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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Senate Derp, DERP. Derpitimus Maximus. Derpity deeeeeeerp...

Discussion in 'Community' started by VadersLaMent, Sep 4, 2012.

  1. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    I think that one was posted a few pages and several weeks back.
     
  2. Kiki-Gonn

    Kiki-Gonn Jedi Grand Master star 6

    Registered:
    Feb 26, 2001
    It was on our ISP's crappy homepage today :(
     
  3. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 2, 2000
    It never gets old.
     
  4. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 3, 2002
    I cannot connect to the actual web site but I just watched Rachel Maddow run a clip of Limbaugh reading an article from a web page called Global Research. It said there is "mounting evidence" that the Syrian rebels made the chemical attacks themselves to frame the Syrian President and that Obama was compliant with the rebels.

    [​IMG]
     
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  5. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 3, 2002
    Ready? Heeeeeeeeeeeeere's Liz Cheney!

    -She compared herself to Winston Churchill standing up to Adolf Hitler and suggested members of both parties in Congress are hiding information about Obamacare from the public.

    Cheney’s comments at Snow King Resort were a recitation of her stump speeches, from Obamacare to the “war on coal.” She said she would like to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service. The U.S. Department of Education has provided no benefits to the American people either, Cheney said.-

    She apparently doesn't like the newspaper that printed this either.
     
  6. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 27, 2005
  7. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

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    Mar 4, 2011
    I'll think she's Winston Churchill when she uses that line that "I may be drunk, but you're ugly and I'll be sober in the morning."
     
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  8. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 2, 2000
    It just makes me smile every time I'm reminded that Dick Cheney supports gay marriage. I mean, good for him for that, if for nothing else, right? It's just so rare for someone to buck their party's ideology anymore, but Cheney had the nerve to do it. Of late, several Republicans have come out in favor of gay marriage, but Cheney was way ahead of the curve on it, years ahead in fact. It wasn't, I think, necessarily that he was way ahead of the curve on being in favor of it; rather, he was just willing to be open about it. Well, old news, but it still makes me smile.
     
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  9. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

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    Nov 20, 2012
    Yeah it's like if Lord Vader bought a pet puppy and cuddled with it in his chamber.
     
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  10. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 3, 2002
    Letting a child go hungry teaches them a lesson

    Apparently a child showed up to school and their parent did not give them quite enough money for the meal so the superintedant threw the meal away and the child did not eat. A Fox News 'expert' said this was a teachable moment.

    "You know, if one day a kid doesn’t have lunch, right, maybe that’s a teaching moment when that kid doesn’t have lunch. That may sound harsh saying that, but we’ve got to get people to start being responsible for themselves."

    Yeah, we should just go all the way and make the kids have gladitorial battles for food. Money? They don't need no stinking money, they just need the proper weapon.
     
  11. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    What's worse is that the ***hole who said that is a counselor.

    And if the superintendent really cared about the cost of the meal, they wouldn't have thrown it away. They care more about punishing the child for the parents' mistakes.
     
  12. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 27, 2005
    And controlling the kid via allowing his peers lisence to bully the kid for not having even enough money to eat.
     
  13. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 2, 2000
    Eh, it hasn't happened yet and the school staff contacts the parents three days before the kid's account runs out of money. I think it's less a "war on school lunches" and more just a way to keep the parents responsible about keeping money in their kids' accounts. If they know the kid'll get a lunch, whether there's money in the account or not, what's the incentive to keep money in the account? I don't think the school is up to anything other than trying to make the parents be responsible via keeping money in the account or else applying for the assistance program. I don't see why either of those things should be so hard. They don't want to have to pay for the kid's lunches out of the education money, rightly so, which is what some people are letting happen. They're neither paying for the lunches themselves or applying for the free lunch program, but the school still gives them lunch, but since the kid isn't eligible under the free lunch program, the school has to pay for those lunches out of the regular school fund. I think it's totally reasonable for the school to say that has to stop and to try to get parents to adhere to the proper procedures via a draconian policy. And then there's the mom whining at the end of the article about how she guesses she's going to have to pack her kid a lunch. Like that's a horrible thing for her to have to go through, making her kid's lunch. She doesn't need to do that; she needs to act like a responsible adult and put money in the kid's account or else sign up for the free program. Why are those too hard for her to do?

