Posted on 12/10/2004 9:37:54 AM PST by rogerv
Hi, gang,
I was a regular contributor to the Kerry Online Forum and am now a regular contributor to the Common Ground Common Sense forum. I am a liberal, but I'll be the first to admit, I don't have all the answers. In fact, many of hte questions that matter to me probably matter to you too. I'm concerned with questions about how to tame power, whether governmental or corporate. I'm concern with the rule of law and how we can get the powerful to take it seriously. I'm concerned with the erosion of civil liberties. And yes, I am concerned about some things you may associate with liberalism--social safety nets and taking care of those who fall through the institutional cracks.
I'm here because I think agreement is overrated and that critics can be your best friends: they keep you from getting sloppy or careless. At any rate, I think there are things I can learn from you. I don't expect you are all agreed on anything--I expect there is a lot of diversity of opinion here. If you are interested in what I have said over at Common Ground Common Sense, I'm using the same handle both places, and you should feel free to come over and look around.
Anyway, I'm new here. Anybody care to give me a tour?
Did rogerv respond to anybody?
Zero Tolerance for Kool-aid
http://www.nutzworld.com/amerikaarticles/zero_tolerance_for_kool.htm
Students punished for snorting Kool-Aid; have 'zero tolerance' rules gone
insane?
WASHINGTON, DC -- A public school that suspended students for snorting
Kool-Aid -- that's right; snorting Kool-Aid! -- shows that "zero tolerance"
policies have gone too far, the Libertarian Party said today.
"Zero tolerance has become infinitely ridiculous," said Steve Dasbach, the
party's national director. "Unless school officials thought they had to act
fast before students start smoking Tang or mainlining Hawaiian Punch, then
suspending students for abusing Kool-Aid seems to be a classic case of zero
tolerance nonsense.
"Like so much of what government schools do, most zero tolerance policies
display zero common sense, zero benefits, and zero effectiveness."
This week, the O.T. Bonner Middle School in Danville, Virginia, suspended
eight students for one week after they were caught sniffing Kool-Aid.
The seventh- and eighth-grade students were charged with "possession of
contraband" because they were "using Kool-Aid in a way that imitated the use
of illegal drugs," school officials explained.
The students got off easy: They could have been suspended for a year on the
charge of "using a look-alike drug."
But any government school bureaucrat who thinks the brightly colored,
sugary, powdered drink mix is "a look-alike drug" -- or even "contraband" --
must have, well, gone to a government school, said Dasbach.
"This is your brain; this is a public school bureaucrat's brain on
Kool-Aid," he said. "When school officials think that cracking down on
powdered drink mix abuse is more important than educating students, then
there is zero hope for the public education system."
But the "War on Kool-Aid" isn't the only example of zero-tolerance policies
gone berserk, said Dasbach. Over the past year...
* A school in New Jersey suspended two kindergarten students after they
played "cops and robbers" on the playground, pointed their fingers at each
other like guns, and shouted "bang bang!"
* A school in Maryland suspended a student after he drew a crude picture of
a gun on a piece of paper. The nine-year-old was charged with violating the
school's anti-weapon policy.
* A school in Kansas suspended a seventh-grader for three days after he drew
a picture of a confederate flag. The flag, said officials, violated the
school's policy against "racially divisive" material.
* A school in Michigan flagged a sixth-grader as a potential violence
risk -- and told his parents they had to meet with the school's "Hazard and
Risk Assessment Team" -- after he suggested that one way to prevent school
shootings would be to allow teachers to carry guns.
* A school in Minnesota refused to allow a high school senior who had
enlisted in the Army to pose for a yearbook picture sitting atop a World War
II howitzer at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post. The photo would
violate the school's anti-weapon policy, said officials.
Libertarians don't object to zero tolerance policies on principle, said
Dasbach -- only to the arbitrary way they are implemented and enforced by
government schools.
"Many private schools also have strict rules against violence and
inappropriate behavior," he noted. "The difference is that private schools
can compete on the basis of effective discipline, and parents have the
choice of sending their children to a school that offers the kind of
regulatory structure they want.
"On the other hand, parents whose children are trapped in government schools
don't have that choice. They must settle for whatever ridiculous rules local
public school bureaucrats implement. And parents are then forced to pay
taxes to support that school, even if they strongly object to its silly zero
tolerance policies."
Until parents have real educational freedom and can use their own money to
send their children to the non-governmental school of their choice, Dasbach
said he has a solution to the "zero tolerance" madness.
"If these actions for which government schools are punishing students are a
real danger, let's have the rest of the government treat them as real, too.
"For example, let's have the DEA start doing drug tests for Kool-Aid
addiction. Let's have the Secret Service defend the president by pointing
their fingers at potential assassins and shouting, 'Bang, bang!' And let's
send the U.S. military to Kosovo with photographs of howitzers and a drawing
of a gun," he said.
"Of course, that's ridiculous -- but no more ridiculous than the zero
tolerance policies that government schools are inflicting on American
children. That's why it's time for a zero tolerance policy about loony zero
tolerance policies."
LOL...that's an excellent way of putting it!!
