Quote of the Day for Saturday

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Because I’m going to the USPSA match, and probably won’t be posting anything tomorrow, and I don’t want to post-date this particular bit of linkage. From Dr. Sanity:

Eleven score and four years ago, our forefathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Today we live in an Animal Farm world where our elites in Congress consider themselves more equal than you or I; and the wealth created by the productive people in our society is regularly redistributed to those who produce nothing; or, it is wasted on the pet projects of those preening elites who are certain that they know what is best for for everyone. In short, we (and our children and their children) are slowly but inexorably being transformed into slaves of the State.

From Our Very Own Little Country of Horrors which I urge you to read in its (brief) entirety.

Then skip down and read Between Brains, which is longer, deeper, and more important.

Quote of the Day – Education Edition

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I stopped at the local BBQ tonight (we needed a fix, y’see). The two Sweet Young Things were yammering with each other as they rang up my sale.

One allowed as how she was allergic to lots of things. She explained, “I just say I’m allergic to things I don’t like; cottage cheese, nuts, school …”

I couldn’t help myself.

“You don’t like school?”

“Nope.”

“How come?”

“Because NOW we have to actually DO the work.”

Oh shit.

“What school is that?”

“College.”

“What grade?”

“Junior.”

“What major?”

“Elementary education.”

Oh shit.

“Oh shit” indeed. That’s from reader DJ in the comments to this post.

Quote of the Day – Van der Leun Edition

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It is no secret that classic liberalism, in the mold of FDR, JFK,and LBJ that reached its apotheosis in Hubert Humphrey, has long been consigned to the bone-yard. What has taken its place hates to be tarred with the brush of liberalism because, frankly, it isn’t. It prefers to be called “progressivism” even as “a sociopathic political and social recidivism” more accurately describes it. – Gerard Van der Leun, The Not-So-Great Generation and the Vision That Dare Not Speak Its Name, American Digest.

RTWT. Twice.

More Evidence of Our Collapsing Schools

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As if we needed it:

The Freshman Foul: Poor ACT Scores
High School Students Score Lower than Ever on ACT: 28 Percent Unprepared to Pass Even One College-Level Subject

It’s the annual mid-August ritual for college students: moving into their dorms. But tests suggest an alarming number of high school graduates are arriving unprepared for college level class work, reports CBS News national correspondent Jim Axelrod.

“I have always had a hard time with math and science those are my two hardest subjects,” Jeanette Settembre, a sophomore at Manhattan College, told CBS News. ” I don’t feel like I was prepared in those two subjects for when I went to college.”

Those are two of four subjects measured by the ACT – a test taken mainly in the Midwest and the South that measures if students know enough to pass first year college courses.

Some 28 percent were unprepared to pass even one of the subjects – math, reading, English and science — ACT measures.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do — especially in math and science,” said Cyndie Schmeiser, ACT’s Education Division president and chief operating officer.

A lot. One recent study concluded high school students in 23 countries were outperforming U.S. students in math. Students in 16 countries were outperforming U.S. students in science. And nine countries did better in literacy.

While some reformers encourage students to take harder courses in high school, others say the solution lies in a more comprehensive overhaul.

Like a nuke from orbit.

There are No Socialists in Our Government . . .

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. . . what a silly idea!

DISCLAIMER:

The list is of the Progressive Caucus, which isn’t affiliated with any socialist organization. Spun-up half-truth from WND.
Discussion @ http://www.theguncounter.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=13154 – Commenter “Fill”

There’s about a dime’s worth of difference between a modern “Progressive” and your run-of-the-mill socialist, but that’s not the same thing as being a proud card-carrying member of the Democratic Socialists of America. Chris Byrne is right when he said:

“Now, once again, let me state an important political principle.

“When you use an argument, or cite a “fact” that you haven’t done the research on, you make yourself look like and idiot, and you hurt your own side.

“When you make a provably false statement, you make yourself look like an idiot, and you hurt your own side.

