Interesting article in the Daily Caller. Some black Democrats in NC are supporting school choice. I support school choice (can't hurt), but I doubt it will change much.
The widening racial performance gap is probably tied more to the crumbling of the black family than anything. Kids who aren't being pushed by their parent(s) to do their homework and excel in school are going to tend to lag behind their peers no matter if the school is public or private.
Mentoring (a concerned adult doing what a parent can't or won't do) can close the gap, but I don't know if there are more mentoring programs at private schools than public schools.
--------
But today, many liberal blacks are finding that black children are being left behind by the public education system. North Carolina’s African-American students are passing end-of-grade tests at a rate 18.1 percent below that of their non-black peers. And the achievement gap between the state’s black and non-black students is actually increasingly, even though per-pupil education funding in North Carolina has increased by 34 percent since 2001.
After Earth is getting some pretty awesome reviews. And by awesome I mean awesomely bad.
I just though the trailer looked like generic crap, but apparently this is another homage to Scientology. I did think the notion of a planet long devoid of humans being inhabited solely by creatures that lived to eat humans was kind of insane (what have they been eating all these years?).
Will Smith picks rolls better than anyone in the industry (he doesn't always pick good movies, but he almost always picks profitable ones which don't harm his prospects) but I guess this time he let his religion override his sense.
I didn't know M. Night Shyamalan was directing this movie up until I read the reviews. His name used to be all over previews, but I guess nowadays they figure its best to play down his involvement. Who would have thought the man who made The Sixth Sense would eventually become a sort of reverse version Alan Smitheee?
I always found one of the main differences between "liberal" and "conservative" thinkers was this Jim Henson quote and others with similar sentiments.
Both perspectives want to leave the world a better place and wish, hope and desire a world free of violence and hate. The problem comes in how the different viewpoints manifest themselves.
Liberals and conservatives want to live in a world where they believe most actors want the same aspirations. Yet, when some actors don't follow the script, liberals act like a little child when something goes wrong....hands over ears and eyes squeezed shut humming I don't want to hear it...I don't want to hear it!
Conservatives see these same actors and proclaim that they are a cancer on the world and take action to stop these same actors from harming either their people or others if they get big enough.
Which reminds me of a description I read somewhere recently.......When most people refer to Alpha males, the image is an aggressive, obnoxious asshole who preys on those weaker than him. What I read was a little different.....The author(s) posited that in the Alpha male kingdom, there are basically two different species. Since most people are "sheep," easily led and fed upon, Alphas come in two forms....Wolves who feed upon the flock and sheepdogs who protect the flock. While the "Wolves" are sleek, handsome, scheming and deadly, the "Sheepdogs" are big and furry, average looking, yet protective of their sheep and don't hesitate to jump in and protect the sheep when the wolves attack.
Think of the males you know and see if they fit into any of those 3 broad categories.
You can't tell from my typing, but I can do a pretty good Kermit the Frog. You should hear me do "Rainbow Connection" on karaoke night! ------------------------- On school choice, it couldn't hurt. I think you'll find the ones who take advantage are those who do try to push their kids but can only get so far when they are forced to send them daily into a culture of underachievement. At a certain, crucial age, peer pressure is mighty powerful. It may or may not be a cycle breaker for the community, but it will most likely be a cycle breaker for those involved. ------------------------- On leaving the world a better place, Patriot's comment needs a slight tweak. Conservatives see the bad actors as a cancer than need to be stopped. Liberals see Conservatives as the cancer who somehow motivate the bad actors.
The greatest argument in favor of free will is that no one truly believes against it. Those who claim to only use it as an excuse for others' (or sometimes their own) bad behavior. But ultimately bad behavior is always attributed to the willful actions of another--someone with the reigns of power--and the one arguing on behalf of the will-less masses just happens to possess the will to stop those bastards! (And to rally the mob, of course.)
I think the big difference is that conservatives want to make the world better by doing something themselves that they think will improve it. Liberals want to use the government to reshape the world in ways they think will be better... whether you like it or not.
Anthony, I think that choice in schools is essential to solving the problem with education, but vouchers aren't going to do it. The whole system needs choice injected into it.
Aaaawww, do we haf' to?? Anyway, isn't Crazy Joe hunkered down in the Cheney bunker at the Naval Observatory? He's monitoring the pending invasion of locusts.
Don't bother with filing the missing person reports. Obama has ordered all such reports to be redacted and then buried somewhere, preferably with the Ark of the Covenant.
