That always pissed me off; in my district, normal students have about 1000 dollars of spending by the district per student.
Contrast this with the special education classes - 9000 dollars per student, for a student who, I'm sorry, will not be able to be a productive member of society in any capacity.
I've met some very smart people who, at first seem retarded - these kids are NOT those people.
And then you have the extra money spent on the tutoring for the kids who are slow, or just don't give a damn.
Here's the kicker: after a 1 million dollar donation was made to my district SPECIFICALLY for the establishment and running of an 'enrichment center' for the gifted students (of which I am one, for full disclosure purposes), the district tried to take it all and use it to pay for, wait for it... increased admin salaries.
Exactly. It's not how high my taxes are - it's what are my taxes used for?
You don't hear Finns bitch about their tax rate (nearly 50%) because, thanks to PROPER investment in education (read "Just for Fun" sometime, it actually provides a good explanation of the way in which the Finnish education system works), they have a higher standard of living than most Americans.
I can tell you *exactly* why politicians don't put a priority on funding education: the effects of a change to the education system won't be felt for at least a decade, sometimes even more. They want something that they can use to get people voting for them; crime decreasing (whether or not it's a cause-and-effect relationship); getting rid of those nasty child predators (or at least appearing to); cutting taxes (or making it look like they did).
And what you fail to take into account is that these dollars that are 'forcibly extracted' end up helping you in the long run, too. I can't remember the exact number, but for every dollar paid in taxes, the average taxpayer reaps a HELL of a lot more than 1 dollar in benefits.
Exactly. Monopolies are *not* necessarily a government idea.
For example, Microsoft; it CERTAINLY is not a government-decreed monopoly.
Also, the reason the government grants monopolies to certain companies, such as cable and phone companies, is because that then allows for better service; you don't want 60 sets of phone lines.
I *hated* little kids toys when I was little, and they haven't changed that much in the 16 years span. I wanted things that were interesting and meaningful to me...
But, hey, that's me...
The kid who was reading at 2, skipped 2 grades in math classes, and reads technical manuals for fun.
Yeah... on second thought, don't listen to me. Your kid could end up TOTALLY fucked up.
Ah, yes. You got over it, I didn't, so I must be a pansy, wussy, stupid bastard, right?
Why don't you get over this bullshit that we're all the same. We're not.
I can sympathize with the dead girl, because being the target of targeted, pointed emotional abuse is horrible. Not just 'Oh, look at the nerd!'
I can more than appreciate the "She should have gotten over it" rebuttals, but some people just aren't able to. Understand that. Some people, due to no genetic fault, have brains that simply cannot handle this at certain points. Myself included.
Attempting or committing suicide doesn't mean you're "weak" or "Stupid" or "Useless". It means you need some help.
You people think that all triggers affect one equally; from experience, they don't.
Certain people are *far* more prone to affect by social triggers (such as bullying) than others. People who lead otherwise perfectly happy lives can easily become suicidal over constant bullying.
So, until you've been in this situation, fuck off. You obviously have no god damn clue as to what's going on.
No, you can't use the "It was BOUND to happen one way or another" excuse, either; unless you happen to have PERFECT evidence (IE the ability to see into the future) then you can't say for sure that she would have 'offed herself' as you so kindly put it.
Plus, there is the "thin skull" thing in law; basically, if you do something that wouldn't cause a *normal* person harm, but the person has a pre-existing condition (in the original case, a thin skull that was struck and killed the person) that causes the 'normal' action to be deadly, it's *still* murder. In other words, ignorance of a pre-existing condition doesn't exempt you from your actions.
I just bought a laptop from Compaq (HP spelled differently) and Ubuntu works out of the box with everything except the little button to uh... turn off the touchpad I think...?
I don't know; I never ran Vista long enough to find out.
while I fully believe that altruism is simply a form of selfishness, this is right; just because you do it for your own happiness doesn't mean you devalue the act. It's still the same act.
He was talking about the fact that this 'trickle-down' bullshit is completely bunk. And, frankly, we have bad enough income discrepancy in the first world. We need to fix our own problems - however, I have no problem with solving both concurrently.
Basically, having dealt with SquareTrade (they're actually a pretty decent company, by the way), anything that causes the phone to stop working normally, such as broken screen, broken keyboard, broken battery, broken... well, anything that can't be fixed by the user.
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That always pissed me off; in my district, normal students have about 1000 dollars of spending by the district per student.
Contrast this with the special education classes - 9000 dollars per student, for a student who, I'm sorry, will not be able to be a productive member of society in any capacity.
I've met some very smart people who, at first seem retarded - these kids are NOT those people.
And then you have the extra money spent on the tutoring for the kids who are slow, or just don't give a damn.
Here's the kicker: after a 1 million dollar donation was made to my district SPECIFICALLY for the establishment and running of an 'enrichment center' for the gifted students (of which I am one, for full disclosure purposes), the district tried to take it all and use it to pay for, wait for it...
increased admin salaries.
