Wednesday, July 13, 2011

republican candidates, stupid cheaters



I love this guy. He's so intelligent and reasonable.

Also he supports legalizing online gambling. I don't gamble at all and think it's silly, but it seems bizarre to make it illegal online, especially when Vegas and Atlantic City and Foxwoods really exist. 

He didn't get invited to the second Republican debate, but answered the questions anyway:




unfortunately, he will be crushed by this lunatic:




There's an amazing piece in Rolling Stone, Michelle Bachmann's Holy War, which begins

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and, as you consider the career and future presidential prospects of an incredible American phenomenon named Michele Bachmann, do one more thing. Don't laugh.

It may be the hardest thing you ever do, for Michele Bachmann is almost certainly the funniest thing that has ever happened to American presidential politics. Fans of obscure 1970s television may remember a short-lived children's show called Far Out Space Nuts, in which a pair of dimwitted NASA repairmen, one of whom is played by Bob (Gilligan) Denver, accidentally send themselves into space by pressing "launch" instead of "lunch" inside a capsule they were fixing at Cape Canaveral. This plot device roughly approximates the political and cultural mechanism that is sending Michele Bachmann hurtling in the direction of the Oval Office.

Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government. She kicked off her unofficial presidential campaign in New Hampshire, by mistakenly declaring it the birthplace of the American Revolution. "It's your state that fired the shot that was heard around the world!" she gushed. "You are the state of Lexington and Concord, you started the battle for liberty right here in your backyard."


I am generally suspicious of articles written in such an unabashedly mocking tone, but Taibbi seems right on here.

Compare this to the unbelievable sycophantic "email interview" (what??) that Newsweek did with Sarah Palin (or possibly her administrative assistant).
an excerpt:

Palin has also become conversant on the subject of quantitative easing, the inflationary effects of which she illustrated with a personal anecdote. “I was ticked off at Todd yesterday,” she said. “He walks into a gas station as we’re driving over from Minnesota. He buys a Slim Jim—we’re always eating that jerky stuff—for $2.69. I said, ‘Todd, those used to be 99 cents, just recently!’ And he says, ‘Man, the dollar’s worth nothing anymore.' A jug of milk and a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs—every time I walk into that grocery store, a couple of pennies more...”

When did Newsweek stop being a real news organization? It reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Marge says "wow, Fox news turned into a hard core sex channel so gradually, I didn't even notice."

Finally, I'm amazed by the cheating scandal in the Atlanta public school system.

Systematic Cheating Is Found in Atlanta’s School System
By KIM SEVERSON


Published: July 5, 2011

 ATLANTA — A state investigation released Tuesday showed rampant, systematic cheating on test scores in this city’s long-troubled public schools, ending two years of increasing skepticism over remarkable improvements touted by school leaders.

The administration of former superintendent Beverly L. Hall punished whistle-blowers, hid or manipulated information and altered documents, the investigation found.

The results of the investigation, made public by Gov. Nathan Deal, showed that the cheating occurred at 44 schools and involved at least 178 teachers and principals, almost half of whom have confessed, the governor said.
...
In 2008, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution began aggressive reporting that questioned the statistical probability of some test scores and eventually led to a separate state investigation of 2009 tests that showed an unusually high number of erasures."   full article


When all you have to do to not get caught is to tell your students: "If you aren't sure, leave it blank. There's a penalty for guessing." That really occurred to no one?? People that stupid shouldn't be allowed around children.

18 comments:

Hexster said...

I don't know anything about the pet killing light bulbs, but the Chinese are on the public record regarding their desire for international trade to move away from its reliance on the US dollar.

Anonymous said...

Hexster is right!
1

Anonymous said...

There you go again, why are you and the loony left so afraid of a strong conservative woman? Out comes the attack machine and attack ads. I didn’t see any outrage when Obama said there were 57 states in the United States !!!

Anonymous said...

Why are you amazed at the cheating scandal? This was predicted when NCLB and associated programs were enacted - where teachers were teaching to the test, and being evaluated based on student performance.

