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Title: Obama's Tepid State of the Union Speech
Source:
Dissenting Opinions
URL Source: http://jwpegler.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... pid-state-of-union-speech.html
Published: Jan 26, 2011
Author: jwpegler
Post Date: 2011-01-26 10:24:30 by jwpegler
Keywords: None
Views: 28825
Comments: 58
Last night, President Obama delivered on of the most tepid state union speeches in recent memory. Obama's "winning the future" theme was exactly the right one. Unfortunately, very little of what he said will help us do that. Obama should have held up the report from his own Deficit Commission. He should have told the American people that this is his program for moving forward. Then he should have turned around and handed it to John Boehner and asked him to pass it immediately. Instead, we got a laundry list of disconnected new initiatives that just don't add up and won't do a thing to solve the looming fiscal crisis caused by too much government spending. Here's the blow-by-blow analysis: 1.) Obama is calling for new "investments" on infrastructure. In this context, he's actually using the term "investment" correctly. Here's the problem: for years Democrats have called every bit of government spending "investments", including spending on transfer payments from one group to another. Only 2% of Obama's trillion dollar "stimulus" program was spent on real investments in our future. So, at this point it's difficult to trust what the Democrats say about this. Yes, we need to fix and upgrade our crumbling roads, bridges, ports, airports, water and sewage systems. But it has to be paid for by cutting subsidies and transfer payments. 2.) Obama mentioned China's "green energy" programs. Great! China is building the largest damn in the world. It's difficult to build a damn in the United States anymore because the extreme fringe of the environmental movement won't allow it. China has 30 nuclear power plants under construction. The last time the U.S. started a new nuclear power plant, Jimmy Carter was still president. Again, the nut case environmentalists won't allow it. Please tell us Mr. President, what specifically do you plan to do about your supporters, who have been blocking energy progress since the 1970s? 3.) Obama called for more "investments" in education. What he really means is more transfer payments to the rotten teacher's unions who have destroyed our school system. No thanks. Been there, done that. Not a single dollar more at the local, state, or federal level should be spent on public schools until: A.) the teacher's unions are decertified, B.) we abolish the entire notion of "tenure", which only serves to protect bad teachers, and C.) every school is taken away from the board of education bureaucrats and turned over to the parents who actually have kids in the school, i.e., every school is turned into a Charter school. Obama has claimed for years that he supports Charter Schools. Mr. President, it's time to put up or shut up. 4.) Obama called for building high speed rail lines in California and the Midwest. The last thing in the world we need is to waste money on a government run high speed rail system, which will cost a ton of money, almost no one will use, and will quickly degrade and stagnate like every other service the government tries to provide. A better answer to providing mass transit is to eliminate state and local laws which prevent private entities from competing to provide bus and other types of mass transit services. The Philippines have privately run mass transit systems, which do a great job at getting a lot of people where they need to go. 5.) Obama is right about the crazy organization of the federal government and all of the duplication across agencies. For example, the federal government has over 100 welfare programs. They could all be collapsed into a single program that provides cash subsidies to the poor and disabled. We'd save a TON of money on administrative costs. A TON. Do you actually think that he will do anything like this? I don't. 6.) Obama called for a 5 year "spending freeze" on domestic discretionary spending. This won't even come close to balancing the budget. His freeze might reduce the deficit by $400 billion over the next 10 years, but deficits are projected to be $14 TRILLION dollars over the next 10 years, which will double the national debt to $28 trillion. His freeze amounts to less than 3% of the projected new debt. It's not enough to keep the country solvent. 7.) Obama is finally paying attention to the trade agreements with Columbia and Panama which have been languishing on the shelf for years. That's a good thing. 8.) He paid some lip service to tort reform to help reign in heath care costs. This is a good thing, but I don't think he's serious given that Trial Lawyers are among the largest contributors to the Democrat Party. 9.) He also mentioned lowering the corporate tax rate, which is the highest in the world, and simplifying the tax code. This is the one recommendation from his deficit commission that he seems to be endorsing. It's a great idea and it should be done to help restore our competitiveness. 10.) Of course Obama had to throw some red meat to the fringe left by bashing oil companies and successful people. No surprise, but it is getting really, really old. It's pretty obvious that Obama still doesn't understand that the country faces an almost insurmountable fiscal disaster caused by excessive government spending. Here are the two big questions: A.) Will the GOP actually do something about it? B.) If the GOP does do something about it, will Obama really do along? We'll see.
