Gun debate critic

School starts Monday, we had the introduction /slash/ first chance to pick up books and rosters today, as well as a speech about the introduction of educational credits ... learning credits they're called.

If you're just in it for the guns -what the hell are you doing *here*- you might want to skip todays post. I think education is a great way to further society, so it concerns me, and what I've learned today is upsetting.

So the fedgov is trying to get more bang for their buck when pumping money in the higher education system. They want people to get into school, enjoy a subsidized education under high speed low drag conditions before hopping into the job market without looking back and becoming yet another high earning taxpayer, paying enough taxes to continue to support subsidized education, the boomers retirement, healthcare for the masses and welfare for the unfortunate.

Starting this year, each student who enrolls in one of Belgiums many fine colleges or universities will be allotted 140 "learning credits" (LC). Enrollment in a course requires a certain amount of LC's. For example, my course in chemistry would have cost me 6 points, which are refunded if you pass the course. The first 60 points you earn back are doubled, so you can end with 200 points max if you successfully complete a 60 point program.

Of course, if you fail, nothing gets refunded, and you just lost your learning credit rating. This is intended to prevent people from enrolling in a class without the sincere intention of seeing ot to the end.
Also, when you succesfully complete a masters education, you LOSE 140 points, just like that! In an effort to force academics out of the academy, the government will now cripple their credit rating.

If you do not have the adequate amount of points to enroll in a course, you'll be required to pay a higher enrollment fee. The government doesn't subsidize any courses you can't put on your own credit, but they also prohibit colleges and universities from asking more than twice the enrollmetn fee, even though the real cost of a course can be five times the subsidised rate! This will result in institutions refusing applicants.

Now, I'm going to my senior year, and everybody who's already enrolled is also just given 140 points, so this doesn't really apply to me ... thank god. I bended around the university for a year you know ... touristing is what they call it. While I did earn multiple academic credits, I didn't take the thing serious. I learned a LOT, I enjoyed myself and I grew as a person, I could! Education was not expensive, I had my parents to provide me with a home and food and clothes and whatnot ... I did fine, and now I'm doing GREAT in a collega that I *am* taking serious.

So when we were geting this explaination about the new situation, I turned to a university buddy of mine (yes, plenty of folk from the university ended up in the same college as me) and said: thank god they're only doing this now. Everybody else next to me agreed.
Said buddy tried and failed his freshman year in the university twice. Not for a lack of dedication or intelligence, it just took him that long to figure out that that wasn't what was right for him, he blazed through this colleges courses at the same speed as me.

Under the current system, he would have been out over a hundred points, I would be at 90-something. He might not be here, and I wouldn't be nearly as confortable.
Don't tell me it's a hard life and school is about work ok! If there's ever going to be any time for me to relax and enjoy life, it's now, and my parents live in a country with a 45% tax pressure rate to make that possible!

Yeh, that's the price you pay for socialized healthcare, subsidized education and whatnot, 45% of what you "earn". That's what I'm looking at for roughly fifty years, so don't tell me I can't take these years of MY life to myself.

I believe this new policy will turn some people away from higher education, it will degrade the academic level of my home country and all I can do is sit here, rant about it and think to myself: thank god I already had my year of fun ... sometimes I disgust myself.

It's two AM, the fear is gone.(*)

The fear is gone entirely, I passed every single subect, not just all courses and clusters, but every single subject!
I got a 10 out of 20 for one subject, and two elevens; but I'm out there, out with the select few who will be at leisure throughout the summer before entering their senior year as students of process operations.

I even managed to score good enough for industrial fractioning to raise my grade from 10/20 to 14/20, my teacher personally commended me on the feat.

By Belgian standards, I'm slightly inebriated at moment, so by Yank standards, I probably shouldn't even be alive, but I'm going strong! I deserved a vacation and I'm enjoying it.
All potentially dangerous objects out of reach, I'm enjoying meself like there's no tomorrow, knowing perfectlyy well there won't just be a tomorrow, there'll be a day after that, a day after that day, and a busstrip to my festival of choice for this year after that ...

My blogging might not be consistent untill tuesday next week. Should said case present itself, cheer for me!

(*)

Once again, students are being punished for hugging one another.
What happened to "hugs, not drugs"?

Why I use the words "once again" you wonder? (and if didn't, now you sure do), I've written about this topic twice before!
First time
Second time.

