packsaddle

Lisa, feeling cranky is one entitlement that you're, well, entitled to these days.

Yes, non-scouting. For this forum, no big deal. I support the basic premise of the 'Fair Tax' but its implementation would be difficult-to-impossible. I guess since no one has chimed in with support for my advocacy of terminating these welfare programs I should back off and instead advocate a means test and removal of the income cap. Let's see if that gets any more traction. Back to the election, and in response to the earlier comment on the Fair Tax by Eagle92, I did note that some of the Republican candidates were unfairly (and in my opinion, deceptively) attacked by the Democrats for their support of the Fair Tax. These attacks amounted to lies as far as I was concerned. I wish the parties would take the high road for once.

And I suspect that qwazse did quite well. Most teachers would love to have students THIS much in control of their lives.

Bando, yeah that really sticks out doesn't it? I suppose it could be an accurate reflection of the membership? I don't know about the number of minority Eagles produced nationally but this unit produced the first African-American Eagle in the history of the district a couple of years ago. I'll try to remember to ask about the council level.

I suspect Lisa's school might not have the same bookstore arrangement as yours, Sailingpj. At this university, the bookstore IS Barnes&Noble. The university does get paid rent for the space on campus, and probably a percentage of the profit. Anyway, the prices from B&N are obscene as far as I am concerned so I give the students the links to online sources or to cheap book outlets like: bookfinder.com (the eBay of books). I'll give you a little advice (since I'm in advising mode this part of the semester). Don't waste your time right now worrying about whether your school is offering AP courses that are worthless...or other such nonsense. Your time will be better spent devoted to YOUR advancement. All that other stuff is either a wasteful diversion from your mission or else it is a rationalization for personal problems. Either way it just detracts from your future. Focus on what is actually important for you. If your course is easy, challenge yourself. If the other students are getting top grades without doing as much work as you are, don't sweat it. They're getting less out of the course if you're putting in the 'heavy lifting' and they're not. Remember, the grades are not the ONLY goal. In fact, outside of gaining entry to other opportunities, they are a minor goal compared to the actual content you can be gathering. So don't sweat the small stuff and don't let the turkeys get you down (I guess it's close enough to Thanksgiving). Keep your eye on YOUR goals and don't be distracted by things over which you have no control. My 0.02

Nike, 'tracking' students was a norm in this country as well and still is common practice, even if it isn't officially described in those terms. In 1959, a certain satellite event changed science education in this country and I'm one of the results. That said, given what I know about the German system, I prefer ours. The highly-structured system in Germany and similar countries does not, as you note, offer much opportunity to 'switch' life paths. This country has much less such structure and many more opportunities but the downside is the effect that families without the means often enter a tradition of educational failure. The inability of checkout personnel to count change is not necessarily the result but it is symptomatic of a system that doesn't require constant exercise of thought or wit. The machine does all the calculations. Is it any wonder that the vast majority of us are unable to fathom the fiscal bind that our country is in and instead, as if it's a slot machine, keep hoping the cash register will give us different numbers if we just keep buying stuff? Like Sheldonsmom wrote, we can't even do the simple math. To answer the topic question, I would respond that not nearly enough of our children go to college...or at least are prepared for it.

Most of the content of both those courses is covered in 8th grade at our local middle school. Not every student takes the courses but they are available to every student. Check out this Japanese college math entrance exam: http://www.maa.org/juee/ It's pretty much in line with what this university used to require for incoming freshmen in 1910 (I have a copy of that math test). We rely on the placement exams today. Edited to add: PreCalc in middle school also includes linear algebra. They push it right up to calculus and then high school takes it right through two levels of calculus. There is decent success in exempting the first college calculus course as a result of AP credit and the placement exams.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

Calico, I was thinking more along the lines of 'Soylent Green'. Bon Apptit!

NJ, I guess it would be more like 'eating' our parents, rather than our young. The sacrifice would be the toughness of those old sinews as opposed to those tender tasties.

Acco, are you saying that Reid and Pelosi are not pretty? Fred Thompson? Dennis Kucinich? Strom Thurmond? Tip O'Neil? Except now, I'm thinking about John Edwards as well. He's definitely a 'girly man' and I'd have to say...incredibly stupid.

To Brent, Wouldn't you agree that 'term limits' were what were applied just this past Tuesday?

Terminal illness is not required. All that is required is anything that suppresses reproductive capacity. Your advocacy of sterilization would be a bit more honest with regard to intent, but it's not necessary if considering the long view.

And we would like to thank all those excellent, highly-motivated and bright international students for their tuition dollars and for returning home so they can outcompete their inferiors here in the states.

