Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Care to Elaborate On 
Or Add Anything To 
This Statement?


26 comments:

  1. Book smart replaced street smart. Theory replaced practicality. And the "professor" replaced the journeyman tradesman. The "master discourse" was traded for the "university discourse".

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    1. Absolutely correct, Thersites. We need a blend of the practical with the intellectual, of course. I am certainly not a Luddite, and I don't think you are either, but I greatly fear we've lost any sense of balance we may once have had in differentiating between the real and the speculative.

      And of course we now very sadly conflate PSEUDO-intellectualism with the real thing which has certainly worked to the detriment of society.

      Delete
  2. That's what leftwing progressivism does. Build a bonfire of tradition, values, philosophies and religions that have worked well, and construct a hopium-fill fantasy bubble, and rage and swarm against anyone who would prick it with the swords of facts, reality and logic.

    Vision of the Anointed and Quest for Cosmic Justice are two of his books that expound on this important topic. His writing style is dense and plodding, but it's good information with little fluff.

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  3. I'd love an example from old Uncle Thomas Sowell.

    JMJ

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    1. So Thomas Sowell is just another "Uncle Tom"?

      Yikes. Another great "liberal" mind at work beavering away to undermine any advocate of individual rights and less dependency on the public teat.

      Delete
    2. Evidently to Jersey, Mr Sowell isn't a "magic negro" like Mr. Obama. Only "magial negro's" can absolve Democrat's of their Klan heritage. And nobody is quite in need of absolution so much as a guilt ridden and still wholly racist Democrat.

      Delete
    3. Jersey is a known racist, as are most leftwingers. If you're a minority or a woman, either you're on the Democrat Socialist plantation or you're a traitor to you race or gender.

      It's a simple credo suitable to the simple hive mentality.

      Delete
  4. Information You DeserveFebruary 17, 2015 at 2:30 PM

    As Obama continues to demonstrate to the world the differences between himself and George W. Bush.
    Trying to make himself look like he’s just like the rest of us is beyond disgusting!

    Obamacare is a market distorting, debt producing, doctor coercing, job, health, and freedom killing NIGHTMARE! I know several people who have been reduced to part-time hours or have dropped being insured because they can’t afford it. My elderly mother, who is diabetic lost her physician she’s had for 10 years and her deductible and med costs have skyrocketed while her coverage has narrowed and now is extremely limited. Does Obama care (no pun intended) that she is on a fixed income and can’t afford this?… then again I guess because she is old who really cares if she gets care or not? Maybe they are hoping that she will die soon….

    What truly disgusts me is we are being forced to pay MORE to receive less, because this regime is FORCING us to subsidize people who CAN and SHOULD WORK… But that’s the plan — make EVERYONE poorer and thus dependent on a sick, bloated, power-craving Monstrosity. Obama is not listening to the American people, has no intention of re-visiting this plan, and is more in love with being President than doing the actual job. Last year I wrote a letter to my states representative, voicing my concerns and received a canned response on how wonderful ObamaCare is, and that I should be thankful it is available. Basically this administration’s attitude is truly disgusting. .

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    1. These observations are true enough, but they are not really pertinent to the topic. They qualify as BOILERPLATE -- a general attack on a side you oppose probably cut and pasted from a prepared statement.

      We don't encourage that here, but since you din't attack anyone directly, the remarks may stand, but please observe our rules in the future.

      Thank you.

      Delete
  5. TO MY FRIENDS WHOSE COMMENTS DISAPPEARED:

    First two quotations from the previous thread.

    FT: "This thread was supposed to be about the obnoxious Jon Stewart and the deleterious influence he and his ilk have had on society. You gentlemen (AHEM!) seem to have gotten awfully far afield."


    JACK SHINOLA: As usual, the obnoxious and noxious Jersey Girl McJackass hijacks the thread and make it about the obnoxious and noxious Jersey Girl Mc Jackass...


    FT: Oh NO, Jack! The fault lies the people who rise to the bait and insist on trying to REASON with unreasonable people who hijack the thread. Unless and until we in the blogging community understand that, conversation will continue to get duller, stupider and more acrimonious by the hour.

