We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Basic Citizenship Test: It was ever thus. I recall a news story from the 1970s of people unwilling to sign a petition to pass the Bill of Rights - not for any objection, but because people didn't recognize the document and were suspicious of some of it.
Americans have never done well at these tests. Nor do people from other countries, about their own governments. Even if they learned them for the test in school, people don't retain information they don't use, and most people don't use this.
Our memories and impressions play us false on this. People commenting on general government issues on this blog covering a wide variety of topics are not a representative sample. Not close. What we remember from school is even less representative, because of who we were and who we hung around with then. And memory is also far less good than we pretend.
China's roads. They've overbuilt a lot of infrastructure, and those roads looked pretty empty. I have also read that they still haven't figured out things like Quality Control WRT things like, oh, steel, for example. That might matter.
#1
Assistant Village Idiot
on
2019-02-21 09:02
(Reply)
Bought a well-known , well-respected brand of front door for my house, with Chinese-made hardware for the door knob, lock and latch!
Instead of top quality hardware made of solid steel, the stuff was basically brittle, honeycombed "pot metal" which BROKE any time pressure was applied in normal operation of the door!
And since the manufacturers of US military hardware are forced to rely upon imported Chinese steel, the number of operational failures has skyrocketed!
It's almost as if it were planned that our military is reliant on crappy Chinese steel!
When I was still in business I used to have to buy hardware like sturdy picture hangers and heavy duty wire for hanging large paintings. Could only find Chinese made wire one time the was supposed to be 100 pound test. Just in case I decided to test it before hanging a relatively expensive painting (for most people). When I pulled it between my hands it snapped in short order. Same for their brass. Soft and twists in stead of holding any weight. Utter garbage. And to think some important construction is put together with Chinese steel is frightening.
What, I thought the DOD acquisitions, flowed down dfar clauses and DOD contractors had to comply with the Berry Amendment, although that applies to alloys.
My memory tells me that I learned a lot of civics in high school, but if I'm more careful, I can dredge up memories of law school, when I was 25 years old, and a lot of the information I was getting about the Bill of Rights was brand-new.
Re: Accused College Students Deserve the Presumption of Innocence. Nineteen attorneys general are lobbying against extending that right in Title IX cases on campus.
This and the circus that was the Demonrats at the Brett Kavanaugh hearings who believed Ford before any evidence was presented should tell you all you need to know about where this country is headed. The presumption of innocence, as well as every other basic right that our government is supposed to defend in under attack, mostly from the left. Will this be turned around! is there another civil war in our future or will we just roll over?
Most Americans Can’t Pass a Basic Citizenship Test. Here’s Why We Should Be Worried
Americans who wish to register to vote and exercise that right, should be required to pass a a slightly dumbed-down version of the citizenship test.
With rights come duties and responsibilities. If you want to affect policy, you should understand the system in which you are operating!
Heck, just make voters successfully ID the POTUS and VP and their party, their governors and US senators and US reps.
Bet the number who can do that, is now at only 30% of all voters ; maybe less.
less!
PROOF. ABSOLUTE VISIBLE PROOF that our Schools of Journalism have long ago abandoned a curriculum (pedagogy ?) based on the search for and reporting of facts. Here is what a failing very liberal public university is doing to it's
url=https://missoulian.com/news/local/university-of-montana-college-to-get-new-name-under-plan/article_413287b5-dc36-5e23-9d14-f88376bed6cd.html#utm_source=missoulian.com&utm_campaign=%2Femail-updates%2Fdaily-headlines&utm_medium=WhatCounts&utm_content=8FA13F8BCBB3E1D7A234A334FDDCDD7D723EC9A5] School of Journalism and Art [/url
The problem with imported labor is that they don't go home when they are done.
So... We should use that in our favor. Hire Mexico to build the wall from the Mexican side. Mandate in the contract that they can only use illegal aliens from within our country to do the work on their side of the wall. Write the contract so that the pay rate is good enough to attract the illegals to the job. Once finished deny them re-entry.
If what Clarkson says is accurate, China finally broke the record for the longest bridge eclipsing the Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana which was built in 1956.
I’ve been reminiscing about 1968 and, not to be overly dramatic, I shudder at how reckless Smollett was. I would imagine that if this claim was ginned up enough someone could have been hurt, an innocent person in retribution or CPD personnel.
What is Smollett had been smart and competent?
Jeremy Clarkson suffers from the same mental illness as Tom Friedman:
One-party autocracy certainly has its drawbacks. But when it is led by a reasonably enlightened group of people, as China is today, it can also have great advantages… It is not an accident that China is committed to overtaking us in electric cars, solar power, energy efficiency, batteries, nuclear power and wind power. The New York Times, 8 Sep 2009
I'd hazard a guess that China is using Uyghurs as slave labor to build those fancy new roads in Xinjiang Province.
Down on the farm —