The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

[Handyman]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

I understand both sarcasm, and arguments that are wrong and make no sense. Or are you just saying since it's Scooby, I should never assume he's serious and is trying to make sense? I can understand that one.

Now, this post from you, you throw several insults at me and then put a little winky, as though your insults are ok or funny or whatever you imagine.

If you can't tell when Scooby is being serious and when he is being hyperbolic well then I question your ability to reasonably comprehend even basic reading. (and I wonder how you logged onto the internet ) Since I know you have an IQ of more than 90 I am gonna chalk it up to you just not paying close enough attention to the posts or you not having your morning coffee

As for my insults towards you:

If you are taking anything I say seriously (especially when I put an emoticon at the end and am obviously just poking at you a bit) then maybe it is time you took a break and unplugged. It was a joke, no more insulting than when I call my friend a dumbass for any of a thousand reasons. (or say something like "I could play hockey better than them" or "They couldnt score in a whorehouse" ) It is what adults do sometimes when they are trying to get a laugh.

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

If you can't tell when Scooby is being serious and when he is being hyperbolic well then I question your ability to reasonably comprehend even basic reading. (and I wonder how you logged onto the internet ) Since I know you have an IQ of more than 90 I am gonna chalk it up to you just not paying close enough attention to the posts or you not having your morning coffee

As for my insults towards you:

If you are taking anything I say seriously (especially when I put an emoticon at the end and am obviously just poking at you a bit) then maybe it is time you took a break and unplugged. It was a joke, no more insulting than when I call my friend a dumbass for any of a thousand reasons. (or say something like "I could play hockey better than them" or "They couldnt score in a whorehouse" ) It is what adults do sometimes when they are trying to get a laugh.

No, I can't tell what on earth Scooby is saying at times. In online forums it's hard to know when someone is being serious or not absent clearer indications, especially someone like Scooby who goes so hyper over issues and rants and raves in all sorts of directions. I've had a number of times before with Scooby where I thought he was joking and turns out he was trying to be serious. Go figure. Guess you're Scooby sense is better than mine.

I think we just have a bit of a different sense of humor. Honestly I just don't find someone throwing some insults out and then doing a wink as either clever or very funny. Honestly it just comes across to me as the ugly mocking type of humor that is way too prevalent in today's society. There's way too much real humor and fun to be had without that type of stuff, at least in my book.

 

[joecct]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

The Speaker asked the Administration for a list of proposed regulations that would cost more than $1.0 billion. The reply:

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Interesting what we're hearing this week. We don't have any money for FEMA but we NEVER run out of money for Iraq/Afghanistan. I should have been an accountant.

 

[Bakunin]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Interesting what we're hearing this week. We don't have any money for FEMA but we NEVER run out of money for Iraq/Afghanistan. I should have been an accountant.

It's a bit like how there's always money for expensive over-budget and behind-schedule military contracts, yet taking care of vets returning from deployment poses budget problems.

 

[Handyman]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

It's a bit like how there's always money for expensive over-budget and behind-schedule military contracts, yet taking care of vets returning from deployment poses budget problems.

Well to be fair, the government doesnt want living veterans they want dead heroes. Dead heroes give us great monuments in their honor...living veterans remind us of the horrors of war.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Well to be fair, the government doesnt want living veterans they want dead heroes. Dead heroes give us great monuments in their honor...living veterans remind us of the horrors of war.

Remember what's important.

Vets tend to return home with ideas like this. Very bad for recruitment:

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.

GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

-- Wilfred Owen

 

[pirate]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Don't joke. The JSF cockpit was designed to accommodate body sizes from the the 10th percentile female up to the 90th percentile male (by height). My last job on the program was as a member of the Weight Savings Board. At that time, the airplane was so overweight that the government was willing to let Lockheed spend $200,000 of engineering effort to save 1 lb. of weight from the design. Many people submitted "restrict pilot size" as a weight savings suggestion, but that was one sacred cow that we were not allowed to touch.

My favorite weight savings suggestion (by far): "Give the pilots enemas before each flight."

I rest my case.

In any situation in which the decision maker cared about the expense, they would impose such restrictions. The government (motto: "we've never met a dollar we couldn't spend, twice") has no such limitations on its desire to spend money.

Imagine if the government ran disney world, there would be no height restrictions, every ride would have to accomodate every size person and the rides would cost 5x as much...but they wouldn't care...it isn't their money they are spending.

