When civil servants look to the heavens and utter falsehoods

. . . The Lord of Hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Come behold the works of the Lord
 who has made desolations in the Earth.
He makes wars cease
 to the ends of the Earth.
He breaks the bough
and cuts the spear in two.
He burns the chariot in fire.
Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted in the Earths.
The Lord of Hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge.
These words of peace were uttered by a President who is currently waging wars in several countries.  These words of prayer , and many other words of prayer, were uttered by my elected representative, Barack Obama, who doesn’t care that his Constitution has a Separation clause and that he was elected to represent Buddhists and Hindus, in addition to many millions of Americans who do not believe in invisible sentient beings. Then again, it’s election season and Mr. Obama is hammering at America’s sweet spot: Judeo-Christian War Mongering. This was a day when Mr. Obama, like most politicians who hogged the stage on this deservedly sad anniversary, deemed that everyone who died on 9/11 was a “hero,” even though most of the the people who died were victims rather than heroes--there being a huge difference between victims and heroes. But this is not a day that cares about stark distinctions or basic facts. [More . . . ]

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More Quotes . . .

I love to collect quotes. You'll find hundreds of them under the category "Quotes." Here is a set of quotes I've collected over the past 2 months: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." Voltaire (1694 - 1778) "An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." - Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962) "I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." -Michael Jordan "Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions." - G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) ‎"Study: An increasing number of Americans lack the reading and math skills to do anything but run for President." Andy Borowitz "Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber." - Plato Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do. - Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 - 1980), Nausea (1938) "Vendredi" There is no reciprocity. Men love women, women love children, children love hamsters. - Alice Thomas Ellis There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun. - Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973) Doing what you love means dealing with things you don't. - David Shore, House M.D., Last Temptation, 2011 "Of course I believe in free enterprise, but in MY system of free enterprise, the democratic principle is that there never was, never has been, never will be, room for the ruthless exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few." -Harry S. Truman Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt. - Clarence Darrow (1857 - 1938) “Get used to the idea that death should not matter to us, for good and evil are based on sensation. Death, however, is the cessation of all sensation, hence death, ostensibly the most terrifying of all evils, has no meaning for us, for as long as we exist, death will not be present. When death comes, then we will no longer be in existence.” - Epicurus “If I were wrong, one would be enough.” - Albert Einstein "... when people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together." - Isaac Asimov belongs in Skepticism 101 "The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity." Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967), (attributed) "It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them." Pierre Beaumarchais (1732 - 1799) "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it." Upton Sinclair (1878 - 1968)

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The world through the lens of a college English teacher

At Orion Magazine, college English Instructor Erik Reece has written an excellent essay exploring the role of schools in modern society. The conversation is expansive (covering such things as John Gatto, Citizens United and the trashing of the environment), yet the bases of his essay are his personal interactions with thousands of English students. Here's the launching point for Reece's essay.   He asked his college freshmen English students to write an essay on the following topic: "Evaluate the education you received over the last four years."   Here is his summary of types of responses he received:

  • Many teachers show no passion for their subjects.
  • Many teachers don’t seem to know their subjects very well.
  • Teachers often have very low expectations for their students and very lax standards (late work is rarely penalized).
  • Many teachers are afraid to engage students in real critical thinking or actual dialogue; they simply rely on handouts and lectures.
  • Assignments don’t seem relevant to students’ “real” lives.
  • Many teachers only “teach to the test.”
  • The majority of the work is far too easy and leads to boredom.
  • Students express an overwhelming feeling that only their attendance and test scores are important to teachers and administrators.
Again, this is the starting point for a highly worthwhile piece of writing.   I invite you to take a look.

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Republicans Fiddle and Lie, Obama Shuffles, America Burns

Republicans in the US House and Senate have been complete money grubbers when it comes to getting funds from the Democratic Stimulus Bill but, total lying sacks of dung when reporting about the real results the stimulus bill. Most of those asking for the stimulus funds in the US House have been Republicans. All of the Republicans getting any of such funds have touted their individual successes at bringing home the bacon for their districts or states. [Note: I offering numerous links throughout this post; rather than embed them, I am leaving them as text, which will make it easier to see the topics of the links based on the permalinks]. http://www.iwatchnews.org/2010/10/19/2420/tea-party-founder-texans-among-those-asking-stimulus-funds http://www.democrats.org/news/blog/gop_hypocrisy_on_recovery_act_projects_makes_news_nationwide http://www.wusf.usf.edu/news/2010/10/18/gop_congressmen_criticize_stimulus_ask_for_money [More . . . ]

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