Yes, there are two Americas’ Virginia, they exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. One tolerant and broadminded, the other intolerant and narrow-minded!
Sincerely, thinkingblue, from the TOLERANT AND BROADMINDED USA
PS: Joe (You Lie) Wilson, et al reside in the other America!
GOP Tea Party To Boycott Scott Van Duzer's Restaurant.
FOR WHAT?
Please share this: I cannot believe how sick the GOP Tea Party really is... Boycott Scott Van Duzer’s restaurant… FOR WHAT? If these jerks ever, I mean EVER get control of our country there will be NO civility in America for a long, long time, only HATE and meanness will prevail. I for one, am thoroughly disgusted! thinkingblue
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As citizens we have to be more thoughtful and more educated and more informed. I turn on the TV and I see these grown people screaming at each other, and I think, well, if we don't get our civility back, we're in trouble.
- Emmylou Harris
PS: This is how A LIBERAL saw the visit by President Obama to Scott Van Duzer's restaurant. I THANK ALL THAT IS GOOD... I'M LIBERAL!
Wonder what priority theses dogs would be on Romney's Laundry List of Important Items?
Never mind, I know, I just asked Seamus.
We human beings are a pitiful lot... We are cruel to each other so it's no shock when we are unkind to Earth’s other animals especially the ones we consider pets like dogs that work alongside us as co-workers helping to achieve some social goal.
Get this, the Military Bureaucracy is euthanizing war dogs because it is too expensive and there’s too much red-tape to ship them back to the states for adoption. Just another sampling of the bureaucratic machine where everything has a number and everything has an expiration date of usefulness.
This sounds way too farfetched for America but I could almost see a world where, if they could get away with it, war injured human beings who cost too much money to re-acclimate back into society, would also get euthanized.
Here’s a thought, with all the insanity coming out of the GOP TEA PARTY CAMP where women, the poor, the disenfranchised due to race, religion (if it’s not Christian) or sexual orientation are considered problems, a vote for the Romney/Ryan ticket will make this deplorable vision just a matter of time. thinkingblue
They survived running toward death and danger, but some locally trained military dogs of war are not making it home.
Instead, they're being euthanized.
Channel 2's Scott MacFarlane learned of an obscure U.S. law that is making it tough for military dogs to be adopted after their service is over.
Army Sgt. David Varkett survived his tour of duty in Afghanistan, because his unit included Nooshka, a 5- year-old dog that sniffed out an improvised bomb before it exploded.
"This dog has saved my life and many others," Varkett said. "She became a little local hero, finding those IEDs."
The U.S. military is now breeding 100 puppies a year, raising them and then training them for the front lines.
In an era of roadside bomb warfare, the bomb-sniffing dogs are remarkably useful. McFarlane went to Lackland Airforce Base in San Antonio, Texas, where Georgia military canine units are training. He said the training is exhausting and intense.
Sgt. Jarred Palmer of Georgia, a Ft. Benning soldier, and his unit's Belgian Malinois, Zzazu, are inseparable.
"The dog lives with you, she's your best friend. She's your partner," Palmer said.
UNBELIEVABLE; I just blogged about war dogs that are being euthanized because they've become too expensive to save. We all know by now, what importance dogs would be on Romney’s laundry list. thinkingblue
This child is a breath of fresh air in these times of right-wing CRAZY. He, at the early age of 17 has gone through an epiphany of an entire lifetime (--78.2 years in the USA-- that is if one, is capable of thinking). Starting out at the age of 13 as a conservative pundit (His political philosophy, he now believes came from the right-wing hate radio that he listened to everyday in his home of Georgia.) spouting all the right words that the right-wing radio talk hosts repetitively (ad nauseam) jam down the throats of their obedient, low information listeners. He has a brilliant mind and can memorize volumes of information all at once; so in essence the garbage went in from the right-wing hate radio and he pumped it out from his innocent frontal lobes. Now that he is older, he is pondering upon those automated unenlightened thoughts that he believed were correct and finds out that so many of his beliefs were not only wrong but did not coordinate with his perception of life. HAT'S OFF TO JONATHAN KROHN! thinkingblue
Philosophy for Children First published Thu May 2, 2002; substantive revision Mon Jun 8, 2009
In the United States, philosophy typically makes its formal entry into the curriculum at the college level. A growing number of high schools offer some introduction to philosophy, often in special literature courses for college bound students. In Europe and many other countries, it is much more common to find philosophy in the high school curriculum. However, philosophy prior to high school seems relatively uncommon around the world. This may suggest that serious philosophical thinking is not for pre-adolescents. Two reasons might be offered for accepting this view. First, philosophical thinking requires a level of cognitive development that, one may believe, is beyond the reach of pre-adolescents. Second, the school curriculum is already crowded; and introducing a subject like philosophy will not only distract students from what they need to learn, it may encourage them to become skeptics rather than learners. However, both of these reasons can be challenged. They will be addressed in turn.
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1. Are Children Capable of Philosophical Thinking?
