if you posted half as much, you'd make ten times as much sense...

hee hee hee

your LATEST (not 'only', by far) cockup in dissing the venerable thomas is simply one example of your obstinate insistence on voicing wormtongued idiocy...

ho ho ho

oh, and i have NO PROBLEM with (i think) antineocon's anecdote: i don't care if the bedouins' ancestors invented zero a couple hundred years ago; that does not mean THEY are math whizzes and up-to-date on modern methods and computers, etc... what fucking sophistry...

'oh yeah, well they invented algebra and shit, so how can you say they are ignorant towelheads?'

ha ha ha

um, cause EVERYBODY is ignorant of SOMETHING, and people who DON'T study mathematics in any formal fashion are likely -if not certainly- to NOT know much about math and be proficient in it... *sheesh*

ak ak ak

really very simple reasoning, and yet you fail that too because of YOUR childish oversensitivity to all things critical of YOUR tribe...

it is just as likely that you could go to appalachia, or downtown detroit, or wasilla alaska, and find a group of people to teach math to, and they are just as 'ignorant', with no particular aptitude or interest in learning higher math...

b-bu-but, HOW can that be ? ? ? aren't we the nation of einstein (well, sorta) and invented all kinds of math and shit ? ? ? so, well, *everyone* must be math whizzes, right ? ? ?

one + one = zero

art guerrilla

aka ann archy

artguerrilla @windstream.net

eof

Now that is a hoot and a half. That is by far the best one-line put-down on UT so far this year. I intend to steal that one an use it in a post soon. Congratulations on your word-smithing.

ann archy wrote:

oh, and i have NO PROBLEM with (i think) antineocon's anecdote: i don't care if the bedouins' ancestors invented zero a couple hundred years ago; that does not mean THEY are math whizzes and up-to-date on modern methods and computers, etc... what fucking sophistry...

Once upon a time, the Islamic culture dominated the world in art, science, math, building, philosophy, and other learning while the "culture" of Europe was in a deep dark age. Even so, not everyone was good at math.

I have an uncle that once worked for the CIA and who helped to train Iranians(*) to fly helicopters for the military of the Shah of Iran. He reports that it was an almost impossible task. And yet, Iranians are no cowards or imbeciles. Uncle reports it was a cultural thing.

And you are correct in thinking that teaching math to the folks of the hills of Appalachia is not an easy task. And yet, the best of them are as good as kids from any part of the country even as the majority are not very math literate.

------------------

Disclaimer: Yes, yes, I know. Iranians are not Arabs. And yet the story is a good data point to mention.

Salon makes no mention of Cynthia McKinney being held captive by Israel.

CNN's last update was on Tuesday.

They are holding a former US Congresswoman hostage and this is not news?

I don't think this country has ANY journalistic standards.

There being two sides to every story, will NPR henceforth refrain from identifying alleged murders as 'murder trials' or 'murder cases'?

Perhaps NPR can start referring to them as cases involving 'enhanced dispute resolution techniques'.

I cringe every time NPR airs a report on the subject of "enhanced interrogation techniques" - it makes me want to scream out TORTURE! This failure on the part of Public Radio is cowardice. I guess they're afraid that some of their radio listeners may be offended by the truth, and stop sending in donations.

The problem with antineocon's anecdote starts at the beginning "Arabs were Bedouins". Only a small number fraction of them were.

Bernard Lewis's "Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the capture of Constantinople" contains some anecdotes from the 9th century and from them it is evident that even then Arabs were a large group than just Bedouins.

BTW, Rumsfeld's "don't know what we don't know" has its parallel from the 9th century, given by Lewis as:

"Khalil ibn Ahmad said: " There are four kinds of men: the man who knows and knows that he knows; learn from him; the man who knows and doesn't know that he knows; he is forgetful-remind him; the man who doesn't know and knows that he doesn't know; he seeks guidance-teach him; the man who doesn't know and doesn't know that he doesn't know; he is a fool-avoid him."

----

As to the silliness of Iranians found flying helicopters difficult or Saudis graduates were lousy at mathematics - perhaps the instructors giving their anecdotes here might tell us how these Iranians or Saudis were chosen. My bet is, especially if this was long ago, that they were not chosen by merit, they were well-connected and that is how they got into university and so on.

Has anyone tried teaching George W. Bush anything?

I cringe every time NPR airs a report on the subject of "enhanced interrogation techniques" - it makes me want to scream out TORTURE!

It makes me cringe when I hear one of you lot daintily say that you are going to visit the restroom when what you really mean is you are going to take a shit.

And when one of you ever ask me, "where is the bathroom?" I have to shout for fucks sake don't use the bath use the round porcelain can thing you find in corner,Purleese!!!

now 89, will be tried for his role in WWII Nazi concentration camp torturing.

How does NPR characterize THIS story? (A story that is still in the news 60 years after the fact.)

Let's hope we don't have to wait that long for the trials/punishments of recent torturers and their ilk.

He was a POW and if anything perhaps a trustee. Guess what other famous Holocaust celebrity was also a trustee.

I don't suppose you want to hang him as well, do you?

Nah, didn't think so.

Let's put his guilt on someone else.

Let the lamb take the sin, let the sacrifice begin, kyrie eleison.