Ace of Spades HQ

October 19, 2013

An Ignorant Population is a Pliable Population
— Ace

There are indeed Two Americas.

Thanks to Monty.

Posted by: Ace at 05:07 PM | Comments (220)
Post contains 22 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Ok, not feeling too good nor too stupid - just aghast and frightened for my country.

Posted by: Inspector Asshole at October 19, 2013 05:09 PM (VFtsA)

2 About as hilarious as the OWS videos.

Posted by: EC at October 19, 2013 05:09 PM (doBIb)

3 From the dead thread. 280 233 On the subject of area codes, I'm surprised how many people don't know that broadcast call signs in the U.S. east of the Mississippi start with W and west of it start with K. True, EXCEPT for two K stations on the East Coast and two W's west of the Mississippi Where would they be? http://tinyurl.com/madwyf

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 19, 2013 05:10 PM (0FSuD)

4 I refuse to believe that that is real. Now to go have a good cry...

Posted by: t-bird at October 19, 2013 05:10 PM (FcR7P)

5 Sad.

Posted by: lowandslow at October 19, 2013 05:11 PM (IV4od)

6 Up the road, not across the highway, up the road, not across the highway. . . .

Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD, you taunty bitch. at October 19, 2013 05:11 PM (Gk3SS)

7 Q: What was the Holocaust?

College Student: "You have to ask my boyfriend, he watches that Star Trek stuff"

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 05:12 PM (aTXUx)

8 Ace. Back to that East-West thing. Hope they don't put you and me "on the spot".

Posted by: Golfman in NC at October 19, 2013 05:12 PM (tGM2j)

9 That the sun is white. I thought it was yellow.

Posted by: CAC at October 19, 2013 05:14 PM (VOcXQ)

10 "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" ~George Santayana Or, as I prefer to put it, "Those of us who do remember the past are condemned to repeat it anyway, because those who don't are in the majority."

Posted by: rickl at October 19, 2013 05:14 PM (sdi6R)

11 Ace, it is so depressing to talk to young kids that have no knowledge of history. I blame socialist teachers that don't know history themselves. My wife is six year younger than me. She has no idea what the electoral college is, but she know who J low is fucking this week. TV is the dumber downer.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 19, 2013 05:14 PM (0FSuD)

12 British high-school textbooks don't mention Winston Churchill.

The Chinese think eating rats will make them sexual gods.

The Middle East; 'nuff said.

Canadians think we invaded Afghanistan for the oil.

Having lived all over the world and visited most of the rest, I can tell all you hand wringers that yes, we're going through a rough patch, but we're going to emerge from it stronger and better.

Terrible news, I know. Sorry for pissing in your Cheerios.

Posted by: Tacky Adhesive at October 19, 2013 05:14 PM (81H5s)

13 Thursday I had a middle school student admit he didn't know how to use a map. It was all GPS and directions to him. He was off by 7 miles in his attept to point to his house -- in a small town he'd lived in all his life. Did I mock him? Oh yes!

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 19, 2013 05:14 PM (u82oZ)

14 Shit wrong thread.

Posted by: CAC at October 19, 2013 05:15 PM (VOcXQ)

15 Monty's gone on about it at length. They are also shielding American kids from their history so they feel no pride or kinship with the free people who used to roam this land. This was a mission not an unintended byproduct of ineptness by the NEA and the Ayers wing of history.

In closing fuck you Dr. Zinn

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:15 PM (9jfyN)

16 Those ignorant assholes brought us the Hope and Change disaster we're suffering with now.

DIAF is too kind.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 19, 2013 05:15 PM (RmtDa)

17 Well, this post, if nothing else, makes me feel better about myself than the last post. The link is The Anchoress. Great blog.

Posted by: L, elle at October 19, 2013 05:16 PM (0PiQ4)

18 Annnnd thar be trolls down below.

Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD, you taunty bitch. at October 19, 2013 05:16 PM (Gk3SS)

19 Q: What does "Islam" mean?
College Student: Peace!

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at October 19, 2013 05:16 PM (d7tB2)

20 I'll bet money more time is spent teaching the wonders of the New Deal, Affirmative Action, the Civil Rights Act, Unions, Medicare,, etc., etc. then anything relating to our founding, the Holocaust, etc.

Posted by: lowandslow at October 19, 2013 05:16 PM (IV4od)

21 hashtag qNzkX is trying to get cute with the n-word in the last thread.

Posted by: Flatbush Joe at October 19, 2013 05:16 PM (ZPrif)

22 Q: Where is Normandy?

College Student: Norman D? I think he hangs with Jay-Z

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 05:17 PM (aTXUx)

23 Isn't the joke that they might as well rename The History Channel to The Hitler Channel?

Posted by: Shoot Me at October 19, 2013 05:17 PM (qiXMt)

24 TV is the dumber downer. Not even close to a modern public classroom .

Posted by: Bill D. Cat at October 19, 2013 05:17 PM (1jQhu)

25 Unbelievable. When I was in 8th grade history, we spent an entire semester, (year, actually), hammering out and "gaming" WWII. One of the finest classes/instructors by a WWII veteran I've ever experienced.

Posted by: Fritz at October 19, 2013 05:17 PM (TKFmG)

26 18 Annnnd thar be trolls down below.

Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD, you taunty bitch. at October 19, 2013 09:16 PM (Gk3SS)

Yes, thar be. Arrggh.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 19, 2013 05:18 PM (RmtDa)

27 BTW ace, Pam is looking for you.

Posted by: lowandslow at October 19, 2013 05:18 PM (IV4od)

28 Gotta be a joke, right? Trolling us or something. Nobody can be THAT dumb.

Posted by: Rosa E. at October 19, 2013 05:18 PM (IKVkI)

29 Appears to be a moby troll in the last thread.

Posted by: Flatbush Joe at October 19, 2013 05:18 PM (ZPrif)

30 Q: "Who is Winston Churchill?" A: "Obviously some tea-bagger Brit and Nazi." Q: "Is genocide taking place anywhere, today?" A: "The last genocide happened during Hurricane Katrina, when Bush allowed African-Americans to die in New Orleans."

Posted by: Product of public screwls at October 19, 2013 05:19 PM (ZyqBH)

31 20 lowandslow at October 19, 2013 09:16 PM (IV4od)

You would be correct sir.

I audited my brother's class. They spent six times the amount of time on Women and Minorities of the American Revolution than the Founders or Generals.

It was what convinced me I made the correct decision in dropping out.

I would have either been a legend or in jail had I worked that shit.

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:19 PM (9jfyN)

32 16 Those ignorant assholes brought us the Hope and Change disaster we're suffering with now. DIAF is too kind. Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 19, 2013 09:15 PM (RmtDa) I don't really blame the youngsters. They were deliberately made ignorant. See the thread title.

Posted by: rickl at October 19, 2013 05:19 PM (sdi6R)

33 "There is no such thing as The Preamble to The Constitution" - Rachel Maddow.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:19 PM (aDwsi)

34 Yes, thar be. Arrggh.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 19, 2013 09:18 PM (RmtDa)

*dons patch, fetches parrot and waves dagger about*

Arrrrrgggh.

Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD, you taunty bitch. at October 19, 2013 05:19 PM (Gk3SS)

35 Isn't the joke that they might as well rename The History Channel to The Hitler Channel?

Now it's Ancient Aliens, Pawn Star, and Swamp People.

Posted by: no good deed at October 19, 2013 05:19 PM (k55Fc)

36 Remember that thread last night where the optimists told Ace that everything will be fine because all these new technologies will come to fruition?

We're counting on these college students to make it happen

DOOM has no mercy for the willfully ignorant

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 05:20 PM (aTXUx)

37 GPS's Don't get me started. My sons think without one they can not get to the bathroom. When I was a kid I marveled at how my dad knew where the fuck he was going pretty much anywhere on the East coast. He told me he'd been there. I am the same way. I can navigate any road pretty much on the East Coast that I have driven. Wife can not figure it out, actually calls me out. How do you know where you are going. I've been there you idiot. Kids are to lazy to remember so they use GPS's. It REALLY pisses me off. Read a map or figure it out. If the GPS goes down what are you going to do call 911?

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 19, 2013 05:21 PM (0FSuD)

38 "A fox is called Vulpes, and hath that name as it were wallowing feet aside, and goeth never forthright, but always aslant and with fraud. And is a false beast and deceiving, for when him lacketh meat, he feigneth himself dead."

