Screw that. Sometimes, you gotta do what's gotta be done. Septic systems need to be cleaned out, criminals need to be executed - stuff just has to be done. If you want to walk around feeling superior by not getting your hands dirty, go right ahead, but don't expect to win any arguments on morality.

AC hasn't exactly justified Tsarnaev - he has given food for thought. He last sentence, "Just something to think about." He makes it pretty clear that if we weren't such arrogant bastards ourselves, then we may have had more sympathy from the world at large when the terrorists hit us. And, there is some suggestion that if we were less overbearing overseas, then just MAYBE the terrorists wouldn't have hit us.

Food for thought, assuredly.

Is he right? Is he wrong? I can't say for sure. But he does offer food for thought.

Yeah, I'm aware that Muslim terrorists are waging war on three continents already, against people who ARE NOT arrogant, overbearing bastards with military bases located around the world. Maybe the terrorists would have hit the Twin Towers anyway, and maybe the Tsarnaev brothers would have bombed the Boston Marathon anyway. I can't say for sure.

Think about it though.

Regardless - it is an existential war against those radicals, and Brigitte explains exactly why that is.

You should read the prophet's words. Really, you should read his words. Jesus is a forgiving God. Jesus wept. Mohammed never forgives, never forgets, and the only weeping he ever enjoyed was the tears of the widows and orphans as he raped them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Islam is the religion of peace! Well, except for a few radicals, maybe 2 or 3 percent, which would only make about a million radicals. And, maybe except for their supporters, maybe 20 percent or so, which would make about 200 million. Other than that, it's mostly moderates, who won't actually go out and jihad, but they'll cheer the jihadists on. You've nothing to fear from Islam, there's just no way that there are more than a three or four hundred million activists and jihadists combined!

My thoughts, almost exactly. Now and then, Anonymous allows one of their attacks to become public knowledge ahead of time. I've kinda sat in on the forums while the attack was being waged. Yeah - members of anonymous have command of botnets. Maybe not the largest, maybe not the most sophisticated, but, individuals might have ten, a hundred, a thousand bots under their control.

It takes no great leap of intuition to realize that "anonymous" might have thousand, or even tens or hundreds of thousands of shoddily secured routers to work with. Agree with them or not - they aren't stupid just because they're anonymous!

I think that we have all had an individual in our schools who just could not, or would not learn. Special ed types who are also discipline problems. The schools spend ten times as much on them, as they spend on kids who might want to learn.

At some point, you have to say enough is enough. There are hard cases that you are not going to educate, no matter how much effort, no matter how much money you throw at them.

I say, stop wasting time on them. Put them out of school, let them try to work for a living, let them learn how harsh the world is. Maybe next year, they'll come back pleading for another chance. If that happens, I'll be okay with that. If not - well, good riddance.

We don't need disruptive students in the class rooms - that much should be obvious.

Your TL;DR is off target.

The second part of your post is on target, but why wait until the BA is meaningful, before fixing the high schools?

There are a number of problems with our Common Core. The most publicized, and most criticized thing about it is, the teachers teach to the test. Recitals are nice and all - but if the student knows nothing more than what he is reciting, there's a reasonable chance that he can't use that knowledge. In effect, the teachers are helping the children to cheat to pass the tests!

Another problem is, those "common core" requirements are pretty lame, in and of themselves. They amount to the "lowest common denominator". The tests don't distinguish between high achievers, low achievers, and failures. Instead, everyone is tutored toward that LCD.

And, finally, parts of that "common core" are political goals, rather than educational goals. The "left" or "liberal" agenda is being pursued through the schools in this country. At the same time, the schools are intentionally being "dumbed down" by the global economy crowd. They don't WANT high achievers graduating, who might disrupt their global economy goals.

It's a very complicated thing - you could spend months researching it.

Bottom line, it's a mess.

Have you read Abraham Lincoln's biography? How about Thomas Edison? History is replete with examples of outstanding people who suffered hardships due to their station in life. If those two examples aren't good enough for you, then nothing will convince you.

You will please note, that I have made absolutely no justification for the banks exploiting kids who want an education. There is no justification for impoverishing college kids for life. Actually - that situation helps to justify my position. Education is overvalued, and over priced today. The economy does not support the prices being put on education. It's an insane situation.

