Are you politically predictable (1 Viewer)

[Dog]

I'm conservative in 99% of my thinking, but I do believe in legalizing marijuana. Keeping it illegal is too big of a waste of resources. I believe alcohol is much worse for you.

 

[RazorOye]

generally speaking, I think it's interesting to see what items - of all possible political issues - that people select to include in their list.

I don't think I could come up with a series of issues that would accurately reflect who I think I am politically - I mean, my posts are long enough and self-indulgent enough as it is. If I tried to do that - help us all

a couple caught my attention that get a lot of traffic on here - education, incarceration, and affirmative action

Dumping more money on education does not usually yield higher results.

This is not true. It's a popular talking point, but it's often misrepresented.

When people talk about how much money is spent on education, they cite really big numbers. Problem is, these numbers often don't trickle down to classrooms, to students, to teachers in need, campuses in crisis.

It's an allocation issue.

I don't call money that goes to NCLB or to more bureaucracy to actually be "money spent on education"

of course the money has to be spent wisely. But in most cases, individual teachers and principals know how best to allocate money and that money does lead to improvements. These are monies that I would say are spent on education as distinguished from bureaucracy.

If you want better resources, better buildings, more security, more certified teachers, etc... then it's going to cost more money than is actually getting to the schools.

So we reach an impasse, splitting hairs. I wouldn't say that the millions that don't reach the classrooms to be money spent on education, really. It's money propped up to support a failing paradigm.

To see the improvements people call for in education takes more money to reach classrooms - perhaps the money is already in the system just not making it to those places.

But that only reinforces my point - if more money makes it to those sites, then that's more money those sites had.

As you state it, it's a popular sentiment - but I think it's not quite accurate, practically speaking.

The system is broken and money will not fix it. I support putting smart kids in smart kid classes where they can go trough their education years being fully challenged. Kids that are lacking in the smarts department should have a trade based education where they learn a trade that they can use to earn a living. The direction they head should be determined around the sixth grade.

I am all for alternative routes to careers and paths and options - I don't think we do enough to provide vocational education and tradeskills.

But what you're talking about here is tracking and is fraught with horror stories and failures.

Disagree totally.

Even with the 6th grade proviso. And I'm wondering where you came up with that number/grade level/age.

Just educationally backwards. I just don't see how people - and you're certainly not the only one - who can make such declarative, sweeping statements about education when the experience/knowledge you have about education and cognition are so casual.

I am for building more prisons. We have had this discussion before and I still stand by my thoughts. Too often we read about a killer with a long rap sheet that has spent little time behind bars.

I don't understand how this is a problem of the number of prisons we have right now.

It seems to me that it's a failing of our judicial system on several levels - and building more prisons only compounds a serious, serious problem in our federal and states's penal systems.

I just don't see how your solution addresses the problem.

Seems to me a re-evaluation of the judicial procedures is a much better place to begin to work on this problem than physical space.

Affirmative Action has run it's course and has got to go. The "Rooney Rule" is the most ridiculous thing ever.

I would argue that true affirmative action never even really began, never even really had a chance. Affirmative action is supposed to level the playing field and create and equality of opportunity. Instead, it was instituted lazily where it became a system of weighted preference in the form of quotas and such.

As a result, the things it was supposed to fix, it really didn't. Rather, it created more an animosity and exacerbated the problems that existed in the first place.

So I don't think it ever had an opportunity to run its course - and the problems it was supposed to address are still very much with us. I don't see, then, how it's run its course that way, either.

A lot of work needs to be done - but the current implementation in a lot of places is just not the way affirmative action should work, imo. It's superficial and easy - two of the last adjectives I'd use to describe the work needed to move toward equity of opportunity.

As for the comment about the Rooney Rule, I can think of a lot of things more ridiculous than it is - to call it "the most ridiculous thing ever" trivializes a lot of other things and reduces the point you're trying to make.

If I were to come up with a list of politically ridiculous things, the Rooney Rule wouldn't be #1 on my list of "most ridiculous ever"

 

[BHM]

I dont think its a satantic symbol unless you multiply it by two hundred and twelve and then add point thirty two

Scary how you figured that out...

 

[IntenseSaint]

Scary how you figured that out...

ummmmm 666 divided by pi? How is that scary?

 

[RazorOye]

ummmmm 666 divided by pi? How is that scary?

can you even divide by a number that doesn't end?

 

[IntenseSaint]

can you even divide by a number that doesn't end?

Certain calculators allow you to divide by pi.

http://www.csgnetwork.com/multdivbypicalc.html

Ok enough derailing

 

[Comus]

OK since you think I am predictable what do you think my stance on American Indians is?

I think you think they cry too much.

 

[BHM]

ummmmm 666 divided by pi? How is that scary?

Wow, I did not even think about doing it that way. I was sitting there trying to figure out how in the heck he figured out that. I went to a public school.

Of course I do not have a pi button on my calculator.

 

[RazorOye]

Wow, I did not even think about doing it that way. I was sitting there trying to figure out how in the heck he figured out that. I went to a public school.

I went to public school too and figured it out.

I'm thinking the problem isn't with public school, then. But it does help explain some of your comments re: public schooling.

 

[IntenseSaint]

I think you think they cry too much.

Wrong... I think they were the single most slighted and poorly treated race of people on this planet.

I believe Andrew Jackson should have been impeached for his treatment of Indians and their removal.

 

[Comus]

can you even divide by a number that doesn't end?

I think you have to live in heaven, where you have all of eternity to do so.

 

[RazorOye]

Wrong... I think they were the single most slighted and poorly treated race of people on this planet.

I believe Andrew Jackson should have been impeached for his treatment of Indians and their removal.

do you support ceasing the celebration of Columbus Day, then?

I always wonder about that veneration at this time of year.

 

[Crzycjunx76]

Fairly conservative on economic issues... but every once in a while I throw in a curve ball like my belief in a comprehensive educational welfare system to improve economic mobility. On the social side I am fairly liberal... I hold with a belief that people can do whatever the heck they want as long as it does not DIRECTLY impact the rights of their fellow citizens. However while I believe that we have too many laws restricting personal choices... any law on the books should be enforced objectively and enforcement should not be influenced by subjective circumstances... I also believe that when an individual or a company receives monetary assistance from the government to better their lot the government can stipulate restrictions on the one receiving the money. Oh and there is no such thing as too big to fail, let the inept fall on their faces... free market (with a few reasonable restrictions) and survival of the fittest evolution are such similar concepts that I often wonder how the two major parties wound up divided the way they are.

 

[BHM]

I went to public school too and figured it out.

I'm thinking the problem isn't with public school, then. But it does help explain some of your comments re: public schooling.

That hurt.

 

[IntenseSaint]

do you support ceasing the celebration of Columbus Day, then?

I always wonder about that veneration at this time of year.

I do indeed actually as Columbus died still thinking he sailed around to the Indies... He treatment of Indians was deplorable, but much worse were Cortez, DeSoto, and Balboa.