Posted by: Lincolntf at October 19, 2013 05:21 PM (ZshNr)

In closing fuck you Dr. Zinn

MATT DAMON!!!

Posted by: MATT DAMON at October 19, 2013 05:22 PM (8SsiG)

40 33 "There is no such thing as The Preamble to The Constitution" - Rachel Maddow. She is a Rhodes Scholar, but I think Clinton was too.

Posted by: Madamex at October 19, 2013 05:22 PM (islXR)

41 Q: Second Amendment?
Student: For militias... because back then, there were panthers in the woods... but now we live in cities and stuff, so we don't need militias and we don't need guns

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at October 19, 2013 05:22 PM (d7tB2)

42 The glittering acme of this ignorance sits in the Oval Office

Posted by: Beto at October 19, 2013 05:22 PM (MhA4j)

43 People are dumber than they were when they had less 'schooling'. Yup.

Posted by: EROWMER at October 19, 2013 05:23 PM (OONaw)

44 39 MATT DAMON at October 19, 2013 09:22 PM (8SsiG)

Indeed Mr Damon, indeed....

JULIO IGLESIAS

//Julio Iglesias

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:23 PM (9jfyN)

45 ""There is no such thing as The Preamble to The Constitution" - Rachel Maddow.

She is a Rhodes Scholar, but I think Clinton was too."

With a crack research team.

Posted by: lowandslow at October 19, 2013 05:23 PM (IV4od)

46 A: "Which country was Adolf Hitler the leader of?" Q: "Texas, along with George Bush."

Posted by: Product of public screwls at October 19, 2013 05:24 PM (ZyqBH)

47 Americans have all sorts of technology to do what they used to do for themselves

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 05:24 PM (aTXUx)

48 They can't teach the Holocaust because then may have to teach about Israel.

Posted by: Madamex at October 19, 2013 05:24 PM (islXR)

49 People are dumber than they were when they had less 'schooling'. Yup. Posted by: EROWMER ----------- Ever seen the calculations and drawings done by the Wright brothers? I'm not even sure they finished high school.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:24 PM (aDwsi)

50 20---- I'll bet money more time is spent teaching the wonders of the New Deal, Affirmative Action, the Civil Rights Act, Unions, Medicare,, etc., etc. then anything relating to our founding, the Holocaust, etc. Posted by: lowandslow at October 19, 2013 09:16 PM (IV4od) ------------------------------- The US textbook used in local public schools gives more space to Joe McCarthy than to George Washington. Not kidding. And it's not one of the worst books around.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at October 19, 2013 05:25 PM (dfYL9)

51 Q. The Crusades
Student: A gang of violent Christian fundamentalists and the Pope attacked Islamic territory unprovoked. Saladin the hero beat them

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at October 19, 2013 05:25 PM (d7tB2)

52 Americans have all sorts of technology to do what they used to do for themselves Posted by: kbdabear ----------------------------- Thus become numb to what underlies the technology.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:25 PM (aDwsi)

53 50 Margarita DeVille at October 19, 2013 09:25 PM (dfYL9)

Chavez the Farm Hero gets more space than James Madison....

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:26 PM (9jfyN)

54 *dons patch, fetches parrot and waves dagger about* Arrrrrgggh. Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD, you taunty bitch. at October 19, 2013 09:19 PM (Gk3SS) http://tinyurl.com/l4w9h2f please oh please

Posted by: BCochran1981 - Credible Hulk at October 19, 2013 05:26 PM (GEICT)

55 Q:"What is Islam?" A: "The religion of peace. It spread peacefully throughout Middle East until WASP Christians attacked them for oil."

Posted by: Product of public screwls at October 19, 2013 05:26 PM (ZyqBH)

56 23 Isn't the joke that they might as well rename The History Channel to The Hitler Channel?
Posted by: Shoot Me at October 19, 2013 09:17 PM

15 years ago that would have been true

Now it's the Pawn Stars Channel, and H2 is the Ancient Aliens Channel

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 05:26 PM (aTXUx)

57 We're counting on these college students to make it happen

Not THESE students. The nerds they all sneer at for doing homework on Thursdays instead of binge-drinking.

Posted by: HeatherRadish™, drinking heavily at October 19, 2013 05:27 PM (hO8IJ)

58 I had to turn off the video..., too painful.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:27 PM (aDwsi)

59 Notice that every example I gave is not a joke, but actual received wisdom in our schools and media.

I just got through Esposito's "Oxford History of Islam" today. Apparently all those fortresses the Muslims put up in North Africa was "to extend Muslim power over Sicily". That's a pretty antiseptic way of describing "to plunder the shit out of Sicily, rape every Siciliana you can find, enslave all the men and eventually conquer the place"

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at October 19, 2013 05:27 PM (d7tB2)

60 So could anyone be an Eight grader in 1895? Eight grade test. Check out teacher test below. http://tinyurl.com/2hatfg

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 19, 2013 05:27 PM (0FSuD)

61 53 --- I believe it. And books will only get worse with the Common (Commie) Core program.

Posted by: Margarita DeVille at October 19, 2013 05:27 PM (dfYL9)

62 http://tinyurl.com/l4w9h2f

please oh please Posted by: BCochran1981 - Credible Hulk at October 19, 2013 09:26 PM (GEICT)

Hmmm. The boots are fantastic but I am still pondering the Maleficent outfit.

Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD, you taunty bitch. at October 19, 2013 05:27 PM (Gk3SS)

"A fox is called Vulpes, and hath that name as it were wallowing feet aside, and goeth never forthright, but always aslant and with fraud. And is a false beast and deceiving, for when him lacketh meat, he feigneth himself dead."

Not me! Urocyon for the win!

Posted by: Grey Fox at October 19, 2013 05:27 PM (5PhHI)

64 Posted by: Product of public screwls at October 19, 2013 09:26 PM (ZyqBH)

Hah, not far off.

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at October 19, 2013 05:28 PM (d7tB2)

65 Not THESE students. The nerds they all sneer at for doing homework on Thursdays instead of binge-drinking. Posted by: HeatherRadishÂ™, drinking heavily at October 19, 2013 09:27 PM (hO8IJ) Oh, boozing and good grades are not mutually exclusive. It just takes a little self control and discipline.

Posted by: BCochran1981 - Credible Hulk at October 19, 2013 05:28 PM (GEICT)

66 Kids are to lazy to remember so they use GPS's. When cell-phones became a necessity twenty or so years ago , every phone number I needed to know was stored in my head . Now , not so much , I'd be fucked if I zorched or lost my phone . This is not progress .

Posted by: Bill D. Cat at October 19, 2013 05:29 PM (1jQhu)

And books will only get worse with the Common (Commie) Core program.

Common Core doesn't apply to history, I believe.

Posted by: Grey Fox at October 19, 2013 05:29 PM (5PhHI)

68 9 That the sun is white. I thought it was yellow.
Posted by: CAC at October 19, 2013 09:14 PM (VOcXQ)
Good thing it's not red.

Posted by: Superman at October 19, 2013 05:29 PM (WLywR)

69 Way back in the early 90's I was stationed in the UK. I traveled quite a bit while over there. One evening after a pub crawl in some little village on the Isle of Skye, I ran into a couple. A german guy (from Nuremburg) and his Stanford educated girlfriend. We started talking a little history and somehow got onto the subject of Nuremburg. The german guy and I talk a bit about the colorful history of Nuremburg but the Stanford educated chick had no idea why Nuremburg is so significant. The german guy looked embarrased. The dumbing down of America has been going on a loooonnnggg time now.

Posted by: puddleglum at October 19, 2013 05:29 PM (8SsiG)

70 Good thing it's not red. Posted by: Superman ----------------- There you go with that education shit again..

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:30 PM (aDwsi)

71 68 Superman at October 19, 2013 09:29 PM (WLywR)

I AM THE RED SON of Krypton!

//Comrade Kal-L from Red Son

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:30 PM (9jfyN)

72 Way back in the early 90's --------------------- ????

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:30 PM (aDwsi)

73 When cell-phones became a necessity twenty or so years ago , every phone number I needed to know was stored in my head . Now , not so much , I'd be fucked if I zorched or lost my phone .

