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Everything posted by LCborn
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Episcopal Leader Says Homosexuality is NOT A SIN...
LCborn replied to ERA's topic in Open Discussion
Forrest Gump would make a better bishop. -
The NAFTA Superhighway
LCborn replied to VolunteerGeneral's topic in Politics, National Issues, & Controversy
So that Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kansas, Illinois, etc., can have border control problems like Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. It's not fair that the states bordering Mexico should have all the fun. There's an economic benefit, too: the megamexahighway will give golf courses in the midwest a chance to recruit their share of lawnmower drivers. -
The NAFTA Superhighway
LCborn replied to VolunteerGeneral's topic in Politics, National Issues, & Controversy
That's it! That's the answer! Little old ladies with purple or orange hair, driving large luxury cars at 35 mph in the left-hand lane (with random turn signals a-blinking) of a 70-mph highway are actually Brits! They aren't confused, they're Commonwealth! -
Well, yeah, but you gotta realize that some politicos believe that it is OK for one person to vote several times if that's the cost of ensuring that everyone--legal or illegal--gets the opportunity to vote at least one time.
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You get a new bathroom book for Father's Day, VG?
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Pittsburgh Steeler QB injured in motorcycle crash
LCborn replied to VolunteerGeneral's topic in Open Discussion
LOL, it reminds of the old Yogi story (probably apocryphal): the story is that Yogi was involved in a collision at the plate and got knocked out. He was taken to a hospital for observation. The next day, the story was headlined with, "Yogi's Head X-rayed; Nothing Found." After what happened to Kellen Winslow you'd think teams would start putting in contract clauses that subtract money for this kind of thing. -
"iCarta"? Seems like a more marketable name would be "iPOopeD"
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Palm Beach must not have enough Chicago retirees. Chicago people can play just as many voting machines as they can Bingo cards.
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Say--was that a lady's ring or a man's ring?
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Yeah, that would scuff up a cowcatcher.
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Teachers are letting us down
LCborn replied to texas23's topic in Politics, National Issues, & Controversy
Well--I take them as I find them means, at least to me, that I accept people as they are, whether they are tall or short, dark or fair, or intellectually gifted or intellectually challenged. They are people. Each person deserves respect as a person; but just as some people are tall and some people are short, some people are smart and some people are not. Just as I can judge that someone is short or someone is tall, I can judge that someone is intellectually gifted or not. I don't get why that is a big deal. Are you telling me that you don't judge whether people are tall or short? Are you saying that it is somehow wrong to judge that someone is a blonde and someone else is a brunette? -
Teachers are letting us down
LCborn replied to texas23's topic in Politics, National Issues, & Controversy
Well, when you meet people you notice whether they are short or tall, fair or dark, male or female, don't you? Isn't someone's intellectual ability as much a part of what it is to be them as is their stature? I'm not in HR, BTW, nor am I a recruiter. -
Pittsburgh Steeler QB injured in motorcycle crash
LCborn replied to VolunteerGeneral's topic in Open Discussion
Well, I think it's all good for the Steelers. Not wearing a helmet and crashing his bike? The medical consequences will probably cost him 20 IQ points, which would put him at the Bradshaw level, which means the Steelers will likely collect three more rings in the near future. -
Teachers are letting us down
LCborn replied to texas23's topic in Politics, National Issues, & Controversy
Because of my training and because it's part of my job. -
It sounds like a really bad thing but it's hard to judge for sure. I wonder if this is a payback threat for the search service that wouldn't cooperate with the government a while back--I can't remember the details of that and I'm too busy this morning to go looking. I think it's probably less of a threat than the movement to "internationalize" the internet.
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Gazing into my crystal ball--well, all I could afford was a marble but it's a purty one--I see a change coming--someday, "Dixie" will disappear from the name of this group. The D Chicks. The Chicks. TDC. Something like that.
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The kid should be harshly punished. Communities shouldn't have to worry about somebody saying anything really important in graduation speeches. Graduation speakers should be held to the Crash Davis standard--"you gotta learn your cliches, they are your friends." It sounds like the principal in this case is handling it correctly now, though. Holding the kid's diploma because his speech was critical of the school seems self-serving rather than a response to a legitimate discipline problem.
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Teachers are letting us down
LCborn replied to texas23's topic in Politics, National Issues, & Controversy
I think what's more accurate is that, other things being equal (curriculum, teacher skills, availability of materials, and all those things), kids learn better in smaller classes. I think that the notion is that a teacher's attention has to be divided among X number of students in a class and that the attention paid to each individual child goes up as X goes down. Teachers just have more time for each kid in smaller classes. In his special education class it might have been that he wasn't getting quite the same curriculum. It is also possible that he wasn't getting as much attention as one might expect in a smaller class because of the specific circumstances of his special ed classroom. Some of those kids are very high-maintenance and as a relatively high-functioning kid with a disability, the special ed staff might not have been focusing as much on him as on some other special needs kids. On the other hand, in a regular class he may be assumed to be a relatively low-functioning kid. He may actually end up getting more attention in the larger, regular class than in the smaller, special ed class. In other words, it could be that other things were not equal between the larger class and the smaller class in this example. So it could be that, on the underlying idea that it is teacher attention and not class size per se that is important, the kid might perform better in the regular class. That's no knock on any of the teachers or the school administration; it's just a hypothetical explanation for what might have happened in this kid's case. On a more general note, an example never proves an argument. The writer is using this kid's experience to raise questions about educational policy. I'm sure that other examples could be found to support any and all points of view on special ed and testing. You can't take this particular example to prove anything about policy as it applies to the whole population of kids. -
Marines allegedly went on rampage
LCborn replied to ELA's topic in Politics, National Issues, & Controversy
Woof, woof. Check my avatar. -
What a thug he was. I've heard a story that even the police from his own home country (he was Jordanian, not Iraqi) may have provided information to us about his whereabouts. I'd say he was a human cockroach but I can't; cockroaches have more redeeming virtues than he had.
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News on the Evil Empire
LCborn replied to texas23's topic in Politics, National Issues, & Controversy
WallyWindows! -
Solider Refuses to go to Iraq
LCborn replied to Solomon's topic in Politics, National Issues, & Controversy
Well, that sounds like they don't "always" have the right to refuse a direct order. It sounds like they only have the right to refuse an illegal order. That's bound to be the argument we hear in his favor as the story unfolds but I don't see that getting much traction. I hope the kid gets some prison time. -
News on the Evil Empire
LCborn replied to texas23's topic in Politics, National Issues, & Controversy
I wonder what the Wal-Mart sports drink would have been called? Samade? Wallywater? Vaderade? -
I've got one for you! With that calm attitude about stupid drivers I think you have Depersonalization Disorder; according to the Diagnostic Manual, "This disorder is characterized by feelings of unreality, that your body does not belong to you, or that you are constantly in a dreamlike state."
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The debt is way too large and needs to come down--preferably by reducing spending, in my opinion. But here's another question: to whom will the national debt be paid? Who owns the debt? According to http://www.thisnation.com/question/006.html (and using 2005 information), 58% is held by individual citizens, corporations, and pension funds; 22% is held by foreign investors; and the rest (20%) is owned by the government itself--specifically, it is owed to Social Security. I particularly don't like owing so much to Social Security but during the debate over Bush's SocSec reforms a lot of people expressed that it ain't broke, so maybe I shouldn't worry about it. Since 58% of the debt is held by the public as an investment, when one asks, "to whom will the national debt be paid," the answer is: you and me and our children and grandchildren.