Jail for Facebook

Did you know there was a time when the California legislature was considering making it illegal for teachers to be facebook friends with their students? Of course, this very action (along with emailing a teacher) is illegal in Missouri. The idea of teachers and students interacting about something other than school (GASP) is still terrifying parents. One teacher quit his job in order to be with a student he loved. She loved him. The relationship was completely legal and consensual, but the mother wanted the teacher arrested anyways. Of course, there is the issue of "dude, you have a daughter who's at the same high school as your girlfriend," but that shouldn't be a legal issue. Yet it continues to be one, despite the myriad of other issues the California state legislature SHOULD be dealing with. There's also the issue that these issues are based on the idea that teachers are pedophiles-in-hiding. Simply not true; if you look at a teacher's job, they work hard for little money. They enjoy helping their students. And now, after Missouri does this, California goes back to considering this law. There is no logical reason to do this. It's not "protecting children," if they are of legal age. What that is suddenly doing is taking away rights, and on top of that, it is stopping students and teachers from having a friendship, a simple friendship, because of the fear that teachers will brainwash all their students, forcing them into relationships. Now, texting a student, or messaging them on facebook, WOULD BE A FELONY. Let that sink in for a minute. Of course, with that done, why not ban teacher-student eye contact while walking in the halls? That could lead to something bad too! There is absolutely no reason why electronic contact should be any different than contact made in-person. The logic is, as it often is with the government, noticeably missing.

Fox News Withdrawl

According to a recent study by Fairleigh Dickinson University, a follow-up to this previous study, people who watch absolutely no news tend to know more about current events than people who watch Fox News. Those who watch NPR know more. 

     On average, respondents got correct 1.8 of the international questions and 1.6 of the domestic 

     questions. (I know, I know.)

     People who mainly listened to NPR did somewhat better: an average of 1.92 correct on the domestic 
     section. 
     People who watched no news at all averaged 1.22 domestic questions right. 
     And people who watched only Fox? 1.04                                          (The Daily Beast)
Now, the number of questions asked was 5 on domestic issues, 4 on foreign ones. So on average, people would fail a test on these issues. Of course, those who read sources like The New York Times were generally more knowledgable than those who did not follow the news. And Jon Stewart also increased knowledge of domestic affairs. Should you wish to take the tests yourself, they are contained in the links to the studies above. Only 41% of people new that the Egyptian protestors were successful in getting rid of Mubarak. Only 55% knew that Assad was still in power. So it looks like the liberal indoctrination publications and news outlets contain facts, while Fox News decides to withdraw those facts. Of course, it appears that neither side is doing a very good job educating people. Just don't ask a Fox News viewer about it.

Someone Will Fix It

It appears that the peoples of Greece want their leaders to use magic wands to get rid of extensive problems in Greece. According to NPR, "Most Greeks want to keep the euro as their currency. Most also want to cancel the eurozone-imposed austerity measures that come with the billions in international bailout loans keeping the country solvent." It is commonly believed in Greece that the Greek people are sacrificing much while Europe sacrifices little. Of course, Greece is the nation that had a retirement age in the 50s; there is much that needs to be "sacrificed" there, and elsewhere. There appears to be a mentality of "someone will fix it eventually, without any spending cuts." Yet despite Greece threatening to leave the Euro for the Drachma (which could cost up to a trillion dollars), and despite Greece's continued problems (like the common belief that austerity measures are an attack on Greece by greedy capitalists; that sounds eerily like Soviet Russia), other European leaders want to keep Greece on the Euro, despite the tiny size of Greece's economy in relation to the total Eurozone economy. The effects of Greece leaving the Euro, according to major banks, would most likely be horrendous. Greece's economy could experience something similar to America in the Great Depression; of course, that would spread much less than America's downturn. Unemployment in, and around, Greece would rise, potentially to the highest levels seen in fifty years. And the use of the Drachma would in itself cause huge problems, given how weakly it would be valued; money may have very little value in Greece for an extended period of time. And due to fears over what the government will or will not do, about a billion dollars a day are being withdrawn from Greek banks, in a sort of slow bank run (some call it a bank jog). It appears that the future of Greece is going to involve some major problems.

Rights? Nah

If you haven't already heard about this, the people of North Carolina have passed a Constitutional Amendment saying this: "Constitutional amendment to provide that marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this State." Justice Scalia would agreed, given that he stated that women and gays do not necessarily have rights; rather, they are to be given rights, or be denied rights, by the legislature. Of course, there is no reason why gay people are denied the right to marry—well, no reason except the great and loving religious peoples of America (notice the sarcasm?). But if corporations are people, then this amendment discriminates against them too!


The same people who preach "small government" also preach regulation of the bedroom, regulation of the vagina (you know, the whole movement against abortions), and regulation of who you love. Don't you love hypocrisy?