This is not progress . Posted by: Bill D. Cat at October 19, 2013 09:29 PM (1jQhu)

Someone in one of my writer's groups had a line in a story referencing person A dialing person B's number from memory and I found that to be a great way to show not tell how close they were.

Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD, you taunty bitch. at October 19, 2013 05:30 PM (Gk3SS)

74 Oh, boozing and good grades are not mutually exclusive.

"Good grades" doesn't necessarily mean shit in the real world, either (something else I didn't learn until I was old). I'm sure these scrunts in the video all have respectable GPAs, but they're not going to invent anything, develop anything, or produce anything that will improve our society.

Posted by: HeatherRadish™, drinking heavily at October 19, 2013 05:31 PM (hO8IJ)

75 My son's AP Economics textbook is written by Krugman.

Posted by: NCKate at October 19, 2013 05:31 PM (CV9aS)

76 Some of us conservative teachers go behind enemy lines every damn day fighting the good fight against the ignorance and sloth that is spreading like a cancer in our society. I deliberately teach short stories and poems that have dire warnings about liberalism and its bloody conclusion. I try to open as many eyes as possible.

Posted by: jmel at October 19, 2013 05:31 PM (cfFqn)

77 I'm certain that Barky got good grades.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:32 PM (aDwsi)

78 btw, if animals have souls, Steve Irwin is in Heaven following and harassing them

Posted by: soothie at October 19, 2013 05:32 PM (S35rv)

79 I read every day in the MSM that the Millenial generation is the best educated ever

Yes, they do go by college enrollment statistics

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 05:32 PM (aTXUx)

80 My generation was taught by smart people. The current generation is taught by too many people who are "credentialed" with one of the easiest, most pointless degrees there is, but who have, at the root, nothing to teach.

I could almost tolerate a young student who had never heard of the Holocaust, if he could define "rule of law" and "enumerated powers," and give a decent explanation of what is good about capitalism. Get your principles and narratives right, and you can easily assimilate new facts.

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 05:32 PM (bKA83)

81 With a crack research team. Posted by: lowandslow I hear she's into crack research

Posted by: Beto at October 19, 2013 05:32 PM (MhA4j)

82 If this doesn't prove that the Dept of Education and teacher's unions are evil, I don't know what will. These poor kids.

Posted by: RoadRunner at October 19, 2013 05:32 PM (fvsiN)

83 pondering the Maleficent outfit.

While a personal shoulder mounted raven would be quite cool the training to avoid poop streaks down your side might be time-consuming.

Posted by: DaveA at October 19, 2013 05:33 PM (DL2i+)

84 Have to admit I would have blanked on the St Louis and the phrase The Night of Broken Glass- (but I correctly guessed it was the same as Kristallnacht). I think a lot of that came from general reading, though. We did a little in school in "social studies", but WWII used to be in the culture, it was just part of everyday knowledge.

Posted by: t-bird at October 19, 2013 05:33 PM (FcR7P)

85 >>>>Remember that thread last night where the optimists told Ace that everything will be fine because all these new technologies will come to fruition?
We're counting on these college students to make it happen
DOOM has no mercy for the willfully ignorant>>>>

I just spent nine fucking months seeing my parents through their death from cancer. I'm no pie-in-the-sky optimist, and I'm not willfully ignorant. I'll bet I know more about oncology now than everyone on this entire Website put together.

My father was an oil executive. We talked about oil technology all the time (because oil was his only topic of conversation. Sorry, Dad!).

Some people are only happy when they're miserable. Excellent. Wallow in it.

This is a thread about ignorance. My optimism is based on HARD-FUCKING-WON, hands-on experience. The ignorance I see is this notion that we're all DOOOOOOOOOMED.

Piggybacking on the last thread, here's what I learned late in life, meaning in the last nine months: Most people can't understand something until they experience it themselves.

Terrible, terrible shame. Terminal pessimism is a form of willful ignorance. And I've discovered that there's no getting through to pessimists. Dad was the most pessimistic man on the planet. Now he's in an urn.

That's where pessimism puts you. In an urn.

Posted by: Tacky Adhesive at October 19, 2013 05:33 PM (81H5s)

86 76 Some of us conservative teachers go behind enemy lines every damn day fighting the good fight against the ignorance and sloth that is spreading like a cancer in our society. I deliberately teach short stories and poems that have dire warnings about liberalism and its bloody conclusion. I try to open as many eyes as possible.

Thank you.

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 05:33 PM (bKA83)

87
94 Maidens author, Rhonda Fink-Whitman interviews Pennsylvania public school graduates currently enrolled at four different PA universities

Ah -- Pennsylvania. Makes sense now.

Also, I now know that there's at least one woman who choose to keep her maiden name of "Fink":

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at October 19, 2013 05:33 PM (kdS6q)

88 No really what was the holocaust??

Holo sounds a lot like Halo, is this a video game?

Posted by: Typical College Layabout at October 19, 2013 05:33 PM (dwtaK)

89 While a personal shoulder mounted raven would be quite cool the training to avoid poop streaks down your side might be time-consuming.
Posted by: DaveA at October 19, 2013 09:33 PM (DL2i+)

Excellent point. Which is why I have minions to do that for me.

Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD, you taunty bitch. at October 19, 2013 05:33 PM (Gk3SS)

90 Appears to be a moby troll in the last thread. Posted by: Flatbush Joe He was on about Hillary smelling up 2016 because she smells like a vinegar douche.

Posted by: Beto at October 19, 2013 05:34 PM (MhA4j)

"I had a middle school student admit he didn't know how to use a map"

Never mock anyone who admits they do not know something. They, at least, are willing to learn. Teach them

"There is no such thing as The Preamble to The Constitution" - Rachel Maddow

Freely and enthusiastically mock the idiots who think they know everything.

Posted by: Terentia at October 19, 2013 05:34 PM (nFu3V)

92 True, EXCEPT for two K stations on the East Coast and two W's west of the Mississippi Speaking of Pennsylvania, if there are only two, then it's KYW and KDKA.

Posted by: t-bird at October 19, 2013 05:34 PM (FcR7P)

93 76 jmel at October 19, 2013 09:31 PM (cfFqn)

I have nothing but sincere respect for the few I know...

hey Jmel the NEA is so Toxic I'd rather have worked toxic waste on flight lines...

What's that tell you?

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:34 PM (9jfyN)

94 My son's AP Economics textbook is written by Krugman.

Was it written by Krugman, or was it written on by Krugman?

Because I bet his math book as a kid had a lot of scribbled drawings about how KRUGTRON the INVINCIBLE launched BIG MISSLES (sic) at spaceships shaped like tea-kettles.

And by "as a kid" I mean "last July"

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at October 19, 2013 05:34 PM (d7tB2)

95 And can we please admit Cumberpatch is a lousy Sherlock Holmes and a lousy Khan?

Posted by: soothie at October 19, 2013 05:35 PM (S35rv)

96 "Good grades" doesn't necessarily mean shit in the real world, either (something else I didn't learn until I was old). I'm sure these scrunts in the video all have respectable GPAs, but they're not going to invent anything, develop anything, or produce anything that will improve our society. Posted by: HeatherRadishÂ™, drinking heavily at October 19, 2013 09:31 PM (hO8IJ) Video? Oh, must be in the link. No, grades don't mean everything. But they do mean something. And you could prob say the same about me. I mean, I'm a project manager for a commercial painting subcontractor. My guys paint business offices, hospitals, doctors offices, large and small buildings, all kinds of stuff. Is it earth shattering? No. But it's a needed service. What's my point? I don't really have one. I'm a little buzzed and rambling. *shrug*

Posted by: BCochran1981 - Credible Hulk at October 19, 2013 05:35 PM (GEICT)

97 My son's AP Economics textbook is written by Krugman. Posted by: NCKate --------------------------- Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh! As an aside, I see that Joe Biden's trip to NC to support Kay Hagan, was canceled. Maybe Kay figured out it might do more harm than good.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:35 PM (aDwsi)

98 57 We're counting on these college students to make it happen

Not THESE students. The nerds they all sneer at for doing homework on Thursdays instead of binge-drinking.

Posted by: HeatherRadishÂ™, drinking heavily at October 19, 2013 09:27 PM (hO8IJ)

THESE students will be working in the government jobs writing and administering regulations and roadblocks to the genius kids who actually produce, and lording it over them with the dim smugness of the idiot hack

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 05:35 PM (aTXUx)

99 72 Posted by: Mike Hammer

Heh! That was 23 years ago.

