...which is why gun sales have been through the roof over the past couple weeks.
(By the way, Obama isn't gonna take your guns away; despite what Fox News may have been filling your head with, he's not a crazy left-wing radical. A small shift to the left isn't going to kill you.)
I was shocked by how good Enterprise was (except for the stupid time travel stuff, and the way they often used T'Pol as a sex symbol). I understand why it was cancelled, but I really wish it hadn't been; there was a lot more good stuff they could have done.
(Don't get me wrong, I find Jolene Blalock quite attractive. However, scenes like this were gratuitous, and I believe the only reason she didn't get a Starfleet uniform when she joined Starfleet (fairly late in the series) is because the producers didn't think it would look sexy enough. On the other hand, I thought her romance with Trip was pretty well done, which is why I didn't think this was inappropriate - it made sense for her character.)
Since you can only assign 12 units to a group, if you want to control a larger group do this:
1) Divide your army into 12-unit subgroups plus one "leader" per subgroup
2) Assign all of the leaders to a numbered group
3) Select each subgroup (not including their leader) and assign them to a numbered group, then right-click the group leader to make them follow that leader
4) Send the group of leaders into battle; the army will follow.
Yeah, that's fun. I haven't done Handel's Fireworks in many years and I'm afraid I don't remember it. I work with a youth symphony organization; we've got a band with five percussionists in it (three of whom are beginning students who are easily distracted and have trouble keeping track of where they are) playing a piece written in "6/8 + 2/4" time (basically a fast 10/8 grouped as 3-3-2-2, very repetitive but tricky to play at tempo), and to cover all the parts takes at least 10 people. The same group is also playing an arrangement of something by Mozart with no percussion parts at all.
Composers (and publishers) who are not percussionists don't know these terms well enough to use them consistently, so whenever I see a part that calls for something on the rim, I always have to just use my own judgment to figure out which technique sounds appropriate.
It's amazing the kind of crap I sometimes see written. One of my biggest pet peeves is composers who can't seem to figure out that suspended cymbal and crash cymbals are two different instruments often played by two different people, and it's helpful to indicate which notes are to be played on which instrument (and if they really meant for a single note to be played on suspended cymbal, they should indicate whether they want it struck with a yarn mallet, a SD stick, or something else).
I haven't gotten my USB-to-MIDI cable from Activision yet (just put my RMA in today), but... That cable Activision is sending out is MIDI OUT, not MIDI IN. So if you were planning on using this free cable to hook a MIDI keyboard to your computer as an input device, it won't work. MIDI signal goes OUT of the cable, not IN.
A USB-to-MIDI adapter normally has both MIDI IN and MIDI OUT connectors on it. I have the Midiman USB Uno the parent mentioned, and that's what it has - a USB connector on one end, and two MIDI connectors on the other end. It's possible the cable Activision is shipping only has a single MIDI OUT connection and therefore cannot be used with an input device such as a keyboard, but I'd be surprised if this were the case.
Also, I'm a little confused by your mention of the M-Audio iControl, which doesn't appear to have any MIDI ports at all; it connects to a computer via USB and sends MIDI information over the USB connection, but I see no indication that it can be connected to other MIDI devices.
It is and it's not. What you're describing is actually two snare hits, followed by a bass/crash hit. For some reason, it's called a rimshot in comedic circles. In drumming, a proper rimshot is when you hit the snare head and rim with the stick at the same time (called a ping if you do it closer to the edge). It produces a sharp, slightly metallic sound.
Well, there are a few different things you can do involving the rim of a snare drum, and some people call some of them a "rim shot" but the terminology isn't necessarily nailed down.
1) As you have described, holding the stick normally, and hitting both the head of the drum and the rim at the same time. Easy to do by accident; a little tricky to do consistently on purpose.
2) The most common, when playing drum set: flip the stick around backwards and hold the tip of the stick against the head of the drum about 2" in from the rim. Strike the rim on the opposite side of the drum with the shaft (with the butt end of the stick extending past the rim). You can do this without flipping the stick around (with the butt end of the stick pressed against the head), but depending on your sticks it probably won't sound as good.