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#1. To: jwpegler, ferret mike, go65, lucysmom (#0)
(Edited)
So Obama is pro nuclear energy - a position that you right wingers are also for - and you attack him for that because you think a leftist segment of the population might be a against it? How about this novel solution to this problem, you right wingers SUPPORT THE PRESIDENT on this initiative!!!!!!!
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
The private sector doesn't want to build expensive nuclear power plants without government financial support.
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. Thomas Jefferson
And power companies won't invest in nuclear power without government backing. Since Conservatives don't believe government should get involved in the affairs of private companies, we saw no new plant construction during the time of the Bush administration when the GOP controlled the Congress.
Since January 3, 2011, Republicans have controlled the power of the purse.
He didn't mention a thing about how he's going to restart the nuclear program and overcome the opposition of his own supporters. ditto for education -- nothing constructive can be done unless the Democrat party grows the cajones to take on the teacher's unions who are blocking real reform. It's time to put up or shut up.
Yep, they want government loan guarantees so that they won't waste a ton of money on plant construction only to be shut down at the last minute by changing political winds. They've learned they lesson.
So then you want Obama to interject the federal government into state and local issues.
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. Thomas Jefferson
They also aren't willing to take on the risk that a 3-mile island incident will bankrupt them. But what business is this of the federal government? Surely you aren't suggesting that the federal government have any role whatsoever in nuclear plant construction, are you?
Since January 3, 2011, Republicans have controlled the power of the purse.
Unfortunately, the federal government is already involved in education. The Department of Education will spend $56 billion this year. What do we get for it? The worst performing schools in the developed world. It has to change. There is nothing more important than this. Obama can use his bully pulpit to bully his comrades at the NEA to stop blocking school reform measures at the state and local level.
You attacked Obama for what the Liberals might do to stop him from restarting nuclear energy. In other words, you were not looking to help Obama but to tear him down because you don't want him succeeding even if that success would benefit a program the right wing supported (like how you are against Obama's health care even if it was a Republican plan in origin). lucy and go are correct that the GOP and the Conservative right are failures in ideology. They are nuts, actually. France, yes hated France, gets 80% of her energy needs from nuclear power. They do that because the plants are govt subsidized, they build one or two models of nuclear power plants so they get economy of scale going on that lowers costs and makes operations easier and predictable and safer. America's system had each power plant company design its own system like it was a office building and thus you had massive errors, overhead costs, etc and the people building them had little practical experience. So if you are for nuclear energy then you conservatives need to accept reality and follow a model that works, France's and their system which means your ideology is a failure because what conservatives want can't be done with how conservatives believe the world works. For example, conservatives love the idea of space travel because it mixes in all that "right stuff" militarist hero worship they get off on but they hate the govt doing it via NASA but they can wish all they want but the private sector did not get us to the moon nor will they get us there again nor will they get us to the mars. The best we can hope for from the private sector getting us into space is sub orbital flights for rich space tourists and satellites and that is it.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
Modern nuclear technologies like the Pebble Bed Reactor use different physics than the 1950s reactors. There isn't any concept of melting down. It works differently.
Maybe its the Republicans who ran the dept for so many years? here is the thing. You agree the rest of the world is beating America's education system. But the rest of the world is not doing it through decentralized "states rights" localized education programs or "home schooling". The rest of the world is out performing America's schools via massive "socialism". Conservatives want to make education better by inventing an education system no other advanced nation has on the basis of their ideology rather than on testes results around the world. That's why you guys are nuts.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
The complaint is that Obama will do nothing meaningful to actually support a nuclear energy program. And he won't.
The schools are run by the NEA. The NEA also runs the Democrat Party. The worst performing schools are in big cities, which have Democrat mayors and school boards. The NEA has routinely blocked any and all school reform in every state of the country for decades. Charter Schools, Magnet Schools, pay for performance, etc. -- these are all ideas originally proposed by Democrat think tanks and a tiny number of courageous Democrat politicians, and the NEA won't allow them. They use their union dues to fight ballot initiatives and politicians who dare to propose them. Without question, the NEA is a single biggest impediment to the future success of this country.
