Damn! How long does it take you to type these great posts? It's very impressive that your entire post history appears to be so thoughtful and well-linked.
Also, kids need to learn the irony that in a world full of fancy computers and advanced manufacturing (like depicted in many such violent games), fighting over land or oil is just ironically stupid, instead of using that technology to make the world work for everyone. The unrecognized irony is more deadly than those games.
How about making the machinery work for its rightful owners?
You, sir, are walking a line dangerously close to communism! (prepare to be modded troll)
He didn't just change it on his own. He gets re-elected with the support of his countrymen and gets to amend the constitution only with the complicity of the legislature.
I am not aware of Venezuela under Chavez starting wars on the other side of the planet. The economic and quality of life graphs on Venezuela's Wikipedia page generally show sharp increases around Chavez' rise to power. The biggest harm he's done is to foreign business interests who were stepping on his electorate.
Yep, just like the govt. healthcare 'reform' coming up...wants you to pay for Jerome and Debbie Public down the block who can't seem to understand contraception, exercise, food that isn't fast food, and that smoking is bad for you
Do you have a source for this? I don't believe it is at all true.
The only thing even being considered at the moment is an individual mandate to buy insurance. It's total bullshit to anyone who doesn't own a health insurance company, but not because of the fictional situation you described.
The summary says that it's not merely age discrimination, then goes on to say that they hire younger workers because they are cheaper, without bothering to account for experience. That is age discrimination.
Eh, your comment pretty well summarizes my situation too. I found Slashdot at age 15 and the techie news, libertarian attitudes, and occasional technical insight really resonated with me at the time. I was just getting into Linux and seeing other people talking about things like that was great. That may have been the beginning of dragging me out of the darkness.
Then at 18 I remember one of my friends saying to me "That teacher is 35 and single. That means she's probably never had sex and might never for her entire life." It seems silly, but at that moment it clicked for me that it was no coincidence that my teachers were assholes that never seemed to understand any critical thinking. Rigid religion and fear was ruining their lives and they didn't even know it. Continuing down the path would be throwing my life away.
Hopefully there's some kid reading my posting who can also expand his horizons.
Due to my recovery (I guess you'd call it that), I'm not one of the ones whose adult life is severely impacted by it. Judging by the things my former classmates post on Facebook, I'm in a minority.
It was my dad who taught me how to fix cars, use a computer, and (perhaps most importantly) question authority. If not for him, I'd probably be a loony fundamentalist like most of the people I went to school with are today. They're not just missing out on sex, drugs, and rock and roll (college), but they'll never have the pleasure of questioning their own way of thinking and revolutionizing their perspective of the world.
Some aspect of my worldview gets turned upside-down every year or so; I believe this is evidence of willingness to adapt rather than forcing the world to conform to my perspective. That's exactly the sort of thing the fundamentalists were trying to defeat.
Yes, for some of it. Some other books came from Bob Jones University. Some books (foreign language, for example) were secular. I went to a few different schools like this.
My parents didn't have a problem with me going to a school that has Christianity as a focus of discussion. "God does wonderful things for us every day" is a sentence that they'd agree with. They may have taken issue with the school if they had heard anything about the justifications for slavery or justification for wife and child abuse, but I didn't have the presence of mind as a child to bring that up. The school had no sex ed (but I did learn about the "rhythm method" during my senior year of high school and also that condoms are worse than no protection).
Truth be told, my parents weren't that involved with my life as it related to school. I never really participated in any extra-curricular activities at school. I was always smart enough to get good grades without any help. My mother could described as "anti-intellectual" and/or crazy. My father was concerned about the 12000 year-old earth bullshit and went out of his way to teach me about evolution while we were at home. As far as he knew, that was the only damage being done to my intellect.
They could've done a better job at that, sure. My mom is a fuckup in every way and for some reason my dad is weak and allows her to control everything. Some good things I've developed as a result of this are a healthy distrust of authority and the ability and desire to educate myself. If I've learned anything that's true, it either came from my secular college or reading that I've pursued on my own.