Most of those kids can get an equivalent, and maybe a better education, if they just say screw it, and hit the books on their own. That scrap of parchment with a college seal on it is simply not worth the asking price.

How about we go back to something called "Vo-Tech"? There is a rather large percentage of students who just don't give a damn about higher education. Many of those students want hands-on experience in the trades - auto mechanics, computer repair, industrial maintenance, construction. We aren't all cut out to be brainiacs. Give those kids the education that they are INTERESTED in, give them the training that they DESIRE. And, cut them loose when they are ready to earn a living.

We also have a a percentage of people who cannot and will not EVER actually earn a high school diploma. Forget about "No Child Left Behind". Stop the nonsense with Common Core, or "Lowest Common Denominator". Flush those people out of the school system, and let them either fend for themselves, or subsist on the dole.

In effect, I want to change the structure of the education system. Stop teaching down to those who aren't interested. Reinstate the differences between vocational education, and academic education. And, when we have done so, then we begin raising the standards.

For as long as I have been alive, a high school diploma has meant little. It is merely a formality, a slip of paper with which one can open the lobby doors at a business, so that he can fill out an application.

A high school diploma should MEAN something. It should represent a considerable effort on the part of the student. It should be something he is proud of, not something that he had to get out of the way before he could begin a career - or before he could begin getting a real education.

Worse, that diploma has been further cheapened by the GED program. Employers today advertise for high school grads, or GED equivalents. Every dead beat loser in the country now gets a GED in prison, if he doesn't already have one.

Bottom line in my post was that throwing good money after bad isn't going to improve the situation.

I say that we return the school administration to the local communities, and get the feds out of the schools. The feds have usurped local authority time and time again, always through the immoral and unscrupulous use of money - and at every turn, they have screwed things up.

Uhhhh - you're pulling emotional strings here. How about we examine the actual numbers of cops killed, nationwide?

http://www.nleomf.org/facts/of...

It doesn't appear that the number of cops killed in a given year in the US has EVER EXCEEDED 300. The highest year on that chart looks like 1974, with 280.

How does that compare with other occupations? Hmmm . . . .

Have you ever expressed similar sentiments for logging personnel? Pilots? Fishermen? Truck drivers? (I'll give even odds that you are one of the millions of Americans who INTENTIONALLY CUT TRUCK DRIVERS OFF on a daily basis) How about auto mechanics? Have you ever given a thought to them? Do you think about miners, in the same way you think about cops?

There are a lot of occupations more dangerous than police work. I get so tired of the cops getting all the glory, all the sympathy - but you have none to spare for the people who keep the cogs of civilization working.

The 10 Deadliest Jobs:

1. Logging workers
2. Fishers and related fishing workers
3. Aircraft pilot and flight engineers
4. Roofers
5. Structural iron and steel workers
6. Refuse and recyclable material collectors
7. Electrical power-line installers and repairers
8. Drivers/sales workers and truck drivers
9. Farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers
10. Construction laborers

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ja...

You may, of course, find and cite your own sources - but no credible source places police among the most dangerous professions. I, for one, have always resented the damned cops for asserting that they are in a dangerous profession. They lie, and the gullible public believes them. And NONE OF YOU GIVE A DAMN ABOUT US WHO DO DANGEROUS WORK!!

Please. More money does NOT make for better students. The poorest of students have often times been the best of students. Each individual student needs some THING to ignite a hunger for knowledge within him. If/when that hunger is lit, nothing can hold a student back, short of death.

We Americans, despite the economic "hardships" of the past decade, remain among the wealthiest people in history, world wide. We don't starve. We aren't dropping in the streets from diseases. We don't have open warfare in our streets. Barring some violent weather now and then, we almost all go home to find our homes intact every day.

More money in the education system, or even more money in the classroom, will NOT make for better students. History proves that idea to be FALSE.

Our education system is badly flawed, and that flaw can be traced, at least in part, to the idea that more money can "fix" education. We have pampered little children who are distracted by meaningless nonsense. Kim Kardashian? Reality TV? Rock stars? Sports? Oh yeah - drugs. I can understand drug usage by the dirt poor, who live miserable lives. Those who spend all day out scavenging for a little bit of food, and still go to bed hungry - I can forgive them for trying to escape reality. Our little rich kids, with to much time on their hands? Escape from reality? They are LOSERS. And, we have raised them to be LOSERS.

