BS-87

"Physically speaking, education has no mass nor does it occupy space. In addition, the process of 'getting' it involves most of the work to be done by the 'customer'...a quite different characteristic." Maybe the real problem is that there's people in this world who don't think you have to work to "get" anything, not even an education! Education should be more important to us than the air we breathe. Children should be working to "get" it far harder than their teachers do to "give" it. Education may not occupy space, but it will decide what space you occupy. Edited

http://cafehayek.com/2011/04/grocery-school.html This is a pretty interesting analogy to argue the point that the Dept. of Education should be abolished. To pre-argue the point, Education is very comparable to food.

BadenP - You are right, but a little misleading. Those countries only test the top 10% of students. However, the top 10% in China outnumbers the 100% of American counterparts.

JoeBob The only reason Obama isn't producing his birth certificate is because it's cheap advertising. The myth has been debunked, and so he gets the benefit of labeling people who disagree with him as crazies. It's only a matter of time before people who disagree with him on health care reform, etc. are labeled in ways similar to "birther" to make them seem silly instead of actually debating.

I'd be far more worried about his association for decades as an adult with Rev. Wright than about being a Muslim for the first decade of life.

JoeBob has a point. Some kids learn faster than others, which is why the next system of education in America will need to be competency based instead of schedule based. Some kids can, at 16, complete all the competencies a college ready student should have. Some kids, at 18, are will not even be work-ready in their competencies. We will start seeing a lot of independent and small group work versus the traditional classroom. These individuals and small groups will "test out" of competencies, and those who can will move on to more challenging work and those who don't will rec

packsaddle - Another lefty indoctrinating our kids, who'd have thought. "our failure to use our ingenuity and creativity to develop and pursue alternatives to oil, combined with our anti-intellectual acceptance of superficial things over education...these things may well have started our decline already. And I don't see ANY member of the current political crop as having a solution to this." We agree on this point. I just have the optimism that someone in the field will be willing to address the issue of education. This is a whole other argument, but I'm with Ron Paul who wo

TwoCubDad- Past District Commissioner, just happy to be a Unit Commissioner now. I am an antagonist though, and you will always find me on what I feel is the weaker side of the argument. This is because I believe nothing can be as simple as right or wrong, and the unexamined opinion is not worth holding.

packsaddle- When you're doing a boy talk at a school, would you rather have a captive audience or do you think sending the boys' teachers some emails letting them know there's a really great recruiting video on your website?

Scoutfish, if memory serves me correctly... Your council does not do an FOS campaign. Which may shock many people here. Instead you have a series of community luncheons and other events called Investment in Character or something along those lines. Still the same thing, minus unit presentations... I personally think they're missing out by not giving your units the opportunity to see a presentation on how they can directly support Scouting in your Council...

You're right to be skeptical of our exceptionalism. However, if we're not willing to fight and preserve it, we will lose it. If we do not keep other nations at arm's length, we will lose it. If we fail to be on the cutting edge of progress in our world politically and socially, we will lose it. You're right that we're slipping, but our question should be how do we fix it, not how do we relinquish it.

"And if yeh do find it reasonable for some reason, then I reckon yeh have to ask yourself why for this president and no one before?" - Beavah "I think we know the answer to your last question." - skeptic You can say that I'm the first one to sling the phrase "racism", but I think the rest of us will admit what these posts insinuate.

packsaddle - I'm glad to know you value the American way, it's just a shame we don't agree on how to fix our current problems. The first and foremost being debt, the second being entitlements (which is tied to the first). Welfare only creates the need for welfare. Safety nets are good and all, but they can only be a net, not a hand trying to push them back up. Social Security has only succeeded in making our seniors and future seniors dependent on Social Security. Obama is not a strong leader willing to make the changes we truly need to make, because he is only worried about reelection. We can

CalicoPenn - You're both right and wrong. We are just like those previous superpowers. You are wrong by saying that this position is not sustainable. Trump may actually have the best idea on how to make sure we keep our place at the top. It's a shame he's just playing politician instead of giving it a serious go...(This message has been edited by BS-87)

The heap we're on is not garbage. Our people are overwhelmingly fortunate to be Americans. Maybe packsaddle and skeptic would rather be Bangladeshi?

Except that we really are at the top of the heap, whether we deserve it or not. We need to defend our position at the top of the heap, not run down the hill to join the masses struggling towards the top.

http://www.esquire.com/cm/esquire/images/SY/esq-conservative-map-0511-xlg.jpg A fun graphic from Esquire magazine outlining today's popular conservatism.

By special role I mean that the United States serves as the strongest economic, military, and social welfare force in the world. This is because our dollar is the World Reserve Currency, we are unmatched in military strength, and we're allowed both of these by the rest of the world because we also do our best to ensure human rights are recognized worldwide. If we lose our ability to act unilaterally, as Obama would have us relinquish, we lose that role. If we lose our position as the world's reserve currency, as the Federal Reserve is ensuring through their decades old game of deval

It comes to that conclusion because we fill a unique role in the world today. A. Anyone who would take us out of our special role in the world would be "destroying" America as we know it today. B. Obama does not want America to hold that special role in the world, and has been acting in ways to undermine that special role. Conclusion - Obama is "destroying" America as we know it today.

It always comes back to racism doesn't it? Do any of the left leaners here disagree with Allen West or Herman Cain's platforms? If you disagree with their policy stances, I'm afraid to say it's probably just because you're racist. Accuse me of being anti-statist, ultra-conservative, or crazy libertarian, but DO NOT assume I'm racist because I disagree with a POTUS for his beliefs that America is the "big bad" and who doesn't understand American exceptionalism. He feels our exceptionalism is no different from the patriotism of other nations, but the United States fills a unique role i

Ron Paul's new book just came out. If it's like his previous two, it should outline what a President who follows the Constitution should be doing. I'd trust his word on that subject over anyone else in the Republican field. Anyone pick up "Liberty Defined" yet?

Newbie Den Leader- How about instead of a 25% price decrease, they just avoid a 33% price increase?

CalicoPenn - The left has been guilty of this since the argument started. They assume that by debunking one part of the argument, you debunk an entire movement. You've addressed quite well the already debunked myths. Some people are going to be silly enough to still believe what they believe despite what you present. However, there are people who understand what you say, and stand with you against the nonsense who also question eligibility because there still exists confusion about who is and who is not eligible to run for President. Just because you can prove Obama was born here doesn't

packsaddle - The stance you want people to take is to believe in a myth that's already been debunked. It's like you're asking people to avow they believe the Earth is flat! It sounds like the questions people have on here are well articulated and researched, not just mindnumbed sheeple opinions. Therein, nobody is willing to be degraded with a term like "birther" which in itself puts you in a category as someone with no sense of reason. I'd rather have two questions than two contradicting opinions.

I'm not a "birther" because I CAN be persuaded by facts. As Trump has been saying though, if our POTUS was not born in Honolulu, this is the most devious and earthshaking scam, fraud, and cover-up of our time. Would I put it past either of our evil parties, not really. Do I think they'd waste their time, not really. Unfortunately, people who argue eligibility like myself are lumped into the same group as those who deny facts. I'm not arguing facts, I'm arguing interpretations.