"The greatest trick Obama ever pulled was convincing the world that Joe Biden exists. Biden is a spook story rational people tell their kids at night. 'Vote right or Joe Biden will get you.'"
Regarding After Earth, the trailer already ruined it for me. I hate it when filmmakers want to be "topical" but can only come up with idiotic premises.
So after ruining The Earth mankind left and settled interstellar colonies? But if I know one thing about interstellar travel, it requires a shitload of energy (so do huge spaceships nimbly maneuvering around asteroids). Once you have an almost limitless enery source, there is no environmental problem that cannot be solved.
So the bad aliens have created monsters that hunt humans only by sense of smell? A simple Rottweiler would constitute a better weapons system.
So everything on earth evolved to kill humans? What is this, a sequel to Shyamalan´s The Happening? That was also a braindead movie. If "the trees" or "everything on the planet" acquires a highly specific trait that allows them to kill humans in cinematic ways - how did it get spread across continents and species? How does that trait improve the individual chance of reproduction? What about the countless species that need us to survive? Why does it get triggered now that forests have been growing back all over the western world instead of past centuries when we actually burned trees for survival? Would the trees also kill an exploding deer population? Those antlers hurt!
It´s pagan superstition, nothing else. And from people who no doubt would call me anti-science.
On the other hand, American forests get cut down now to feed Europe´s hunger for "renewable, carbon-neutral" (and subsidized) wood pellets. Clearly, nature needs to select against eco-socialists. If I look at Euro birthrates, that is already happening. Will Shyamalan make a movie about it?
Kit, I don't know much about scientology except that it's nuts. I have seen several ex-scientologists say the film is scientology, and Will Smith apparently donates money to them.
Existentialism, say what you will about it, but it can produce great stories because it asks basic questions about who we are, why we are here, and does anything actually mean anything. Questions we all ask at some point in our lives. Examples: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and the Firefly finale "Objects in Space". Then there are the Coen Brothers movies such as The Big Lebowski.
Scientology is basically a bunch of crap that L. Ron Hubbard pulled out of his ass.
Kit, That's because the Bible is a collection of classic stories (cough cough stolen from older religions and cultures cough cough), whereas scientology was invented by a probably mentally unstable writer of truly atrocious science fiction.
♪♫ Don't know much about history ♪♫ ♪♫ Don't know much Scientology ♪♫ ♪♫ Don't know much about L. Ron's books ♪♫ ♪♫ Or what he did with the cash he took ♪♫ ♪♫ But I know about Present Time ♪♫ ♪♫ And I know if I could call you mine ♪♫ ♪♫ What a wonderful world this would be... ♪♫
Now now tryanmax, they are not a cult. Those people voluntarily hand over their cash, cut themselves off from their families, and go work in slave camps. And if someone does it voluntarily, then it's not a cult!
"Now now tryanmax, they are not a cult. Those people voluntarily hand over their cash, cut themselves off from their families, and go work in slave camps. And if someone does it voluntarily, then it's not a cult!"
Like the people at Jonestown!
"stolen from older religions and cultures" Please, lets not start that debate!
Also if you look at good Christian* stories they are about people putting their faith in something bigger than themselves. Sacrificing themselves for something greater. Existentialism says that there is nothing really bigger than ourselves to give meaning to the world so its up to each of us individually to give meaning to the world around us.**
Both of these lead to fundamental questions about what it means to be human. Are we products of a divine being who has created a world of order or is there simply nothing and it is up to us to create meaning in our lives.
Kit, LOL! Yes, let's not open that debate, but that's really the difference. The Bible includes a bunch of stories which have been told forever precisely because they resonate with people. Scientology is just junk. It's a laughably stupid fantasy invented by some guy, and it's never been "audience tested" before it went into practice. And think about this... it's so laughably stupid that even its followers try to hide it from the world.
Just like most religions, Scientology has some redeeming features that appeal to some followers. The belief in controlling your emotions might be one. Most of it appears to be as everyone here states above.
BTW....Has anyone seen the movie "The Man From Earth.. 2007?" (Not The Man Who Fell To Earth with David Bowie) Addresses some interesting existential questions in a rather compelling way. With some interesting character actors and dialogue. Serious religious overtones if you pay attention.
