Ugh, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. NBC Nightly News w/Brian Williams just touted (Tivo'd) it received the Edward R. Murrow award for "overall excellence."

Making a difference, I suppose.

Well, I guess I don't dig the empire.

I guess I never got over being told in 5th grade that even poor trash like myself was totally equal to anyone else in the eyes of the law of the land. Now, don't get me wrong, even at 11 I knew that the ones with money got away with things that we of the poor class would never get away with --- but it was nice that the goal was that each individual was equal to every other individual in the eyes of the law.(*)

Of course now we see that all individuals are equal, but some individuals are more equal than other individuals.(**)

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(*) Not in the eyes of girls, of course. Just in the eyes of the law.

(**) I may have read something like that in my youth, and am therefor lifting it without citation. Perhaps.

Bernbart, without in any way challenging your critique of practice tests and such, I nevertheless offer this friendly advice:

If by happenstance you are ever required to take a typing test, please hold your nose and avail yourself of any and all practice modes available beforehand.

I don't mean literally "hold your nose", of course, since all digits must be marshalled for the skill at hand. We're all rooting for you!

Otherwise, your comment reminds me that our public education standards have long since abandoned any pretense at stimulating cognitive, intellectual, and character development; instead, as the NCLB approach confirms, "education" means social conformity and passing Standardized Tests®.

Practicing for the test, and teaching for the test, is SOP from elementary school up. I'm sure I could even find instances of pre-schoolers being programmed to sharpen juvenile test-taking skills.

Yes, theoretically the entire function of the Test is to measure and evaluate how well a student has mastered the relevant Material. But when the Test® becomes the be-all and end-all, the Material becomes a mere means to an end.

All just to point out that the need and desire to practice for a Test® is a response to the Importance of the Test®.

We consider all factors we are aware of in all decisions. That is human nature for you.

Fair enough. I have never knowingly(*) considered race a factor in how I voted until this this past election, and it was not a primary factor by any means. My decision was based on (1) policy positions, (2) perceived character, and then (3) Obama's ethnic and cultural background. I don't know that I would ever consider the last item again. (Probably not.) As I said, in this instance, I thought it would be beneficial to society at large.

I am a 50+ white male if that helps with the context.

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* Subconscious and all that stuff.

this this !!1!

"I was talking statistics."

I wont even discuss statistics. That is not my field, and was my worst subject.

Advancement should never be based just on a test, and I'm not sure how they decided advancement besides the tests.

NBC Nightly News w/Brian Williams just touted (Tivo'd) it received the Edward R. Murrow award for "overall excellence." [...]
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That's pretty revolting.

But if the day comes when this sorry sack of shit or any of his depraved infotainwhore colleagues receive an Izzy Award, somebody better pitch a bitch.

"If by happenstance you are ever required to take a typing test, please hold your nose and avail yourself of any and all practice modes available beforehand."

I was early on in life and I failed to see what a typing test had to do with my college degree and the position I was applying for. It certainly has noting to so with intelligence. In my day those women who could type well were usually in vocational courses and not college bound.

I had gone through the archives of courant.com; in the last several years, there seem to have been several problems in the civil services department of the City of New Haven.

These included a in-the-middle change of rules for the entrance tests for firefighter recruitment; various problems with police department promotions; two firefighters dismissed by the mayor and his pals that were reinstated by the courts, and so on. All in all it appeared to be the type of cronyism or corruption steeped place that cannot be fixed by Title VII or any other legislation. It needs to be taken over by some technocrat-type people who can clean it up.

Racial injustice cannot be remedied in the "andher nagari" that is New Haven. (You may read the story here, or reproduced below

http://www.boloji.com/rt2/rt159.htm

Ignore the rest.)

On the balance, I'm with Stibber. (When plaintiffs asked that the city do the work to certify the tests, the city demurred, so saying the tests were never validated doesn't really help.)

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In this strange land, one night four brothers plan a burglary and try to breach the wall of the house of an affluent family. The bungling incompetent thieves bring the wall down, but in the process are killed by the falling bricks. The mother of the thieves is angry and grieved and files a lawsuit in the court to seek compensation for her loss. In arguing her case before the Qadi, she claims that her sons were merely following their profession and the inappropriately constructed wall caused their demise, for which the homeowner was liable. The judge following the strange and uniform national code of justice, asks the homeowner why he should not be sentenced to death for the loss of the thieves’ lives. The frightened and frazzled homeowner uses the defense that those who constructed the wall are the guilty party and thus exonerates himself. The bricklayer is then summoned to the court and he says it is not his fault as he did his job well and the cement must have been of poor quality. The wrath of the judge and his warped justice then descends on the cement mixer who is accused of pouring too much water during mixing. The cement maker admits that it happened, but attributes it to his required mandatory greeting of the passing Mullah, a legally justifiable diversion that diluted the cement. The Qadi calls the Mullah in. The honest man has no excuse and the judge pronounces death by hanging for the convicted Mullah. The national legally prescribed fixed size noose is brought to the courtyard to string up the guilty offender. Whatever the fault of the Mullah, he is a decent god-fearing man who has refrained from indulging in sin, including gluttony. His neck is thin and his visage lean and his head and cranial capacity on the small side. The noose keeps slipping off his head and neck. The irritated judge who has other commitments, then pontificates that the deaths must be punished and since the circumference of the noose is unalterable by the national religious code, the only way for justice to be done, is to hang the first person whom the noose fits.

The chubby newly graduated disciple feasting on the cheap dates was idling time watching the wheels of justice and his stout neck fitted the noose. He was to be hanged in the public square next morning as an example to the citizens and to emphasize that justice not only should be done, but it must also publicly seen to be done. The desperate disciple sent an urgent SOS to his guru via a messenger. The guru promptly arrived early morning at the public square and created a ruckus by insisting that he be hanged instead of the disciple. The intrigued Qadi was taken aback at this strange self-destroying demand and even the Mullah suspected some theological mystery. They kept asking the guru for the reason and he refused. The irritated judge then threatened him that if he refused he would be beheaded instead of being hanged. The guru pleaded that he must be hanged. Under further intimidation and duress, the guru confessed that on this day of the new moon, anyone who was hanged would go straight to heaven and was guaranteed double his share of beautiful virgins. The Qadi, then insisted since he was the judge, he would decide who would be hanged. He decided he would hang himself. In the meantime the news had reached the king. He repaired to the scene and used his primate privilege to be hanged. The relieved guru and disciple promptly crossed the borders of the strange realm, vowing never to return again.