On The last refuge of the liberal
Posted on August 27 at 9:44 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
As for Proposition 8, is it so hard to see why people might believe that a single judge overturning the will of 7 million voters is an affront to democracy?
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Kraut, thankfully most of our CIVIL RIGHTS issues haven't been decided by a vote of the people. Civil Rights isn't up for referendum...
On Are 3-D TVs the wave of the future or just a fad?
Posted on August 26 at 12:49 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
The technology will need to change. I was recently at Best Buy and they want $150 for the glasses. The program shown in 3D with the glasses was great...but not that much better than regular HD...without the glasses it was a bad pic.
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I don't wear glasses and don't want to. In addition I certainly don't want to spend a nickel on glasses with two kids under 6 in my house.
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Spend $2000+ on a TV that requires glasses that my children will certainly try to break...that they also need to wear...I don't get it. A friend of mine just decided to go with a 3D TV. Perhaps that will change my mind...I doubt it though... for the $$$..my $1000 50" Plasma HDTV is good enough for me?
On School board considers different kind of raise
Posted on August 26 at 12:37 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Think before you blow it school board or you probubly will be looking for another career!
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Being on the school board isn't a career...it is a VOLUNTEER POSITION. Why dont' you VOLUNTEER if you can do things so much better?
On Janesville ACT scores below average again
Posted on August 20 at 3:09 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
All you do is spew factless accusations about the school district. You have not provided one specifc example of anything you say being true.
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I don't know a single educator that believes all parents are potentially abusive or one educator that believes MS or HS students should be A. sexual active, B. get an abortion or C. keep all of the above from their parents.
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You use things like a Sex Ed. discussion in which a student asks a direct question of the teacher as your example. If the teacher gives a truthful, legal answer that you don't like it isn't the teacher, it is the law. Anytime a young person has asked me about a law..say legal consent...I give them a truthful answer and then go on to state my opinion about waiting. You, and most students, would ignore the opinion about waiting and instead choose to focus on, and for you, demonize the teachers respons.
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That is the only context that a typical teacher would tell a student they can have sex (for example).
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Regarding child abuse...if a child, say age 7, tells a teacher that her dad hit her really hard last night and her backside still hurts what would you suggest the teacher do. BY LAW, teachers are mandatory reporters. They must report it and then the appropriate authorities take it from there.
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In addition, if the subject of hitting comes up in, say a 2nd grade classroom, say after a playground fight, wouldn't any adult talk about hitting being wrong and stress that NOBODY has the right to hit another person. I tell young people all the time that violence is wrong. If a young student chooses to then challenge a parent about being spanked...should the teacher really be blamed?
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Your statements are idiotic because they are general and without specific examples. They prove nothing other than you dislike public education and have little respect for the difficult jobs teachers have.
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QUESTION: Given the rate of child abuse in this country would you rather a teacher ignore students who claim mom hit them or report it. What would you say if a child was found beaten to near death and it came out that a teacher had been told by the child that he/she had been hit the night before? Your example is cowdarly...everyone knows that is a double-edge sword...I know I would rather my child have a teacher that cares enough to report than one that refuses to listen to their students.
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I don't regularly name-call...but your statements...good grief!
On Janesville ACT scores below average again
Posted on August 20 at 10:53 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
billnewbie
Aug 19, 2010 at 4:26 p.m.
"Here's another fact to analyze for those who defend the school system for these poor test scores by blaming the parents. The school system teaches the students that they have a right to make their own choices (and not just in health class). They tell them they can have sex, obtain birth control and have abortions and their parents don't even have a right to know about the choices they make. Then when the students whole wholeheartedly adopt this liberating philosophy and apply it to other areas of their lives such as deciding the amount of effort they'll put towards their education, the schools, teachers and their supporters all blame the disinterested parents who in all likelihood know nothing is wrong until its too late to fix, thanks to the instruction of the school system.
It's funny (strange not humorous) how easy it is to teach a student to assert his own choices according to his self interest first and foremost but how difficult it is to teach them Algebra."
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More idiotic statements...
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By the time a teacher (BTW, huge accusation, do you have proof or did Fox tell you this?) might be telling a student this the values should have been instilled by the parents. If this teacher, that is so powerful that it can remove years of good parenting in what, a single semester...perhaps the good parenting has been over-estimated.
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I am not blaming parents but I must defend the school system in this case. These accusations have little proof...sure, like any profession there are wackadoodle teachers but to generalize, like every health class is encouraging sex and abortions and that, not home, is why test scores are going down...good grief.
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BTW, on a personal note, if I had been having sex in HS I am guessing I would have scored better than my humiliating 19.
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My 19, was a result of great parenting and wonderful teachers...I did not care. I was a kid who applied to two different colleges. One because of the team that held training camp there in the Summer and the other because a friend was already there. I barely graduated with a C- GPA. Not until I returned to college did I earn what I had ALWAYS been capable of. Now, I have a Master's Degree.
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The parenting and teachers were not the issue. I simply was not mature enough to care about how I did. I am sure I tried...but did I really focus and try my best...no way!
