Education=Good, Rick=Bad

Apparently Butt Juice's faith is not very strong and by his words, not up to the scrutiny that something, I dunno, like science, endures and thrives on. If a particular and specific faith is really the word of an all powerful God, then why be scared of going to college. Rick (Butt Juice) incorrectly made the statement that the super awesome Black Prez is a snob for insisting that everyone get a college education. Forget that his mom got that good ol' FREE college education back in the day, a college degree will lead you astray and away from...faith.

Guess what, he's wrong. His numbers do not add up and when journalists requested the data source from his campaign...no answer, crickets. But so what if it college did lead to a life without faith. So what.

So this country will be filled with a population that has (generally) studied everything from science to the arts. Back in the day we used to call that "well rounded." How are we going to compete in the world market(s) with a population of fat, uneducated factory workers (no offense), when countries like India and China have hella cheep labor (which is not good, I'm just sayin') while at the same time churning out armies and armies of college graduates. We fuckin' can't.

"I've got the power." 

We are at a moment in time where a paradigm shift needs to occur in order to survive and thrive into the future. Our grandparent steel workers did build this country and our parents made the vehicles and homes that literally drove this countries prosperity for decades. Obviously (to me) the working one (factory, company) job in a lifetime then retiring to a warm climate on your pension is over. So what to do..."edge-you-me-kate-yo'sef."

Why is it that the dominionist of the GOP (that's you Newt) can declare war on secularism, but absolutely deny American Exceptionalism/Dominionism.

If your faith cannot stand up to the scrutiny of a college education, then perhaps it's not worth having. Do we want a nation of followers, those that believe a 1/3 man, ghost, God combo will physically come from the heavens, to earth, to save a portion of the population. Or do we want a nation of critical thinkers that has been exposed to the world of knowledge and even to...the world.

Do we want the next generation subscribing to the faith of our parents and grandparents, blindly believing that a sky father is watching you (prebirth, your whole life and after you die, for eternity) and that this sky father cares about who you have sex with and how (what a fuckin' perv), that women were born from dust or a man-rib (c'mon now, if your goona make shit up, at least be on the same page) and that my LGBT friends in love cannot get legally married. Or...

Do we want the next generation believing in, gee I dunno...evolution thru natural selection.

* One of my new favorite atheists Lawrence Krauss in the always good Washington Post On Faith.

* In case UR not a regular reader Butt Juice is Rick Santorum, dugh...

Slow Times At Cali High

Ugh, in fact Ugh squared. Upon opening the SF Chron this morning, that is what I said and felt in my heart. The headline reads "States High School Dropout Rate Almost 20%. That is soooo no good. That is 1 of 5 students. Look man, I was a punk rocker and new waver in HS in the 80's. I was an outcast. The Breakfast Club was like a documentary to me, but I'll tell you this kind gentle and very good looking readers...HS was easy.

I wanted to take the G.E.D. and get out a couple of months early but a counselor encouraged me to "tuff it out" and I did. I came late to the skepticism game but I was never stupid. I was never a great student but I did have the stuffs that I liked to read and I always considered my self a writer and an artist. I fear that the current generation is a-gonna make the comedy Idiocracy...a documentary.

All to often the school districts and the teachers get the blame, but I think this is totally unfair. I'm sure that they are trying the best that they can do with what little they have. They certainly are not doing it for the money. My wonderful "ex" graduated and got her teaching credential a couple of years back and with that she also gets a pink slip every year. She is dedicated and loving and I know, I know, that she wants nothing more than to teach those little germ factories and give them skills for the future.

Howz about that Pheobe Cates pool seen...right.

I look at it like this...If you go to the worst of the worst school with the highest dropout rate (that is you Oakland) there are still kids that graduate at the top of there class and go to college (or at least are competent in life, right). So why do some succeed and most do not (in these schools). I think that blame goes to the families. Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, there are families where generations and generations are, I'll just say it, stupid. Why?

Generations and generations of having children at a young age and then relying of the government (and I'm certainly not a conservative republican, I'm just calling it like it is). Doing God's work has enslaved young women and decreased their chances to have their own economic power, freedom. But what if they didn't have children at a young age, did they grow up in an environment where education is cherished. I think not.

Look man, I'm a minority and in fact I was very surprised to see Filipino's on the high dropout rate list. This is a problem all across the board, but unfortunately it plagues minorities at a higher rate. 1 in 5 kids is a lot and I'm frackin' pissed. This is just not right. you don't have to go to college right outta HS (I'm still in college at 42), but you have to have some degree of capability.

The cuts to budgets run soooo deep. Classroom sizes are increasing and good dedicated teachers are getting laid off. Students are deficient in the maths and sciences and religion is attempting to infiltrate the science and history classrooms. How can we compete with China and Japan and India. their students whomp all over our students.

I'm totally emotional, so I'm gonna stop. We are in a recession that, as far as the commoner is concerned, is a depression. The rich are getting richer and the poor are fighting over crumbs. C'mon California, this is about the future. I do not want to live in a world where the comedy Idiocracy is a documentary. Sheez.

* Article SF Chron