LGP Political Discussion Thread

[shafnutz05]

Gun violence in the United States is worse than ever, right?

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GUN_VIOLENCE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-07-19-27-18

A study released Tuesday by the government's Bureau of Justice Statistics found that gun-related homicides dropped from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011. That's a 39 percent reduction.

Another report by the private Pew Research Center found a similar decline by looking at the rate of gun homicides, which compares the number of killings to the size of the country's growing population. It found that the number of gun homicides per 100,000 people fell from 7 in 1993 to 3.6 in 2010, a drop of 49 percent.

Both reports also found that non-fatal crimes involving guns were down by roughly 70 percent over that period. The Justice report said the number of such crimes diminished from 1.5 million in 1993 to 467,300 in 2011.

This is what makes events like Newtown so scary. When horrific events like that occur, they make people abandon all rationality and plead the government to further restrict rights in the name of security. I know we've hashed this out, but just like the PATRIOT Act post-9/11.

The truth is, gun violence/homicides are way, WAY down, and they have been steadily declining for the last 20 years. The vast majority of current gun homicides tend to be black-on-black crime, and that's not a gun issue, it's a cultural issue.

[tifosi77]

So I heard this on the radio at lunch today....

Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh, commenting on the increase in rapes and sexual assaults in the uniformed military, said, ""20% of women report they had been sexually assaulted before they came into the military..... So they come in from a society where this occurs. Some of it is the hookup mentality of junior high even and high school students now, which my children can tell you about from watching their friends and being frustrated by it."

He's..... not....... blaming the victims there, is he?

[doublem]

So I heard this on the radio at lunch today....

Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh, commenting on the increase in rapes and sexual assaults in the uniformed military, said, ""20% of women report they had been sexually assaulted before they came into the military..... So they come in from a society where this occurs. Some of it is the hookup mentality of junior high even and high school students now, which my children can tell you about from watching their friends and being frustrated by it."

He's..... not....... blaming the victims there, is he?

would you expect anything else?

[Sarcastic]

So I heard this on the radio at lunch today....

Air Force Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh, commenting on the increase in rapes and sexual assaults in the uniformed military, said, ""20% of women report they had been sexually assaulted before they came into the military..... So they come in from a society where this occurs. Some of it is the hookup mentality of junior high even and high school students now, which my children can tell you about from watching their friends and being frustrated by it."

He's..... not....... blaming the victims there, is he?

would you expect anything else?

Maybe he's just talking about society in general. When he talks about the victims, he must also be including the offenders (the guys who sign up for the military). It's basically a widely spread problem and some members of the military are probably one or the other, so it continutes from high school all the way to the time in the military. I don't think he'd be dumb enough to blame rape victims or would he?

[doublem]

he would.

[Sarcastic]

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/08/18131900-a-census-first-black-voter-turnout-passes-whites

WASHINGTON — Making history, America's blacks voted at higher rates than whites in 2012, lifting Democrat Barack Obama to victory amid voter apathy, particularly among young people, new census data show. Despite increasing population, the number of white voters declined for the first time since 1996.

[AlexPKeaton]

This high school kid gets up and yells at his teacher for handing out packets instead of teaching hahaha.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/video?clipId=88 ... Start=true

Tenure guarantees she will not get fired.

[PensFanInDC]

This high school kid gets up and yells at his teacher for handing out packets instead of teaching hahaha.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/video?clipId=88 ... Start=true

Tenure guarantees she will not get fired.

Bravo to him!

[Sarcastic]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/09/18148044-exclusive-turkish-pm-erdogan-syria-has-crossed-red-line-used-chemical-weapons

Turkey's prime minister is charging that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its people and has called on the U.S. to take stronger action, he told NBC News' Ann Curry in an exclusive interview Thursday.

Erdogan cited as evidence the "remainders of missiles" — at least 200 by his count — that he believes were used in chemical attacks, along with the injuries of Syrians brought over the Turkish border for medical treatment.

Erdogan rejected any suggestion that the rebels might have used chemical weapons.

"There is no way I can believe in this now. First of all, how are they going to obtain this? And who will give this to them?" he said.

"But if it exists, we are against this...We are against whoever holds the weapons."

[MWB]

This high school kid gets up and yells at his teacher for handing out packets instead of teaching hahaha.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/video?clipId=88 ... Start=true

Tenure guarantees she will not get fired.

Texas is a right to work state, so the union issue won't be the same as elsewhere.

But why would she be fired? Because a student is complaining about her? Maybe the kid is telling it like it is, but maybe not. We won't hear the teacher's side, because she won't be able to talk about it.

[Pavel Bure]

This high school kid gets up and yells at his teacher for handing out packets instead of teaching hahaha.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/video?clipId=88 ... Start=true

Tenure guarantees she will not get fired.

Man the classroom I filled in for yesterday was all packets, and packets that had nothing to do with what the students were learning. One of the questions was,

____________ in minerals helps the human body stay healthy.


Any guesses? Any thoughts? If I didn't have the key there's no way in a million years I could have gotten it. Their reading didn't have the answer in it. It was a dumpster fire of a teaching method and that lady has a job. I talked to her today and she said she doesn't like to teach from the book so she does packets which the answer comes from the book. It was so hard to bite my tongue.

Spoiler:

The answer was, "chemicals" which IMO is headasplode bad as a fact or answer for something.

[Sarcastic]

I'm pretty impressed by the dude. He wants to take school seriously.

