Re: Opium [was: Re: freelance sysadmining -- superlong -- [WAS: "Red Hat recommends Windows for consumers"]]
On Sat, 2003-11-15 at 06:55, Pigeon wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 14, 2003 at 10:14:38AM -0800, donw@examen.com wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 14, 2003 at 11:39:31AM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote:
[snip]
>
> > Democracy will be preserved, but only for appearance. People can
> > vote, but the elections will be rigged, with no paper trails and no
> > accountability.
>
> They're already rigged, by the selection of the candidates. Doesn't
> matter who you vote for, the practical result is that things go on
> pretty much as they did before.
I wonder if, in some ways, the US isn't too big/diverse to be led
by any one person, and distinctive personalities can only emerge
on the state level.
For example, when I visit metropolitan D.C. (northern Virginia
and south-eastern Maryland) I see television ads touting how poli-
tician X or Y is soooo tough on gun control, whereas, in Louisiana,
such an ad would be the kiss of death.
In the current Louisiana governor's election, the Democrat candid-
ate is touting how conservative she is, whereas a conservative
Democrat wouldn't have a chance in California or much of the north
east.
> > The gap betwen the rich and poor has been growing at an astronomical
> > rate, and public education is quickly reaching a point where only those
> > lucky and/or smart enough emerge from high school with even the most
> > elementary grasp of the arts, sciences, or of the English language; my
> > father used to teach a 'computer basics' class to high-school freshmen,
> > and many of them were almost completely illiterate. Drop-out rates have
> > been increasing exponentially, and with the rising cost of higher
> > education, fewer students can afford to attend college. Compounding
> > this is the fact that blue-collar work is generally frowned upon by
> > Americans, which has resulted in us having a horrible lack of trade and
> > technical schools. For those wealthy enough to attend college, many
> > will attain near-useless English and Liberal Arts degrees, because they
> > lack the impetus, drive, and determination to pursue a more difficult
> > degree.
>
> UK education is going the same way. University teaching staff complain
> that the knowledge base of new entrants is shrinking year by year. The
> government wants 50% of school leavers to go on to university, which
> means that university entrance standards have to drop dramatically and
> the vast majority of students take useless degrees of which the
> canonical example is "media studies".
In some areas, there's been a backlash, and, as imperfect as they
are, mandatory pass-to-proceed and graduation exams. For example,
in Louisiana, children must pass "English" and math tests to get
into 5th and 9th grades, and to graduate from high school. There
is also "pass to play", where a prospective athlete must maintain
a passing average, and get no failing grades.
Also, the entrance requirements for state Universities has been
raised.
No, none of these techniques are perfect, but, IMO, they are pro-
ducing more ok-educated students than before, which is a baby-
step in the right direction. For example, the 2002 "valedictorian"
of a certain New Orleans school hasn't been allowed to graduate,
because she can't read at the high school (much less 12th grade)
level.
[snip]
> > Yorn desh born, der ritt de gitt der gue,
> > Orn desh, dee born desh, de umn bork! bork! bork!
>
> I keep seeing this in people's sigs; what's the derivation?
The Swedish Chef.
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Johnson, Jr. ron.l.johnson@cox.net
Jefferson, LA USA
When Swedes start committing terrorism, I'll become suspicious of
Scandanavians.
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