Jean Piaget's (1933 ) well-known theory of cognitive development suggests that prior to age 11 or 12, most children are not capable of philosophical thinking. This is because, prior to this time, children are not capable of “thinking about thinking,” the sort of meta-level thinking that characterizes philosophical thinking. This “formal operational” level of cognitive development includes analogical reasoning about relationships, such as: “Bicycle is to handlebars as ship is to rudder, with ”steering mechanism“ being the similar relationship” (Goswami, p. xxi). However, there is a growing body of psychological research suggesting that Piaget's account seriously underestimates children's cognitive abilities (Astington, 1993; Gopnik, et al.).
Philosopher Gareth Matthews goes further and argues at length that Piaget failed to see the philosophical thinking manifest in the very children he studied. Matthews (1980) provides a number of delightful examples of very young children's philosophical puzzlement. For example:
•TIM (about six years), while busily engaged in licking a pot, asked, “Papa, how can we be sure that everything is not a dream?” (p. 1)
•JORDAN (five years), going to bed at eight one evening, asked, “If I go to bed at eight and get up at seven in the morning, how do I really know that the little hand of the clock has gone around only once? Do I have to stay up all night to watch it? If I look away even for a short time, maybe the small hand will go around twice.” (p. 3)
•One day JOHN EDGAR (four years), who had seen airplanes take off, rise, and gradually disappear into the distance, took his first plane ride. When the plane stopped ascending and the seat-belt sign went out, John Edgar turned to his father and said in a rather relieved, but still puzzled, tone of voice, “Things don't really get smaller up here.” (p. 4)
Matthews acquired many of his anecdotes from friends who knew of his interest in the philosophical thinking of children. It is not uncommon for attentive adults to encounter such examples.
However, it might be objected that more than such anecdotes are needed to show that children are capable of serious philosophical thinking. What is needed is evidence that children are capable of sustained philosophical discussion. Matthews (1984) provides illustrations of this, too. Meeting with a group of 8–11 year olds, he used the following example to develop a story for discussion:
Ian (six year old) found to his chagrin that the three children of his parents' friends monopolized the television; they kept him from watching his favorite program. “Mother,” he asked in frustration, “why is it better for three children to be selfish than one?” (Matthews 1984, 92–3)
This generated a lively discussion in which children commented on the inconsiderateness of the three visiting children, the desirability of working out a solution that would satisfy all four children, the importance of respecting people's rights, and how one might feel if he or she were in Ian's place. Matthews then posed a possible utilitarian approach: “What about this argument, that if we let the three visitors have their way, three people will be made happy instead of just one?” One reply was that it would not be fair for three people to get what they want at the expense of a fourth. This triggered a discussion of fairness that addressed more specific concerns about the relative ages of the children, whether they are friends, siblings, or strangers—and what types of television programs are involved.
No doubt, part of the explanation of the children's ability and willingness to carry on an extended discussion of Ian's circumstance is that they have faced similar challenges. Still, the children exhibited a rather sophisticated conceptual grasp of the issues at hand, which is what one might expect from children once they are invited to reflect on their own experiences. MORE HERE: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/children/
I never thought I would say this but h00ray FOR wALmART too...
Of course, I realize that Walmart pulled out of the advocacy group ALEC because of consumer pressure (99%-ers you did it again!) yet, our job is far from done. There are many more businesses out there taking our hard earned $$$ and still are connected with an organization whose sole purpose is to rake the 99% over the coals. (Well not their sole purpose, making sure that Republicans win at all cost is probably #1 and figuring out ways to undermine the middleclass, a close 2nd.) Please read the article below and SAVOR THE MOMENT (even if it's only for a little while).
thinkingblue
ROGERS, Arkansas (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest retailer and biggest seller of firearms in the United States, is dropping out of a conservative advocacy group in the United States that has been criticized for promoting "Stand Your Ground" gun laws.
Wal-Mart was suspending its membership in the American Legislative Council (ALEC), which the retailer joined in 1993, the company said late on Wednesday.
Other groups that have backed away from supporting ALEC, include Coca-Cola Co, Kraft Foods Inc, McDonald's Corp, Procter & Gamble Co and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The move by Wal-Mart comes more than a month after ALEC abandoned its committee that worked on "public safety and elections" to focus on the economy.
ALEC had come under criticism for its support of "Stand Your Ground" gun laws, such as the "self defense" law under scrutiny in the Florida shooting that killed unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February.
ALEC, a pro-business, free-market organization whose members include corporations and mostly Republican lawmakers and lobbyists, also drew scrutiny for promoting laws that require photo identification to vote. ColorOfChange, a liberal advocacy group for black Americans, had said such voting laws disadvantage the poor and minorities.
"Previously, we expressed our concerns about ALEC's decision to weigh in on issues that stray from its core mission 'to advance the Jeffersonian principles of free markets,'" Maggie Sans, Wal-Mart's vice president of public affairs and government relations, said in a May 30 letter to ALEC's national chairman and executive director.
"We feel that the divide between these activities and our purpose as a business has become too wide. To that end, we are suspending our membership in ALEC."
Yes, there are two Americas’ Virginia, they exist as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist. One tolerant and
free-thinking, the other intolerant and close-minded!
Sincerely, thinkingblue, from the TOLERANT AND FREE-THINKING USA
PS: Joe (You Lie) Wilson, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh et al reside in the intolerant America!
