Our Political Leanings

[Holdek]

I hate this country.

Why do you stay, then?

 

[CatParty]

[youtube]6fZZqDJXOVg[/youtube]

 

[Hasharin]

I hate this country.

Why do you stay, then?

Maybe she can't move somewhere else? Or she hates other countries more. I don't like my country too but I acknowledge it's better to live here than in, say, North Korea or Iran... except it is already like Iran of Europe. But everywhere there's basically the same shit.

 

[exball]

I hate this country.

Why do you stay, then?

Maybe she can't move somewhere else? Or she hates other countries more. I don't like my country too but I acknowledge it's better to live here than in, say, North Korea or Iran... except it is already like Iran of Europe. But everywhere there's basically the same shit.

Come to America, we have Hulkamania.

 

[WiseOldBadger]

What do you guys think of school vouchers? The system that allows kids in bad innercity schools to be able to go to better private schools to get a better education?

 

[Hasharin]

Come to Anerica, we have Hulkamania.

"eating your vitamins" < "drinking your vodka"
[youtube]QCy68CWDKVE[/youtube]

 

[hellbound]

What do you guys think of school vouchers? The system that allows kids in bad innercity schools to be able to go to better private schools to get a better education?

At best it's a stopgap measure when what should really be addressed is why the inner-city schools are so shitty*. At worst it either spreads the inner-city shittiness to the private schools, or acts as a vehicle for de facto segregation (compare to the "magnet school" system in Baton Rouge, LA, which basically resulted in nice mostly-white schools and terrible mostly-black schools).

*My personal view, with the caveat that I am not involved in education, though my GF, many of her friends, and many other people I know and have spoken about the issue with, are: part of it is that urban culture has a tendency to reject education as a whole, but another HUGE part of it is we spend way too damn much on administrators rather than teachers. You end up with a gaggle of starry-eyed idealists all of whom want to make their mark having to fuck with curricula while drawing absurd wages, while people who could be great educators don't become teachers because the pay is shit and the benefits are shit. Fire about nine-tenths of those useless assholes in admin, remove a lot of the centralization so rather than disconnected "experts" without experience a hundred or thousand miles away deciding the curriculum you have people who know what the fuck their district needs, and use the savings to hire more teachers, pay them better, and buy course materials worth a damn.

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

My results. Sounds about right.

http://www.isidewith.com/results/443164160

 

[Takayuki Yagami]

What do you guys think of school vouchers? The system that allows kids in bad innercity schools to be able to go to better private schools to get a better education?

At best it's a stopgap measure when what should really be addressed is why the inner-city schools are so shitty*. At worst it either spreads the inner-city shittiness to the private schools, or acts as a vehicle for de facto segregation (compare to the "magnet school" system in Baton Rouge, LA, which basically resulted in nice mostly-white schools and terrible mostly-black schools).

*My personal view, with the caveat that I am not involved in education, though my GF, many of her friends, and many other people I know and have spoken about the issue with, are: part of it is that urban culture has a tendency to reject education as a whole, but another HUGE part of it is we spend way too damn much on administrators rather than teachers. You end up with a gaggle of starry-eyed idealists all of whom want to make their mark having to fuck with curricula while drawing absurd wages, while people who could be great educators don't become teachers because the pay is shit and the benefits are shit. Fire about nine-tenths of those useless assholes in admin, remove a lot of the centralization so rather than disconnected "experts" without experience a hundred or thousand miles away deciding the curriculum you have people who know what the fuck their district needs, and use the savings to hire more teachers, pay them better, and buy course materials worth a damn.

Charter schools are a very flawed idea from the onset. One, the US government shouldn't be giving money to religious organizations unless they are running a non-discriminatory charity. Two, the deregulatory mania you get in the red states that try to implement voucher programs in means that there is basically no oversight into how these schools would be operated. Three, what happens if the people looking for a charter school don't have an option that is acceptable to them? The atheist kid doesn't have anywhere to go that isn't a fundamentalist school because the state government just took away funding from something that is already underfunded to placate religious wackos and education companies bribing the people on the school board.(don't get mad at me for calling lobbying bribery. They're just about the same thing in the US)

 

[Hasharin]

Politics are entertainment for me, besides vote, what can you actually do?

Voting is like being a fan of one or another football team- nothing bad in itself, but to pretend it is politically meaningful is silly.

 

[EI 903]

What do you guys think of school vouchers? The system that allows kids in bad innercity schools to be able to go to better private schools to get a better education?

I think that private schools should have their accreditation revoked, and that the only types of education allowed should be public or home schooling.

 

[Holdek]

What do you guys think of school vouchers? The system that allows kids in bad innercity schools to be able to go to better private schools to get a better education?

At best it's a stopgap measure when what should really be addressed is why the inner-city schools are so shitty*. At worst it either spreads the inner-city shittiness to the private schools, or acts as a vehicle for de facto segregation (compare to the "magnet school" system in Baton Rouge, LA, which basically resulted in nice mostly-white schools and terrible mostly-black schools).

