It is time to admit that public education operates like a planned economy. It’s a bureaucratic system where everybody’s role is spelled out in advance, and there are few incentives for innovation and productivity. It’s not a surprise when a school system doesn’t improve. It more resembles a Communist economy than our own market economy.
— Albert Shanker
Recent Comments
jonolan on Introducing The Daomaki: “😆 Yeah! And, I'm thinking a crosshatch drizzle of both Eel Sauce and either Spicy Mayo or Spicy Miso. Or…” Nov 11, 08:11
Joe on Dangerous Curves: “love this love to make porn with them” Oct 28, 08:35
jonolan on Fucking Vegetables: “Heh! You're right! This is the mature fruit of the Passiflora quadrangularis erotica vine.” Sep 25, 08:38
Shadowcat on Fucking Vegetables: “It's no peppers, it's the fruit of a passionflower. So it's fruit, no vegetable. And it's not genetic, it's natural.…” Sep 24, 08:08
On this, the last day of 2015 to look back on this year is not pleasant but it is easy to sum up – “Aaaaaargh!” sums up 2015 quite aptly. What, however, is much worse is the fact that 2016 doesn’t look like it will be any better. Indeed, if things continue along the fatal sequence of the current entropic curve, it may well be far worse.
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2015 at 11:25 am and is filed under Politics, Society.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
The winds of time change and with them change the winds of societies and religions or, at least, the hearts and minds of the adherents to religions. When dealing with them, one needs to check the weathervane for their current conditions.
Jihadism Is Islam’s Weathervane
Well the winds of Islam are blowing strongly straight towards the barbarism and feral savagery they wallowed in during the first century of its unfortunate existence.
Yes, it’s quite true that we could look back many centuries and find a time when the Muslim World was arguably the center of philosophical and scientific thought, a time when Muslims should more humanity and tolerance than Christendom did, especially when it came to either free thought or the Jews. Likewise, it is equally true that, if one looks back many centuries, one can find a time when Christendom was horrifically intolerant and prone to persecuting people.
Yet both the golden age of Islam and the dark age of Christianity are long buried in annals of history. We, the living must deal with the winds of today and today the winds of Islam are ill winds indeed.
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2015 at 10:44 am and is filed under Politics, Religion, Society.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Time passes and with it pass those who were dear to each of us, so it’s good to see that some old associates are still looking good. Better in its own odd way, though David, Nichelle, and I haven’t had any interactions for close to 30 year, my wives now work closely with them on a regular basis and they’re all friends.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2014 at 9:55 am and is filed under Society.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Some days, and many more nights, it strikes me odd how we humans make arbitrary divisions of time. We as a species compartmentalize time into a plethora of units that have no bearing upon anything but how we perceive time and level set our goals.
This has no bearing upon the greater reality but seems essential the working of the human mind.
A more fluid and/or holistic view of time actually seems detrimental to our happiness and sanity. Without these goal points in time that we’ve created we seem to descend into depression, frustration, and madness in fairly short order.
This strikes me as both odd and counter-survival oriented. It does seem to be the way we’re built though.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 at 10:47 am and is filed under Musings.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Both as individuals and as societies we seem very concerned with ourselves and our importance. Each crisis is of horrific magnitude because it impacts us and the world we’ve created with our perceptions and imagining to surround us.
At times it is beneficial to be given a reminder – hopefully a gentle one – that much of this is illusory, and what isn’t, is likely transitory. The universe will continue its stately precession to oblivion long after we and everyone we ever loved or hated has long since died and been forgotten.
A Gentle Reminder That We Too Shall Pass
While humbling, this should also be a source of comfort for us. True, all of our efforts will eventually come to naught and be erased from the fabric of the universe by the erosion of time. Yet, so too will the effects of the efforts of our enemies and the consequences of our failures fade away, leaving not a trace of themselves upon the universe.
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at 1:47 pm and is filed under Musings, Philosophy, Society.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Announcement
Due to issues between the latest version of WordPress and my gallery plugin, galleries are currently broken. As a workaround, right-click gallery thumbnails and choose Open in New Tab or New Window.