On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:07:15 -0400, "Paul@BYC"
wrote:

On 10/28/2010 11:11 AM, jps wrote:
On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 07:05:14 -0400, "Paul@BYC"
wrote:

On 10/28/2010 12:27 AM, jps wrote:
On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 20:05:17 -0400, "Dr. Dr. Dr. Phd, Md. STD"
wrote:

On 10/27/10 7:25 PM, jps wrote:
On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 15:08:12 -0400, "Dr. Dr. Dr. Phd, Md. STD"
wrote:

On 10/27/10 2:38 PM, jps wrote:
On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 10:40:33 -0400, "Dr. Dr. Dr. Karen Grear, MD, PhD,
wrote:

On 10/27/10 6:45 AM, Paul@BYC wrote:
On 10/27/2010 6:24 AM, I am Tosk wrote:
In ,
says...

On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 18:00:05 -0400, "Paul@BYC"
wrote:

On 10/26/2010 5:50 PM, jps wrote:
On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 16:01:53 -0400, "Paul@BYC"
wrote:

On 10/26/2010 3:38 PM, I am Tosk wrote:
In ,
says...

On 10/26/2010 3:18 PM, jps wrote:
On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:19:34 -0400, "Paul@BYC"
wrote:

On 10/26/2010 11:43 AM, jps wrote:
On Mon, 25 Oct 2010 19:00:01 -0400, "Paul@BYC"
wrote:

On 10/25/2010 12:28 PM, I am Tosk wrote:
In ,
says...

I get a lunch break, but you guys get to post here all day.
Rich? Retired? Not me.

I work from home, my wife is my boss, and after 20 years,
we still get
along, couldn't be better. Admittedly much of our business
is now
automated, but we spent many a year and hour getting here



I teach at a university in the middle of the state.

What do you teach?

Upper level undergrad and some grad courses in the traditional
liberal
arts.

Uh oh, one of the brainwashers!

As you know, ignorance is being worn as a badge of honor by a good
many Americans, including certain beverage-based political
organizations.

Glad to hear there's still some who are committed to
edumacating our
yungins.


Through no fault of mine, we have a very high percentage of our
students
going on to receive doctorates in the arts and sciences.
Smart is encouraged; stupid is not. :)

And still a political troll post, no matter how you look at it...


It is trolling to mention teaching and academic achievement?

Look out, you've already raised some hairs. Just mentioning higher ed
makes folks nervous around here...

Kool-aid is served year 'round hereabouts.


There really is a strong undercurrent of anti-intellectualism in this
country, more so than at any other time I can remember. It's too bad
because a dumbed down America will go down the tubes.

You mean "down the tubes" faster. The Chinese are turning out
engineers at 10 times the rate we are, many of them studying at our
universities.

The emergence of this beverage-based group really puts a point on it.
Their candidates don't require a basic knowledge of the constitution,
pivotal supreme court rulings or basic tenets of law. Instead, they
just supply a few common sense-isms, rail on the media, taxes, them
smart folks who got us in all this trouble, and mention the day they
accepted Jesus into their lives as their personal lord and savior.

That's it! You're electable and ready to govern! Yahooo!

Please don't feel obligated to respond. I'm already tainted by the
"liberal" stamp and you can remain above the fray. You should try to
keep it that way as long as possible since you'll have chosen sides
otherwise.

I hope your students help our country rediscover the pride of a
liberal arts education, the ability to leverage well-developed
critical thinking skills, and be of a country that accepts the
responsibility of the social compact between citizens, our obligation
to the state and our country.

Screw the greedy, the globalists and anybody who shops Walmart.

It's ok JPS, our new poster already tainted himself, progressives can't
help it, they just can't play fair here or anywhere else...



I don't know you at all, but you seem extraordinarily volatile and
subject to wide mood swings. One minute you seem to agree this would be
a better place without all the personal name calling and the next minute
you're engaging in it.

Sure, I'm progressive. I believe in progress, in moving forward, in
extending rights, in scientific development, in opening doors, in making
sure the "play" is fair. I don't believe in scapegoating, in blaming one
ethnic group or another for our society's failures, or in trying to get
ahead by scaring large blocks of nervous people.



Paul,
I don't know where you are from, but in my neck of the woods if one
wants to minimize arguments and name calling, it makes sense to avoid
religious and political topics. Now if you enjoy heated debates, you
are right on target.

Debating with the likes of you is like hitting a heavy bag. Thud,
thud, thud. No response. Just dense mass of filling with a coarse
cover.

