Note to self:
Run. Run hard and fast. Don't look back. Its already too late. I've read two things in the last 5 minutes that make me feel this way right now. It too much to even try to rant right now. Go here and here and here. And here's a motivational poster for you.
trogg
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Barack:
Anyone see or read the speech? I'm going to read it later and watch it on the DVR this weekend. Yummy fireworks. I ask cuz i'm listening to Spoon - Don't Make Me a Target. Just reminded me I have to read the transcript. Its playing now.
trogg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------But every sperm is sacred:
ok so here's the deal, now i'm being told to stop having kids to save the planet. That's great, makes sense to me. Problem is that as an rationalist, I understand these arguments and would have limited my offspring to 1.5 or whatever, but all the churchies aren't rationalist or they wouldn't be following the biblical command to "be fruitful and multiply". So we made a conscious decision to have more than our allotted 1.5 offspring to counterbalance the folks that lack a firm grip on reality believing their imaginary friend in the sky will keep the planet nice and healthy for their 8 undisciplined children. If the heathens don't have more children who will take care of the Earth in the future? And besides, once the "rapture" comes we'll need to have enough children to assure we can keep the world running.
trogg
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Georgia:
Did we really need more proof that our president and VP are treasonous criminals? Send them to the Hague and put them in a cell with Radovan Karadzic. Then let's see how they like starting wars in other countries and supplying covert troops without our knowledge. Argh. More argh.
trogg
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Pics I found:
If you don't know by now you soon will. I do not lack a firm grip on reality and do not believe in an imaginary friend in the sky who will help me when I fall from a 14 ft. second story window. So check these out: Motivation & Norway
trogg
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Helicopter Parenting:
I just read a Geekdad article about gifted kids and how most people's kids just aren't. He does a really good job relating his parenting experience with the idea that every kid has to be gifted according to their parents. Fact is most kids are not gifted at all.
It was the comment section that really got me. The first two comments are about how pushing you children to in school and other areas of life has to be done as they will never learn to push themselves if we don't. This is nonsense. I commented as well and you can go see it but I need more space.
The idea that pushing children and forcing them to learn things makes them better students/people/athletes has been proven wrong so many times. Our forced schooling does nothing but turn our children into "god, country, and family" automatons. Pushing and forcing our kids to learn things that don't mean anything in everyday life only makes them push back and hate learning. You want to see the truth? Look up John Holt or John Taylor Gatto. Both were extremely gifted teachers in the compulsory school system we have in the USA.
John Holt taught in Colorado and then Boston. He and a partner did studies through observation on children in their classes. From these studies he wrote several books detailing how kids excel and fail in school. He also developed the ideas that kids don't learn in school due to fear, and being forced to learn things for which they are not interested.
John Taylor Gatto was New York City Teacher of the year in 1989, 1990, and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1991. He quit teaching because he felt he was hurting children by contributing to forced schooling. He continued from there to research the history and effect of forced schooling in this country and has uncovered horrible things about our system. Mostly, to put in my own words, that our forced schooling is damaging our children and making our country dumber by the second.
Why bring them up? Because they are right, 100%. Think about yourself or anyone else you know. Does it ever work to force something down their throat that they don't believe or want to think about? No. It was just demonstrated at this Democratic Convention. These people supposedly voting for McCain because Hilary lost won't listen or learn anything - because they do not want to. They only time any of us learn is when we really truly want to and are interested in something.
How about this - my favorite example is learning a language. The general consensus is that it's horribly hard for adults to learn a new language, so why try. BUT!, when you need to and want to learn because if you don't you won't be able to communicate you pick it up incredibly fast. Just drop yourself in the middle of Germany for awhile and when you have to speak German in order to get a beer or have a conversation, your need a desire to learn German is at its tops, and you pcik up and remember everything. But instead, we force people to memorize words and tenses and new letters, and then put them together in a way that nobody not already gifted with languages can or wants to learn.
Then there's the way babies learn. Does it work to sit with a newborn and force the sippy cup in its mouth to make sure they learn how to drink from a cup? No. They learn by exploring naturally, and taking in what they want to when they want to. This is what assures that they will not ever forget how to drink without choking or spilling.
Listen, I'm all ranted out right now. I'm sure I'll have more later. The thing that got me was the fact that there are still so many people that believe if you push children, or anyone for that matter, into something they will learn it and they will be better. This is just complete BS. Our public/private/homeschools are horrible ways for our children or anyone to learn. They need to be encouraged not pushed and left to learn naturally. This way they won't turn into people who cannot learn on their own because they never learned how to do that. They will learn how to become critical thinkers and free-thinkers which is the exact opposite of what any modern cirriculum/ standards based school is aiming for. And this issue of who is gifted and who is not will go by the wayside becuase it doesn't matter. Some folks excel in areas that others don't, but that's a rant for another time. Go outside and do someting.
Skål!
trogg
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Population Control:
OK, so here's the deal, now I'm being told to stop having kids to save the planet. That's great, makes sense to me. Problem is that as an rationalist, I understand these arguments and would have limited my offspring to 1.5 or whatever, but all the churchies aren't rationalist or they wouldn't be following the biblical command to "be fruitful and multiply". So we made a conscious decision to have more than our allotted 1.5 offspring to counterbalance the folks that lack a firm grip on reality believing their imaginary friend in the sky will keep the planet nice and healthy for their 8 or so undisciplined children. If the heathens don't have more children who will take care of the Earth in the future? And besides, as my wife said, "well this is true, especially when everyone else is taken in the rapture."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-london-population2_goeringaug27,0,4602930.story
trogg
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Kucinich:
Republicans and democrats suck, plain and simple. The are the same
bloodsuckers. Politicians - local, state and federal - need to be put
up against the wall. But this man should be King, at least I think so today. Regardless of his
party affiliation, he is the only one who has told the truth about
anything and the only one who truly stands up for every one of us even
when he's running for re-election and he may lose his seat. Just sit
and listen to the whole 6 minutes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv0smG7ptcM
trogg
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New Addition:
Bought a new car on Friday. Or was it Saturday? Can't keep it together. It was a long, busy, weekend. New stuff all around. Check out the picture.
Trogg
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Alright so what I understand is that Etherton switch is the place where Route 127 and Etherton Rd. intersect and right south of Murphysboro on 127. Its also the name of this cool bluegrass band.
So, Marcy and Orin and Noah and I went down to Etherton a couple of weekends ago to visit friends. Short story: its southern Illinois (The South) but Mary and Mark and friends are wonderful and have a great (wish I had it myself) farm. Oh, and there's vineyards everywhere. I put some pics up of the farm and of Etherton Switch (the band). Go check them out.
Trogg
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To all the jerks:
I'm gonna write here about anything I want. There may be mis-spellings and bad grammar. Tough. I do my best and it doesn't take away from my point. I may even put a comments thing on here but I'm slow and lazy so don't hold your breath. And don't quote me or use any of my stuff. See that? Its my stuff. You ask first and get permission. And click some links for Bob's sake! I didn't put them here for me.
Trogg
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