[quote]Sloth wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
I am not talking about the detractors here. Never said I was.
I see. Anyways, you should move south. We’re the real home of racial reconcilliation.
[/quote]
I’ve said before that I think currently the Northeast is much more segregated than the South. It’s strange.
[quote]JEATON wrote:
There are too many “If he only…” answers above. I, unlike most of the above posters, have two elementary age children. My school principle has sent home permission slips, giving the parent the right to make the decision to view or not to view, and I very much respect this.
As for my decision, my children will not watch this speech at school. Not knowing, (or trusting) what Obama will say, I do not want my children watching in an environment where the child to teacher ratio is so high.
What I have decided to do is to Tivo the speech. My wife and I will set down with our children and watch it with them. If we object to anything he says, I will pause the recording and discuss the offending message with my children.
My personal opinion is that this is how such a speech should have been handled from the start. It should have been held at night, with children at home with their parents. [/quote]
Hey hey now! We can’t have you going around and acting all parental here. There oughta be a law!
mike
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Sloth wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
I am not talking about the detractors here. Never said I was.
I see. Anyways, you should move south. We’re the real home of racial reconcilliation.
I’ve said before that I think currently the Northeast is much more segregated than the South. It’s strange.[/quote]
This I agree with. I remember the first time I got out of TX(and the South in general) and spent time up in Mass and Maine. I must say,I had quite a few interesting experiences with people not accustomed to black people(and other minorities). Lots of crazy,but laughable stereotypes. Doesn’t even touch my experiences working for Androscoggin County Jail up in Maine.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
pushharder wrote:
Sloth wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
But oh, what about the children!! What will they think when the evil black socialist…
As silly as I think the noise over this is, what’s with the black comment? Don’t you think you’re exploiting his race? I’m starting to see this ALOT, lately. Here, and otherwise. I’m serious, you start getting into a disagreement about Obama with someone, and they’ll slip in that he’s black. Sometimes timed perfectly, so you don’t cath their implication until later. But usually, awkardly, like here. You can only cry wolf so many times, before people stop caring.
I caught that too. Folks like Irish have no problem interjecting the race status of our (HALF black) president when it is completely irrelevant because it modus operandi for liberals. Get out the Louisville Slugger with “race” written on it in permanent marker and beat whitey to death at every single opportunity.
When I stop hearing people refer to him as “the nigger president,” “President Nig nog,” or simply, “That Fucking Nigger”, then I’ll stop pulling it. How bout that?[/quote]
Dude, I think you need some new friends/acquaintances. Most of my circle of people I spend time with STRONGLY disilke Obama and his policies, but nobody says that type of shit.
[quote]HG Thrower wrote:
Dude, I think you need some new friends/acquaintances. Most of my circle of people I spend time with STRONGLY disilke Obama and his policies, but nobody says that type of shit. [/quote]
Never said I hung out with intellectuals. I hang out with blue collar white guys for the most part.
[quote]Big_Boss wrote:
Doesn’t even touch my experiences working for Androscoggin County Jail up in Maine.[/quote]
Lewiston’s finest populates a lot of that facility. You have to admit though, you’d expect as much from that population. You kinda have to really un-smart to end up in Andro County Jail.
I have to agree that generally people up here are frantic about even discussing race. This is the whitest state in the union (and, incidentally, Obama won the election up here in one of the highest percentages in the country). Want to be fawned over? Be a black person in Maine, you’ll be a novelty. Hell, I’m the token minority in my neighborhood.
Case in point: Lewiston has been in the business of ‘importing’ Somali’s for years now (and Portland). So many come over in such numbers that the mayor at the time (a few years ago) was being interviewed about it. He made the point that the immigration was happening in such high numbers that the infrastructure was not equipped to deal with it. He went on to explain that there was a jump in demand for school enrollment, social services, welfare, housing, and interpreters to help service the population. He was labelled a “racist” and run out of office. Years later, the city is still trying to deal with the culture clash. Mind you, the town businesses have mostly embraced the influx, but the concern was real.
I’m from New Jersey and went to a highschool that had a black majority. My neighborhood was the American dream: Italians, Anglos, Jews, Polacks, Indian (dot and Native), Irish, and one notable russian family, all middle class, most entreprenuers. We all played and ate at each other’s houses. I heard the best “Jewish” jokes at the Goldstein’s and the best polish jokes at the Czewznewki’s (yes, I DO know how to pronounce that) and had some of the best ham hocks and collard greens at the Bailey’s (a black family), which they bought from our local italian meat/grocery store. My point is that we all embraced each other’s race/nationality, honored them, joked about them.
[quote]Rockscar wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
Calling Obama the nigger president is far, far uglier than anything else around.
Funny how I have not hear a SINGLE person say that… at all. Who do you hang out with?[/quote]
Klan is big in Jersey.
I don’t hang out with people who would call Obama the N word, I hate stupidity like that. If you disagree then disagree, but leave it at that.
[quote]Rockscar wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
is far, far uglier than anything else around.
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.[/quote]
Dude what the fuck. Think of what you quoted in context and then what you just said, like every intelligent person reading this is going to do.
