AZMike

Since we have apparently decided that being insulted is in the eye of the allegedly insulted, I have to say that I find Merlyn's implication that I have insulted him is itself insulting to me. And as CalicoPenn has said, if I feel I've been insulted, then I've been insulted!

Let's eat Grandpa. Let's eat, Grandpa. Grammar saves lives.

But do buy at Lowe's, which announced a program to financially support Boy Scouts at a grass-roots level with their Eagle Scout projects: http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2012/09/24/lowes-nails-it-helps-pay-for-eagle-scout-service-projects/#more-16419 When the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window, as we were told by the Mother Superior in "The Sound of Music." We'll still get by, no matter if a Chief Diversity Officer and Global Director of Education & External Relations throws a hissy fit or not. Merlyn is of course welcome to send Lowe's a nasty letter for not

"Actually, the Intel Foundation is supporting ANERA - a US 501c3 organization - in support of an educational program in Palestine. Unlike the Boy Scouts of America, ANERA doesn't have a policy of discrimination based on sexual orgainzation. The countries they work with may have laws against homosexuality, and folks in the Islamic religion may interpret the Koran to mean that homosexuality is a sin, just like folks in the Christian and Judean interpret the Bible and the Torah in that way, but granting organizations generally don't require that their recipients only work in areas where there is

Merlyn: "Maybe Intel shouldn't donate to any Christian organizations, either." Do they?

I think it would be appropriate if you are a user of Intel products and you find this action by Intel's Chief Diversity Officer and Global Director of Education & External Relations for Intel Corporation, Rosalind Hudnell to be objectionable and discriminatory, to send a polite, reasoned letter to to the Intel Corporation. I would suggest you keep it polite, professional, and courteous, but explain why you find this action offensive, and if it would impact your decision to purchase any of Intel's product line. If your stock portfolio includes Intel stock, or you are considering a purchase

I note that the Intel Corporation actively supports the Gaza Islamic University: "Intel is thrilled to be working with ANERA on this important new educational project in Gaza. ANERA has a remarkable track record in meeting the needs of communities in the Middle East by both expanding the local universe of IT professionals and providing them with the skills they need to find good jobs, remarked Aysegul Ildeniz, Intel regional director for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa. The services and training offered at the Intel IT Center of Excellence will help provide critical building blocks in

"So teaching the youth its all about power and having people fear you is a good thing?" Lighten up. We can still make jokes.

JMHawkins, I'll try to write something up as a follow-up on my comments on forgotten lessons. I have to go out of town so it may not be until after the weekend,

"AZMike, the difference in what I asked about and what you just answered is the 'rate', not the 'number'. I asked about your claim, "Educators, who seem to be the profession with the highest rate of sexual abuse against minors". You just answered, "You sound a little surprised that your profession (I think you mentioned you teach) has the highest number of reported sexual offenses." " Given the number of young persons we interact with I'm not the least surprised about 'numbers'. But the rate is a different matter. Your original claim suggests to me that a greater proportion of educato

It's interesting that us adult scouters are talking about using an experience with an obnoxious adult as a teachable moment, and that scouts should learn to deal with unpleasant individuals as they will have to deal with them in sales environments later, and that they should learn ways to deflect angry answers and find common areas of agreement. I asked one of the scouts in our troop last night what HE would do if an adult acted in a snarky manner when he was doing door-to-door popcorn sales. His immediate response was, "Toilet paper. Lots of it. After he goes to sleep." I'm pre

Sure, bring it back if you want. You asked me for some information I didn't get a chance to post, and I'd be happy to post it for you.