    Now this guy on Fox saying it's a "teachable moment" for kids to go hungry . . . I don't know what on earth he's babbling about. But I wouldn't be too hard on the school itself.
     
  14. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

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    May 4, 2003
    This doesn't particularly make sense. Assume that there is successful Day 1 contact, and that the parent also completes and submits an application for the School Lunch Program in the same business day. The fastest I've seen the federal government process any sort of claim is somewhere around 3 weeks. Is it honestly your proposal that it's okay for a child whose family cannot afford to pay for lunch to go 12 consecutive days without lunch of any kind because they got a 3-day notice before their enforced noonday fasting period started? Is that a humane or reasonable approach? Or if a parent with a non-qualifying income has a one-time shortfall in finances at the end of the month (for instance: automobile repairs) is it okay for the child to go without eating for the last week of school just because the parents got a three day advance notice it was going to happen?

    There's plenty wrong with the policy, and you've just highlighted it here. Why jump directly to a draconian measure? Was their any sort of measured escalation in how to approach the problem, keeping in mind the costs to children? The way they've leaped to this particularly uncharitable position pretty strongly underlines their bad intentions. Is this even a substantive financial drain for them, or is it one in a laundry list of small cuts to deal with shrinking school budgets? Why not switching from an opt-in program for school lunch payments to an opt-out program where parents are billed at the end of every cycle? Making SNAP or Free School Lunch applications available at every parent-teacher conference or school function?

    It's never about the effort involved in any one act. It's the cumulative difficulty of doing this along with every other task and responsibility the person has in life. The proportion of Americans that prepare meals at home on a regular basis has dropped off dramatically, and parents with young children are not immune to this trend. Nor, given the still pretty strong preference for "home-cooked meals," can we attribute to this to a shift in tastes. The reality is that people are doing it less often because it is a difficult prospect, and there's nothing scorn worthy about this person acknowledging that.
     
  15. I Are The Internets

    I Are The Internets Shelf of Shame Host star 9 VIP - Game Host

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    Nov 20, 2012
    The child should've eaten the superintendent.
     
  16. Aytee-Aytee

    Aytee-Aytee Jedi Master star 5

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    Jul 20, 2008
    Re: School Lunch "Teachable Moments", I shall quote my favorite Ninja Turtle.

    "Ugh. Where do they come up with this stuff?"

    I would think that the only "teachable" moment would be showing the kid the proper process of getting a tab. At least that's how the schools worked here back in my day. If for some reason you didn't have money, they just let you through the line and you had until the end of the week to pay it.
     
  17. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 2, 2000
    That isn't referring to applying for the School Lunch Program. It's referring to paying on the student's tab. Assuming a successful Day 1 contact, the parent should be able to get the money to the school within the three days. And less you bring up the fact that people can have a shortfall at the end of the month, the article states that you can get an entire week's worth of lunches for around eight dollars. Borrow that much from somebody if you have a shortfall; it's eight frigging dollars.

