US Politics

Lost User

Christian Graus wrote:

I let my kids buy a book

...

Christian Graus wrote:

what happened to letting kids learn to think for themselves

erm - isn't part of letting them learn fr themselves allowing them to look at differing opinions and decide which is 'right'? Perhaps (I have no feelings either way) " Obama is the great hope of the nation". Perhaps not. Letting your kids read a book espousing either view should be part of their education, shouldn't it? Or am (as seems to be so often the case) missing something?

If I knew then what I know today, then I'd know the same now as I did then - then what would be the point? .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

Lost User

Maxxx_ wrote:

Or am (as seems to be so often the case) missing something?

Like Hitler was missing a testicle?

Vikram A Punathambekar

Christian Graus wrote:

in Texas one can buy kids a book explaining how Obama is the great hope of the nation, etc. I mean, what happened to letting kids learn to think for themselves ?

Would you rather see the book banned? Or do you want an age limit imposed on buyers, like cigarettes or alcohol?

Cheers, Vıkram.

I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every moment of it.

Diego Moita

leckey wrote:

I'm currently reading "Lies My Teacher Told Me" which depicts a lot of American history that is not either true, or is covered up so the person seem like a hero.

One day, in a library in Sevilla, I saw a Spanish history textbook. I went directly to the many dirty parts of Spanish history: 1) The Spanish Inquisition: one short paragraph and no reference to political manipulation by the kings. 2) The defeat of the Invincible Armada, one of the most important battles in history: referred just in 3 phrases. 3) The genocide of the native population of Latin America: this was the most disgusting. Pizarro, Ponce de Léon and the other "conquistadores" are seen as heroes until today. They have statues in public Plazas. And the book treated them as almost gods. It's an universal practice: every country turns the teaching of history into propaganda.

Of all forms of sexual aberration, the most unnatural is abstinence.

BoneSoft

How about fewer idiots published?

Visit BoneSoft.com for code generation tools (XML & XSD -> C#, VB, etc...) and some free developer tools as well.

BoneSoft

Christian Graus wrote:

I mean, what happened to letting kids learn to think for themselves?

That doesn't ensure their indoctrination, which is pretty much required to make them believe the crap their shoveling. It's the perfect opportunity to ruin all those free minds, how could the pass it up?

Visit BoneSoft.com for code generation tools (XML & XSD -> C#, VB, etc...) and some free developer tools as well.

Lost User

Josh Gray wrote:

Like Hitler was missing a testicle?

What a load of bollock

If I knew then what I know today, then I'd know the same now as I did then - then what would be the point? .\\axxx (That's an 'M')

Lost User

Maxxx_ wrote:

What a load of bollock

That's what Eva said as she reached for a towel

Ilion

Ramesh Ponnuru (Time): Town Overboard![^]

Rob Manderson

Christian Graus wrote:

if I was a US citizen, I'd have voted for Obama

I now am. I did!

Rob Manderson My bloghttp://robmanderson.blogspot.com[^]

Christian Graus

I have that book. I'm not sure I'd quite summarise it like that, but I would summarise that the winners write history and the US is a society that needs it's heros and it's creation myth. Most societies are the same, mine was founded by criminals, so our flaw is that we just don't care, most of the time.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Christian Graus

Maxxx_ wrote:

erm - isn't part of letting them learn fr themselves allowing them to look at differing opinions and decide which is 'right'?

Sure, but like the home schooled group I saw at the museum in John 3:16 t-shirts, I would suspect that most kids who get bought such a book, are not subjected to alternative viewpoints.

Maxxx_ wrote:

Perhaps (I have no feelings either way) " Obama is the great hope of the nation". Perhaps not. Letting your kids read a book espousing either view should be part of their education, shouldn't it?

I agree on the first part, perhaps he is. But this seemed to me not like a setting out of facts, but the creation of a mythology.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Christian Graus

Good point - no, no book should be banned. But, I guess I'm just a foreigner from a country where no-one would buy books to indoctrinate kids to a particular political viewpoint, although I am sure there are books that are PC in other ways that we would have.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Christian Graus

*grin* my point was, I am not anti-Obama, I was just surprised in general, I would have responded the same if the book was for the old dude who ran against him ( what was his name again ? McCain ? )

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Stan Shannon

Christian Graus wrote:

I'm just a foreigner from a country where no-one would buy books to indoctrinate kids to a particular political viewpoint

Thats because in your country the war is already over. The collectivist won. No indoctrination is necessary. It is still being fought here.

Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.

Oakman

The first amendment was not instituted to protect the rights of people you agreed with.

Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

Oakman

Christian Graus wrote:

I would suspect that most kids who get bought such a book, are not subjected to alternative viewpoints.

Yah think? However, one of the things my kids taught me was that parents don't have quite the final say so they it is sometimes assumed they have. And that kids may grow up to espouse very different beliefs than their parents. Nor do two kids, raised by the same parents in much the same environment, end up living the same way, or believing the same things as the other. In my personal experience, I think I taught my kids to respect truth and live their beliefs and that stuck - but neither is a libertarian of any sort. One of them is a librarian and a tree hugger and the other is what we used to call a yuppie and a financial analyst.

Jon Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface

Shepman

Christian Graus wrote:

But this seemed to me not like a setting out of facts, but the creation of a mythology.

So are Superman comics.

Christian Graus

Stan Shannon wrote:

Thats because in your country the war is already over. The collectivist won. No indoctrination is necessary. It is still being fought here.

What BS. I said why it is, we have a freedom you will never have.

Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista.

Stan Shannon

You don't even know what freedom is.

Chaining ourselves to the moral high ground does not make us good guys. Aside from making us easy targets, it merely makes us idiotic prisoners of our own self loathing.