And In Other News Part 2

Off Topic Politics & World Issues
121

[quote]MaximusB wrote:

[quote]H factor wrote:
http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/15/4754973/state-of-the-state-brownback-tells.html

This is an interesting fight. Kansas Supreme Court may tell Legislature that they aren’t funding public schools enough (school funding has been slashed big time over the last few years). Brownback saying let the Legislature decide it and not the courts. Meanwhile wants school districts who are already pissed as shit at him for all the cuts to public education recently to add all day kindergarten. Some people for the all day kindergarten being mandated and others vehemently against it. And everyone wondering where the money comes from.

It’s enough to make anyone’s head hurt. We may be really stupid, but we aren’t boring. We have really spent a lot of money fighting the good fight against voter fraud in a state where no one has an incentive to cheat because everyone votes for the same party. Just cause a problem doesn’t exist here doesn’t mean we can’t spend millions to stop it. [/quote]

After some digging, I found out that your state is ranked only 1 spot lower than mine (36th vs 37th) in the nation in overall education. The reason I contrasted it with mine, is that we spend over $40 Billion per year on education, yet get piss poor results.

I think an increase in education spending should go hand in hand with a very close watch of how that money is spent.

“It’s for the children” seems to be a common theme when wanting to increase funds, when in fact it is such a nebulous euphemism that unless you monitor exactly where that money goes, it can easily go to waste.

http://www.edweek.org/ew/qc/2013/state_report_cards.html[/quote]

It’s a pretty poor comparison to compare education in California to education in Kansas. California has about 34 million more people or so. We don’t spend anywhere near the amount as California because public education in Kansas is vastly different than California. LA public schools alone probably have more students than we do statewide or close?

I don’t believe I said anything about wanting money to be wasted, it’s just a weird stance to take by our ultra conservative legislature and governor. Drastically cutting funding and then arguing to add things that are going to take additional funding. Of course Brownback says everything will be improved because of all this economic growth that will take place in Kansas which has yet to come to fruition. So we are saying we will pay everything with increased revenues which right now hasn’t happened. I think cutting taxes and increasing spending is a very dangerous way of doing things.

122

My point was that more money does not equate to better student performance.

123

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
My point was that more money does not equate to better student performance.[/quote]

I did not say it does. I was pointing out the interesting fight going on here between a governor who slashed funding and is now calling for more spending in education and what the Kansas Supreme Court may or may not say about it.

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I had no idea Alaska had such a rape problem. In fairness I haven’t read this article yet (i will after supper), but highly surprised at the statistics. 3 times the national average?

127

[quote]sufiandy wrote:
http://www.ibtimes.com/trader-joes-pulls-out-poor-portland-oregon-neighborhood-defeat-gentrification-1553231[/quote]

So the lot has been empty for over 20 years and the 25% of the population that did not want Trader Joe’s bitched loud enough that they backed away.

That’s some solid community work right there.

128

[quote]UtahLama wrote:

[quote]sufiandy wrote:
http://www.ibtimes.com/trader-joes-pulls-out-poor-portland-oregon-neighborhood-defeat-gentrification-1553231[/quote]

So the lot has been empty for over 20 years and the 25% of the population that did not want Trader Joe’s bitched loud enough that they backed away.

That’s some solid community work right there.[/quote]

The best part is all the alternatives they do want there are just government funded projects.

Another problem is articles on this keep mentioning the land price, like 2m or something. TJs was supposed to get a discount (like 75%) on that but if a lot has been vacant for 20 years its obviously not worth the list price. Its just an excuse to be selective about how its sold.

129

This is for VTballa: Email: IRS’s Lerner, Treasury Department secretly drafted new rules to restrict nonprofits | The Daily Caller

Gosh, why don’t I believe Clueless in Chief had no knowledge of this?

130

[quote]cwill1973 wrote:
This is for VTballa: Email: IRS’s Lerner, Treasury Department secretly drafted new rules to restrict nonprofits | The Daily Caller

Gosh, why don’t I believe Clueless in Chief had no knowledge of this?[/quote]

I’m sure he “heard about it on TV” just like the rest of us.

/plausible deniability
//lol

133

[quote]pushharder wrote:
There must be something in the water in New Mexico that causes LEO’s to relish the practice of search and rescue missions that involve body cavities.

Not that we all don’t like that practice to some degree but I think it’s getting out of hand in the Land of Enchantment.

[/quote]

When we used to get strip searched in the clink, we used to tell the guard, “here’s one asshole lookin’ at another.”

134

[quote]pushharder wrote:
There must be something in the water in New Mexico that causes LEO’s to relish the practice of search and rescue missions that involve body cavities.

Not that we all don’t like that practice to some degree but I think it’s getting out of hand in the Land of Enchantment.

[/quote]

If you’ve got nothing to hide than you shouldn’…

Nope. Can’t even finish it. Put me down for the “has to stop” side.

135

[quote]MaximusB wrote:

[quote]pushharder wrote:
There must be something in the water in New Mexico that causes LEO’s to relish the practice of search and rescue missions that involve body cavities.

Not that we all don’t like that practice to some degree but I think it’s getting out of hand in the Land of Enchantment.

