Comments on: You Can Donate to County Gov’t

By: musing

musing — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:18:43 +0000

Majung
Mar 11th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
“Ridiculous” means nothing. It’s a moving target. It’s a fad container. Maybe the authors of the US Constitution should have simply written:

“Be Reasonable, Not Ridiculous, Please!”

By: Just Bob

Just Bob — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:24:03 +0000

You are not Glenn Beck or Rush L.

Actually as a local radio talk show host… He is.. the local versions anyway. Him and “Joe Thomas”.

By: JoeBlowCville

JoeBlowCville — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:02:09 +0000

Thank you to the Progress and to the citizens for exposing this for what this is, a chance for a few to get attention they crave and their hatred for IMPACT. Why else would so much attention be put towards copying a group that they publicly have condemned. To Mr. Schilling, you lost, and by a large margin. Why did you loose? Because you did not contribute. Because you did not take advantage of a great opportunity that few have in Cville. To not be part of the democratic machine and to be able to change policy. You are not the 6th Councilor you are the guy who came in last based on your performance as an elected official. If you have ideas, or differing opinions, share them respectfully and be part of the conversation. You are not Glenn Beck or Rush L. you are the guy who lost at a time that the democrats had a weak hand. Deal with it. And if you need to change the way we handle government, come to City Council, the Board of Supervisors, write a letter, organize a meeting, be part of the solution. Stop being part of the problem.

By: Just Bob

Just Bob — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:34:58 +0000

Type-o.

I should’ve put some sort of break between my quote and Dirt Worshippers quote which followed my quote.

Oh well.

By: Just Bob

Just Bob — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:33:43 +0000

Dirt Worshipper wrote:

Just Bob, that’s obviously crazy talk.

Just Bob Wrote:

We'll agree to disagree.

I can’t tell you how many of the kids I grew up with in Albemarle County schools were members of Farmington and other country clubs, and yet many of them were the biggest screw-ups I’ve ever known. Breeding doesn’t make you a good parent either…

And isn't amazing how having loads of money will allow you to buy your kids, or yourself (to the point of hiring someone else to do your parenting for you- Nannies, tutors etc), out of any number of problems.

I also think that if we had a first class mental health and substance abuse treatment system in the United States that it would do wonders for allowing the educational system to do it’s job with less distraction.

That would require Health Care Reform. Or as the Republicans (wrongly in my opinion) put it- Socialized Medicine. As it is- the mental health aspect of any insurance policy is inadequate for anyone that seriously needs it. It's there only as a profit point- because so many people in this culture will fight to deny that they need any thing that even suggests mental health. Cecil wrote:

We’re never going to require people to get a breeder’s license before having children, so therefore we’re always going to have SOME lousy parents and poorly parented children.

Money wouldn't fix that either- since rich people are always able to (generally speaking) buy themselves out of whatever problem they're having.

By: Cecil

Cecil — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:58:46 +0000

I understand the frustration with lousy parenting (of any social class) and all the social and individual ills it creates, and I understand the desire to force, somehow, those parents to do a better job. I’ve yet to see, though, a practical solution to this problem. We’re never going to require people to get a breeder’s license before having children, so therefore we’re always going to have SOME lousy parents and poorly parented children. The question, to my mind, is what do we as a society do with those children? I don’t believe that stripping away the social services that try to make up for parental deficiencies will improve the situation. Parents who don’t feed their kids a healthy breakfast will not transform into parents who serve their kids a healthy breakfast simply by taking away the free/reduced-price breakfast option, for example. Those kids will just come to school hungry, like they did before the free/reduced program was introduced, when their poor and/or lousy parents didn’t give them breakfast.

Dirt Worshipper, I would embrace your idea of voluntary schooling beyond middle school (or some other cut-off) IF we lived in a society that offered any kind of meaningful, stable, remunerative work options for people with high school or sub-high school educations. That, to me, is the bigger problem — the gutting of blue collar, industrial, manufacturing jobs in this country. Kids who drop out at the middle school level don’t have an economic option beyond hourly employment at Wal-Mart. Which is no way to rebuild the middle class. Which is what I think really has to happen in the U.S.

By: Dirt Worshipper

Dirt Worshipper — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:05:05 +0000

Just Bob, that’s obviously crazy talk. I can’t tell you how many of the kids I grew up with in Albemarle County schools were members of Farmington and other country clubs, and yet many of them were the biggest screw-ups I’ve ever known. Breeding doesn’t make you a good parent either…

I do think though that we try to bundle too many services under the school system. It’ll never happen, but I wish they’d make school voluntary after middle school, with the option to return at any time and get an education. (We might substitute mandatory vocational training instead). Unfortunately, the current system puts teachers in the position of educating kids who really don’t want to be there so that a huge portion of their time is spent babysitting.

I also think that if we had a first class mental health and substance abuse treatment system in the United States that it would do wonders for allowing the educational system to do it’s job with less distraction.

Of course, there’s a huge list of other things that would improve the schools systems that will probably never happen. The biggest of which is that the State and the Feds need to either provide more funding at the State and Federal level or leave education to the localities.

By: Just Bob

Just Bob — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 07:08:56 +0000

Cecil,

I’ve got no problem with Socialists. I was just using my last post to point out the contradictions between what people will accept that is technically “socialist” and what they will fight against - which is also “socialist.”

I will agree to disagree about public education. I don’t think it’s as good as the invention of sliced bread. I don’t think it adds enough. And I think it lets a lot of people that should never be parents… it lets them off the hook regarding parenting.

When you enable “dumb parents” to help their progeny to survive, you enable the gene pool to become dumber. Society and the species does not benefit from that.

Yes I just said/wrote that.

We’ll agree to disagree.

By: perlogik

perlogik — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:29:36 +0000

Subscription fire service would never work in the modern day- insurance and mortgage companies would basically insist on it. It is probably best delivered by a government.

Public education is one of the very things that help make this a great country and I happily support it. That said, why is it that if I’m not willing to sign a blank check every year that makes me anti-education. It comes down to trust and I don’t believe the Albemarle School board knows how to run a tight financial ship. Ron Price’s comments were most revealing. Even if they have a surplus (which is possible but doubtful) Price still wants a tax increase. That statement seemed to speak volumes to those who don’t think that the school board knows what frugal means.

By: Cecil

Cecil — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 20:15:45 +0000

Just Bob wrote, “You know that’s the way they used to do it- at least with the Fire Department. If you weren’t paying a subscription to them then they’d only show up to make sure your burning house didn’t catch a nearby subscriber’s house on fire.

And I would be okay with that as well. ”

You know, I would not be okay with that, if only for this reason: lots and lots of kids live with parents who have not made great decisions, and I just can’t see punishing those kids (you know, like letting them die in a house fire) because of their dumb parents. I guess you can call me a socialist.

And I would be okay with that.