A last minute, desperate attempt to appease the conservative Christian right wingers who were not on board with McCain’s candidacy.
Does John McCain actually believe that women might be attracted to Sarah Palin merely because she is a woman? That we are so desperate for a woman candidate (never mind that the Dems have offered a woman veep before) that we will take anything?…
Article comments
76 - troll
...it's true I suppose that it simply wouldn't do to pass before his mother
77 - Dan
Just a couple of fun facts relevant to the discussion.
George Bush's IQ, roughly converted from his 1206 (old format; 1280 today) SAT score, and from his Air Force Officer Qualifying test (67th percentile), Puts him at about 125.
If you believe that IQ is a valid measure of intelligence, then only about 10% of us can think him stupid.
John Kerry is roughly the same, but Al Gore is in the upper 130's. Supporting evidence to the notion that high IQ is positively correlated with mental illness.
I can't find data on Obama, but his grades were very good. However, Obama’s volume of the Harvard Law Review is the least cited in the last 20 years. Of course it's still a pretty big achievement.
Second fun fact: Sarah Palin's husband isn't entirely an eskimo. He's 12.5% Yu'pik. My wife thinks him "ruggedly handsome" (not that full eskimo men aren't). Word is that Yu'piks don't mind being called eskimo, but they don't like being called Inuit. The Inuit's, on the other hand, don't like being called eskimo, but they are a much larger concentration than Yu'piks. So it's safer not to use the word eskimo unless your talking kisses or pies. Or if your certain of Yu'pik heritage.
78 - Condor
"Yes, dear. That is what all the Op-Ed pages in newspapers are for, as well as blogspots. And what al the comments on this piece are, too:)"- Lisa
Who reads newpapers anymore? And, don't you feel any responibility for what you write? I would have thought you would have learned that in upper level college work?
79 - Condor
"chance that his health could deteriorate by age 76 [and certainly by age 80], in one of the most stressful jobs in the world, is a real concern." - Handyman
Age discrimination. Some people actually live beyond their 70's. The genetic makeup, along with research bears that out. It has been studied that ex-POW's have increased longevity. Perhaps from eating low fat diets during those years in captivity... of course lifestyle after acquiring freedom is also crucial to your health.
A number of notable politicians have lived long productive lives. Franklin lived 3 or 4 decades beyond the normal life expectancy of males during that time period.
So, I don't get it. Is age really a descerning factor in this election? Especially early in the 21st century, when life expectancy is slowly increasing for those who are diligent in thier personal upkeep.
Obama is/was/probably still is a smoker. A smoker. On top of that his genetics would put him at risk for diabeties, heart disease, and other related malady's which are compounded by smoking and/or a history of smoking. I haven't read much regarding Obama's smoking, or his history of smoking. Why is that? Is that not an issue? Everyone is talking about McCain's age, but he takes care of himself. Isn't the life expectancy of a smoker important enough to talk about?
80 - Condor
"According to a newspaper she also believes that creationism should be taught in science classes." - Susan Walter
Wait Susan Walter, don't leave the party yet! I heard just about every candidate or major Washington player at the democratic convention ask God to bless America.... I couldn't believe it, talk about disenfranchising your voting base. Those dems also talked about families and children, talk about disenfranchising the gay community, or the pro abortion community.. One group is unable to procreate unless they cheat! And the other has to kill any living being within them.
I'm really unsure about the ethics of a party who espouse so many groups of people, fringe groups, athiest groups, gay groups, yet... choose to insult them publicly druing a nationally televised event. It was utterly shameful.
You should reconsider joining them, they know not, what they do.
81 - Lisa Solod Warren
Dan, I won't go into details because Clavos, or someone else, would decide to go one for one, but I get to call Bush stupid, and, I think the mentally ill correlation is specious. Gore is clearly far from it. His speech is amazing.
I absolutely agree with your wife, however, that Palin's husband does look ruggedly handsome.
Who reads newspapers? Many many people? I, for one. What an odd thing to say?
And, of course, I take responsibility for what I write. What another very odd thing to say. My comment was meant to be slightly ironic. I guess people who don't read newspapers don't get irony. How sad.
82 - Condor
"Bush got into Yale with Daddy's connections, barely made a C average and bragged about it. You gotta have all the facts in order." - Lisa
And the real kicker was... Bush pulled out a better GPA than Kerry!
