birdog1960

how was it disingenuous? the article (and drudge by linking it) used medical tourism from canada as a measure of citizens' satisfaction of their health system. it then showed that as a percentage (and absolute number) americans engage in medical tourism much more often than canadians. it was the daily caller and drudge link that were disingenuous. there. now you have your snippet since you obviously didn't understand the article the first time.

in the manner of b-man i'll just link this: http://www.suntimes....re-numbers.html

agreed. but you left out a few important ones: seattle db's>bills db's pete carroll>>>marrone Allen>>>>>>>>>ralph wilson

agreed. chandler is the poster child. every te in both games yesterday, including 3rd stringers, looked more athletic than him and just as big and powerful.

and why is seattle an excellent team? in 2010, buddy nix chose chan f'ing gailey as hc after a search that was sold as being for a top tier hc . the bills were 7-9 in 2009. seattle chose pete carroll ( paid him handsomely and gave him full control to get him). they were 4-12 in 2009. both teams had weak talent. one is now playing for the sb. nix deserves a fair amount of blame.

pretty interesting to review. yes, the reaction was decidedly negative. but a comment was made that at the time of gailey's hiring, the bills had the least talent in the league. someone disagreed and when pressed for teams with less talent (really, only in a bills forum does this get asked) seattle is mentioned. and the other dude agrees! so they get lynch and two nfc championship games and we get less than 20 wins in the subsequent time. it really is like the bills are seriously trying to be bad. i guess it helps a bit to know that cleveland is almost as inept.

shaming the parents is unlikely to work. there's no peer pressure as their peers likely have similar lifestyles. unfortunately, for these people, i agree there's little chance at rehabilitation and efforts at such are likely to be wasted. with kids, it's often different. they still care pretty deeply about their perception from peers. and for that reason and the fact that teachers and school employees can lead by example, there is more hope for them.yes, the parents should have discovered the mess in far rockaway much sooner. yes, they appear to be negligent parents. but so should have the other employees of the school and the superintendent among others. they failed miserably. they should all be replaced. more checks and balances need to be in place. systemic reform is clearly needed in this district. but this episode shouldn't precipitate giving up on educating every kid with a loser parent.

you can ignore what ever you like. most of the time i ignore you. but the legal profession doesn't ignore the concept of schools replacing parents. it's called "in loco parentis". ever heard of a boarding school? do some quick estimating between the amount of time a prep school student spends with parents versus teachers over the grades 1-12. yet many of the most recognizable figures in business, gov't and academics worldwide attended such schools and then continued on to universities and many even further to professional or graduate school. the correlation between lifetime earnings and educational level attained is robust and undeniable. yet, many here seem to argue against the importance of education and especially, good teachers. i suspect that argument really only holds when discussing education for people not like us - the others. re post 76, i don't see what there is to refute. there are some bad teachers. i figure i've had over 100 formal teachers in my 20+ years of formal education. several were quite incompetent. several were inexperienced. yet many were fantastic and inspiring. on balance, the quality was excellent. just as it should be and could be for every student.

you had good parents. he has good parents. i had good parents. good for us. lots of kids don't. do we just write them off? if so, what will become of them? your kids will probably complain of them as takers later in life. and there will be many. even with very supportive parents, i remember many teachers that influenced my development. many were role models. many introduced novel ideas that i never would have independently considered. most were instrumental in my development. i don't think it's desirable to produce carbon copies of parents even if they're great. a world of clones seems pretty unappealing. where would new ideas and innovations be produced? so, i fundamentally disagree.

not the responsibility, the prudent course of action to stem the further collapse in values, morals and education that's been occurring for the last several decades. as for the adults, the prudent course of action to avoid civil unrest (from a purely practical perspective).

at has to do with investing in youth through education and through excellent teachers as role models. we can't rely on and our unlikely to change inadequate parents.

i like the quote to the memphis bad guy that "you probably look up into a flock of birds and wonder why you got sheit on" and to loretta: "next time you should start with that" when she finally apologized and before he walked out , leaving her in jail. lots of good stuff. not nearly as good in prose as in the show.

