General Music Chat

If I ran this country, it'd be booze & puffs for all, I'd build a big wall around us and tell everybody to leave us the fu<k alone, were having a 100 year party!

YARRR!

i dont believe anarchy works so i go for the next best thing, tribal.
if there was a real tribal governement around still i would join and renounce my us citizenship in a heart beat

Mary, I like the way you think. Are you sure you live in California?
I also like the way the word [i]pain[/i] remains red in the quote.

He He Heeeee

I assure you, I ain't from the Republic of California.

Mary, I like the way you think. Are you sure you live in California?
I also like the way the word [i]pain[/i] remains red in the quote.

He He Heeeee

No pain, no gain. Giving our children everything they want whenever they want it doesn't prepare them for real life. Also eliminating physical education and music makes them fat and lazy and it's been proven that music education raises children's abilities in math and science. I say make them sweat their asses off three or four times a week and learn how to read and write music at an early age.

Mary, I like the way you think. Are you sure you live in California?
I also like the way the word [i]pain[/i] remains red in the quote.

He He Heeeee

No pain, no gain. Giving our children everything they want whenever they want it doesn't prepare them for real life. Also eliminating physical education and music makes them fat and lazy and it's been proven that music education raises children's abilities in math and science. I say make them sweat their asses off three or four times a week and learn how to read and write music at an early age.

Now, this is what I'm talkin about. Education is not teaching anymore. It is coddling these kids which are supposed to be the leaders of tomorrow. I am finding that kids these days especially here in Southern CA, live in bubbles. They walk, talk, fart etc with their eyes closed. Then when I talk to their parents I discover why these kids are this way. Kids are lethargic and...I will say it...fat. I can't believe that when they are told to write their names they write Tim or Lance or Christopher. Don't they know their freakin' last names? At the same time budget cuts are made everywhere. I can't imagine what classroom sizes are going to be like. What is wrong with this picture is the resistance to include homeschooling in this picture. Homeschooling could help eleviate congestion in the classroom. I even discussed this with my son's 5th grade teacher who shares my ideals.

When was the last time you checked out at the grocery store or Target and had a cashier who could count back change? We live in an information-first society where, learning is actually secondary. Knowledge and wisdom are words that are tacked up on walls so that teachers no longer have to teach these.

Music should be a must. Many think of it as artistic fluff. But, as we have heard, our artistic/creative side is on one side of the brain and the analytical side is on the other side of brain. BUT, those who study music uses both sides of the brain no matter which form of music or the depth of that study.

To partially tie this all together Einstein did spend a portion of his life as a homeschooler and he had the ability to become a professional violinist. However, we all know that he chose science as his profession. I homeschooled my son and I found that I learned so much from doing that. I learned this from homeschooling my son.

http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2008/12/e ... ould_h.php

Schools - why have schools been mentioned so little in this thread? Your kids' education is the number one most important thing in their lives, and the current government run education system is doing an absolutely horrible job of it. The number one reason is there's no competition.

WHen I went to public school in the 80's, I remember our public schools and colleges were among the best in the world.. what changed? Well... they had competition, being private and catholic (or other religious) schools. What we lost over the course of the last 18 years is simple: funding. The federal government used to pay the majority of costs, and over the years that has lessened... to the point where "no child left behind" became the "unreasonably low government aid, especially if your students do poorly" act.

Communities by themselves CAN'T afford a crappy education, much less a decent one. The feds have bailed on education, and where does all that money they aren't giving the schools going to? ---> the pentagon. War. Gets more Tax $$ than ANY other government spending. It's sickening.

Industry has a stranglehold on our government.

Even the prison system has been corpratized - we've more than DOUBLED the percentage of citizens that are currently incarcerated in the last 25 years, and have the HIGHEST percentage of incarcerated citizens of ALL industrialized nations in the world. Prisoners are considered "units" and X amount of UNITS multiplied by Y (days) = Z profits.

Who do you think is lobbying congress for "mandatory minimum sentencing"??? Why do you think people are doing hard, and long, sentences for smoking pot? They are criminializing us all. Soon enough, it will be illegal to blow your nose in a "germ-free" zone.. and of course it will be a mandatory minimum sentence.....

The industrial war complex gets their $$
The prision complex gets their $$
Even the $3bil "big 3" tuna industry owns most of the top ranks at the FDA.

Let's face it, EVERY politician is totally owned. Except maybe, just maybe, Ron Paul, but they marginalized his ass pretty quick, didn't they?

Humm, I wonder if the local school super, whom does not, nor has ever taught, and takes home 200k of that government money has any part of that fault.
The system is as corrupt at home, the state, and the national level.
It cannot continue to function as is.
Our local school has grown fat. Huge buildings built new, that get little use.
An indoor football practice field? Really?
What a waste. I am sure the companies whom built this payed illegal tribute to the elected officials.
Thats just the way it works here.
Local govenment is corruption.

I said I'd come back to this thread...

Two things I'd do if I "ran the country" (which, as originally noted, is different from being president).

First thing, to stick with the education theme - I'd totally revamp the way we do education.