[Sarcastic]

This is 3 days old, but I don't remember anyone posting it.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/06/18083705-at-least-20-dead-hundreds-hurt-as-islamists-demand-religious-laws-in-bangladesh

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- At least 20 people were killed Sunday and Monday in clashes in Bangladesh between police and hard-line Islamists demanding new laws that critics say would amount to the "Talibanization" of a country that maintains secularism as state policy.

Clashes began on Sunday after about 200,000 Islamist supporters marched toward Dhaka, the capital, to press their demands and were met by lines of police firing tear gas and rubber bullets.

On Monday, hundreds of protesters, many wearing white Muslim skull caps and throwing stones, regrouped and police again fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse them.

Violence spread from the capital, where at least 13 died. Five people were killed in Chittagong and another two in Bagerhat.

Protesters set fire to vehicles, including two police cars, and stormed a police post on the outskirts of the capital, police said.

[Shyster]

____________ in minerals helps the human body stay healthy.

That doesn't make any sense. A mineral, by definition, is a solid material of a uniform chemical composition. A chunk of pure elemental iron would be a mineral, as would be grains of table salt (sodium chloride), or a gemstone like turquoise (a phosphate of copper and aluminium). Minerals are chemicals.

[Pitt87]

This high school kid gets up and yells at his teacher for handing out packets instead of teaching hahaha.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/video?clipId=88 ... Start=true

Tenure guarantees she will not get fired.

Texas is a right to work state, so the union issue won't be the same as elsewhere.

But why would she be fired? Because a student is complaining about her? Maybe the kid is telling it like it is, but maybe not. We won't hear the teacher's side, because she won't be able to talk about it.

I don't think anyone said she should be, but point it she CAN'T be. Texas teachers still have tenure. Protection doesn't REQUIRE a union...

[shafnutz05]

Islamists are terrifying (and no threat to us, might I add)

[MWB]

This high school kid gets up and yells at his teacher for handing out packets instead of teaching hahaha.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/video?clipId=88 ... Start=true

Tenure guarantees she will not get fired.

Texas is a right to work state, so the union issue won't be the same as elsewhere.

But why would she be fired? Because a student is complaining about her? Maybe the kid is telling it like it is, but maybe not. We won't hear the teacher's side, because she won't be able to talk about it.

I don't think anyone said she should be, but point it she CAN'T be. Texas teachers still have tenure. Protection doesn't REQUIRE a union...

Well, APK mentioned that she wouldn't be fired, so that kind of insinuates that being fired should be considered.

And yes, a teacher with tenure CAN be fired. With cause. Having tenure makes it harder to do. Having union protection makes it much harder to do.

[MWB]

I'm pretty impressed by the dude. He wants to take school seriously.

Yeah, I am too. Seems like he has some good ideas, just needs to keep his cool.

[Sarcastic]

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/160-000-social-security-numbers-exposed-washington-state-court-hack-1C9864740

OLYMPIA, Wash.—The Washington state Administrative Office of the Courts was hacked sometime between last fall and February, and up to 160,000 Social Security numbers and 1 million driver's license numbers may have been accessed during the data breach of its public website, officials said Thursday.

[SoupOrSam]

I don't even know where to put this, but here it is:

CNN Anchors Pretend They’re Having A “Satellite Interview” Even Though They’re In The Same Parking Lot.

LOL:
http://beforeitsnews.com/media/2013/05/cnn-anchors-pretend-theyre-having-a-satellite-interview-even-though-theyre-in-the-same-parking-lot-2456012.html

Here's a link breaking down the stuff.... which also acknowledges that they are on different networks. Still just funny.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/05/nancy-grace-ashleigh-banfield-cnn-parking-lot/64965/

[Pavel Bure]

____________ in minerals helps the human body stay healthy.

That doesn't make any sense. A mineral, by definition, is a solid material of a uniform chemical composition. A chunk of pure elemental iron would be a mineral, as would be grains of table salt (sodium chloride), or a gemstone like turquoise (a phosphate of copper and aluminium). Minerals are chemicals.

Yes! Yes! Yet these are the people they give jobs to because they subbed forever in a district and who know the right people. These are the people teaching children. It's unbelievable.

[Pitt87]

This high school kid gets up and yells at his teacher for handing out packets instead of teaching hahaha.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/video?clipId=88 ... Start=true

Tenure guarantees she will not get fired.

Texas is a right to work state, so the union issue won't be the same as elsewhere.

But why would she be fired? Because a student is complaining about her? Maybe the kid is telling it like it is, but maybe not. We won't hear the teacher's side, because she won't be able to talk about it.

I don't think anyone said she should be, but point it she CAN'T be. Texas teachers still have tenure. Protection doesn't REQUIRE a union...

Well, APK mentioned that she wouldn't be fired, so that kind of insinuates that being fired should be considered.

And yes, a teacher with tenure CAN be fired. With cause. Having tenure makes it harder to do. Having union protection makes it much harder to do.

You're reading much too literally... she can't be fired for being the type of teacher that meets the BMQ.

When you say harder, you mean more expensive... http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-06-30-teacher-tenure-costs_N.htm

This subjugates rational application of law and adds a penalty to fire a tenured teacher. The only winner is a lawyer in this situation; districts pay, teachers are in a situation they don't want to be in, and the kids have to bear the brunt.

[columbia]

[ExPatriatePen]

Spoiler:

GO NEW HAMPSHIRE!

[PensFanInDC]

lolonevada