He's not part of the mainstream, he's part of a trickle. And, so do most fundamentalist, conservative Christians. Heck, and probably the Catholic and Mormon Church. That hasn't changed anything. There have been some small or minor encroachments, but there is little danger of allowing the church to hold sway of the government, on a national level. There's still some antiquated "Blue Laws," that had there origins in religious institutions flexing there muscle, but this is mostly in very rural areas.

Ken Buck is against abortion in ALL cases (including rape and incest), he'll be nothing but another GOP obstructionist if he were to be in the senate..

OK, here is your Tea Party Agenda for your country.   So, if you have been dreaming of FKK clubs, it is just went down the drain, not with water but lot of TEA!

Enjoy the next 14 years.

I think Angle will beat Reid by under 1,000 votes. Too bad, because I think Angle is a crazy & ignorant bitch. I held my nose & voted for Reid.

Pity us Nevada voters couldn't get 2 decent Senate candidates.

...and he is representing the TEA PARTY.  Enter Christine O'Donnell who also questioned the separation of church and state.   Tea Party is getting elected to US Congress and the Tea Party Queen Sarah Palin will be your President in 2012.

The reason Tea Party is getting votes is according US Labor Department, 80% of unemployed have no college degree or have not finished High School.  There is the brain behind the Tea Party.

This country was founded upon the principle of religious freedom. Freedom for you to be as delusional as you like, and practice those delusions to your heart's content, but in no way should you ever force, or try to force other people to adopt your delusions.

Ken Buck is essentially saying that he wants to force his delusions on everyone else. Jefferson must be rolling in his grave.

as they've been on Harry Reid this election cycle...

Ensign's seat should be the democrats #1 senate priority in 2012...

wants to eliminate Jefferson from our U.S. History books.

They have promoted her to be their leader and spokeswoman. You watch, everyone she endorsed is going to win by landslide!

You want "two" decent candidates? I bet you and everyone else in this country would be thrilled with just one.

if you don't know what that acronym means, go look it up----- I can't see how even the most desperate "Eurotrash male FKK club member" would even think of touching you.

Your persistent bigoted & idiotic Anti-Americanism is SOO tiring------ you are universally reviled on this board from left & right. But, yet, you persist in posting where you are clearly not wanted------
"Frau Untouchable" you SORELY need to get a life.
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They have won some primaries in small states with low voter turnout.  
Moderate Republicans are not supporting the TEA Party candidates.

I think they will go down on the history books as "Also Ran"!

...well not really...but, this is precisely why we need a direct democracy to put a check on our representative democracy.

Most Americans (I hope) are familiar with these words in the Declaration of Independence:

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government"

A week before this was adopted on July 4th, 1776, my home state of Virginia adopted it's new state Constitution. It reads:

"Section 1. Equality and rights of men.

That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their post erity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.


Section 2. People the source of power.

That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people, that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.

Section 3. Government instituted for common benefit.

That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of maladministration; and, whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, inalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal."

Government has become broken. Representation has failed. The only way I see as a remedy of this is to put a check on those representatives that is greater than the current check of voting once every two years.

initiated in the country where "benlager" resides.

Your country is doomed.  By 2012, you will end up exactly where you did not begin!    GOP & Tea party nuts will be telling you everything you can do and cannot do from 6am to 5:59am.  See, where FOX news and fear mongers and anger can take a country.

My only worry is your country getting a President who can see Germany from her window.   On second thought we are not worried.   By that time US for all practical purposes may be broke and owned by China.

Has degenerated into opportunism. None of todays politicians are concerned about any problem this country faces at any level. They just want to get elected, collect cash, and when they get beat, go on to become a high paid lobbyist, expert analyst or a talk show host. If all that fails, go on dancing with the stars and make an ass out of themselves.

Until the intelligence level of voters rise, we all will get what deserve. For that matter, we are also concerned about filling our pockets and yell love for the country and the constitution while doing everything we can to destroy both.

With no doubt, Europe has had a very grim and nasty history, but it's a history that has turned far for the better since the end of WW2, and even better since the Berlin Wall fell.

A few years ago I read a book by Jeremy Rifkin called The European Dream. It's packed full of sobering statistics. Michael Ventura wrote an op-ed in the Austin Chronicle based on the book, and listed some of those statistics.

For example:

· The United States is 49th in the world in literacy

· The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy

· One-third of our science teachers and one-half of our math teachers did not major in those subjects.