3) Used in orchestral percussion for special effects such as simulating gunshots: hold one stick as in #2, with the tip pressed against the head and the other end pressed against the opposite rim (with the butt end of the stick extending past the rim), and hit the stick (not the drum) with your other stick.
4) Just hit the rim, without touching the head. This usually isn't very loud, but it can be a useful effect.
What? The GPL gives them the right to use and modify the software, as long as they don't distribute it.
Wrong, the GPL does NOT give them the right to use and modify it. They already have the right to use and modify it under normal copyright law, as long as they don't distribute it. I know it sounds like nitpicking, but it's actually a pretty important distinction, because it's important to understand that you have these rights with non-GPL'd software too.
The GPL only gives them additional rights concerning redistribution (including distributing modified versions), subject to certain conditions which they apparently have not met.
The key there is being available at his desk to answer questions and help people; I bet he didn't have a lot of free time during class that he could devote to grading papers. I dunno, maybe he did...
Which was really odd, because my parents paid property tax to the town, and I was allowed to use the town's public schools as well. I even rode on the same bus other kids did. The reality is that the police were just lazy asses.
That is odd. Generally if you don't live within a city, you don't pay property taxes to that city. I dunno.
Sorry, but when thier mistake can adversly impact the rest of my life, including my freedom, well I'm not going to allow that to be written off as "well, people make mistakes." It is unreasonable for them not to double check their work, and it IS unreasonable when both my parents knew exactly where I was, and had proof; I was with my aunt, uncle and cousin. Of course they weren't interested in talking to any of them. And on the advice of my dad's laywer, my parents had me stay at another relative's house. A lawyer didn't think it was reasonable for them to demand I come down to the station.
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that all of their behavior here was justified, only that it's reasonable for them to ask you questions. Obviously once it became clear that you weren't the guy they thought you were, they should have left you alone - and it should have become clear pretty quickly.
I see little point in doing that now; this was 16 years ago. Of course what good would complaining do.. have you ever delt with government on any level? They simply don't care. And given how many police apologiests like yourself there are out there, I doubt anything will ever change.
Ah, well of course there's nothing you can do about it now. But if something like this should happen in the future, yes, you should complain. I know the government probably isn't going to listen to you, but that's only the first step. The next step is to go to the media. If they're not interested, then you've lost, but if you can convince a TV station or newspaper to run your story, you have a chance. The government won't listen to you, but they WILL listen to the media.
So they did try to Swift boat Obama it just didn't gain any traction because people are sick of the tactics and recognize them for what they are, fear mongering for power. The country and the media are also sick of Republicans.
If by "people" and "country" you mean two thirds of the electorate, then yes. The other third is about as dumb as a bag of rocks, and they're genuinely scared. This is not a small percentage. Thankfully they're not the majority, but do not discount them. The crazy lady at the McCain rally who said she's afraid of Obama because he's an Arab (which she concluded after reading "a lot of information about him") is NOT just a crazy nutjob; a frightening number of people think exactly the same way she does.
How to tell if you spend too much time on/. Reason #255
- Your two year old child is 2.5 years old.
There's a significant difference between a 2.0-year-old child and a 2.9-year-old child. Writing out 2.5 in ASCII as 2 1/2 or 2-1/2 is awkward and harder to read than 2.5, and Slashdot's Unicode support sucks ass so using 2½ may not work. Clearly, 2.5 is the easiest way to be clear.
I was told these same cops wouldn't respond to a break in (or worse) at my house, because we were "just outside town lines," and would have to get the state police to respond.. which would take an hour..
If you're outside the city limits, they don't have jurisdiction, and you're out of luck. If you don't like it, your options are annexation (get the city to extend their border so you are included), incorporation (get together with your neighbors and form your own city, and either form your own police department or pay the other city to let you use theirs), or moving.
It depends. If you have an experience like me, where a cop shows up accusing you of stealing & B&E, when you clearly were a 30 minute drive away in another city, doesn't let up, then finally figures out that they mis-spelt the name they got from one of the other kids they caught.. and then are told "it's our policy not to applogize." Well, lets just say I don't have any great respect for cops...