I noticed a stark contrast in the way I was taught from high school to college. What I noticed most is that in college *I* got to choose my destiny. I got to take the classes I was interested in. I found that to be a profound and important change in my educational process.

I also found that that I - like most students - learned, absorbed and retained information a lot better in a setting that wasn't lecture-oriented. Interaction and actually *doing* something was critical to the learning process. Just hearing someone talk about something wasn't enough.

I saw a Star Trek NG episode a long time ago with some young kids in it and they were essentially doing what they were born to do in school. At a young age the Enterprise teaching staff had identified a child's aptitude and had guided them toward a customized curriculum and focused on that one thing.

I think this is the way to teach our kids: figure out what they're good at early, and customize their learning so they can excel and make a place for themselves in this world.

Because lets face it - kids struggle in school when they're not interested in what they're learning. They get bored; they become detached and they drift into trouble...

It's not necessarily the smartest kids that get the good grades - it's the kids who have the genetic predisposition to slog through their classes, do what they're told, and systematically do their homework that get the good grades. I think we've all known people in our lives we consider "book smart" - they can read a book and listen to a lecture and take a test and get an "A", but that doesn't mean they're "smart". As a species, that's not how we measure intelligence anyway.

I think about how different college was for me, and how much I enjoyed the idea of focusing on what I felt I was good at. It made all the difference in the world to me - I focused on my classes more and paid better attention because I was actually interested in what what going on! Granted - some prerequisite classes were still boring and I had a hard time with them - but when we got to the good stuff, I was all over it.

I know it would be really hard to implement that style of teaching from middle school onward, but I really think the answer to educating our children is to actually get them excited about learning. And the only way to do that is figure out what excites them in the first place.

I've got a nephew who is hitting high school now. Relatives tell me the kid has no drive - he's not interested in anything really. And I wonder to myself, has anyone ever actually taken the time to figure out what he might be interested in? Has anyone actually exposed him to anything before?

As an example: I was originally an Electrical Engineering major because when I got out of the military my experience working on nuclear missiles made that a good fit. And it was during my first year as an undergraduate that I had to take a prerequisite class on computer programming - entry level stuff. I had never really been exposed to programming before, but that class (even with a foreign professor who spoke very little English) hooked me right away. I learned in the first few weeks of that class that I was both GOOD at programming and understood the concepts way faster than the other students, but I also ENJOYED the heck out of it! If I had not been an EE major I probably would have never been EXPOSED to that particular discipline. I switched my major to Computer Science the next year and the rest is history.

I think it's key to expose children - starting as young as possible - to the real jobs of the world. Not just abstract concepts, but real jobs, so they can see what's out there and what they might be interested in doing. Because if you can find the hook into a kid and figure out what he or she is interested in, you have a real chance to teach them.



Second thing I'd do: revamp the way we think about health care as a country.

I am a problem solver by nature. This has been revealed in a number of ways in my life, through various tests and such. And what I've learned as a problem solver is that I don't like band-aids. I prefer to get to the root problem and fix that, because then the symptoms go away entirely.

Why do we have to worry about health care so much? Well, there are a lot of reasons - poverty being one (and one I won't address here). But another crucial reason - and one we have more control over than we think - is healthy living.

I'm a six-foot tall guy and I currently weigh 250 lbs. That's about 60 lbs too many. I am contributing to the strain on America's health care system. If I stay this way I'll likely die of a heart attack, but before that time comes I'll make my mark on the health care system through countless pills, prescriptions, doctor's visits and all sorts of other health care related things.

I think one thing we could do is start doling out incentives and dealing out punishments for people who are overweight and generally unhealthy. I mean, right now my only incentive to lose weight is not to kill myself in the long run, but that's the sort of thought that doesn't hold sway over your brain when you're staring at a big old fat pizza. But what if I had to pay more taxes due to my obesity? What if I could pay less - or even get more back - if I were thin? And a healthy thin - not that Lohan thin.

I don't know exactly how you create incentives for a healthy lifestyle. I know that my drummer said to me last week - you've basically got to hate yourself enough to make it happen. But I wonder if there aren't other ways. I mean, it's so hard to go on a proper diet - not a diet really - but to change your lifestyle and learn to eat better and smaller portions, and to exercise.

What if we started treating obesity like we do drug addiction? What if the government start sponsoring "Biggest Loser". What if you could leave your job for 12 weeks on FMLA and go to a "fat camp" and learn to eat better and exercise and drop a load of weight, and know that then you were done with the process you'd be able to return to your job? Wouldn't that be awesome? How many more healthy people could we create if we did that?

How many more healthy people could we create if we gave out tax breaks, tax credits and tax initiatives for being healthy? What would corporations do if they could get the same sort of tax breaks and incentives if their employees were healthy? How differently would corporations and business behave if they knew their tax dollars were tied to healthy employees? What kinds of programs could we have if corporations had a stake in having healthy employees? And if they would be punished for having unhealthy employees and not fostering a healthy environment to work in?

I think health is a problem that affects everyone and everyone is responsible. From the smallest (or fattest) guy on his own to the giant corporation on Wall street. Everyone is accountable. I don't mean just on obesity - stress and high blood pressure to. Being a thin guy on Wall St. and being stressed out into an early heart attack and 45 isn't helping matters either. We have to think about health all the way around.

