Foureyedsnail's blog

I love my government class; we watch a lot of videos, discuss a lot of interesting topics, and cover a lot of current events. Today we watched a video about Afghanistan, more specifically the reconstruction efforts one year after the American takeover, more specifically the story of a former-war-reporter-turned-construction-foreman and her work rebuilding some houses. It's called A House for Haji Baba, and it's here: http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/afghanistan/thestory.html  Read More »

Yesterday, we watched a documentary about immigration in government class--something current, from CNN. It featured a rather aggressively Latina reporter following the stories of four people, two illegal immigrants, and two...people who don't like illegal immigrants.

Now, there is a valid argument to be made here; there are valid reasons on both sides. Immigration drives down wages which, although bad for the Americans doing similar jobs, is good for the employers and good for the consumers who want to pay less. Undocumented immigrants do, heaven forbid, get sick and go to hospitals (often as a last resort), and send their children to American schools, presenting a strain on sacred taxpayer dollars. But really, can we neglect to help sick people or educate children because, as is argued, they are not our problem?  Read More »

A pig puts a tan fox in a box.

The kids are sitting on the rug, reading a story from their first-grade textbook. The school is underperforming by NCLB standards, and thus everything has become obscenely structured in order to, somehow, raise their level of acheivement. This is "scripted instruction," where the teacher receives a piece of paper tracing out every word they're supposed to say, how every minute of classtime is going to be used up.  Read More »

A pig puts a tan fox in a box.

The kids are sitting on the rug, reading a story from their first-grade textbook. The school is underperforming by NCLB standards, and thus everything has become obscenely structured in order to, somehow, raise their level of acheivement. This is "scripted instruction," where the teacher receives a piece of paper tracing out every word they're supposed to say, how every minute of classtime is going to be used up.  Read More »

On the debate of gay marriage, I am of the opinion that a rational person, presented with a rational argument, cannot help but be persuaded to the pro- side. If, of course, one's moral or emotional or religious state is such that one cannot accept the (inescapable, in my view) conclusion, then I fear I am quite at a loss to any means of persuasion on this earth. Such questions I leave to the priests, the psychologists, and the philosophers. In the following I present a solely rational defense of gay marriage.  Read More »

90% of the time, when I'm completely, fully, unequivocally sure of something, I manage to make an ass of myself.

And it's very embarrassing, because afterwards you have to go through a whole messy process--admitting you were wrong, apologizing, changing your position, etc. Your reputation may be damaged, for being wrong, but in the long run it is better to be remembered for righting an error, rather than letting hubris blind you.  Read More »

-boring history stuff, just scroll down-

ha·be·as cor·pus n : A writ (court order) that commands an individual or a government official who has restrained another to produce the prisoner at a designated time and place so that the court can determine the legality of custody and decide whether to order the prisoner's release. In other words, the right to a fair, prompt trial to determine innocence or guilt.  Read More »