*My personal view, with the caveat that I am not involved in education, though my GF, many of her friends, and many other people I know and have spoken about the issue with, are: part of it is that urban culture has a tendency to reject education as a whole, but another HUGE part of it is we spend way too damn much on administrators rather than teachers. You end up with a gaggle of starry-eyed idealists all of whom want to make their mark having to fuck with curricula while drawing absurd wages, while people who could be great educators don't become teachers because the pay is shit and the benefits are shit. Fire about nine-tenths of those useless assholes in admin, remove a lot of the centralization so rather than disconnected "experts" without experience a hundred or thousand miles away deciding the curriculum you have people who know what the fuck their district needs, and use the savings to hire more teachers, pay them better, and buy course materials worth a damn.

Charter schools are a very flawed idea from the onset. One, the US government shouldn't be giving money to religious organizations unless they are running a non-discriminatory charity. Two, the deregulatory mania you get in the red states that try to implement voucher programs in means that there is basically no oversight into how these schools would be operated. Three, what happens if the people looking for a charter school don't have an option that is acceptable to them? The atheist kid doesn't have anywhere to go that isn't a fundamentalist school because the state government just took away funding from something that is already underfunded to placate religious wackos and education companies bribing the people on the school board.(don't get mad at me for calling lobbying bribery. They're just about the same thing in the US)

Okay, voucher concept =/= charter concept.

 

[Duke Nukem]

Politics are entertainment for me, besides vote, what can you actually do?

Voting is like being a fan of one or another football team- nothing bad in itself, but to pretend it is politically meaningful is silly.

"Stop complaining, you get two choices"

 

[c-no]

Politics are entertainment for me, besides vote, what can you actually do?

Voting is like being a fan of one or another football team- nothing bad in itself, but to pretend it is politically meaningful is silly.

"Stop complaining, you get two choices"

http://southparkstudios.mtvnimages.com/ ... ndwich.jpg

And if you don't vote, then we spit on you then banish you.

 

[Duke Nukem]

And if you don't vote, then we spit on you then banish you.

It's all right to have an opinion, but way too many people seem either unwilling or unable to think for themselves on any issue. And that goes for more than religion or politics, apparently.

You know how there's religious fundamentalists in the world? Well, I grew up in a family that is the political equivalent. I won't say which party but I do see shades of that in some people.

Hey, I'll vote and all, but I don't take it seriously like way too many people do.

Also, a variant of the theme above. LOL:

I hate this country.

Why do you stay, then?

Because every other country is worse? Or perhaps she can't afford to leave right now?

It's not like everyone who wants to live in America (or any other richer country) can just get in like *that.* I'm sure the same deal is true for the reverse as well.

 

[Holdek]

I hate this country.

Why do you stay, then?

Maybe she....

I hate this country.

Why do you stay, then?

...perhaps she....

Thanks fokes, but I was asking her the question, and it wasn't rhetorical.

 

[Linako 2.0]

Is it bad some people started labeling me as Objectivist, even though I never read Atlas Shrugged nor do I understand objectivism that well ?

 

[Holdek]

Is it bad some people started labeling me as Objectivist, even though I never read Atlas Shrugged nor do I understand objectivism that well ?

Yeah.

 

[Tubular Monkey]

Neither major American party represents the majority of the country anymore. They both went to the extreme ends of the ideology. They have co-opted the terms conservative and liberal. I am center-right. I believe in a limited federal government, heightened states' rights, and ultimately the people themselves determining what they want.

I look at the main parties as team Red and team Blue. People have just chosen them, adopted their ideologies lock, stock and barrel, and see the other side as the enemy. It's all a scam, and I despise the ideologues on both sides fanning the flames. Rhetoric from people like O'Reilly and Maddow are equally disingenuous and pointless. If only the world existed in such a stark black and white, where tabloid style attacks on complex political problems solved everything. Entertainment has entrenched itself in politics just as securely as it did at the height of Yellow journalism.

 

[Holdek]

Neither major American party represents the majority of the country anymore. They both went to the extreme ends of the ideology. They have co-opted the terms conservative and liberal. I am center-right. I believe in a limited federal government, heightened states' rights, and ultimately the people themselves determining what they want.

I look at the main parties as team Red and team Blue. People have just chosen them, adopted their ideologies lock, stock and barrel, and see the other side as the enemy. It's all a scam, and I despise the ideologues on both sides fanning the flames. Rhetoric from people like O'Reilly and Maddow are equally disingenuous and pointless. If only the world existed in such a stark black and white, where tabloid style attacks on complex political problems solved everything. Entertainment has entrenched itself in politics just as securely as it did at the height of Yellow journalism.

I get your point, and both sides have their excesses, but I don't think it's a wash. There's really no equivalent to the Tea Party in the Democratic Party. And the influence of MSNBC vs. Fox + talk radio is pretty small.

I mean just look at the clown car of candidates for the '12 GOP presidential primary. Besides Mitt Romney, who out of them could you make the case was both qualified/sane and competitive?

Personally, I see the Democratic Party as having moved more toward the center since the George McGovern debacle thanks in large part to the influence of the Democratic Leadership Conference (which was then exported to the UK as New Labour), with the Republicans moving toward the right since Ronald Reagan gave Gerald Ford a run for his money in the '76 primary which was then vindicated with his nomination four years later over George H.W. Bush. So you have a Democratic Party filled with Bill Clinton types but really no more Nelson Rockefellers in the GOP.