This sucks, and you have every right to complain. Most cops are not assholes and it's wrong to generalize, but if there's an institutional policy against apologizing for mistakes, that's a pretty serious problem that needs to be addressed at the institutional level; you should talk to your mayor about it (or whichever politician is responsible for the relevant police department). If they're dismissive, see if a TV station or newspaper is interested in the story.
Cops are people too, and people make mistakes. It is not unreasonable for them to question you, when they thought they were given your name by another suspect. Limit your complaint to their policy about not apologizing, and you might be able to make some changes.
Anyone who says that the President can't really do anything on his own is correct.
Yes, but there are two factors which give me hope:
1) The Democratic party has a large majority in the House and a small majority in the Senate, so if they vote on party lines, they should generally vote in favor of the things Obama wants.
2) Many prominent Republicans have recently endorsed Obama, which suggests to me that a few Republican Senators may be willing to cross party lines to vote in favor of the things Obama wants.
Ordinarily, I would oppose letting one party gain control of both houses of Congress and the White House at the same time, because normally the government can do less damage when it's caught up in partisan gridlock (exactly what didn't happen during the first six years of the GWBush presidency). However, in this case, I really want to give the Democrats free reign for a couple years and see what they make of it. If they screw it up, it won't be worse than what Bush did, and we can vote them out next time.
What she did was she graded all of her work during down time in class and study hall,
I can see getting some work done during study hall, but... down time in class? What the hell? Math class doesn't have down time, except during tests. If you're not actively teaching, you're wasting the students' time. Also, a good math teacher doesn't just mark answers right or wrong; they take the time to look at the wrong answers and see where the mistake was made.
My favorite math teacher was one I had when I started college. At the beginning of every class, instead of turning in the homework to be graded, she would go over all the answers and we'd grade it ourselves. Anyone who got the wrong answer was free to ask for clarification or help, and when a lot of people were confused about something she'd stop and take the time to make sure we understood. When we finished going over the homework, we could either keep it or throw it away - it was never turned in or graded. Obviously this doesn't make sense for most other subjects, but for math, it was GREAT.
I'm not convinced the problem is that teachers don't make large enough salaries - it's more that they don't make enough money for the amount of work they're required to put in. I don't think we need to pay each teacher more than we're paying them now, but we need more teachers, so each teacher has fewer students. Not just smaller class sizes (although that would be good too), but also fewer classes per teacher.
I know some teachers who have to drive back and forth between three different schools every day. They hate it, but it's what they're stuck with. I admit that sometimes having one teacher work at two different schools may make sense, but three is probably too much. A lot of teachers have to work through their lunch break, because they don't get adequate prep time. It's the working conditions, not the pay, that make good teachers burn out and leave. This is a solvable problem, if you're willing to throw enough money at it, but it requires throwing your money in the right place (hiring more teachers, with a focus on making their lives easier so they can devote more energy to actually teaching).
start by funding real programs that put books, science and math into students hands.
I'm not sure what you have in mind. Could you elaborate?
Start challenging and teaching kids AT school. Get away from homework, let kids live a life after school and make school about learning.
Homework is important too, but it definitely needs to be limited, because extracurricular activities are important. It shouldn't be a huge burden, but homework encourages parental involvement and helps build time management skills.
Read your own research a little more carefully. While it's true that saying Palin "tried to ban books" is an overstatement and the list in that Snopes article is a fabrication, Palin did ask the librarian about the hypothetical possibility of removing certain books from the library, not just once but three times. Each time, the librarian said she would oppose any such request, and Palin told her she would be fired. Those are the facts as confirmed by your own Snopes article.
I think it was reasonable for Palin to ask the librarian about the hypothetical possibility of removing a book from the library. Obviously, Sarah Palin is not the sharpest tool in the shed and isn't particularly well educated, and at this time she had just become Mayor of Wasilla. Asking about it on two other occasions, however, is questionable at best, and attempting to fire the librarian is where she crossed the line.
(By the way, I'm a pro-life Creationist, and I voted for Obama.)