Again, is calling someone a "dense mass of filling with a course cover"
in the best interest of a kinder and gentler rec.boats?

WTF do you care? You're just a spoofin' fool that likes to buttsniff
his percieved adversaries.

You seem to be filled with anger and rage. Shouldn't you find another
venue to release that pent up frustration?

Filled with rage and anger? Your sensors are either completely out of
whack or the whole system needs a reboot.

My passion is reserved for things that matter.

perceived, btw.

Why not just set up your news reader to block posts from the ID spoofer?
That way, you won't see his b.s. and I won't, either. I've already got
him blocked and unless someone quotes him, I don't see him.
He obviously cares not a whit about improving the tone in here.

At the moment, he's the only one here I am blocking. But there are a
couple more ID spoofers on the possibles list, plus two others who
seemingly have anger management issues and no self control.

I have nearly every yahoo in here blocked. They change their ID every
few minutes or mimick someone else's ID that I'd like to read.

My bozo bin includes:

Tosk
Justwait
Herring
BAR
Harry?
Canuck
Jack
Three pontoons
Larry and his every-three-week ID change for the past 2 years
GC Boater
jp christian insurance salesman
...among others

Most of these bozos post under several ID's, so I plonk 'em as they
come up.

Unfortunately, I see their drivel if someone responds to them.

I've noticed that a couple of those on your blocked list appear to be
behaving. There are a couple whose posts I haven't seen yet. The three
ID spoofers are now on my blocked list because I see no reason to
encourage that sort of bad behavior. Second hand, I've noticed that at
least one of them seems to relish being the bad boy, thus proving the
correctness of my decision to block his posts.


As they say, to each his own. There are several who adore the bad boy
attitude.

The process of weeding out the truly idiotic will take a while. The
willfully ignorant are easy to dispatch. The earnestly conservative
but blinkered are a little harder. There's at least one "liberal"
who's almost impossible to read - like Tosk but at the other end of
the political spectrum. If they went a bit further around the bend
they'd bump into one another.

There's a couple of conservatives who are truly admirable who can
engage in reasonable discussion and are a pleasure to converse with.

On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:27:33 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:35:32 -0700, jps wrote:

It's pretty obvious you're not a subscriber to higher ed.

I think the idea that everyone should go to college is probably not
valid.
There are plenty of people with liberal arts degrees who never learned
anything helpful in finding a job, yet they are saddled with a
$100,000 student loan that may end up costing them $200,000 or more by
the time they pay it off..
My biggest complaint with the American education establishment is the
degree of vertical integration. There is very little contact with the
real world. The system is dominated by generations of people who went
to school when they were 6 and never left.

College is certainly not for everyone but who's making a living
outside of professional life?

Sales still has good opportunities but if Americans don't have
disposable income the field is limited.

Blue collar work is being shipped overseas.

Service work doesn't pay unless you're the business owner.

On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:04:12 -0400, "Paul@BYC"
wrote:

On 10/28/2010 11:27 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:35:32 -0700, wrote:

It's pretty obvious you're not a subscriber to higher ed.

I think the idea that everyone should go to college is probably not
valid.
There are plenty of people with liberal arts degrees who never learned
anything helpful in finding a job, yet they are saddled with a
$100,000 student loan that may end up costing them $200,000 or more by
the time they pay it off..
My biggest complaint with the American education establishment is the
degree of vertical integration. There is very little contact with the
real world. The system is dominated by generations of people who went
to school when they were 6 and never left.

Some colleges and universities have programs through which smart
students without financial resources can attend and graduate without
incurring significant debt. I'm not talking about traditional
"scholarship programs.

College placement offices are pretty good at helping graduating students
find jobs. You can lead students to the water, but they have to be
self-motivated enough to drink.

A small but growing number of graduating students are turning their
backs on the United States and finding good employment overseas, where
their abilities and education may be more appreciated.

The last paragraph is a sad statement of affairs. We're exporting our
technologies and now talent, plus we're educating the world only to
lose that investment back their home countries.

England, here we come...

On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:30:35 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:37:44 -0400, "Paul@BYC"
wrote:

I trust you have the best intentions... I just know how tough it is for
my kid to be in a Social Studies class with a openly regressive teacher
who's car sports a bumper sticker saying "impeach Bush, torture Cheney".
She is a bright kid and knows how to play the game, she has the highest
grades in the class and it's not even her they are grading


You present an interesting paradox. On the one hand, you lament what you
perceive as a decline in freedom of speech and on the other hand, you
lament your kid's teacher expressing his or her freedom of speech on a
bumper sticker.

