Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RON BL who wrote (263775)	6/14/2002 2:38:14 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

And now Jann Wenner is even having to dim down the "Rolling Stone" magazine because the new rock 'n roll generation can't be bothered to read a 7,000 word analysis. Intellectual standards are certainly headed the wrong direction among the general population, and what used to be "public intellectuals", men like Walter Lippmann or Henry Mencken now find that they need to specialize in academia in order to prosper. Though I don't always agree with him, I find that Noam Chomsky represents a wonderful dying tradition. And the same for Gore Vidal. But these guys are geezers. The new generation of punditry on the Left is really lame. Guys like David Corn can occasionally focus on something important, but are all to easily distracted. I'm trying hard to find bright, honest reasonable punditry on the Right, and find that I like William Safire's work, and occasionally George Will. But like you, or perhaps even more so, I find the TV talking heads of all political persuasions to be horrible wastes of time, with buttheaded interruptions of intelligent commentary the only constant feature. Occasionally, CSPAN's Washington Journal had some good guests, but all the network crap is just that. -Ray

To: RON BL who wrote (263775)	6/14/2002 11:35:53 AM
From: Mr. Whist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Re: "Democrats are fond of calling themselves the education party and they are correct. They have presided over the growing failure of the education system and their children cannot read or write and have limited exposure to the great thinkers of the past." What has happened in the education system in the past 30 years is highly complex, not easily explainable in terms of Democrat vs. Republican, conservative vs. liberal, back-to-basics vs. alternative, experimental forms of learning, parochial vs. public, etc. In fact, today there are far greater opportunities for high-achievers than when I went to high school in the '60s. Same also applies in areas such as vo-tech and special education. As far as "Why can't Johnny read?": Part of the answer is that society puts a much smaller emphasis on reading today than, say, two-three-four decades ago. Fewer people are reading books, newspapers, magazines today. Fewer parents are insisting that their children develop good reading habits.