FReegards...MUD
Hi, Merry Christmas.
The war in Iraq is going well and I believe are mission will be accomplished. Democracy in Iraq will be an historical event that our great President and Brave Troops can be very proud of for bringing freedom to it's birth in such a tyrannical part of the world and that they have given America a strategic foot hold in a threatening part of the world filled with terrorists. The sheer courage of President Bush and our troops for sticking through all of this despite the doom and gloom negativity of the MSM, Hollywierd Elites and Presidential candidate Kerry is absolutely astounding. Thank God Kerry didn't win.
The war on terror is going well too and now that Saddam Hussein is gone and much of Al Qaida have been destroyed the world is a safer place. Just one more thing we can all thank the President for having the courage to face reality and do something about it. And we can thank God that Gore didn't win back in 2000 or those threats would still exist and would be much stronger at this point.
And thank God that America is finally on it's way to recovering from the immoral, destructive and anti-American Clinton Administration.
President Bush and Vice President Cheney are doing a great job, America is lucky to have such willing and brave statesmen give so much of themselves to an often thankless society.
Anyway, have a good time here and hope you learn something. I've only been here a short time myself and have found that most FReepers are very knowledgeable and polite. I've learned a great deal here in a short time and maybe you will too.
I love America and so there will be no apologies for my Tagline. Have a good day and Merry Christmas.
You don't provide reasoned debate; you just reiterate the same groundless assertion. You haven't responded to anything anyone of us has posted.
So ignorant. So mindless. So pathetic.
Would you be kind enough to tell me/us what your personal opinion of Zell Miller's endorsement of President Bush is?
Are you for or against the hostilities in Iraq?
These will do for my starter questions, and welcome to Free Republic!
So, Mr Open-mind -- where is your reasoned argument as to why socialism is a good thing for America?
I continue to point to countries that have adopted socialized medicine as compelling arguments against the idea.
Sun--he is incapable of answering, because he can't actually think for himself. He can only parrot the lines spoken by other fuzzy-headed liberals.
He posted several times but could not keep with the posts. --but I bet he is taking a breather so he wont get overloaded with the posting avtivity -maybe come back when it is slower and 'ease' in...
I guess that is obvious to everyone but Mr Open-mind :-)
To a leftist -- it makes perfect sense that the state should be the "caretaker" of *the people*. But to those who think for themselves -- socialism leads to tryanny -- every time.
I'm sure our non-thinking friend believes that if socialism is just done *right* -- it will work :-)
We have nothing to learn from you,though you might indeed learn something from us,if you are willing to open your mind and admit that Liberalism is a worthless,harmful philosophy.
He posted several times but could not keep with the posts. --but I bet he is taking a breather so he wont get overloaded with the posting avtivity -maybe come back when it is slower and 'ease' in...
;)
Conservatives are proud to be American and feel like America is a special place. Most would probably believe in the adage; "Feed a man a fish and he'll eat today, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime."
I care about the truly poor and disadvantaged I just don't want government to tell me who I have to care about and take my money to feed a bloated bureaucracy who helps only those who are willing to jump through a thousand bureaucratic hoops. If the govt safety net works how come we have poor people? Could it be that they throw money at the problem and never get to the real cause of poverty? Same with schools, smaller classes, more teachers, much more money and the schools are going backwards. The Lib answer is to throw more money at it and wait and hope the money will solve the problem. They don't want to consider that it could be an accountabiliy problem and I don't mean just teachers, parents and students should be responsible too.
Medical care; we've seen it go through the roof since the advent of Medicare and in our state Medicaid, and huge insurance companies. Hardly anyone I know pays for their own healthcare, it is the ins. cos and govt of some kind who picks it up so Drs and hospitals charge through the nose and no-one bargains for the best rate.
As you see, I could go on for pages. The environmental insanity which has lined the pockets of special interest w/our tax dollars when it could have been done with a little incentive. Property rights which have been eroded, gun ownership, State's rights, freedom in general w/o constant bureaucratic regulations meddling and intruding into every day. Morality is a big one for me too. It's not that I sit around counting other's sins but when they legislate immorality and make me pay for it, my blood boils and when they try to say that my morality is wrong and their's is superior and they want laws to prove it.
I think there should be a law that when you pass a new one you have to scrap an old one, there are entirely too many laws and no-one can be aware of all of them.
I'm going on again and I know you don't have time to read all the posts anyway but if you hang around here you'll get a lot of opinion and you'll get a lot of insight into the conservative mind. We don't all agree with each other all the time but we have more in common with each other than we have w/liberals.
Need we be quite so rigid, my FRiend?! Seriously, we come to FR.com to enjoy conversations and debates with folks on any number of issues, and I've found many folks who are not nearly as conservative as me on some issues, but even moreso on others (rarely). And I've learned from these folks and hope they've derived something from our debates as well.
That said, there are many lurkers who may benefit from seeing their liberal ideas debated and debunked. Having a few polite Lib'rals to play off against can enliven the debate, and help us to hone our skills.
FReegards...MUD
Why don’t blonde RATs like to make Kool Aid?
Because they can’t fit eight cups of water in those tiny packets...
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