Today I was told about public elementary schools putting smart boards in classrooms. Hey, they are really cool, I can understand why a college would have them, why a prestigious boarding school might have them...why would 4th graders need that kind of technology? Was any work done to justify the cost? Were there any savings in teachers, teachers aids or supplies...were there any raised expectations for better performance (fewer kids failing, less need for remedial classes) OR was it just another expense that somebody else is paying for with no impact whatsoever on the final product.

 

[Tundra]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Well to be fair, the government doesnt want living veterans they want dead heroes. Dead heroes give us great monuments in their honor...living veterans remind us of the horrors of war.

PBS showed documentary "Armadillo" yesterday. Heroes/killers?. I would've given them medals and let it (war crime?) go. I think there is a difference between hot/cold blooded killing. (fog of war)

http://www.straight.com/article-389273/vancouver/armadillo

most astonishingly of all in a war where most of the killing gets done by high- and low-tech infernal machines—a genuine firefight. And not just any old firefight, but the kind that leaves commanding officers wondering whether to issue medals or call for courts-martial.

No wonder this movie won a prize at Cannes in 2010. It’s equally unsurprising that it caused a **** storm in Copenhagen, because Metz’s record leaves us with the distinct impression that we have witnessed a war crime.

http://www.dfi.dk/Service/English/N...riftet-FILM/70/The-Beast-in-Civilisation.aspx

The screening I had with the soldiers before the film came out is one of the worst experiences I've had in my life. They had an extremely violent reaction. They were angry, upset and nervous about being court-martialled, losing their jobs or being spit at in the street. They thought I had betrayed their confidence. In that sense, the film rocked the soldiers' own heroic image, but the film had to show how chaotic, tough and violent it is to deal with war, how primitivising war is in so many ways.

 

[joecct]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Remember what's important.

Vets tend to return home with ideas like this. Very bad for recruitment:

Until I got to the end I would have bet big money that was Sassoon. Here's a brief collection: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1914warpoets.html

I will watch "Paths of Glory" and "All Quiet on the Western Front (Ayres version)" every time they're offered.

 

[duper]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Today I was told about public elementary schools putting smart boards in classrooms. Hey, they are really cool, I can understand why a college would have them, why a prestigious boarding school might have them...why would 4th graders need that kind of technology? Was any work done to justify the cost? Were there any savings in teachers, teachers aids or supplies...were there any raised expectations for better performance (fewer kids failing, less need for remedial classes) OR was it just another expense that somebody else is paying for with no impact whatsoever on the final product.

I remember my mother making this argument in 1990 about my high school. She just couldn't understand why computers in a school computer lab needed to be so fancy as to have hard drives. (And yes, this was unusual at the time.) In retrospect, how could you possibly expect a student to be prepared for the world in which they will find themselves without the equipment that they will need to know how to use. Are interactive white boards (Smart being the most popular brand) the same? Not in that sense. But an efficiently used interactive white board can in fact be used to increase the productivity of the classroom staff, and draw out the curiosity of the learner, both of which create a better end result, as well as helping to prepare students for the kinds of technologies that they will need to be exposed to.

Now, this is not an endorsement of putting interactive white boards in every classroom. If used only as a cool toy, then they are a colossal waste of money, but I promise that your state and your school district are wasting a lot more money and classroom time on ineffective summative assessment tools then on ANY technology tool that goes into the classroom.

 

[leswp1]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

I remember my mother making this argument in 1990 about my high school. She just couldn't understand why computers in a school computer lab needed to be so fancy as to have hard drives. (And yes, this was unusual at the time.) In retrospect, how could you possibly expect a student to be prepared for the world in which they will find themselves without the equipment that they will need to know how to use. Are interactive white boards (Smart being the most popular brand) the same? Not in that sense. But an efficiently used interactive white board can in fact be used to increase the productivity of the classroom staff, and draw out the curiosity of the learner, both of which create a better end result, as well as helping to prepare students for the kinds of technologies that they will need to be exposed to.

Now, this is not an endorsement of putting interactive white boards in every classroom. If used only as a cool toy, then they are a colossal waste of money, but I promise that your state and your school district are wasting a lot more money and classroom time on ineffective summative assessment tools then on ANY technology tool that goes into the classroom.

Where is the like button?