I may have posted it before, but in any case, here's a very interesting article from last year on how Scientology functions from the inside. I gather there's been some abuse of the system beyond what Hubbard may have intended, but still, this is just creepy. LINK
T-Rav, Thanks! I hadn't read that. It's interesting. It's one of those things I've seen many times as a lawyer where it's really easy to dismiss this stuff as misinterpretation or as someone just spinning everything into something sinister because that's how it comes across on paper ("Oh, so he yelled at people, big deal.") but if you meet the people and you see some of it in real life then you suddenly realize just how much much worse it really is than it seems. Genuine conspiracies rarely look serious on paper.
All in all, reading between the lines, this fits with the cult-description I've seen over and over about this "church."
That's a pretty good goal, if you ask me.
ReplyDeletecertainly a nice aspiration!
ReplyDeleteJed, Definitely and the world would be a better place if more people thought like that.
ReplyDelete.... depending, of course, on their definition of "better".
ReplyDelete= NSDAP.
Interesting article in the Daily Caller. Some black Democrats in NC are supporting school choice. I support school choice (can't hurt), but I doubt it will change much.
ReplyDeleteThe widening racial performance gap is probably tied more to the crumbling of the black family than anything. Kids who aren't being pushed by their parent(s) to do their homework and excel in school are going to tend to lag behind their peers no matter if the school is public or private.
Mentoring (a concerned adult doing what a parent can't or won't do) can close the gap, but I don't know if there are more mentoring programs at private schools than public schools.
--------
But today, many liberal blacks are finding that black children are being left behind by the public education system. North Carolina’s African-American students are passing end-of-grade tests at a rate 18.1 percent below that of their non-black peers. And the achievement gap between the state’s black and non-black students is actually increasingly, even though per-pupil education funding in North Carolina has increased by 34 percent since 2001.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/05/31/in-north-carolina-a-new-breed-of-black-politician-emerges/#ixzz2UxSgoZon
----------
After Earth is getting some pretty awesome reviews. And by awesome I mean awesomely bad.
ReplyDeleteI just though the trailer looked like generic crap, but apparently this is another homage to Scientology. I did think the notion of a planet long devoid of humans being inhabited solely by creatures that lived to eat humans was kind of insane (what have they been eating all these years?).
Will Smith picks rolls better than anyone in the industry (he doesn't always pick good movies, but he almost always picks profitable ones which don't harm his prospects) but I guess this time he let his religion override his sense.
I didn't know M. Night Shyamalan was directing this movie up until I read the reviews. His name used to be all over previews, but I guess nowadays they figure its best to play down his involvement. Who would have thought the man who made The Sixth Sense would eventually become a sort of reverse version Alan Smitheee?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/31/after-earth-reviews_n_3368040.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices&ir=Black%20Voices
I always found one of the main differences between "liberal" and "conservative" thinkers was this Jim Henson quote and others with similar sentiments.
ReplyDeleteBoth perspectives want to leave the world a better place and wish, hope and desire a world free of violence and hate. The problem comes in how the different viewpoints manifest themselves.
Liberals and conservatives want to live in a world where they believe most actors want the same aspirations. Yet, when some actors don't follow the script, liberals act like a little child when something goes wrong....hands over ears and eyes squeezed shut humming I don't want to hear it...I don't want to hear it!
Conservatives see these same actors and proclaim that they are a cancer on the world and take action to stop these same actors from harming either their people or others if they get big enough.
Which reminds me of a description I read somewhere recently.......When most people refer to Alpha males, the image is an aggressive, obnoxious asshole who preys on those weaker than him. What I read was a little different.....The author(s) posited that in the Alpha male kingdom, there are basically two different species. Since most people are "sheep," easily led and fed upon, Alphas come in two forms....Wolves who feed upon the flock and sheepdogs who protect the flock. While the "Wolves" are sleek, handsome, scheming and deadly, the "Sheepdogs" are big and furry, average looking, yet protective of their sheep and don't hesitate to jump in and protect the sheep when the wolves attack.
Think of the males you know and see if they fit into any of those 3 broad categories.
Interesting no?
You can't tell from my typing, but I can do a pretty good Kermit the Frog. You should hear me do "Rainbow Connection" on karaoke night!
ReplyDelete-------------------------
On school choice, it couldn't hurt. I think you'll find the ones who take advantage are those who do try to push their kids but can only get so far when they are forced to send them daily into a culture of underachievement. At a certain, crucial age, peer pressure is mighty powerful. It may or may not be a cycle breaker for the community, but it will most likely be a cycle breaker for those involved.
-------------------------
On leaving the world a better place, Patriot's comment needs a slight tweak. Conservatives see the bad actors as a cancer than need to be stopped. Liberals see Conservatives as the cancer who somehow motivate the bad actors.
