February 6, 2013

Try this then

Edited to add this is on page 507

February 6, 2013

Protection of American Rights of Person and Property Abroad

February 6, 2013

Here is a clue for ya...

Now how much does college cost? What is the economic strati most of these kids live in? Duh!
Maybe the problem is in the thinking that everyone needs a college education. You know, like the schools administrators have.
Maybe the problem is in the thinking of the college educated that working with you hands is somehow demeaning.
What is wrong with training these kids to be auto mechanics, computer techs, agriculture, whatever. Jobs that do not require what is normally thought of as needing a college education. How about giving them the knowledge and skills to survive as an adult doing something other than street corner drug deals or prostitution?

At one time I taught electronics at a community college Votec Center. There was a bias with the city school system administrators toward a college education. The conciseness with them was, the dumb ones went to the Votec Center because they weren't smart enough to make in college.
There were kids in the auto mechanics class that could not read. It wasn't because they didn't want to. It wasn't because they were stupid or dumb, or retarded. They had a learning disability. They could rebuild an engine with the best of them. They could look at the pictures in the book, read the numbers correctly for the clearances and specs, use the all the tools necessary to do the job right. And do it just as fast as anyone else. There was nothing wrong with their mechanical ability. There were several kids like this. They just could not read. Make the rest of us try that sometime. Look at the pictures in an auto mechanics book, read only the numbers and do the rebuild job right on a real engine and make it run.

I had a kid in one of my classes, who could seeming read just fine. But it would not stick. He could not explain what he had just read, when reading something to himself. But if he heard it, if he read it out loud, or if someone else read to him, he was fine. His eye sight was fine. Nothing wrong there. Just some missing some connection in the brain. B+ student in all his classes.

There are all kinds of reasons why college is not a realistic option for most people. These same the people that think these kids were not smart enough to go to college, could not do any of the mechanical skills jobs, or would struggle with the math required for electronic design, fail miserably at farming or similar jobs, that some of these kids could do naturally.

College is not the answer for a large percentage of the population. But that is what is being pushed, even now. How many people have a college degree and have never use it in the field of their education. The percentage of wasted time, money and knowledge is quite large. Just because you have a college education in say, economics does not mean you would be any better than at the job you ended up with, than a trade school graduate. Or even just a high school graduate.
My boss, the person who hired me for an IT job, had a high school education. No college. She was in charge of 9 IT people covering the state. She was making something like $100,000 a year when she retired.
Educate people for their natural abilities. I understand they do do this in some countries in Europe. Germany come to mind, for one.

February 5, 2013

Democratic Underground is becoming 'Class Stratified'.

(hoz dat for PC wording?) The popular people are using General Discussion as their upper crust Lounge, situated at ground level, Just off Main Street. Their bouncers^§ (Hosts)are stationed at the door.
While the regular peons still have to use the old Lounge, a few blocks away, down in the basement, in a 'less desirable' neighborhood. As long as things in the old Lounge don't get too loud and disturb the cliques and other gangs living nearby, everything is fine.





^§The mechanism used are the Host and Alert systems. (check the Hosts lists) As in the real world, the more egocentric^* rise to the top, in positions of power and end up running things. The more tolerant (read Liberal) among us get marginalized, as the star struck groupies vie for attention and their places in line, following the lead of those they adore.

^*Egocentrics regard themselves and their own opinions or interests as being the most important or valid. Self-relevant information is seen to be more important in shaping one’s judgments than do thoughts about others and other-relevant information (Windschitl, Rose, Stalkfleet & Smith, 2008). Egocentric people are unable to fully understand or to cope with other people's opinions and the fact that reality can be different from what they are ready to accept.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egocentrism

February 1, 2013

No, it is the mind set/attitude of the person using the language.

That is what makes DU suck. If the person in question had a better appreciation for others, instead of this foul mind-set, he would not had created the controversy he did.
Even then, if the language used is innocuous, the person using it can still come across as intimidating and arrogant. That can make DU suck also.

It really the mind-set of the language user.

February 1, 2013

In my part of the world, not only is it extremely rare for someone to use actual sexist,

homophobic, racist any other slurs in public, but is is also extremely rare in my world for anyone to bully people and decide for them what IS supposedly sexist, homophobic, racist, or whatever, just on the self-appointed persons say so. Just because you or some like mind says it is, does not necessarily make it so.

Being PC is less about being nice to others, or stopping bigotry, sexism's and such, than it is about bullying and intimidating others into the PC's current group think du jour. By the arbitrarily, ever shifting, 'banning' of certain words, regardless of context or legitimate, alternative usages. Or even common sense, as when one word is banned, but its exact synonyms are still allowed. The inconsistencies are legend.