· 20% of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth. 17% believe the Earth revolves around the sun once a day

· The International Adult Literacy Survey found that Americans with less than nine years of education score worse than virtually all of the other countries

· American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training for their workers

· The EU leads the U.S. in the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised

· Europe surpassed the United States in the mid-1990s as the largest producer of scientific literature

· Foreign applications to U.S. grad schools declined 28% last year. Foreign student enrollment on all levels fell for the first time in three decades, but increased greatly in Europe and China. Last year Chinese grad-school graduates in the U.S. dropped 56%, Indians 51%, South Koreans 28% (NYT, Dec. 21, 2004).

· The World Health Organization ranked the countries of the world in terms of overall health performance, and the U.S. ranked 37th.

· The U.S. and South Africa are the only two developed countries in the world that do not provide health care for all their citizens.

· Lack of health insurance coverage causes 18,000 unnecessary American deaths a year. (That's six times the number of people killed on 9/11.) (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005.)

U.S. childhood poverty now ranks 22nd, or second to last, among the developed nations. Only Mexico scores lower.

· Twelve million American families – more than 10% of all U.S. households – “continue to struggle, and not always successfully, to feed themselves.” Families that “had members who actually went hungry at some point last year” numbered 3.9 million (NYT, Nov. 22, 2004).

· The United States is 41st in the world in infant mortality. Cuba scores higher (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

· Women are 70% more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

· Of the 20 most developed countries in the world, the U.S. was dead last in the growth rate of total compensation to its work-force in the 1980s. In the 1990s, the U.S. average compensation growth rate grew only slightly, at an annual rate of about 0.1%

· 61 of the 140 biggest companies on the Global Fortune 500 rankings are European, while only 50 are U.S. companies

· In a recent survey of the world's 50 best companies, conducted by Global Finance, all but one was European

· 14 of the 20 largest commercial banks in the world today are European. In the chemical industry, the European company BASF is the world's leader, and three of the top six players are European. In engineering and construction, three of the top five companies are European. The two others are Japanese. Not a single American engineering and construction company is included among the world's top nine competitors. In food and consumer products, Nestlé and Unilever, two European giants, rank first and second, respectively, in the world. In the food and drugstore retail trade, two European companies are first and second, and European companies make up five of the top 10. Only four U.S. companies are on the list.

· Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40% of our government debt.

· As of last June, the U.S. imported more food than it exported

· One-third of all U.S. children are born out of wedlock. One-half of all U.S. children will live in a one-parent house (CNN, Dec. 10, 2004).

· Americans are now spending more money on gambling than on movies, videos, DVDs, music, and books combined

**********************************

This is a sign of a country that is descending into third world status. Yeh, Europe has it's problems. Greece, Iceland, and Ireland are broke. But so is California, and 45 other states here in the US. It might not be too long before we're envious of Europe's problems.

You are correct that the U.S. is not circling the drain alone.

True.  If there was GOD everyone will be talking to him for help.   It is only in USA that politicians who are religious nuts say "they spoke to GOD",  "they took permission from GOD", "they spoke to someone higher up" and the craziest of all was when Bush said "he talked to a higher authority" about invading Iraq.

I cannot agree with that nut.   The higher authority, if that exists,  knows everyone is his child and would not tell someone to go and kill another.

I hope the other religious nut from Alaska does not see our FKK clubs from her White House window when she becomes the President in 2012.

well, these stats were from 2004 or there abouts, so it's not entirely up to date. A lot has changed in Europe since then.

But the problem I have (and this is quite a popular talking point among conservatives) is that Greece is representative of Europe as a whole.

The fact remains that Germany is an economic powerhouse. It was before the Berlin Wall fell, and hell even East Germany was the strongest Soviet satellite economy. A ton of new technology is coming out of there.

A friend of mine has very serious health issues that all stem from a severe back injury. She tells me that there's surgical options in Germany that just isn't available in the USA, like artificial spinal discs instead of American pins.

I do audio engineering part time, and in the old days that technology came primarily from the USA and the UK. Today we record digitally, and that technology is coming primarily out of Germany, France, and Japan.

Some of the best cars are coming out of Europe and Japan, and we've been so late to the game to innovate, that American companies actually have to lease hybrid technology from the Japanese.

This is just sad folks. We spend more on education than we ever have before, and we still produce students who can't read. And it's not just public schools, an increasing number of private schools are having similar problems, and are increasingly just as scandal prone as public schools.

