Thursday, February 17, 2011

Sarahwhore, Gannett Forum, WI, Memphis schools and Fantastic Summer '52

Somebody didn’t get the civility memo.


Gannet’s Jackson paper, “The Jackson Sun,” has a host of posts in its Pluck Forum using the name “Sarahwhore.”

Is Sarahwhore going to run for president?  -(by) residentfan

Sarahwhore impersonator creates stir at CPAC. - (by) residentfan

Sarahwhore hires chief of staff - (by) residentfan

Sarahwhore loses in poll -  (by) residentfan

Sarahwhore strong in NM primary - (by) residentfan

Sarahwhore gets facts wrong. - (by) residentfan

Link to Jackson Sun Pluck Forum

I would say that residentfan isn’t a fan.

Fair or foul?

In a few weeks the good citizens of Memphis will vote to decide if they want to give up their school charter to Shelby County.

You remember Memphis City Schools, don’t ya?? Yeah. They’re the one that has a 26% pregnancy rate at Frayser High School. They also have failed miserably in managing the school system.

Now they want someone else to come in, clean up their mess.

And if they decide to do it, the citizens of Shelby County will be required to do just that. By state law they can’t say no.

Folks, that is just wrong. Memphis has had a crime problem for years. It has a long record of murder records second only to Detroit. It has also had a city government that was rumored to be corrupt and a tax rate that is staggering. Business has fled and population has declined along with the average income level. Its infrastructure is crumbling… and those are just the good things.

Now the people who proved they couldn’t manage a can of beans want someone else to pick up the tab.

Did I mention that the city’s political base is almost pure Democrat?

Does that surprise you?

Does what’s happening in WI surprise you?

It shouldn’t. The schools of this country have had money showered on them like manna from heaven. Yet the product of the schools has steadily declined.

And the people of WI are saying, via the people they elected.

Enough!

Now the teachers will tell you that the parents have failed to prepare the kids for school. And I agree. So let’s revisit Frayser.

We lived in Frayser in the early 60’s. It was a thoroughly middle class suburb with no crime and lots of perfectly kept lawns. Most of us who lived there expected to have a better car, a better home and a better life for ourselves and our children as time went on. Oh, we knew that nothing was carved in stone and we knew that we had to work and succeed in our chosen professions, but we expected things would improve as we improved.

What happened? Well, a funny thing happened on our way to total personal freedom and personal rights. As a society we forgot about responsibility. And we forgot that parents, some more than others, need help in raising their children. While it is the parents who must pound it into the head of their female children that they must not get pregnant, it is society who must demonstrate to the child that getting pregnant out of wedlock leads to bad outcomes.

Society didn’t. Look at Hollywood. Look at adulation over actresses who have children out of wedlock by the Lame Stream Media. Look at advertising that portrays over and over that you must drink alcoholic beverages to have fun. And when Dad steps in Sister and Junior merely have to look at TV to see how stupid Dad is and how out of date Dad’s standards are.

The result? 26% pregnancy and a Frayser that looks, to a larger degree than anyone will admit, like a Third World country.

But none of this let’s the teachers off the hook in Memphis, or WI. For whatever reason the system is broke and the pay and benefits have gotten out of control and the employers are saying, “Enough!”


Fantastic Volume  1 No. 1
Summer 1952

By 1952 Ziff-Davis decided that Fantastic Adventures, which was a companion to Amazing Stories, should be retired and replaced with a pocket book sized magazine selling for (gasp!) 35 cents featuring fantasy slanted towards the horror side which Weird Tales had sold for years.

It was an attempt to produce a class magazine. Unfortunately the market didn't exist to support it so over time it went back to space opera adventure.

But strangely, some of the predictions have proven more accurate than those in pure science fiction.

submit to reddit OnTwitter I am Lesabre1

 "Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them." - Karl Popper

“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the creed of slaves.” - William Pitt

"Logic. There is little logic among the cultural elite, maybe because there is little omnipresent fear of job losses or the absence of money, and so arises a rather comfortable margin to indulge in nonsense." - Victor Davis Hanson