And Gore.... never finished his schooling, he just rode his daddy's wave into politics.... Oh sure he went to the 'Nam and learned how to type, but with the GI bill, plus the family money... Gore should have finished his readin', ritin' and rithimatic' learnin'.
83 - Lisa Solod Warren
Not that it has anything to do with the article I wrote, Condor, but if you have supporting evidence from some reliable source re Kerry and Gore I would love to see it.
84 - Arch Conservative
Condor will provide that relaible source right after you provide your reliable source proving the comment you made about Bush getting into Yale.
How's that sound Lisa?
85 - Lisa Solod Warren
Oh! Arch. Did not realize you were Condor's spokeman. Will ask further questions through you.
Just curious. And I asked, nicely, Arch. Which is something you have such trouble doing. Bush has bragged openly about his C average. And everyone knows he is a legacy. I can find out if his grandpappy went there, too.
86 - Arch Conservative
It's a long holiday weekend Lisa. What's with all this criticism of Bush's academic record?
[Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor. Archie, is your memory failing you? I'll let this one slide as a holiday gift to you but my finger is poised over the delete key...]
87 - Condor
Lisa,
Google Bush, Kerry GPA.... scores of hits. I Googled Gore separately since I wasn't sure if a DNF counted. To Gore's credit, he holds several honorary doctorates but he never patented the internet.
Al Gore GPA at Harvard was 2.2
George W. Bush GPA at Yale was 2.35
Kerry and Bush's cumulative scores were 76 and 77 respectively. Kerry recieved a dogpile of D's his first year, despite having received Kerry's weak grades came despite years of education what is considered to be of the world's most elite prep schools, (Fessenden School in Massachusetts to St. Paul's School in New Hampshire). Kerry admitted to spending a great deal of time taking flying lessons, which took away from his coursework.
Granted it's a only a point. But, it is still a fact that Bush got better grades than Both Gore and Kerry.... but they all were terrible students.
And remember, this was all before our current state of education when, from what I've heard from professors at el... is that today's A was probably related to yesteryears C+ or B-...
I finished up a 3rd degree a little over 2 years ago, and I have to tell you, the professors shared some research and essay papers with me which demonstrated a level of writing at about the 8th grade level. I was shocked. They were absolutely terrible. And I contend that many schools today are passing students to keep the "mill" running and the money coming in. But during the 60's and 70's, grading was much stricter. 30 years from now when some politico is boasting about that B or A average...
88 - Ruvy
as [a] Jew, I don't buy that Obama will be bad for Israel, I just don't.
Lisa,
Had I not lived for nearly five decades in the United States, actively participating in its political life both in New York and in Minnesota, I would have no right to speak up about politics in what used to be my country. But I would say that the years I spent being politically active in the United States has purchased me that right. I have, to a degree, a clear grip of how politics and economics works in America, though I grant that the longer I stay away, the weaker that grip becomes.
In addition, I am active (to the degree that my Hebrew allows me to be) in Israeli politics here, as a paid member of one of the factions of one of the major political parties here, voting in its primary elections and other elections as they come along. I dare say that in the English speaking political world in Israel, "I'm known among the elders when he sits in the gate of the city".
I must needs ask, then. How many years have you spent here? How many buses have you boarded? How many of your children are eligible for service in the IDF, or have volunteered to serve? Or, in the alternative, have you or your husband? In short, how well can you get a pulse for what is going on here. If the answer to the above questions is few to none, as it might well be, I politely suggest to you that merely being a Jew does not give you a handle on what is good for this country.
Even a deluded denizen of of the "Peoples' Republic of Tel Aviv" like Uri Avneri, a man with whom I violently disagree, and whom I would like to regard as a traitor, knows better than an American who has not been here - simply because he has experienced the risk involved in being here. In Avneri's case, he was a member of the Etze"l and fought for the independence of this country, as well as fighting in the IDF in the 1956 Sinai campaign.
I cannot say that, and must give him the respect due him as a veteran of both of a pre-independence militia and of the Israel Defense Force in its wars for survival here.