We can't get health care right in this country. We spend more per capita and get lousy outcomes.

We have more people in prison than in college, and a culture that is so anti-intellectual that Dr. Phil is considered a philosopher, and the people who actually have any brains are usually regarded as homosexuals.

It's so bad now that we have Senatoral candidates who utter the words, "That's in the constitution?"

When did the fuck-tards take over? Couldn't I have been sent an e-mail about it?

But I seem to recall that the Crusades and Inquisitions were European rather than American phenomena.

True, in America a few "witches" were hanged in Salem. But it seems to me that in Europe they managed to hang and burn "witches" by the tens of thousands in their religious fervor.

Even to this day, "His Catholic Majesty" is a constitutionally accepted title for the Spanish Monarch.

And let's not forget that to this very day, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, some Swiss cantons, Iceland ... all have a CHURCH TAX.

While this tax is to some extent optional, in many jurisdictions (e.g. Iceland) if you do not specify a religious institution to receive the tax; you must send it to a local university -- often one that is religiously affiliated or founded.

Some European states actually have official state religions. Among these are England (Anglican), Finland (Finish Orthodox and Evangelical Lutheran), Spain (Catholic), etc.

So it seems to me that the United States is quite far ahead of a great deal of Europe; where our employers are not compelled by law to collect taxes for churches and there is no official state religion.

The system of slavery that eventually evolved into that abomination on the American continent got started in Europe.

Before they traded in African slaves, they traded in EUROPEAN slaves. Lots and lots of Europeans died on slave ships and the like; just like later happened with Africans -- usually as penance for some horrible sin like being born poor. Europeans have always been incredibly class conscious, as echoed in the story of Heimdall -- which pre-exists even Christianity coming to that land.

Yeah, those Europeans -- real paragons of virtue.

I'm still waiting for the rocket scientists in Europe to put man on the moon. Oh, wait, they can't because of the brain drain. The brain drain is where all the smart people fled Europe to come here. First, to flee Hitler; and then next to flee socialism. That's why rich Europeans who need serious medical care come here.

Hey -- speaking of Hitler -- the Austrian church tax was originally imposed by Hitler and they have kept it unaltered ever since.

These are actually the same things I say in a different context; though we differ on a few details. How can I dispute what I consider to be correct?

My whole point here is just to pound the crap out of Frau Ben though. (*grin*)

I agree -- the U.S. is becoming a third-world hell hole. Well on its way. About the only thing remaining is for the corruption to come above-ground.

But I disagree about the measurements you are using. Europe is becoming a hell-hole too!

...but I'm afraid my opinion on this problem isn't well researched.

Having said that, I would say that there are many complicated problems with education in this country, but if you want an overarching reason, it's probably because education in this country has been politicized.

We pretty much have working trash removal services in this country, as well as working fire departments. One is largely private, the other is public. Both work remarkably well. And politicians never say a damned thing about either one of them. Education on the other hand...

Beyond that, I think we have a very rote and mechanical way of teaching kids in this country, and quite frankly, it's boring as hell to learn the material the way it's taught.

It also doesn't help that far too many interest groups have gotten involved to object to what is being taught. So kids don't read 1984 or Fahrenheit 451 in English class, kids don't learn about evolution in science class, and they don't learn anything controversial in history class.

The German model of education, as I understand it, is to replace a common "high school" with "trade schools". Kids are taught real professions there. We don't even teach that in college for the most part.

As far as I can tell, curriculum here in the US is largely up to the states. However, Texas gets a big say in that since they produce the textbooks for the entire country. Maybe that is a huge part of the problem. I'd be willing to bet James Loewen would agree with that sentiment.

I don't what know conclusion to draw from this. George Carlin had a rather strong opinion about this that I rather like, but my opinion on such subjects are heavily biased.

Carlin on education:
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/894932/

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-- Modified on 10/27/2010 10:31:46 PM

Why, on a "results per dollar" basis is our educational system so damned abysmal?

What is the difference between us and the places whose educational outcomes are measurably superior?

Is there more than one difference? If so, what are those differences?

Just like those other countries, America predominantly has a socialized educational system with curriculum control largely exercises at the federal level via DOE grants/mandates etc.

How is it that Germany produces better objectively measurable educational outcomes than the U.S.?

What are the differences?

Same for Japan.

What conclusions can you draw from those differences?

You would think that humans would catch on by now.