Blacks have a lower average IQ than Whites (who have a lower average IQ than Asians). So it stands to reason that school districts with more black kids will not do as well (all other things being equal, like money spent, etc). Liberals can't openly accept the truth of human biodiversity, and neither can they accept teachers being judged by how well the kids under them do. And so the only other option is to cheat.

Elizabeth Vicary said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Elizabeth Vicary said...

If black kids are less intelligent and liberal teachers like myself are opposed to rigorous performance evaluations, then explain how we win nationals every year.

Anonymous said...

...and the Racist pokes his head up..once again...this blog attracts them like honey...
so easy to bait and catch them in their element....

Anonymous said...

CHINA IS A PROBLEM!!
Don't fool yourself or be naive.
UNFAIR trade practices which cheat Americans out of our money and jobs
-RACIST homogeneous society with no respect for human rights.
USA will be CHINA's slaves..just look and see what is happening
soon all currency will be yuan...Wake up!! Pay attention!
THE USA is already owned by that country.

Anonymous said...

Not all blacks are less intelligent than all whites. Come on, you are a teacher, you should understand statistics.
The ethnic group with the highest average IQ is Ashkenazi Jews. They dominate the intellectual fields (% of Nobel prize winners, etc).
You provide your kids with a better chess education than 99% of the country. Now if every kid in the country could get the same chess education, I hope you wouldn't be shocked and surprised that a statistical analysis of the top 1000 kids would fall along ethnic IQ lines.

Elizabeth Vicary said...

The one thing that being a teacher has taught me most clearly is that multiple choice tests (and I include IQ tests in this) do not measure very much besides the ability to take standardized tests.

Elizabeth Vicary said...

Also, I love that your comment boils down to "If all those poor, educationally deprived white and Asian kids could just get the high quality inner city public school education that these African American students get..."

Anonymous said...

Elizabeth! Kudos!
You have a good ,strong spirit!
I like that!!

-Not a wimpy Anonymous,
-Cecile

Anonymous said...

I remember this Anonymous with the Asheknazy Jews ,intellignce IQ jargon form last year....when someone said he reminded him of one of his fellow foolish dimwitted Soviet emigre friends.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous above,
THAT'S FUNNY!

J.A. Topfke said...

I like Gary Johnson a lot, too. Ron Paul already came out in favor of online gambling a long time ago. Therein lies the problem for Johnson: there's nothing he can say that Paul didn't say first or say better.

I hope he gets more air time in the upcoming debates, but the truth is he will probably drop out before Iowa. It's not a good sign when even Willie Nelson un-endorses you.

J.A. Topfke

LinuxGuy said...

"wow, Fox news turned into a hard core sex channel so gradually, I didn't even notice."

That is so funny. You seem really smart to me.

I think that Palin is genuinely smart and knowledgeable. She would represent the most independent voice on economic issues I feel. What is congress doing now? Can they do ANYTHING (intelligent)? Can Obama? Okay, he got Osama, but that was a no-brainer to get Osama.

Obama, and Bachman much as I would like to see a female conservative president, I see them as political-hacks. I don't really like any of the GOP candidates running. I like Ron Paul but he seems too hands-off internationally to me (with Libya, for example).

I like hearing Johnson's replies, but it comes down to a front-runner. This time, Ron Paul is actually starting out as a front-runner so I would vote for him, as it stands. I voted for him last time, but he only got a couple percent of the vote then.

I haven't been following the candidates, but for me there is no excuse for mixing up N.H. with Mass.

Anonymous said...

I hadn't read Rolling Stone in years until the Taibbi story on Bachmann. What a laughable and totally ridiculous attempted hit piece.

That being said, I hope that the American people are finished electing as President those with minimal experience, such as Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama. What a debacle the past two and a half years have been.

Braden said...

It's been claimed in scientific studies that African Americans are born with a higher number of slow twitch muscle fibers than white people. This makes them naturally better than white people at many sports, especially endurance sports. My anecdotal evidence also seems to support this view.

So here's the big quesiton.. Is it ok (not racist) for me to say the above statement?

If you think it's ok, is it because we are talking about something a minority group in the USA may be naturally good at, or is it because we are only dealing with physical qualities, as opposed to mental qualities?