But I do live here, and I know the risk I take every single time I board a bus here, and the risk imposed on all of us by the deluded policies of the United States and by the ghetto mentality of the "power-holders" here in kissing up to the American asshole in following those policies. Obama is the worst kind of fellow you could elect for our sakes - but ironically, that makes him the best. An anti-Jewish and anti-Israel scoundrel like him is what it would take to get thousands of reservists angry enough to work a true regime change here - ditching the bought out low level political hacks who deserve to be in jail for corruption, and the high level traitors who deserve to hang by the neck for selling the nation out.
I wish you a pleasant Labor Day.
89 - Condor
Sorry about the typos.... maybe I should have taken typing lessons from the Army like Al Gore did.... but I am typing from the back of a van heading towards Louisiana in anticipation of hacking through a bunch of trees to restore power.
It's an oncall thing I do to keep the interest level up and get away from the desk as much as possible.
90 - Ruvy
the professors shared some research and essay papers with me which demonstrated a level of writing at about the 8th grade level. I was shocked. They were absolutely terrible. And I contend that many schools today are passing students to keep the "mill" running and the money coming in. But during the 60's and 70's, grading was much stricter.
Condor, you've made me feel much better about that lowly BA I earned 30 years ago from CUNY.... It, and my admission to institutions of higher learning, were gained on my writing ability....
91 - Dr Dreadful
All I have to say is that universities, junior colleges and other institutions of higher education should not be offering remedial English and math classes. They just shouldn't.
Can't read, write, add or subtract, you're not college material. It's that simple.
92 - Arch Conservative
Wether or not you guys mean to imply it or not (I'm certain a certain someone who's been contributing artcles recently does but I'm not sure about the rest of you) going to a "better school" or getting better grades does not necessarily make one more intelligent, does not necessarily make one more aware of the realities of the world around them and better equipped to deal with these realities in an honest and objective manner, does necessarily make one culturally superior, does not necessarily make one more compassionate, or in general a better person.
Pretty much the only thing that a formal secondary education garuntees about a person is that they spent a lot of money to sit in a classroom and take a bunch of tests. Oh they probably did learn a few things but their motivation for learning was very doubftfully some great thirst for knowledge and truth but a desire to get a degree that would help them obtain a what they consider a job that pays well enough to be satisfied. Obtaining such a degree can at times be very hard work and also prepare you to be put into a position where you may have something of value to offer other than monetary considerations to your fellow citizen. That being the case I bear no grudge in anyone expressing pride in their accomplishment unless it is wielded in such an ugly fashion as I have seen recently.
I am a fairly recent college graduate myself doing fine but the biggest thing I have learned since leaving college is that my degree makes me no more intelligient, insightful or more worthwhile of a person than many out there that do not hold degrees or never attended a college or University.
I truly believe that one of life's greatest lessons is humility. You may not think, based on some of my writings that I really believe that, but a good deal of what many of us do on here is nothing but superficial entertainment for our own amusement based to varying degress, loosely on our true selves. So maybe I may be a bit too rash in judging those who i referred to in the beginning of this article. it's just that if I'm not..then we have some very ugly souls indeed taking part in our little excrusion from reality.
93 - Lisa Solod Warren
Arch, although it is patently obvious, your ad hominem attacks on me and others are what is ugly...and you are the one who has been consistently censored. In addition, it might add to your argument above if your post were even partially literate, spelled correctly, grammatically accurate and rational. Also, if might really help if you weren't so pissed off all the time.
94 - Dr Dreadful
Arch,
Well said.
95 - Clavos
All I have to say is that universities, junior colleges and other institutions of higher education should not be offering remedial English and math classes. They just shouldn't.
Can't read, write, add or subtract, you're not college material. It's that simple.
Dead on.
Actually requiring college applicants to be able to read, write, add and subtract would have the serendipitous benefit of considerably reducing the number of butts in seats in all the colleges, allowing for better teacher/student ratios and improving the odds of each student actually being educated upon graduation.
America's public school system is one of the worst in the developed world, largely because of the stranglehold the NEA and other teachers' unions have not only on setting the criteria for teacher hiring, but also on measuring their performance and holding them accountable for results.
The present system, with the unions in control, amounts to the fox guarding the chickens.
96 - Joanne Huspek
I would think that if McCain needed to choose "any" woman in a storm, he should have chosen Lisa.
