I blew off Junior High and High School as a kid, but now I am wishing I could have that time back.  I hate having to work harder on stuff I should have learned back then.  When I first came into college I worked twice as hard as most people did to write an A paper.  But public schools have created a system of mediocrity that I fell into.

There was no incentive for me to work hard and get A’s when I was younger.  I was to naive to care about my future.  So I did the minimum and averaged a 3.0.  The way I see it, my young mind did a simple cost-benefit analysis.  I could work my ass off and get A’s, or I could do nothing, or the absolute bare minimum and get B’s (which kept my parents off my ass and allowed me to do whatever else I wanted).  And when you’re young you tend to have a hard time thinking about the future and how important school might be.

Webs, I had the same problem with school, but it was both a combination of a couple of things. Not trying as hard as I could have early on, well, that’s definitely a big part. The other part is when I finally did try hard, and took extra courses because I wanted to and so on and soforth, that there was no reward in place. In fact, there was lots of pressure for me to go back to slacking off from school so that I would do more around the house. Finally, regardless of any achievement I’d put under my belt, there was (and will always be) people who are determined to think badly of you. I was too young to realize that, either.

I hear yea Patness.  My parents are huge into education, and have many many classroom hours.  So as a young lad I heard many times about the importance of school.  But I think my parents should have created a reward/reinforcement system for grades and studying.  I actually can’t say if that would have helped me, I was a hellian as a child.  But I think it might have.

SweetLJ: Because the girls in Europe have adequate sex education and access to birth control.

There’s a complete lack of understanding (or is it willfull blindness/ignorance) of how young people operate.
Just say no or, a threat of hell will keep them on the straight and narrow.
Yeah, that’ll work ... even though it hasn’t for quite some time.

Sexual enlightenment is justified insofar as girls cannot learn too soon how children do not come into the world.  Karl Kraus (1874 - 1936)

Sadie:Bill Maher has his moments—he’s often funny as hell—but let’s face it: he’s no Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert.

I don’t know, back in it’s day, I found Politically Incorrect a lot funnier and a lot more thought provoking than I have ever found The Daily Show.

I don’t know, back in it’s day, I found Politically Incorrect a lot funnier and a lot more thought provoking than I have ever found The Daily Show.

I like Maher because he doesn’t have to hold back on what he says (not that Stewart does, either).  Both are highly educated and thought provoking; they can hit their points while being funny.  However, Maher has an edge…I don’t know if it is his age lending to experience, or the exact way he views things that I find fascinating, but I can watch him for hours at a time…and not just because I think he’s fucking hot, either.

“Politically Incorrect” was great, don’t get me wrong, but Jon Stewart just does something for me on an almost primal level. I became interested in Stephen Colbert after he put Bush in his place at last spring’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, but it was this that made me actually fall in love with him (and if loving this is wrong, then I don’t want to be right).

Yeah, as entertaining as Jon Stewart is, Bill Maher seems to go to that extra level of confrontation.

He calls stupid “stupid”.  He made a comment this week about the health of children; he asked the audience if they ever read the ingredients on what they are putting into their bodies; if they did, they would find the healthiest thing would be Mark Foley’s penis, and that people didn’t need to worry about Foley asking their kids how long their penises were, since the kids were so larded out on Cheetos and Yoohoo that they couldn’t even see their penises.

He also said that at least Mark Foley was willing to give them a good time before Bush sent them to Iraq to become cannon fodder.  Furthermore, why were the dems and the media so worried about Foley that they weren’t asking questions about Iraq?  Obviously Mark Foley was the only person on Capitol Hill asking questions.

Yes Daryll, I see the light. I am so sorry. How I wish that I lived in a system where when my kid gets sick the doctors check my bank balance instead of his pulse. I wish, oh how I wish, that British children were paid 99c an hour to sew your $100 sneakers. What the unemployed need is shanty towns. It is so obviously the cure to people wanting to stop being unemployed by demanding, say, working days of less than 12-14 hours, health and safety and freedom from fear of their employers.

Do you know what? I actually live here. I know what the problems of the British welfare system are. I know that some people are happy to be trapped at the bottom because frankly they are too fucking lazy.

But I also know there are those who the grinding poverty saps the will. I meet these people daily. I speak to people who are victims of badly drafted legislation, written by people who are under pressure from the Right to stop ‘throwing money’ at the poor. I work for an organisation who can not tell the difference between ‘efficiency’ and ‘effectiveness’ or if they can are ignoring it to keep the Press happy, and so the people at the bottom suffer.

I speak to these people, who hope that if it is too late for them, then they want to do best for the children, but they can’t. Why? Because success has a thousand fathers, and failure is an orphan. Those who can make a difference often don’t want to know. Why help the poor when there is a quick buck/vote amoung the rich?

But I also see where money is TARGETED, not ‘thrown’, at a problem there is improvement. My point was the ‘Black’ organisations allow the money to be targeted.

Throwing money at a problem is a result of election cycles measured in 2-5 years, not society cycles of 20-25. Politicians need results in months not years.  Unfortunately generations take years and decades, not weeks and months. A system which supports people back into work, but making sure they don’t starve while the transition happens does not happen over night. A system which makes sure a baby born today grows up educated enough to ensure a healthy economy takes 25 years. It does not matter what you do now for a 5 year old, you are not likely to see any results for 10 to 20 years.

But then Daryll, pehaps you are right. Perhaps the poor benighted Black will forever be the White mans burden, prone to self destruction.  But do not be angry at him. Feel pity for the brute, for it is not his fault…

              ...God made him that way.

Hard to say what will touch one person, and what will work for another.  I’d be hard-pressed to say who my favorite comedian is - probably depends on when.  For example, early Carlin is way funnier than his current stuff.  To me.

I like Maher, especially his stuff about 9/11 and fuel economy (he did a very funny book about it) but he has a deeply flaky anti-vaccination side too.

LH, you posted while I was typing, but that’s good stuff.  A couple of your comments from this thread are great posts in themselves.

DoF: For example, early Carlin is way funnier than his current stuff.

I’m the other way ... therefore between us we appreciate all of him. 

A couple of your comments from this thread are great posts in themselves.

Yes.  Nicely thought provoking. Thankyou.