Posted by: puddleglum at October 19, 2013 05:36 PM (8SsiG)

100 To be fair, a 21st Century Sherlock Holmes is a bad idea that will never ever work no matter who they cast.

Posted by: soothie at October 19, 2013 05:36 PM (S35rv)

101 Ignorance works well for those that desire power. Wanting many to have knowledge and wisdom, not so much.

Posted by: cm9000 at October 19, 2013 05:36 PM (3qZbZ)

102 95 soothie at October 19, 2013 09:35 PM (S35rv)

Sherlock? No he's good and maybe great...

Khan and Julian Assmange...

uh....

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:37 PM (9jfyN)

103 Figures about the History Channel.

I wonder if we'll see more OWS groups. (Even these fools will realize that their degrees are useless.) Sure, right now the Dems have most of the power, but they can still be useful against the House and EVIL BUSINESSES that Dems always rail against.

Posted by: Shoot Me at October 19, 2013 05:37 PM (qiXMt)

104 @95

And he sucked in Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy as well.

Though the whole film sucked.

But he sucked the most.

Posted by: Kreplach at October 19, 2013 05:37 PM (dwtaK)

105 Which is why I have minions to do that for me.

Another job I'm not qualified for. Inability to stop making short jokes.

Posted by: DaveA at October 19, 2013 05:38 PM (DL2i+)

106 All schools worry about now are test scores, and that's math and science. Even pushing reading and writing is falling behind, and that leaves no room for history. Not surprising, really.

Posted by: brak at October 19, 2013 05:38 PM (RBQss)

107 Yeah, we are boned. The problem is the youngest and brightest simply do not have the knowledge of the older generation. It is not required. Curiosity is a disease that I suffer from, so I suck up new shit. It is not that prevalent in youngsters, which depresses me. I use to know every area code in the country. Now with the new ones not a chance. They started including zeros in the middle, which with the pulse system would not work. I still know all the capitals and win money on that bet.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 19, 2013 05:38 PM (0FSuD)

108 I know all about history. First we stole the land from the native Americans by giving them smallpox infected blankets so we could have enough room to bring in slaves from Africa to grow cotton for the non-union linen mills where we forced children to work for like a penny a month. Then World War 2 came along because we rounded up all the Japanese Americans and put them in camps and committed war crimes by dropping hydrogen bombs on Asian people. After that, some guy named Jim Crow tried to make African Americans show a picture ID to vote so Martin Luther King sent him to Birmingham jail. Then Vietnam happened where we decided to kill a lot more Asian people for no reason, but some of my professors had lots of protests and and stuff and made them stop so that was cool. Finally Barack Obama got elected president and solved all the country's problems. So, to recap: 1. Slaughtered the Indians 2. Slavery 3. Racism 4. Japanese internment 5. War Crimes 6. More racism 7. Barack Obama

Posted by: DanG at October 19, 2013 05:38 PM (nlXWp)

109 Excellent point. Which is why I have minions to do that for me. Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD, you taunty bitch. at October 19, 2013 09:33 PM (Gk3SS) I VOLUNTEER BANNION AS TRIBUTE!!!! I mean, he's responsible for the care and maintenance of the Ravage. It only makes sense.

Posted by: BCochran1981 - Credible Hulk at October 19, 2013 05:38 PM (GEICT)

110 98 THESE students will be working in the government jobs writing and administering regulations and roadblocks to the genius kids who actually produce, and lording it over them with the dim smugness of the idiot hack

Yes. It's time to take a second look at C.M. Kornbluth's classic story, The Marching Morons. And it's not the good kind of morons. Idiocracy must have drawn heavily from this, and the phrase "Would you buy it for a quarter?" came from there. Basically, in the future, the idiots think they run the world, while their "assistants", the actual remaining smart people, quietly stave off collapse by doing all of the real work.

We seem to be grooming this ruling idiot class right now.

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 05:39 PM (bKA83)

111 "Do you know why you hid in that ditch Blythe? You're scared because you think there's still hope. What you don't know is that you're already dead" - Lt Ron Spiers, Band of Brothers

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 05:39 PM (aTXUx)

112 I VOLUNTEER BANNION AS TRIBUTE!!!!

I mean, he's responsible for the care and maintenance of the Ravage. It only makes sense. Posted by: BCochran1981 - Credible Hulk at October 19, 2013 09:38 PM (GEICT)

*taps chin*

A most cromulent suggestion indeed.

Posted by: alexthechick - SMOD, you taunty bitch. at October 19, 2013 05:40 PM (Gk3SS)

113 Thank goodness she included a couple of students who did know about the Holocaust, otherwise I might be pulling my hair out right now. It's not that they don't want to know, it's that they aren't being taught. Boortz isn't right on everything, but he's dead on with the classification as "government" rather than "public" schools.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at October 19, 2013 05:40 PM (DmNpO)

114 Okay. Just had a nice conversation about nothing with my willfully ignorant, LIV, Obamabot, mother-in-law.

Now I want to kill myself.

Bless her heart.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 19, 2013 05:40 PM (RmtDa)

115

That's where pessimism puts you. In an urn.

And optimism in the ground?

Posted by: Grey Fox at October 19, 2013 05:40 PM (5PhHI)

116 1. Slaughtered the Indians 2. Slavery 3. Racism 4. Japanese internment 5. War Crimes 6. More racism 7. Barack Obama Posted by: DanG at October 19, 2013 09:38 PM (nlXWp) So, you tenured at UNC-CH?

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 19, 2013 05:40 PM (0FSuD)

117 As an aside, I see that Joe Biden's trip to NC to support Kay Hagan, was canceled. Maybe Kay figured out it might do more harm than good. Posted by: Mike Hammer ---------------------------------- Didn't I say this? I did as I recall. It doesn't take an idiot to realize that Biden is an idiot. I still need a dehumidifier.

Posted by: Tobacco Road at October 19, 2013 05:40 PM (4Mv1T)

118 Time for Death in Paradise. The new guy is going to have to work to fill Ben Millers shoes.

Posted by: DaveA at October 19, 2013 05:41 PM (DL2i+)

119 Canadians think we invaded Afghanistan for the oil.

(...)

Posted by: Tacky Adhesive at October 19, 2013 09:14 PM (81H5s)

Naw, only the leftard pukes, of which there are entirely too many. We have troops of our own over there, too, you know.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at October 19, 2013 05:41 PM (8Fl6F)

120

Ah -- Pennsylvania. Makes sense now.

My former home state. Grew up there. As I've moved around I have found that ignorant fuckwads are a international phenomenon, not just a Keystone state one.

Posted by: puddleglum at October 19, 2013 05:41 PM (8SsiG)

121 110 Splunge at October 19, 2013 09:39 PM (bKA83)

They allude to this with the "Followers of the APocalypse" in the Fallout games...

in Fallout New Vegas there is a solar array complex that feeds a beam weapon with an absolute retard "in charge" and an assistant contantly preventing the dumbass from obliterating New Vegas....

funny shit....

"Ba-Rawn-Ko's got electrolytes"

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:41 PM (9jfyN)

122 23 minutes into Man Of Steel and I'm thoroughly indifferent, teetering on boredom

Posted by: soothie at October 19, 2013 05:42 PM (S35rv)

123 115 Grey Fox at October 19, 2013 09:40 PM (5PhHI)

I'll uh take the urn....

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:42 PM (9jfyN)

124 119 Naw, only the leftard pukes, of which there are entirely too many. We have troops of our own over there, too, you know.

What happens when you ask one of the pukes "So, it has been a while, where's all that oil we got?"

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 05:42 PM (bKA83)

125 When I see things like this, I recall the 22nd Psalm: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Posted by: billypaintbrush at October 19, 2013 05:42 PM (drp+r)

126 It doesn't take an idiot to realize that Biden is an idiot.

I still need a dehumidifier.

Yeah, otherwise there's no way to tell that Mr Heartbeat From the Presidency can still fog a mirror

Posted by: boulder toilet hobo at October 19, 2013 05:43 PM (d7tB2)

127 No worries Sven. I am not in the NEA. They are an evil organization.

Posted by: jmel at October 19, 2013 05:43 PM (cfFqn)

128 cromulent ?? Am I allowed to use this in a game of scrabble without getting called a bigger asshole than usual ?