Finalnd laughs at Americans trying to invent a system on the cheap that they perfected. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8601207.stm Why do Finland's schools get the best results? The Finns don't have immigration like America does but the program can be adopted to it. What Americans are plagued with - both left and right - are special interest groups - who see everything as an ideological battlefield. We even fight over which history version to have in text books. The Finns have no ideology really. It's all "just the facts" and that's it. Americans freak out if they find out a biology class will teach about how the reproductive organs work. So Americans are self doomed. Like I said, I was once ideologically driven but now I am results oriented. I could care less what the left right origin is on an issue as long as it works.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
Exactly how is the federal government responsible for poor preforming schools?
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. Thomas Jefferson
Excellent post!
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. Thomas Jefferson
ROTLMAO. Students in Singapore and Japan have consistently scored at or near the top in math and science tests. Let's look at their systems: Singapore Kindergartens provide school for children ages 3 to 6, they are all private. Children with disabilities attend special education schools also run by the private sector, with government providing small subsidies. There is a mix of public and private primary (7 to 12) and secondary (12 to 16) schools in the country, with about 25% of primary and secondary schools being private. Japan In Japan most elementary and junior high schools are public. Most parents supplement their kid's education with private after school tutoring. 55% of high schools in Japan are private. This is not massive socialism. The teacher's unions are certainly not in charge and they don't reflexively block reform.
Why do you hate France? I've been there many times. It's a beautiful country. Paris is one of the most architecturally magnificent cities in the world.
Godwinson you're on a roll this morning. I don't know how anything can work well with a significant number of people involved desperately wanting to see it fail.
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. Thomas Jefferson
I'm aware of pebble bed reactors, has anyone actually proposed building a plant with one of them?
Since January 3, 2011, Republicans have controlled the power of the purse.
Of course, which is why you reflexively propose socialism (a word you champion) at every opportunity. I've already demonstrated that your are wrong about socialist healthcare -- the two best systems in the word (Singapore and Switzerland) have more market- oriented healthcare systems than we do. I've just demonstrated that you are wrong about education as well -- two of the best education systems in the world (Singapore and Japan) have lot's of private schools. Singapore works as a country. In many ways they have a much more free market economy than we do. In other ways, they have more social controls than we do. There is very little welfare in Singapore, but you are required to save for your own retirement. The government spends a tiny fraction of what we do on healthcare, but you are required to save for your own healthcare. Instead of redistributing income, they make you save it for yourself. It's not laissez faire, but it's a better approach to social welfare than we have. China is starting to work precisely because their stated goal over the last 30 years is to become a giant Singapore. Japan used to work, and still does in many ways like education, but they have the same problem we do -- their financial sector has too much power over their politicians so no real reform is possible. Unfortunately, in the U.S. MANY special interest groups -- Teachers, Trial Lawyers, Wall Street, AARP, Farmers, etc. -- have too much control over the system. Nothing will change unless we put an end to that.
Welcome to the pragmatic side.
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. Thomas Jefferson
China has a least two of them online and they are building more. There is another great nuclear technology that was invented in the U.S. It works through chemical reactions like a big battery. I blogged about it two years ago: Our New Nuclear Future? Barack Obama’s victory will certainly result in the government putting more emphasis on alternative energy. Unfortunately, my guess is that this will only result in more subsidies going to special interests to fund unworkable solutions, like ethanol, rather than in making real progress towards solving our challenges with imported oil. I’ve written here before about the tremendous amount of venture capital that is being poured into Silicon Valley solar energy startups. I’ve also written about the Picken’s Plan to build a corridor of wind turbines in the Great Plains. Ditto with plug-in electric cars, like the Tesla Roadster, and fuel cells. Another part of the solution may be lightweight nuclear power stations. A company in New Mexico – Hyperion Power Generation – has licensed some technology from Los Alamos National Laboratory to produce small, compact nuclear energy modules that can be transported to locations wherever electricity is needed. Each energy module is about the size of a hot tub and can supply the electricity needs of 20,000 homes for 7 to 10 years, at a cost of about $150 per home per year. The modules don't contain any moving parts. The modules produce energy via a safe, natural heat-producing process that occurs with the oscillation of hydrogen in uranium hydride. The modules cannot go “supercritical,” melt down, or get too hot. They maintain a safe operating temperature without the use of cooling rods. Think of them as kind of a big battery. The modules are sealed in concrete and would be buried underground. Each module would be removed and refueled at original factory every 5 years. The modules don’t emit any greenhouse gases. The fuel used in the modules cannot be turned into weapons grade material. The amount of waste after 5 years of operation is about the size of a softball. The modules can be built in a tiny fraction of the time it takes to build a large nuclear plant. The company already has orders and they expect to ship their first product in 2013. Plug-in electric cars and creation of hydrogen for fuel cells will require the generation of a lot more electricity than we generate today. Solar and wind are important part of the mix, but they can’t fulfill all of our growing needs. Nuclear needs to be part of the solution and this is a game changing technology to provide it. Let’s hope that Obama’s proposed increase in the capital gains tax won’t dry up investments for this and other innovative solutions to our most pressing problems.
