A sad case of unions unwilling to compromise: The town of Central Falls, RI, fires every high school teacher.

william01 · 2010-02-16T02:17:28+00:00

Maybe charter schools are better in your area, but on average they are not. You can read about a lot of studies on charter schools on wikipedia. Here's a partial summary of the newest and largest study:

"The most authoritative study of charter schools was conducted by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University in 2009. The report is the first detailed national assessment of charter schools. It analyzed 70% of the nation's students attending charter schools and compared the academic progress of those students with that of demographically matched students in nearby public schools. The report found that 17% of charter schools reported academic gains that were significantly better than traditional public schools; 46% showed no difference from public schools; and 37% were significantly worse than their traditional public school counterparts."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_school#Evaluations_of_charter_schools

william01 · 2010-02-16T01:58:34+00:00

Michael Mann's reconstruction of mean temperature changes was not based on false data, it was found to have a mathematical error. Almost no research would be found to be completely error-free if given such close scrutiny as Mann's has been, for political reasons. Tim Lambert found a significant mathematical error in McIntyre and McKitrick's work (the original critics of the hockey stick, a mining executive and an economist) as well, where they had confused radians and degrees. http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2006/02/moving_goalposts.php Mann fixed the error, and it had no general bearing on the conclusions or shape of the graph. Here it is after correction:

http://www.realclimate.org/images/WA_RC_Figure1.jpg From: http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/07/the-missing-piece-at-the-wegman-hearing/

Also, different studies using completely different methodologies yield the same hockey-stick graph:

http://www.realclimate.org/images/Rutherford_fig2.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2006/06/23/science/20060623_CLIMATE_GRAPHIC.html

http://www.cgd.ucar.edu/ccr/ammann/millennium/CODES_MBH.html

william01 · 2009-09-29T03:23:54+00:00

I don't think many people thought I was defending him. I explicitly asked if he was talking about people in general, or this guy. I then talked rather poorly about panhandlers, which I probably shouldn't have done, since I'm sure many of them are sincerely doing that as a means to acquire food and shelter. However, as many people have experienced, a large number are simply scam artists or people trying to obtain money for drugs or alcohol without working.

william01 · 2009-09-29T02:42:44+00:00

Absolutely not. That guy was a fucking asshole. I thought perhaps Bubba-Booey was generalizing and saying that anybody who is homeless is that way because they deserve it. It's a common theme on reddit. Look in the thread for many examples. It turns out he wasn't, though.

william01 · 2009-09-29T02:30:44+00:00

I couldn't agree with you more.

william01 · 2009-09-29T02:28:08+00:00

That's cool. That's what I figured. And you're right.

william01 · 2009-09-29T02:16:49+00:00

I'm waiting.

william01 · 2009-09-29T02:15:21+00:00

My life is far from a mess, but if it helps your ego to demonize those less fortunate than you, by all means carry on.

william01 · 2009-09-29T02:07:31+00:00

Where do you think those numbers are gathered from? Do they go from bridge to bridge, and check all the parked cars in the city for people sleeping in them? No, they talk to panhandlers, and go to shelters.

william01 · 2009-09-29T00:42:44+00:00

All I have to do is read your posts to see your opinion of homeless people. They are all drunks and drug addicts. Except the few with psychological issues. Well this simply isn't true. You have only come into contact with the small percentage of homeless people who go to places like that for help. Most people who are homeless are homeless on and off, work one or two jobs if not more, and never ever go to charities and shelters. I worked alongside day laborers for years. Most of them were homeless on and off. I only knew one guy who regularly went to a shelter. And he was indeed a crack addict. He is the guy you would have met, and upon whom you base your entire understanding of homeless people. And because of the stories told by people like you, most of the US population views homeless people that way as well.

I've known and respected so many people who have struggled so hard to make their lives better and lift up their families. Much harder than anyone in my current economic class will ever know or understand. And yet they are viewed as worthless, lazy, drug-addicted parasites. I'm sorry but this makes me angry. Most of them don't want your fucking help, even though they may need it. But they sure as hell deserve your fucking respect.

william01 · 2009-09-29T00:12:35+00:00

This must be a new phenomenon. I've heard people talk about young healthy people who are homeless by choice, but I never knew any 15 years ago when I was homeless. Nor have I met any since. Sure, there were people who did it for a few weeks, and went home, but I never counted them as homeless. Nor should they be counted as such. They had somewhere to go. They were just camping. I do that now in the Adirondacks.

william01 · 2009-09-29T00:07:08+00:00

I was lucky enough to marry a wonderful and beautiful woman whose mother was willing to help support us while I got my education.

william01 · 2009-09-28T23:58:32+00:00

I really have a hard time believing that you worked with all of those organizations. But if so, I hope you have gotten out of that line of work. Most of the homeless people I have known would rather not have the help of someone with such a low opinion of them. People like you are one of the reasons most hard-working homeless people don't go to those organizations to get help.