    I doubt they jumped directly to a draconian measure. And even if they did, it just highlights the extent of the problem, not their bad intentions. If you'd read the article, you'd see that it is a substantial amount of money: $50,000 in free lunches during the last school year. That may not be a tremendously high part of their budget, but $50,000? That's indefensible and shocking; frankly, that should be the lead fact in the story. The problem is extreme, so they're implementing some extreme policies in order to try to mitigate the problem. The opt-out idea is a good one; however, if these people that are defrauding the school to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars are so unethical as to do such a thing, I'd guess it would be damn hard to get them to pay a bill from the school. And when you consider that it's tens of thousands of dollars, it kind of reveals that this isn't just a bunch of parents having one-time shortfalls. If my math is right, we're talking about a price of about $1.67 per lunch. That's upwards of 29,000 times the school had to provide a free lunch to a child. In fact, it's right around 29,940; in the margin of error (since both the yearly total for last school year and the price per lunch are estimates), it would probably be over 30,000 free lunches. That adds up. And that's not just a parent having a shortfall or being careless a few times; that's serious abuse of the system. I think, the problem being so extreme justifies an extreme policy in response to it.

    Home cooked meals? I'm 31 years old; I've brought a baloney sandwich to work for lunch every day this week. Occasionally a cookie to go with it. It takes approximately one minute to slap a sandwich together and throw it in my bag. Your "cumulative difficulty" thing is bunk; it adds exactly zero stress to my morning to add in making a sandwich; one or two minutes either way doesn't make a difference. If it stresses me to make my lunch, it's because I'm already stressed and would be whether I was making lunch or not. Flip side: if I'm not stressed in the morning, adding in making my lunch isn't going to cause any stress. The only reason it should be difficult to fix a kid a brown bag lunch for school is if you're way, way overdoing it. Your fifth grader doesn't need pot roast or homemade mashed potatoes. A ham sandwich would do it, for God's sake.
     
  18. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 27, 2005
    There's also the fact that some families are so far below the poverty line that there are probably some days where that school lunch (and breakfast if the schools offer it. Not all do), may very well be that kid's only meal. To just toss it because the parents can't pay seems cruel and may further contribute to a child's possible malnurishment in addition to being left open as a target for bullying as I stated last night.

    To that end, on the positive front: Boston schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students this year.
     
  19. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

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    Mar 4, 2011
    If my state legislature were any redder, its members would all be Imperial guards. But even our schools have free "grab and go" breakfast--a muffin and a cheese stick, a bowl of cereal, etc. And we don't throw lunches away if a kid's parents didn't pay the tab. It accumulates and the kid doesn't get his report card at the end of the year, and if it accumulates all the way through 12th grade, the kid doesn't graduate until the tab is paid.
     
  20. Juliet316

    Juliet316 Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 27, 2005
  21. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

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    Mar 4, 2011
    He does want everybody to get along. Forcing everyone at gunpoint to adopt conservative beliefs is making everyone get along.
     
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  22. VadersLaMent

    VadersLaMent Chosen One star 10

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    Apr 3, 2002
  23. Rogue1-and-a-half

    Rogue1-and-a-half Manager Emeritus who is writing his masterpiece star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

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    Nov 2, 2000
    Can we stop dividing ourselves? Do racists exist? Yes. Do bigots exist? Yes. But most of us are not. Most Americans just want to get along. Why can’t we do that? What has happened to us?

    Thank you so much, sir! I'm so glad someone is saying this! [face_flag]

    his support for legalizing gay marriage had everything to do with his libertarian outlook: “The point is that government shouldn’t be involved in marriage,” he said.

    =D= My God, right again! Maybe all these years, I've been misjudging . . .

    would still happily “hunt down progressives like an Israeli Nazi hunter.” “Oh I will,”

    [face_sigh]
     
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  24. timmoishere

    timmoishere Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Jun 2, 2007
    I don't see why there have to be votes to allow gay marriage. Where was the voting to allow straight marriage?
     
  25. heels1785

    heels1785 Skywalker Saga + JCC Manager / Finally Won A Draft star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Dec 10, 2003
    Flipping through channels, stop on Fox News, because there's a picture of a burning building. It's a meat factory in New Jersey that caught fire overnight, and it apparently has some solar panels on top.

    Fox News then brings on a guest who argues that this is a perfect example of why we should not be forced into the "green movement."

    I swear I can't even comprehend this level of derp.