BF2S Forums Search

Jay wrote:

RTHKI wrote:

http://nypost.com/2013/10/08/us-adults-are-dumber-than-the-average-human/

I always love articles like this where the solution is to simply spend more money. We're always a few billion dollars away from solving some grand problem, if only we'd make the investment...

We've always had a love/hate relationship with schools and education in this country. We always pay lip service to wanting to improve the lot of our children, we want them to be high achievers etc. but our culture teaches kids the opposite. Everything has to be practical, everything has to have some use. How many times did you hear a classmate in school ask a teacher 'why do I need to learn this? when will I ever use it in my career/job?'. How many times has a parent said the same thing about their child's homework? We have a culture that does not learn for the sake of learning but instead practices escapism as if it were our true calling. This is why we have athletes and movie stars and musical artists making tens of millions of dollars a year.

It doesn't matter if we pay our teachers $50,000 or $500,000 a year because it's not the teachers that are really the problem. Sure, there are great teachers and shitty teachers, but the average teacher is competent at the least. No, the problem is the students, very few of whom put any effort at all into their studies beyond the bare minimum to get by, and again, very few that actually bother to learn anything not taught in the classroom. Ever been the smartest kid in a classroom? I have. Know what I did in my free time? I read. Know what the kid who didn't pay attention and constantly caused the rest of the class to slow down their learning pace did in their free time? They watched tv or played video games or bullshitted on the phone with their friends for hours every night.

Finally, what we've seen over the previous decade is treatment of schools as national investments. They treat them like businesses: put x money and time in, get y result out. They keep pouring more money in, and school years keep getting longer and longer, and are kids getting any smarter? No, they're getting dumber. They're doing worse on tests. Why? Because they're burning the kids out and the culture has gotten even more distracted rather than intellectual. Look at cable television. History Channel used to show documentaries on the Civil War and other useful stuff. Now it has Ice Road Truckers. TLC used to show open heart surgery, now it shows Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. I'm not indicting America today, I'm indicting American culture from its birth, because these aren't symptoms of a new decline, America has always been this stupid, cable television just became more democratized recently and the stupid outnumber the smart by a very, very wide margin.

All the money in the world won't make Americans any smarter until America has a very real, sustained, culture change. Remember that the next time someone says that the solution to our problems is spending more money. It's not. It hardly ever is.

Jaekus wrote:

It's not like it is up to the party to select who they want to run, is it?

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ACT 1975 - SECT 18C

Offensive behaviour because of race, colour or national or ethnic origin
           
(1)  It is unlawful for a person to do an act, otherwise than in private, if:

                     
(a)  the act is reasonably likely, in all the circumstances, to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people; and

                     
(b)  the act is done because of the race, colour or national or ethnic origin of the other person or of some or all of the people in the group.

Note:  Subsection (1) makes certain acts unlawful. Section 46P of the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 allows people to make complaints to the Australian Human Rights Commission about unlawful acts. However, an unlawful act is not necessarily a criminal offence. Section 26 says that this Act does not make it an offence to do an act that is unlawful because of this Part, unless Part IV expressly says that the act is an offence.

             
(2)  For the purposes of subsection (1), an act is taken not to be done in private if it:

                     
(a)  causes words, sounds, images or writing to be communicated to the public; or

                     
(b)  is done in a public place; or

                   
(c)  is done in the sight or hearing of people who are in a public place.

           
(3)  In this section:

"public place" includes any place to which the public have access as of right or by invitation, whether express or implied and whether or not a charge is made for admission to the place.

Jaekus wrote:

No, but Abbott will lose the next election if Labor can get their shit together. This weekend is the most popular he has ever been, or ever will be.

Cybargs wrote:

my girlfriend accidently voted for lib dems coz she thought they were LNP... top lel. i almost fell for their trickery as well.

Cybargs wrote:

Spark wrote:

so today sure was one great big dump of stupid hey

clive palmer top lel. tony abbott cutting foreign aid... what a day.

Jay wrote:

And you can play it off and say 'haha i'm hated' on the forum for my beliefs, but again it's got nothing to do with being a so called conservative (you're not) and everything to do with the fact that the personality that you display on this forum, a construct wholly your own, is shitty. You're a shitty human being, and it has nothing to do with the political team you root for.

Spearhead wrote:

Why must every single active thread on BF2s be derailed like this?  It's not like you guys are derailing it in a good way, either -- EE chats, Trayvon Martin and now this one are about uziques drug habits.  What the fuck.  At least argue about something that has not been ddone literally a thousand times before.  I'd rather spend my time banging my head against the wall than read all this shit.

Ty wrote:

You tell 'em Joe.

Jaekus wrote:

Rudd now has ALP in prime position to win Federal Election as Labor gains again. ALP 54.5% (up 3%) cf. L-NP 45.5% (down 3%).

This week’s Morgan Poll, the third since Kevin Rudd became Prime Minister, shows another significant swing to the ALP. The ALP 54.5% (up 3% since last week’s multi-mode Morgan Poll of June 28-30, 2013) is now further ahead of the L-NP 45.5% (down 3%) on a two-party preferred basis.

The ALP primary vote is 41.5% (up 2%), ahead of the L-NP primary vote at 39.5% (down 1%).

Among the minor parties Greens support is 8.5% (unchanged) and support for Independents/ Others is 10.5% (down 1%) – including within that support for Katter’s Australian Party of 1.5% and support for the Palmer United Party of 1.5%.

If a Federal Election were held today the ALP would win comfortably according to this weekend’s multi-mode Morgan Poll on Federal voting intention with an Australia-wide cross-section of 3,521 Australian electors aged 18+.

GhostWhoVotes @GhostWhoVotes
#Newspoll 2 Party Preferred: ALP 50 (+1) L/NP 50 (-1) #auspol

AussieReaper wrote:

It's funny but Fraser wouldn't be the first to move far left after being a right winger most of his life.

It's like they reflect back on their sins in shame.

KuSTaV wrote:

Ah righto... I always thought that the LNP had a tight hold on QLD... maybe thats just the state politics that I'm getting confused with.

KuSTaV wrote:

I dont really understand how that works... basically does it show that since Rudd is PM, the polls show that Labor may win more seats? I dont know how it all determines that.