More more comments

I posted a comment on Britney Spears’s Blog Gimme gimme more on the post “Should College Change us”.

More comments

I made a comment on Kelevra’s blog Another View on his post about “Growing older but not up”.

Some forgotten comments of October

I commented on Paris Hiton's blog on Can you come back after the death penalty? I commented on ideology's blog on National Healthcare.

Question and Answer

Miz Alice talks to William Least Heat-Moon about the history of the portion of Maryland’s coast that she lived on. She speaks from the personal point-of-view as an observer and a predictor of what will happen to those isles along the coast. Do you think that when we teach children about history today, we miss out on having it told from a personal account rather than boiling it down to impersonal facts? Does the lack personal relation in which historical events are being taught lessen their significance and speculation of what will happen in the future in those areas?

It does have a key element missing when something is taught in an impersonal way. When it is just the facts, a student can easily avoid thinking about it if they can, in any way, think that it would never happen to them. Telling history from personal yet accurate accounts gives the events dimension and a sense of reality even though the students are so distanced from these events by both location and time.

An example of boiling down history to just the facts was exemplified in my high school. The Holocaust was talked about with the same tone and indifference as about how the first horses came to the Americas. We then had a Holocaust survivor come and speak to us in chapel about her experiences and struggle for life as so many around her died. I cannot emphasize enough the difference it made in the way I viewed and thought about the Holocaust, the horrific ideology behind it, and even in ways to prevent something as atrocious from ever happening again. To be moved to think about a topic as deeply as I did about the Holocaust takes a personal connection and relation.

Events that are presented blandly to us are briefly memorized for a test, and then they fade away just as fast as if they were but a passing footprint on the beach. Repetition is a way to permanently memorize historical facts yet the educational system only teaches a section of history twice at most over our years of schooling. Thus without a personal account recorded as history passes us by, we are more likely than naught to repeat the mistakes of our forefathers and we will have to rediscover all the solutions that they previously found. Let us teach history from gripping personal accounts so that the learning, experiences, and discoveries of our predecessors were not in vain.

NEW AND REVISED: The Endangered Competitive Edge of the American Economy

America is rich because it supplies the world with innovative solutions. The edge of innovation is very prevalent in the United States but other sources around the globe are becoming more prevalent. An example of innovation in the US is world’s top business consulting firm, Accenture. Accenture beats all the rest by being able to get projects done many times faster than its competitors. The company does this having headquarters set up in the United States, Europe, and in Asia as well as having all projects and information electronically linked and available between all the locations. So as the globe turns, and one location goes to bed, the next headquarters picks up the project from where the previous one left off so work on a project never stops until it is done. This is innovation of electronic information sharing, outsourcing, and time management at its best!

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing has headed overseas. Check out outsourcing here. Most everything is manufactured in China and Korea in highly efficient workshops. For services and support, India handles most technical support and human-required electronic operator services through complex routing systems. I found it astounding that the emergency call button in my high school elevator linked me to a help desk in Delhi, India. Japan manufactures and sells us most all of our high-end consumer electronics and even a good chunk of our automobile industry. Japan is actually surpassed us in some areas of advanced technologies. The Middle East, South America, and Canada ship most of our petroleum supply to us. Check out petroleum imports.

In the lucrative educational arena, the vast majority of our doctorate degrees are being earned by foreign students at our universities. The American student populace has stopped pursuing higher levels of education past the bachelors’ and masters’ degrees while Asian and Southeast Asian levels increase. Check out the numbers of foreign students at out top universities here.

As it turns out, American culture, because of its high levels of freedom, produces the most innovation of any society. The Asian and Indian cultures may have the ability to make our ideas more efficient and streamlined but the creation of them is our forte. But this grasp is waning. As we sell our highest end educational degree spots to foreign students and as the rest of the world gains more freedoms, they increase their creation of innovation. Meanwhile our government ramps up rules, regulations, and taxes, which leave less room for innovation and shuts off possibilities that are now becoming more available in other parts of the world. We need to let up on regulations and taxes so new ideas may flourish through our private sector. Check out progressive taxation in the United States here. We need to regain a resolute hold on our edge of innovative competitiveness in the global market.

Posted

I posted a comment on Paris Hilton's and ideaology's blogg

Monster Children and Happiness VS Quality of Lifestyle

We all have had that experience of being next to that mom and her little brat in that restaurant or store. The kid will be screaming,

“Mommy, I want that toy or candy NOW! NOW MOMMY! I WANT IT! AYEEEEE!”

The child thrashes about on the floor and makes a huge fuss as he throws his tantrum. The mother pleads helplessly to her child to stop and to behave but the child does not relent until the mother capitulates and buys him his treat. It might be even worse. I have even heard small toddlers use profanities on their parents in their rants. A generation ago, their parents would have spanked their children into line and then have taken them home to a grueling punishment.

That doesn’t happen now. Most of today’s parents are too busy working their own jobs to effectively raise their own children. Today’s society, now almost in all cases, requires both parents work to maintain a high quality of living. We are working so hard for that standard of living that we are trading happiness and the proper moral upbringing of our children. It used to be that the husband could be the lone breadwinner of the family and that the mother could raise the child. Today, either the husband or wife could stay home if winning the bread weren’t so hard. I believe that all the taxes and insurance keep both parents out of the household and at their jobs. Of course they want the best for their child so they work hard to bring in money but maybe their presence is the best thing for the child. Nothing is more important than family time and bonds. Not that new big screen TV, not that new car, that promotion, or those additions to the house.

To correct the moral upbringing of our children and raise the happiness of today’s citizens, we need less tax from the government to make it easier to earn a living and so the parents can be there for their kids.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia on family values http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_values
and from that page there is a whole list of links to a list of more family moral issues pages.