posted December 15, 2011 01:39 PM            

I would love to know exactly why JWHop dislikes "Black History" as an academic pursuit. Just one example, "Hip Hop" has been one of the few positive influences in showing a very friendly side of America to several dozen countries. There is so much to learn from Black History: Origin of Slavery, Liberation, Freedom, Segregation, Fight for Equality, tackling poverty, educating through bussing, successfully tackling drug problems and harsh ghetto life, musical influence from Jazz to Hiphop. Black History is proof of how even the most disadvantaged Minorities can succeed in USA.

posted December 15, 2011 02:16 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by jwhop:
Squatters on public or private property should be evicted...pronto!

Public education money and especially federal money to fund useless and fluffed up degree programs should be halted...yesterday!

If parents approve the mis-education of their children, leaving them helpless and unemployable in the American job market then let them fund those educations on their own dime and leave the rest of us out of their funding equations.

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Education is meant to do just that educate. Human beings should not be restricted toward what fields they choose to study, reshaping their entire lives to feed our failing economic system. They are jobless because the market economy CANNOT SUSTAIN THEM! It's the fault of the financial systems not the people who are being defrauded of human welfare and job security! Repress, restrict, regulate the mantra of conventionalism. Our market economy is crumbling, and it's not the fault of the people but the system itself!

posted December 15, 2011 03:24 PM            

quote:

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The kind of government you crave already exists...in Europe.

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It does? Sweetheart, if it did, I'd have applied for citizenship long ago. The banks and multinationals have Europe under very nearly the same degree of control the do the States. Not quite, mind you, but close. I did read this morning that Hungary plowed under 1000 acres of toxic Monsanto corn. Yay for small battles, I guess.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/occupy-wall-street -protests-go-global/2011/10/15/gIQAp7kimL_story.html

LONDON — Linking up with the Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York, tens of thousands of people around the world took to the streets Saturday to reiterate their anger at the global financial system, corporate greed and government cutbacks.

Rallies were held in more than 900 cities in Europe, Africa and Asia, as well as in the United States, with some of the largest occurring in Europe. The demonstration in Rome turned violent, and more than 70 people were arrested in Manhattan on Saturday night, but crowds elsewhere were largely peaceful.

“What’s exciting about what’s happening is a sense of international solidarity,” said Ben Walker, 33, a university teacher from Norwich, England, who was carrying a tent and planning on camping overnight near the London Stock Exchange.

Organizers of the global demonstration said on their Web site that they were demanding a “true democracy.”

“United in one voice, we will let politicians, and the financial elites they serve, know it is up to us, the people, to decide our future,” they said.

The global demonstrations came on the same day that finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations met in Paris to discuss solutions to the debt crisis engulfing Europe.

Television images from Rome showed police launching tear-gas grenades and firing water cannons as a breakaway group clad in black set cars on fire and smashed bank machines and shop windows.

The clashes in the Italian capital left dozens injured, including several police officers, the Associated Press reported. Police were out in force for the rally, which came a day after Premier Silvio Berlusconi barely survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament over his failure to address Italy’s mounting debt crisis.

In New York, thousands of protesters with Occupy Wall Street marched through the city’s financial district to Times Square, banging drums and chanting, “We got sold out, banks got bailed out!” Police, some in riot gear and mounted on horses, tried to push them out of the square and onto the sidewalks, AP reported. Police said more than 70 protesters were arrested through the course of the day. Two police officers were injured during the protest and had to be hospitalized, AP reported.

In London, thousands converged outside St. Paul’s Cathedral, including WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, after plans to occupy the London Stock Exchange were thwarted when police blocked the area, saying it was private property.

The atmosphere was lively, with activists chanting “Whose streets? Our streets!” and “We are the 99 percent!” in different languages. Mounted police officers responded with smiles to chants of “Get those animals off those horses!”

“I’m here to stand in solidarity with the protesters on Wall Street,” said Pekka Piirainen, a 19-year-old history student from Finland. He said that the “occupation” movement that kicked off in Spain in May with sit-ins and spread to Wall Street was now “a global thing happening.”

posted December 15, 2011 04:21 PM            

The Humanities and Social Sciences are viable fields within academics. Research within these fields is directly related to human behavior, societal norms, practices, traditions, beliefs, and customs within various cultures. Research that directly influences and affects individuals in said cultures, including Jwhop. Thus to attack fields such as Women Studies and Black History, which propose to expand and synthesize the way we understand ourselves as Americans and human beings, our history and our culture is in poor taste. I don't support that behavior.