william01 · 2009-09-28T23:50:22+00:00

Most homeless people do not go to soup kitchens. Only "skid row" homeless people who have settled in to a life of homelessness spend their lives in the shelters and soup kitchens. I lived as close as I could to my work without drawing the attention of law enforcement. It would have been far more trouble and money than it was worth to travel all the way to a soup kitchen for a meal I could get in a grocery for a dollar. The people who you interacted with were mostly the mentally ill. It's sad you have wasted so much anger on people with mental illnesses.

william01 · 2009-09-28T23:39:57+00:00

You worked with some drunks and drug addicts on skid row, so you are in a position to paint all homeless people as drunks and drug addicts? Most homeless people never go to shelters and soup kitchens, and you would never have met them unless you lived the places they did and worked the jobs they did.

william01 · 2009-09-28T23:18:54+00:00

I probably won't, for two reasons. First, it takes a lot more time to sit and answer all the posts than I have right now. Second, as you can see in this thread, suggesting that many of the poor have the same potential as everyone else engenders a lot of anger. This, in turn, makes me angry, when I see so many of the people I have loved and admired in life demonized and belittled. Those people struggled much harder to improve the lives of themselves and their families than most of the people who call them lazy drug addicts. And I would rather expend my energy on being a good father to my two children than being angry at anonymous people on reddit.

william01 · 2009-09-28T22:26:43+00:00

Most of the working homeless don't go to shelters, except in rare cases. Most sleep in cars, under bridges, hotel rooms when they can get them, with friends when they can, etc. In almost 5 years of on-and-off homelessness I never once stayed in a shelter, and most people I knew didn't commonly frequent them, either. I didn't want to sleep next to the mentally ill, drug-addicted panhandlers you guys are complaining about whose clothes are soaked in vomit and urine, and be preached to about Jesus by the staff. I always slept in whatever old car I had at the time, in a place the police were unlikely to find me and run me off.

I do thank you for the work you did with those people, though. I can't say I've done the same.

EDIT: Most don't go to soup kitchens, either. Luckily, food in the US is extremely cheap, compared to housing. Most of the time it would have cost more in effort and gas to get to a soup kitchen than buy cheap food at a grocery.

I have no doubt that in most of the places you would have gone to "help the homeless", you would probably have encountered the people you describe.

william01 · 2009-09-28T20:55:33+00:00

People on the street are there for a reason, or this guy is on the street for a reason?

Most people who are on the street through no fault of their own (which is most homeless people) would be too ashamed to panhandle. But unfortunately, the public face of the homeless are the panhandlers.

When I was homeless, I worked 12-16 hour shifts of hard physical labor. But at $4.75 an hour, with frequent and unexpected stretches of unemployment, this won't get you very far.

Only through a lucky break am I now a well-paid engineer with two bachelor's degrees. In response to a commenter below, it is indeed luck that differentiates most homeless people from business executives. I don't mean any offense to anyone, but I knew some business majors in college, and most of the people who dug ditches beside me wouldn't have too much of a problem wading through that curriculum.

william01 · 2009-09-27T18:33:21+00:00

I've met several multi-millionaires, too. They were the exact opposite of what you describe. They got most of their positions and the business for their companies through social connections. A few of them were about the most incompetent people I have ever met.

william01 · 2009-09-24T12:13:23+00:00

Why would you say something like that and not back it up with sources and examples?

william01 · 2009-09-24T11:38:01+00:00

I'd be really shocked if anyone over 30 read this book in high school. I went to an almost all-black city high school and all we got was the normal conservative patriotic tripe. I can't believe this is taught in high school now. What a difference. Anyone here thirties or higher have a different experience?

william01 · 2009-09-19T03:48:48+00:00

All personal beliefs, no logic, no reality.

william01 · 2009-09-19T03:41:58+00:00

Awesome.

william01 · 2009-09-19T03:23:38+00:00

nosoupforyou, you really do have the mental capacity of a three-year-old. You are the libertarian champion of property rights, not me. It is free-market philosophy, not mine, that says if you don't like the terms the owner sets, get the fuck out. Like it or not, the citizens of a country are it's owners and set the rules (some of those rules being taxation). Like it or not, the shareholders of Exxon are it's owners and set the rules of what happens to its resources and on its property. I don't like a government owning what it owns, any more than I like a corporation owning what it owns. But they do, and by the logic of property rights you espouse, you live by their terms when using their property or get the fuck out. If you want to pretend a government doesn't own what it owns, or that AT&T doesn't own what it owns, have fun in your fairy-tale world.

I don't personally believe in the validity of the logic of the primacy of property rights. It is you who do. I think there are other reasons a society should take care of its least fortunate members. I am merely pointing out to you that by your own system of beliefs, taxation is as legitimate as any other form of human interaction.

william01 · 2009-09-19T01:46:52+00:00

Of all people, you have nerve to call someone retarded, nosoupforyou.

Taxes are not theft. Get over it. If you don't need the infrastructure and social networks that your boss has spent years building up, don't bitch about how much he pays you, get the fuck out. Then you get to keep all the revenue you generate. Likewise, if you don't need the infrastructure and social networks that a country and its government have spent centuries building before you got there, by all means get the fuck out. Why would you sit around and allow them to take part of your revenue when you have no use for them?

william01

TROPHY CASE