As I was surfing the web, doing a bit of research, I came across a few liberal gems. Although these "precious words of wisdom" were written in May of 05, equating religious upbringing with ignorance and poverty is still a popular theme among at least some liberals, so I thought I'd touch a few points here on my pretty pink blog.
In all fairness, please let the record show that I nearly shot Coke (Ala Cola) through my nose while reading the first comment shown below. While this urge could possibly be linked to my ignorance (although I'm suspicious that my oft exaggerated sense of humor is more likely the culprit), I seriously doubt that it could in any way be linked to religious indoctrination or poverty. I once witnessed a fellow teen laugh and shoot soda straight through her nose and onto the dashboard of a minister's vehicle while on a road trip with a car load of giggling Christian teens and let me tell you, he was not impressed. So I know that wasn't religiously induced.
Oh yeah, also, like lots of religious minded people, I'm not impoverished. I don't think I'm all that ignorant either but I can see how I might appear to be so, considering the fact that I was up at 5 am holding my nose to ensure the proper flow of Coke (Ala Cola). On the other hand, since studies show the home educated to be happier people in general (and I was, for the most part, home educated), perhaps avoiding certain stress that comes with public education has enabled me to be so carefree as to be up at 5 am holding my nose to ensure the proper flow of...ok, I'm stretching that one a bit thin. I am pretty happy, though. Like abnormally happy most of the time, even when others insult everything that matters most to me as well as me personally...
...and I'm not even on any drugs. No, really. (Suffering sleep deprivation after working all night? You betcha.)
Anyhow, here we have it: Elitist liberal rhetoric at its finest.
Houston Democrats: Public School Fight Won't End Either, Guv!
A Chronicle article in which Rick Perry announces that the "fight for vouchers" will be back in 2007 is quite disturbing. Republicans truly do want to destroy public education. So, let us Democrats make our own announcement: The Democratic fight for public education will continue as long as Republicans want to tear it down!
Ok, all this education stuff I've been spouting all those years is just a conspiracy. Really my plot has been to help eeeevil Republikkkans take down the entire public education system so liberals will force us to put more people onto welfare, wait, we don't like that too much. Um, so they will not be able to get good jobs that make bags and bags of money, wait, we like people who make bags and bags of money! Ok, I'm not sure why, but clearly I must hate all children and am obligated to make them cry (I can just see those poor little darlings tearfully wailing about being forced into better schools right now. Bwahahaha!) Helping to take down an entire educational system is pretty good for someone destined to forever be ignorant and impoverished, no?
Instead of protecting teachers, improving public school programs, and improving college preparedness levels of our schoolkids, Republican Perry has chosen to demand his own brand of "accountability" from public schools (more testing!), while pushing legislation to funnel taxpayer money into private schools that are neither accountable, nor proven to be adequate.
Again, for the record, protecting poor performing teachers is part of the problem (I would think that good teachers would like to be rid of them as well), the same people ask that home educators who don't take one penny from the government undergo more regulation and testing (aka accountability), and taxpayer money is being funneled into public schools which are still not being held all that accountable while those having proven to be terribly inadequate are those which would see the voucher action. So, there.
Still, Perry has the gall to state "I suspect as long as there are children who are in need of getting some relief in failing schools that it will always be out there and be promoted by a number of Texans,"
As long as we have Rick Perry as governor, he and the Republicans will always think little of the vast majority of Texas schoolkids, while placing at the top of his list wealthy private school owners, like James Leinenger. And why not? Public school children can hardly afford to send Perry on trips to the Bahamas; Leininger can!
The gall. One wonders what James Leinenger is doing right that enables him to keep his classrooms full without the threat of government intervention. Let's cut through the bs. People are and will continue to become more interested in vouchers as long as public schools continue to fail the nation's children. Public school children can hardly afford to wait another unknown number of years for Democrats "fix" their schools as they've been promising since I was in pigtails myself. (Hello, they're in even more trouble now and I'm all grown up with one of my own nearing graduation! How s/low can you go?)
As long as Republicans continue to exclude public schools from their priorities the vast majority of Texans will fight for public education--not just "a number of Texans," as the Guv says about support for his vouchers.
Kudos to the Coalition for Public Schools and Carolyn Boyle for fighting for Texas kids!
I think the truth is liberals are upset because Republicans are making public education too much of a priority, not the other way around. They just disagree with how to go about making public education better. The voucher issue will not ever go away, not if people like myself who care more about the "education" part of public education have our way.
Here's the comment that really got me.
It might help if more of us understood WHY the fascist party wants to destroy public education. It's not simply a question of tax dollars, that's largely a short-term smoke screen.
Fascist party, huh? See, here's where I begin to feel a little laugh building up. Such drama. Wow.
While getting my degree in Psychology I learned that when people are better educated, or perhaps I should say 'when people have a more broad (liberal) education', they are less likely to conform to an authoritarian hierarchy, less likely to do what they think is expected or allowed and more likely to make their own decisions independant of dogmatic ideology.
Translated, this really reads:
First of all, I'm really smart. Way smarter than you and when I say better educated you should take my word that "liberal" means better. No need to do your own research on that because like I said, I'm more smarter than all y'all! Also, when children are indoctrinated with liberal ideology they learn to conform to that liberal ideology and are way less likely to listen to what their parents and church says, especially when it goes against liberal (and therefore better) ideology. We'll teach them to do whatever feels good to them regardless of stinking traditions and norms and it'll all be good just so long as they're all dedicated to the liberal cause. Look, someone's going to indoctrinate these children, so it might as well be us!!! Screw what their mothers think, all of that "choice" bs only counts when the child is inside the womb, since we gave her that right it would follow that all rights outside the womb are belong to us and we all know how unhealthy fathers are. Unless they're pre-approved super sensitive liberals, of course.
