I do not think that your hypothesis that hard drugs are bad is not necessarily correct. I invite you to learn an alternate model of addiction which may change your world a bit.
The answer to your question lies in the difference in learning progress in classroom versus individualized instruction. Self-paced, individual instruction is vastly superior to classroom instruction. The difference is so great that you can have a really shitty parent whose sole student will learn more, and faster, than the average classroom student of good teacher.
Homeschooling is not for everyone. But for those who want their children to perform up their full capabilities as adults, homeschooling is increasingly becoming the only choice. For parents who are OK with their children falling behind the rest of the world, there are plenty of schools who are more than happy to oblige.
I'll skip the white privilege strawman fallacy in your second paragraph.
This is an excellent reason to homeschool your kids, and encourage homeschoolers in general.
And before anyone complains about how homeschoolers do not teach up to minimum standards: those "minimum standards" have CLEARLY failed America, so let's not.
That's nice. I am in IT and I will hold your computer and phone (that you so kindly VPN'd into my network) hostage until you restore the healthy snacks in the machine, assclown.
Totally correct. I ought to have specified a better time frame than "generations in the past." Certainly by the time of Hearst, the newspapers were mere mouthpieces of tyranny.
Hiring more engineers doesn't help when your fundamental business model is flawed. Generations in the past, newspapers used to be about freedom. Now, newspapers are about control. The Internet is about freedom. Adapt or perish.
"The new Hostess is non-union and has lost most of it's talent -- and no American should ever support Union busting."
(a) is debateable, but (b) is a LOAD OF HORSESHIT.
The old Hostess officially went out of business because its union workers went on strike, with the specific goal to drive Hostess out of business. They did not wish to negotiate. Their goal was to drive the company into bankruptcy.
So now the new Hostess doesn't recognize the union that broke the back of the old Hostess? Cry me a god damn river.
I understand that you don't think guns make that much of a difference, and I agree with you that psychological manipulation is far more effective than physical oppression. After all, the Holocaust would never have been allowed by the German public without Goebbel's anti-Jewish propaganda campaign using Edward Bernay's template for public relations. However, in that particular case, the Jews were categorically disarmed before they were rounded up into cattle cars.
I am unaware of any widespread act of genocide that has been successfully waged against an armed populace. The vast majority of genocides have been conducted against utterly (or mostly) disarmed populations. The Holodomir, the Holocaust, the Communist Chinese genocide, the Khmer Rouge genocide, the Rwandan genocide, the nightmare in Zimbabwe, even the Serbian campaign against Kosovo, all were conducted on unarmed populations.
I personally believe that history tells us that widespread, unregistered gun ownership is the antidote to genocide. If true, then gun ownership is a single factor that could have prevented the Communist genocides in Russia and China. What do you think?
Yes, I am a Google cheerleader. Unfortunately, Google is becoming tediously tyrannical in their habits, so I am looking for someone that takes information security a little more seriously than they do. Regardless, the moment they lock down Android so I can't have root, I will be gone.
As for comparative security, Google appears to be vastly the superior option to any of the other major players. Microsoft gives advance notice to the NSA on zero-day exploits before they are patched. BlackBerry actively cooperated with tyrannical regimes to provide decrypted access to messages. Apple can decrypt their own devices without your key. Android is a clear winner because (1) the software allows unfettered root and (2) they support full-device encryption.
So yes, I am a Google cheerleader. That support is not without reservation, however.
It is surprising how quickly certain rounding errors can add up. I've had the dubious pleasure of writing an insurance rating algorithm based on multiplying tables of factors. The difference between half-up and banker's round at 6 decimal places makes for rating errors totalling > 50% of the expected premium in a surprisingly small number of calculations. It's one thing to know about error propagation from a theoretical standpoint, but it's quite another to see it happen in real life.
"The proportion of the population that owns at least one gun is down."
That statistic measures the proportion of the population who are naive enough to tell a stranger that they own guns. Based on my own personal experience, most gun owners would never answer a survey truthfully about their personal gun ownership. Considering the perceived approach of tyranny over the years, it is quite logical that fewer and fewer people would admit to owning firearms.
Furthermore, local gun shops near me have PLENTY of first-time buyers. Young couples with babies in their arms looking for cheap AK-47s for home defense, grandmothers looking for an inexpensive 20-gauge, young men just out of the military looking to buy their first as a civilian, professional women on their lunch break looking for a carry piece, the works. And I live in a very liberal, anti-gun area of the country.
In other words, those statistics are not trustworthy.
Just for fun, here's a thought exercise. Who was the singler person in charge of Federal investigations (....or "coverups" depending on your point of view) regarding the Waco standoff, the OKC bombing, and Operation Fast & Furious?
I know people in local EMS (Boston, MA) and they have to wear bullet-proof vests regularly. They do get shot at, knifed, and so on. People are fucking crazy around here.
Actually, gun ownership is WAY UP. Some estimates have more than 1 gun per person already. Any stat about gun ownership that is more than 6 months old is out-of-date, considering NICS numbers.
Undercover ATF agents went jogging with David Koresh for weeks before the raid started. You would think they could have just picked him up then, instead of starting a raid that ended up killing so many innocents.
Slashdot Mirror
I do not think that your hypothesis that hard drugs are bad is not necessarily correct. I invite you to learn an alternate model of addiction which may change your world a bit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park
What do you think?
The answer to your question lies in the difference in learning progress in classroom versus individualized instruction. Self-paced, individual instruction is vastly superior to classroom instruction. The difference is so great that you can have a really shitty parent whose sole student will learn more, and faster, than the average classroom student of good teacher.