Money isn't the answer.

Kids need to learn morals. Kids need some hardship. Kids need to WORK for the privilege of higher education - and I do NOT MEAN that they should be impoverished for life in exchange for an education. I mean, they should have to WORK for the privilege, instead of being pampered.

Keep the money. Instead, go into the classrooms, and get tough. We've needed a strong dose of tough love in the classrooms for the past 30 years, or more. Crack the whip, and stop treating kids like babies. Just drop pre-school, headstart, kindergarten, and all the rest of that shit.

I started school at age 5, and went straight into first grade. One month after my 18th birthday, I graduated high school. No amount of pre-schooling implemented since 1960 has improved on the final results among high school grads. NOTHING has improved those final results.

All that money has been WASTED.

If you have an old rotten ship, which threatens to sink every time it sails, how can you justify continuing to send it to sea? How can you justify painting it, again and again, and calling it seaworthy?

That is precisely the state of our education system. It is sinking, and we continue to paint it, to make it look pretty.

Cut the funds, and force school administrators to actually EDUCATE children!

Uhhhm. Think about this a second. IT ISN'T JUST FACEBOOK! Take at least a second to think. Maybe 60, or 600 seconds?

You're right - if I post information to a site which is known to be non-private, and expect it to remain private, then I am indeed an idiot.

But, what has been publicized? NSA intercepts EVERYTHING that the largest telcos carry. If it's digital, and it crosses Verizon's wires, it's intercepted. The metadata is recorded, and stored. EVERYTHING! Not just the shit I post or don't post to Facebook, but everything. Personal correspondence with the doctor, the preacher, teachers, shrinks, girlfriend, wife, mistress, with the children, with Amazon, Newegg, TigerDirect, Motorcyclesuperstore, Bikebandit, the motorcycle forums, PCoverclocker, hacking-lab, the employer, potential employers, potential educational institutions - EVERYTHING!

In short, we all live under a microscope, with the largest battery of computers and spying programs in the history of mankind collecting data about us.

And, I don't like that one bit. Congress doesn't have that right. Corporations don't have that right. The courts don't have that right. No individual, no agency, no construct made by mankind has that right.

Yeah, sure, Facebook is mentioned specifically - but Facebook is just part of the whole problem. Your government efffectively monitors your communications 24/7. And, I'm not aware of any sure method of evading that monitoring. There is no known proxy method, with or without encryption, that guarantees that you can evade the monitoring.

And, I resent that as much as I've ever resented anything in my life.

The day that I might actually DO SOMETHING that seems suspicious, "they" will pick through everything that is known about me, searching for ways to embarrass, discredit, and to convict me of some multitude of crimes, most of which are preposterous.

But all their preposterous accusations will be doublegood doublespeak.

Remember 'Running Man'? Just edit some video footage, and you can prove anything at all.

Nonsense. Complete and utter nonsense. Communications can be controlled, regardless of the pricing. The phone call can be totally free, and be monitored. Or, it can cost ten thousand dollars, and be monitored as well.

A dangerous person who is incarcerated should be strictly controlled. No access to telephones, or limited and closely monitored access is fine with me. Charging exorbitant prices is NOT alright. Someone is exploiting the prisoners and their families for profit, and THAT is exactly what I am talking about. The whole prison industry is exploiting the prisoners and their families.

Prisoners have less voice than any other group in America. No senator gives a damn about them, no congressman, no governor. Those prisoners with any voice at all are beholden to lawyers or to activists. They have few legal means of communication, and they are charged fees that are outrageous when they use them.

Your concerns about scams would be better addressed by getting control of all the cell phones smuggled into the prisons, oftentimes smuggled by the guards who are supposed to enforce the prison rules.

It would be virtually impossible for me to sneak a telephone into a prison, without being detected. But, I can offer a guard a hundred dollars to openly carry that telephone in to work with him, and he will readily give it to the individual I've specified. Some guards may hold out for more than a hundred dollars, some will simply refuse. Some few of them might go to the law, and report that I've attempted to bribe them. But, by and large, the guards are the major suppliers of cell phones within the prisons. And, THAT is where most of the scams come from.

In some cases, trustees may compromise the prison's own telephone system, but as nearly as I can tell, that is usually discovered in relatively short order, and corrected.

And, none of that justifies the flagrant exploitation of the people who are put in the care of the prison system.