Posted on 10/26/2006 11:25:28 AM PDT by A_perfect_lady
I just sat in the teacher's lounge of my middle school and listened to my fellow teachers hold forth about President Bush, the war in Iraq, and politics in general. Naturally they all agree that Bush is evil, the anti-christ, a religious fanatic, well not really a true religious fanatic, but a phony pretending to be one, actually an evil schemer who started the war to allow Halliburton to steal the oil, but really a simpleton who thought he could bring democracy to a culture that is incompatible with democracy, well they are but it will take a long time and he obviously thought he could do it overnight because he's naive and really just schemed to do it for Halliburton anyway....
In other words, they leap from one cliche to the next, never noticing that the cliches and conspiracies are mutually exclusive, and they talk and talk without listening to anything but their own voices.
But this is what really got me: Several of them said that we should release Saddam Hussein, put him back in charge of Iraq, declare defeat, pull out, impeach Bush and try him for crimes against humanity. These are your kids' teachers. And they really believe this. As far as they can tell, there was no sectarian violence under Saddam because "He knew how to handle them." (The fact that Iraq didn't have a free press and they wouldn't have been reading the Iraqi papers back in the 1990s anyway seems to escape them.) They believe that we haven't helped Afghanistan rebuild, that we should have invaded North Korea instead but we didn't because there's no oil there, that we should have invaded Iran (despite the fact that there is oil there - presumably - and we would have no justification to present the sacred UN for that.)
In other words, these people are limitlessly arrogant, uninformed, and LOUD. I sat quietly until someone asked me a direct question and I told them that I think we did the right thing and that they are wrong to think that Bush had no idea it would take a long time to bring stability to Iraq, as he had said from the beginning it would be a long, hard haul. Let me tell you, once they realized I wasn't part of the chorus they started talking at me a mile a minute. They would just spout accusation after accusation and not let me say a full sentence back. Occasionally I'd ask a question, like, "Are you aware that the Johns Hopkins study that claims an Iraqi death toll of 655,000 used only 47 cluster samples, which is an abnormally low sample?" But for the most part, I couldn't get a word in. They just talk and talk like a monkey jumping from tree to tree. Welcome to publik skool.
Unsuprisingly, this is Los Angeles.
Well, I am glad you responded. I apologise again, for not reading that before. With luck, your questions will irritate one or two of them enough to get on the web and find facts to challenge you, and not finding them, start thinking for themselves.
I wish you well, perfect lady.
I might be inclined to agree with them about the iraqis not being ready for democracy, because based on their comments I'm not convinced America is ready for democracy.
Thanks for the story.
Sorry for your suffering the fools
These liberal women will be wearing burkas if we lose this wot.
and they will lose their rights to vote, have a job, drive a car, go to school...
Ooorah!
Pretty much sophistry from start to finish. No humility, no openness to facts or logic. My theory is that it all traces to our homogenous journalism. ABC News competes with NBC News, just like the Yankees compete with the Red Sox. Within the lines, they compete fiercely - but outside the lines they are both selling MLB. ABC News, and all the rest, compete for market among themselves but the one thing they are all selling is "objective" journalism itself.Journalism would have it that accurate reporting is the be-all and end-all, but there is a little matter of called "story selection" to consider.
Half the truth is often a great lie. - Benjamin FranklinThe debate over Iraq is a classic: journalists put the White House on the spot because "The news from Iraq is all bad." The White House responds that the good news from Iraq doesn't get reported, and journalists reply that good news doesn't sell so you can't expect them to report it. And then the same journalists repeat their complaint that the news from Iraq is all bad.When the story selection is biased because of the self-interest of journalism, mere accuracy in what is reported does not redeem the bias hidden in what is not reported. The fact that journalism would rather report bad news puts paid to any argument based on the idea that journalism is objective. Journalism defines objectivity in terms of its own interest, as if its own interest were the definition of the public interest. But the idea that bad news is good for the public because it is in the interest of journalism is risable. Of course it isn't good for the public - that's why they call it "bad."
Actually, I've seen lefties claim the US put him in office.
You poor thing.
My daughter teaches in Wyoming. (and I did for many years) This conversation would NEVER happen in her teachers' lounge. The liberal is the "odd man out" around here. The "odd man" in this part of the country keeps his own counsel. (The Jackson Hole area is a rare exception.)
I have also noticed more than once that if you do engage them in debate they talk faster, louder, they stop looking you in the eye, and often their hands begin to shake. It's really freaky.
Once again I am thankful to live in the south and in a school district where most of the teacher's have a W the president decal on their windows or a support the troops decal on their bumpers. I'm thankful that the middle school has prayer and quiet time at the flag pole for any who want to participate. I am thankful that at the elementary school the classes discussed the constitution and what symbols are used to show support and allegiance to their country.
I'm sorry you have to work with a bunch of morons.
"Greying ponytails" (and pigtails) around here are usually elders from the Sioux Nation.....traditional and conservative type fellows, and much respected.
I've never lived in a liberal community, so it's a bit hard for me to relate. All I know is what I've read about the situation. I'm very glad for that fact.
Methinks you should move. I know.........easier said than done.
Keep up the good fight.
I feel for you. My BIL is a teacher in a middle school and about the only conservative there. I would imagine he goes through the same thing. Oh well, there are lots of people in this world that you'd just love to buy for what they're REALLY worth and sell for what they THINK they're worth.
Yup. My son is 40 yrs. old, and if I had it to do over and realized where we were headed, I'd have been caught trying real hard to either homeschool him or send him to a smallish Christian school where, at the very least, the mention of the name Jesus or God wouldn't cause the faculty, and some parents to go apoplectic. - I was in school a very long time ago, but in high school I was unwell a lot of the time and had to ride the bus about three hours every day. School finally exhausted me, although I didn't realize how much at the time; just knew I wanted OUT as soon as I got my diploma. Yes. I wish I could have been homeschooled or gone to a Christian school close to home.
Sounds like all the public school educators I know save one.
Yeah, right...
Japan Surrenders!
Salk Conquers Polio!
I could list them forever.
You mean like all those republican congessmen and senators do everyday in response to Pelosi's attacks against our President?
LOL!
Soviet Union Collapses!
Civil Rights Act Signed!
Armstrong Wins Tour de France!
Stop me before I kill again.
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