Without government involvement?
Since January 3, 2011, Republicans have controlled the power of the purse.
The rest of the world is out performing America's schools via massive "socialism". It's somewhat of an apples/oranges comparison too, most developed countries have strong vocational programs that we lack. We compare our entire student pool against only those who haven't gone into vocational programs. But you are right, there isn't a country that I know of that follow the GOP model of leaving everything to local schools, and that beats us academically. Take India for example where privately owned/operated colleges are rare. And for all the hype, it has only a 65% literacy rate and a 7% high school graduation rate.
Since January 3, 2011, Republicans have controlled the power of the purse.
Singapore and Switzerland are not the two best systems in the world unless you are using an ideology driven ranking system. 1 France, 2 Italy, 3 San Marino, 4 Andorra, 5 Malta, 6 Singapore, 7 Spain, 8 Oman, 9 Austria, 10 Japan, 11 Norway, 12 Portugal, 13 Monaco, 14 Greece, 15 Iceland, 16 Luxembourg, 17 Netherlands, 18 United Kingdom, 19 Ireland, 20 Switzerland Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. Thomas Jefferson
The Chinese government also forcibly moved 1.24 million people to build the largest damn in the world. That wouldn't work here. We need national goals around energy independence, with a tax and regulatory system, that would promote a market-oriented implementation. Silicon Vally in investing a ton money on solar energy. We're very close to making it cost effective. Solar still has an issue -- the sun doesn't always shine. So we need a way to "store" and transport that energy. One approach is to use solar power to split hydrogen from water, which can be used in fuel cells to power everything from laptops to cars to buildings. Most auto companies, led my Daimler, are spending a ton of money fuel cell research. We're about 5 years away from making fuel cells cost effective for cars. How can the government help? Well let's eliminate the corporate income tax and replace it with a hefty tax on gasoline at the pump. That would cause the auto companies, energy companies, venture capitalists, and new entrepreneurs to really focus on implementing something (like fuel cells or maybe something else) that would move us away from oil. The federal government owns 85% of Nevada. Another thing they could do is lease land for free for 40 or 50 years to companies that use the land to build solar thermal and solar electric plants. It wouldn't cost taxpayers a dime. These are the kinds of government initiatives that would work here. Unfortunately, the Democrats are too vested in power and control -- micromanaging the economy so that they can hand out special favors to special interests. That hasn't worked here and it never will.
Wikipedia is for losers. http://educationjapan.org/jguide/school_system.html "Japanese schools up to Junior High School are almost exclusively public (less than 5% are privately owned and run). Until Junior High School, students study at the school in whose catchment area their home is located. However, senior high schools have overlapping catchment areas: this means that there is competition among schools for the best pupils in a particular area, and among pupils for places at the best schools. Over one-quarter of senior high schools are private (a quarter is around 25% not 55%), indicating the extent of the competition in the higher levels Japanese schooling: parents will pay substantial amounts for their children's educations." --also this should stick in the craw of the right winger "states rights-decentralized schooling" crowd. "Although the curriculum is set by the State to the point where content and time to spend on each subject are clearly laid down" --- see what happened here is you saw some element of "private" and had an orgasm. Funny, actually to see the right wing wackadoodle fantasy come up against fact based reality.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
You can show them facts all day, and they don't care. It's not about the results... it's all about the intentions. Reality doesn't matter from them.