[/quote]

When we used to get strip searched in the clink, we used to tell the guard, “here’s one asshole lookin’ at another.”[/quote]

I don’t know about you, but the most I ever had to do was strip down to my underwear and pull them down briefly to squat and cough. These body cavity searches being forced on people with out some form of due process is just fucking weird.

136

[quote]angry chicken wrote:

[quote]MaximusB wrote:

[quote]pushharder wrote:
There must be something in the water in New Mexico that causes LEO’s to relish the practice of search and rescue missions that involve body cavities.

Not that we all don’t like that practice to some degree but I think it’s getting out of hand in the Land of Enchantment.

[/quote]

When we used to get strip searched in the clink, we used to tell the guard, “here’s one asshole lookin’ at another.”[/quote]

I don’t know about you, but the most I ever had to do was strip down to my underwear and pull them down briefly to squat and cough. These body cavity searches being forced on people with out some form of due process is just fucking weird.
[/quote]

Yes that’s about the same as I had to do while leaving or entering a new facility.

I can just imagine these people being searched like this cashing in on a nice settlement.

137

I guess this is another example of how full of shit I am in regards to Kansas pushing religion and morality.

Remember this is from the pro business crowd who is trying to control strip clubs, gaming, education standards, etc. designed to fit their religious whims. Why work on actual pro business bills when we can make sure we are tackling the big problems like employed gay people or cross dressers? One town made their own ordinance about that and the state said hold on now, we can’t let those people decide that for their town, we gotta legislate that morality asap. Next on the list, disabled, race, sex?

Good news though, we knocked out any chance of Sharia law or anything else regarding a religion other than the one that our legislators think the people need to swallow. We just want to make sure ONE religion has the right to determine everything, not a different one.

Working hard to solve problems we don’t have. Now we can open up jobs for straight Christians! So sick of that gay Walgreens employee making money anyways.

It makes sense, queers, cross dressers, all those people are going to hell…why do they need money on Earth anyways? Maybe they will turn straight if they are starving to death.

138

[quote]H factor wrote:
I guess this is another example of how full of shit I am in regards to Kansas pushing religion and morality.

Remember this is from the pro business crowd who is trying to control strip clubs, gaming, education standards, etc. designed to fit their religious whims. Why work on actual pro business bills when we can make sure we are tackling the big problems like employed gay people or cross dressers? One town made their own ordinance about that and the state said hold on now, we can’t let those people decide that for their town, we gotta legislate that morality asap. Next on the list, disabled, race, sex?

Good news though, we knocked out any chance of Sharia law or anything else regarding a religion other than the one that our legislators think the people need to swallow. We just want to make sure ONE religion has the right to determine everything, not a different one.

Working hard to solve problems we don’t have. Now we can open up jobs for straight Christians! So sick of that gay Walgreens employee making money anyways.

It makes sense, queers, cross dressers, all those people are going to hell…why do they need money on Earth anyways? Maybe they will turn straight if they are starving to death. [/quote]

What exactly is the state pushing in regards to religion and morality? It sounds more like they are letting business owners do whatever they want which works both ways, not in favor of any one group.

139

[quote]sufiandy wrote:

[quote]H factor wrote:
I guess this is another example of how full of shit I am in regards to Kansas pushing religion and morality.

Remember this is from the pro business crowd who is trying to control strip clubs, gaming, education standards, etc. designed to fit their religious whims. Why work on actual pro business bills when we can make sure we are tackling the big problems like employed gay people or cross dressers? One town made their own ordinance about that and the state said hold on now, we can’t let those people decide that for their town, we gotta legislate that morality asap. Next on the list, disabled, race, sex?

Good news though, we knocked out any chance of Sharia law or anything else regarding a religion other than the one that our legislators think the people need to swallow. We just want to make sure ONE religion has the right to determine everything, not a different one.

Working hard to solve problems we don’t have. Now we can open up jobs for straight Christians! So sick of that gay Walgreens employee making money anyways.

It makes sense, queers, cross dressers, all those people are going to hell…why do they need money on Earth anyways? Maybe they will turn straight if they are starving to death. [/quote]

What exactly is the state pushing in regards to religion and morality? It sounds more like they are letting business owners do whatever they want which works both ways, not in favor of any one group.[/quote]

So you’ll assume they will go after disability, sex, race discrimination next to give rights back to business owners there? Nah, that isn’t something they will touch politically. They can get away with this here. Don’t take the pro business owner stance here that is just an absolute cop out to them making sure Lawrence cannot do something they do not like. Since Lawrence is one of the few places with people who may support this type of bill it is important for the state to jump on those people and keep them in check.

Your response is simply the spin the ultra-conservatives will use. It’s allowing discrimination under the guise of “but we just want religious freedom.” Their reaction to a city saying you can’t discriminate against gay people was quick, let’s make sure you can!

Absolute horseshit. No better than you can keep your insurance if you like your doctor. Lying through their teeth when they say that it has to do with religious freedom or business rights.

These guys don’t want religious freedom and they don’t want business owners to have these rights. They want to make sure people can be free to do exactly what they feel is personally correct. They will absolutely not touch any other group because hating gays is the one thing they may still be able to get away with.

FWIW this originally died in committee, but is apparently being brought up yet again.

140

What the fuck is wrong with people?

I didn’t really get to drink pop often growing up and when I did it was always the knock off Shasta brands. My mom got to drink the brand name stuff that damn hypocrite.