Exactly. It's not how high my taxes are - it's what are my taxes used for?
You don't hear Finns bitch about their tax rate (nearly 50%) because, thanks to PROPER investment in education (read "Just for Fun" sometime, it actually provides a good explanation of the way in which the Finnish education system works), they have a higher standard of living than most Americans.
I can tell you *exactly* why politicians don't put a priority on funding education: the effects of a change to the education system won't be felt for at least a decade, sometimes even more. They want something that they can use to get people voting for them; crime decreasing (whether or not it's a cause-and-effect relationship); getting rid of those nasty child predators (or at least appearing to); cutting taxes (or making it look like they did).
But investing in the economy, as they are here, does, ostensibly, help everyone.
And what you fail to take into account is that these dollars that are 'forcibly extracted' end up helping you in the long run, too. I can't remember the exact number, but for every dollar paid in taxes, the average taxpayer reaps a HELL of a lot more than 1 dollar in benefits.
Exactly. Monopolies are *not* necessarily a government idea.
For example, Microsoft; it CERTAINLY is not a government-decreed monopoly.
Also, the reason the government grants monopolies to certain companies, such as cable and phone companies, is because that then allows for better service; you don't want 60 sets of phone lines.
I was able to read a tiny bit before 2, and I could read pretty well by 3. It's not bullshit, trust me.
I *hated* little kids toys when I was little, and they haven't changed that much in the 16 years span. I wanted things that were interesting and meaningful to me...
But, hey, that's me...
The kid who was reading at 2, skipped 2 grades in math classes, and reads technical manuals for fun.
Yeah... on second thought, don't listen to me. Your kid could end up TOTALLY fucked up.
I just naturally ended up defective. I never liked people, never liked being outside...
I'm a total fucking loser, basically.
I believe I read the line "The world would be better off without you" in some of the records... yeah, that's suggestion.
Hm, yeah. Every person who has killed themself was stupid. Hemingway, Cobain, that guy who wrote about the Holocaust... all stupid.
Plus, one will be more entertaining!
I fucking hate football...
Ah, yes. You got over it, I didn't, so I must be a pansy, wussy, stupid bastard, right?
Why don't you get over this bullshit that we're all the same. We're not.
I can sympathize with the dead girl, because being the target of targeted, pointed emotional abuse is horrible. Not just 'Oh, look at the nerd!'
I can more than appreciate the "She should have gotten over it" rebuttals, but some people just aren't able to. Understand that. Some people, due to no genetic fault, have brains that simply cannot handle this at certain points. Myself included.
Attempting or committing suicide doesn't mean you're "weak" or "Stupid" or "Useless". It means you need some help.
If the employer fired them *specifically* to cause emotional harm, then HELL YES THEY SHOULD BE PUNISHED!
If she didn't know, this still applies.
If she did know, and knew that it would cause the girl to commit suicide, then that's just plain murder.
You people think that all triggers affect one equally; from experience, they don't.
Certain people are *far* more prone to affect by social triggers (such as bullying) than others. People who lead otherwise perfectly happy lives can easily become suicidal over constant bullying.
So, until you've been in this situation, fuck off. You obviously have no god damn clue as to what's going on.
And... lighting the bomb doesn't count as "bad"?
No, you can't use the "It was BOUND to happen one way or another" excuse, either; unless you happen to have PERFECT evidence (IE the ability to see into the future) then you can't say for sure that she would have 'offed herself' as you so kindly put it.
Plus, there is the "thin skull" thing in law; basically, if you do something that wouldn't cause a *normal* person harm, but the person has a pre-existing condition (in the original case, a thin skull that was struck and killed the person) that causes the 'normal' action to be deadly, it's *still* murder. In other words, ignorance of a pre-existing condition doesn't exempt you from your actions.
Of course. But, then again, people are outraged over this; she supposedly broke the law to intentionally hurt someone.
She's a bitch, and shouldn't be allowed in society. People like this are worthless pimples on the ass of society.
Have you seen the documentary "Black Diamonds"?
It's amazing, and deals with this very topic. Highly recommended.
I just bought a laptop from Compaq (HP spelled differently) and Ubuntu works out of the box with everything except the little button to uh... turn off the touchpad I think...?
I don't know; I never ran Vista long enough to find out.
Like installing Gentoo?
I believe that that's mostly to discourage them from keeping prices artificially high - and to do something about the profits they received.
while I fully believe that altruism is simply a form of selfishness, this is right; just because you do it for your own happiness doesn't mean you devalue the act. It's still the same act.
He was talking about the fact that this 'trickle-down' bullshit is completely bunk. And, frankly, we have bad enough income discrepancy in the first world. We need to fix our own problems - however, I have no problem with solving both concurrently.
Basically, having dealt with SquareTrade (they're actually a pretty decent company, by the way), anything that causes the phone to stop working normally, such as broken screen, broken keyboard, broken battery, broken... well, anything that can't be fixed by the user.
And the current mortality rate for living is a solid 100%. may be even higher in coming years.