That sounds refreshingly reasonable, but it's not a position I've heard espoused by any candidate running for office in a long time. The Libertarians always talk about "small government", but they seem to be suggesting that the scope of state and local governments should be reduced as well, which is an idea I strongly oppose.
There are certain things that capitalism does well, and things it does badly. Health insurance, primary education, emergency services (police, fire, etc.) and infrastructure (roads, utilities, etc.) are in the latter category. When private companies do these things and everything works really well (e.g. the electricity and natural gas companies), there is usually heavy government regulation involved.
Health insurance, education, and emergency services are on that list, because it is in society's interest for poor people to receive the best health care, education and emergency care possible. Healthy and educated people make positive contributions to society and work their way out of poverty; unhealthy and uneducated people become a drain on society (they often become criminals, for example). If a poor person's house catches on fire, their rich neighbor doesn't want it to burn to the ground because they couldn't afford to pay the fire department to put out the fire.
Infrastructure is on that list, because rich people need to be able to drive on good roads in poor neighborhoods, and call poor people on the phone; poor people need roads and utilities to help them to become less poor.
So yeah, you obviously understand this stuff, and when you say you want "small government", you just mean you want states and local governments to step up to the plate and make all of this happen. Unfortunately, not everyone is as smart as you are. When a lot of people say they want "small government", they really mean they don't think state and local governments should be providing these services either. They think private companies should provide these services to those who can afford them, without government regulation at all.
Note that the lack of government regulation was a major contributing factor to the current economic crisis.
Slashdot Mirror
Last I checked, Toronto was a single municipality.
The "greater Toronto area" extends beyond Toronto city limits.
...which is why gun sales have been through the roof over the past couple weeks.
(By the way, Obama isn't gonna take your guns away; despite what Fox News may have been filling your head with, he's not a crazy left-wing radical. A small shift to the left isn't going to kill you.)
I'd like to make a complaint!
Someone didn't see fit to inform the writers of "Wrath of Khan" of this either. Do you bitch about that too?
Of course. :-D
And they have an Englishman playing a Scotsman too! Those swines!
Don't forget about Jean-Luc Picard...
I was shocked by how good Enterprise was (except for the stupid time travel stuff, and the way they often used T'Pol as a sex symbol). I understand why it was cancelled, but I really wish it hadn't been; there was a lot more good stuff they could have done.
(Don't get me wrong, I find Jolene Blalock quite attractive. However, scenes like this were gratuitous, and I believe the only reason she didn't get a Starfleet uniform when she joined Starfleet (fairly late in the series) is because the producers didn't think it would look sexy enough. On the other hand, I thought her romance with Trip was pretty well done, which is why I didn't think this was inappropriate - it made sense for her character.)
Since you can only assign 12 units to a group, if you want to control a larger group do this:
1) Divide your army into 12-unit subgroups plus one "leader" per subgroup
2) Assign all of the leaders to a numbered group
3) Select each subgroup (not including their leader) and assign them to a numbered group, then right-click the group leader to make them follow that leader
4) Send the group of leaders into battle; the army will follow.
I love Wikiality.
Yeah, that's fun. I haven't done Handel's Fireworks in many years and I'm afraid I don't remember it. I work with a youth symphony organization; we've got a band with five percussionists in it (three of whom are beginning students who are easily distracted and have trouble keeping track of where they are) playing a piece written in "6/8 + 2/4" time (basically a fast 10/8 grouped as 3-3-2-2, very repetitive but tricky to play at tempo), and to cover all the parts takes at least 10 people. The same group is also playing an arrangement of something by Mozart with no percussion parts at all.
Composers (and publishers) who are not percussionists don't know these terms well enough to use them consistently, so whenever I see a part that calls for something on the rim, I always have to just use my own judgment to figure out which technique sounds appropriate.
It's amazing the kind of crap I sometimes see written. One of my biggest pet peeves is composers who can't seem to figure out that suspended cymbal and crash cymbals are two different instruments often played by two different people, and it's helpful to indicate which notes are to be played on which instrument (and if they really meant for a single note to be played on suspended cymbal, they should indicate whether they want it struck with a yarn mallet, a SD stick, or something else).