The problem isn't with what we choose to study in education it's with the systems to which we've built in our societies. We've become a society that exclusively caters our lives to inefficient systems. By perpetuating the idea that educational preferences are to blame for our failing economy is contemptible.

posted December 15, 2011 04:24 PM            

basket weaving happens to sustain a lot of people around the world including here in the usa. lmao!

JWHOP it is about time you recognize that americans come in a lot of different flavours..even when you don't like what someone says it's called FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION and i THOUGHT YOU WOULD STAND UP FOR THE RIGHTS OF ALL TO SAME?? not bloody likely!

at least in europe they are onto monsanto and most countries there have refused to swallow what that corporation hands out (literally and politically).

i suspect even your precious sarah palin recognizes that corruption in any kind of government will bring it down. several countries you have described as "gulags" are among the wealthiest in the world, and full of largely content citizens.

if you would stop trying to shut up those who disagree with you perhaps you will get the america you rant about. it is not your prerogative to decide who should live here or not.

posted December 16, 2011 12:13 AM            

of course i could have taken my degree and become a world-famous (not) translator of old english, a teacher, or, like one of my friends, a writer of other people's college papers! but i went to college to learn, not to get a job. i love literature, period.

kurt vonnegut came to speak at my college once. his advice to anyone in the room who wanted to be a writer was "LEAVE NOW!"

because sadly for many going to school only teaches you to do as youre told and regurgitate what you've heard. even i learned that was the road to better grades, though i often strayed from the path.

posted December 16, 2011 12:57 AM            

randall

posted December 16, 2011 11:40 AM            

What's up with the rest of you?

You posit there's a societal contract between generations of Americans to educate following generations.

OK, I buy into that...so long as you understand a contract is "a something for something proposition".

We agree to provide a means of education for you and you agree to apply yourselves and learn a marketable skill or skills so we don't have to feed, clothe and house you for the rest of your lives at societies expense..i.e., taxpayer expense.

So, when you go off to school and embark on a featherweight degree program for which there is NO DEMAND in the marketplace, you break that contract.

Try taking that "women's studies" degree down to GM. They don't need hectoring, lecturing feminists telling them that all sex...even between married couples is really RAPE! They need engineers, metallurgists and designers.

Try taking that "black studies" degree down to Shell and Exxon Mobile. They don't need a new generation of Jeremiah Wrights telling them that white folks invented HIV to kill black people or that white folks sell crack to blacks to put them in prison and keep them there. They need Geologists, Chemists Seismologists and Petroleum Engineers.

Try taking that "basket weaving" degree down to Bechtel. They're not going to talk to you...because they need Structural Engineers, Metallurgists and Architects.

And...don't put words in my mouth I didn't say. I never mentioned "Liberal Arts" degrees. There's nothing featherweight about a degree in History, English, English Lit or other fields of study and coupled with a minor in Education or a teaching credential lead to self sufficiency and fulfill that societal contract I mentioned.

One of two things is true about the so called Occupiers.

Either they are knowingly working on the reelection campaign of Barack Hussein O'Bomber and they are flying under a false flag and are therefore utterly corrupt.

Or

They are unknowingly working on his reelection campaign and are terminally naive.

posted December 16, 2011 01:17 PM            

Humanities and Social Science Fields: Women Studies, Black History, Asian Studies, African Studies, European Studies, Latin American Studies, Literature, Poetry, Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, Religion, Linguistics, Journalism, Theater Arts, Cultural Studies, Communications, Media, Music, Education, Political Science, Economics, Geography, International Relations and Psychology.

Literature and History are equally valued in academics as are Women Studies and Black History. They are apart of a grouping known as the Humanities. All of these degrees are VIABLE! This is not a case and you are not the prosecutor, your views are heard but they don't carry value beyond your own understanding because thankfully rulings aren't made in favor of your personal biases. With a degree in any of the Humanities or Social Science fields employment opportunities are offered in a plethora of fields related to Cultural Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Education, Business, Public Relations, Journalism, Economics and MORE! I really wonder about someone who blames educated individuals as the cause for a failing economy. Education benefits society as a whole. Complain all you want about taxes, and what that money is used for. Point your finger towards the state and the federal government, those in charge of allocating that resource. Personally, I think you should take the criticisms you have over education and taxes straight to your local congressman or representative. I'm sure they'll have a grounded interest, in comparison to those of us here on this thread who care to simply discuss the global occupy movement.

AND, social contracts are about interaction between people within a culture, not the economy! The economy is not a person. Social contracts we're made far before we had any form of sustainable market economies globally! They outlive failing financial and political systems, and are contracts made to benefit human welfare not to feed self interests or an ineffective economic machine.

