They got it wrong on the Arctic sea ice, BTW, here's the latest report on it:

Sea ice extent in December averaged 12.52 million square kilometers (4.83 million square miles). This is 540,000 square kilometers (208,495 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 long-term average of 13.06 million square kilometers (5.04 million square miles) and 500,000 square kilometers (193,051 square miles) above the record low for the month observed in 2010.

And they trotted out the old Newsweek article about the possibility of global cooling back in 1975.  That really proves their point.

Thanks for demonstrating that what J.S. Mill wrote almost 150 years ago is still true today:

I did not mean that Conservatives are generally stupid; I meant, that stupid persons are generally Conservative. I believe that to be so obvious and undeniable a fact that I hardly think any hon. Gentleman will question it.

John Stuart Mill, in a Parliamentary debate with the Conservative MP, John Pakington (May 31, 1866). Hansard, vol 183, col 1592. Pakington was referring to Footnote 3 to Chapter 7 of Mill's "Considerations on Representative Government".

Is it perfect?  No, but at least he has an idea to explore instead of just throwing up his hands and saying "We can't afford this!" (Or saying that rich people and big banks need more help). The problem is - we can't afford NOT to do this.

The problem is not the teachers or the administration here in GA. The problem is the general attitude that education is "elitist"  and the rabid fundamentalism that encourages that mindset. Education is not a priority for a lot of the parents either unfortunately.

Because while charter schools have proved to be a relatively lucrative business for many of the private management companies which operate them, such schools generally shortchange their own students academically or worse still, deliberately overstate student achievement, and they further siphon much-needed and scarce public funding away from already cash-strapped public schools within the district. So, I'm no longer a believer in that model.

We have a system of public charter schools out here in the islands, but they are still subject to State DOE rules and regulations, and they're more comparable to magnet schools operating under an SCBM model, than to actual charter schools.

The advantage of going to a community college is that class sizes for those courses are often no more than 25 students, which allows for significant interaction between instructor and pupil, while at UH's flagship campus at Manoa, those courses are offered in lecture sections with as many as 300 (or more) students enrolled, and you require an appointment to see your professor. From that standpoint, a student's transition from high school to community college can be a little less overwhelming, dramatic and daunting.

The downside for those young students seeking a stereotypical college experience is that community colleges out here are by and large commuter schools with no on-campus housing available. Basically, you attend class and then you leave.

(At Honolulu Community College, the downtown "college campus" is basically two high-rise buildings. HCC's vocational education campus is located in the industrial area immediately adjacent to Honolulu Int'l Airport.)

But the huge advantage for students who choose to go the community college route to get to a four-year campus is that the per-semester tuition is less than 25% of that at UH-Manoa and UH-Hilo. And if you're putting yourself through school, that can result in a huge savings of many thousands of dollars.

Women (5.00 / 1) (#61)
by lentinel on Wed Jan 21, 2015 at 09:49:53 AM EST
should have the right to an abortion if they so choose.
Period.
Is that so goddamn hard to say?

Yes, it is hard to say because a vast, vast majority of people do not agree with that statement.  MANY people, even those who consider themselves pro-choice, do not believe that abortion is ok at later stages of pregnancy, for example.  If any politician used your statement, the backlash would be unimaginable and would derail any other item from the agenda.

I think it's a good thing that the teen pregnancy rate is down, but what I would be most interested in are the statistics and trends, state-by-state.  I suspect, but have not done the research, that in states where abortion is becoming less available, and where efforts continue to deny young women access to education and birth control, those rates may not be quite so encouraging.  

In truth, all the a$$-kissing in the world is not going to placate or satisfy the anti-choice crowd; in fact, some of them may not view declining teen pregnancy rates as a good thing, because it might mean that teens are getting better at birth control and we all know what that means, don't we?  All the sex their raging hormones demand, that's what.

I'd have fallen out of my chair if I'd heard him say, "We still may not agree on a woman's right to choose, but we don't have to agree.  What we have to do is respect each woman's right to make her own reproductive health care decisions, because it is her body, her life and her legal right to do so.  No woman who does not believe that abortion is the right thing will ever be forced to go against her beliefs; it simply is not right to put other women in the untenable position of having their health decisions controlled by the opposing beliefs of others."

Fewer teenage pregnancies is a positive not a consequence of fear or "staying indoors"