When Californians are asked by a human pollster their opinion on prop 19, more than half say they are against it. When asked by a robot, Prop 19 passes with a 13% margin.
Isn’t that staggering?
What I find interesting also is all the fake websites popping up calling themselves “Stoners against Prop 19″ Yeah. Pretty creative. There’s been some digging up and the people behind these websites are the same ones that oppose it – the law enforcement unions.
Hey, they need job security, right?
It’s interesting that they would take this route. But it’s smart. It’s a lot more effective than “Marijuana Kills” ads on TV. People are starting to believe it and being opposed to it – so the result is alot more uncertain now.
This reminds me, I need to re-register to vote. I’m still registered Republican for some reason.
I’m on team Sarah Palin on this one: Everyone should be allowed to make up words.
‘Refudiate,’ ‘misunderestimate,’ ‘wee-wee’d up.’ English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too. Got to celebrate it! - Sarah Palin on Twitter
She’s got a point. Language is only incorrect if it’s misunderstood – imo! Everyone seemed to know she meant “refute”.
HuffPuffTheMagicDragon Post and whoever else on the internet that still cares about politics when there isn’t a presidential election is jumping on it, but to me its a bigger issue. I’m fighting a one-woman battle against this sort of linguistic Nazism. You CAN invent words. It is correct. As much as you guys hate it, language is alive, txt speak is correct in it’s own way and there is very little wrong and right about language.
That’s why language is awesome! Thanks to Shakespeare and .. *gulp* Sarah Palin.
I wish I could write more but I’m tired, so here goes. I love living in America, especially California. Thanks to the government and social structure, I think I live in the country with the most upward social mobility on this planet. Community college is also a godsend, cause it’s so affordable to start developing your career. You give up some parts of the college experience, but that’s okay. I love living in Dana Point; I love the beach and the ocean.
I feel that we shouldn’t be celebrating the declaration of independence but more the current time we are in. The Declaration had 1 explicit mention of racism:
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
The implicit example of racism of “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Pursuit of happiness doesn’t mean much in the D of I context, since liberty sort of covers that.
Liberty is the concept of ideological and political philosophy that identifies the condition to which an individual has the right to behave according to one’s own personal responsibility and free will.
So what is pursuit of happiness? It’s a filler for property. The original Locke phrase is “Life liberty and property” Why was property removed? Because slaves are property, and the framers wanted to tax slaves.
Classy.
So why do I say this? Because one thing that always pops up around this time of year is how great our framers like Franklin and Jefferson were, how they pooped rainbows and spread love all over our great country.
Why not face history in an objective way? Our history is dirty, sad, and chock-full of racism. Actually, before the Americas, there were little to no examples of slavery by ‘color’ over another. That simple difference has changed our country, the world, and the meaning of race forever.
I like your thoughts. However, I must say that you have to differentiate b/w the values that this country was built upon and the flaws of the ppl who built the country. I believe freedom is a misunderstood a lot of times in our nation.
Also, slavery did not start in America or the importation of blacks. It was a pretty big business for the Europeans before this country even existed. America did exploit it the most, however it was also the first to abolish it.
Thanks for your thoughts, I enjoyed reading it.
5:41 pm on June 25, 2010 updated via mobile phone. Permalink
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Young Gypsy girl loses 80% of her skin in hate crime.
The one thing I can’t stand about Europeans: Racism against Gypsy/Romas. Few europeans are actually so far-right that they would attack a child, but the moderate population still has strong prejudices. When you think about it, America is so far ahead when it comes to racism. Just from my expirience.
In eastern Slovakia many Roma live in segregated communities like the village of Ostrovany where municipal authorities spent some $16,000 to build a wall separating the Roma from their white neighbors, because of fears of “alleged Roma crime,” said Stanislav Daniel from ERRC.
The Pros and Cons of Marijuanna Legalization this November
On November 2nd, you will hopefully be heading out to the polls to vote on the legalization and taxation of Marijuana in California.
I was looking through the initiative data and found interesting pros and cons.
Full legalization will lead people to consume marijuana without the advice or guidance of a medical professional, and that could be dangerous for a number of people. Kevin Reed, who owns the Bay Area Green Cross medical marijuana delivery service, says, “This ballot measure, which likens cannabis to alcohol or tobacco, instead of ibuprofen or aspirin, hurts patients.
I guess the obvious problem here is that even though Marijuana may help manage pain, it really isn’t just an aspirin. It would be good for everyone to be guided on not abusing it and being careful, but medical guidance doesn’t seem to help people who abuse vicodin or painkillers. Marijuana is a drug – like alcohol. I think it’s a fine comparison.
Marijuana is illegal under federal laws. If marijuana becomes legal in California under state law, it will still be federally illegal.
True, but they have to be out of their mind to pursue this. They didn’t pursue Prop 215 that harshly.