I think if you could start at the root cause of the problem - unhealthy citizens - and work from there, you'd take a lot of strain off the health care system as it is. And maybe, just maybe, it could be affordable to everyone then.

And imagine the benefits of a healthy nation? What if we were a nation of healthy workers? Can you imagine how much more work we could get done? How many more great ideas we could think of and implement if we had a healthy work force?

It's amazing, when you think about it, to realize just what an impact our overall health has on everything we do...

Wow, what a post. You may have set a record.
I am 5' 8" 170lbs of twisted steel.
All I fear is rust. (and playing out of key)

Maybe a tax break for becoming more healthy, but an extra tax for being fat is taking away a persons freedom, and, Colorsfade, you know how you don't like doing that.

By the way, I'm 5' 11" and two weeks ago I went on a low carb diet. I started out at 275 and now I'm at 260. But now it's going to slow down since the initial loss is always quick.

Maybe a tax break for becoming more healthy, but an extra tax for being fat is taking away a persons freedom, and, Colorsfade, you know how you don't like doing that.

Yeah, I don't like to take away personal freedom. But when do you balance that against the good of the many?

Look at speed limits. They take away a personal freedom to drive fast, but in return they make the roads overall safer.

Also - you can have a beer (if you're of age) and you can drive, but you can't do both at the same time. That's a personal freedom we took away to make driving safer.

We tax cigarette smokers into oblivion. It's a personal freedom for them to kill themselves, but we tax 'em anyway.

I know this much - I would be more moved by the thought of a tax on my fatness than by the thought of a bigger return. Losing money hurts more than getting extra feels good.

But on the whole - I would much rather use incentives. I'd rather people had a chance to go away for a couple months to a fat camp - one that was paid for by their employer or the government or some combination - and actually take care of the problem the RIGHT way.

Learning how to be fit is a lifestyle change. Diets don't work; they're temporary by nature. It's a total lifestyle change - eat healthy, eat smaller portions and exercise. And it's actually really hard to tackle all of that at one time and maintain a day job, a night job and a family. It's just overwhelming. It's the kind of thing that really requires all of a person's focus. Much like drug addiction.

Schools - why have schools been mentioned so little in this thread? Your kids' education is the number one most important thing in their lives, and the current government run education system is doing an absolutely horrible job of it. The number one reason is there's no competition.

WHen I went to public school in the 80's, I remember our public schools and colleges were among the best in the world.. what changed? Well... they had competition, being private and catholic (or other religious) schools. What we lost over the course of the last 18 years is simple: funding. The federal government used to pay the majority of costs, and over the years that has lessened... to the point where "no child left behind" became the "unreasonably low government aid, especially if your students do poorly" act.

competition? You're taxed for the public schools regardless of whether you have kids in that school or not. I have 3 kids - all privately schooled - 2 now in college. I still have to pay huge taxes on my property (per square foot) to fund public schools!

Additionally - Average class sizes are between 22 and 30 students per teacher, regardless of the 20:1 rule that was passed back around '94. Average class expenditures are between 8 and 12K per student. That's 200-300K per class room.

Doing the math, at 5 text books per student ($100/text book), you could pay 15K for those books and still have over 200K left to pay a teacher salary, pencils and candy for the kids.

Give ME that money and I'll teach your class - and I'll do it well.

^.^

Government institutions are wasteful by definition. When you're in the system, you're a number, not a human being. At least in the private sector, there's incentive to make you happy.

With the government (think DMV), you have no choice - no alternative - no tailored programs - just the template curriculum passed by legislators who are paying back special interest groups for their support in the last election cycle. It's nuts.

well regarding taxes-

You CANT tax people for being fat, but you can offer them perks for beign fit

Property taxes should be outlawed, period. Nobody should ever have to face losing their home that they built or paid for because they retired, and can no longer afford to pay taxes to KEEP their home/land. WTF?

And yes, Sans, local, county, and state governments are possibly even more corrupt than the fed...

Here's the kicker, we DID vote out in both 2006 and 2008 elections the apparent scum within all those ranks. The serpents head grew right back without hesitation. The problem is the low- level vetting process. Around here, you can't even get into the nominiation process without proving that you "play ball"... a friend of mine tried to run for mayor, got teh petition and signatures, but he wasn't part of the 'club' and didn't get the nod from the dems or reps, so they immediately challenged his sigs in court... turns out that PROVING sigs takes longer than getting them did, and to get that challenge two weeks before the primary.. well it's pretty much a guaranteed fail, and a great fail-safe for teh dems and reps that keep that system fully corrupted.

There is no win until the common people march down to DC and physically replace the existing government. Voting doesn't work anymore.

By the way, I'm 5' 11" and two weeks ago I went on a low carb diet. I started out at 275 and now I'm at 260. But now it's going to slow down since the initial loss is always quick.

Ratsass, I have been doing low carb for 7 years. It is a lifestyle change...a healthy one.If you work the diet, it will work for you. I got your back, my man. If you have any wuestions need any help...you got it.