Letters to the Editor
dataguyx
Published Letters: 926 Editor's Choice: 10
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NCLB
[Read the article: Sorting out the dueling education coalitions]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I note that the teacher in private school likes NCLB. Well, what a shock. NCLB is designed for one thing and one thing only.
It is designed to damage the public schools.
Private schools are not subject to NCLB.
Thus, NCLB is designed to drive students out of the public schools and into private schools, which are not subject to its dictates.
Add to that the facts about NCLB: It only punishes. In a large school of 2500, a group as small as 40 can put your school into FAYP. The standards increase every year. Learning disabled students take the same test (there is a limit of LD students in each system). Students that transfer in take the test as if they had been in the system as other students. Foreign students take the test in English.
NCLB is designed by the Republicans (who have hated public education for years) to destroy the public school system, and it is doing that, one school at a time.
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@vondo
[Read the article: Sorting out the dueling education coalitions]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am confused by your note. Yes, teachers' unions help teachers. Yes, they are to help the teachers. And, so what?
Teachers teach the students. As a person who has taught at the university level, I know only one thing: You can present the material, but the students learn it. You have nothing to do with the students learning. They must put forth effort. At the elementary and high school level, you must get assistance from the parents as well.
The entire thrust of the Republican party and the eduwhiners for the last 30 years is to place all responsibility for the failure of education at the foot of the teachers. This is insane.
The teachers' unions are exceptionally important. Without the unions, teaching would be reduced to the level of gardening. You can bet 100 % certain that many school districts would be stuffed full of cheap foreign labor without unions. Unions force school districts to retain professional teachers with degrees and certification. You do not find certified teachers in many private schools, and that is why private education is less good. Many kids from private schools have a grotesquely inadequate education.
Thank god for teachers' unions. If you do not understand why unions are so vital, I suggest you read a little history about teachers pre-union.
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Nobody chose Obama over Edwards
[Read the article: Learning to live with the "new" Obama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Many of us were originally Edwards fans. But he didn't do well.
Nope, for me, it was a clear choice. It was Obama vs Clinton.
And the choice was clear. Obama is the far superior candidate. Yes, he has flaws. Golly, what a SHOCK!! HE HAS FLAWS.
Clinton didn't have flaws. Nope. She had GREAT GAPING WOUNDS. She had NOTHING as small as a flaw. She had huge WHOPPING HOLES.
Nope, Obama is the clear choice of any intelligent person, and remains so. I never believed that he was a progressive.
The Obama cult is NOTHING like the DERANGED CLINTOWACKO Club. The Clintowacks are beyond belief. The Obama backers are pretty sensible.
But no, no regrets at backing Obama over Clinton. None. Not even one.
And she can eat that 20 million in debts. The 20 million was amassed trashing Obama in the last month. So, not one penny from me to retire that debt.
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Anyone STUPID enough
[Read the article: Learning to live with the "new" Obama]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]to follow the advice of those "don't vote for Obama if you are a real democrat" is an IDIOT.
These blogs are filled with trolls from the McCain camp, concern-trolling like mad.
A vote for Obama is a vote for the Democratic team. That is what we vote for. We vote for our team, the Democratic team.
Anyone who says "vote democrat except for the pres" is a McCain troll.
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It's amazing
[Read the article: The offensiveness of Bernie Mac]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]what a FUCKING MORON Bernie Mac is. You don't make that kind of joke at a political event. The guy is clearly a total fool.
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When you try to do satire
[Read the article: The Obama cover kerfuffle]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]you need to raise the satire flag. You must inform people that this is to be taken as satire.
As someone else suggested, this should be shown as a thought-bubble in the head of Rush Limbaugh or someone.
In The Producers, they decided to make a show honoring Hitler. Everyone knew that this was satire, and it was indicated as satire from the beginning. If they had just done the inner show without indicating that the satire flag was up, everyone would have been horrified, and properly so.
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Racist crap
[Read the article: The Obama cover kerfuffle]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I see that racist KateTex is back spewing her disgusting racist bilge.
Hey, KateTex, is Hillary still politically dead?
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Satire vs slander
[Read the article: Lizza defends New Yorker cover]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you look at the New Yorker and think that you have the American Spectator, that's slander not satire. If you think you are holding National Review instead of the New Yorker, you have missed your target.
When you PROMOTE the stereotype instead of SATIRIZE the stereotype, you are perpetrating a slander.
The New Yorker owes the American people a make-good - a similarly slanderous scummy cover featuring McDepends and his lovely wife Lubricious Cindy. It can feature a little bigamy, some land swaps benefiting billionaire developers, and a few other choice items.
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No, you are wrong
[Read the article: Rush Limbaugh was right]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If you cannot tell the difference between a New Yorker cover and an American Spectator cover, you don't have satire, you have slander. If you think this is National Review, again, slander not satire.
Satire needs to be detectable. This is not satire.
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Autism and vaccines are not related
[Read the article: Amanda Peet gets her shot on ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Our human "causal attribution" machinery convinces us that they are. How does this work?
1) We go along forming expectations about things.
2) We do something different - get a vaccine for instance
3) If a bad thing then happens to the child, the TEMPORAL CONTINGUITY links them
4) It is a false contiguity, however
Study after study refutes the link. Millions of children get vaccines and are not autistic, to be more obvious. Most importantly, if you do not vaccinate your child, your child is at risk for many serious serious illnesses.
Who amongst us would not vaccinate our child for polio, for instance?