China's (Temporarily) Slowing Economy

As opposed to the growth rates of over 8% that people have come to expect from China, a growth rate of between 7.5% and 8% is being projected for this coming quarter in China. Even the Chinese government is making 7.5% growth in GDP its official target. The Chinese leadership is not quite sure what is causing the slowdown in growth, but Chinese officials are moving to remedy the situation, as to allow 8% GDP growth for the year. Whether or not these measures will work remains to be seen, though there is a good chance that they will work to an extent. These measures include lowering the tax rate — a year after China had its largest tax intake ever — and easing regulations on credit, by lowering the amount of money that banks must have in reserve; this is designed to free up more credit for loans. The government may also be investing in infrastructure, in order to stimulate the economy. Of course, even with a slowing on growth, analysts and the Chinese government expect growth rates to once again rise after this quarter.

Of course, if a Western nation had a GDP growth rate equal to China's "slow" growth rate, it would be bigger news than China's slowing growth, and for good reason. Western growth tends to hover around 2% to 4%.

My Compatibility with Various Republicans

Here are the percent of issues on which I agree with various Republicans, according to Americans Elect (good website, you should check it out).

Conservative "Thought"

If you've ever heard conservatives talk, or seen their political writing, you hopefully know that they have lost connection with reality, and that instead of using facts, they pull stuff out of their—sorry, they "speak from their hearts." Take a look at this (click on it to go the website)

For starters, TARP debt comes from Bush's bailout of the banks; it's completely unrelated to GM. On top of that, it appears that Mr. Steve Breen does not understand how "loans" work. They involve paying the money back over a period of time. I'm sorry that that period of time isn't over yet. If Republicans actually had an issue with bailouts, you'd see them whining about Bush's bailout. But they don't do that, so quite obviously, they don't really care about bailouts; their only goal is to make Democrats and Obama look bad.

Outgrown

America is supposed to a country of economic growth and opportunity, yet the "developed world" is now being outgrown by the developing nations. There are many things you can blame: lack of political efficiency, economic crises and trouble recovering, distribution of natural resources/oil, the ownership of said natural resources, oppressive but effective regimes in the developing world, industrialization constantly occurring in the developing nations, et cetera. But the bottom line is this: the economies of the East are out-growing the economies of the West. A list of the top economies in 2050 released by HSBC shows that America, Germany, England, France, and Canada will be 5 of the 10 biggest economies in the world; however, the other five (aside from Japan) are considered "developing nations." 12-14 of the top 20 are "developing nations" (depending on who you consider "developing.") While America, Canada, and a few select European nations will still have strong economies, the trend is for "developing nations" to become more powerful, "Western" ones less powerful.

They're Everywhere!

As you may or may not know, I don't exactly like pop music. Yet I have nothing against pop artists as people, simply because they are pop artists. But Christian groups in South Korea (and, well, the world over) hate pop artists like Lady GaGa, because they support gay rights.

Lady GaGa is doing a show in South Korea, yet South Korean Christian groups have managed to get the government to ban anyone under 18 from seeing it. These people put forced religious conviction above freedom of speech—sound familiar? They also are willing to boycott Hyundai and its sub-companies because they sponsor the tour. Hating gays seems rather antiquated and stupid, yet these "devout Christians" still follow backward principles, given that the only reason to is because of a "great holy spiritual book." It appears that crazy religious people are everywhere.

EDIT: I am not talking about all South Koreans. Just the crazily religious ones.

"These guys don't get it!"

The interest rates on student loans are set to go up on July 1 if Congress does not act. Republicans, of course, are saying that students just need to deal with it, because the national debt needs to be lowered. Yet they won't even THINK of raising taxes on the rich. They claim that the national debt is hurting the economy, yet as President Obama pointed out, so does making it harder to get education, and less education only makes the economy even worse. Of course, there is always a political motivation, and Obama is of course attempting to gain the youth vote. The total amount of student loans in America now total $1,000,000,000,000; that is a HUGE source of debt, about 6.25% of the debt owed by the government, who has many, many more expenses. 40% of adults over 35 who took student loans still haven't payed them off, yet Republicans STILL insist that student debt is not that big of an issue.

And now that this is becoming such a huge negative issue for the Republicans, they are proposing to pay for these subsidies by taking money out of the Affordable Care Act; raising taxes on millionaires and billionaires just isn't an option. I mean, why should people who have more money than they know what to do with find a way to actually use SOME OF that money?

And here's a funny (and worrying) bit on this issue from Jimmy Fallon, President Obama, and the Roots.

Farewell to Facts

This is not something that I wrote. It is, however, quite true, and somewhat worrying.

Facts, 360 B.C.-A.D. 2012

Let's Not Actually Fix It

Tennessee uses an abstinence-only sex education program. Of course, states that use abstinence-only sex education programs have higher teen pregnancy rates than states that use a more comprehensive method. Teen pregnancy rates are, however, going down overall. "This good shift is largely the result of an increase in teenagers' use of birth control — a fact that Congressional Republicans ignore as they seek to dismantle reproductive health programs" (The New York Times). This is worrying, yet not surprising: Republicans are once again ignoring reality and making another bullshit argument. So instead of using education that involves simply saying, "look, there are these things called condoms. You use those correctly, and you've basically eliminated any chance of becoming pregnant," Tennessee Republicans are amending the law so that they teach against "gateway sexual activities." Of course, they don't take the time to even DEFINE that term in the law. For all we know, teachers may now be required to tell their students, "Don't hold hands, you might end up having sex and getting pregnant!" Instead of fixing the problem, they are creating a "solution" that, unlike tried and tested solutions that actually work, fixes nothing.