The problems behind the bigotry are still there. The mind set driving the bigotry is still there. The bigot, the bully is still there. Only now, the words used have been sanitized, mostly anyway to the current PC standard, but the problem itself has been pushed a little more out of sight, where they will be less likely to be rectified. How does 'choosing' different words correct the mind-set of bigots/bullies anyway?

Why don't you work on the real problems. Words are not the problem. Banning them will not fix anything. It is the mind set of the person behind the racism, sexism, bigot, bully, etc. The person using the words. Even the Political Correct Police fit right in with here with what they say they are trying to eliminate.

I see the PC word banning as being no different than any other zealot seeking control over others, through a forced dumbing down of the language.
The intolerance displayed in the use of certain words, regardless of context, is closer to 3rd Way or right of center style control of others, than any actual empathy toward the plight of those being 'protected'.

What actually is missing on being PC, is recognizing the real problems and being nice to others. That is all that is needed.
Object to the mind-set, not the words used. That's what I do.

January 31, 2013

Are you saying

that you are the Chief of the Politically Correct Police?
and the word "illegal" is forbidden because the right-wing nutz use that word?

I am Liberal/Progressive and a little ways Left of Center politically. In no way am I Right Wing or Libertarian.

Sorry, letting other people set the parameters of their life, is itself a Conservative trait. That is what you are attempting to do here.

How does that jibe with this Will Rodgers quoit:
[font color= "blue"]"Democrats never agree on anything, that's why they're Democrats. If they agreed with each other, they'd be Republicans."[/font color]

January 31, 2013

Who decided "Illegals" is a slur?

I want a name. A contact. Who is the Chief of the Politically Correct Police?
I want to see their edict(s) for myself.
Do they have a web site with the information to clear up the words that are in contention?
Or are we just supposed to take the word of volunteers?

Why can't DU conform to the real world anymore? Why are some doing their best to make DU to be in a echo chamber like bubble?

January 25, 2013

No we don't.

It is religion that is where the fear is, for everyone, believer of not.
If there really is a kind, loving God, He would not be so egomaniacal as to send us to Hell for not worshiping Him in the correct way, in the correct church, on the correct day. Besides, why are their so many flavors of so many religions, if what any of the many flavors of Christian are suppose do believe in, is true? Does this God not care?
How arrogant is this God? Why would anyone want to take a chance of spending the rest of eternity in this God's Heaven? Do you really want to take a chance of having to sing Hallelujah to a deity that is so insecure that he demands such praise and worship? And do that for the rest of eternity? Heaven is Paradise? Sounds like Hell to me. There has to be a reason why there is no description of Heaven in the Bible. Could that be why?

If this Christian God really is a kind, loving God, how you live your life, how you treat others, how you treat the rest of his creation, would count for far more than just believing in a Deity that demands to be worshiped properly, or "Yur gonna go ta HELL!"
Not believing in Him would be far down the list reasons for eternal punishment. War mongering, greed, plotting to take what is not yours, superiority of self over others, hypocrisy, voting Republican, arrogance, using others for ladder rungs to get to the top. And on and on and on...

We are a social species. We do best when we work together to solve problems. Condoning the Killing of those that do not believe as you do is reason enough to be condemned to Hell for all eternity. You don't condone any killings? Then why do so many here justify Iraq and Afghanistan, Israel/Palestine and many other conflicts? Often because we, the US, are killing non Christians, and YOU are safely far away. Non Christians are expendable. Case in point - While it is often pointed out how many Americans have died in whatever conflict, wherever, the many people have WE have killed in THEIR own country, is downplayed or ignored entirely. Are not these people and their lands, Gods creation too? This pleases your kind, loving God? How?
Why do so many religious people desecrate their God by destroying His creation and the life he created by justifying war?
Over all, down through history, religion has seldom been a positive for for good.

January 3, 2013

Out of sight, out of mind - Till the next "lone nut" massacre, brings the exact same conversations.

Nothing will change until we realistically deal with the arsenals in too many basements and the people that think they need them for any reason.
The problem is not the lone nut, it is too many guns of all kinds, that is the problem. This country is awash in guns.
We cannot afford to let Sandy Hook go down the memory hole. If we do, those kids would have been murdered in vain. This is truly one time where we need to think of the children for the greater good of the entire country.
This country is so gun happy, we start wars on innocent people, in 3rd world countries, in the name of fighting for our freedom.
What bullshit we fantasize for ourselves! Freedom my ass, it is fear and more fear that is being pedaled in the name of profits for the few. And we don't share in that profit. We only share in the deaths caused.