Mar 22 2013: Ted has routinely purged comments like yours. They appear to be big Powell supporters for whatever reason. Maybe he is going to run for office again.
Powell is en example of what you get when you couple brainwashing with violence.
Mar 15 2013: Let's stop all of the political correctness, shall we? The problem that Powell is addressing is not an "inner city" problem. It is overwhelmingly a black problem. Until we stop pretending that this issue is affecting all children, we will never get to the root of it.
This issue does not affect all children equally, nor is there a direct linkage with income. For example, the upper peninsula of Michigan in many cities has a lower income per household than inner city Chicago, but does not have the same level of violence, drug addiction, gang activity and all of the other stereotypical ills of the inner city.
It is time that this nation looked the problem straight in the eye and addressed the real issue: there is something seriously wrong with the black culture in America. It is not a money problem, it is a culture problem. We need to fix that culture. It is broken in virtually every way it can be broken.
The parents are incapable of stepping up. They were raised to be wards of the State. They cannot function without handouts, "help" (read this as free money taxed from someone else), "assistance" (read this as money taken from someone else), "grants" (read this as money taken from other families), "set- asides" (read this as money that would not be spent in this way without politics) and giveaways (like the free cell phones that will soon become a "right")
There isn't on person in fifty in the inner city that has the ability to live without a government crutch of one kind or another. They are a demographic of what are essentially dependent children. We have children being raised by what are essentially State dependent children.
Breaking that cycle will require that we cause at least one generation to become adults responsible for themselves, their family and their offspring. As difficult as this would be, the only way to do this is to remove the "safety net" that is, in reality, little more than the slave chains of the State.
Mar 14 2013: Treating a bunch of little kids like soldiers is not going to fix the total collapse of the black family and culture. You are solving the wrong problem.
In the city in which I live, we spend over $20K per student in the public school system (which is overwhelmingly black). This is at least double what an elite private school in the same general area charges. In this system, less than 50% of the kids graduate at all. Of those that do graduate, only 9% are at grade level and more than 50% are functionally illiterate. In round numbers, we spend $444,000 to graduate one child at grade level here. Putting it another way, only 3.5% of all children in this area grow up with even a basic high school education.
90+ percent of these kids are born into single parent households and have no father figure in their lives. These children grow up with no morals, no marketable skills, no education, no hope and no future who will grow up to breed another generation as socially immobile as they.
This appalling situation was created by the destruction of the black family. This was done by transferring trillions of dollars in "the war on poverty" into programs that did nothing other than create an entire demographic that is now perpetually parasitic on the rest of society. This entire demographic now is harvested for votes by big spending liberals to continue the tax and spend gravy train while simultaneously guaranteeing that another generation will grow up dreaming of becoming a rap star or a wide receiver, fathering a half a dozen children with different women who think that having day care in their high school is a "right". We now have several generations that think that they are being picked on because they aren't being given enough free stuff.
It is time that we cut the problem off at the root. The solution is to hitch up our britches and make the decision that will cure this in a single generation: cut off all of the free money that propels it. Cold turkey.
Mar 4 2013: Why would you be "appalled" by the truth?
Why is it that you become so indignant about Iran developing an atomic bomb when Israel already has hundreds? Why is it that long range missiles in Iran bother you, but they don't bother your in Israel? Why do you react so strongly to Iranian rhetoric which are just words, but ignore the fact that Israel has an active program in place of assassinating Iranian scientists?
Seems to me that you are a little blind to reality.
No one made the claim that Iran was all good. The issue is that Israel is systematically portrayed in a favorable light no matter what their sins or what the reality is.
This young man is either a slick PR guy or hopelessly blind.
Mar 1 2013: This video is either a sham or a man completely divorced from fact and reality. Israel is presently in the middle of a war with both Iran and the Palestinians. Israel is assassinating Iranian scientists and are in the end game of ethnically cleansing the Palestinians from Palestine.
