For your educational enjoyment:
Check for more carnivals at:
Some private myth focused schools are busy looking for dupes in Pennsylvania about which Myers says:
That’s 777 students getting a sub-standard education in the sciences, and $4,083,200 getting flushed down a rathole. It’s an odd situation, where the wealthy yank their kids out of the public schools and put them in an expensive pit of ignorance by choice, and at the same time fight to underfund the public education they’ve abandoned and turn the schools the poor and middle class rely on into holding pens. We all lose.
No quibbles with the first part of the above and a couple with the latter part.
First, if it is the wealthy that are sending their kids to these private myth based indoctrination centers then we can expect that the wealth will disappear. The kids thus trained will not have any skills beyond the use of force to retain their privileged position.
Second, it is not a matter of turning the public schools into holding pens. That is what they have been for the last century. Luckily some kids do well in spite of the system and go on to be successful professionals and scientists. But for all students, especially the 60 to 70 % who do not achieve basic proficiency in reading, math, science or writing skills, the public school system is and has been little more than a set of holding pens, glorified and overcrowded day care centers.
As an education system public schools are a dramatic failure and need to be completely redone.
…the nation and blog readers die of shock.
A writer at the noted libertarian oriented site Catallarchy posts this headline and statement:
Bush Supports Free Trade; Nation Dies of Shock
Regardless of any backroom deals and ulterior motives that may have led to it, Bush’s support of Dubai’s bid for P&O is good news.
Perhaps Sean has posted this somewhat tongue in cheek but the post doesn’t read that way.
So, please explain how the expansion of a government owned business in any way qualifies as free trade.
Update: Sean was good enough to reply in comments. Below the fold is his reply and my responses. We still disagree on some aspects of this.
Blogging block has been in full operation over the last couple days.
I don’t know how some folks can keep so focused on detailing the ongoing failures, mistakes and lies of the bushies. I’ve looked at the titles of many hundreds of posts over the past few days (thank goodness for RSS) and rest assured if they had anything to do with the ongoing bush debacle I hit the delete button.
This was, of course, the key reason to vote for fresh meat in the last presidential election: bush and his minions/handlers, though extremely dangerous to us all, were getting very boring and remain so. Especially as they start replaying some of the same scripts.
It would have been a pleasure to have a dem or even a different repub to chew over for a few years. Yes, there would have been plenty to chew on if a dem had been elected. Different bones, perhaps, but still plenty to chew on.
One idea that I noticed in some of the post titles that is important to all, no matter your political leaning, is the idea of local activity. You can blog all you want but if you are not out working the issues in your local community, county and state then you may as well be spinnng your wheels in the mud. This is key whether you are a dem, repub, green or lib.
It is critical if you are independent. Get out, work your issues and persuade folks to leave the established parties. They and their candidates do not represent you. They represent interests that likely have no interest in your local community or state.
For those of you who understand the importance of disintermediating the current political establishment local activity is mandatory. Without it how will you define and create the replacement non-political institutuions? More on this from time to time in future.
Well, that shook out a bit of the blockage.
Here’s a set of nifty Warning Signs for the Web. Some of our regulars might consider this one more a beckoning than a warning:
