Frankly Speaking

Alexander Solzhenitsyn dead at 89.

If there is one writer, outside of the founding fathers, that should be required reading in every American high school, this is that man. Of course, that would put an end to the nanny state, so the teacher's union would never stand for that.

If you've never read anything by Solzhenitsyn, you should start with his 1978 address to Harvard.

Socialism

It is almost universally recognized that the West shows all the world a way to successful economic development, even though in the past years it has been strongly disturbed by chaotic inflation. However, many people living in the West are dissatisfied with their own society. They despise it or accuse it of not being up to the level of maturity attained by mankind. A number of such critics turn to socialism, which is a false and dangerous current.

I hope that no one present will suspect me of offering my personal criticism of the Western system to present socialism as an alternative. Having experienced applied socialism in a country where the alternative has been realized, I certainly will not speak for it.

His insights into the west will really make you examine exactly what it is we have here in America. And maybe appreciate it a little more.

h/t Ace

Labels: ejukayshun, historical figures, liberty, life

So are you dreams of going to college.

The scholarship program started by former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards that has sent rural high school graduates to college for free is ending after three years, a newspaper reported Thursday.

...

The pilot program has sent 190 Greene County students to college and cost $600,000 in its first two years. It was started in 2005, the year after Edwards was the Democratic vice presidential candidate.

Before his presidential nomination campaign ended this year, Edwards said he wanted a similar national program, spending $8 billion to send 2 million students to college.

According to the article, the program was designed to last three years and is now ending. Like it was intended to do. They are notifying rising seniors that they won't be eligible for the program, because the program never existed.

Now, this could all be perfectly legit, but it leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

1. Why would a program designed to pay for college be designed to only last three years. Last I checked, undergrad was four years.

2. Did Edwards really care about this program, or was this a thinly veiled attempt to swing some votes while he tried to make it into the White House?

3. The article also states that the program was privately funded and that Edwards was in charge of fund raising. Now that he's been caught with a love child, is he shutting down the program because he's going to need money for a good divorce attorney and child support?

Labels: ejukayshun, presidential politics

Alright kiddies, it's time to see how smart you really are. Check out this Civics Test to work your brain a little bit. There are 60 questions that cover American History, American Political Thought, America and the World and The Market Economy.

After you take the quiz, read the findings to see what our college seniors know about civics. The findings will probably depress you. Or possibly you'll then understand why someone like Obama is so popular.

BTW, I scored 83.3%

h/t Ace

Labels: ejukayshun, rise and fall of American culture

I had a discussion with someone yesterday about why so many people have a problem with public school these days, seeing as how she and I both went to public schools, and we're not idiots. Well, here's my answer.

If you can watch this fifteen minute video demonstrating typical math education in today's public schools and not want to immediately yank your kids out of the school, then I don't know what else I can say to you.

This, of course, does not mean that I think that every public school is worthless, nor that all educators are worthless. But there is definitely a nice size chunk of educators out there that aren't worth the metal it would take to manufacture the bullet it would take to put them out of their misery.

Labels: ejukayshun, inconvenient truth

Heather Bresch, the daughter of West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin (?), apparently never met the requirements for the MBA that WVU awarded her.

A five-member panel has concluded unanimously that Mylan Inc. executive Heather Bresch, daughter of West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, did not fulfill the requirements for an M.B.A. degree from West Virginia University and that administrators acted improperly in granting her the degree retroactively in October, according to a person familiar with the report.

Further down in the article you learn that

Ms. Bresch, chief operating officer at the Cecil generic drug maker and a family friend and former business associate of WVU President Michael Garrison, has insisted she completed a master's degree in business administration in December 1998. She has repeatedly declined to provide a transcript or other documentation and has not spoken to the Post-Gazette since October, when she told the newspaper she had earned her degree.

Oh, so now she's a family friend and former business associate of WVU President Michael Garrison. I'm sure everything's on the up and up, then. I mean, no university president would allow his institution to award an MBA to someone that wasn't qualified just because they're a family friend and happens to be the daughter of the governor, would they?

Surely not.

Oh yeah, and in case you're wondering, since the article never mentions it, governor Joe Manchin is a Democrat.

Labels: biting sarcasm, ejukayshun, general rants, governmental idiocy, inconvenient truth, mediots

A school in Reedsburg, Wisconsin is in trouble with local Christian groups for encouraging elementary students to cross-dress.

Students at Pineview Elementary in Reedsburg had been dressing in costume all last week as part of an annual school tradition called Wacky Week. On Friday, students were encouraged to dress either as senior citizens or as members of the opposite sex.

A local resident informed the Voice of Christian Youth America on Friday. The Milwaukee-based radio network responded by interrupting its morning programming for a special broadcast that aired on nine radio stations throughout Wisconsin. The broadcast criticized the dress-up day and accused the district of promoting alternative lifestyles.

"We believe it's the wrong message to send to elementary students," said Jim Schneider, the network's program director. "Our station is one that promotes traditional family values. It concerns us when a school district strikes at the heart and core of the Biblical values. To promote this to elementary-school students is a great error."

Please allow me the opportunity to point out that this is an extreme overreaction by the radio station, which has resulted in parents going crazy over, well, nothing.

Look, I'm all for parents being involved in education and ensuring that schools aren't working to subvert the values the parents teach at home, but this is harmless fun. Have they never had a spirit week during homecoming when students dress up in stupid costumes every day? Next thing you know, they'll be protesting against powder puff football because the girls are being too boy-ish.

Powder puff football was one of my favorite times during high school. The girls would wear the football team's jerseys and the guys would wear the cheerleaders outfits with outlandish wigs and makeup that looked like it as applied with a trowel and everyone would have a great time. It didn't mean you were a transvestite, it meant you could loosen up and have a good time.

So to all the parents up in arms about this I say "Chill out". Seriously. There are enough real problems out there for you to get upset about. You don't have to manufacture a sexual crisis in the schools.

And if this weren't an anonymous blog, I would post photos of myself in drag. At a church Halloween party. Doing the church lady dance. But instead you'll just have to imagine it for yourself.

Labels: ejukayshun, general rants, inconvenient truth, rise and fall of American culture

We've all seen the stories about students in America who can't find Iraq on a map, or who can't name our Vice Presidnet, now comes surveys that show that Britain's students are receiving the same level of instruction.

One in three primary school pupils believe that Sir Winston Churchill was the first man to walk on the moon, according to a survey.

That's right, in a survey of students between the age of four and ten in the U.K., 1/3 don't know the difference between Sir Winston Churchill and Neil Armstrong. Not really much of a surprise, though, considering the results from this survey.

• A fifth of British teenagers believe Sir Winston Churchill was a fictional character, while many think Sherlock Holmes, King Arthur and Eleanor Rigby were real.


• 47% believe king Richard the Lionheart was fictional


• 27% thought Florence Nightingale was fictional


• 65% believe that King Arthur was real


• 58% believe that Sherlock Holmes was real and lived at 221B Baker Street


• 51% believe that Robin Hood lived in Sherwood Forest and robbed from the rich to give to the poor

I would be willing to bet, however, that many of the students that have no clue whether Winston Churchill was real have strong opinions about the war in Iraq and man-made global warming.

It kills me what passes for civics classes these days. Instead of learning about history, how our government was founded, and the fight for liberty by so many, students learn how the importance of recycling, the evil, imperialistic tendencies of America, and how Europeans are responsible for most of the evils of the last 400 years.

People wonder why Europe doesn't have the stomach to fight the war on terror, when it's glaringly obvious. A country that doesn't teach it's children about the resolve of Winston Churchill and the British people during WWII will never understand why they should stand up to any evil.

So, out of respect for one of the greatest war time leaders of any country in history, Sir Winston Churhill in his own words. If you can listen to this and not be moved, you are a heartless bastard.

Labels: ejukayshun, rise and fall of American culture