Posted by: Bill D. Cat at October 19, 2013 05:43 PM (1jQhu)

129 THESE students will be working in the government jobs writing and
administering regulations and roadblocks to the genius kids who actually
produce, and lording it over them with the dim smugness of the idiot
hack

And when they preside over "mass exterminations" they'll believe they invented them. Bleh.

Posted by: HeatherRadish™, drinking heavily at October 19, 2013 05:43 PM (hO8IJ)

130 122 soothie at October 19, 2013 09:42 PM (S35rv)

PUT THE REMOTE DOWN!

No seriously they jacked around enough shit in Man of Steel I am still "meh"....

Yup Kevin Costner as Dances with Cows the Fisherman father of Clark Kent...

What the fuck ever

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:43 PM (9jfyN)

131 I still need a dehumidifier. Posted by: Tobacco Road at October 19, 2013 09:40 PM (4Mv1T) I just spent $3K to put three under the house. Amazing. All the mill dew in the house is gone. I don't have congestion in the morning. NC has had a wet fucking summer. Put them in, it's worth it.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 19, 2013 05:43 PM (0FSuD)

132 Hitler? Oh yeh, he's that dude in the funny youtube videos who's almost as bad as Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin!!

Posted by: College Student at October 19, 2013 05:44 PM (aTXUx)

133 oh dear, now I'm learning Clark Kent was a troubled child..

Posted by: soothie at October 19, 2013 05:44 PM (S35rv)

134 To be fair, a 21st Century Sherlock Holmes is a bad idea that will never ever work no matter who they cast. Posted by: soothie --------------------------- Already been done, and it was excellent IMHO. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00t4pgh

Posted by: Tobacco Road at October 19, 2013 05:44 PM (4Mv1T)

135 Boortz isn't right on everything, but he's dead on with the classification as "government" rather than "public" schools. Posted by: Niedermeyer's -------------- I used to listen to Boortz when he was local in Atlanta, Hannity too.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:44 PM (aDwsi)

136 127 jmel at October 19, 2013 09:43 PM (cfFqn)

None intended...

God bless you...it was two things really...

1) NEA

2) sooner or later some little bastard would have interfered with the students who were interested and I would have likely broken my hand or my skull.

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:44 PM (9jfyN)

137 Never mock anyone who admits they do not know something. They, at least, are willing to learn. Terentia at October 19, 2013 09:34 PM Noted. His last words were he was going to ask his parents how to read a map. I'll ask him the next time I see him how he is doing, and if he needs pointers. A full toolbox of different techniques for different students is needed.

Posted by: NaCly Dog at October 19, 2013 05:45 PM (u82oZ)

138 TR - Pizza get there yet Dehumidifier - so do I.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:45 PM (aDwsi)

139 Nip sip - Brand of dehumidfier?

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:46 PM (aDwsi)

140 >>>>That's where pessimism puts you. In an urn.
And optimism in the ground?>>>>

We all end up in urns or in the ground or at the bottom of the ocean. The question is, how long do you want to be here, and what sort of life do you want to have while you're here?

I've never met a happy, grateful, empathetic pessimist who was a joy to be around. I've also learned that pessimists resent optimists and feel contempt for them. Pessimists are the smart ones, while optimists are stoooooopid.

It's just another mental cul de sac, no different than the millions of other traps people dump themselves into.

Posted by: Tacky Adhesive at October 19, 2013 05:46 PM (81H5s)

141 Oh joy. Husband finally turned on the air downstairs where we'll be sleeping fitfully on uncomfortable twin beds tonight. The dear mil had the temp set on 80.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 19, 2013 05:47 PM (RmtDa)

142 Looks like FSU is kicking Clemson's ass. Damn.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 19, 2013 05:47 PM (0FSuD)

143 heh, Costner woulda made a better Jor El than Russell Crowe.

Posted by: soothie at October 19, 2013 05:47 PM (S35rv)

144 Shoot Me: "Isn't the joke that they might as well rename The History Channel to The Hitler Channel?"

And yet Americans (the ones in college, you know, higher learning) still don't know the facts. It's simply incredible.

No dollar amount or presentation is sufficient enough to get through these "kids'" heads the world they live in... except the pop culture, brainwashing one that is pure sugar and no vitamins. And, truthfully, adult news isn't much better. It's infotainment and reality shows, scripted to be mindless emotionalism. One can even watch the news, if one bothers, and read the paper and come away more ignorant because the facts are given with the wrong context (which is to say mistakes and lies).

This nation survives in spite of itself but it can't forever. Brain drain is self-inflicted. In fact we should be checking our water not for fluorine but for Brawndo.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at October 19, 2013 05:48 PM (eHIJJ)

145 142 Looks like FSU is kicking Clemson's ass.

Damn.

Word. Hate the Criminoles.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 19, 2013 05:48 PM (RmtDa)

146 Optimists never know the joy of pleasant surprise.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:48 PM (aDwsi)

147 NC has had a wet fucking summer. Put them in, it's worth it. Posted by: Nip Sip ------------------------------------- Do tell. I had a $250 Whirlpool in the finished basement that crapped out outlast month after 8 summers. My eldest lives in a bedroom down there and complains bitterly. Although, until this year he told me the dehumidifier made it too dry. After two years in a 100 year old house in Boston he's decided he needs things dry.

Posted by: Tobacco Road at October 19, 2013 05:49 PM (4Mv1T)

148 146 Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 09:48 PM (aDwsi)

and pessimists never kill themselves over unexpected failure...

oh wait...

Posted by: sven10077 at October 19, 2013 05:49 PM (9jfyN)

149 108 1. Slaughtered the Indians 2. Slavery 3. Racism 4. Japanese internment 5. War Crimes 6. More racism 7. Barack Obama 8. More racism

Posted by: rickl at October 19, 2013 05:49 PM (sdi6R)

150 Fuck do I hate Tim McCarver. Stupid stupid stupid fucking dumbass. Doesn't know shit about baseball.

Posted by: BCochran1981 - Credible Hulk at October 19, 2013 05:49 PM (GEICT)

151 Oh joy. Husband finally turned on the air downstairs where we'll be sleeping fitfully on uncomfortable twin beds tonight. The dear mil had the temp set on 80. Posted by: Jane ------------------ Mrs. Hammer insisted that I go down and fire up the boiler. We're expecting frost by mid-week.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 05:50 PM (aDwsi)

152 Whenever I see things like this I wonder if they talked to any students who did know the right answers and we just aren't being shown their responses. If this is a fair representation of the first 20 or so she talked to then things are even worse than I thought. Christ, half of those answers you could have picked up from watching war movies on TBS Saturday afternoons.

Posted by: DanG at October 19, 2013 05:50 PM (nlXWp)

153 They started including zeros in the middle, ?? 603 was always an area code.

Posted by: t-bird at October 19, 2013 05:50 PM (FcR7P)

154 Nip Slip, I would love to get a series of historical test by grade level. I would hammer my kids into passing each one.

Posted by: Jean at October 19, 2013 05:50 PM (CMlD4)

155 I have been teaching American History courses for over 18 years now. When I first started I didn't think it could get any worse, they had an attention span of 8 minutes (the length of the average TV segment). I was wrong. Now their attention span is the time it takes to read a Tweet. They not only don't know history, they don't read (except Tweets or something they can Like). They can't conjugate a verb, nor do they know the difference between a noun and a verb. And god forbid they are ever ask to differentiate between a sentence and a subordinate clasue. (And aside from Dr. Sheldon Cooper and his friends most do not understand even the theoretical workings of an internal combusion engine) We have established a society begging for the domination of a dictator. We are doomed.

Posted by: georgeofthedesert at October 19, 2013 05:50 PM (Eq2MX)

156 139 Nip sip - Brand of dehumidfier? Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 09:46 PM (aDwsi) I have no clue. They were permanently installed by AC guys. All I got was a bill. They drain automatically and I have not heard them run yet. Seem to be working. I have a cedar shake roof, so I live under wet wood. Wish I had done it years ago.

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 19, 2013 05:51 PM (0FSuD)

157 "Isn't the joke that they might as well rename The History Channel to The Hitler Channel?" *** I can't remember if it was the History channel, but I think it was, where I turned last week to a special about the bomb. Inside of the first five minutes they used the word "racism" repeatedly and made sure to mention that Truman liked to use the n-word.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at October 19, 2013 05:51 PM (DmNpO)

158 140 I've never met a happy, grateful, empathetic pessimist who was a joy to be around. I've also learned that pessimists resent optimists and feel contempt for them. Pessimists are the smart ones, while optimists are stoooooopid.

