There are folks from forty-nine states captivated tonight....by live action reporting in Wisconsin....over a state-level senator recall election for six Republican state senators. MSNBC is covering this live analysis and fairly thrilled over reports coming in.
I sat there and pondered over this. Thirty years ago....it simply wasn't news about state-level senators from another state. So the news media has slipped enough that folks watch this type election like a NASCAR race. Apparently, there is some kind of thrill involved.....even if there is no level of common sense over the situation.
In a decade, I could see city elections in Oshkosh being hyped up via MSNBC and watched by folks in Knoxville, Tennessee. Perhaps we'd sit down on a Tuesday night in August and observe county elections in Idaho for entertainment. Maybe we'd even have city council elections from Reno that would get us all peppered up in September as the NFL season started up.
What I see in the future is a channel or two that specializes in city and state elections....mostly from places that none of us really know anything about. Eventually, we'll add foreign elections....from Tonga, Peru, and El Salvador. It'll end up like the History Channel....mostly reality TV and some think-tank guy talking local Tonga politics and getting both opposition parties on the island really hostile and acting mischievous. My name for the channel? Democracy TV.....live and in full rich color, with mostly all corrupt and diabolical politicians as your actors.
Kind of sad how far some Greek form of government has fallen.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
A Word About Waivers
Back around nine years ago....this No Child Left Behind law became effective. It was one of the five big Bush era accomplishments....or at least they will tell you that.
Eventually, and this took a while....folks got around to realizing that a fair amount of cheating was being done by teachers and administrators. That was the only way that they could look outstanding or improving. Officials throughout America are disturbed by the trend, and they need relief. So they are asking the Obama administration....to waiver them from testing mandates. It appears very likely that the Secretary of Education will find some magical non-existent waiver program in his pocket, and just give the schools the ability to opt out of testing. So in effect...the No Child Left Behind law dissolves....even though congress didn't approve the waiver.
That's how things work in America. If you can't fix something....you waiver it....with imaginary waivers that are non-existent and not stamped legal by Congress.
I paused over this. There are a lot of kids who don't pass their driving test. Why couldn't we waiver that and just hand them a license with an imaginary waiver?
There are a lot of college kids who booze it up and party through four years and just can't graduate.....so why couldn't we waiver them with an imaginary waiver?
There are a lot of folks with home loans that way beyond what they can ever pay.....so why can't we waiver them with imaginary payments of some type from the government?
There are a lot of folks with cars in bad shape and facing a vehicle inspection by the state.....so why can't we waiver them with an imaginary inspection waiver?
There are a lot of idiot Congressmen and Senators who face a dismal re-election in 2012.....why can't we waiver them so they can just skip the election?
The bottom line? Never raise your standards beyond reality....otherwise, you fail the objective and look bad. Keep the standards low, so we can match our educational agenda up with Tonga....a respected third-world country in the Pacific.
Eventually, and this took a while....folks got around to realizing that a fair amount of cheating was being done by teachers and administrators. That was the only way that they could look outstanding or improving. Officials throughout America are disturbed by the trend, and they need relief. So they are asking the Obama administration....to waiver them from testing mandates. It appears very likely that the Secretary of Education will find some magical non-existent waiver program in his pocket, and just give the schools the ability to opt out of testing. So in effect...the No Child Left Behind law dissolves....even though congress didn't approve the waiver.
That's how things work in America. If you can't fix something....you waiver it....with imaginary waivers that are non-existent and not stamped legal by Congress.
I paused over this. There are a lot of kids who don't pass their driving test. Why couldn't we waiver that and just hand them a license with an imaginary waiver?
There are a lot of college kids who booze it up and party through four years and just can't graduate.....so why couldn't we waiver them with an imaginary waiver?
There are a lot of folks with home loans that way beyond what they can ever pay.....so why can't we waiver them with imaginary payments of some type from the government?
There are a lot of folks with cars in bad shape and facing a vehicle inspection by the state.....so why can't we waiver them with an imaginary inspection waiver?
There are a lot of idiot Congressmen and Senators who face a dismal re-election in 2012.....why can't we waiver them so they can just skip the election?
The bottom line? Never raise your standards beyond reality....otherwise, you fail the objective and look bad. Keep the standards low, so we can match our educational agenda up with Tonga....a respected third-world country in the Pacific.
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