South Carolina congressman Joe Wilson pointed his finger at President Obama, while the president was delivering a message to the American people, and shouted loudly “You lie!”. Wilson later apologized and said he was sorry. He acted “spontaneously”, he said. I couldn’t help but wonder if he would have shot at the president had he brought his gun.
Wilson’s attempt to disgrace the office of the President of the United States, cast immeasurably more contempt upon the Congress itself, and the house in which he acted. Meanwhile, before the Wilson outburst, the Republican part of the chamber occasionally resembled a snake pit, with the sound of hissing coming from there. There were occasional boos heard also. Some of the Republican representatives had placards, one wore a sign around his neck, others waved pieces of paper in the air. Apparently the Republican leaders felt all this was all part of a civil discourse, even though the only thing they have told the American people for the past seven months is the word "No!".
The Republican Party is beginning to look more and more as if they have been remade into a different political party, with the Hallway Hooligans of Miami as their Founding Fathers. Their new symbol is the belligerent shout and pointed finger, the threat, the talking points screamed again over and over - even though they contain no truth. Talk about Hitler? His real trademark was not his pathetic mustache, it was The Big Lie. That has become the New Republican marching banner. The Screamed Big Lie.
Nontheless Wilson may have really accomplished something of worth - something that President Obama couldn’t do on his own: the unification of the Democratic Party.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Friday, September 04, 2009
The New American Imprint
It wasn't really the fault of the “No Child Left Behind” act, but the law was new and available, and particularly after the attacks of 9-11 it worked. Here's how.
In order to implement that program a series of procedures and tests were developed and added to the practice of education in the United States. This included a cascading series of program measures and performance standards implementing several new and different methods of teaching and providing measurement of the effectiveness of all teaching. New standardized tests were designed so any qualified manager or administrator, including those with no knowledge of the profession of teaching, could evaluate the work of the teaching professionals and these controls were fed back into the schools. Teachers and administrators who trained their students to score well on those tests were rewarded and those whose students did poorly on the standardized tests were sometimes remediated, demoted or even eliminated. Retention of teachers began to depend upon their students’ scores.
One of the results of this program is that an increasing number of students are now being taught answers rather than processes. Instead of learning to observe, analyze, test, question, evaluate, make decisions and then express their conclusions in writing, they are learning that the finding and identification of answers is the ultimate objective and goal of the education process. Too many of our children now go through school, taking tests, passing them, graduate and go on into the workforce still looking for answers without ever having ever learned how to ask important questions or to explore unfamiliar circumstances.
Now come issues into their lives. Health care for example. Not having been truly educated, they quickly look for answers. And answers are always available. News programs appear before them. Some provide an overview of applicable events with discussion and analysis, others provide authoritative answers that are often attributed into or authorized by religious, cultural or regional belief systems which also provide only answers, and which also prohibit any observation, analysis or questioning.
Now, once you know the answer (THE answer) to an issue, any counter claim is clearly specious. If people attempt to develop counter-observations, it would have to be because they don’t know the right answer. If they continue after they have been told the right answer, their purpose is deemed false, insulting and pernicious, and often tied into alien religions, cultural, regional or even racial prejudices. Scientific theories fall under the power of religious "knowledge", progress into new technologies are regulated by laws and understandings of the late 1700s, economic conquest of the free market system is OK because it is good to be selfish - economically, that is.
Thus the groundwork has been set to develop and nurture a generation of young adults who appear smart, act confident and seem knowledgeable. Yet they are also unable to function in a political, economic and social environment that is or has been filled with confusion and uncertainty. Their training leads them to provide answers, or to look for them. Under these conditions, a SMALL GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS in any country can begin to insert their intentions into a stable order. An issue is made to become contentious. An assembly of the people is called, then interrupted by demonstrations, discussion by screaming and shouting. Claims are advanced and connections are shown to traditional religious, ethnic, cultural or regional beliefs. Under conditions such as these, particularly when people have been properly imprinted during their learning years, fascism and totalitarianism can appear to be friendly, familiar, comfortable and intelligent alternatives. Here is where the answers are provided after all, and the instructions can not be far behind.
In order to implement that program a series of procedures and tests were developed and added to the practice of education in the United States. This included a cascading series of program measures and performance standards implementing several new and different methods of teaching and providing measurement of the effectiveness of all teaching. New standardized tests were designed so any qualified manager or administrator, including those with no knowledge of the profession of teaching, could evaluate the work of the teaching professionals and these controls were fed back into the schools. Teachers and administrators who trained their students to score well on those tests were rewarded and those whose students did poorly on the standardized tests were sometimes remediated, demoted or even eliminated. Retention of teachers began to depend upon their students’ scores.
One of the results of this program is that an increasing number of students are now being taught answers rather than processes. Instead of learning to observe, analyze, test, question, evaluate, make decisions and then express their conclusions in writing, they are learning that the finding and identification of answers is the ultimate objective and goal of the education process. Too many of our children now go through school, taking tests, passing them, graduate and go on into the workforce still looking for answers without ever having ever learned how to ask important questions or to explore unfamiliar circumstances.
Now come issues into their lives. Health care for example. Not having been truly educated, they quickly look for answers. And answers are always available. News programs appear before them. Some provide an overview of applicable events with discussion and analysis, others provide authoritative answers that are often attributed into or authorized by religious, cultural or regional belief systems which also provide only answers, and which also prohibit any observation, analysis or questioning.