Stephen Colbert has a brilliant bit on this "new approach" to sex education.

Einstein was an Atheist

For those of you who have facebook accounts (or if this can be seen without one, I don't know):
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150730485329578&set=p.10150730485329578&type=1&theater

Anyways, it claims that Einstein was a Christian (false), that cold does not exist (because it's technically just the absence of heat), that darkness doesn't exist (because it's technically just the absence of light), that brains don't exist (because you haven't seen them, felt them, right?), and that all this somehow proves that God exists.

Every argument made to "prove" God is false (why is that not surprising?). Cold=absence of heat. Ok, congrats, which means cold does exist, as a way to express the absence of heat. By the "student's" own argument. Cause I'd rather say "it's cold outside" over "it is lacking heat in the exterior terrain." And you can go on and do basically the same thing with every other argument made.

"Guns N' Roses"

Turns out that Wal-Mart sells guns. And not just paintball guns and Airsoft guns; real rifles. You can go into to Wal-Mart and get guns and roses! There's even a pink rifle, and they sell shotguns too. I think that this might be a sign that gun laws are a little too lax.

Silence the Heretic!

That sounds like something you'd hear in a movie set in the Middle Ages. Funny thing: it's still happening.

Irish Catholic Priest Tony Flannery was silenced by the Catholic Church. Flannery was often critical of the Church, on issues like clerical sex abuse in Ireland, the Church's handeling of sex abuse in Ireland, the blocking of women from becoming priests, and censorship by the Church.

The "great" and "moral" Vatican is censoring its own priests, instead of actually fixing the problems the priests are bringing up. They're ignoring the actual problems! Why am I not surprised?

America Sues Apple

"'As a result of this alleged conspiracy, we believe that consumers paid millions of dollars more for some of the most popular titles,' Holder said." The United States government decided to sue Apple because of "price manipulation." The main argument given by the government was that Apple and publishers conspired to eat into Amazon's share of the eBook industry through price manipulation.

Last I checked, it is still legal for a company to decide at what price it will sell its products. It appears that the United States government (and no, that does NOT mean it's all Obama's fault) is having some trouble figuring out how Capitalism works.

The government also was angry about how Apple made a product, as shown here.

"'Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99,' Jobs wrote to one of the publishers, according to the Justice Department's complaint.

Apple successfully persuaded the publishers to adopt an 'agency model' that allowed publishers to set the price of e-books and in turn, Apple would take a 30 percent cut, the government said. The Apple agreements with publishers effectively barred them from allowing rival retailers to sell the same books at lower prices.

The strategy upended the 'wholesale model' in which retailers pay for the product and charge what they like."


Oddly enough, the government doesn't seem to care that Amazon set eBook prices at $9.99, yet Apple trying to get higher prices is apparently an issue. As to why Amazon setting the price is legal, and Apple setting it isn't, I don't know.

The government didn't like that Apple was making a product differently than normal. There are legal reasons for the case, but the laws make very, very, very, very little sense. Thus, as one can expect with Apple, the case is being ignored by the corporation. Which is now technically a person. I guess they can't just put Apple into the back of a cop car.

Another Supreme Mistake

If you are arrested, you can now be strip-searched before being put in jail. Doesn't matter what the offense was, or if there is any evidence, or if you've had a trial. The Supreme Court said that Supreme Court, who's primary purpose is to determine constitutionality, cannot question law enforcement officials. Of course, their primary job is indeed questioning, so it is troubling to see them take this stance. It will be interesting to see what happens because of the ruling; lawsuits? Maybe, just maybe. The Supreme Court has taken some, I'll say "odd" to put it mildly, stances recently, including Citizens United and Scalia's odd stance that women don't necessarily have rights, nor do gays; apparently, legislatures get to decide if there is gender equality or inequality.

Conservative Teen

There's a magazine called The Conservative Teen.

It makes me wonder if Republicans have ever talked to anyone under thirty.

Broccoli

Fox News and CNN are wondering if the government can make you buy broccoli, because of the precedent set by ObamaCare.

The answer? "Wtf? Guys, please, start showing actual news"

The clips of them talking about it are in this episode of Colbert.

Santorum wins Louisiana

Santorum recently won the Louisiana primary. But Mitt Romney still leads Santorum by a ratio greater than 2:1. Which brings up the question: does it really matter if Santorum wins? I'd argue not, given that Santorum has to win a lot more states to be equal to Romney. And what happens if Santorum does win the primary? He'd have a very small chance of winning, given that he wold have to sway the independents who, wait for it, aren't extremist Christians!