The greatest argument in favor of free will is that no one truly believes against it. Those who claim to only use it as an excuse for others' (or sometimes their own) bad behavior. But ultimately bad behavior is always attributed to the willful actions of another--someone with the reigns of power--and the one arguing on behalf of the will-less masses just happens to possess the will to stop those bastards! (And to rally the mob, of course.)
It's your choice, Americans. Make the right decision.
ReplyDeleteYou have no will of your own. Choose me!
ReplyDeleteThese are not the droids y-- Wait a minute. What am I doing here?
ReplyDeleteMake the choice for communes and nature, man.
ReplyDeleteI think the big difference is that conservatives want to make the world better by doing something themselves that they think will improve it. Liberals want to use the government to reshape the world in ways they think will be better... whether you like it or not.
ReplyDeleteAnthony, I think that choice in schools is essential to solving the problem with education, but vouchers aren't going to do it. The whole system needs choice injected into it.
ReplyDeleteFYI, The book is doing well in the free ranks right now.
ReplyDeleteIt's No. 1 in "Ideologies & Doctrines" and in "Political Parties". And it's No. 4 in Politics.
If you haven't, please pick it up and leave a review!
BTW, has anybody filed a missing persons report on Joe Biden?
ReplyDeleteAaaawww, do we haf' to?? Anyway, isn't Crazy Joe hunkered down in the Cheney bunker at the Naval Observatory? He's monitoring the pending invasion of locusts.
ReplyDeleteBev, Last I heard he was brushing up on his Latin to visit South America... as far away from a camera as humanly possible in this day and age.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe he's watching old footage of Roosevelt's televised "fireside chats".
ReplyDeleteJoe Who? Isn't he that plumber guy? Seriously, you Republicans are so out of touch, I never know what you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteBev: LOL. Crazy Joe takes the description "assassination insurance" to a whole new level.
ReplyDeleteTryanmax - if only he had chosen ""plumber" instead of "Senator"...fate is a cruel mistress...
ReplyDeleteActually, Bev, I think that doesn't tell us so much about fate as it tells us that God has a sense of humor... an unfunny one.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, it may not be God. The Devil has a sense of humor too. A dark, dark sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously, who is this guy you keep talking about? Is he somebody important? Probably some AM radio blowhard all you neocons are in love with.
Don't bother with filing the missing person reports. Obama has ordered all such reports to be redacted and then buried somewhere, preferably with the Ark of the Covenant.
ReplyDeletetryanmax,
ReplyDelete"The greatest trick Obama ever pulled was convincing the world that Joe Biden exists. Biden is a spook story rational people tell their kids at night. 'Vote right or Joe Biden will get you.'"
And let us not forget, Biden is the most interesting man in the administration: LINK
ReplyDeleteHis teeth have a set of teeth.
ReplyDeleteHe once played the race card against himself.
At railroad crossings, trains stop for him.
He is....the most interesting man in the administration.
Joss Whedon's take on the Bard's Much Ado About Nothing has a trailer, in case none of you have seen it.
ReplyDeleteLINK
T-Rav, so what you're saying in regards to Joe Biden's whereabouts is that Obama has top men working on it now.
ReplyDeleteRegarding After Earth, the trailer already ruined it for me. I hate it when filmmakers want to be "topical" but can only come up with idiotic premises.
ReplyDeleteSo after ruining The Earth mankind left and settled interstellar colonies? But if I know one thing about interstellar travel, it requires a shitload of energy (so do huge spaceships nimbly maneuvering around asteroids). Once you have an almost limitless enery source, there is no environmental problem that cannot be solved.
So the bad aliens have created monsters that hunt humans only by sense of smell? A simple Rottweiler would constitute a better weapons system.
So everything on earth evolved to kill humans? What is this, a sequel to Shyamalan´s The Happening? That was also a braindead movie. If "the trees" or "everything on the planet" acquires a highly specific trait that allows them to kill humans in cinematic ways - how did it get spread across continents and species? How does that trait improve the individual chance of reproduction? What about the countless species that need us to survive? Why does it get triggered now that forests have been growing back all over the western world instead of past centuries when we actually burned trees for survival? Would the trees also kill an exploding deer population? Those antlers hurt!
It´s pagan superstition, nothing else. And from people who no doubt would call me anti-science.