Feb 21 2013: You made a comment about atheism behaving much as a religion. You are correct about this. It is a belief system with the same kind of canon and experts and dogma as any established religion. Atheism even has its own saints....although unlike Catholicism or Judaism, they don't yet have funny hats.
No matter what side of the issue you are on, there is no way to produce absolute proof for either position.
So on one hand the religious zealots bang on the scripture that is on the table and the atheists just bang on the table.
Those of us that have had direct experience just hear the noise of their banging.
Feb 21 2013: Have you ever considered the possibility that while people share the same space they might not share the same reality or the same "rules?" That is, that consistency from person to person is not a requirement in this place. Is it possible that there is no exclusion? Is it possible that all answers are simultaneously right in the correct context?
So is it possible that ghosts exist in your world, but that they don't in mine?
Feb 18 2013: This will be very interesting. This is particularly interesting given that MSNBC will have to come uncomfortably close to exposing the policies and fibs in the current administration as well. Normally, MSNBS carries water for the Democrat position.
While I don't dare to dream that there will be any serious real journalism, it is nice to see them stumble over a few facts now and again.
Feb 13 2013: It seems to me that you have taken several positions in this forum. On one hand you have reprimanded several posters for considering the context in which Powell made his remarks and the actual examples of military tactics he used, while in the post immediately above, you take a position exactly opposite of that and disagree with virtually every point Powell made.
Powell is not presenting some Rorschach bit of free poetic verse with the title "Structure" and some vague meaning into which the listener can project their own concept of structure. The talk is not about structure in general. The talk is about a particular kind of structure (military-like) with a particular set of goals (obedience and acting on cue).
Powell is being crystal clear up to and including using himself and his life as an example. The man himself is a product of the exact system he is clearly proposing. He was breed in that system, his entire career was in that system. He rose in rank within that system, eventually coming to be the central figure in that system. He lead a war using that system in which every single person who fought, helped, worked, was injured or died came out of the precise system he is proposing for general education. What this system is known to produce is key to evaluating it.
Having been educated in a Catholic school myself, I can attest to exactly the criticism you made. The type of educational structure Powell is proposing is a bad idea precisely because that are a myriad of examples of the downside to central programming of a population by an elite few. This system leads to people who cannot think for themselves, children who are powerless against abuse, crowds who do as a group what they would never do alone and soldiers that kill on command, but against their own morals and their own better judgment.
This system is inherently dysfunctional and breeds abuse, cruelty and immorality. We must look at history and context when we evaluate any idea.
Feb 12 2013: Many here are narrowly focusing on just the word "structure" rather than having a more complete view of what it is that Powell means by structure and the context in which he is discussing it. He has made some very clear links between military structure and what he envisions for education.
Any discussion of this talk needs to include the big picture.
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A reply on Talk: Colin Powell: Kids need structure
Powell is en example of what you get when you couple brainwashing with violence.
A reply on Talk: Colin Powell: Kids need structure
This issue does not affect all children equally, nor is there a direct linkage with income. For example, the upper peninsula of Michigan in many cities has a lower income per household than inner city Chicago, but does not have the same level of violence, drug addiction, gang activity and all of the other stereotypical ills of the inner city.
It is time that this nation looked the problem straight in the eye and addressed the real issue: there is something seriously wrong with the black culture in America. It is not a money problem, it is a culture problem. We need to fix that culture. It is broken in virtually every way it can be broken.
The parents are incapable of stepping up. They were raised to be wards of the State. They cannot function without handouts, "help" (read this as free money taxed from someone else), "assistance" (read this as money taken from someone else), "grants" (read this as money taken from other families), "set- asides" (read this as money that would not be spent in this way without politics) and giveaways (like the free cell phones that will soon become a "right")
There isn't on person in fifty in the inner city that has the ability to live without a government crutch of one kind or another. They are a demographic of what are essentially dependent children. We have children being raised by what are essentially State dependent children.
Breaking that cycle will require that we cause at least one generation to become adults responsible for themselves, their family and their offspring. As difficult as this would be, the only way to do this is to remove the "safety net" that is, in reality, little more than the slave chains of the State.
