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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Grainne who wrote (22991)	6/19/1998 9:03:00 PM
From: Father Terrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Christine: Now you've answered your own question to me from many months ago of why I am against the Libertarian Party. In their own way they are as misguided as the Republicans and Democrats. FT

To: Grainne who wrote (22991)	6/20/1998 12:14:00 AM
From: miraje	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Christine, Thought I'd move over here from the Ask God thread. I'll bet your house is chaotic in a very creative and artistic sense. Mine, unfortunately, is just a chaotic mess. I need a woman with some taste around here. :-) It's hard to be a Libertarian and an environmentalist. I would really like to see environmental issues being dealt with from a scientific, rather than political basis. There are some ancient bristlecone pines close to where I live on the back side of the Sierra. I love to drive up in the mountains and walk around among the oldest living things on earth. That's a spiritual experience. Regards, JB

To: Grainne who wrote (22991)	6/20/1998 1:45:00 AM
From: gypsy	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Grainne, I know you like poetry and thought you would find it amusing to hear about a different kind of "Camel". Kamella, Kamella Kamella, Kamella, The camel so fair Had lovely long lashes And beautiful hair. Oh, all the male camels Fell into a trance Enthralled and absorbed At the sight of her dance. She danced through the desert, Her hump it did sway, And wiggle and shimmy-- Throughout the long day. The music, it made her So light on her feet, You'd think she was floating In time to the beat. Her eyelids were lined With the blackest of kohl, And her hump undulated With her belly roll. Kamella was graceful, And slinky, and sleek, No wonder she captured The heart of the sheikh! By Shira

To: Grainne who wrote (22991)	6/22/1998 8:58:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Lack of money ain't the problem with education: "Spending More While Learning Less: U.S. School Productivity in International Perspective," by Herbert J. Walberg, July 1998. In the latest Fordham Report, Dr. Walberg examines U.S. school productivity through the lenses of international assessments. Using "value-added" techniques, Walberg shows that American students learn less each year than do their international peers. At the same time, the U.S. spends more than almost any other nation on its schools. In other words, we're getting a little for a lot. edexcellence.net June 22, 1998 The World's Least Efficient Schools By CHESTER E. FINN JR. and HERBERT J. WALBERG It's a pity American kids aren't as good at math and science as the education establishment is at making excuses. The establishment's favorite line is that the schools aren't to blame for poor academic performance; rather, kids fail because of factors beyond their teachers' control, such as poverty or deteriorating families. The second-favorite rationalization: Americans are stingy with their tax dollars and refuse to pay the price for excellent schools. No doubt these arguments are comforting to those who make them. But recent analyses by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development demonstrate that both claims are false. Indeed, the OECD's data make it painfully clear that U.S. schools are the least efficient in the industrial world: This country spends more per pupil than almost any other nation, yet its year-to-year gains in student academic achievement are among the smallest. U.S. schools add less value than the schools of other lands, and do so at greater cost. Consider reading, the most basic of subjects. Until children start school around age six, families, mass media and other nonschool factors influence their initial vocabulary and comprehension. Comparisons that do not account for these factors would be incomplete. The big question about the impact of schools, then, is not how much students know at one point in time, but how much progress they make as the years go by. Thanks to the OECD, it is possible to compare gains made by students between the ages of nine and 14 across many nations. It turns out that U.S. students gain the least; on average, they make just 78% of the progress of students in 15 other lands. The news is similar in math and science. On the math exams in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, U.S. students made the least progress of 17 OECD nations between the fourth and eighth grades, gaining just 73% as much ground as their foreign counterparts. In science, U.S. progress ranked second to last, covering 78% of the average gains of the 17 nations. In all three subjects American students finished further back in the international pack than they began. Is this because Americans are cheap? Hardly. The OECD data show U.S. school expenditures to be third highest of 22 countries, lagging behind only Switzerland and Austria. At $5,300 per student (in the most recent year for which comparable data were available), U.S. primary schools spent 75% more than the international average of $3,033. U.S. secondary schools expended 54% more money than the international average. So the U.S. is near the top in education spending but close to last in achievement gains. Most people would call this miserably low productivity--but that is a concept practically unknown in education-policy circles. If U.S. schools were a business, they would be in serious competitive peril and probably headed for bankruptcy. Mr. Finn is president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a Washington-based education-reform organization. Mr. Walberg, who analyzed the OECD data, is research professor of education and psychology at the University of Illinois, Chicago. His study is available on-line at edexcellence.net interactive.wsj.com

To: Grainne who wrote (22991)	6/22/1998 9:42:00 AM
From: Zoltan!	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

>>And I think the libertarian party also hides a lot of very rightist racists in amongst the civil libertarians and economic conservatives. Yeah, but we know that the among liberal/left are some of the worst racists in this country, with their emphasis on race quotas, set-asides and bilingual education. Liberal politicians like Clinton overtly and shamelessly seek to divide society and profit by harvesting votes from those who seek benefit from racial programs and who ultimately wind up consigned to the liberal plantation. When political expediency moved liberalism from the idea of a "color-blind" society to one where race determines benefit they lost any moral authority they once possessed. Now their leaders are just racial panderers and worse.

To: Grainne who wrote (22991)	6/22/1998 10:24:00 PM
From: MSB	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Christine, where the heck are you?!! It is highly unusual that you've not posted for three straight days. Now while this public display of wondering may fall into the category of pathetic and a host of other adjectives within the same context, frankly, I don't give a FLYING (begins with F). I'm becoming concerned and given our communication (mostly in the shadows), I'm beginning to wonder. Does anybody know where this girl is that adds many things to our lives........Del, Penni? Christine, whats going on?

To: Grainne who wrote (22991)	6/24/1998 11:43:00 AM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Greetings everyone!! Sometime last week I looked around in the dusty corners of my life and realized that I'd been letting a lot of stuff slide that was very important to me, so I decided to concentrate for a couple of days and get back on track. Unfortunately, I must have been even more behind than I thought I was, because after working very diligently for a week on housework, paperwork, and all the other gunk that sticks to people in their stressful, complicated, modern lives, I am still not caught up. But I'm getting there! I don't want anyone to worry about me, or wonder if I have disappeared for good when I am just racing to catch up (sorry, Jim). I see I have a ton of messages, and really will be back to answer them and hang out, but I just promised myself I would wrap up all my unfinished business before I even peek at my messages, or at the threads (although my fingers are trembling with excitement just sitting at the computer). So I hope everyone is fine, and I'll be back just as soon as I can!!