BS: The real George Bush

Subject: RE: BS: The real George Bush
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 01:06 AM

Three words:

Wag The Dog

Bush has enriched himself and his friends beyond Reagan's wildest dreams (when he deregulated the Savings and Loans that his buddies looted). The war is an untidy distraction while he slips lots of devisive legislation through. When the air clears, the U.S. will never be the same.

Subject: RE: BS: The real George Bush
From: Troll
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 01:30 AM

kat, I went to school in the South, mostly and we never had airconditioning. Usually it was just a fan to keep the air moving. In the winter, heat was provided by a coal fired stove. I didn't go to a school with central heat until seventh grade.
When I finally completed my college degrees, half of the buildings in which I had classes were not air conditioned. We're talking Florida here.
My wife has been a teacher in Fla. schools for 26 years and I can assure you that the philosophy is now that kids can't learn in an un-air conditioned environment. Of course, with the schools now designed with small, un-openable windows, the rooms are uninhabitable if the air handling goes out. But they keep building 'em that way.
My wife went to school in West Palm Beach and her high school wasn't airconditioned until after she had graduated ('60). How did she learn? How did I learn?
I am fully aware that there are those in this country who do not have access to health care because they cannot afford it. Throwing money at the problem isn't going to solve the problem, it's only going to prolong it. I don't like the idea of the Government providing the health care. I don't trust the Government to do a good job of it. I see it as just one more expensive beauracracy that causes more problems than it solves, with half the country paying through the nose for the other half.

troll

Subject: RE: BS: The real George Bush
From: Peg
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 01:31 AM

Oh, did anyone see today that the House has voted to approve the plan to drill for oil in Alaska?

Subject: RE: BS: The real George Bush
From: DougR
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 01:37 AM

Or perhaps one might say, "Dog the Wag!"

Kendall, I'm off on vacation for a week so I can't address your statements until I get back. Sorry, Charlie Noble, Greg F., but you won't have me to kick around for awhile. Oh well. I'm sure troll, Teribus, Lep, Gareth, Beccy and a few others can keep all of you liberals in line while I'm gone. (Sorry if I left anyone out) :>)

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: The real George Bush
From: Greg F.
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 08:59 AM

you won't have me to kick around for awhile

Do you own a dog named Checkers?

Subject: RE: BS: The real George Bush
From: DougR
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 09:39 AM

Nope, Greggie, but I do have one named Emma and one named Penny!

Ta taa!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: The real George Bush
From: Greg F.
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 09:41 AM

Jesus, Troll, please not the old throwing money at the problem rubric. There's no more worn-out, hackneyed, idiotic and completely meaningless phrase in the right-wing lexicon. What, precisely, can be done AT NO COST?

Wingers don't seem to have any problem with, for example, "throwing money at" corporations and rich folks thru regressive taxation, "throwing money at" the War on Drugs[sic] which we had lost before it began, "throwing money at "defense contractors to build Trent Lott's personal battleship, "throwing money at" the Pentagon or "throwing money at" "faith-based initiatives, "throwing money at" Israel. Where's the 'accountability' for any of this squandering of tax dollars? Any of these costs far exceed what is spent on ALL education in the U.S.

Since you've singled out air-conditioned schools to bash, have you seen any office building/apartment building/congressional building etc. in the U.S. put up since 1965 that isn't air-conditioned with non-functional windows? Guess business can't be conducted without AC either, huh?

Apparently in your version of history there's no long standing and deep seated "Western antipathy for the Arabs"- them pesky Crusades, for instance?

Best, Greg

Subject: RE: BS: The real George Bush
From: Forum Lurker
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 12:53 PM

Troll-There is another reason why private schools do better than public schools: they can turn away students if they choose to. This does not mean that they only accept the smartest students, but that the obligation to make the child care about school is placed on the part of the parents, not the teachers. It is very difficult to make some students care about school, and private schools don't need to deal with that problem. Public schools do, which results in a great deal of effort expended that teaching staff can't afford. Also, I believe that most private schools have a much lower student-teacher ratio than public schools. which has been proven to substantially affect learning. "Throwing money at" the schools isn't a solution, but it is necessary to make sure that students can get the attention they need, and some kind of motivator to succeed in school. I can't think of an easy way to do that, and if you can, I'd love to hear it.

Subject: RE: BS: The real George Bush
From: leprechaun
Date: 13 Apr 03 - 08:50 PM

I was on vacation for a week and a half and nobody here noticed.

Bobert - If I were to grow a similar crop I would use cloned plants to make sure I get good
genetics and all females. Then I would start them out hydroponically with a rooting compound.
Once they got going I would transplant them to bat guano-enriched potting soil and keep them
under 1000 watt grow lamps on a timer to simulate day and night, suspended from a little motor
on a track screwed to the ceiling to simulate the movement of the sun, all enclosed in an
underground bunker. I would have fans blowing on the plants, and a squirrel cage fan in the wall
connected to ducting to transfer the moisture and odor away from my house and away from the
street. I would use a drip system with underwater pumps to fertilize and water the plants, and a
series of ballast boxes to augment the power to my grow lamps. I'd rent the house from out of
state landlords, using somebody else's name, and I'd get somebody else to subscribe to the
electric company. I'd have two vicious pitbulls living in the house and train them to go apeshit if
anybody approaches.

I'd buy all my fertilizers, soil emoluments, bamboo stakes, planter pots, starter trays, hoses,
pump sprayers, and organic insecticides at slightly inflated prices at the little organic garden store
run by the nice hippies who would never think to call the cops on me, or any of the other sixty
percent of their customers who are horticulturists of similar bent, if you know what I mean.

But even if I were clever enough to do all that, I would still be dumb enough to smoke the shit, so
I would have to have all my Bob Marley posters, and my "It's 4:20, Do you know where your
bong is?" bumper stickers on my brand new Toyota Four Runner, and my baseball cap with the
marijuana leaf on it, and just to be a snot, I'd have a Dare sticker on my back window, and I would constantly be talking on my three hundred dollar micro-mini cell phone.

Then when I got busted I'd chastise the cops for profiling me.