That being said, I think the considerations went farther than just being female.
97 - bliffle
IMO, all the heavy weight of words expended here and elsewhere on Palins lightweight candidacy is wasted hot air.
People would better spend their time and writing efforts toward dealing with policy issues than with Palin and her children, etc.
That's all I have to say about Palin, now and forever more, unless, by chance, she actually has something important to say policywise. Anyway, she's not that good looking, about average, I'd say.
Anyway, I was more interested in this statement by Clavos:
America's public school system is one of the worst in the developed world, largely because of the stranglehold the NEA and other teachers' unions have not only on setting the criteria for teacher hiring, but also on measuring their performance and holding them accountable for results.
The present system, with the unions in control, amounts to the fox guarding the chickens.
I disagree. Years ago I would have agreed, and, in fact, many years ago when my children were in school I did battle against the Forces Of Ignorance in local school systems, which were then comprised of under-qualified teachers and aggressive fuzzy-wuzzy parents who hated hard grades and didn't want a teacher to offend their dear darlings. If you ever went to a PTA meeting you know who I mean.
But my experience of the past 10 years or so is quite different.
It seems that the modern Forces Of Ignorance are comprised of a new class of 'Adminstrators' who have not been educators (teachers), nor have they ever administered anything, but they have taken a course or two in 'School Administration' at some college and were appointed directly into their current important jobs. They didn't work their way up and they have no relevant outside experience.
They don't know how to do their jobs. They are usually too young and inexperienced. They don't know what the people do who work for them, and they don't want to lower themselves to find out. They suffer from instant arrogance, like any tyro manager.
So they do what every over-promoted weakling does: they harass people and try to assert their power to intimidate. They want to appear tough, but they are afraid to struggle with their bosses because they don't know the material.
Very destructive.
The unions have very little power, just as they have little power in other areas of the workplace.
Good teachers have little to protect them from the arbitrary power plays of these 'administrators', who seem to have nothing better to do for 8 hours a day than figure out ways to harass their betters, i.e., people who are actually doing good in the school system by teaching math, teaching english, or solving their students domestic problems.
98 - Clavos
Points taken, bliffle, and I'm sure they are accurate for the CA system, which has for decades ranked near (or at) the top of the US systems; it does not, however, fit the FL system, which is replete with inferior "teachers," who are difficult to impossible to fire. Here most of the administrators are superannuated teachers who have been Peter Principled.
Unlike CA's, Fl schools have for decades consistently ranked at the bottom of US schools.
They still are.
99 - Cannonshop
Bliffle, here in Washington State, we've got the same problems, with the same results, that Florida has. When I graduated from High School in 1991, Washington State was #3 in education spending, and #43 in education quality in K-12. In 2004, more than 25% of high school students failed an eighth-grade level math test (The WASL, which was mandated from outside the school system, and is required to graduate.) that year, Washington's spending had dropped to...#43. Since most of the funding comes from local Levies, it could be said that the market has refused to pay a higher price for an inferior quality good.
And it is inferior. When the teachers go on a walk-out, so do the administrators. Notably, the WEA opposed the WASL, and I can see why-the first year more than 40% of Students in grade 10 could not pass an eighth-grade level math quiz. Since 2004, the results have not been encouraging, and many districts have been giving "Retry" tests where the students are given the questions repeatedly until they pass.
Mind you now, these aren't eighth graders taking this test. They're tenth graders, and it's not like it's an SAT, it's not that hard. For some reason, people paid to teach math, don't do a good job up here, people paid to teach history don't, people who are paid to teach science fail as well-which is ironic when you look at how many high-tech businesses are located in Washington state.
I have two teenage Nieces, Bliffle. ONe is eighteen and has already failed the test-and quite honestly failed it. The test only measures proficiency, she isn't. She Can, however, tell me in aching detail all about how carbon emissions are killing the earth, and how we should make the corporations "Share". She can't do any of the math, but that doesn't stop her.
My fifteen year old Niece has yet to take the test, but she can't multiply three digit numbers without a calculator, handle long division, or add dissimilar fractions. She CAN, however, talk all the talking points, without knowing anything about what she's talking about. (She can't even FIND iraq on a map. This isn't like overlooking Luxembourg or Delaware on a globe, she can't find frikking IRAQ..or Iran.)