Let this be the last time.

In a life-imitating-art string of events, an 11 y/o boy find himself in a tight spot, getting suspended for quoting lines from the show "south park". Title is strickly for giggles, I do not know exactly what he said. It is a song from the latest south park episode however, I believe it is plausible to think this is something three girls might take offence to.

The "life imitating art" remark goes out -could it be anything else- south park episode 306, where sexual harassement panda speaks out against sexual comments on school grounds, which results in a string of lawsuits.

If you'd like to see these episodes, head on over to south park studios to watch any episode you want for free, legally to the best of my knowledge.

What bothered me ever so slightly was the PSH attitude of one of the moms.

• "I want to know specifically what will be done to ensure that my daughter is not exposed to further harm by this boy."

Why just by the boy? What about the news? The internet? Books? Music? All of them are riddeled with material that might be harmfull to your kid, what should the world do to prevent these things from harming your child?

Might I suggest a snifter of reality and 50 mg of a sense of humour after breakfast? Congratulations, you've just found out that the world isn't the exact place you want it to be. Don't like it? Tough luck! The world isn't just not perfect and not fair, chances are, the world will not be something you like in its entirety!
What's the biggest wrong? People demanding that said world around them changes to fit their wills and desires. That applies to guns as much as education and anything else! Works both ways too!

Can you imagine how haywire they would have gone if the kid had sung this song*?


*caution, contains language of sexually explicit nature that may be offensive to those easely shocked or religious. Should not be listened to by anybody.

So I watched "the island" yesterday, pretty good cyberpunk if you ask me, but passing that:
They didn't want their sheep (agnates, agnus: lat: lamb) hugging or getting physically close to eachother to make it easier to control them. Keeping them apathic untill the day they are led to the slaughter so to speak.

Today's society is evolving towards that premise in some places today even, Alice Cooper made a song about it back in 2000, "cold machines" from the "brutal planet" album. I like to believe that he's talking about the emotional element of people when he sais "no-one here gets out alive", as the place he's at turns lovers into cold machines, numbing their senses and killing them on the inside.

Eight year old shock rock has now become policy in an american institution, as a school in Mesa Arizona bans hugs that last more than two seconds.
This is the place you send your children to to become healthy adult beings, but it would appear that said school considers showing affection to be ... unhealthy? In bad taste? Unproductive?
Instead of showing affection, are children to become mechanical instruments that carry out assignments with question?

Having children raised by the TV is razing their future, as is wanting them to become apathic machines. It is vital to instill kindness into our children if we want them to turn out right. If anything, the present day should serve us as a warning of what can go wrong when children aren't brought up properly.
If you can stomach the heavier trash metal, Annihilators "plasma zombies" has a great message on the subject of letting electronical entertainment take over the role of parenting. (lyrics)

Scrat, now I need a hug ...

It would appear that a ring of burglars was in fact using school as an alibi when they went of robbing. They would "clock in" so to say in the morning during first period, then go out invading people homes, and then come back for last period to submit their names on the attendancy list.

This effectively allowed them to burglarise houses, yet prove that they were at school when those burglaries took place.

If we ever wish to tackle juvinile crime and gang activity, it is vital that we give our children an education and a future. Events like this are despicable in several ways. first of all, this school is clearly failing to keep around, let alone give them an education, if they can't even account for missing students.

After lunchroom employees found $180 unaccounted for, they strip searched a pair of minor kids (13) in the middle of said lunchroom. The missing money was later found to have been in it's place all along.
These are police state tactics in a place that should be safe for you children, a horrible invasion in both the privacy and integrity of children by people who are in no way authorized or qualified for it.
Heck, they were incompetent at the job they *were* supposed to be doing in the first place.

Then you've all heard about this on other blogs:
A school indoctrinating children with communism using legos.


And don't even get me started on the ideas that some schools and programs teach children about guns, drugs and sexuality ...

Make sure you talk to your children and teach them what's right, before they're all grown up.

In suit of the shooting of two teenagers, Nottingham streets will (once again) be patrolled by officers armed with firearms.
Brought to you by the same people who proclaim that guns don't keep you safe, and carrying a knife for self defence is perverse.

Meanwhile, another teenager has been killed, another one was beaten to death, AND an older man.
All of this coinciding with the government gussying up the prison system and closing down schools.

Freedom is captivity, ignorance is wisdom, safety is peril