    It happened first crack out of the barrel right here when Canardo made one of his usual barbed insults and RIGHT AWAY a whole bunch of people I normally like and respect simply FOLLOWED HIS LEAD and destroyed the thread before it had a chance to begin.

    When I eradicate the entire string of irrelevant, disagreeable remarks, worthless insults and restatements of the obvious, my friends might think I'm insulting them.

    In exactly this way do the leftist predators take control and bend us to their will.

    To say it's disgusting would be an understatement. Worse than that it's BORING.

    I'd prefer to have no responses at all than to have these strings of endless bickering, name-calling, and redundant statements of the obvious.



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  6. Then delete the Code Stinko pinkos!

    Both Ducky and Jersey bring nothing substantive or new to the conversation. Both remind me of aging hippie college professor still singing the old protest songs from the 60's. Mindless, worthless, thoughtless.

    We could quickly set up a blog with their trite verbal flatulence, and instead of posting their comments, just post a link back to the blog.

    And this is not about silencing people I disagree with; it's about slamming the door on people who contribute absolutely nothing to the conversation.

    Jez, for example is to the left of us, but he always brings thoughtful comments and he knows how to disagree without being idiotic and rude about it. Ducky can sometimes rise to that level, but even his true contributions are almost always wrapped in snark and marinated in bile. Jersey rarely says anything worthwhile. His mission seems to be to insult as many people as possible who disagree with him. It's tiresome.

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    1. I thank my learned friend and colleague for his indubitably sage advice, but feel compelled to add that harsh criticism of perceived malfeasance tends only to magnify it. There is a notable segment of humanity that seems to THRIVE on being disliked, scorned and rejected.It makes them feel righteous, stokes the fire of their indignation, and nourishes their inner beast. ;-)

      Is that smart?

      Delete
    2. FreeThinke: Wise words.

      The best way to keep them from hijacking the thread is to zap their comments that stray from the topic and instead lapse into worthless twaddle and self-indulgent agitprop.

      I support blog owners in their editorial decisions, whatever they may be.

      Free speech is a libertarian tenet, but so is respect for the property of others. No one has a right to come onto your property, sling shit and insult everyone.

      Delete
  7. The left pretends that Bush helped create ISIS, but they've thrived under Obama. They would not have gotten this far if not for Obama's foreign policy, or lack of it. It seems like Obama's policies are always friendly to the radical Muslims. He isn't doing much to stop ISIS. In a few days, Jordanians did more to stop them than all of our airstrikes. They are serious about stopping ISIS. We have 300 marines who are in danger of being overrun by ISIS and yet we do nothing. I often wonder whose side Obama is on in all this. Either let our people get the job done or get them out. We are quite capable of ending the reign of terror by ISIS, yet we go forth with a half-ass effort. The Obama administration has done poorly when it comes to having the backs of our troops.

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    1. These observations are true enough, but they are not really pertinent to the topic. They qualify as BOILERPLATE -- a general attack on a side you oppose probably cut and pasted from a prepared statement.

      We don't encourage that here, but since you din't attack anyone directly, the remarks may stand, but please observe our rules in the future.

      Thank you.

      Delete
  8. I see for myself that what Mr. Sowell stated applies to education. Over and over again for decades, the education industry is always running off with expensive experimental programs replacing something that worked. At least 90% of the time, the experimental programs are consummate failures.

    Students are being used at guinea pigs, and the taxpayers are funding these experiments.

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    1. Yes yes yes, and YES again, AOW.

      My late Aunt Alice, as you know, was a highly successful elementary school principal for 42 years. Sadly, she was forced to retire earlier than she wanted to when the superintendent of schools with whom she'd worked, happily, harmoniously and productively for several decades retired, and was replaced by a Hot Shot "Progressive" with Big Ideas, who decided the "baby" just had to be tossed out with the "bath water," if that excellent school system could ever hope to keep pace with the modern world.

      Need I say more?

      Regrettably the very same thing happened to my cousin who had been successful in building a highly regarded private academy with a sterling record of accomplishment from scratch.