I've never gotten blisters from playing drums, but I don't play for more than a couple hours at a time. Maybe you should take a break once in awhile?
I haven't gotten my USB-to-MIDI cable from Activision yet (just put my RMA in today), but... That cable Activision is sending out is MIDI OUT, not MIDI IN. So if you were planning on using this free cable to hook a MIDI keyboard to your computer as an input device, it won't work. MIDI signal goes OUT of the cable, not IN.
A USB-to-MIDI adapter normally has both MIDI IN and MIDI OUT connectors on it. I have the Midiman USB Uno the parent mentioned, and that's what it has - a USB connector on one end, and two MIDI connectors on the other end. It's possible the cable Activision is shipping only has a single MIDI OUT connection and therefore cannot be used with an input device such as a keyboard, but I'd be surprised if this were the case.
Also, I'm a little confused by your mention of the M-Audio iControl, which doesn't appear to have any MIDI ports at all; it connects to a computer via USB and sends MIDI information over the USB connection, but I see no indication that it can be connected to other MIDI devices.
He's got digital drums and his kit doesn't register rim shots as regular pad hits in the game so if I hit the rim rather than just the pad... no hit.
A real snare drum doesn't register rim shots as regular head hits either. ;-)
That's what a rimshot is.
It is and it's not. What you're describing is actually two snare hits, followed by a bass/crash hit. For some reason, it's called a rimshot in comedic circles. In drumming, a proper rimshot is when you hit the snare head and rim with the stick at the same time (called a ping if you do it closer to the edge). It produces a sharp, slightly metallic sound.
Well, there are a few different things you can do involving the rim of a snare drum, and some people call some of them a "rim shot" but the terminology isn't necessarily nailed down.
1) As you have described, holding the stick normally, and hitting both the head of the drum and the rim at the same time. Easy to do by accident; a little tricky to do consistently on purpose.
2) The most common, when playing drum set: flip the stick around backwards and hold the tip of the stick against the head of the drum about 2" in from the rim. Strike the rim on the opposite side of the drum with the shaft (with the butt end of the stick extending past the rim). You can do this without flipping the stick around (with the butt end of the stick pressed against the head), but depending on your sticks it probably won't sound as good.
3) Used in orchestral percussion for special effects such as simulating gunshots: hold one stick as in #2, with the tip pressed against the head and the other end pressed against the opposite rim (with the butt end of the stick extending past the rim), and hit the stick (not the drum) with your other stick.
4) Just hit the rim, without touching the head. This usually isn't very loud, but it can be a useful effect.
What? The GPL gives them the right to use and modify the software, as long as they don't distribute it.
Wrong, the GPL does NOT give them the right to use and modify it. They already have the right to use and modify it under normal copyright law, as long as they don't distribute it. I know it sounds like nitpicking, but it's actually a pretty important distinction, because it's important to understand that you have these rights with non-GPL'd software too.
The GPL only gives them additional rights concerning redistribution (including distributing modified versions), subject to certain conditions which they apparently have not met.
The key there is being available at his desk to answer questions and help people; I bet he didn't have a lot of free time during class that he could devote to grading papers. I dunno, maybe he did...
Which was really odd, because my parents paid property tax to the town, and I was allowed to use the town's public schools as well. I even rode on the same bus other kids did. The reality is that the police were just lazy asses.
That is odd. Generally if you don't live within a city, you don't pay property taxes to that city. I dunno.
Sorry, but when thier mistake can adversly impact the rest of my life, including my freedom, well I'm not going to allow that to be written off as "well, people make mistakes." It is unreasonable for them not to double check their work, and it IS unreasonable when both my parents knew exactly where I was, and had proof; I was with my aunt, uncle and cousin. Of course they weren't interested in talking to any of them. And on the advice of my dad's laywer, my parents had me stay at another relative's house. A lawyer didn't think it was reasonable for them to demand I come down to the station.
Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that all of their behavior here was justified, only that it's reasonable for them to ask you questions. Obviously once it became clear that you weren't the guy they thought you were, they should have left you alone - and it should have become clear pretty quickly.