It's just another mental cul de sac, no different than the millions of other traps people dump themselves into.

Optimist/Pessimist is a false dichotomy when applied to complex human beings. A true Pessimist would be depressed all the time, but actually that only happens as a permanent condition when something goes wrong with the brain chemistry. A true optimist would be, well, on drugs or something.

You do what you can, you prepare for the worst, and you hope for the best. Not doing any one of those is just not sensible.

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 05:52 PM (bKA83)

159 Having a conversation with an elderly (but very healthy, active) Obamabot is a lesson in restraint and pain. Extreme pain.

Jeebus. So glad we don't have to spend another night here.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 19, 2013 05:52 PM (RmtDa)

160 These college students who know little but think universal knowledge pours from their asses are manifested in the trolls who come here with their smugness

"how does it feel loser teabaggers! you racist jesus lovers are too stoopid to even thank obama for helping you!!"

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 05:52 PM (aTXUx)

161 Seem to be working. I have a cedar shake roof, so I live under wet wood. Wish I had done it years ago. Posted by: Nip Sip ----------------------------- Where are you in NC? Generally speaking anyway.

Posted by: Tobacco Road at October 19, 2013 05:53 PM (4Mv1T)

162 Gah. Have to go. She's shuffling down the stairs.

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 19, 2013 05:53 PM (RmtDa)

163 Whenever I see things like this I wonder if they talked to any students who did know the right answers and we just aren't being shown their responses. If this is a fair representation of the first 20 or so she talked to then things are even worse than I thought. Christ, half of those answers you could have picked up from watching war movies on TBS Saturday afternoons. *** Yes. At the end she shows two students who do know about the Holocaust. They were from schools in NJ and NY where the Holocaust is a mandatory subject.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at October 19, 2013 05:53 PM (DmNpO)

164 Thank you, teacher unions.

Posted by: Lauren at October 19, 2013 05:54 PM (ELdpj)

165

Mrs. Hammer insisted that I go down and fire up the boiler. We're expecting frost by mid-week.

We will need to get our firewood restacked soon, then. Pity - I just started a new job laying tile a few weeks ago and was enjoying the mild weather, since I have to be either outside or up to my elbows in water most of the work-day.

Posted by: Grey Fox at October 19, 2013 05:54 PM (5PhHI)

166 >>>>Optimists never know the joy of pleasant surprise.>>>>

It's exactly the opposite. I'm pleasantly surprised fifty times a day.

Pessimists have anhedonia. NOTHING pleases them. They think those of us who don't share their pessimism are idiots who don't know what's really going on.

I'm perfectly aware of what's going on. I just don't think we're fucked. Obama will come goddamn close to fucking us, but his entire edifice of shit is collapsing under its own weight.

One thing my poor, dead, pessimistic father taught me that's 100 percent true: There's ALWAYS a workaround.

He didn't believe it himself, it turns out, but I do. And I always find it. Anything fucked can be unfucked, as long as you're still upright and breathing.

Posted by: Tacky Adhesive at October 19, 2013 05:54 PM (81H5s)

167 157 I can't remember if it was the History channel, but I think it was, where I turned last week to a special about the bomb.

Inside of the first five minutes they used the word "racism" repeatedly and made sure to mention that Truman liked to use the n-word.

Yuck. If a General were tracking the war we're in, he would put a red pin into the History Channel. Our enemy is good at co-opting institutions, isn't he? I wonder what is the best way to fight that? The only thing I can think of right now is to arrange that all institutions have to start over periodically, but I don't know how to arrange for that.

Better to fix the education system. Start with: Government Shall Not Run Schools, even if it may pay tuition from time to time. Also: No Unions In Schools.

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 05:55 PM (bKA83)

168

@76 Posted by: jmel at October 19, 2013 09:31 PM (cfFqn)

Your Name will definitely be in the book of Life. Keep fighting sir.

Posted by: Buckeye Abroad at October 19, 2013 05:55 PM (1K3lz)

169 ?? 603 was always an area code. Posted by: t-bird at October 19, 2013 09:50 PM (FcR7P) I stand corrected. Here is the plan, and I had no idea that the codes were assigned in 1947. Fuck! http://tinyurl.com/eonqf

Posted by: Nip Sip at October 19, 2013 05:55 PM (0FSuD)

170 Optimist/Pessimist is a false dichotomy when applied to complex human beings. A true Pessimist would be depressed all the time, but actually that only happens as a permanent condition when something goes wrong with the brain chemistry. A true optimist would be, well, on drugs or something. You do what you can, you prepare for the worst, and you hope for the best. Not doing any one of those is just not sensible. **** The Stockdale Paradox

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at October 19, 2013 05:56 PM (DmNpO)

171 >>>>Optimist/Pessimist is a false dichotomy when applied to complex human beings.>>>>

When someone self-identifies as a pessimist, I take him at his word. Who am I to say, "No you're not! You're too complex to be a pessimist"?

Posted by: Tacky Adhesive at October 19, 2013 05:57 PM (81H5s)

172 159 Having a conversation with an elderly (but very healthy, active) Obamabot is a lesson in restraint and pain. Extreme pain.

Jeebus. So glad we don't have to spend another night here.

Sorry. I have relatives like that. They're not old. Dealing with an Obamabot is like dealing with premature senility. Worse, one of them used to be unfailingly polite and civil; it was his nature. That's gone. The Left just does not play that way, and he's gone all-in.

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 05:57 PM (bKA83)

173

Optimist/Pessimist is a false dichotomy when applied to complex human beings. A true Pessimist would be depressed all the time, but actually that only happens as a permanent condition when something goes wrong with the brain chemistry. A true optimist would be, well, on drugs or something.

You can also be pessimistic about certain things and optimistic in others, or pessimistic short-term but optimistic long-term, etc., etc.

Posted by: Grey Fox at October 19, 2013 05:57 PM (5PhHI)

174 This nation survives in spite of itself but it can't forever.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at October 19, 2013 09:48 PM (eHIJJ)

Indeed. You can't live forever on inherited capital. At some point it will run out.

Posted by: cm9000 at October 19, 2013 05:57 PM (3qZbZ)

175 170 The Stockdale Paradox

Excellent. Bing enlightened me about what that means. Very inspiring about how to live life.

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 05:59 PM (bKA83)

176 this fucking fucker is fucking fucked !

Posted by: fuck at October 19, 2013 05:59 PM (sb9Hq)

177 I'm never around on the weekends but was waiting for someone and clicked into wizbang and got the shock of my life.

Posted by: just a citizen at October 19, 2013 06:00 PM (Nx76m)

178 153 They started including zeros in the middle,

?? 603 was always an area code. Posted by: t-bird at October 19, 2013 09:50 PM

Up until the mid 90s, the existing network switches could not process a middle digit unless it was a 0 or 1

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 06:01 PM (aTXUx)

179 A guy sitting next to me at the lunch counter today, had on a sweatshirt with a half full glass pictured on it, and the legend 'Half full'. I told him about the engineer's response - 'The glass is too large.'

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 19, 2013 06:01 PM (aDwsi)

180

I would divide people into two groups: those who enjoy reading about history, and those who don't.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a house lined with books. My parents were of the Depression/WWII generation, so even though I came of age in the patchouli and pot-soaked 70s, the preceding decades were only one remove from my life and continuity was reinforced by conversations with my parents and with all the authors in our extensive library. How extensive? We had shelves in our "throne room"! Don't knock it, you can learn a lot in short increments over the years.

I learned about 70% on my own, reinforced by some excellent history teachers in junior high and high school.

Truly, if you love history, you will never be bored.

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 19, 2013 06:01 PM (G93ZW)

181 Anne Frank was an optimist.

Shrugging off tyranny with "you can choose to pretend everything's fine!" doesn't actually make everything fine.