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All the factors listed (minus the abortion Dr. Health teacher and P.I. school social worker) are reasons for the scores being lowered.
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JSD will continue to work hard to be the best district in the state and nation. I know that is the goal of the majority of teachers and administration...that is why they work so hard.
On Janesville ACT scores below average again
Posted on August 20 at 10:43 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
billnewbie
Aug 19, 2010 at 9:36 a.m.
"For all you "blame the parents" types, here's something to chew on. In public schools it's common for the teachers to tell the students that if the students believe they've been disciplined too harshly at home, to report their parents to the school. The school social worker will then interview the student and call in child protective services to intervene on the student's behalf with the parents. The parents know this either through review of the material brought home by the student or because the student threatens to tell the school about the parent's harsh discipline. Either way, the parents are intimidated from using effective discipline by the school district's direct or implied threats, intentional or not. When it comes to placing blame for lack of discipline at home, schools get a great deal of it."
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billnewbie,
That is probably the dumbest point ever posted on one of these blogs. An abusive parent is the ONLY parent that needs to be worried about a School Social Worker and Child Protective Services.
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If you are not abusing your kids...its like having your bags searched at the airport...you are only introuble if they find something ILLEGAL.
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BTW, if you aren't smart enough to come up with an effective discipline that doesn't involve physical contact with your child...maybe you shouldn't have had kids.
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I spank my kids very rarely...extreme cases where they are doing something to danger themselves or others. They are good kids and will be good kids. Spanking isn't the only form of discipline...it is however, the easiest, it takes very little effort.
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If you are afraid of the school social worker/child protective services...STOP HITTING YOUR KIDS!
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GOOD GRIEF!
Posted on August 20 at 10:24 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Retired,
Did you realize?
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"His work on tolerance and religious diversity is well-known and he brings a moderate perspective to foreign audiences on what it's like to be a practicing Muslim in the United States," State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said Tuesday. He added that the department's public-diplomacy offices "have a long-term relationship with" Rauf - including during the past Bush administration, when the religious leader undertook a similar speaking tour.
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Contemporary press accounts indicate that Rauf and Hughes were part of the February 2006 U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, Qatar. He was part of a delegation that met with her in March 2006 and held a joint press conference. A letter to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in November 2007 indicates that contacts with Hughes and Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns had continued apace.
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Tuesday, Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) called Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf -- best known for his work with multicultural Cordoba Initiative to build a mosque and community center in Lower Manhattan -- a "radical" and criticized the Obama Administration for including him on a Middle East speaking tour.
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Who is speaking out of "both sides of their mouths"?
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This has become political because of SHOCKING half-information giving by Fox News and specifically Hannity. The guys has been, right or wrong, working for our government for years...this isn't, as Hannity has suggested, some "radical" President Obama found.
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I continue to agree with most that the idea of a Community Center/Mosque being built near ground zero is a bad idea. However, I also agree with our President that their really is nothing, legally, we can do. They have the right.
Posted on August 17 at 10:14 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
Here is my point about why the smoking ban was/is LONG overdue...
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In any other industry...any other job...a person working with the toxic and deadly fumes produced from smoking (inhaling 2nd hand smoke) would be required or at a minimum provided the opportunity to wear a gas-mask.
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My thought is this...provide the employees and customers the same level of safety (gas-mask) as they would get if they were working with similar fumes caused by 2nd hand smoke in an industrial situation and then you can remove the ban.
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Let's see a restaraunt with the cooks, waiters, etc... wearing gas masks and handing them to customers as they enter succeed.
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No government restrictions EXCEPT the ones that have been in-place for years but have been allowed to be ignored by the restaraunt industry.
On Should schools eliminate grade of “D”?
Posted on August 13 at 9:19 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Tough issue...my only question is what about the kid who wants to be an automechanic...A's every class related to being an automechanic but doesn't like, doesn't care about and doesn't get Science.
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Aren't there parts of life that we all get D's at? Perhaps it is patience, spelling, math, mechanic/assmebly skills, etc... I know I have weaknesses and struggled to get D's in Science since about 4th grade. I didn't like labs...not that type of hands on kid.
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Currently I have 2 Bachelor's degrees and a Master's. Not bragging so don't attack...just trying to point out that some kids/students honestly struggle with certain subjects/skills. I am not sure kids not graduating just because of Science, for example, is a good idea.
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That said, I STRONGLY believe in higher expectations for all students. This is a DIFFICULT balance because I want all students to excel but not sure if all students can excel at everything.
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I guess bottom line, how do we balance this?
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Lastly, reading and writing are the basics...everyone should meet minimum expectations in those areas prior to graduation. Beyond that...science (Biology, Physics, Chemistry) Social Studies (history, economics, sociology), Math (Alegra, Geometry, Trig) not sure what level should require "average" work and what should be allowed to "get by with D" work.
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Lastly x2, what about electives? If you take a shop class and struggle to get a D...should you not graduate?
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Lots of balancing for this policy to truly work but it is worth examining.
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On Nine arrested for drug crimes
Posted on August 28 at 12:08 p.m.
(This comment was removed by the site staff.)