The Bush administration reduced the "Faith-based inititiative" agenda because he received a great deal of unsolicited interest from Wahabi-ists who are the same fundamentalist Muslims who support the Saudi royal family. AND CHARTER schools do not statistically do better than public schools. Keep pandering and avoid the govt role in our dismal school ratings and high incarceration rates. The GOP--a party that says that govt is bad and get into power a PROVE IT!
Yes, he sounds so ...( 3 months ago by priorzola)
Yes, he sounds so much clearly attuned with his beliefs but like TOO MANY FUNDIES, his beliefs avoid cold hard realities and view the world in a far too narrow binary viewpoint. He avoids hard facts and merely spouts of GOP ideology which has not been substantiated (if the first 6 years of the Bush administration didn't already convince you of that fact). These policies had their chance and they have not improved our economy, raised our education levels, or MADE US SAFER. They have FAILED!!!
Yes, if only Ayn ...( 3 months ago by priorzola)
Yes, if only Ayn Rand's real-life alcoholic husband could have been as much a genius as Howard Roark or Alan Greenspan could have had one-tenth of the integrity of Roark. But that's just it, it's fiction (like the Bible). These are archetypes that NO HUMAN BEING can or should have to live up to. REALITY is a hell of lot more messier than Libertarians or Neo-cons ever will acknowledge. MCCAIN is not comparable to Jesus and no wealth is made alone without investment into infrastructure. PERIOD.
Don't see how ...( 3 months ago by aic4ever)
Don't see how Rand's husband has to do with my point. The guy threw Grapes at me as a leg to stand on, I threw an equally in-depth work of fiction back. FYI: Rand did not intend people be BE Roark or Galt any more than the church intends people to BE Jesus. They are idealistic views of what men should strive to be, as is Jesus, without the fallacy of deification. If you feel that since they are ideals that cannot be matched, they are irrelevant, then you strive only to complain rather than work.
John McCain is ...( 3 months ago by blueguise23)
John McCain is going to pick a "PRO-CHOICE" V.P. running mate! John McCain is reportedly wanting Tom Ridge (PRO-CHOICE) for his V.P., but his camp is begging him not to pick him. Right now Tom Ridge the "Pro-Choice" candidate is #1 on John McCain's V.P. List! Let's see if McCain has the BALLS to make his own decision, or will he COWER to his camp!
Liberatarian ideas ...( 3 months ago by priorzola)
Liberatarian ideas like those spouting off by Ayn Rand and endorsed by her student Alan Greenspan are based on a fiction; the fiction of the "SEF-MADE MAN". If a man is prosperous it usually due to either significant publin investment in infrastructure (not made personally by that individual) OR that individual has monopolized an industry, enslaved the workforce or gouged customers (or all of the three). THE SELF-MADE MAN is a MYTH. There are those who take better advantage of opportunities.
I haven't liked ...( 3 months ago by isadoraseventeen)
I haven't liked Mccain, but he nailed this entire forum, and boosted my opinion of his policies.
He gave bread and ...( 3 months ago by panamafever)
He gave bread and fish. He would drill where there was oil and need; and he would never bomb. He came to give love. You know that
Let me ask: why is ...( 3 months ago by panamafever)
Let me ask: why is it that over the past 50 years, we've spend more and more money on schools, but all indications point to worse and worse results. So what's the real problem? Could it be that the culture is in decline? that parents spend much less effort on their childrens' upbringing? Trusting instead the government and pop culture to raise them? Bigger budgets, incentives--these won't save the schools. The school is merely a symptom of the problem--the ruin of a post-Christian culture.
You give no ...( 3 months ago by panamafever)
You give no specifics, relying instead on attacks against politicians. Don't argue the merits of McCain's proposals by spouting invectives and perpetrating personal attacks! Argue intelligently.
Well that's ...( 3 months ago by panamafever)
Well that's patently false. How much infrastructure did Genghis Khan invest in, again? And yes, you've read Rand. Congrats. Does any of this have any bearing on the above debate? When did McCain say the world wasn't messy? And who compared him to Jesus? Cover your mouth; your foam is showing.
Wow, you had to go ...( 3 months ago by priorzola)
Wow, you had to go back 800 years for a reference. Well, Ol' Genghis did invest in his people (inspiring a great deal of loyalty) but what he invested in the most was his war machine. Gee, just like the US (expecially if McCain has his way). Maybe it's because, like McCain, Genghis was far more concerned with the imperialist expansion of his influence. An act that eventually led (by his heirs) to IMPERIALIST-OVERREACH and the end of the empire and being booted from Bagdad like we will be. Irony!