Neither one actually KNOWS what the Bill of Rights says, or what rights they actually have.
100 - Arch Conservative
Not to make it a partisan issue but isn't it the left leaning NEA that opposes merit pay for teachers?
Haven't liberals basically been in control of our failing education for quite some time now?
Don't Catholic schools with their more conservative and traditional teaching values and methods, produce students that do better on tests and in general exhibit a greater mastery of core subjects than their public school counterparts?
101 - bliffle
Maybe we're just a little ahead of FL, etc., on a timebase (but I doubt educationally), because we went thru that whole thing you describe a few years ago, and in some places we are still going thru it.
But now we are cursed by "profesional school administrators" for whom this is a career choice, not a calling. These are people who see school administration as a money-making opportunity that just requires a rather easy bit of coursework, available at any junior college.
This is what you have to look forward to. Beware the day that your schoolboard declares that the schools will be better (and cheaper, too!) if you replace the superannuated teachers in the administration with "professional school administrators".
The only real skill I've seen them demonstrate is ladder climbing and job skipping. They get paid pretty good money, too, especially considering the low level of their education and lack of experience either teaching or administering.
Maybe the best thing is to reform and improve the existing staff. Maybe you have to hire a "professional school administrator" in a pilot program to scare the others straight. But I think that in the end you're better off having admins who really care about children and learning rather than uninvolved professionals.
Of all the 'merit' programs I've seen in any kind of job, almost all of them are subverted by the administration, eventually, because the merit jobs are plums desired by aggressive people who find a way around the strict merit process. It happens everywhere. I don't know what the solution is, except a manager with enough personal strength to really promote the meritorious not use cronyism.
I don't know what the solution is in a union environment.
Maybe what's needed is something more like a guild system.
Other professions like science and law seem to be able to operate peer review systems that do decent jobs of peer evaluation.
102 - Joanne Huspek
Please don't get me started on Michigan schoolteachers, who have the strongest union, the highest wages, and yet the results are abysmal. And yes, I know many personally, since I have to hire some of them. (With the disclaimer that a very few of them are actually doing a good job.)
103 - Clavos
bliff,
You're right.
I thought that the CA system was one of the best in the US for decades, but according to the US Chamber of Commerce Educational Report Card for 2007, FL is ahead of CA educationally, although neither is anything to brag about.
104 - bliffle
I've commonly seen school children here who can't read an analog clock. they are accustomed to reading the digits from a digital display. Some don't know the months of the year. Some don't know the days of the week.
I think the malefactors in the system are non-partisan, regardless of what they profess. We've all seen the self-styled liberals who are totally illiberal in their decisions. And we've all seen high-principled conservatives resort easily to the most corrupt practices.
It depends on the quality of the person. I'm thinking of L who teaches gradeschool math and professes the most liberal ideas at table, but is a complete autocrat in his classroom, and children love him for it. But he's very very good at both teaching math and being an autocrat.
105 - Clavos
I think autocratic teachers usually are better at getting the information stuffed into the pointy little heads, as long as they don't carry the autocratic thing so far they turn the kids off.
Discipline and structure are essential in a classroom; I was horrified when the teaching profession, back in the 60s, began to get into "touchy-feely" mode, letting the kids take any path they wanted, all in the service of "building their self esteem," and "not stifling their creativity," and other such poppycock.
106 - Cannonshop
Well, I didn't get what I would consider a "Real" education in public schools here-for chrissakes, I went from a town of 3000 in colorado in 7th Grade straight into a gifted programme for 9th graders here in Washington state in '86. I'm not "Gifted", that's just (from what I can discern) the difference between schools and states. I didn't learn the core subjects until I started trying to repair the damage myself through community college after my time in the military.
Lots of kids coming out of schools with great self-esteem, and no brains to back it up. Too many of that sort, and it's getting WORSE.
I agree, it's non-partisan to a point. That point is where you get to discussing remedies to the problem. It's to a point where a teacher has to SLEEP with a student to get fired once they have tenure, regardless of said teachers' inability to pass the standardized tests the students are expected to take in 10th grade, and there's no 'peer pressure' to improve-all the maintenance is mandated, and I've taken some of those classes (the ones available for Education Majors in community college), they're a joke.
