2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

[5mn_Major]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

I feel quite comfortable in my ability to invest in the markets...but would be willing to concede there are others on the board with more knowledge than I.

Do you not understand the market?!

Yet as I work with F500 co's regularly on the subject, I don't know that I'm willing to concede the same to many posters on consumer technology adoption.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

I feel quite comfortable in my ability to invest in the markets...but would be willing to concede there are others on the board with more knowledge than I.



Yet as I work with F500 co's regularly on the subject, I don't know that I'm willing to concede the same to many posters on consumer technology adoption.

You do know that in that paragraph, I was referring specifically to the alternative energy market, yes?

 

[5mn_Major]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

You do know that in that paragraph, I was referring specifically to the alternative energy market, yes?

It doesn't matter. In their relationship with markets, consumers are always in charge. Always.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

It doesn't matter. In their relationship with markets, consumers are always in charge. Always.

Exactly, and they've pretty much demanded that electric vehicles aren't wanted. So why try to force it?

 

[joecct]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

Perhaps you're right. Perhaps we've always done a lousy job in public education when compared to other countries. But we are manifestly doing worse now than in the past. And how does that excuse the greed and ineptitude displayed and encouraged by teachers unions? As I've said, to my knowledge, no correlation has been shown between teacher pay and benefits, and class room performance.

Did the decline start around / soon after the Department of Education was created?

 

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

Did the decline start around / soon after the Department of Education was created?

Good question. We are getting our butts kicked by other nations, that's pretty universally accepted. The question is: what can we do about it? It's in all of our interests to come up with the answers. And paying public school teachers like oriental potentates is unlikely to do the job. We already spend more money per pupil than any nation in the world.

 

[Slap Shot]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

That we're doing worse is a fallacy. International students continue to flock her for secondary education (BA/BS, MBA and PhD) and no industrialized country on the planet has a less homogeneous populace to educate. Keep swimming in hyperbole if it makes you fell better.

 

[Old Pio]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

That we're doing worse is a fallacy. International students continue to flock her for secondary education (BA/BS, MBA and PhD) and no industrialized country on the planet has a less homogeneous populace to educate. Keep swimming in hyperbole if it makes you fell better.

Actually, I think you meant to say "post secondary." And what, pray tell, does that have to do with our primary, middle and high schools anyway? And whether they're doing a good job of educating our "less homogeneous" students? But thanks for playing. Don't forget the Rice-a-roni on your way out.

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

Actually, I think you meant to say "post secondary." And what, pray tell, does that have to do with our primary, middle and high schools anyway? And whether they're doing a good job of educating our "less homogeneous" students? But thanks for playing. Don't forget the Rice-a-roni on your way out.

By de-emphasizing competition and encouraging cooperation, doing away with standardized testing, and making teaching one of the most highly esteemed professions in the country, Finland has created one of the best education systems in the world. All while spending less per student than the United States does.

http://www.upworthy.com/want-to-cre...st-do-the-opposite-of-what-america-doe?c=ifbc

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/january/finnish-schools-reform-012012.html

But, let's keep testing our kids to death. That'll work.

But Sahlberg identified the biggest obstacle in the U.S. system as the same policy intended to revolutionize education. "If I could change one thing in policy, I would seriously rethink the role of standardized testing," he said in an interview with the Stanford News Service. "No high-performing nation in the world has been successful using the policies that the United States is using."

 

[FreshFish]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

How many of y'all have said we "ought to" judge the value of a statement by what it says, and not evaluate its merits based on who said it?

In the Nov. 25 ABC News/Washington Post poll, 60% of respondents said they support "raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 a year," .....

It is often overlooked that Americans can hold conflicting opinions on the same subject at the same time. [emphasis added] While Americans favor raising taxes on the wealthy, a Winston Group poll two weeks ago (conducted for the GOP House leadership) found just 26% of respondents agreeing that "given the state of the deficit, those making over $250,000 a year should have to pay 40% of their income in federal taxes." Some 68% disagreed. This is relevant because Mr. Obama wants wealthy Americans to pay 39.6% of their income in federal taxes, plus additional levies that would bring the total bite to at least 44.6%.

In the same survey, 60% said they believe taxes shouldn't go up for "small businesses that make over $250,000 a year....As to the "better way to raise tax revenues," 61% said they prefer "reforming the tax code to lower tax rates and close loopholes," as House Republicans have proposed, while just 28% back Mr. Obama's plan for "raising tax rates on those making over $250,000 a year.

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

Actually, I think you meant to say "post secondary." And what, pray tell, does that have to do with our primary, middle and high schools anyway? And whether they're doing a good job of educating our "less homogeneous" students? But thanks for playing. Don't forget the Rice-a-roni on your way out.