I see little point in doing that now; this was 16 years ago. Of course what good would complaining do.. have you ever delt with government on any level? They simply don't care. And given how many police apologiests like yourself there are out there, I doubt anything will ever change.
Ah, well of course there's nothing you can do about it now. But if something like this should happen in the future, yes, you should complain. I know the government probably isn't going to listen to you, but that's only the first step. The next step is to go to the media. If they're not interested, then you've lost, but if you can convince a TV station or newspaper to run your story, you have a chance. The government won't listen to you, but they WILL listen to the media.
So they did try to Swift boat Obama it just didn't gain any traction because people are sick of the tactics and recognize them for what they are, fear mongering for power. The country and the media are also sick of Republicans.
If by "people" and "country" you mean two thirds of the electorate, then yes. The other third is about as dumb as a bag of rocks, and they're genuinely scared. This is not a small percentage. Thankfully they're not the majority, but do not discount them. The crazy lady at the McCain rally who said she's afraid of Obama because he's an Arab (which she concluded after reading "a lot of information about him") is NOT just a crazy nutjob; a frightening number of people think exactly the same way she does.
How to tell if you spend too much time on /. Reason #255
- Your two year old child is 2.5 years old.
There's a significant difference between a 2.0-year-old child and a 2.9-year-old child. Writing out 2.5 in ASCII as 2 1/2 or 2-1/2 is awkward and harder to read than 2.5, and Slashdot's Unicode support sucks ass so using 2½ may not work. Clearly, 2.5 is the easiest way to be clear.
I was told these same cops wouldn't respond to a break in (or worse) at my house, because we were "just outside town lines," and would have to get the state police to respond.. which would take an hour..
If you're outside the city limits, they don't have jurisdiction, and you're out of luck. If you don't like it, your options are annexation (get the city to extend their border so you are included), incorporation (get together with your neighbors and form your own city, and either form your own police department or pay the other city to let you use theirs), or moving.
It depends. If you have an experience like me, where a cop shows up accusing you of stealing & B&E, when you clearly were a 30 minute drive away in another city, doesn't let up, then finally figures out that they mis-spelt the name they got from one of the other kids they caught.. and then are told "it's our policy not to applogize." Well, lets just say I don't have any great respect for cops...
This sucks, and you have every right to complain. Most cops are not assholes and it's wrong to generalize, but if there's an institutional policy against apologizing for mistakes, that's a pretty serious problem that needs to be addressed at the institutional level; you should talk to your mayor about it (or whichever politician is responsible for the relevant police department). If they're dismissive, see if a TV station or newspaper is interested in the story.
Cops are people too, and people make mistakes. It is not unreasonable for them to question you, when they thought they were given your name by another suspect. Limit your complaint to their policy about not apologizing, and you might be able to make some changes.
Anyone who says that the President can't really do anything on his own is correct.
Yes, but there are two factors which give me hope:
1) The Democratic party has a large majority in the House and a small majority in the Senate, so if they vote on party lines, they should generally vote in favor of the things Obama wants.
2) Many prominent Republicans have recently endorsed Obama, which suggests to me that a few Republican Senators may be willing to cross party lines to vote in favor of the things Obama wants.
Ordinarily, I would oppose letting one party gain control of both houses of Congress and the White House at the same time, because normally the government can do less damage when it's caught up in partisan gridlock (exactly what didn't happen during the first six years of the GWBush presidency). However, in this case, I really want to give the Democrats free reign for a couple years and see what they make of it. If they screw it up, it won't be worse than what Bush did, and we can vote them out next time.
What she did was she graded all of her work during down time in class and study hall,
I can see getting some work done during study hall, but... down time in class? What the hell? Math class doesn't have down time, except during tests. If you're not actively teaching, you're wasting the students' time. Also, a good math teacher doesn't just mark answers right or wrong; they take the time to look at the wrong answers and see where the mistake was made.
