Comments on Badtux the Snarky Penguin: Like Mexico

Dude, You just described my life up till now.

2007-08-17T20:10:24.440-07:00

Dude, You just described my life up till now.

I was discussing a tangential point with my daught...

2007-08-17T13:10:29.283-07:00

I was discussing a tangential point with my daughter the other evening. All you hear now from conservatives wanting to do anything with education is that we need to graduate kids who are prepared to go into the workforce. Not kids who are bright and might get the "next big idea," just worker-bees; cogs in their great machines.

Maybe more than Mexico, that's more like the ex-Soviet Union with their trade schools. Kids who showed any amount of talent at anything were pigeon-holed from an early age to be mechanics or plumbers. Only the well connected and those who could grease a few palms could get into a true University.

But the end result would certainly be Mexico del Norte nonetheless.

i think of what faces the kids like me today and i...

2007-08-16T20:27:39.193-07:00

i think of what faces the kids like me today and i despair. i had to leave home and board with a mormon family to get into a good high school. then i went into the service for eight years, then college on the g.i. bill back when you could actually go to school with it, and eat, and have a modest roof over your head. i've never really used my degrees for any of the work i do. but, for the most part, my upward mobility has come from a combination of talent and luck. lots of bloody luck. one of the things i've been prediction from the leave no child's behind movement is that like some of the european countries there will be a test given at about twelve that will decide whether you are a consumer or a service worker. one day, one test, the rest of your goddamn life is decided.

Damn, great post.I used to live in San Hosie mysel...

2007-08-16T15:16:15.321-07:00

Damn, great post.
I used to live in San Hosie myself,rode back and forth to The City on a bike. I still remember the giant antenna arrays and the collider tunnel that goes under the freeway at Stanford.I couldn't afford to live down there now if I wanted to.Good thing I like the rain up here out of Portland.
BTW, for some unknown reason I had not bookmarked you,thats been fixed.

A Republican is someone who can't drive by a treeh...

2007-08-16T14:56:46.593-07:00

A Republican is someone who can't drive by a treehouse without having fantasies about new ways to pull up the ladder.