Daily Topics - Tuesday December 21st, 2010
Truthout is proud to bring you an exclusive series from America's No. 1 progressive radio host, Thom Hartmann. We'll be publishing weekly installments of Hartmann's acclaimed new book, "Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country." We invite Truthout readers to join us as, chapter by chapter, we explore these groundbreaking ideas for national transformation.
Quote of the Day: The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. -- Diogenes Laertius
Hour One: FBI Database on private citizens...what's a little privacy for more security?! Thom confronts Matt Mayer, former Dept. of Homeland Security official and now a Visiting Scholar with The Heritage Foundation - www-heritage.org; Plus, BIg Brother has come to the DC Metro...could it come to you next? Sue Udrey of Defending Dissent.org will be here - http://defendingdissent.org
Hour Two: Has Obama caved on net neutrality? Thom speaks with Craig Aaron of Free Press.net - www.freepress.net
Hour Three: Should we be turning our education system over to billionaires? Thom speaks with NYU education historian/Professor of Education, Dr. Diane Ravitch www.dianeravitch.com
Comments
Thom I have to just point out, that in Germany in the 30's, if a German did speak out against the NAZI's they ended up in concentration camps. In other words, by the time someone interviewed Germans after WWII, the ones that had the courage to protest were long long gone. So you have to consider that the data from the "Good Germans" was skewed from the get go.
N
The Treaty of Versailles in 1919 guaranteed punishment for Germany and the population was desperate for any way out of their suffering at the hands of the winners. Hitler promised, and enough of the people were ready to accept anything to stop the pain.
The basic model of human being is still the same as it was then.
@Gene, would that be that vengence is a prime motivator?
N
Capitalism is allegedly amoral, Maxrot. When there's a buck to be made by enslaving a major industrial power, vengeance isn't a necessary motive.
Allegedly amoral... I'd say greed is immoral and Capitalism is for all intents and purposes based on greed.
N
December 21, 2010
Inhoffe (sp), the Reich wing senator from Oklahoma, will not release money to help the Haitian people. I cannot judge Inhoffe but I can give you my perceptual opinion. The same holds true for Coburn, a senator from Oklahoma and he is not permitting health care money for the first responders in New York for ground zero. We cannot tax foreign companies and foreign investors to help ease our monetary deficits. Doing harm or wishing harm to a person or persons is a mortal sin. Mortal sin damns the eternal soul. We in the United States of Mortal Sin are breaking the Fifth Commandment. We are a nation of sinners, mortal sinners. Many are called and few are chosen! Who will be the few chosen in the United States of Mortal Sin? When I reflect on the United States of Mortal Sin, I am reminded of Lot and the destroyed cities in the Old Testament. These cities were destroyed because Lot could not find good people. I believe the same fate awaits the United States of Mortal Sin because our nation may have only a few good people but not enough good people to hold off America’s damnation and destruction.
http://news.antiwar.com/2010/12/20/inspector-general-wasted-us-aid-in-afghanistan-costs-billions/
And we talk about waste in our country that is centered around our safety net programs.
http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2010/12/20/thoughts-at-the-white-house-fence/
Hats off for McGovern!
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/21-1
Read the small print!
@Maxrot, "It's just business," said the hitman as he pulled the trigger.
When I was first presented with Abraham Maslow's "Heirarchy of Needs," I was flabbergasted. I thought that it was so obvious that children were not ready to learn if they were hungry, or cold, or homeless, or transient or otherwise involved in very unstable social conditions. Then I learned that the professional reformers blamed the educators for the students' readiness to learn. As a child, Dick Gregory once turned down a free turkey because his mother had no way to cook it.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/12/17/news/economy/state_unemployment/index.htm?iid=EAL
We will never recover from our economic mess. - Gerald
Dubya was getting his morning briefing, when Rumskull told him that two Brazilian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan yesterday. Bush sat in shock for a few seconds, and said , "my god, that's just horrible!"
Dubya then turned to Dick and asked, "how many is a brazillion?"
The question of why is important but the question of how is more important. Not why we educate children but how we educate children! We need to spend more time on the how question of educating children.
Teaching to the test is not helping children to learn the material. We need to challenge children to learn the material. We need to also excite children in the learning process. Learning is an exciting experience and so we need to know the how in motivating children in the learning process.
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Something for Hour Two...
The Republicans are pushing the FEAR button again...
"WASHINGTON - Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor Tuesday to warn that the Obama administration is on the verge of nationalizing the Internet, charging that the president has already seized large swaths of the economy." - From HufPo