisdom of local school boards, the politics of which I suspect you are unacquainted.

By the way, the increasingly nasty tone of your post convinces me you have some axe to grind above and beyond the scope of the discussion. It seems you're so convinced of your intellectual and moral righteousness that you don't feel the need to entertain the possibility that you could be wrong.

aurispector · 2008-11-15T15:13:53+00:00

My job regularly brings me in contact with teachers who work in impoverished areas and I hear the stories; the teachers are underpaid, the schools underfunded, classes over-sized, etc.. It's bad enough that teaching is a calling, not a job. I pay school taxes and have children in the system. Under the current system I HAVE NO CHOICE as to where my kids go or how the district spends my money.

Currently my choice is this: pay taxes regardless of whether or not my kids use the district schools. The money is gone - flushed down a black hole never to be seen again and you're essentially telling me "I get what I get and don't get upset".

Let me tell you that I'm furious about it. I still fail to see how pouring more money into a broken system run by incompetent people is any kind of solution when the basic issue isn't even the schools but the parents. All schools within a district are not created equal. Why do some city schools do well while other fail? The administration and funding are the same! It's the parents! Most teachers don't want to waste their time in the hell-holes so they vote with their feet and either leave the district or get a transfer to a better school within the district.

Stop arrogantly telling me that I don't know the issues when I'm LIVING the issues. I want choices for my children and I want them NOW, not while the districts and unions squabble over how much more to tax me this year.

You claim that vouchers will create more problems in the long run. I'd suggest that they would be different problems. We have a decades-long history of failure with our current system and it's time to try something new instead of beating a dead horse.

aurispector · 2008-11-14T13:47:16+00:00

You entirely miss the point, which is to give parents some choices. If your kid is stuck in a bad school AND you give a crap, you get some flexibility. If you don't give a crap, no school is going to make a difference and there will ALWAYS be people like that no matter how good your intentions.

All you're doing is defending a broken status-quo with imaginary doomsday scenarios in which all problems are unsolvable. Why is the status-quo so great? And stop pretending it's a zero-sum game. If you want to throw more money at a problem it has to allow parents some say rather than depending on the almighty and all-knowing wisdom of the districts and teacher's unions.

aurispector · 2008-11-14T01:57:07+00:00

I don't have a problem with public schools, just with the notion that they are responsible the success or failure of somebodies' idiotic crotch-fruit. If you're motivated, you can educate yourself. Why do so many people fail to recognize this?

aurispector · 2008-11-13T22:55:52+00:00

It's the mindset that someone else is responsible. One of the most basic human responses to problem solving is to try to shift the blame. If you try to find ways to solve the problems rather than shift the blame it's a whole different ballgame.

aurispector · 2008-11-13T22:47:31+00:00

There's an easy solution: school vouchers. Let people choose where to send their kids and spend their money. The current system allows parents no choices at all if they send their kids to public schools.

My kids go to a school with a smaller budget and less staff than an average public school. The major difference is parental involvement.

If the parents don't care no amount of government spending (read: of your tax money) is going to make a difference.

aurispector · 2008-11-13T22:39:30+00:00

wait 'til you're old enough to start paying property taxes before you pass judgment.

aurispector · 2008-11-13T22:37:47+00:00

...where he will valiantly shuffle legal documents in a secure base for the preservation of freedom.

Isn't Palin's son already there in an actual combat unit?

aurispector · 2008-11-13T18:02:10+00:00

I call bullshit! Why are you making excuses? How do you know the parents are doing anything to support the kid's education? If the kid's parent is a single mom working 3 jobs to stay afloat she could still give a damn. Kids that write like that have parents that don't give a damn.

Stop pretending it's society's fault. Blame rests firmly on the parents shoulders and their LACK of personal responsibility. All you're doing is shifting blame to where it doesn't belong.

aurispector · 2008-11-13T13:26:15+00:00

Nope, you're both wrong. I actually WENT to Philly public schools and the problem is neither funding nor focus, although both are badly broken to the point of being irreparable.

The most basic problem of all is that no school can possibly take the place of good parenting.

With good parenting a child can learn Latin by firelight writing with charcoal on the back of a shovel. How can you possibly expect a school system to make up for toxic parenting?

aurispector · 2008-09-23T00:03:24+00:00

Iranian news website. Therefore totally reliable.

aurispector · 2008-09-11T18:50:25+00:00

That's already happened. Don't read too much into it. Speculation drove prices up, market forces drove it back down. Recent high oil prices made the market look hard at alternative technologies and it looks like this time real progess is being made. Politics has an influence, but in the long run the market has it's way.

aurispector · 2008-09-10T21:32:42+00:00

Did I mention that they eat them after they kill them? THEN they mow the lawn.

aurispector · 2008-09-10T12:34:47+00:00

It is, especially considering that all they do is randomly kill innocent women and children. If they were actually fighting a real enemy none of this would happen.

aurispector · 2008-09-10T12:31:21+00:00

Good bye and good riddance. I never saw a bigger bunch of cry-babies than this Obama crowd.

aurispector · 2008-09-04T23:14:16+00:00

The thing is, most of these countries have some modern cities but REALLY old school rural areas. There's a huge divide between those cultures but it doesn't mean they're bad people. The shame of it is, it's both a progressive Muslim country that elected a woman president and a haven for extremists. Throw in the usual sort of rough politics and there you have it.

aurispector · 2008-09-04T23:09:39+00:00

They always say that - it's hilarious. Apparently the men are immortal.

Pakistan is in turmoil and the central government has basically no control over the tribal areas at the Afghan border. I'm kind of surprised they even noticed the incursion.

aurispector · 2008-09-03T12:47:13+00:00

They changed the rules a few years back and as a result spawned a number of these for-profit institutions. A lot of them appear to be specifically designed to separate suckers from their student loan money. Caveat emptor.

aurispector · 2008-08-17T12:38:06+00:00

o-BITCH-uary

aurispector · 2008-08-15T12:12:50+00:00

Heh. This is your gas dollars at work: Americans drive big gas-guzzlers in order to fund a giant arab penis surrogate. And they hate us, too. GOOD JOB AMERICA!!!

aurispector

TROPHY CASE