Posted by: HeatherRadish™, drinking heavily at October 19, 2013 06:02 PM (hO8IJ)

182 Excellent. Bing enlightened me about what that means. Very inspiring about how to live life. *** I've often looked back at my life and wondered how I made it through it all. Then, several years ago, I learned of the Stockdale Paradox and realized that I had been exercising that wisdom all throughout the tough times. I am a devout believer in the power of such thinking.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at October 19, 2013 06:02 PM (DmNpO)

183 174 This nation survives in spite of itself but it can't forever.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at October 19, 2013 09:48 PM (eHIJJ)

Indeed. You can't live forever on inherited capital. At some point it will run out.
Posted by: cm9000 at October 19, 2013 09:57 PM

Some have compared it to a charging rhino that has been fatally shot in the heart. It's momentum will keep it running after the shot but it's inevitable that it will drop dead

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 06:02 PM (aTXUx)

184 Unlike the interviewer, I DO blame the kids. I was totally self taught about 20th century history, the public schools were clearly worthless.

If you don't take a stake in your education to fill in the gaps on your own and expect it to be poured into your head like water by some teacher, then it IS your fault.

Posted by: Purp[/i][/b][/u][/s] at October 19, 2013 06:03 PM (l5zzX)

185 Some have compared it to a charging rhino that has been fatally shot in the heart. It's momentum will keep it running after the shot but it's inevitable that it will drop dead *** Still charging, but definitely slowing down.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at October 19, 2013 06:03 PM (DmNpO)

186 Husband and son sat next to a hipster couple here in ATL a week ago.

Hipster sported an ironic t-shirt that said, "If powderpuff were any easier it would be called 'football.'"

Son said the hipster and his girlfriend spoke of iPhones being "fascist tools."

Posted by: Jane D'oh at October 19, 2013 06:04 PM (RmtDa)

187 ONT up

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at October 19, 2013 06:04 PM (DmNpO)

188
1. Slaughtered the Indians
2. Slavery
3. Racism
4. Japanese internment
5. War Crimes
5a. Stonewall!*
6. More racism
7. Barack Obama

Posted by: DanG

*Our state has imposed a Gay History requirement for public schools. Gay, Bi and Female Impersonator history has to be incorporated into all social studies classes.

Posted by: Laurie David's Cervix at October 19, 2013 06:04 PM (kdS6q)

189 110 Basically, in the future, the idiots think they run the world, while their "assistants", the actual remaining smart people, quietly stave off collapse by doing all of the real work. We seem to be grooming this ruling idiot class right now. Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 09:39 PM (bKA83) Actually, I think we're already there. Take a good look around at the current ruling class, and note how the people who are just trying to live their lives and get real work done are being assaulted on all sides.

Posted by: rickl at October 19, 2013 06:07 PM (sdi6R)

190 184 If you don't take a stake in your education to fill in the gaps on your own and expect it to be poured into your head like water by some teacher, then it IS your fault.

That's sort of defensible, in that it suggests that these were some low-quality kids, which is probably true. But the teachers of my youth would not have let them get away with that level of ignorance. Nor should the ones now. Even the best kids need the occasional whack from the reality stick from time to time.

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 06:07 PM (bKA83)

191 Regarding optimism/pessimism

Research on long term POWs found that it was the optimists who never made it. "we'll be out of here by Christmas, or after the peace talks, etc."

Those dates would come and go and the optimists would lose all hope and collapse.

It's the ones who faced the prospect that they were there probably until death who adjusted and survived

Posted by: kbdabear at October 19, 2013 06:07 PM (aTXUx)

192 189 Actually, I think we're already there.

Take a good look around at the current ruling class, and note how the people who are just trying to live their lives and get real work done are being assaulted on all sides.

As an optimist, I would prefer not to accept that we are there until it is unavoidable. There's still a bit of room.

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 06:08 PM (bKA83)

193 >>>>Anne Frank was an optimist.>>>>

And she was proven right. How many world wars have we had since then? When was the last time six million people were marched into gas chambers?

The Chinese government puts down 18,000 attempted insurrections a year. North Koreans who exist in a hermetically sealed world still defect because they KNOW in their gut that what they have is wrong.

Obama's approval rating is lower than Bush's, and that with the press doing everything but gouging out our eyes and jamming icepicks into our ears.

Anne Frank was right.

Posted by: Tacky Adhesive at October 19, 2013 06:09 PM (81H5s)

194 It's not just history public school teachers don't know -- it's science, math, English, etc. I know this for a fact. My mom (PhD in Math) is a professor at a local university. Besides the countless examples of students she gets in her classes ever year who have no idea of simple mathematical concepts they should have learned in high school, she conducted a workshop for in-service public school teachers a few years ago and when she put up an example of 1/2 +1/3 to demonstrate different methods in teaching elementary mathematics to school children, 90% of the teachers in the workshop thought the solution was 2/5. These were people who were actually *teaching* fractions to elementary school students. Meanwhile, because of the teacher's union, these idiots would have to kill someone before they'd even *maybe* be at risk of losing their jobs. It's criminal.

Posted by: Dancing Queen at October 19, 2013 06:11 PM (FDGeg)

195 I can only say that I know no real human being who can be this stupid. I work in a hospital, a veritable bastion of liberalism, and no one says this kind of stuff. Wwe talk about serious stuff all the time. That being said, the younger the person, the more lightweight and unknowing they seem. Much of what I know was known to me in my 20s and 30s. These younger people are nowhere as well informed as I was. Not even close.

That aside, we are fast approaching the fail point of this society. I am a deeply faithful person, my world boundaries established by God, the Bible and an innate sense that something is boiling below the surface that we aren't seeing just yet.

I posted on my farcebook timeline today that once the end comes, and the society collapses, the liberals and the social utopians will be cast out. I, for one, will remember the locals who always pimp more and more money being pumped into the bloated government. I will remember the poverty pimps and socialists in my neck of the woods.

The folks I know are a lot like me. They know about guns, the woods, are often ex-military, are almost uniformly rightist and pro-life. not all, but an awful lot. And most believe in God as traditionally viewed and read the Bible. They see America as exceptional and unique, something to treasure and preserve.

What strikes me so strongly right now is that not only does our government hate us as a people, as a nation,but the leftists, they even hate human beings as race. I read fairly often of how the left views humans as "a virus" on the earth.

All you have to do is watch standard cable TV like Discovery or History Channel, and see what they program: Life After People, Animal Planet, all sorts of shows about how humans are killing the planet, killing the environment, are polluting the world just by living in it.

I see a more malevolent air to the current scene. Everyone I know is anti Obama but the tv is all pro Obama. TV blames the Rethuglicans while Farcebook and Twitter is all about what Obama is doing wrong and how bad things are under his damnable thumb. No one likes Pelosi or Reid. No one. But they win every election, every contest. It seems to make no sense.

I almost look forward to the end. Look forward to the pulling away of the curtain of artifice, and being able to name the marxists and socialist utopians as the plague that they are. It's times like this that I can understand how average French and Italians could lynch their former leaders and such. It seems perfectly normal at times. And that never occurred to me before...but it comes to mind for me now on an almost daily basis.

Posted by: sandman pissed and stuff,yo... at October 19, 2013 06:13 PM (zxaA2)

196 >>>>Research on long term POWs found that it was the optimists who never made it. "we'll be out of here by Christmas, or after the peace talks, etc.">>>>

Whoever told you that is wrong. The reality is exactly the opposite. Took me three seconds to find this online.

"Optimism predicts resilience in repatriated prisoners of war: A 37-year longitudinal study."

http://tinyurl.com/k3jggec

Posted by: Tacky Adhesive at October 19, 2013 06:14 PM (81H5s)

197 Just got done watching that vid and I....

tanj. Wha... really. G-D I'm glad I'm out of school and am able to teach my kids something they will apparently never learn in school. sheesh

Posted by: Joethefatman™ (@joethefatman1) at October 19, 2013 06:16 PM (MnSla)

198 174 This nation survives in spite of itself but it can't forever. Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at October 19, 2013 09:48 PM (eHIJJ) Indeed. You can't live forever on inherited capital. At some point it will run out. Posted by: cm9000 at October 19, 2013 09:57 PM (3qZbZ) Over at Belmont Club, Wretchard and the commenters frequently refer to the engineering concept of "design margin", as in, America had a lot of redundant built-in safeguards against failure, but we're burning through our design margin.

Posted by: rickl at October 19, 2013 06:17 PM (sdi6R)

199 195, I will venture a guess that you do not live in California.