I think OGE's point is well taken. What is happening is that insurance companies, in the structure of their policies, are deciding the 'shape' of the selective pressures brought by denial of coverage. This is the 'business' way of health coverage that we have chosen and I just wish people would credit Darwin with the basic idea behind it. There is no denial of medical care if you have the money or resources to pay for it. Otherwise, you're out of the gene pool. The private health insurance industry just makes the selection process clearer to those who have coverage. It's called 'the policy'.

"I am even having to redo algebra courses because the algebra I took in High School really didn't teach me enough to go into precalc." For a high school student to write this is just astounding. My son took algebra and 'pre-calc' in middle school. We spent many evenings helping him understand the math (incidentally, the algebra course he took WAS a pre-calc course - I'm not sure what your distinction is). I'm thinking that if your experience is average for your state, then the educational system for Florida must be on a par with education in Somalia or Darfur or something. As for too many kids going to college: there is college and then there is college. Some schools will let almost any warm body in who can pay the tuition. Those young people may not have as many prospects after graduation as students whose college experience makes them actually competitive. I note that becoming competitive involves both effort by the student as well as opportunities by the college. Moreover, in order for the student to prepare for the real world, the student must have a good awareness of what it will require to become competitive. I credit the many anecdotes of failure to situations in which students do not have this awareness or else they simply don't think they need to do the work. Sadly, this mistake is often costly for a lifetime. But hey, there will always be a need for custodial workers.

As I have written before, I support the idea of eliminating Social Security and Medicare in order to balance the budget and pay down the debt. Immediately. Just stop the checks. The population will shrink fairly quickly or at least become younger on average...and there will be more jobs open for those young people, not to mention much, much cheaper housing as all that real estate goes on the market for whatever price can be gotten. If combined with elimination of the minimum wage, just think of how much cheaper labor would be. We could begin to actually compete with China and bring a lot of that industry home. This country made the decision over a generation ago to adopt a Darwinian approach to our socioeconomic system. The 'entitlements' are just a costly vestige of a bygone experiment. Rightly or wrongly, the country has maneuvered itself to a situation that demands draconian action and I support such a 'sacrifice'. For the sake of our children. It would simultaneously solve many problems and greatly strengthen our country while providing a solidifying admission of the success of social Darwinism. Or...things could get really bad.

I haven't participated in much in the LDS scouting versus 'traditional' scouting discussions but while I was reading what others had written, it occurred to me that if LDS has a tendency to produce a large proportion of Eagles relative to enrollment, is this also reflected in the scholarships that are awarded through NESA? Does anyone keep track of this kind of info?

As Lyndon Johnson predicted, it caused the South to go to the Republicans. He said, "I've just handed the South to the Republicans for fifty years, certainly for the rest of our life times." He was prophetic. I have to give the Republicans credit, they play it very well.

Yeah, good thing there's laws to keep them in their place.

Yeah, it's almost as if they think they're supposed to be treated equally or something.

NJ, if BSA has turned the Episcopals into a second class religion, where do you think they place the UUs?(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

Only marginally on topic, I am reminded of a fond memory: The days when we went door-to-door soliciting for Scouting for Food. There was one really mean lady who yelled at the boys and chased them with a broom. The boys would actually compete to see who got to do that street. I discovered this quite by accident: the two boys I was driving around returned to the car absolutely gleeful, laughing. They told me a lady had chased them with a broom and yelled profanity when they tried to leave one of the empty bags on her door knob. They thought it was the most exciting, fun thing that had happened to them in weeks. Here's the good part: So when all the parents were collecting their boys, the boys were talking about this and before I could think, I asked one of them what it was she said to them. Wow, he repeated it verbatim, loudly, and it WAS profanity. Holy smokes, that lady had taught him some new stuff! All the parents were slightly shocked that 1) the lady had done this and 2) the scout had repeated it with such perfection. (Now if he could just remember how to tie a bowline.) Anyway, for years this was a legend. We didn't actually SEE the lady again. But just the possibility of it was enough to keep them interested in that street. And then we stopped going door-to-door. Oh well, fun never lasts it seems.

Shoveling snow, cleaning pens, carving up elderly horses to feed the cats. You got it. Two of my most endearing photos are of her bottle-feeding the baby tigers and her holding a bloody horse head almost as big as she is. That's my baby!

"Looking at this political season, I'm not sure we've regressed." Gern, did you mean to write, "...I'm not sure we haven't regressed."? As far as chimps go, humans and chimps only share about 95% of their genome. But then, there is the astonishing matter of chromosome number.

Pretty much what Stosh just wrote except my excuse has more to do with resected ribs, broken bones, and internal pieces of titanium over the years. Oh well...it was fun. Edited to add: Chest tubes are not fun. Feeding tubes are not fun.(This message has been edited by packsaddle)