Protect Your Kids with Trimz!
Cory Doctorow has a thing for Disneyania, and this one is pretty fun (in a scary kind of way): Disney-logoed DDT-impregnated wallpaper for the kids’ room (1947).
In light of the recent Supreme Court decision overturning legal limits on corporate free speech in the political arena, I thought this was a nice reminder of what you get when companies are free to say whatever they want.
Hey; it’s certified to be absolutely safe for home use. C’mon.
(Actually, the comments on the item at Boing Boing are pretty interesting. It’s still scary, but like most scary things, the underlying reality is more complicated when you look at it up close.)
January 25th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
You guys crack me up!
January 26th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Wow. 20:11 minute mark especially. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viUokrVXwPg&feature=player_embedded
January 27th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
Enforced ignorance? Who’s teaching these kids? Liberal, Democrat union members. In the mid ‘90s I worked my ass off to get our charter schools in Colorado to get 95% of the funding that regular schools get, up from 80%. In that 80% we had to pay for our own school to the tune of a half million a year… for a condemned school… owned by the school district. We had to pay a private contractor $5,000 a year for snow removal even though we were paying the school district more money to plow the parking lots, they would show up five days after the snow. They did everything they could do to make our lives miserable. They spied on us via our computers. When we put a firewall in they threatened lawsuits. Roy Romer personally promised my lobbyist he would sign the bill if we could get it through the house and senate. As his last act as governor at 11:00 on the last night the son of a bitch vetoed it. And then got a job as superintendant of the LA school district, a direct payback from the teacher’s union. Before Moore complains about our education system he better look in the mirror, and have his liberal union buddies with him.
January 28th, 2010 at 8:30 am
“enforced ignorance”
That pretty much sums up your worldview wwnj. Funny.
January 28th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
I don’t know why you would say that? I was repeating Moore, he made the stupid comment. He’s complaining that the US has an education system where the kids can’t read, rite or do rithmatic. So what does he want to do? Liberals have been teaching those kids for the last 2 generations! Everything he stands for is the reason we have “forced ignorance”. We have kids that fail tests because we have teachers that don’t want the kids tested on the 3 r’s, they want them to be better people, politically correct people, we don’t keep score because it is bad for the self esteem, and then they bitch when the score is too low. When a group of parents bands together to try something better they circle the wagons to stop any possible progress. Stupid, stupid liberals. Grrrrr.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Funny indeed. It’s been a couple days since I watched the interview, but I thought the 20:11 minute mark I highlighted was primarily a discussion of the SCJ Roberts decision opening the floodgates on corporate spending on elections. Sure, the ignorance of Americans – as evidenced by test scores – adds to the point by suggesting how easily manipulated the American people can be now, but it’s not the real topic, shcb seems to have missed the point. The point is that democracy seems to be lost now that money rules without any pretenses.
But if shcb wants to make Foxnewsworthy complaints about US education being too “liberal”, he’ll first have to explain why US education results are so much worse than the education systems in other, far more liberal countries.
http://www.all4ed.org/files/IntlComp_FactSheet.pdf
and scroll down for the key findings in the executive summary: http://www.oecd.org/document/2/0,3343,en_32252351_32236191_39718850_1_1_1_1,00.html
Finland, Germany, Switzerland, and other liberal counties do well, the relatively more conservative America does not. Sad that the USA doesn’t even warrant a mention on the executive summary of knowledge scores; my that sounds quite ignorant. Perhaps the Kansas school boards can recommend even more conservative ejukashuns?
January 29th, 2010 at 3:12 am
because they still teach the 3 r’s, at least that is what my Dutch friends tell me. It may not be a “liberal” problem but more a “liberal American” problem.
January 29th, 2010 at 3:25 am
We’ll see what happens in Douglas county. The Douglas county school board here in Colorado was “taken over” by conservatives last month. There were 4 seats open for election, 4 conservative candidates ran as a block, they didn’t criticize each other, they ran as a unit, and they won. So in one fell swoop they now have a 4-3 majority. It is unheard of for a school board to be conservative. The way voting is done teachers pretty much vote in the next school board which are usually old teachers, it gets incestuous real quick. The first order of business will be to remove the seniority/education pay matrix and replace it with a merit based system. It will be interesting to see how far they get.
As far as the “Roberts decision” (don’t know where the other 8 went) that was a good decision that has been a long time coming, It’s my money, I should be able to do with it as I wish. I sound like a libertarian now.
January 29th, 2010 at 7:14 am
Liberal blah blah blah. Liberals blah blah blah.
So what do you make of knarly’s point? Using your terminology, socialist countries’ education systems are far superior, their health care systems are far superior and their more healthy and happier. Come on, I know you can whip up some crazy Rush Limbaugh type answer that’ll make me laugh.
Maybe if people didn’t have a gun in one hand and a bible in the other they’d have room to pick up a science book or two.
Liberal blah blah blah.
January 29th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Are you really trying to claim that the three r’s* are not taught in American schools?
“it’s my money I should be able to do with it what I wish” Settle down now widdle wwnj, you can’t have everything you want. After all, your white wing guardians won’t let you spend your allowance on Cuban cigars, you need to follow the rules about what medicine you can buy, & don’t you dare give any of your money to your grandmother who needs an operation if her husband is in any way linked to Hamas or else you’ll be given a very long time-out
* Ah, yes, conservatives and their blathering on about “the three R’s” – a term mostly used by wrong wing nut job “morans” in a misguided reference to thier education system (i.e. many of them don’t even realize reading, writing & arithmetic are actually 1 R, one W and an A, thus it is a profoundly ironic statement about their own lack of education/awareness) and most are completely ignorant that ancient education systems focused around the trivium (grammar, logic and rhetoric) produces good results and has been the educational basis for the greatest minds in history.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:20 am
NL,
You forgot “Unions blah blah blah”.
“Everything that is wrong with the world is the fault of der Jude…uhh…mud hu…umm…Liberals, yeah, that’s the ticket.”
January 30th, 2010 at 6:18 am
NL,
We’ve been through this before, the reason all these socialist countries work is because the utilized the greatness of the US for innovation and protection, if we lose that they lose as well. As far as the education system goes, it seems to me that the European schools, at least the schools in Holland, based on the testimony of a sample size of one, is that they teach the basics more there than the politically correct crap we teach here. So in essence, even though overall they are a more liberal society, they have a more conservative approach to education. Is that clear enough?
January 30th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
What, that you’d have such strong convictions based on a sample size of one? I guess that explains a lot about you.
January 31st, 2010 at 5:51 am
he’s pretty reliable.
January 31st, 2010 at 5:56 am
He must be on AM radio.
January 31st, 2010 at 8:10 am
:-) no, just a good friend, quite liberal that grew up in Holland, moved here, moved back to Holland, realized he liked America better and then moved back to Colorado.
When he moved back he said he hated it over there because socialism has sucked the life out of people. But he is in favor of nearly every policy that will make us like them, odd.