Posted by: Splunge at October 19, 2013 06:20 PM (bKA83)

200 >>>>Research on long term POWs found that it was the optimists who never made it. "we'll be out of here by Christmas, or after the peace talks,
etc.">>>>

Whoever told you that is wrong. The reality is exactly the opposite. Took me three seconds to find this online.

"Optimism predicts resilience in repatriated prisoners of war: A 37-year longitudinal study."

http://tinyurl.com/k3jggec

*******************************

Viktor Frankl saw first hand as a resident of Auschwitz. He has written about his observations/experiences that it was the optimists who were able to survive in concentration camps at length.

Posted by: Dancing Queen at October 19, 2013 06:21 PM (FDGeg)

201

And on a positive note, when I visited the National Portrait Gallery's "War of 1812" exhibit, I was delighted to hear a little girl point to various portraits and explain to her (no doubt proud) parents who these personages were. So the self-starters and history geeks are out there!

Posted by: All Hail Eris at October 19, 2013 06:21 PM (G93ZW)

202 That's sort of defensible, in that it suggests that these were some low-quality kids

Low quality in that they exhibit a disturbing LACK of curiosity about how the world came to be the way it is today.

This, of all the manifold evils the left has visited upon the youth, is the probably the worst -- they've driven out curiosity and replaced it with unquestioning doctrine.

Curiosity can overcome almost all deficiencies in a education system as long as it survives. Curiosity is dead though, murdered, strangled in the cribs at birth.

They may actually be "intelligent" in an abstract sense.

Posted by: Purp[/i][/b][/u][/s] at October 19, 2013 06:22 PM (l5zzX)

203 >>>>Viktor Frankl saw first hand as a resident of Auschwitz. He has written about his observations/experiences that it was the optimists who were able to survive in concentration camps at length.>>>>

Pessimists like to portray themselves as smarter and more realistic than we childish, silly optimists. That's fine.

I'd rather be a live optimist than a dead pessimist.

Posted by: Tacky Adhesive at October 19, 2013 06:24 PM (81H5s)

204
The answers in the video are not unusual among high school and college age young people. I would venture a guess that their parents don't know a whole lot more than them, with exceptions of course. Kudos to the kids from New Jersey and New York state who knew some about the Holocaust and WWII.

They're not stupid, these kids. Like the lady said, they haven't been taught.

I have a similar but simpler quiz. One of my questions is who were the Allies and who were the Axis powers.

I'm pretty confident that most young people under 29 or so don't know the first thing about the Communist Bloc, about the Bolshevik Revolution through the fall of the Soviet Union. They don't understand that all their mentors in academia admire the soviet model.

How do you fix this?

Posted by: Sphynx at October 19, 2013 06:27 PM (cll/q)

205 202 This, of all the manifold evils the left has visited upon the youth, is the probably the worst -- they've driven out curiosity and replaced it with unquestioning doctrine. Curiosity can overcome almost all deficiencies in a education system as long as it survives. Curiosity is dead though, murdered, strangled in the cribs at birth. Posted by: Purp at October 19, 2013 10:22 PM (l5zzX) This is why I don't necessarily blame the kids. I even (sort of) defended the OWS protesters at the time. The Leftist education system and media has turned them into automatons regurgitating leftist propaganda. It's not really their fault. They weren't born that way. Even so, it's frightening as hell. The future does not look very rosy to me.

Posted by: rickl at October 19, 2013 06:28 PM (sdi6R)

206 I suspect there's many forms of "optimism", ranging from wildly unrealistic, to the grim resolve of "we can outlast these bastards".

Posted by: Purp[/i][/b][/u][/s] at October 19, 2013 06:29 PM (l5zzX)

207 This, of all the manifold evils the left has visited upon the youth, is the probably the worst -- they've driven out curiosity and replaced it with unquestioning doctrine.

Posted by: Purp at October 19, 2013 10:22 PM (l5zzX)

Yeah, this is one of the most damnable acts of the Left. I wouldn't say its the worst, but its up there.

Posted by: cm9000 at October 19, 2013 06:30 PM (3qZbZ)

208 This is why I don't necessarily blame the kids.

I don't blame the worker bee drones, but I do blame the supposed elite students at universities.

Their native intelligence should win out and bootstrap some curiosity up from scratch.

I did it, and I went to a public school just as pathetic as theirs are. By the time I was a HS junior, I could have been teaching a HS 20th century history course ferchrisakes.

Jeez, for the price of a freaking lunch at Subway you can walk into any Walmart and pick up a set of Victory At Sea or DVD's, or something else about the European conflict.

This isn't information that has a steep acquisition curve like it did 30 years ago. Its easier now than it ever was to get the basics.

Posted by: Purp[/i][/b][/u][/s] at October 19, 2013 06:38 PM (l5zzX)

209 208 Jeez, for the price of a freaking lunch at Subway you can walk into any Walmart and pick up a set of Victory At Sea or DVD's, or something else about the European conflict. Yeah, but that goes back to the stifling of curiosity. If they don't even realize they're supposed to care...

Posted by: rickl at October 19, 2013 06:42 PM (sdi6R)

210 Basically, in the future, the idiots think they run the world, while their "assistants", the actual remaining smart people, quietly stave off collapse by doing all of the real work.

You basically just outlined 50% of the plot for Cyril Kornbluth's story "The Marching Morons".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marching_Morons

The other half involves a huckster from the past with a plan for launching all the "marching morons" on the planet off planet on fake vacations to venus or something, which they never return from, but subscribe to in droves.

Posted by: Purp[/i][/b][/u][/s] at October 19, 2013 06:58 PM (l5zzX)

211 People, like water, take the path of least resistance.

Posted by: eman at October 19, 2013 07:01 PM (AO9UG)

212 As for the education system, run by the left, the only thing I can figure is they want to destroy America. That has to be it. And Clemson is getting their asses kicked. Damnit. I wore this orange shirt and stayed sober for nothing.

Posted by: EROWMER at October 19, 2013 07:04 PM (OONaw)

213 Government has little incentive for a very smart and well-educated and involved population. Government does best with a very pliable and fairly disinterested population. It merely needs a small core of betas and alphas.

Posted by: eman at October 19, 2013 07:06 PM (AO9UG)

214 108, 155 Yep. Sounds just like the program and the kids in the high school where I taught in recent years. Most of them read too poorly to cope with the textbook. Attention span is tiny, constantly distracted by phones. The usual problem in the history classes of endless focus on the Mayas or whatever, and not enough time in the year to get to the 20th century. The elimination of social studies from many elementary schools is a big part of this. 200 Viktor Frankl was an optimist in the sense that in Auschwitz he continued to be the psychiatrist he was--he did all he could to help and inspire his fellow prisoners, with great humility. He wrote that the best did not survive, because survival always took some kind of compromise. I've read that people come through traumatic situations much better if they believe they have some ability to influence the outcome. People who feel completely helpless are more likely to end up with PTSD. 204 Teaching about the old Soviet Union is so hard. I think it has always only been self-taught in this country. The high schools and colleges were certainly doing the moral equivalence between communism and the west thing when I was there in the seventies. As an English teacher, I've had classes who could more or less read tackle Forever Flowing by Vasily Grossman. That made an impression. Not too long, describes the camps and the Ukranian famine very memorably.

Posted by: Emily at October 19, 2013 07:53 PM (7Rn+/)

215 66 Good point. The only phone number I have memorized now is my own.

Posted by: BornLib at October 19, 2013 10:49 PM (iUuDU)

216 108 And of course the irony of that list is that the one thing they all have in common is the Democratic Party.

Posted by: BornLib at October 19, 2013 11:00 PM (iUuDU)

217 "An Ignorant Population is a Pliable Population" Tell that to Afghanistan.

Posted by: cackfinger at October 20, 2013 01:07 AM (OsCtd)

218 These people vote. No wonder Obama is president.

Posted by: EP at October 20, 2013 07:26 AM (bSWzX)

219

I completely agree that our public schools is basically a mound of shit where I go to learn about tolerating and accepting liberal policies, but to say they don't teach the Holocaust just isn't true. We have a CLASS called the Holocaust. Its not mandatory, but its certainly there.

Posted by: Thatkid at October 20, 2013 10:36 AM (53VkR)

220 "An Ignorant Population is a Pliable Population" Tell that to Detroit.

Posted by: cackfinger at October 20, 2013 10:36 AM (OsCtd)

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