Education is off topic in regards to this thread, feel free to start one of your own in regards to education if you have more contempt to vent. Let's kindly keep from going off topic from here on out and focus on the occupy movement relevant to this thread please.

posted December 16, 2011 01:28 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Randall:
The OWS. It was said they are willing to compromise on their demands.

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posted December 16, 2011 02:27 PM            

i treated myself to five minutes of rush limbaugh today. it is reassuring to know that his ratings have slipped by 30% in the last couple of years. the man was ridiculing ron paul for his anti-imperialist views.

nevermind that HISTORY makes it obvious that ALL empires have exhausted themselves by reaching too far, by the continual desire for MORE territory and power, and that the USA is in the process of shooting itself in the foot with the constant war game. rome did it, as has every other empire in history. but ANTI INTELLECTUALS consider history to be guff.

the occupy movement is GLOBAL. it is not an attempt to get obama re-elected but to clean up the corruption and open the doors to the working population that have been systematically and progressively closing for decades.

it is a protest against oligarchy orchestrated by the OCD wealth-and-power trippers of the world. whichever side you are on, and i say this having listened to conservatives and "liberals" and unaligned openminded people too, that fact is clear as day.

it is true that many people resent the rich in general. it is not the honest rich folk who are the problem, and most really do get that...however there is a class of wealth addicts who can never have enough, and will do ANYTHING to get them.

posted December 17, 2011 10:20 AM            

I do not need a new prescription to view the mounds of trash and filth for what they are.

These Marxist Socialist Progressive and Anarchist morons are preaching revolution in the streets of America and they are under the direct control of and acting on behalf of Barack Hussein O'Bomber.

While this Marxist mob tries to pass themselves off as "idealists", they are anything but.

They're not even fooling the liberal youth of America according to a poll conducted by one of the most far left universities in America....Harvard!

13. Do you consider yourself to be a supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement, or are you not a
supporter of the Occupy Wall Street movement?
age 18-29 vs 4-Year College

Supporter...........18-29---21%
......................4 Year..24%

Not a supporter.....18-29...33%
........................4 year..33%
http://www.iop.harvard.edu/var/ezp_site/storage/fckeditor/file/fall_poll_11_M_topline .pdf

These are the people who gave overwhelming support to the election of Barack Hussein O'Bomber in 2008.

Anyone reading the results of this Harvard Poll will understand immediately that they do not support the Occupier morons and suppoort for O'Bomber and his Marxist policies have taken major hits.

posted December 17, 2011 10:53 AM            

More bad news for the Marxist Socialist Progressive O'Bomber and his Congressional comrades...and the Occupier morons!

New Poll: A Plurality of Democrats Think ‘Big Government’ is More of a Threat Than ‘Big Business’

posted December 17, 2011 02:27 PM            

quote:

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No worries about President Barack Obama, though. The youth that supported him in 2008, will undoubtedly still support him in 2012. His campaign for presidency will not be in jeopardy thanks to this movement. The liberals, moderates, democrats and whomever else supports him are very aware that change takes time.

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posted December 17, 2011 03:15 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by shura:
I don't know about that. Good amount of bitter disappointment in Obama's camp. He's all but lost the middle ground. Unless the repubs are stupid enough to back Newt, Obama may have a problem.

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It would appear as though Obama is losing ground, but only time will tell. I was apart of that youth movement, the 18 - 30 crowd within the last election. I was finishing college in 2008, I'm apart of this generation (born in the 80s). We are fundamentally concerned with change. Obama inherited Bush's mess when he came into the presidency. I nor do many of those within my generation blame Obama for things that he isn't accountable for. This generation is aware enough of the differences within American politics and political hypocrisy. They are also greatly aware of their power as one of the largest generations since the baby boomers. Some might even say they're bigger.

The upcoming election is going to be a headache, that is a fact. I can't speak for common liberals or democrats but as a member of the young voting generation (18 - 30), I can say we won't allow anyone but Obama to gain the presidency in 2012. This is a very aware generation that has the power to sway the votes. Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Newt, can wage their political annihilation wars, Obama still has a substantial stake within the young voting generation.

posted December 17, 2011 03:33 PM            

anyone who is recorded as saying "corporations are people" is likely to create an opposition vote among the occupy crowd and anyone who sympathizes with the 99% schtick.

posted December 17, 2011 03:53 PM            

part of the obama problem is 1) his original congress were entrenched oldschool democrats, and

2) the do-nothing republicans who will sell their grandmothers before they ask a millionaire to help pull things back together

the president on his own can't do anything. we need some Millenials (joan's generation) in congress...the oldest will be in their early 30s now and MANY are over 25..

and some realistically free-market oriented folk too.

posted December 17, 2011 04:04 PM            

Paul's attracting a surprising number of younger voters.