Racial slur = BAD
Clling someone a pig because you disagree with political view = no where near that ball park
[quote]SteelyD wrote:
Big_Boss wrote:
Doesn’t even touch my experiences working for Androscoggin County Jail up in Maine.
Lewiston’s finest populates a lot of that facility. You have to admit though, you’d expect as much from that population. You kinda have to really un-smart to end up in Andro County Jail.
I have to agree that generally people up here are frantic about even discussing race. This is the whitest state in the union (and, incidentally, Obama won the election up here in one of the highest percentages in the country). Want to be fawned over? Be a black person in Maine, you’ll be a novelty. Hell, I’m the token minority in my neighborhood.
Case in point: Lewiston has been in the business of ‘importing’ Somali’s for years now (and Portland). So many come over in such numbers that the mayor at the time (a few years ago) was being interviewed about it. He made the point that the immigration was happening in such high numbers that the infrastructure was not equipped to deal with it. He went on to explain that there was a jump in demand for school enrollment, social services, welfare, housing, and interpreters to help service the population. He was labelled a “racist” and run out of office. Years later, the city is still trying to deal with the culture clash. Mind you, the town businesses have mostly embraced the influx, but the concern was real.
I’m from New Jersey and went to a highschool that had a black majority. My neighborhood was the American dream: Italians, Anglos, Jews, Polacks, Indian (dot and Native), Irish, and one notable russian family, all middle class, most entreprenuers. We all played and ate at each other’s houses. I heard the best “Jewish” jokes at the Goldstein’s and the best polish jokes at the Czewznewki’s (yes, I DO know how to pronounce that) and had some of the best ham hocks and collard greens at the Bailey’s (a black family), which they bought from our local italian meat/grocery store. My point is that we all embraced each other’s race/nationality, honored them, joked about them.
[/quote]
Not for nothin, but you didn’t even bother addressing many of the points I made in relation to the original topic.
This speech is completely overblown by the wingnut right.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
This speech is completely overblown by the wingnut right.[/quote]
I guess they’ll be releasing it the day before so parents can give it a read before deciding on whether or not their children should watch it.
I just find it interesting that some people are worried over children being brainwashed (“indoctrinated”) by a 15 - 20 minute speech, especially when it is geared to be seen by all students K - 12.
This is really sad - people who think they need to protect their kids from hearing the President of the United States speak.
Also, how weak are your parenting skills, that it’s harder to raise your kids the way you want to, because the president addressed your kids in a speech? What do you do every other day… keep your kids locked in the basement, where they won’t be exposed to the dangerous messages they get on television and (worst of all) the other children and their poisonous ideas? Have you investigated your kids’ friends, just in case they might have liberal parents?
Seriously, anybody who is wound up over this is pretty fucking weird, and needs a reality check.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
For Delbarton, a private school in NJ around here: “Tuition is about $24,975 per year. Books are extra, estimated between $400 and $600 per year. Optional transportation costs $1,300 to $3,000 annually.[9]”
======
Bergen Catholic, another big one around here -
Tuition- $9,800
IBM Thinkpad & Software (freshmen only), Books & Supplies approx. $1,800
Registration Fee (new students only) $300
Technology Fee (one time only) $250
Senior Graduation Fee $275
======
Don Bosco- $10,225
=====================
http://www.rcan.org/schools/COOPHSListing.pdf
Most run around $10k, the better ones are nearly triple.
[/quote]
Darling, the average cost of a student in a public school is what exactly in the US?
Are you aware that precisely those people who you say could not afford private schools are paying more for less in public schools through their noses?
Oh, I forgot, its “free”.
The Real Cost Of Public Schools
We’re often told that public schools are underfunded. In the District, the spending figure cited most commonly is $8,322 per child, but total spending is close to $25,000 per child – on par with tuition at Sidwell Friends, the private school Chelsea Clinton attended in the 1990s.
What accounts for the nearly threefold difference in these numbers? The commonly cited figure counts only part of the local operating budget. To calculate total spending, we have to add up all sources of funding for education from kindergarten through 12th grade, excluding spending on charter schools and higher education. For the current school year, the local operating budget is $831 million, including relevant expenses such as the teacher retirement fund. The capital budget is $218 million. The District receives about $85.5 million in federal funding. And the D.C. Council contributes an extra $81 million. Divide all that by the 49,422 students enrolled (for the 2007-08 year) and you end up with about $24,600 per child.
For comparison, total per pupil spending at D.C. area private schools – among the most upscale in the nation – averages about $10,000 less. For most private schools, the difference is even greater.
So why force most D.C. children into often dilapidated and underperforming public schools when we could easily offer them a choice of private schools? Some would argue that private schools couldn’t or wouldn’t serve the District’s special education students, at least not affordably. Not so.
I hope that there are no subliminal messages in his speech- You know the kind that make you all sweat in your shorts:
“Kill all republicans”
“Vote Obama- ONLY Obama”
“Abortion is GOOD for you”
“Evolution is not a myth”
“Global Warming is not just junk science”
“Sex education is good- especially for 4 year olds”
“Pat Toomey is a whackjob”
That subliminal stuff really works, so I hope that someone will screen his speech for this type of REALLY scary stuff. I am making my kids watch the speech to see if they can find any of these messages.
jnd
[quote]anonym wrote:
FightinIrish26 wrote:
This speech is completely overblown by the wingnut right.