On the other hand, American forests get cut down now to feed Europe´s hunger for "renewable, carbon-neutral" (and subsidized) wood pellets. Clearly, nature needs to select against eco-socialists. If I look at Euro birthrates, that is already happening. Will Shyamalan make a movie about it?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/05/28/why-burning-american-forests-to-heat-european-homes-is-as-crazy-as-it-sounds/
El Gordo, I've been reading about it and apparently the whole thing is a scientology film.
ReplyDeleteHere is an ex-Scientologist's take on it:
ReplyDeleteLINK
Kit, I don't know much about scientology except that it's nuts. I have seen several ex-scientologists say the film is scientology, and Will Smith apparently donates money to them.
ReplyDeleteSay what you will about the Bible but, while some adaptation have been crappy, quite a few have been excellent. Classics, even.
ReplyDeleteHow many good movies are there based upon the teachings of scientology. The only half-decent movie I can think of is Phenomenon.
Existentialism, say what you will about it, but it can produce great stories because it asks basic questions about who we are, why we are here, and does anything actually mean anything. Questions we all ask at some point in our lives.
ReplyDeleteExamples: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and the Firefly finale "Objects in Space". Then there are the Coen Brothers movies such as The Big Lebowski.
Scientology is basically a bunch of crap that L. Ron Hubbard pulled out of his ass.
Kit, That's because the Bible is a collection of classic stories (cough cough stolen from older religions and cultures cough cough), whereas scientology was invented by a probably mentally unstable writer of truly atrocious science fiction.
ReplyDelete♪♫ Don't know much about history ♪♫
ReplyDelete♪♫ Don't know much Scientology ♪♫
♪♫ Don't know much about L. Ron's books ♪♫
♪♫ Or what he did with the cash he took ♪♫
♪♫ But I know about Present Time ♪♫
♪♫ And I know if I could call you mine ♪♫
♪♫ What a wonderful world this would be... ♪♫
Now now tryanmax, they are not a cult. Those people voluntarily hand over their cash, cut themselves off from their families, and go work in slave camps. And if someone does it voluntarily, then it's not a cult!
ReplyDelete"Now now tryanmax, they are not a cult. Those people voluntarily hand over their cash, cut themselves off from their families, and go work in slave camps. And if someone does it voluntarily, then it's not a cult!"
ReplyDeleteLike the people at Jonestown!
"stolen from older religions and cultures"
Please, lets not start that debate!
Also if you look at good Christian* stories they are about people putting their faith in something bigger than themselves. Sacrificing themselves for something greater.
Existentialism says that there is nothing really bigger than ourselves to give meaning to the world so its up to each of us individually to give meaning to the world around us.**
Both of these lead to fundamental questions about what it means to be human. Are we products of a divine being who has created a world of order or is there simply nothing and it is up to us to create meaning in our lives.
Scientology
*I think that's existentialism.
*Christian stories. Need not be Christian per se.
ReplyDeleteTop men, tryanmax. Top. Men.
ReplyDeleteKit, LOL! Yes, let's not open that debate, but that's really the difference. The Bible includes a bunch of stories which have been told forever precisely because they resonate with people. Scientology is just junk. It's a laughably stupid fantasy invented by some guy, and it's never been "audience tested" before it went into practice. And think about this... it's so laughably stupid that even its followers try to hide it from the world.
ReplyDeleteJust like most religions, Scientology has some redeeming features that appeal to some followers. The belief in controlling your emotions might be one. Most of it appears to be as everyone here states above.
ReplyDeleteBTW....Has anyone seen the movie "The Man From Earth.. 2007?" (Not The Man Who Fell To Earth with David Bowie) Addresses some interesting existential questions in a rather compelling way. With some interesting character actors and dialogue. Serious religious overtones if you pay attention.
Patriot, I think the biggest warning sign is that they won't share what they believe with people unless you join. That's a really bad sign.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of that film actually.
I may have posted it before, but in any case, here's a very interesting article from last year on how Scientology functions from the inside. I gather there's been some abuse of the system beyond what Hubbard may have intended, but still, this is just creepy. LINK
ReplyDeleteT-Rav, Thanks! I hadn't read that. It's interesting. It's one of those things I've seen many times as a lawyer where it's really easy to dismiss this stuff as misinterpretation or as someone just spinning everything into something sinister because that's how it comes across on paper ("Oh, so he yelled at people, big deal.") but if you meet the people and you see some of it in real life then you suddenly realize just how much much worse it really is than it seems. Genuine conspiracies rarely look serious on paper.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, reading between the lines, this fits with the cult-description I've seen over and over about this "church."