"There will be no more money when the U.S. dollar has no value, until that time we can keep printing more." -- go65, LF's answer to Ben Bernanke --
Reality doesn't matter from them. You just described the right wing kook ideology.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
From the web page you posted: The World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems was last produced in 2000... 11 year old data doesn't cut it. ROTFLMAO. Today, Italy's healthcare system is a complete disaster (like the U.K. and Spain). Switzerland completely reformed their system. Yes, France's system is still highly rated but's also one of the most expensive. Their system is not a socialized, single payer system like the U.K., Canada, Italy, and Spain. The French system is a mixed public and private system with mandatory insurance, very high copays (except for chronic illnesses), and a mix of public, private and non-profit hospitals (like the U.S.) Look, I've told you this before -- you can't just google this stuff, cut and paste the first thing you see and be credible. You either know the information or you don't. You just don't.
I like to compare apples to apples as much as possible. We should compare within the G7 nations. And we all agree they are all outperforming America educationally in the public school system. Each nation has its own unique hurdles in education America & immigrants) but our all white schools also do poorly in comparison. In any case I know of now world wide system that operates along the lines of the fairy tale conservative Republican model of decentralized schools run by elected officials who tend to be soccer moms who in most cases were sponsored by the local kook church. For example. Tea Party senatorial candidate Sharron Angle who was on a local school board stopped a football team from wearing all black as a uniform color because the color was "evil and satanic". That right there is your built in weakness.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
So the USA's health system improved since then? You right wingers do this all the time when confronted with facts you can't stand - you find any excuse to not accept them.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
I would appreciate it if you would provide a source for your claims so I can evaluate it for myself.
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. Thomas Jefferson
From the website you posted: © 2001 Your information is way out of date. Quite a lot of the links on the site don't even work any longer. No surprise.
If you'd actually read what I wrote, you'd know that we are talking about Singapore and Switzerland -- which have more market-oriented systems than the U.S.
I did find this source from 2001 ranking Singapore number1: http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=7923 A new study shows that Singapore's health-care system places first when compared with the health-care systems of seven other countries. Canadian health economist Cynthia Ramsay ranked the health-care systems of Singapore, Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Australia and South Africa. What the site has to say about itself: The National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization, established in 1983. Our goal is to develop and promote private, free-market alternatives to government regulation and control, solving problems by relying on the strength of the competitive, entrepreneurial private sector.
Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains. Thomas Jefferson
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090211a9.html Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009 More private high school students falling behind on tuition payments Kyodo News An increasing number of students at private high schools have fallen behind on their tuition, according to a government survey released Tuesday. http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/37-prefectures-make-private-high-school- tuition-free 37 prefectures make private high school tuition free TOKYO — Thirty-seven prefectures have made private senior high school education effectively free as the program to waive tuition for public school students was introduced nationwide last month, according to an education ministry study whose results were obtained by Kyodo News on Monday. The move reflects concerns among some private high school officials that the tuition waiver program, under which private school students are provided only financial aid according to their household incomes, has left too large a gap in the financial burden between those attending public and private schools.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
They have a govt oversighted system where they force you to buy health care or set aside money against your will to do so. Also, Sarah Palin may be shocked since she loves junk food to find out that chewing gum in public is illegal in Singapore. Socialists!
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
Here are on great graphs on Life expectancy, total healthcare expenditures, and government healthcare expenditures. Singapore outclasses everyone. They also have a lower infant mortality rate than we do. Which is orders of magnitude better than sending tax money to government bureaucrats in D.C. to spend on whichever pressure group gives them the most campaign contributions.
Comments (42 - 58) not displayed.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latesthe last time the U.S. started a new nuclear power plant, Jimmy Carter was still president. Again, the nut case environmentalists won't allow it. Please tell us Mr. President, what specifically do you plan to do about your supporters, who have been blocking energy progress since the 1970s?
#2. To: Godwinson (#1)
So Obama is pro nuclear energy - a position that you right wingers are also for - and you attack him for that because you think a leftist segment of the population might be a against it?
#3. To: Godwinson, jwpegler (#1)
Again, the nut case environmentalists won't allow it.
#4. To: Godwinson (#1)
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#5. To: go65 (#3)
And power companies won't invest in nuclear power without government backing.
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#6. To: jwpegler (#4)
ditto for education -- nothing constructive can be done unless the Democrat party grows the cajones to take on the teacher's unions who are blocking real reform.