I'm from North Carolina (probably the best southern state in many respects). There's plenty of redneck bullshit there, but that happens everywhere. There's also quite a bit of civilization; Greensboro, Charlotte, and Raleigh resemble a proper city at least as well as Los Angeles. As far as I can tell, the only American cities that come close to New York are Philadelphia and Boston.
I live around Phoenix now. I thought I was moving to "the big city" but it's really just a glorified retirement community. Greensboro (at least the actual city, not the giant suburbs) is far more urban. There's far more "white power" stuff visible here in Arizona than in North Carolina. Way too many weirdos with monster trucks and confederate flags and racist bumper stickers about Obama or Mexicans. If you want to be really shocked, check the Southern Poverty Law Center's website for a map of hate group activity.
My schooling happened around Greensboro, and there is at least one really good secular private K-12 school there. Unfortunately, there's a dozen places like the one I described. They're smaller, but I bet the sum of their students is greater than the size of the one secular school. Where I'm from, when someone says "private school", it will be religious, though the parents usually do not understand to what degree. All they know is that the public schools suck, they want something else, and that single secular school is way too expensive.
I understood your post; I just thought the Slashdot readership should be exposed to the horrors of private schooling. I reckon it affects more people than homeschooling does.
I got most of my education at private schools. I've met some people who were homeschooled and while they may be socially inept, I was far more brainwashed than they were. I can only offer anecdotes, but I believe private schools are a much bigger problem than homeschooling.
I watched a decent documentary about North Korea the other day (called A State of Mind) and my education (except college) is the same as a North Korean. Just replace "The General" with Jesus and "American imperialists" with "liberals/hippies/communists/scientists" and that's how I grew up.
I learned about how evolution is a lie, dinosaurs existed at the same time as man (or were perhaps fossils were planted by the devil), carbon dating can't possibly work, how the Puritans liberated the Indians from savagery, why the government should enforce arranged marriage, anyone who isn't a Christan is a secret devil worshiper, devil worship is everywhere, Mormons and Catholics are devil worshipers. The list seems endless.
I got decent math education out of it, but I've had to totally reacquaint myself with US/world history and literature.
It's ridiculous that such a place is allowed to exist. There needs to be some sort of oversight; many of my classmates may never recover. Most of the parents had no idea just how radical it all was.
I decided I was a communist about a year ago and went looking for a political party that suits me. The only active thing I could find was the CPUSA, which is a bit of a joke, but I participate anyway. It's better than doing nothing.
I wasn't really expecting communism to be popular anyway.
What's more troubling to me is that in looking for parties with names like "communist" or "socialist" I came across a dozen different white power organizations ("national socialist"/Nazi) in my metro area and only a single leftist organization (which is mostly geriatric).
Try riding in a bus with college students or younger. The ones on their cell phones often are the ones who are being -quieter- than their peers talking to other people right next to them. I can only assume this is because they've become more adapted to talking on a phone than talking face to face.
I'm 24 and I'll tell you it's because before I had a cell phone, I had experienced the loud middle aged people on phones and decided I didn't want to look like that!
I don't know about this past decade, but most of the "aid" money sent to Haiti by the United States (and probably also France) in the last century was propping up a US-installed military dictatorship. Don't believe anything Limbaugh says about foreign aid; he is consistently factually wrong and he is also human trash.
Slashdot Mirror
Damn! How long does it take you to type these great posts? It's very impressive that your entire post history appears to be so thoughtful and well-linked.
Also, kids need to learn the irony that in a world full of fancy computers and advanced manufacturing (like depicted in many such violent games), fighting over land or oil is just ironically stupid, instead of using that technology to make the world work for everyone. The unrecognized irony is more deadly than those games.
How about making the machinery work for its rightful owners?
You, sir, are walking a line dangerously close to communism! (prepare to be modded troll)
He's not responding like an American because he isn't American.