Estimated fiscal impact: Savings of up to several tens of millions of dollars annually to state and local governments on the costs of incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders. Unknown but potentially major tax, fee, and benefit assessment revenues to state and local government related to the production and sale of marijuana products.
I do think the fiscal impact will be a great positive one. There has even been talk to create a “Hemp Valley” similar to Napa Valley. Imagine the tourist effect, on top of the taxation.
The Field Poll released survey results in April 2009 which indicated that 56% of Californians support legalizing marijuana.
A PPIC poll on marijuana legalization in mid-May showed a very close match-up in sentiment between support and opposition. There were demographic differences, however: 62% of Latinos oppose legalization, men favor legalization more than women, and support for legalization declines with age.
Interesting – why do Latinos oppose legalizing marijuana? Maybe someone can enlighten me on this point.
1) I think this is the first step in federal legalization.
2) You made my night! But idk if I should resent that you think it fits me! :p
3) Fuck Reagan
Better late than never, I guess. His page boasts over 60,000 fans already. He joined on June 2nd, 2010. And even though his PR person once said that the former president “would never tweet” for some reason, he’s also joined twitter.
Any why now, you might ask? Well, his memoir, “Decision Points” is coming out soon. Looks like he’s going to use social networking to increase the buzz around the book, which by the way, I think is aptly named.
I think this book tour might revitalize his image, considering how well Laura did with her book. But who knows..
The crappy truth about why poor smart kids don’t go to college: because they’re poor.
I don’t like to blame my failures in life on statistics or on my circumstances – but I would be an idiot to pretend that these things didn’t affect me. Your own intelligence and determination can only take you so far, the rest, I’ve found – is luck.
I imagine that there are other charts like this on the internet, and the numbers probably vary a bit. I chose this one because the data was plainly displayed and the source is reputable. If you have a high income, but bad scores in 8th grade math, or low income and great scores in 8th grade math, you have about the same chance of getting a bachelors degree (1 in 3). This is actually a pretty good chance, but high scores are rarer and rarer the poorer you get.
Now, back to me: I think I’m smart. On most standardized tests I always come out in the top 5% at least. I do really well on tests that measure problem solving, abstract thinking, creativity, logic, etc. I liked being smart. I took comfort in knowing that smart kids would one day rule the world.
I was in the low income bracket most of my life. My parents never saved for college for me. My parents are in their 50′s and still don’t own a home. I was raised with enough sense to know that I should not expect money in a situation like this.
I find it so silly that I tried to hide my poorness so desperately in high school. I remember coming back from Mock Trial and making the driver drop me off a couple streets away so they didn’t see that I lived in a rented condo. I tried so hard to pretend I was just like everyone else. (The truth is there were other kids in my school that were poor, they just hid it as well) In high school I had already realized the reality of the chart above, and I had given up. It was a stupid thing to do. I came up with excuses why I was “choosing” not to go to college when I wanted to go so badly. I just knew I couldn’t.
So where am I know? I can’t dwell on the past and I actually dislike bringing it up. But it’s important for me to look over that and see my mistakes. My circumstances influenced me a lot, and nobody ever showed me how to apply for college, but my negativity was inexcusable. That brings us to today.
What do poor kids need in this world to survive and succeed and surpass their parents income? Education – true education. College degrees are useful for getting jobs, but education is a priceless commodity. The way to bring education to low income kids is through technology. These kids, they will never have teachers of high enough quality or class sizes small enough that they can have a Socratic learning environment. No matter how much we picket and petition, public schools will NEVER match private and prep schools, because of the simple fact of class sizes, teacher motivation (they get paid better, they teach better – at least that’s my theory). The only way we can match them is to change the game around. A low income child may not get a teacher’s singular attention, but they will get Penny the Pen’s attention. Interactive game-like lessons that are the future in my opinion. Because computers are patient, and lessons will have a Pavlovian effect, the amount of information a child can learn rises exponentially. After all, children are just really super smart sponge-brain dogs. Kids can learn second languages in elementary school – heck, they can learn programming. Vocabularies could increase tenfold. They could learn finance and business skills. Just make learning into a game, because guess what, no matter how terrible and annoying and boring teachers are, REAL learning, has ALWAYS been fun for me! And every kid deserves that!
If you give a kid a book with fun math puzzles – he’ll learn some math and be interested. If you give a kid a computer with terabytes worth of information in a game-like setting, well, he’ll outpace almost all his classmates in one afternoon.
And guess what – this low income kid might still not get to go to college, but he’ll be smart, multi-lingual, and he will also be business savvy. This is the boss of the next century.
When Californians are asked by a human pollster their opinion on prop 19, more than half say they are against it. When asked by a robot, Prop 19 passes with a 13% margin.
is discussing. 
jrd894 is discussing. 
5:41 pm on June 25, 2010 updated via mobile phone. 
Seb is discussing. 
You’ve pretty much guaranteed the world is going to end in 2012.
Anonymous 1:57 pm on July 21, 2010 Permalink
yeah fuck language nazis much like language communists