Homeschooling is not for everyone. But for those who want their children to perform up their full capabilities as adults, homeschooling is increasingly becoming the only choice. For parents who are OK with their children falling behind the rest of the world, there are plenty of schools who are more than happy to oblige.
I'll skip the white privilege strawman fallacy in your second paragraph.
This is an excellent reason to homeschool your kids, and encourage homeschoolers in general.
And before anyone complains about how homeschoolers do not teach up to minimum standards: those "minimum standards" have CLEARLY failed America, so let's not.
Was there any time the "American Dream" was available to anyone else? I am not aware of it.
Do you seriously have the sense of humor of a rock?
That's nice. I am in IT and I will hold your computer and phone (that you so kindly VPN'd into my network) hostage until you restore the healthy snacks in the machine, assclown.
Totally correct. I ought to have specified a better time frame than "generations in the past." Certainly by the time of Hearst, the newspapers were mere mouthpieces of tyranny.
Hiring more engineers doesn't help when your fundamental business model is flawed. Generations in the past, newspapers used to be about freedom. Now, newspapers are about control. The Internet is about freedom. Adapt or perish.
"The new Hostess is non-union and has lost most of it's talent -- and no American should ever support Union busting."
(a) is debateable, but (b) is a LOAD OF HORSESHIT.
The old Hostess officially went out of business because its union workers went on strike, with the specific goal to drive Hostess out of business. They did not wish to negotiate. Their goal was to drive the company into bankruptcy.
So now the new Hostess doesn't recognize the union that broke the back of the old Hostess? Cry me a god damn river.
I understand that you don't think guns make that much of a difference, and I agree with you that psychological manipulation is far more effective than physical oppression. After all, the Holocaust would never have been allowed by the German public without Goebbel's anti-Jewish propaganda campaign using Edward Bernay's template for public relations. However, in that particular case, the Jews were categorically disarmed before they were rounded up into cattle cars.
I am unaware of any widespread act of genocide that has been successfully waged against an armed populace. The vast majority of genocides have been conducted against utterly (or mostly) disarmed populations. The Holodomir, the Holocaust, the Communist Chinese genocide, the Khmer Rouge genocide, the Rwandan genocide, the nightmare in Zimbabwe, even the Serbian campaign against Kosovo, all were conducted on unarmed populations.
I personally believe that history tells us that widespread, unregistered gun ownership is the antidote to genocide. If true, then gun ownership is a single factor that could have prevented the Communist genocides in Russia and China. What do you think?
The actual difference between any of those is whether normal people have access to guns. If not, it is tyranny. If so, it is liberty.
Karl Marx believed in individual ownership of guns. Russian communism did not. One is tyranny, the other....has never been attempted on a large scale.
Guns make the only difference that matters.
Thank you for this link.
Yes, I am a Google cheerleader. Unfortunately, Google is becoming tediously tyrannical in their habits, so I am looking for someone that takes information security a little more seriously than they do. Regardless, the moment they lock down Android so I can't have root, I will be gone.
As for comparative security, Google appears to be vastly the superior option to any of the other major players. Microsoft gives advance notice to the NSA on zero-day exploits before they are patched. BlackBerry actively cooperated with tyrannical regimes to provide decrypted access to messages. Apple can decrypt their own devices without your key. Android is a clear winner because (1) the software allows unfettered root and (2) they support full-device encryption.
So yes, I am a Google cheerleader. That support is not without reservation, however.
What timeline do you live in? Here in 2013, iOS is getting absolutely crushed by Android.
It is surprising how quickly certain rounding errors can add up. I've had the dubious pleasure of writing an insurance rating algorithm based on multiplying tables of factors. The difference between half-up and banker's round at 6 decimal places makes for rating errors totalling > 50% of the expected premium in a surprisingly small number of calculations. It's one thing to know about error propagation from a theoretical standpoint, but it's quite another to see it happen in real life.
I sympathize with the weather forecasters.
"The proportion of the population that owns at least one gun is down."
That statistic measures the proportion of the population who are naive enough to tell a stranger that they own guns. Based on my own personal experience, most gun owners would never answer a survey truthfully about their personal gun ownership. Considering the perceived approach of tyranny over the years, it is quite logical that fewer and fewer people would admit to owning firearms.
Furthermore, local gun shops near me have PLENTY of first-time buyers. Young couples with babies in their arms looking for cheap AK-47s for home defense, grandmothers looking for an inexpensive 20-gauge, young men just out of the military looking to buy their first as a civilian, professional women on their lunch break looking for a carry piece, the works. And I live in a very liberal, anti-gun area of the country.
In other words, those statistics are not trustworthy.
It just means imperialism has a long tradition.
It wasn't unicorns and rainbows, but that doesn't change the truth of the matter even a little bit.
Just for fun, here's a thought exercise. Who was the singler person in charge of Federal investigations (....or "coverups" depending on your point of view) regarding the Waco standoff, the OKC bombing, and Operation Fast & Furious?
Imagine if the brothers had split. Yikes.
No mods to +1 you, but thanks.
I know people in local EMS (Boston, MA) and they have to wear bullet-proof vests regularly. They do get shot at, knifed, and so on. People are fucking crazy around here.
Actually, gun ownership is WAY UP. Some estimates have more than 1 gun per person already. Any stat about gun ownership that is more than 6 months old is out-of-date, considering NICS numbers.
Undercover ATF agents went jogging with David Koresh for weeks before the raid started. You would think they could have just picked him up then, instead of starting a raid that ended up killing so many innocents.
Welcome back, old friend. And thanks for defending Radley Balko.