People from different cultures have different priorities.
He didn't just change it on his own. He gets re-elected with the support of his countrymen and gets to amend the constitution only with the complicity of the legislature.
Why not?
I am not aware of Venezuela under Chavez starting wars on the other side of the planet.
The economic and quality of life graphs on Venezuela's Wikipedia page generally show sharp increases around Chavez' rise to power. The biggest harm he's done is to foreign business interests who were stepping on his electorate.
He's actually a tinpot democratically elected president.
New Hampshire also has an interesting approach to the state legislature. Legislators make $100 a year, plus gas.
Now that's egalitarian. A state where anyone can afford to buy his own legislator!
Yep, just like the govt. healthcare 'reform' coming up...wants you to pay for Jerome and Debbie Public down the block who can't seem to understand contraception, exercise, food that isn't fast food, and that smoking is bad for you
Do you have a source for this? I don't believe it is at all true.
The only thing even being considered at the moment is an individual mandate to buy insurance. It's total bullshit to anyone who doesn't own a health insurance company, but not because of the fictional situation you described.
People who do not have children to send to school, or oppose the wars, or do not drive cars do not get a tax credit.
Taxes are a collective action, not an individual purchase.
Then again, I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen given our legislators' feigned misunderstanding of progressive taxation or Keynesian spending.
Along similar lines http://goatkcd.com/311/sfw
The summary says that it's not merely age discrimination, then goes on to say that they hire younger workers because they are cheaper, without bothering to account for experience.
That is age discrimination.
What a horrible, stupid summary.
I wonder what a fuzz box made of these would sound like...
Eh, your comment pretty well summarizes my situation too. I found Slashdot at age 15 and the techie news, libertarian attitudes, and occasional technical insight really resonated with me at the time. I was just getting into Linux and seeing other people talking about things like that was great. That may have been the beginning of dragging me out of the darkness.
Then at 18 I remember one of my friends saying to me "That teacher is 35 and single. That means she's probably never had sex and might never for her entire life."
It seems silly, but at that moment it clicked for me that it was no coincidence that my teachers were assholes that never seemed to understand any critical thinking. Rigid religion and fear was ruining their lives and they didn't even know it. Continuing down the path would be throwing my life away.
Hopefully there's some kid reading my posting who can also expand his horizons.
It's actually a few different schools. The worst one was Baptist, but other terrible schools were non-denominational (aka "megachurch") and Wesleyan.
Due to my recovery (I guess you'd call it that), I'm not one of the ones whose adult life is severely impacted by it. Judging by the things my former classmates post on Facebook, I'm in a minority.
It was my dad who taught me how to fix cars, use a computer, and (perhaps most importantly) question authority. If not for him, I'd probably be a loony fundamentalist like most of the people I went to school with are today. They're not just missing out on sex, drugs, and rock and roll (college), but they'll never have the pleasure of questioning their own way of thinking and revolutionizing their perspective of the world.
Some aspect of my worldview gets turned upside-down every year or so; I believe this is evidence of willingness to adapt rather than forcing the world to conform to my perspective. That's exactly the sort of thing the fundamentalists were trying to defeat.
Did you use A Beka books?
Yes, for some of it. Some other books came from Bob Jones University. Some books (foreign language, for example) were secular. I went to a few different schools like this.
My parents didn't have a problem with me going to a school that has Christianity as a focus of discussion. "God does wonderful things for us every day" is a sentence that they'd agree with. They may have taken issue with the school if they had heard anything about the justifications for slavery or justification for wife and child abuse, but I didn't have the presence of mind as a child to bring that up. The school had no sex ed (but I did learn about the "rhythm method" during my senior year of high school and also that condoms are worse than no protection).
Truth be told, my parents weren't that involved with my life as it related to school. I never really participated in any extra-curricular activities at school. I was always smart enough to get good grades without any help. My mother could described as "anti-intellectual" and/or crazy. My father was concerned about the 12000 year-old earth bullshit and went out of his way to teach me about evolution while we were at home. As far as he knew, that was the only damage being done to my intellect.