Well consumerism ...( 3 months ago by priorzola)
Well consumerism has a way of infantalizing people. And it doesn't help that FUNDIES vote for anti-intellectuals like George Bush and John (Mr. 894 of 899 in the Naval academy) McCain. Plus fundies are anti-science which causes us to not be as competitive in developing future technologies. And the teacher pay in the US lags behind Canada, Japan and most of Europe. You're right, bad results in education is a symptom of a bigger problem. Greed, simpleton leadership, and willful ignorance.
By the way, I just ...( 3 months ago by priorzola)
By the way, I just listed SPECIFICS. Stop spending all your time working to buy you and your kids sh*t you don't need, raise your kids not XBOX and lower your personal debt. Start focusing on science, math and engineering considering that only 30% of American college students graduate with those degrees while in China 60-70% of students do and that gap will impair our ability to compete. Pay teachers as much as other teachers in the 1st world nations we compete with. And stop electing idiots.
Array( 3 months ago by aic4ever)
If you read & understand Rand the Self-Made Man never does anything completely on his own, as it is impossible. He is a businessman, who yes, exactly as you have pointed out, puts in the necessary effort to take advantage of his opportunities, which he seeks out for himself & works to arrive at. Opportunity is not handed to you, you have to work to arrive at an opportunity, & then work more to take advantage of it, & more still to succeed. I don't see how you can possibly believe this is a myth.
The ideas you are ...( 3 months ago by aic4ever)
The ideas you are spouting are what is the real fiction. One, such as a teacher, DOES NOT perform better by being paid more first. I am an engineer with a masters degree, & most teachers I've had throughout my life were no more than glorified babysitters. People like that receiving more money just because, would only make them bad teachers with more money. GOOD teachers do deserve more & in my experience they also receive more, several in my HS making over 6 figures. Why? They WORKED to EARN it!
Well German ...( 3 months ago by priorzola)
Well German teachers, Japanese teachers, Swiss teachers, and Canadian teachers actually do perform better (or at least their students do) and they sure as hell all do get paid far more than the average American teacher. But as I can tell from you illogical rant and willingness to fall prey to NEO-CON rhetoric about teacher's salaries that your teachers must have merely been babysitting you and not teaching you the basic skills of researching your opinions and supporting them with FACTS.
AND according to ...( 3 months ago by priorzola)
AND according to Rand's libertarian rants these so-called "SELF-MADE MEN" should not feel obliged to pay back to a system that gave them the advantage of opportunities (economic and political) that other systems could or did not (like Rand herself, who received more opportunities in the MIXED ECONOMY, capitalist and socialist, of the US that allowed for free thought then in her native Russia). You can work hard in Madagascar and you wouldn't have the same results because their tax base is lower.
You're arguing ...( 3 months ago by aic4ever)
You're arguing different systems now. It's not just an issue of higher pay. That's the point I'm trying to make. Our system needs change. I'm not advocating teachers being paid low is right. I'm advocating that the system needs change, & a change that would allow those teachers to be compensated correctly according to their abilities. A better system, yielding better teachers who DESERVE better pay needs to be there. Like McCain said in this forum, find the bad teachers a different line of work.
I know that, and ...( 3 months ago by aic4ever)
I know that, and I'm not naive enough to think taxes shouldn't exist or that our economy can be based on gold. I wasn't arguing that businesses and government don't complement each other. At this point in the US, they are both far too codependent to not coexist. However, I will argue that a person will make whatever money he or she is capable of EARNING by the work they do. Realize this does not mean I support CEO's like those at Freddie & Fannie, but honest men running businesses ethically.
hmmm spending got ...( 3 months ago by KojachBaumherr)
hmmm spending got completely out of control? how would that be? oh researching bear dna for $3mil or funding an illegal war for $10bil a month?
get real all are ...( 3 months ago by fixchair1)
get real all are you all for the 666
No, he didn't.( 2 months ago by DURKLIVES)
No, he didn't.
Im so glad at least ...( 1 month ago by pinkpeppy24)
Im so glad at least ONE of the canidates dosen't beat around the bush on the questions and gives clear answers on what he believes. Obama=a slogan and a smile
John McCain is reportedly wanting Tom Ridge (PRO-CHOICE) for his V.P., but his camp is begging him not to pick him.
Right now Tom Ridge the "Pro-Choice" candidate is #1 on John McCain's V.P. List!
Let's see if McCain has the BALLS to make his own decision, or will he COWER to his camp!
Argue intelligently.
And yes, you've read Rand. Congrats. Does any of this have any bearing on the above debate? When did McCain say the world wasn't messy? And who compared him to Jesus?
Cover your mouth; your foam is showing.