      His achievements were notable. His record exemplary. His reputation above reproach. And then one fine day a PROGRESSIVE jockeyed himself onto the board of directors, and before you could say "Oh Dear!" my cousin found himself out on the street at age 60. He was blindsided and effectively assassinated by an insidious intellectual aggressor -- a bully with a big loud mouth who, apparently, lived to throw his weight around.

      That in both these cases the Unwelcome Agent of Uninvited, Unneeded, Unhelpful Change just happened to be one of The Chosen may or may not be significant. It's not for me to decide, but ...

      Delete
    2. FT,
      I fled the public education system in 1977, when I refused to obey the principal, who ordered me to pass the star football player -- never mind that this athletes grade averages were in the toilet (below 50%) and never mind the county's rules about qualifying to play sports.

      I fled private education in 1997. I saw that the curriculum materials were subverting the school's previous standards, yet the administrators and owners of the school refused to change the curriculum. Indeed, worse than that! The administrators-owners changed the grades which the teachers submitted so that students graduating from 8th grade could gain admission to a magnet school.

      The financial hit on this AOW household resonates to this day because I walked away from two well-paying jobs.

      As a teacher, I live by this:

      And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. -- Mark 9:42.

      In my view, the word "offend" has layers of meaning -- one of the being "not doing what's best for a child (student)." And "best" in the education forum, means "teaching the child the basics and holding each student to a high standard."

      Delete
    3. AOW:

      One of the biggest money-making, back-scratching scams of the past few decades is foreign language teaching and "cultural support" in public schools. It's all balderdash, and nothing more that providing more worthless jobs to 'educators,' and allowing them to demand extra pay for their extraordinary 'skills.'

      It's all BS. As you know better than most, children learn quickly, and the absolute best way is to immerse them in the new language and culture. The system can make grade allowances for them at the beginning, but with total immersion, they will be language proficient with a year or so, depending on age and ability.

      The teachers syndicates and the immigration agitators are now demanding all these special teams for the Somali Muslims Obama is importing.

      This is all nothing more that Government-sanctioned and enforced linguistic and cultural ghettos that guarantee newcomers will not integrate into society, and will thus remain ignorant to what's going on in their new nation and government, providing the Democrat party and the Poverty Pimps in government a steady stream of wards of the state who can be herded to the polls to vote for whichever Democrat slimeballs and gargoyles besmudge the ballot.

      Delete
    4. SF,
      One of the biggest money-making, back-scratching scams of the past few decades is foreign language teaching and "cultural support" in public schools.

      Are you referring to ESL (ESOL) classes? If so, I agree.

      The teaching of foreign language (Latin, Greek, German, etc.) is something different. Just sayin'.

      Delete
    5. Yes, that is what I am referring to. I may be a redneck, but I ain't that much of one that I oppose teaching foreign languages! I speak a few myself, and my entire family is bilingual.

      Bringing in extra teachers to cater to the linguistic and cultural sensitivities of children is idiotic. Immerse them; they learn quickly, and that is what will make them a useful American able to fend for themselves.

      To make a further distinction, I support voluntary ESL programs for adult immigrants.

      Delete
    6. SF,
      I have taught ESL courses to adults -- highly motivated adults -- who contracted privately for the instruction.

      But ESL for children? I've read at least one study indicating that ESL instruction beyond one year of that instruction is futile.

      When I taught at a private school from 1978-1997, we had several non-English-speaking students. We put them back a few grade levels for their first year in the school. Voila! By the second year, they were about to move up to their correct grade level. "Swimming for it" and total immersion work!

      The ESOL budgets consume a great deal of money in most public school systems. Other students, particularly average English-speaking students, are getting short shrift in today's public education systems.

      Delete
  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. Sorry, Owl, but your (generally correct) criticisms are not relevant to THIS thread. When you feel like conversing WITH us instead of merely talking AT us with pre-degested material, please come back.

      Delete
  10. FYI: We don't ask for AGREEMENT with our opinions. We only ask that you be polite in asking your questions and stating your disagreement, -- and above all that you please STAY ON TOPIC.

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  11. Don't know what all the fuss is about. Doc Sowell is a right wise man.

    Newfangled don't necessarily mean better, my friends.

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