#7. To: jwpegler (#5)
Yep, they want government loan guarantees so that they won't waste a ton of money on plant construction only to be shut down at the last minute by changing political winds. They've learned they lesson.
#8. To: lucysmom (#6)
So then you want Obama to interject the federal government into state and local issues.
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#9. To: jwpegler, go65, lucysmom (#4)
He didn't mention a thing about how he's going to restart the nuclear program and overcome the opposition of his own supporters.
#10. To: go65 (#7)
They also aren't willing to take on the risk that a 3-mile island incident will bankrupt them.
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#11. To: jwpegler, lucysmom, go65 (#8)
What do we get for it? The worst performing schools in the developed world. It has to change. There is nothing more important than this.
#12. To: Godwinson (#9)
but still likes to rape his listeners by selling them over priced gold and other useless stuff like his books
#13. To: Godwinson (#11)
Maybe its the Republicans who ran the dept for so many years?
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#14. To: jwpegler (#13)
Charter Schools, Magnet Schools, pay for performance, etc.
#15. To: jwpegler (#8)
What do we get for it? The worst performing schools in the developed world. It has to change. There is nothing more important than this.
#16. To: Godwinson (#9)
#17. To: Godwinson (#11)
(Edited)
The rest of the world is out performing America's schools via massive "socialism".
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#18. To: Godwinson (#9)
France, yes hated France
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#19. To: Godwinson (#11)
Conservatives want to make education better by inventing an education system no other advanced nation has on the basis of their ideology rather than on testes results around the world.
#20. To: jwpegler (#10)
Modern nuclear technologies like the Pebble Bed Reactor use different physics than the 1950s reactors. There isn't any concept of melting down. It works differently.
#21. To: Godwinson (#14)
(Edited)
I was once ideologically driven but now I am results oriented
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#22. To: Godwinson (#14)
Like I said, I was once ideologically driven but now I am results oriented.
#23. To: go65 (#20)
I'm aware of pebble bed reactors, has anyone actually proposed building a plant with one of them?
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#24. To: jwpegler (#23)
China has a least two of them online and they are building more.
#25. To: Godwinson, jwpegler (#11)
here is the thing. You agree the rest of the world is beating America's education system. But the rest of the world is not doing it through decentralized "states rights" localized education programs or "home schooling".
#26. To: jwpegler (#21)
I've already demonstrated that your are wrong about socialist healthcare -- the two best systems in the word (Singapore and Switzerland) have more market- oriented healthcare systems than we do.
#27. To: go65 (#24)
Without government involvement?
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#28. To: jwpegler, lucysmom, go65 (#17)
#29. To: jwpegler (#21)
I've already demonstrated...
#30. To: Capitalist Eric (#29)
It's not about the results... it's all about the intentions.
#31. To: lucysmom (#26)
unless you are using an ideology driven ranking system.
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#32. To: go65 (#25)
But you are right, there isn't a country that I know of that follow the GOP model of leaving everything to local schools, and that beats us academically. Take India for example where privately owned/operated colleges are rare. And for all the hype, it has only a 65% literacy rate and a 7% high school graduation rate.
#33. To: jwpegler, lucysmom, go65 (#31)
From the web page you posted: The World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems was last produced in 2000... 11 year old data doesn't cut it. ROTFLMAO.
#34. To: jwpegler (#31)
Look, I've told you this before -- you can't just google this stuff, cut and paste the first thing you see and be credible. You either know the information or you don't. You just don't.
#35. To: Godwinson (#28)
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#36. To: Godwinson (#33)
So the USA's health system improved since then?
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#37. To: jwpegler (#31)
(Edited)
From the web page you posted: The World Health Organization's ranking of the world's health systems was last produced in 2000... 11 year old data doesn't cut it. ROTFLMAO.
#38. To: jwpegler, go65, lucysmom (#35)
From the website you posted: © 2001
#39. To: jwpegler (#36)
(Edited)
If you'd actually read what I wrote, you'd know that we are talking about Singapore and Switzerland -- which have more market-oriented systems than the U.S.
#40. To: lucysmom (#34)
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
#41. To: Godwinson (#39)
where they force you to buy health care or set aside money against your will to do so.
"It's very important to remember the law is not simply what powerful people would want others to believe it is." -- Julian Assange
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