A reply on Talk: Colin Powell: Kids need structure
In the city in which I live, we spend over $20K per student in the public school system (which is overwhelmingly black). This is at least double what an elite private school in the same general area charges. In this system, less than 50% of the kids graduate at all. Of those that do graduate, only 9% are at grade level and more than 50% are functionally illiterate. In round numbers, we spend $444,000 to graduate one child at grade level here. Putting it another way, only 3.5% of all children in this area grow up with even a basic high school education.
90+ percent of these kids are born into single parent households and have no father figure in their lives. These children grow up with no morals, no marketable skills, no education, no hope and no future who will grow up to breed another generation as socially immobile as they.
This appalling situation was created by the destruction of the black family. This was done by transferring trillions of dollars in "the war on poverty" into programs that did nothing other than create an entire demographic that is now perpetually parasitic on the rest of society. This entire demographic now is harvested for votes by big spending liberals to continue the tax and spend gravy train while simultaneously guaranteeing that another generation will grow up dreaming of becoming a rap star or a wide receiver, fathering a half a dozen children with different women who think that having day care in their high school is a "right". We now have several generations that think that they are being picked on because they aren't being given enough free stuff.
It is time that we cut the problem off at the root. The solution is to hitch up our britches and make the decision that will cure this in a single generation: cut off all of the free money that propels it. Cold turkey.
A reply on Talk: Israel and Iran: A love story?
Why is it that you become so indignant about Iran developing an atomic bomb when Israel already has hundreds? Why is it that long range missiles in Iran bother you, but they don't bother your in Israel? Why do you react so strongly to Iranian rhetoric which are just words, but ignore the fact that Israel has an active program in place of assassinating Iranian scientists?
Seems to me that you are a little blind to reality.
No one made the claim that Iran was all good. The issue is that Israel is systematically portrayed in a favorable light no matter what their sins or what the reality is.
This young man is either a slick PR guy or hopelessly blind.
A comment on Talk: Israel and Iran: A love story?
It is a wonder he can keep a straight face.
A reply on Conversation: Is there any way to prevent religious debates from turning into a big fight?
No matter what side of the issue you are on, there is no way to produce absolute proof for either position.
So on one hand the religious zealots bang on the scripture that is on the table and the atheists just bang on the table.
Those of us that have had direct experience just hear the noise of their banging.
A reply on Conversation: Is there any way to prevent religious debates from turning into a big fight?
So is it possible that ghosts exist in your world, but that they don't in mine?
A reply on Talk: Colin Powell: Kids need structure
While I don't dare to dream that there will be any serious real journalism, it is nice to see them stumble over a few facts now and again.
A reply on Conversation: Colin Powell
Powell is not presenting some Rorschach bit of free poetic verse with the title "Structure" and some vague meaning into which the listener can project their own concept of structure. The talk is not about structure in general. The talk is about a particular kind of structure (military-like) with a particular set of goals (obedience and acting on cue).
Powell is being crystal clear up to and including using himself and his life as an example. The man himself is a product of the exact system he is clearly proposing. He was breed in that system, his entire career was in that system. He rose in rank within that system, eventually coming to be the central figure in that system. He lead a war using that system in which every single person who fought, helped, worked, was injured or died came out of the precise system he is proposing for general education. What this system is known to produce is key to evaluating it.
Having been educated in a Catholic school myself, I can attest to exactly the criticism you made. The type of educational structure Powell is proposing is a bad idea precisely because that are a myriad of examples of the downside to central programming of a population by an elite few. This system leads to people who cannot think for themselves, children who are powerless against abuse, crowds who do as a group what they would never do alone and soldiers that kill on command, but against their own morals and their own better judgment.
This system is inherently dysfunctional and breeds abuse, cruelty and immorality. We must look at history and context when we evaluate any idea.
A comment on Talk: Colin Powell: Kids need structure
Any discussion of this talk needs to include the big picture.