That's better than me; I would have offered a 9-year supply of pantyhose.

http://www.upworthy.com/want-to-cre...st-do-the-opposite-of-what-america-doe?c=ifbc

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/january/finnish-schools-reform-012012.html

But, let's keep testing our kids to death. That'll work.

Actually, I wonder if the idea of state mandated testing was a method of the teachers' unions to undermine non-public schools. Let's say a state comes up with a mandated set of high school exams (for example, New York's Regents examinations), and then you say that that specific diploma (in NY's case, the Regents Diploma) is the only accepted high school diploma in the state if you went to school in the state. Because of this, teachers are obviously going to, at the bare minimum, teach to the test. Why? That's how the student passes, and therefore that's how they make their metrics. With this knowledge, you know that the information gained from the classroom will be the same across the state, regardless of where you go in the state. With that, you've just eliminated the incentive to pay for what you believe will be a better quality education, because the information will be the same regardless of private or public. This is the exact reason why I went to public school for grades 9-12. I was already paying for it (since school taxes are assessed through your property in the district it resides), and it wasn't going to be any different than the parochial school I was attending, so why waste cash and time to drive to the other school (too far for a bus)? Sure, you could go for the people, but at that age, what's stopping you from going to visit them off-hours?

 

[unofan]

Actually, I wonder if the idea of state mandated testing was a method of the teachers' unions to undermine non-public schools.

Oh for fark's sake. Must you try to pass every consetvative idea off on the other side when it comes under scrutiny. Name me one teacher's union who is pro-testing.

 

[joecct]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

Question on the cliff...
What if they raise the rates on the "rich" and the"rich" use legal tax avoidance means to reduce their taxable income so the government takes less from that group?

What then?

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

Question on the cliff...
What if they raise the rates on the "rich" and the"rich" use legal tax avoidance means to reduce their taxable income so the government takes less from that group?

What then?

They'll raise it some more.

 

[joecct]

They'll raise it some more.

lather rinse repeat?

 

[unofan]

Question on the cliff...
What if they raise the rates on the "rich" and the"rich" use legal tax avoidance means to reduce their taxable income so the government takes less from that group?

What then?

I'd question why their accountant wasn't already using those tax avoidance measures.

 

[MinnFan]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

And I just fixed SS and Medicare for the 1,000th time. You still haven't told me how you're going to pay for the bloated defense budget.

Please work with the Democrats on SS and Medicare then since they have drawn a line in the sand that benefits will never decrease.

As far as defense spending the simpliest (and ironically the most difficult) solution. Pass a constitutional amendment capping federal spending at 19% of GDP. This is the historical revenue collected regardless of tax rates. Once that is in place it would force the "guns v. butter" debate and defense spending would find a natural cap.

 

[Rover]

Question on the cliff...
What if they raise the rates on the "rich" and the"rich" use legal tax avoidance means to reduce their taxable income so the government takes less from that group?

What then?

I'm guessing that's what the Republicans are going to bring to the table. Closing loopholes particularly offshoring assets and huge charitable deductions so that their next first born son of a multi-millionare candidate doesn't have to hide his tax returns when he runs.

 

[FreshFish]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

Here's an unexpected development,

Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) announced he is leaving the Senate in January to run The Heritage Foundation, because he thinks he can be more influential in the latter post than in the former. SC Governor Nikki Haley will appoint a replacement until 2014 at which time there will be a special election for that seat.

In an interview preceding the succession announcement, Sen. DeMint said he is taking the Heritage job because he sees it as a vehicle to popularize conservative ideas in a way that connects with a broader public. "This is an urgent time," the senator said, "because we saw in the last election we were not able to communicate conservative ideas that win elections." Mr. DeMint, who was a market researcher before he entered politics, said he plans to take the Heritage Foundation's traditional research plus that of think tanks at the state level and "translate those policy papers into real-life demonstrations of things that work." He said, "We want to figure out what works at the local and state level" and give those models national attention.

Mr. DeMint, an active conservative partisan often at odds with his party's leadership, says he will "protect the integrity of Heritage's research and not politicize the policy component. Heritage is not just another grassroots political group."

 

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: 2012 Presidential Election - The Day after the Aftermath...

Here's an unexpected development,

Senator Jim DeMint (R, SC) announced he is leaving the Senate in January to run The Heritage Foundation, because he thinks he can be more influential in the latter post than in the former. SC Governor Nikki Haley will appoint a replacement until 2014 at which time there will be a special election for that seat.

So he's going from a position where he actually has a say in the execution of said values to a talking figurehead that just rattles out the values?

PLTMN.