My favorite math teacher was one I had when I started college. At the beginning of every class, instead of turning in the homework to be graded, she would go over all the answers and we'd grade it ourselves. Anyone who got the wrong answer was free to ask for clarification or help, and when a lot of people were confused about something she'd stop and take the time to make sure we understood. When we finished going over the homework, we could either keep it or throw it away - it was never turned in or graded. Obviously this doesn't make sense for most other subjects, but for math, it was GREAT.
Start by giving teachers livable wages,
I'm not convinced the problem is that teachers don't make large enough salaries - it's more that they don't make enough money for the amount of work they're required to put in. I don't think we need to pay each teacher more than we're paying them now, but we need more teachers, so each teacher has fewer students. Not just smaller class sizes (although that would be good too), but also fewer classes per teacher.
I know some teachers who have to drive back and forth between three different schools every day. They hate it, but it's what they're stuck with. I admit that sometimes having one teacher work at two different schools may make sense, but three is probably too much. A lot of teachers have to work through their lunch break, because they don't get adequate prep time. It's the working conditions, not the pay, that make good teachers burn out and leave. This is a solvable problem, if you're willing to throw enough money at it, but it requires throwing your money in the right place (hiring more teachers, with a focus on making their lives easier so they can devote more energy to actually teaching).
start by funding real programs that put books, science and math into students hands.
I'm not sure what you have in mind. Could you elaborate?
Start challenging and teaching kids AT school. Get away from homework, let kids live a life after school and make school about learning.
Homework is important too, but it definitely needs to be limited, because extracurricular activities are important. It shouldn't be a huge burden, but homework encourages parental involvement and helps build time management skills.
This is not true.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/bannedbooks.asp
Please do a little research beforehand.
Read your own research a little more carefully. While it's true that saying Palin "tried to ban books" is an overstatement and the list in that Snopes article is a fabrication, Palin did ask the librarian about the hypothetical possibility of removing certain books from the library, not just once but three times. Each time, the librarian said she would oppose any such request, and Palin told her she would be fired. Those are the facts as confirmed by your own Snopes article.
I think it was reasonable for Palin to ask the librarian about the hypothetical possibility of removing a book from the library. Obviously, Sarah Palin is not the sharpest tool in the shed and isn't particularly well educated, and at this time she had just become Mayor of Wasilla. Asking about it on two other occasions, however, is questionable at best, and attempting to fire the librarian is where she crossed the line.
(By the way, I'm a pro-life Creationist, and I voted for Obama.)
That sounds refreshingly reasonable, but it's not a position I've heard espoused by any candidate running for office in a long time. The Libertarians always talk about "small government", but they seem to be suggesting that the scope of state and local governments should be reduced as well, which is an idea I strongly oppose.
There are certain things that capitalism does well, and things it does badly. Health insurance, primary education, emergency services (police, fire, etc.) and infrastructure (roads, utilities, etc.) are in the latter category. When private companies do these things and everything works really well (e.g. the electricity and natural gas companies), there is usually heavy government regulation involved.
Health insurance, education, and emergency services are on that list, because it is in society's interest for poor people to receive the best health care, education and emergency care possible. Healthy and educated people make positive contributions to society and work their way out of poverty; unhealthy and uneducated people become a drain on society (they often become criminals, for example). If a poor person's house catches on fire, their rich neighbor doesn't want it to burn to the ground because they couldn't afford to pay the fire department to put out the fire.
Infrastructure is on that list, because rich people need to be able to drive on good roads in poor neighborhoods, and call poor people on the phone; poor people need roads and utilities to help them to become less poor.
So yeah, you obviously understand this stuff, and when you say you want "small government", you just mean you want states and local governments to step up to the plate and make all of this happen. Unfortunately, not everyone is as smart as you are. When a lot of people say they want "small government", they really mean they don't think state and local governments should be providing these services either. They think private companies should provide these services to those who can afford them, without government regulation at all.
Note that the lack of government regulation was a major contributing factor to the current economic crisis.
...from the other side of the pond, Obama is the right choice. Palin's stance on creationism alone should be enough to decide this particular issue.
I'm a Creationist; I also consider myself to be more pro-life than Palin is. Palin's positions on those two issues certainly don't frighten me.
I voted for Obama.