AZMike, "Educators, who seem to be the profession with the highest rate of sexual abuse against minors" packsaddle: "I was unaware of this statistic. Could you provide a reference for that claim?" Well, you could start by reading your newspaper every day. I live in a city that is somewhere around the 5th largest in the U.S., and it is rare for a week to go by without a teacher, coach, counselor, or other school employee being arrested for a sexual offense against a child in the metropolitan area. I suspect that statistic will hold in most areas. The occasional article on a minister,

As others have pointed out, it's not the crime, it's the cover-up...or at least, the public's perception that there is a cover-up. It's not enough to point fingers and try to claim that one group who works with youth are somehow "worse" than your favored group to try to score some kind of ideological point on behalf of your side. We need instead to ask if there are safeguards in place to protect youth against predators; whether those safeguards are appropriate and effective; whether innocent adults are being protected against false accusations; and whether there is a reporting mechanism that d

""Most kids are taught about the Scopes Monkey Trial, with the idea that the noble civil libertarian Clarence Darrow represented "Good" in supporting the teaching of evolution and redneck William Jennings Bryan represented "bad" in opposing the teaching of Darwinism." and later, "Bryan wasn't the redneck hick modern schools often depict him as." AZMike, I noticed the above from your post and it's not the first time I've heard those claims." If kids don't know about a pivotal trial/civil liberties case in American history, I may well have been wrong when I said that kids had learned

"AZMike, I noticed the above from your post and it's not the first time I've heard those claims. So I took the opportunity to talk to our guy who teaches a course on Evolution and Religion. I asked him to let me see the results of his 'entry' surveys with regard to the Scopes trial. I also surveyed approximately 150 students this morning with regard to it. By combining both sets of results I am able to construct a sample size of greater than 1000 observations, after the international students are removed from the sample (interestingly, some of them have heard of the Scopes trial, I didn't ask

CalicoPenn: "This whole eugenics thing is interesting but lets keep in mind that it's one thing to discuss it, it's quite another to put forth policies that will lead to it, like vouchers for healthcare. Yes, like the Obama voucher program that will push 2 million poor seniors from Medicare into voucher programs... As CalicoPenn has astutely pointed out in his post, Obama's Health and Human Services Department took only one date after his campaign speech to launcn a pilot program that would shift up to 2 million of the poorest and most-vulnerable seniors out of the federal Medicare p

The Utilitarian idea of an ethical imperative is the one most frequently advanced by atheists (notably Sam Harris) as a response to the need for a grounded moral philosophy. "The greatest good for the greatest number" sounds good in theory, until we realize its inherent moral squishiness - who is to decided what is the greatest good, and which minority members may have to suffer in the name of "human flourishing?" The use of euthanized patients' organs for transplants, whose organs are much fresher and less likely to be rejected, is seen as a positive good and is becoming common in Belgi

We're not really out of the woods yet on Eugenics. Some bio-ethicists (I should probably put that in quotation marks) have argued that parents should be allowed to kill an infant up to one year after birth, if not doing so would impact the quality of life of the mother or father: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/ethicists-argue-in-favor-of-after-birth-abortions-as-newborns-are-not-persons/ After the journal article that originally argued for this claim was published, it produced such vehement response (some of which was understandably over the top), that the journal editor published a

Beavah, I'm all about the high-handed pomp.

Apparently, Rednecks are one of the few groups its safe to exclude in the name of inclusion, as The Daily Show demonstrated: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-september-5-2012/hope-and-change-2---the-party-of-inclusion

Yep, not one of America's brightest moments. Eugenics was a big element of the Progressive political movement in America and Germany. A good, albeit controversial look at the political currents that led from Progressivism to the Fascist movements in Germany and Italy is Jonah Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism," available in most libraries. One of the things that doesn't often get taught in schools: Most kids are taught about the Scopes Monkey Trial, with the idea that the noble civil libertarian Clarence Darrow represented "Good" in supporting the teaching of evolution and redneck William

"This is my husbands side of the family.. Both mother/father-in-laws and brother/sister-in-laws though Catholic, disagree with the Republicans stance on Pro-life.. Both groups are pro-choice.. " So, they are in disagreement with a fundamental teaching of Catholicism, and which has been a fundamental teaching of Christianity since the time of the Didache, but still claim to identify as Catholics. "This was before I hit them with the question of what the Republicans planned to do to feed/house/educate and raise all the unwanted babies, that women were forced to birth and then gave up b

She may have to pay a Pole Tax. If your art form causes denim friction burns on the underside of your thighs, you're probably not practicing an actual art form.

Second on the Steramine tabs. Much lighter and easier to pack than bleach (liquid bleach also deteriorates over time once opened). You can get 'em cheap on Amazon, 3 stacking washpails and you're good.