They could've done a better job at that, sure. My mom is a fuckup in every way and for some reason my dad is weak and allows her to control everything. Some good things I've developed as a result of this are a healthy distrust of authority and the ability and desire to educate myself. If I've learned anything that's true, it either came from my secular college or reading that I've pursued on my own.
I'm from North Carolina (probably the best southern state in many respects). There's plenty of redneck bullshit there, but that happens everywhere. There's also quite a bit of civilization; Greensboro, Charlotte, and Raleigh resemble a proper city at least as well as Los Angeles. As far as I can tell, the only American cities that come close to New York are Philadelphia and Boston.
I live around Phoenix now. I thought I was moving to "the big city" but it's really just a glorified retirement community. Greensboro (at least the actual city, not the giant suburbs) is far more urban. There's far more "white power" stuff visible here in Arizona than in North Carolina. Way too many weirdos with monster trucks and confederate flags and racist bumper stickers about Obama or Mexicans. If you want to be really shocked, check the Southern Poverty Law Center's website for a map of hate group activity.
My schooling happened around Greensboro, and there is at least one really good secular private K-12 school there. Unfortunately, there's a dozen places like the one I described. They're smaller, but I bet the sum of their students is greater than the size of the one secular school. Where I'm from, when someone says "private school", it will be religious, though the parents usually do not understand to what degree. All they know is that the public schools suck, they want something else, and that single secular school is way too expensive.
I understood your post; I just thought the Slashdot readership should be exposed to the horrors of private schooling. I reckon it affects more people than homeschooling does.
I got most of my education at private schools. I've met some people who were homeschooled and while they may be socially inept, I was far more brainwashed than they were. I can only offer anecdotes, but I believe private schools are a much bigger problem than homeschooling.
I watched a decent documentary about North Korea the other day (called A State of Mind) and my education (except college) is the same as a North Korean. Just replace "The General" with Jesus and "American imperialists" with "liberals/hippies/communists/scientists" and that's how I grew up.
I learned about how evolution is a lie, dinosaurs existed at the same time as man (or were perhaps fossils were planted by the devil), carbon dating can't possibly work, how the Puritans liberated the Indians from savagery, why the government should enforce arranged marriage, anyone who isn't a Christan is a secret devil worshiper, devil worship is everywhere, Mormons and Catholics are devil worshipers. The list seems endless.
I got decent math education out of it, but I've had to totally reacquaint myself with US/world history and literature.
It's ridiculous that such a place is allowed to exist. There needs to be some sort of oversight; many of my classmates may never recover. Most of the parents had no idea just how radical it all was.
I decided I was a communist about a year ago and went looking for a political party that suits me. The only active thing I could find was the CPUSA, which is a bit of a joke, but I participate anyway. It's better than doing nothing.
I wasn't really expecting communism to be popular anyway.
What's more troubling to me is that in looking for parties with names like "communist" or "socialist" I came across a dozen different white power organizations ("national socialist"/Nazi) in my metro area and only a single leftist organization (which is mostly geriatric).
That's the difference between owning your own rails and having to borrow space from a freight operator because you've got no funding.
Try riding in a bus with college students or younger. The ones on their cell phones often are the ones who are being -quieter- than their peers talking to other people right next to them. I can only assume this is because they've become more adapted to talking on a phone than talking face to face.
I'm 24 and I'll tell you it's because before I had a cell phone, I had experienced the loud middle aged people on phones and decided I didn't want to look like that!
Any relation to Metallica??
I couldn't tell it was sarcasm right off the bat because it sounds too much like something my father-in-law would say with a straight face!
I don't know about this past decade, but most of the "aid" money sent to Haiti by the United States (and probably also France) in the last century was propping up a US-installed military dictatorship. Don't believe anything Limbaugh says about foreign aid; he is consistently factually wrong and he is also human trash.