On 12-Feb-2005, "BCITORGB" wrote:

To argue that the teacher is free to teach elsewhere is simplistic.

Where the teacher goes is irrelevant - the students aren't going
anywhere and will grow up at a disadvantage compared to those
in other countries. US children already trail the rest of OECD
countries in academic standings (particularly maths and science)
so any further degradation in knowledge and skill will make it
worse.

Mike

On 12-Feb-2005, "Tinkerntom" wrote:

Christianity has another theory called Creation, also lots of info, not
all supported so still largely a theory. Never yet proven.

It's not a theory, it's a doctrine. It has been proven - to be false.

By the way, for something to be a theory, it has to have a solid
body of evidence to back it. If it does not, it's a hypothesis,
not a theory.

Mike

On 11-Feb-2005, "Tinkerntom" wrote:

I see them as two sides of the same coin, you don't have a political
system without an economic system. They are joined at the hip. You
can't deal with one, without dealing with the other. Though I can
understand your fine line distinction.

There are democratic socialist countries, totalitarian capitalist regimes
and everything in between. The choice of an economic system does not
dictate the political system.

Mike

On 11-Feb-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:

That does not make them socialistic endeavours. In socialism, the government
would not "prop up" defense industries, it would simply take them by force
and force the workers to produce the products without compensating them.

So if there's any socialism, no one get paid? What a bizarre thought.
You don't have a clue do you?

Mike

On 11-Feb-2005, "Tinkerntom" wrote:

My in-laws have a sugar beet farm in Mn, and the
price they get for their sugar is determined by world markets.

You'd better check your facts, TnT - in the US, sugar prices
are _not_ tied to world prices. That's why US sugar producers
can stay in business and those in, say, Africa, cannot sell
sugar in the US. In fact, many agricultural products in the
US are out of whack with world markets. World markets are also
out of whack with reality, since agriculture is the most heavily
protected and subsidized industry in the west.

Mike

On 11-Feb-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:

China won't go to war with us,

They don't have to - they just have to call in the debt.

Mike

On 11-Feb-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:

If Canada wants to legalize heroin poppy production, that heroin is likely
to find its way to the US. We have every right to use our economic and
political influence to prevent that.

Why don't you just use your border to do that?

Mike

On 11-Feb-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:

So Americans are free and everyone else is oppressed?

Pretty much.

Can you offer any proof?

Actually, I have. Have you? Can you cite the "gross abuses of freedom" you
claim the Patriot Act includes?

How about the ability of the President and his cronies being able to
declare anyone a threat and having them tossed into custody without
charge or access to legal representation?

Really? Cite me one single nation other than the US that is both democratic
and protects the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.

Canada, Britain, Switzerland and many others allow their citizens to own
guns.

If you don't have a right to keep and bear arms, you are not, ipso facto,
free, you are a slave to your government because you do not have the
capacity to overthrow it should it become a tyranny.

And you think a bunch of disorganized, untrained citizens with glorified
pop guns can overthrow the US military? Yeah, right. That might have
been true two hundred years ago, but not today. You're going to need
some serious explosives too, and in most US states, explosives are
illegal to own or make.

Given that 30% of the US populace treats the president as royalty,
I rather doubt you could generate enough interest to overthrow the
feds.

Mike

On 11-Feb-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:

No, I merely point out that there is no such thing as the "Christian Right"
as an organization. It's a sound-bite label attached to conservatives in
general that is used as a device of demonization by the left.

Well, sweety, there's no such thing as an organized left either. Yet
the right condemns that invisible group as well.

Mike

On 11-Feb-2005, Scott Weiser wrote:

Not true, but even it it were true, so what? Oil is a strategic resource.
Every nation on the planet wants to secure strategic resources for its own
use. That's the nature of nations. That's the history of the planet.

That's why Japan trashed US bases in Pearl Harbor and the Philippines
in Dec, 1941. I suppose you think that's justified.

Mike