Public Education in The United States of America

It's a crazy conspiracy theory that education is deliberately stifled in the U.S. right? Wrong. First and foremost, I was never taught critical thinking skills in District 186 in Springfield, Illinois. I was never even taught that there was such a think as "critical thinking" until I went to college.

So, what purpose is served by deliberately limiting or suppressing knowlege?

A primary law of economy states that a product's value is inverse to it's available quantity. In other words, the more you have of a product, the cheaper it's value.

In accounting, labor is an expense. Since labor is people, people who are employees are held by business owners and managers as costs which should be reduced by any means possible while still being able to accomplish the goals of the business.

Since all businesses cannot reduce the cost of labor by eliminating the workforce entirely, all businesses collectively seek to reduce the value of the workforce, by generating a surplus of workers.

Through the control of public education curriculum, businesses managed to create a surplus of labor skilled in basic trades such as construction, health care, law enforcement, and many other skills that are dependent upon money, rather than independent survival skills such as subsistence farming, fishing, hunting, or starting a business.

It is not in the best interest of existing businesses to allow for the creation of competition. It is in the best interest of businesses to create a surplus of dependent workers who compete with each other by sacrificing wages and benefits, thereby reducing the value of labor.

Since democratic government is run by politicians who are supported in their campaigns primarily by businesses, politicians are beholden to businesses for their basic survival needs. Observe the obvious positions of employment rewarded to former politicians, and the obvious positions of government rewarded to business persons who have the finances to make themselves known to enough gullible voters, to get themselves elected.

Businesses, through proxy of government, dictate public education curriculum. Observe the behaviors of the Texas Board of Education and its selection of textbooks as the most glaring example of dumbing down public education.

Religious persons are set apart as the most desirable of employees for their limited skills, dependency, rejection of critical thinking, and their devotion to concentrated hierarchical leadership.

Politicians consistently appeal to the religious and mass media promotes religion and vilifies independent critical thinkers in western culture.

The economy in the United States is dominated by employees with limited skills who are in a surplus that is unsustainable, because they only have enough funds to supply themselves with food, transportation and shelter, because they agreed to work for less and less pay.

The only businesses that remain will be farmers, grocers, landlords, transportation and energy producers. Nobody here in the U.S. can afford anything else except clothing, and fashion is a luxury extinct as well.

So, if you are a young student going to public school, save your self by rejecting the idea of getting a good job, and instead concentrate on starting your own business.

Do not allow yourself to be distracted by entertainment that is not educational.

Only be interested in your own mental and physical fitness, do not be distracted by sports of which you do not participate.

Ignore any history lesson that reinforces racism by teaching about the history of race relations. Human beings are human beings, nothing more, nothing less. Everyone is equal.

No matter how benign the communication, any message that creates groups of people based on physical traits is counter-productive and designed to divide and conquer not only the individuals who are the subject of the message, but you too, by creating the impression that certain people belong in certain groups.

If you are religious. Shun religion. You don't need it. There is no such thing as a soul that can be punished or rewarded in an afterlife. Free your mind and embrace science and survival skills.

In the next election, use the write-in option and vote for "No Confidence" because politics is a fraud run by businesses.

Join your local Freethinkers Meetup Group by searching for atheists at meetup.com. Visit atheistnexus.org and the other atheist and freethinkers sites found at my blog. And look for me on Myspace too.

What you don't know won't hurt you! : Abstinence Only

George didn’t believe in driver’s education, he didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

Never mind how he learned to drive, his biggest fear was that his children would get hurt if they learned too much about it in advance, but he knew his children would one day drive a car when they reached the legal age.

Until then, he decided, his children would be allowed nowhere near his car or even see the keys, and especially not one of those rules-of-the-road books, that would be just irresponsible in the eyes of George’s community.

Mike had a safe full of guns and ammunition. He liked to target practice and hunt, but he absolutely didn’t want his children to know anything about any guns until they were old enough, but how old is old enough?

Sarah has a motorcycle but she absolutely didn’t want any of her kids to even think about riding a motorcycle, ever.

Okay, what is wrong with these people? They all use the notion of “Abstinence-Only,” which means simply “Stay away and ignore it, and maybe it will just go away.” Or “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” Does it make sense? Will their children be safe from exposure to driving a car, shooting a gun, or riding a motorcycle?

The United States Federal Government seems to think so, and so do most of the United States governments.

I received an email from Planned Parenthood of Illinois this morning asking me to send an e-mail to Governor Quinn stating the following: [edited for clarity]

“Reject federal funding for Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage programs!

In your FY 2010 budget proposal you included a continuation federal Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage (AOUM) funding. I urge you to reject this federal funding. These programs do a disservice to Illinois youth.

A federally-funded, nonpartisan study of the effectiveness of AOUM programs has found these programs to have no impact on the sexual abstinence of youth. The students' AOUM education had no effect on the age of first intercourse, number of sexual partners, or condom usage. Continuing to fund ineffective AOUM programs is throwing good money after bad.

Teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections are important problems. Comprehensive sexual health education programs (which include information about abstinence, contraceptives, and sexually transmitted infections in addition to other key elements) are proven to delay sexual activity and prevent disease among young people. While stressing abstinence, comprehensive sex ed provides students with the information they need to stay safe and healthy.

Again, please reject the federal Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage funding so Illinois can move forward with positive programs that protect our youth.”

The Illinois Governor has an opportunity to accept or reject funding that will go to such programs in the states, but I challenge President Barack Obama and Congress to suspend that program’s funding altogether on the grounds that it is a violation of the separation of church and state.

MSNBC.COM: 86 secular Turks charged in alleged coup plot

Turkey needs help returning to reason

ASSOCIATED PRESS
ANKARA, Turkey - Prosecutors indicted 86 hardline secular Turks Monday on terrorism charges for their alleged involvement in plots to topple the Islamic-rooted government, a chief prosecutor said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25670277/

Major Moves Against Televangelists

Impudent Strong-arming of televangelists may or may not shake out another GOP endorsement beside's Pat Robertson for Rudy Giuliani. I can almost see Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) grimacing and bearing his teeth at the Finance Committee hearing. You gotta tune into C-SPAN more often. The theatrics just keep getting better as election day looms.

Paula White's one of several TV preachers accused of taking church money and spending it on their own lavish lifestyles. White and her ex-husband ran a TV church out of Florida.

The president of Oral Roberts University, facing accusations he misspent school funds to support a lavish lifestyle, resigned on Friday, officials said.

The multimillion-dollar televangelism empires built by Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and four other media ministries are under investigation by a Republican U.S. senator concerned by reports of lavish mansions, Rolls Royces and private jets.