Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My dad's conservative, but at least he believes in global warming! He says he doesn't believe we can pollute like crazy and reap no consequences (ie. all the stuff we're shooting into the air willy nilly has to be doing *something*).

I just don't know how that works with his belief that the government shouldn't impose regulations on businesses. :/

I wish to edit my post for clarification & conciseness - since after I read it I was worried that someone might read it as me really thinking the UN is evil - but for some reason I don't have an edit option. Whattup with that?

Posts are editable for only a short period, then they become fossilized, warts and all.

There were excellent reasons for implementing this policy, but I didn't agree with any of them and I don't remember what they were.

(I don't think anyone will think you believe the UN is evil.)

I think its bc people were deleting and editing posts after others had responded.

Yeah, I think it's strange that whenever I say something about being concerned about the environment, my dad will say, "well Al Gore blah blah blah." I think he's finally stopped because I told him that I don't really consider Al Gore to be THE environmentalist. I'm just not a big Al Gore fan and do believe that part of being a true environmentalist is being vegan.

Expect science literacy in the US to get much, much worse over the next decade. Thanks to NCLB and the need for "accountability" through test scores, many schools no longer teach science to any real degree until middle or high school. It isn't a tested subject until then, which means resources won't be "wasted" on it. This is particularly true in struggling, low income schools. We are already seeing this at my school. The kids who were pulled out of science for math and reading remediation lack any awareness of basic science.

The answer, of course, is to do a better job integrating science (and social studies) with math ad reading, which is a no brainer anyway. Except to politicians.

I wonder if Santorum has a CO2 detector in his house. Surely not.

This reminds me of listening to Rush Limbaugh years ago (sometimes I am masochistic enough to listen to conservative talk radio in the car). He was railing against global warming by saying some shiitake like oil in Alaska proves its all garbage because oil is made in hot climates, so Alaska used to hot, but now it's frozen. I was so mad I had to pull over and buy a chocolate bar. The continents moved, you jackass. And besides, just because it was hot, humid and covered in a shallow sea during the Cretaceous doesn't mean we would all be just fine in that environment now. An an earth scientist, the politicization of this stuff peas me off so much. We talked about conflict minerals in my classes today. I try to train the kids to examine sources of bias but they can't seem to do it.

Gah! Now I need to go get a Molly snuggle.

Science education, especially in fundamentalist communities, has been really horrid for a while.

It wasn't until I was in my late teens that I even knew what the scientific method was, much less understood it.

My high school science textbook had a picture of a chicken looking surprised at the dinosaur that hatching from his chicken egg. The caption was something to the effect of "how stupid is that? evolution can't be true!"

So anyway, if you think that science is something that primarily exists to be used by Democrats to ruin your life, you don't take much stock in things like facts. Everything can be changed or made up. And the whole world will be covered in apocalyptic plagues and be fouled by the hors d'oeuvre of Babylon soon enough, so taking care of the planet isn't a priority.

That makes a lot of sense. I've seen where huffy late edits on other forums make responses seem foolish.


I seem to remember him also mocking the impact of manmade greenhouse gasses because cows and volcanoes also produce methane. I'm guessing that if he studied logic in school, it was only for the purposes of defying it. My dad used to remind me (when arguing with my mother) that there's no use in trying to reason with folks who have no concept of logic. This is how I feel when trying to wrap my head around anything I ever hear Limbaugh saying.



I have definitely seen evidence of this here in Texas. Not only have Perry's appointees to the textbook selection committee insisted on bringing evangelical views to the science textbooks, but across the board I would say that his textbooks don't really seem like high school level writing to me. I think his 'Department of Parks & Wildlife'-produced Outdoors Education materials are a higher reading level than his history & science books. (Yes, my son is taking fishing & hunting this year at school. Rebellious teens, what can you do with them?)

Don't blame Perry for dumbed down textbooks. They are getting this way everywhere because too many kids lack solid reading comprehension skills. I can't give my seniors so-called appropriate leveled material because at least half will be unable to keep up; I have to try to find stuff slightly above middle school leve for my seniors. Even then, some kids struggle.


I my students can't skim to find a quick answer for something, they just won't bother. It's a vicious cycle. They don't because they can't, and they can't because they don't.

(Definitely blame Perry for appointing a young Earth creationist to the school board.)

Actually, the lack of critical thinking skills is what cracks me up most about the whole evolution debate. How, exactly, are these kids supposed to "decide for themselves" if they are not capable of higher level thinking and analysis?

Yeah. Does anyone remember Bloom's taxonomy? Maybe it's because I was in the GT program, but I remember having to demonstrate the various levels of thinking from 5th-8th grade. I wasn't great at synthesis/create but I always loved to analyze & evaluate. After that we got the AP program and focused perhaps a little more on test prep. The priority on tests (which, in order to be objective in their scoring, focus mostly on knowledge & comprehension) are truly setting our students back, everyone complains about it, politicizes it, and yet....

Oh well, it seems that we(I) have veered this thread somewhat off topic so I should probably logoff and leave work so I can get home in time to watch some Maddow and get mind-feduzzled again.

I'm from PA - it's been pretty much a known fact here since he compared homosexuality to bestiality circa 2003.

On the other side, I am legitimately debating changing my political affiliation to Republican so I can go and write in Cecile Richards as my presidential candidate just to peas off whatever members of the party see that information.

Santorum said he didn't care about how high the unemployment rate gets. Then when Romney picked on that statement, Santorum said that it wasn't as much that he didn't care as that he was focused on more important things...I guess like outlawing abortion and contraceptives and homosexual marriage? I can see how that is SOOOOOOOOO much more important than people being able to find jobs...I'm still scared.

I heard this and thought "WHAT? What is important to you then? What's MORE important?" Sheesh.

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/411675/april-03-2012/rick-santorum-speaks-from-his-heart---california-colleges

Oh Rick. And just a few weeks ago you were complaining about how your grades suffered because of your religious beliefs when you attended Penn State. Are you sure it was your religious beliefs and not your complete lack of reading comprehension, logic, and scientific knowledge?

Welp, Santorum's out.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/10/politics/campaign-wrap/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

I'm resisting the urge to comment that he should have to carry the campaign to term, if only because I can't quite find the right wording.

I'm voting for you.

I think him pulling out is the only thing he has done/said that i respect, assuming that it truly is to spend more time with his sick kid.

Hey, pulling out does work.

Prevented a Santorum presidency at least.

+ a million.

I didn't realize how happy this would make me. But damn, I am smiling. I don't want Romney, but at least we don't have to see that guy anymore.

But what does he mean by "I'll keep fighting?"

Mat.

"I'll keep taking campaign donations."

I am thrilled at the idea that this guy may recede into the background, but now afraid that Romney will be seen as a "reasonable" candidate substitute by Santorum supporters. Eeee.