“When you cite a known crackpot, you make yourself look like an idiot, and you hurt your own side.

“When you use a well known discredited or provably false argument, you make yourself look like an idiot and you hurt your own side.”

I had planned to do more research on this before I hit “Post,” but I didn’t. Mea culpa.

American Socialist Voter–

Q: How many members of the U.S. Congress are also members of the DSA?
A: Seventy

Q: How many of the DSA members sit on the Judiciary Committee?
A: Eleven: John Conyers [Chairman of the Judiciary Committee], Tammy Baldwin, Jerrold Nadler, Luis Gutierrez,
Melvin Watt, Maxine Waters, Hank Johnson, Steve Cohen, Barbara Lee, Robert Wexler, Linda Sanchez [there are 23 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee of which eleven, almost half, are now members of the DSA].

Q: Who are these members of 111th Congress?
A: See the listing below

Co-Chairs
Hon. Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-07)
Hon. Lynn Woolsey (CA-06)

Vice Chairs
Hon. Diane Watson (CA-33)
Hon. Sheila Jackson-Lee (TX-18)
Hon. Mazie Hirono (HI-02)
Hon. Dennis Kucinich (OH-10)

Senate Members
Hon. Bernie Sanders (VT)

House Members
Hon. Neil Abercrombie (HI-01)
Hon. Tammy Baldwin (WI-02)
Hon. Xavier Becerra (CA-31)
Hon. Madeleine Bordallo (GU-AL)
Hon. Robert Brady (PA-01)
Hon. Corrine Brown (FL-03)
Hon. Michael Capuano (MA-08)
Hon. André Carson (IN-07)
Hon. Donna Christensen (VI-AL)
Hon. Yvette Clarke (NY-11)
Hon. William “Lacy” Clay (MO-01)
Hon. Emanuel Cleaver (MO-05)
Hon. Steve Cohen (TN-09)
Hon. John Conyers (MI-14)
Hon. Elijah Cummings (MD-07)
Hon. Danny Davis (IL-07)
Hon. Peter DeFazio (OR-04)
Hon. Rosa DeLauro (CT-03)
Rep. Donna F. Edwards (MD-04)
Hon. Keith Ellison (MN-05)
Hon. Sam Farr (CA-17)
Hon. Chaka Fattah (PA-02)
Hon. Bob Filner (CA-51)
Hon. Barney Frank (MA-04)
Hon. Marcia L. Fudge (OH-11)
Hon. Alan Grayson (FL-08)
Hon. Luis Gutierrez (IL-04)
Hon. John Hall (NY-19)
Hon. Phil Hare (IL-17)
Hon. Maurice Hinchey (NY-22)
Hon. Michael Honda (CA-15)
Hon. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (IL-02)
Hon. Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30)
Hon. Hank Johnson (GA-04)
Hon. Marcy Kaptur (OH-09)
Hon. Carolyn Kilpatrick (MI-13)
Hon. Barbara Lee (CA-09)
Hon. John Lewis (GA-05)
Hon. David Loebsack (IA-02)
Hon. Ben R. Lujan (NM-3)
Hon. Carolyn Maloney (NY-14)
Hon. Ed Markey (MA-07)
Hon. Jim McDermott (WA-07)
Hon. James McGovern (MA-03)
Hon. George Miller (CA-07)
Hon. Gwen Moore (WI-04)
Hon. Jerrold Nadler (NY-08)
Hon. Eleanor Holmes-Norton (DC-AL)
Hon. John Olver (MA-01)
Hon. Ed Pastor (AZ-04)
Hon. Donald Payne (NJ-10)
Hon. Chellie Pingree (ME-01)
Hon. Charles Rangel (NY-15)
Hon. Laura Richardson (CA-37)
Hon. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34)
Hon. Bobby Rush (IL-01)
Hon. Linda Sánchez (CA-47)
Hon. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09)
Hon. José Serrano (NY-16)
Hon. Louise Slaughter (NY-28)
Hon. Pete Stark (CA-13)
Hon. Bennie Thompson (MS-02)
Hon. John Tierney (MA-06)
Hon. Nydia Velazquez (NY-12)
Hon. Maxine Waters (CA-35)
Hon. Mel Watt (NC-12)
Hon. Henry Waxman (CA-30)
Hon. Peter Welch (VT-AL)
Hon. Robert Wexler (FL-19)

Via Gateway Pundit.

