Guess I should have actually read my preview...should have said...

- Children who grow up in a home with parents who value education do well in school. Children who grow up in home with parents that do not value education do poorly.-

Amen! Children who grow up in a home where with parents who value education do well in school. Children who grow up in home that do not value education do poorly. PERIOD. Highly trained teachers, smaller classrooms where children can get more individualized attention, better resources, can help, but not nearly as much as quality parenting.

The highest performing school system in the state of Indiana is in a suburb just North of Indianapolis. It is a unionized public school system. Many of the poorest performing schools in the state are in downtown Indianapolis (both public and charters, btw). If one were to switch the populations around, (the suburban children were shipped into town, and the urban children shipped to the suburban school), there would be little, if any, change in the scores of either population...because, generally speaking, the suburban children are raised with the expectation that they will work hard in school, go on to college, and land a well paying job. Conversely, generally speaking, this is not the case for inner city school children.

That's funny...I remember, while searching for a job in 1999, seeing so many job postings with requirements that couldn't possibly be met. The one that made me laugh the most was..."job requires 15 years experience with Windows 1995." I actually emailed them and asked how one was to acquire 15 years of experience with a technology that was only 4 years old. They never did respond.

...because having something available (educational videos) is automatically going to motivate a child to learn. The inner-city thugs will trade in their weapons for computer terminals and the back-woods yee-haws will all take up book-learnin.' Give me a break. Make these types of systems available, and students who want to learn will utilize them, those that don't won't. Anyone who wants to learn can learn, and no one can make someone learn who is not raised to see the value of an education. And that's the issue no one wants to touch...CULTURE. Sure, it's easy for some to talk about personal responsibility when we're discussing health care, but no politician has the balls to say, "If there are other children taking the same classes with the same teachers at the same school that are succeeding, and your child is failing, take some personal responsibility. It's your child. Be a parent. Make sure they're not skipping class...make sure their completing their assignments and turning them in on time...make sure their studying for tests. If your child is doing everything that is required of them in school, and they don't have a learning disability, then lets see if it's a problem with the school.

fox guards hen house.

Ah yes, the AWG religion...

* God=Gaia (Earth's Climate)
* Prophets=Climate Scientists
* Priests=Democratic Politicians
* Prophecy Fulfillment=Any Natural Event Will Suffice
* Oracles=Climate Models, Magic 8 Ball, Broken Clock
* Gospel=All "Peer Reviewed" Scientific Papers, or Random Blogs that support, or can be manipulated to support, prophecy
* Sins=Gluttony, Greed, Sloth
* Divine Retribution=Everlasting Destruction, Fire and Brimstone
* Basic Tenant=Man Is Sinful
* Heretic="Believer" who questions any portion of Prophecy or Gospel
* Infidel="Non-Believer" a.k.a (Ignorant Redneck, Republican, Big Oil Puppet...)

Great! I'll give the thumbs up to any movie that will add to option of Saturday afternoon movies on the Will Smith channel (aka: TNT).

According to the most recent StatCounter stats, Firefox 3.5 is the World's "most used" browser.

http://gs.statcounter.com/#browser_version-ww-weekly-200827-200951

Only 22 billion years left? Nobody panic! ...We still have time to exit the Universe in a "disorderly" manner.

who put that bug up the boss's ass

"ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2008) - A new study by two York University researchers estimates the U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends almost twice as much on promotion as it does on research and development, contrary to the industry's claim."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080105140107.htm

It isn't just coffee mugs and iPods.

My wife worked for years at a country club near where we use to live. It was NOTHING for pharmaceutical reps. to spend $20,000+ on dinner and drinks for a group of local doctors, just to pitch their latest drugs.

The market doesn't regulate the price of drugs in the US, the patent holder does.