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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (73310)	5/1/2010 3:51:05 PM
From: Mac Con Ulaidh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

There's is good and bad re unions at this point, imo. there original purpose in this country is beyond question that they were necessary (read up on West Virginia and various places in the early 1900's) to the good... they protect workers from fools and nasty people and from being unfairly treated. My only experience with a union was when I worked at a chicken plant in central CA. One: it was the reason we were paid just a bit above minimum wage. At that time... lemme think... 'twas 1979, after various taxes, I took home around 600 a month. now this was Dinuba, living was fairly cheap and I was single, so it was duable. A fair portion of the married adults there, both the husband and wife worked there to manage taking care of children. k, so we made a bit over minimum, and we have medical care to some degree. And we had someone to stand up for us to management... very important. I forget her name, but I recall she had a silver front tooth... anyways, she was pregnant. very very pregnant eventually. now pregnant women at a point pee a lot. there were 3 of us on the 'stuff line', that's when we stuff that bag of giblets in the chickens butt that you find there (it doesn't get there by magic). the line ran at 70 chickens per minute (management wanted to up to 90, again the union stepped in, cause that is insane level to ask of people and not really possible to do right) anyways... 2 people can manage 70 a minute for a quite short spell, so me and Martha (I remember her name cause she bought me a bottle of Tequila for my 21st b-day) would do so, so silver-tooth could pee extra. well, the boss-dudes wanted to fire ST for taking too many breaks, cause ya know, you get yer 10 minutes every two hours and that's it. the union took them on and kept her job, and it didn't hurt that Martha was married to Frank, the floor manager and she threatened him with things only a wife can if he didn't step up for ST. point is... the union should be there to protect workers, not bad workers, not bad teachers, not etc. but they did and still do have a purpose. think Massey Coal and the 26 dead. as to some of our standards in schools, that ain't on the teachers. that is on whatever fools have created 'new math' and decided spelling doesn't matter and who cares about geography and etc. that is on the people in charge, not the teachers. we speak of unemployment in the States, but last year Alabama recruited overseas for math teachers, cause weren't enough graduating here in the States for that. my neice is already being recruited by multiple mid-schools since she is in math and grads this month. sorry... much blahblah. mostly to say... there is some middle-ground on this, and I put some on the union when they protect bad teachers, and a lot when a thing like in NYC where they are paid for years to do nothing while awaiting decisions... but no one teaches unless they really really want to, even those who do it badly. just ain't enough money in it, and all you get is crap from all sides. if enough people in Texas vote for fools on the School Board who insist teachers teach stupid things... we can't blame the teachers. the fault is on the voters and the school board.

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (73310)	5/1/2010 4:22:34 PM
From: koan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

>>believe that the foundation of a well educated person is laid in the schools. The teachers here in general are not qualified to teach or else you would not have a teacher with a history major teaching math etc. etc.>> I never found that to be true. By and large most of my teachers were just fine. I think that is a red herring. I had idiot teachers, good solid average teachers and a few geniuses. Man I spent a lot of my life in school and think I know the score. What I saw was that by and large if society makes enough classes available people will generally go. A lot of them do not figure it out until their 20's which is why comunity colleges are so important. Second chance. Kids I went to school with can compete against the worlds intellectuals. Teachers and kids are plenty smart enough. The 60's was the most intellectual period in the history of mankind outside of ancient Greece. What we learned then, will be integral to our success going forward. though few think of that. John Stewart teaching the world the concepet of zen is a big deal. No other country or society has ever surpassed the pure intellectual power of the 60's in the US. Becasue we have a large population of diverse culture and intellectual freedom. But yes we have work to do and Obama seems all over it to me. No one knows more than Obama and his wife the importance of education.

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (73310)	5/1/2010 4:23:11 PM
From: Mac Con Ulaidh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Maria - that was Silver Tooth's name. <eom>

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (73310)	5/1/2010 8:03:28 PM
From: Mac Con Ulaidh	Respond to of 149317

sometimes it is all in the rhythym. when I was at the chicken plant on the stuff line, k with 3 people - 70 chickens a minute... that is 23.something a minute. the chickens are dead and cold by then, they are hung by one leg, with the other leg flopping free, the bags of giblets (innerds) come by you, so... left hand grasps the free leg and pulls, while right hand picks up a bag of innerds, as left hand pulls down, opening the chicken butt, right hand rises and shoves the bag down into it. I reckon we do it pretty well. you ever buy a chicken with the bag sticking out? no. 23.3 times a minute. shaboom shaboom. over and over and over again. and the hours pass. and the concrete floor is wet and you wiggle your knees but still you feel them freezing up on you. and the spanish speaking ladies laugh along with you while you sing the tune that keeps the time of the job at hand... youtube.com and they were all legal, many in this country a very very long time, but they came originally from Mexico. and I was one of 3 white people there. and all 3 of us was women. not a single white man was there. they could have been. but it was 'beneath' them. fak them. ya want some chicken? deal with it. or get over putting people down. I do recall all the white folks in Visailia (the more white and milddle class town) put me down for working at the plant. but I had healthcare and they didn't. and I provided food and they sat at desks, in musty offices, all day. they ate chicken but put down the people who provided it. got no use for that.