the best chance to break the cycle of poverty is childhood. behaviors and personalities are not fully engrained and formed there. for some inspiration and evidence of success, look to the Catholic church. emphasis on parochial education wasn't just empirically put forth with "let's see what happens". in the same vein, much of the dissolution of families resulted from the dissolution of morals. the "sexual revolution" should bear much blame. there is a strong temporal relationship between it's prominence and the family's decline. tv, movies, print articles and images and later the internet, especially pornography, made it appear that monogamy and the nuclear family were relics of the past and definitely uncool. the impetus for it? i'd say greed and lust, 2 temptations that have been around for all human history but until recently have been considered virtuous to avoid. we're left with entire generations of narcissists. so yup, int needs to start with the malleablle kids and it can't happen soon enough.

the mojo is back. great episode this week. quite a few nice zingers. good story line.

i would start with a greater emphasis on discipline. not corporal punishment but loss of rights and privileges and even shaming. failing a grade wouild become more common again. there would be a limit to unacceptable behavior with suspensions and eventually expulsion if the student will not respond. before expulsion, investigation into the students social situation would be done preferrably by a social worker but if not possible by a teacher and available aid offered. evaluation by a pediatrician before expulsion would also be beneficial to rule out organic causes. ultimately, however, some kids would be expelled.i'd raise the minimum wage so fewer parents would need to work 2 jobs and have more time with their kids.i'd incentivize teaching as a career more, especially in poorer neighborhoods where less are apt to want to work. i'd require competency testing (both practical and written testing - sort of board certification for teachers) for teachers and administrators and remove those who didn't meet minimum criteria. i'd reward teachers with excellent outcomes financially. measuring those outcomes is tricky but i'd leave that up to experts in the field rather than legislators that come up with things like SOL's.i'd offer more vocational training to those clearly not suited for higher academic pursuits.i'd offer polytechnics in place of universities for those somewhere in between.a few off the cuff ideas.might cost more initially, but may well cost less over time as the need or public assistance and more prisons decrease.

no one gets to pick their parents...so i guess we're back to eugenics. wouldn't surprise me at all if you were a proponent.

hmmm, eugenics? no, thought you wouldn't go there.

he's unusual...extraordinary. that's why he's on stage at a big event. his insight might well be useful to some or even many students but it's not likely to help kids who live an economic quantum leap away from where he does.

his message doesn't apply to many kids, especially those in schools like that discussed in this thread. he's happy now and wants to grow up bto be happy. that's wise but not applicable to many kids that aren't happy now. i can't imagine too many homeless kids being too happy and there are a record number right now. the message lacks perspective that this kid likely has had no way of gaining.

the kid's obviously very bright. he'd likely do well academically and personally being educated in a wide variety of settings. kids like him aren't the ones that education in america is failing. although, he could use some work on presentation. a bit too rehearsed and canned. nobody uses neurobiology and stoked in a spontaneous sentence together. maybe he should study this guy:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBx2Y5HhplI

well, no. hernandez has not and likely will not be rehabilitated by another team to all pro status. the potential is likely just not there for that. it clearly was for lynch. the bills just weren't able to harness it for whatever reason.

i must be missing the connection between planting bulbs and wildflowers on highways and waging a special interest fueled war on public education...

there's much more here than meets the eye:http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2013/05/21/large-out-of-state-donors-fuel-north-carolinas-school-choice-movement/. nc is a proxy battleground for this movement. hopefully, folks in va (and elsewhere) are smart enough to decide such issues on their own without involving outside special interests.

i didn't say that tenure was a good thing necessarily. i used it as an example of the war on public education. i'd bet that teachers in nc might negotiate away tenure for better pay and incentives for attaining advanced certification, for example. but nc has just stripped them all away. there's no bargaining except to leave...which many are doing and more likely will. i certainly would.

well, yes, i do. i have a niece that teaches elementary school in durham. it probably won't surprise you that many of my friends are educators here in va. they're well aware of what's going on over there eg teacher pay freezes for the last 5 years or so, no compensation for advanced degrees, no tenure, wages for some teachers as low as 20k and much more. and there's proven links to these efforts and far right national conservative groups.