September, 2014 archive
War and Mongers of War 0
Tony Norman reminds us that war is not a video game. A nugget (emphasis added).
We want the killing done as antiseptically as possible and with a minimum of American casualties. In other words, we want another of those “magic” wars we never seem to get. They elude us no matter how much our leaders assure us that we’re entitled to conflicts with a minimum of fuss when they’re laying out the rationale for open-ended bombing campaigns. We don’t even have to know how to find on a map the countries we plan to bomb. All we need to bring to the table is fear — and the more of it, the better.
There is no such thing in war as a “surgical strike.”
Also see George Smith on fear.
QOTD 0
Robert Green Ingersoll:
To argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine to the dead.
The Truth Is (Not) Out There 0
Thom explores why persons buy into conspiracy theories.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite at work and school, especially if they are the same place.
Granite School District spokesman Ben Horsley says the gun went off while the woman was in a faculty restroom shortly before class started Thursday at Westbrook Elementary School, in the Salt Lake City suburb of Taylorsville.
Too stupid to have a gun, too stupid to teach.
No Child Left . . . . 0
Jim Arnold, a former Superintendent of Schools in Georgia, believes that teachers, and through them education, are being screwed.
A nugget:
Enrollments in education programs are dropping nationwide, due in large part to the attacks on the profession through opposition to due process, denigration of the profession, low pay and increasing expectations. Doing more with less has ceased to become a temporary circumstance and now is a way of life for teachers.
It would seem that 12 years of a failed test-and-punish system would be enough for anyone to recognize it simply doesn’t work.
President George the Worst’s “No Child Left Behind” has been just as successful as his stewardship of the economy, but those who have been enriched by it–testing companies, flocks of superfluous administrators, E-school theorists who have never led a primary or secondary school class, computer sales persons–continue to tinker with it rather than admit that it and their theories and their iPads and e-learning have not only failed to improve learning, but have done damage.
Meanwhile, for-profit charter schools circle like carrion crows to pluck clean the bones of the public school system so as to pay for their CEOs’ country-club memberships and private jets.
Are We Being Played? 2
Stu Bykofsky note the U-turn in America’s war fever and wonders why. He considers both the beheadings in the Middle East and the Ray Rice case.
In each case, none of the facts had changed, just our perception and reaction to them.
(snip)
Founding military strategist Sun Tzu, the William Shakespeare of tactics, wrote that a crucial preliminary to battle is attacking the mind of the enemy. He proposed using spies to plant false information to create fear and confuse the enemy.
In today’s world, social media are those agents.
Do please read the rest. It’s worth thinking about.
Time for the Final Whistle 0
Cranky Bear argues that it’s time that, because of its brutality and corruption, football follows boxing into obscurity.
Here’s a snippet that echoes some of what I’ve been saying in these electrons.
The NCAA, which manages college football, is even worse than the NFL. They still peddle the stinking lie that big-time football players are “student athletes” who shouldn’t be paid, all while rolling in the dough that they generate. Have you ever seen the type of colored blazer wearing philistine who regularly occupies positions on bowl committees, events that rake in dollars made by the unpaid workers on the field that the people are paying money to see? These well-fed respectable men about town act as if those young athletes owe them a living. College football is nothing more than a giant wage-theft racket dressed in the romantic garb of “tradition.”
War and Mongers of War 0
Shaun Mullen shares 15 thoughts. Here are two of them:
Read the rest.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
One down.
Charles Head, 40, currently of Pittsburgh, Pa., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller. A hearing to determine the amount of restitution has been set for Nov. 22.
In sentencing, Mueller said that Head had “created and implemented a very cynical scheme” and had “shown an inability to respect the law,” according to a federal Department of Justice news release.
The persons who created the “opportunity” that Mr. Head exploited still walk the boardrooms of Wall Street.
“Death Panels” 0
Dr. Mark Thomas explains how the Republican Party is turning Sarah Palin’s fever dream of death panels into reality. It’s a long post; here’s a bit.
They would have also produced death panels if any of their attempts to repeal the ACA had worked. Millions who had finally been able to get insured would have lost their coverage. And for many, that quite literally means death.
The GOP has also instituted death panels when they legislate the closure of abortion clinics.
Or add needless requirements (ultrasounds, counseling) onto pregnant women seeking an abortion.
Well, the Republicans have done it again, possibly on a much grander scale this time, with Ebola.