On the admin side, Parents are also carriers of the blame. When forty percent of washington state sophmores couldn't pass the WASL in 2004, the parents claimed the test was 'too hard'. We're talking eighth grade math. as in two years behind what these students should be, (if they were promoted according to abiity) able to do.
My oldest Niece would have been flunked, or held back a year, instead, she's graduating this year in spite of failing a test that's supposed to be mandatory for graduation. She's not alone.
107 - Lisa Solod Warren
Okay, since we have shifted topic (and I have decided not to accept Joanne's kind nomination as veep AND Gustav did not, Thank God, hit New Orleans) I'll play:
Dissing teachers has become quite a sport in the United States and it is not completely unjustified. But let's shift some of the blame.
Years and years ago, when I first moved to Virginia, I thought about trying to get certified as a teacher. I had an AB from a good university, with honors, in English and writing, had been a working journalist for years, had a long record of publication and had taught as an adjunct at the university level. However, when I went to find out how long it would take me to get certified to teach high school English I was told I would have to go back to school full time for two years. I would have to take a remedial math course, a remedial music course and a year long course in lesson planning!!!! among other courses. All to teach high school English.
Needless to say I was completey discouraged.
When there was a teacher shortage some years later, several larger city schools allowed well educated, well qualified professionals in other fields(ie., former scientists, journalists, health professionals, etc.) to teach in related fields while, at the same time, taking courses toward certification at night. That seemed to make much more sense. I have no idea if that took hold because by that time I had moved on to other things.
This is by way of saying that the way we educate our teachers is ludicrous. They should be supremely well educated in whichever subject they want to teach. THEN they should receive six months to a year instruction in the fundamentals of educational instruction, including educational philosphies, and different teaching methodoligies; they should practice-teach under the eyes of true masters at it, should be able to fit their methods to the school system in which they teach, and then they should be let loose and monitored.
They should also be paid a good wage, not 23,000 a year (which is, or was a few years ago, the starting wage in Virginia, which actually has a pretty good school system for the most part) to encourage both men and women to go into teaching.
I think the unions do have a bit of a stranglehold. And I think just about every school administrator I have ever met is well, pretty much of an idiot. But I have had, and my children, have had some great teachers among the lame ones--although I admit the great ones were few and far between and thus quite memorable.
In all my school years from grade one through twelve I had two pretty good teachers and one who changed my life.
In college I had amazing professors, but again, another story.
University education is a whole 'nother ball of wax.
On the whole it seems that tons and tons of Americans graduate high school with what I would call a very minimum education: they are barely literate, have read next to nothing, know little or no geography,cannot count change (if any of the clerks I encounter are typical), have not read the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, could not name their Senators or Congressmen, and basically, speak a form of English that is barely grammatical. I don't get it.
I blame parents, too; though. Too many times I corrected the corrections on my kids' papers. Too many times I made sure they read books because there was no assigned reading. And I generally, from the moment they could talk (well, before that) supplemented their education every moment they were with me. On the other hand, my kids were lucky to have me as a parent. What if they had one of those parents who fell through the system before them?
And too many parents seem to expect the schools to do everything for them. Educate them, feed them, teach them about sex, you name it. It's just not possible.
BTW the No Child Left Behind thing is a joke. You can't mandate without funding. It just won't work. And testing and testing and testing is a huge mistake. Because all teachers do is teach the test and leave out any real learning and thinking. Trust me. Virginia S.O.L.s (Standard of Learning) tests have become a big joke.....
So, yes, the system is broken. The teachers are not educated properly, too many parents don't do their job, the others expect the schools to do to much, and then a huge other bunch tell the school it's TOO HARD.
Change in this case needs to be comprehensive. Bottom up, top down, and everything in between.
108 - Cannonshop
whoa... a point of agreement? You wrote it better than I could, Lisa.
Props.
109 - Pablo
Canonnshop RE 108
Here in California we call "gifted" students with another name. It is called "special ed".
110 - Cannonshop
Pablo, considering that I was pointing out how screwed up the schools are in Washington, I wouldn't argue with that assessment...from anyone else.
From you? ehh... I'd have to suspect if you graduated from the equivalent of what Passes for "Special Needs Education" here in Washington, which, if your comparison holds true, must have a very special name indeed in your home state.