Now, once you know the answer (THE answer) to an issue, any counter claim is clearly specious. If people attempt to develop counter-observations, it would have to be because they don’t know the right answer. If they continue after they have been told the right answer, their purpose is deemed false, insulting and pernicious, and often tied into alien religions, cultural, regional or even racial prejudices. Scientific theories fall under the power of religious "knowledge", progress into new technologies are regulated by laws and understandings of the late 1700s, economic conquest of the free market system is OK because it is good to be selfish - economically, that is.
Thus the groundwork has been set to develop and nurture a generation of young adults who appear smart, act confident and seem knowledgeable. Yet they are also unable to function in a political, economic and social environment that is or has been filled with confusion and uncertainty. Their training leads them to provide answers, or to look for them. Under these conditions, a SMALL GROUP OF INDIVIDUALS in any country can begin to insert their intentions into a stable order. An issue is made to become contentious. An assembly of the people is called, then interrupted by demonstrations, discussion by screaming and shouting. Claims are advanced and connections are shown to traditional religious, ethnic, cultural or regional beliefs. Under conditions such as these, particularly when people have been properly imprinted during their learning years, fascism and totalitarianism can appear to be friendly, familiar, comfortable and intelligent alternatives. Here is where the answers are provided after all, and the instructions can not be far behind.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Health Insurance, or Insurance Insurance?
No one should die because they cannot afford health care. No one should go broke because they get sick. No one should be denied medical care by their own insurer or because of any preexisting conditions. No one should stay in a job because they are afraid to lose their insurance.
What we have in America now is not concerned about anybody's health, or even about medical care. It is only about money. It is a way of transferring money from working people to hugely profitable insurance and pharmaceutical companies. If you can't pay money, they don't want you. You can go die for all they care. Their ONLY objective is to make more money this quarter than they did last quarter. What do they do with all that money? A lot of it goes to pay your senators and congressional representatives to "help them out" with money for fundraising in return for favorable legislation and regulations. (And if those in congress don't see it the way the companies want, that money can go for someone to run against them!)
The idea that you can only buy medical insurance from the place you work makes no more sense than if they had to approve of your wife or husband before you could get married. That you lose your insurance if you quit or move means that people who are now ill or injured HAVE to remain with that same company the rest of their life - or until they get let go. That the businesses themselves have to pay part of their employees medical insurance is to severely handicap them in the current global economy - German businesses don't pay those costs, neither do Great Britain's, or France's, or Canada's, or Spain's or anywhere in Europe.
We have a GOOD government health care now already in place. There is Medicare and the Veterans care programs. Medicare For All can be implemented quickly. The insurance companies don't like Medicare because it sets prices at a fair value, not the inflated value charged by the doctors and hospitals. The problems that Medicare is now encountering is because doctors and hospitals don't want to have to settle for that "fair" rate because they need more money so they can pay THEIR insurance companies.
The insurance companies want to continue the current program because they can now negotiate with 50 different states, and a large number of different hospitals and providers. That creates inefficiencies, inequities, confusion and forces most of the states and providers to negotiate from a position of vulnerability and uncertainty.
Let's have one payer, one collector. Let it be the United States Government. The bureaucrats will not check your pulse, palpate your prostate, listen to your lungs or anything else - they will monitor the costs, help medical people develop generally accepted medical procedures and tests, and provide for the payment of all bills.
Taxes will go up? What do you call the "tax" you now pay to your insurance companies for continued apprehension and uncertainty? With government regulating the single-payer system, you will not only have real medical care but you will also have MORE money left over. And you can't EVER get wiped out if you get really sick or have a really bad accident. All the rest of us will help you out like back in the old frontier days. How's that for REAL insurance?
What we have in America now is not concerned about anybody's health, or even about medical care. It is only about money. It is a way of transferring money from working people to hugely profitable insurance and pharmaceutical companies. If you can't pay money, they don't want you. You can go die for all they care. Their ONLY objective is to make more money this quarter than they did last quarter. What do they do with all that money? A lot of it goes to pay your senators and congressional representatives to "help them out" with money for fundraising in return for favorable legislation and regulations. (And if those in congress don't see it the way the companies want, that money can go for someone to run against them!)
The idea that you can only buy medical insurance from the place you work makes no more sense than if they had to approve of your wife or husband before you could get married. That you lose your insurance if you quit or move means that people who are now ill or injured HAVE to remain with that same company the rest of their life - or until they get let go. That the businesses themselves have to pay part of their employees medical insurance is to severely handicap them in the current global economy - German businesses don't pay those costs, neither do Great Britain's, or France's, or Canada's, or Spain's or anywhere in Europe.
We have a GOOD government health care now already in place. There is Medicare and the Veterans care programs. Medicare For All can be implemented quickly. The insurance companies don't like Medicare because it sets prices at a fair value, not the inflated value charged by the doctors and hospitals. The problems that Medicare is now encountering is because doctors and hospitals don't want to have to settle for that "fair" rate because they need more money so they can pay THEIR insurance companies.
The insurance companies want to continue the current program because they can now negotiate with 50 different states, and a large number of different hospitals and providers. That creates inefficiencies, inequities, confusion and forces most of the states and providers to negotiate from a position of vulnerability and uncertainty.
Let's have one payer, one collector. Let it be the United States Government. The bureaucrats will not check your pulse, palpate your prostate, listen to your lungs or anything else - they will monitor the costs, help medical people develop generally accepted medical procedures and tests, and provide for the payment of all bills.
Taxes will go up? What do you call the "tax" you now pay to your insurance companies for continued apprehension and uncertainty? With government regulating the single-payer system, you will not only have real medical care but you will also have MORE money left over. And you can't EVER get wiped out if you get really sick or have a really bad accident. All the rest of us will help you out like back in the old frontier days. How's that for REAL insurance?
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