I suppose it is just context. Are you saying Helen Thomas, Rick
Sanchez and Juan Williams should not have been fired?

Freedom of speech and being paid as a journalist (not a paid
pontificator) are two different things.

Juan Williams was out of line but probably shouldn't have been fired
for the specific offense. He has certainly been treading on thin ice
with his ever larger presence at Fox -- who, by the way, is not a free
speech advocate but certainly welcomed Williams' endorsement of Muslim
fear.

Helen Thomas let her personal feelings get in the way of reporting and
Sanchez simply ****ed off the people who employed him by spitting in
their faces.

I don't think I'd be eager to keep an employee who spit in my face.

On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:37:42 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:22:12 -0700, jps wrote:

University is meant to teach rigor.

That was true in the early 60s. Now it is virtually impossible to
flunk out as long as you can keep paying the tuition and there are
banks, more than happy to loan you the money to do that.
"Four year" degrees commonly take 5 or even 6 years to get.

It's still the case. May not be as obvious today.

And you don't need to attend a university to understand rigor but it
certainly helps.

On 10/28/10 1:34 PM, jps wrote:
On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:37:42 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:22:12 -0700, wrote:

University is meant to teach rigor.

That was true in the early 60s. Now it is virtually impossible to
flunk out as long as you can keep paying the tuition and there are
banks, more than happy to loan you the money to do that.
"Four year" degrees commonly take 5 or even 6 years to get.

It's still the case. May not be as obvious today.

And you don't need to attend a university to understand rigor but it
certainly helps.

Two doctoral level students my wife knows did not pass their 3-4 day
written exams after getting good grades for three years in
doctoral-level classes. That means they were dropped from the program,
not allowed to prepare their dissertations, and not able to receive
their doctorates. In addition, they are "out" many tens of thousands of
dollars, perhaps as much as $100,000, and will have nothing to show for it.

Pretty grim.


--
Guns Don't Kill People -- Fundamentalist Religion Kills People!

On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:07:15 -0400, "Paul@BYC"
wrote:

I've noticed that a couple of those on your blocked list appear to be
behaving. There are a couple whose posts I haven't seen yet. The three
ID spoofers are now on my blocked list because I see no reason to
encourage that sort of bad behavior. Second hand, I've noticed that at
least one of them seems to relish being the bad boy, thus proving the
correctness of my decision to block his posts.

Excellent, good start.

Now stop quoting the original 100+ lines of nonsesnse that none of us
wanted to see the first time, let alone the second or third.

On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:46:46 -0400, Secular Humouresque
wrote:

Pretty grim.

Why is your inflammatory tag line back ?

On 10/28/10 2:24 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:46:46 -0400, Secular Humouresque
wrote:

Pretty grim.

Why is your inflammatory tag line back ?



Dunno...it's off now. Hey, it was non-partisan.

On 10/28/2010 1:25 PM, jps wrote:
On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:04:12 -0400, "Paul@BYC"
wrote:

On 10/28/2010 11:27 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:35:32 -0700, wrote:

It's pretty obvious you're not a subscriber to higher ed.

I think the idea that everyone should go to college is probably not
valid.
There are plenty of people with liberal arts degrees who never learned
anything helpful in finding a job, yet they are saddled with a
$100,000 student loan that may end up costing them $200,000 or more by
the time they pay it off..
My biggest complaint with the American education establishment is the
degree of vertical integration. There is very little contact with the
real world. The system is dominated by generations of people who went
to school when they were 6 and never left.

Some colleges and universities have programs through which smart
students without financial resources can attend and graduate without
incurring significant debt. I'm not talking about traditional
"scholarship programs.

College placement offices are pretty good at helping graduating students
find jobs. You can lead students to the water, but they have to be
self-motivated enough to drink.

A small but growing number of graduating students are turning their
backs on the United States and finding good employment overseas, where
their abilities and education may be more appreciated.

The last paragraph is a sad statement of affairs. We're exporting our
technologies and now talent, plus we're educating the world only to
lose that investment back their home countries.

England, here we come...


I read that the Peoples Republic of China now lays claim to the world's
fastest supercomputer. I don't know if any of the scientists involved in
that project were trained in the United States, but it would not
surprise me to learn some were.

I think the sun is setting on the United States for many reasons.