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  • http://ptsoft.blogspot.com BugHunter

    I watched “Dr. Zhivago” over the weekend. It scared the hell out of me.

    Democrats and Republicans are a little like a split in the Bolsheviks.

    One half wants everyone to be “equal”. Take the money from those who know how to use it, and starve everyone.

    The other half wants more control over population movements, and silencing those who disagree with them.

  • Mandalla

    @pharniel , who said, “private schools? great, so i can deal with children who were raised thinking that the earth is but 6000 years old and that intellegent design is ’sound science’? Or who’s idea of ‘discipline’ and thus thier approch to problem solving can be summed up as ‘beat it ’till it no longer cries or struggles”?”

    It makes me sad that that is your only view of private schools. Please look up “Montessori” for for just one example of an alternate, and quite popular private school system (not endorsing them, just one off the top of my head).

    I personally attended a private school and I guarentee you that I received a better science and history education than what I would have from the public schools in my area.

  • pharniel

    @Brask – My understanding of the USSR fammines is that they were a combination of malice and a perfect storm of incompetance.
    removing farm land for factoreis, instituting giant ‘communial’ farms that were run by newbs after displacing (and gulaging) the previous tenant farmers combined with an unstated goal of starving ethnic ukranians and other ‘minorities’ who stalin did not approve of or who resisted the USSR.

    @Mandalla – you are correct, there are plenty of good private schools. I am also aquanted with the montessori method, growing up in a montessori home (my mother was a teacher for 35 years and was montessori trained, and the last in her district to practice the technique for lower El).

    You are correct, there are plenty of excellent private institutions in our country, especially in places you’d never suspect. However, most of the 90′s my state spent a ridiculous amount of money to ‘prove’ how bad the public school system was, with the intent of allowing private unregulated corporations and individuals to run their own ‘charter’ school.

    To my mind subcontracting education to private industry to my mind is like subcontracting the army. it’s a bad plan.

  • http://wowpanda.blogspot.com wowpanda

    @pharniel no body said anything about privatizing all schools. Instead of pumping money into failing schools (public or private), let them fail. Instead of bound parents to their local school system, give them a voucher so they can put that money and their kids into some good schools (Of course this idea will be objected by some rich guys who are in good areas).

    Competition is good, once the failing schools realized that they can be closed, they will have to perform. I am sick and tired states wasting money on bad schools. I was asked once by a friend to pick the most expensive laptop and accessories to reach $3000, so the grant can be spent for his wife. His wife is a public school teacher, the grant is state money.

  • Jeeshman

    Why oh WHY did Scott have to bring politics into his blog? It’s up to him, obviously, but now instead of thinking “Scott Jennings = awesome MMO genius,” I’ll be thinking “Scott Jennings = Democrat party flak.”

    @pharniel–please stop posting until you read something, *anything* about economics. I don’t even know where to begin. Oh! I know, with your assertion that “tax cuts further drained” the treasury. On the contrary, the treasury has received *more* money since the tax cuts were implemented. Why? Because if people are allowed to make more money, they (surprise) have to pay more taxes! If I have to pay 12% of my income to the government and I get a $15,000 raise, the government gets more money–even if it doesn’t raise taxes. I only get that raise if the company I work for can make money. Said company has a real tough time making money if the capital gains tax is increased (so less people buy its stock) or if it has to spend more to comply with new regulations and/or other taxes. Monopolies are bad, but creating an environment where businesses can’t make a profit is much worse.

  • Brask Mumei

    If you can’t look beyond which football team someone supports, I think the problem is with you, not them. I think Lum’s political position is a heck of a lot more nuanced than “Democrat”.

  • Jeeshman

    Good point, Brask; everybody should look beyond the football team someone supports. Unless that team is the Minnesota Vikings.

    No matter how nuanced Lum’s political positions may be, what I get out of this post is that Lum wants us to read about how this guy got b*tch-slapped for looking for dirt on Obama, and then read the pro-Obama, anti-conservative rants that make up the rest of the page. That smells rather strongly like flak for the Dems.

    I’d still read someone’s blog if they supported a different football team–until the blog contained more posts about the (ugh) Chicago Bears than whatever it was that drew me to the blog in the first place. And all along I’d be wishing the writer wouldn’t talk about the Bears so damn much.

    And, for the record… Go Packers!!

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