Seriously, perhaps I exaggerate but note how parents are suspiciously absent from the rant. It's either the public schools or church. God or them. A parent's individual choice in raising their own child is not even an option worth mentioning in some minds. Hey, maybe some parents just want their kids to learn to read and write in school and prefer everyone just leave the parenting to them.
For this reason, better educated people are less likely to attend church compulsively and less likely to believe everything their preachers tell them unquestioningly. They are more likely to understand the constitution and laws of the land, and know when they are getting screwed around. Better educated people are more likely to question authority.
Trust you me, I know when I'm getting screwed around and this individual didn't even kiss me first! The shame of it... I'm not completely sure what to make of this statement. We all know that our failing public schools will be the public schools affected by vouchers and it's fair to say that they are not adequately teaching children the constitution if they are failing to teach them the basics, isn't it? And when the phrase "better educated" is used, is it safe to assume that really means "liberal" as we've come to understand the word? I think so. I'm left wondering if the above insinuated goal is to lead our children to not go to church regularly (oops, I mean compulsively, that's more spooky sounding). Should it be the goal of public educators to lead other's children to not believe what a parent's personally selected minister tells them? Hey, if my daughter shouldn't believe something the minister tells us, I'll fill her in on that, thanks. Just the same as when one of her goofy friends or a liberal tells her something that's stupid. Trust me, I'm really good at that.
I dare say that's my job as a parent. A job that I take very seriously and choose not to pass of onto an endless stream of unknown individuals, church or school oriented, no matter how well intentioned they may be. It is important to note though, Christians tend to take parental authority (and responsibility) rather seriously as it is part of the "compulsive" ideology (although I'll also wager that's not just a "crazy Christian thing") and children are not normally a captive audience in church as they are in public schools. In any case, as a parent, I've never had a preacher step on my toes "helping" much less try to replace me completely. Were the church ever to attempt to undermine my parental authority I'd leave that particular church just as I'd leave the public school system (where even an adequate education could not seem to be attained for many, I might add, again) but it is not as easy for everyone to just leave the public school system as it is to leave a church (and we are also compelled beyond our will to support the public school financially, whether we like it or not, so it's best for all concerned if we actually like it or we might just stop supporting more funding for it).
And, from an economic perspective, better educated people are less likely to remain dependant on their feudal overlords and more likely to seek other opportunities to advance in a competitive economy, thus undermining the labor-base and allowing more upward mobility.
Good Lord, please help me here and now. I've just got nothing for this....I don't have a word to describe what it even is. If my religious belief is to blame for my not understanding exactly what a feudal overlord is, all I can say is thank you sweet Jesus!
Yup, that's where the Coke nearly hit my screen. haha Anyone care to try to translate that one for me?
Thus, education outside of a parochial environment is intolerable, both to a theocratic dictatorship, and to a medieval virtually-slave-holding society - not to dwell on the decreasing tithes to a church institution that is addicted to money and dependant on the offering plate (which also partially explains the so-called "faith-based intitatives").
Well, if it isn't the pot calling the kettle black. It sounds more to me like education and charity outside of a liberal environment is what's intolerable to this confused individual, even at the risk of a child's not receiving an education (which I imagine the same individual would agree is most important to the child's future). It's like the Titanic with these people and I just want to grab as many kids as I can.
As for faith-based initiatives, I'm torn. On the one hand, I think all charity should be faith-based excluding any government involvement, including charity for the secular faith (in other words, you have faith in it, you donate your money towards it). On the other hand, since so many seem to either be pleased with or at least tolerate forced charity, we may as well divide the money fairly between all faiths of choice including secular (especially since private organizations do so well in this area). Let's be inclusive until liberals either give up forced charity or learn to really tolerate other faiths, I say. It's good for them like broccoli. Honest.
I've certainly seen my share of churches go above and beyond to get the donations in that donation plate but it is given willingly and in almost every single instance that church goes on to do good things for the less fortunate with those donations (or at the very least the church members themselves benefit). I would argue that those associated with the public school system, from the top to the bottom, have the real addiction to money. We give them more money, expecting them to follow through with the elusive "better results" and we are met with the demand for even more money after those results are not only not better but worse. Sounds like an addiction to me. Besides, quality education doesn't require more money. Public education is more expensive than private education and home education is the least expensive (many spending less than $200 per student each year) and produces the best educational result of all three options.
More lunacy follows, if you can stand it, that is. I'm only providing another small sample, you're on your own after that. I do agree with Randy that access to higher education and a more liberal education would certainly go a long way toward loosening the chains that bind so many Americans to religious dogma, misinformation and a life of poverty and ignorance.
Oh, woe is me!! What shall I eveh accomplish in mah life with awl this dowgma, misinfohmation and pahvaty goin gainst me!?
I'm guessing that a "liberal education" just doesn't mean what it used to, does it? I don't care so much what liberals think or say, I really just wish they'd decide whether we're all blathering religious idiots that don't know any better or maniacally evil geniuses hell bent on their destruction (and stick to it throughout one entire conversation). Switching back and forth without warning for the purpose of my own entertainment grows more challenging with each and every rendezvous. Still, it just never stops being fun.
Hope you have a fabulous weekend evil conservatives! ;)
