Mike LaRoche

Socialism and Islam both seek the destruction of the West, hence their de facto alliance.

Don't forget feminists. Three groups utterly at odds with each other, yet united in their zeal to destroy the West.

I think the population is far gone enough that not only is 2016 safe for Democrats, 2014 might be too.

Hate crime, more likely.

Mike LaRoche

Nigel Farage needs to be the next Prime Minister of the UK.  Time for some sensible immigration policies throughout the West.

How much do you want to bet that the next PM elected is Labour, on a platform of More Europe, More Socialism, More Multiculturalism?

Many times, yes, this is the historical pattern. But it can't go on forever. All civilizations reach a point where they "break", and the pendulum stops swinging, and the civilization simply dies. I think we've passed that point of no return. No civilization in history has done what we're doing and continued for long. Those stereotypes of decadent Rome, with the orgies and stuff? Way overblown, and what of it that did happen was in the late Empire not long before it collapsed. Romans were famously prudish in public, even close to the end. A Caesar banished his daughter to an island... and not a comfortable imprisonment, either... because she was easy.

The question is begged here, though: is moral decline a cause of civilization death, or a symptom?

Someone here once said they didn't like Rick Santorum because he was a "scold". Well, take a gander at these numbers, whoever you were: the nation desperately needs fewer cool kids and more scolds. I'm not optimistic about the future.When I was a child, I really didn't have much hope for the future because the conventional wisdom was that the Soviets were going to nuke everything into oblivion. Nothing terrified me as a boy quite like that old HBO special (with Orson Welles narrating) about Nostrodomus and his supposed prophecy about NYC being nuked, resulting in a John Carpenter-like wasteland were we slowly died of radiation while turning to cannibalism to feed. After the Soviet union imploded with a gentle *poof*, I was quite the optimist about the future, of America and the world.  That's all gone now. The Bible gives some comfort, as it has stated all along that it would come to this... but it's still depressing to see "One Nation Under God" becoming the worst kind of Sodom and Gomorra. And it's our own children that will betray us and tear down everything. 

And now Ofonagoro runs an investment firm. Maybe he's the Nigerian I keep getting all those offers of free money from.

I agree, but I think the dissenters had a point. This ruling basically takes away any power of courts to say "*insert alphabet agency here* has gone too far". There isn't any agency anywhere that should be able to expand the scope of their power on their say-so alone.

This Ricochet post is brought to you by the Psychic Friends Network.

I had very few bad teachers... bad in the mentally scarring Another Brick In The Wall sense... but I did have quite a few nice teachers that were in over their heads, and coaches were usually at the center of this. Most were friendly, sweet people that had absolutely no background in the classes they were assigned. They were usually coaches assigned to teach geography classes, history classes, etc. I knew more about the subject... even as a teenager... than they did at the time. They did the best they could, but their backgrounds were athletics, so preparing for class usually meant reading the chapter before we did, and then doing their best to lead a class discussion on it. It would be a bit like me being assigned to teach a class on crochet, and being told "just do your best". I knew a music teacher that had a computer science class tossed in his lap. His classes consisted of letting kids surf the web.

This is part of the larger problem of the Cult of Expertise. Expertise is a fine thing and necessary, but we've made a fetish of it, and ignore the shortcomings. Experts are still human, after all, with all of humanity's imperfections, including motive, judgement, etc.

Note to the UK: get out. Get out while you can, and do whatever you have to do to make it happen. If that means David Cameron's head on Traitor's Gate, so be it.  Do it before you're assimilated, Borg-style, into some faceless Brussels superstate.

Education majors tend to have among the lowest ACT/SAT scores. "Those who can't, teach" is a pretty old expression, so this may have been the reality for quite some time. I think the Education major should be abolished for high school teachers anyway. HS teachers should have a degree in the field they're teaching in... math, science, business, etc... with a minor that addresses teacher training.

I don't know if she was bad... let's face it, I was in the 4th grade, and could have skewed memories. But I have a vivid memory of finding a silver penny once (silver colored, I mean), and when I mentioned it in class, I was dismissed as mistaken or fibbing. "There aren't any silver pennies. Pennies are copper". When I insisted... even getting a little angry (hey, I saw what I saw), she rushed over and grabbed me in front of the line of students in the hallway and angrily scolded me for "talking back to her". Years later, I found out that in 1974, the US Mint had indeed coined a silver penny... made from aluminum... for one year only. So, I wasn't seeing things. That was my "There... are... FOUR lights!" experience with teachers. To this day, nothing pisses me off quite like someone arrogantly insisting that I couldn't have seen something I've seen with my own eyes.

You know, my Christology right now is more or less trending Arian. If anyone should have a reason to rip Catholicism, it should be me. And yet I tell you that despite my differences with Catholicism on doctrine, it's been a huge force of good in the world. Even if you're an atheist, you have to recognize what a civilizing force it's been. Which is why I don't get some of the Daily Kos-caliber Catholic bashing we see here frequently.

Uh, I say God was a Utopian, not Christians. Christians believe in a flawed world, and a Utopian next-world.   When Christians HAVE tried Utopia, it's ended badly. See: early Puritan settlements in North America.

We're going to just have to agree to disagree on human nature.