Get that? That’s 70 out of 435 members of Congress willing to be identified as members of the Socialist Progressive Caucus, including Maxine “We’re Gonna Socialize You” Waters. Almost half of the Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are self-identified members.

These are people who swore to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, yet in order to be Socialists, they must subvert that very document. The two philosophies ARE NOT COMPATIBLE.

But we’re constantly assured that there’s nothing to be worried about! The specter of socialism is merely a hobgoblin of The Cult™ created just to frighten the kiddies! (Dime’s worth of difference.)

Pitchforks and torches and rope, oh my!

Quote of the Day – Edumacashun Edition

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From the comments at Tam’s:

I tutor children from our public schools and I, too, had a high-school senior who didn’t know that the Sun is a star around which the Earth revolves, that the Moon is a planet that revolves around the Earth, or that light travels very fast. This student had memorized the multiplication tables in elementary school but didn’t know what multiplication “means.”
Another example was with a high-school senior taking an “AP Chemistry” class. This student wanted help understanding how to calculate the molarity of a solution. I kept working “backwards” through the “things one needs to know” in search of the student’s baseline competence. At one point I posed the question “If you have two five pound bags of sugar, how much sugar do you have?” The student responded, “Twenty-five pounds. You multiply don’t you?”

Several years ago, I had a third grade student who needed help with arithmetic. This student was very bright but didn’t seem to be retaining much from her class at school. I made an appointment with the teacher to try to get more information about what and how my student was being taught.

At one point in the conversation I mentioned that my student didn’t seem confident in even basic facts like knowing the “multiplication table.” The teacher said, “Well, we’re not as concerned about their knowing the exact answer as how they feel about that answer.”

At this point, I knew I had found the root of this student’s problem. I thanked the teacher for taking time to meet with me and backed slowly out of the office.

Again, all of the students in these examples were very bright and had managed to be very successful in their classes. They were all eager students and found their way to me because they really wanted to learn. They all came from homes where their parents were present, loving, dedicated, and involved in their lives. In every case, their performance improved quickly once we put some of the basics in place. All graduated from college and are successful in their careers. The first is now an accountant, the second is a nurse, and the third is a psychiatrist. In short, the only thing preventing them from getting a high quality education was the Educational System itself. – “Larry”

Even I Didn’t Think It Was This Bad

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From AR15.com:

I was watching Band Of Brothers with a group of people (The episode where they find the concentration camp)

No lie…No embellishment…No exaggeration…

I had to explain, in detail, to a 31 year old individual who Adolf Hitler was… Why “the Jews hated him so much”… Why the people were in the prison camp, and why they were so skinny.

This particular person was a straight A, honor roll student in high school…has a Master’s degree in business management…and, is a corporate director for a national organization.

I asked her how she managed to get through school, and 31 years of life without ever hearing of Hitler or the Nazis.

She said she has heard the name (Like, when people compare a politician to “Hitler”… Or, call an overbearing person “Little Hitler”, or “Nazi”) but she never knew where the reference came from.

(She was horrified when I gave her a quick and dirty, abridged version of what happened in Nazi Germany).

I am still in disbelief

On the bright side… She is VERY bright…And, she is now very interested to learn a little bit about history. So, I am building a list of reading and viewing material for her.

Thirty-one. Born in 1979, just like my daughter, who didn’t know what Pearl Harbor was.

Sweet bleeding jeebus.