I guess they’ll be releasing it the day before so parents can give it a read before deciding on whether or not their children should watch it.
I just find it interesting that some people are worried over children being brainwashed (“indoctrinated”) by a 15 - 20 minute speech, especially when it is geared to be seen by all students K - 12.[/quote]
Let’s have all the children rally for the President in a town once per year. He’ll begin his speech in the evening when the kiddies are all tired and hot. Then we’ll have torchlight parades and sing-a-longs.
To be complete, let’s rename the town ‘Nuremberg’.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Not for nothin, but you didn’t even bother addressing many of the points I made in relation to the original topic.
[/quote]
What, that you need some less bigoted friends? I was just addressing Big_Boss’s post about a local, uh, hangout for some.
Your point about ‘segregation in the NE’ is certainly nothing institutional. It’s natural (for lack of a better term). A fascinating topic for sure, but not quite on topic about control over education content-- maybe another thread?
For those who think the “outrage” (for many, not all) is about ‘sheltering’ kids or think parents think their kids will be ‘brainwashed’, you are clueless. Incidentally, I don’t know anyone who was “outraged”.
On the subject of the speech being ‘designed for K-12’-- I thought that was funny, because the government schools will be graduating millions of illiterate/innumerate kids. Given the real cost of “educating” a child in the government school from Pre-K to 12 is approaching about a million bucks or more (over all 13 or more years) it seems fitting that the K’s should be lumped with the Seniors.
Yep, the status quo is awesome. So, instead of berating parents who are involved with their kids’ educations, maybe you should think about doing something about the broken clusterfuck that is government education.
Irish- you keep voting for the “Union Party”, it’s doing wonders for government education.
[quote]kirsching wrote:
Mick28 wrote:
Appealing directly to the children…while their at school? Name even one other President who has done this? Come on wacko libs who else has done this?
President George H. W. Bush broadcast a speech from a Northwest Washington junior high school back in 1991.
Nice try though. [/quote]
You conveniently left out the fact that there was similar outrage back then, too.
Nice try though.
[i]You may have guessed this already, but news reports from the time indicate that Democrats criticized Bush for giving the speech.
“The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students,” said Rep. Richard Gephardt, then the Democratic majority leader in the House of Representatives.“And the president should be doing more about education than saying, ‘Lights, camera, action.’”
Patricia Schroeder, then a Democratic member of Congress from Colorado, said the speech showed “the arrogance of power,” and that the White House should not be “using precious dollars for campaigns” when “we are struggling for every silly dime we can get” for education.
Republicans, though, defended the right of the president to address students. “Why is it political for the president of the United States to discuss education?” asked Newt Gingrich, who was then the House Republican whip. “It was done at a nonpolitical site and was beamed to a nonpolitical audience. . . . They wanted to reach the maximum audience with the maximum effect to improve education.”[/i]
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Oh, what was that sign on Truman’s desk? I can’t quite recall what it says, maybe you can help me…
He signed it and defended it. He could have used one of his 25252 vetos on it if he really wanted to. So stop.
On this we agree. I’m just making the point that it’s Teddy’s baby, GWB just delivered it to the people.
Understood. But it still makes it Bush’s.[/quote]
I’m gonna remember this when it comes to “blaming Bush” for today’s and future economic situation and situations in the middle-east. 
[quote]Makavali wrote:
“I’m going to be making a big speech to young people all across the country about the importance of education; about the importance of staying in school; [b]how we want to improve our education system[/b] and why itâ??s so important for the country. So I hope everybody tunes in.”
[/quote]
My only concern is with the highlighted section above. I’m sure we have very different ideas on how to “fix” education. Mine involves parenting and I’m sure his involves more money.
If it stays a simple stay-in-school speech, I’m OK with it. My kid would probably be thinking about Batman the whole time anyway. I guess, if they really want to reach the kids, have Bruce Wayne start giving speeches at schools.
[quote]malonetd wrote:
Makavali wrote:
“I’m going to be making a big speech to young people all across the country about the importance of education; about the importance of staying in school; [b]how we want to improve our education system[/b] and why itÃ?¢??s so important for the country. So I hope everybody tunes in.”
My only concern is with the highlighted section above. I’m sure we have very different ideas on how to “fix” education. Mine involves parenting and I’m sure his involves more money.
If it stays a simple stay-in-school speech, I’m OK with it. My kid would probably be thinking about Batman the whole time anyway. I guess, if they really want to reach the kids, have Bruce Wayne start giving speeches at schools.[/quote]
More funding for education is a bad thing? I hear gross exaggerations of students using 1970’s textbooks, but I assume those statements are founded in some level of truth - wouldn’t more allocating more money be a wise idea? I’m not entirely sure how your government gives money to schools, here it’s here a bunch of cash for purpose, spend it on only that or we’ll fire you.