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Where is the like button?

The Ike button?

 

[FadeToBlack&Gold]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

I remember my mother making this argument in 1990 about my high school. She just couldn't understand why computers in a school computer lab needed to be so fancy as to have hard drives. (And yes, this was unusual at the time.) In retrospect, how could you possibly expect a student to be prepared for the world in which they will find themselves without the equipment that they will need to know how to use. Are interactive white boards (Smart being the most popular brand) the same? Not in that sense. But an efficiently used interactive white board can in fact be used to increase the productivity of the classroom staff, and draw out the curiosity of the learner, both of which create a better end result, as well as helping to prepare students for the kinds of technologies that they will need to be exposed to.

Now, this is not an endorsement of putting interactive white boards in every classroom. If used only as a cool toy, then they are a colossal waste of money, but I promise that your state and your school district are wasting a lot more money and classroom time on ineffective summative assessment tools then on ANY technology tool that goes into the classroom.

My exact experience with Smart Boards, and that was in private high school.

 

[duper]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

My exact experience with Smart Boards, and that was in private high school.

The thing about that is, they (or some descendent of them) are something that will eventually be built into every classroom as a matter of course, but they take some time to learn how to use. What I have seen of them is a bit of the old school teachers who don't want them and just use them as white boards; a bit of the wide-eye let's play with this cool new toy; and a bit of figuring out what some ways are that this thing can enhance the learning of our class. As time goes by and teachers get more exposure to them, they will begin to blend into the classroom a little better and they will become less a toy and more a tool.

As for your high school experience, I don't know why people think that because schools are private, they will be perfect. Private schools attract the same mix of good and bad teachers as public schools. All things considered, the thing that makes private schools "better" is one part staff and about 15 parts families who not only want their children to succeed, but understand how to support their children's education. I can tell you as a public school teacher, apathy from families is a big problem, but so is families who care a lot but don't know what to do to help.

 

[geezer]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

Our kids' school put in the smart boards, and next week my son going into fourth grade will be handed an iPad on day 1. Not sure how I feel about all that; part of me wants to say a pencil and paper should do you until you have the foundation of knowledge... maybe 8th grade would be better?
In unrelated news, tone deaf much?

The Pima County Republican Party is asking for $10 per ticket for a chance to win a Glock 23, according to the Huffington Post.

The Glock 23 is a version of the Glock 19, which was used in the Jan. 8 shooting rampage that left six people dead and wounded 13 others.

couldn't they raffle off an AK47 instead?

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

couldn't they raffle off an AK47 instead?

Makes sense to me.

Got an AK-47 for his best friend, business the american way

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

True. With the hypersensitivity of people and the use of anything to make political attacks, they should have selected a different gun model or something else to raffle off, although given its popularity, Glocks would seem to be a likely choice. But, anything and everything will be made a big deal of if there's political gain to be had. But, hey, let's take all the law enforcement folks to task also, as according to wiki, the Glock is very popular with them:

"Glock pistols have become the company's most profitable line of products, commanding 65% of the market share of handguns for United States law enforcement agencies[6] as well as supplying numerous national armed forces and security agencies worldwide."

I'm not a gun guy myself, but I don't see what's really an issue here.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

True. With the hypersensitivity of people and the use of anything to make political attacks

In all seriousness, do you not think they chose a gun as a raffle prize for its political significance?

Guns have become a totem of the right wing. Sure, the response is predictable, but the choice itself was hardly accidental.

OTOH, there is a solution:

 

[Bob Gray]

Re: The 112th Congress: Debt ceiling edition

In all seriousness, do you not think they chose a gun as a raffle prize for its political significance?

Guns have become a totem of the right wing. Sure, the response is predictable, but the choice itself was hardly accidental.

Having spent time in Arizona, I'd expect you to understand a little more. Arizona has a strong gun culture, or at least some segments of Arizona's populace. While I don't track such things, it doesn't surprise me at all that people would hold a raffle for a gun. It's not like you can't walk down to any gun shop and buy the same gun any day you please.

I don't see any political significance. If it was supposedly to be significant, why was it shown far down the newsletter for the Pima County Republican Party, with only a brief mention of the raffle? Hardly the way you make political hay. My guess is that it was primarily chosen as something that people would want to buy raffle tickets for. After all, aren't the Republicans just about money and nothing else? Or so I've heard somewhere.