Jim

Nail -- head.

I think the contrast is that rather than spend time boasting on a blog (sharing experiences ) I merely spend the time here continually pointing out the inadequacies of your arguments.

Can't wait to read another look-at-me blog

Folks have asked me when I've travelled for months to South America if I'm worried about my safety. Hell, I'm more worried about random gun violence or some nut who takes exception on how I drive or bike and needs to shore up his manhood via a large caliber handgun.

Hey - you asked me for a citation of the stats I quoted - and I obliged. I'm ok with hand-waving and day dreams. But that doesn't cut it as evidence. I'm kinda fact-based.

Sure - give me a source of a scientific study that compares the culture of violence in the US vs Europe say, and concludes in a peer reviewed journal that the source of our much higher firearm deaths is related to this difference in "culture". We have not much difference in mental illness, depression, drug and alcohol use -- but what is very, very different from other first world countries is we are awash in guns. Yea, we have a different culture alright - anyone for whatever reason can get a gun. So by this proposed standard if we had the same proportion of guns that say, the U.K. has, our murder and suicide rate would be the same? Yea, right.

I haven't seen any data to suggest this. Europe has it's own collection of basement dwellers mesmerized by Call of Duty or whatever. The difference is that those that feel slighted in our culture have easy access to guns.

Yes, the statistics include suicide - which historically range from 55%-60% of the total firearms deaths per year. I don't see why these should be excluded. Often times suicide is a long term solution to a short term problem and the availability of a gun makes the otherwise difficult decision easier and permanent. If you look at England, in the early 1900's suicide by using gas oven was a preferred choice. Once these were made safer there was not a compensatory mechanism and the suicide rate dropped. Similarly we have made great strides in reducing vehicle fatality by 90% since the 1960's. Why not for reducing this crazy gun system? As far as cop shootings - I could not find (or don't have the time to dig) the specifics, but likely they are included and average 900-1,000 a year. Interestingly, the number of toddlers killed by guns exceed the number of cops killed by guns in the U.S. Charming.

Firearms vs Vehicles CDC Summary

Back to a random comment: It's notable that in 2015 we are likely to see deaths by firearms surpass death by vehicle for the first time. So that is roughly 34,000 folks a year. You could argue, I suppose, that as a society we have made a decision to put up with that number of highway deaths to enhance a convenience - which is true and an ethical decision. We get transportation, commerce, yadda, yadda, for the tradeoff of 34k deaths a year. Though safety standards are getting better and are mandatory. Looking at the gun issue it's not clear what are the benefits other than to be allowed to go down to the gun range or the local gravel pit and shoot at bottles, cans, and old appliances. And the restriction we have placed on gun ownership are minimal at best. Hell, the ATF has not been allowed by Congress to digitize their ownership files so they still work in paper - which is a yardstick of the sway of the NRA. I tend to think that if we had the equivalent of a 747 smashing into a building every month of the year that we would figure out a solution to such unwarranted death. While I disagree with the Tvash often, I'd say he's correct on this one - we can find away out of this awful trend if we want to.

We don't have any higher percent of wackos, or almost-wackos than the rest of the world. The clear difference is that ours have easy access to firearms.

Grim. Just plain grim. Leave some plastic flowers, say a prayer, change the channel. Move on.

I did enjoy the Kabuki Theater that is the Trump show last night on 60 minutes -- the answer for most questions on how he would pay for his proposals was -- we'll have such an economic surge it will pay for everything! And he's going to build a "beautiful" wall across the Mexican border. ...and that Congress and Putin will listen to him because he they will respect him. Ho boy.

You have got to be kidding, right? W had a C average, and had nothing distinguishing about his career. Ben Carson, to recap... Carson was a professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics, and he was the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.[15] At 33, he became the youngest major division director in the hospital's history as director of pediatric neurosurgery. He was also a co-director of the Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center. Carson specialized in traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, achondroplasia, neurological and congenital disorders, craniosynostosis, epilepsy, and trigeminal neuralgia.[15] Your comment makes you look more like W than Ben Carson, Jim. Just sayin'. Who gives a flying fuck about his past. He publicly endorsed fringe lunacy theory, and denied science, just to cater to people who choose to believe the Earth is 6000 years old. That shows a complete lack of integrity. The GOP has created this bat-shit crazy moron show - a moronic version of the running of the bulls. Yea, free speech. Except sometimes you lay too good a foundation...... Wacko Speech

all the kewl ones are down here, so get in the scarab oct 9-12 I'm going back to tower rock and a date w/ destiny - you wanna blow yer big-wall doors off, you should come w/ - it's sorta/kinda half way between you n' me - 600 feet of strenuous jugging right off the bat, and then it gets worse While in grad school I was stupid enough to help my bat researcher friends - their motto - "if you can get your head thru it you can get your body thru it". But what if you have a fat head like me? One of the many: http://caves.org/grotto/mongrotto/hell_hole.htm

You have got to be kidding, right? W had a C average, and had nothing distinguishing about his career. Ben Carson, to recap... Carson was a professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery, and pediatrics, and he was the director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.[15] At 33, he became the youngest major division director in the hospital's history as director of pediatric neurosurgery. He was also a co-director of the Johns Hopkins Craniofacial Center. Carson specialized in traumatic brain injuries, brain and spinal cord tumors, achondroplasia, neurological and congenital disorders, craniosynostosis, epilepsy, and trigeminal neuralgia.[15] Your comment makes you look more like W than Ben Carson, Jim. Just sayin'. Like I said before. There's folks with degrees up the ying-yang. They may be intelligent, but not so bright. Carson falls into this category.

For crying out loud - The Shrub went to Yale. Using that as a yardstick..........

I need an organization chart to figure out the relationships here.

There's dumb as a stump stupid (the Shrub) and then there is intelligent but dumb F*** stupid. Exhibit 201: “A lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay.” This was his scientific evidence that being gay is a choice. “So if there were a container of contaminated urine, and somehow it managed to find its way to someplace a lot of damage could be done. Someone comes up to a lab worker. He knows he’s got the urine. ‘How would you like to have a million dollars?’ … Such things have been known to happen.” This is a doctor talking now, about ebola, and how it could be used as a chemical weapon even though every other doctor said no, that couldn’t happen. “Why did evolution divert in so many directions — birds, fish, elephants, apes, humans — if there is some force evolving to the maximum? Why isn’t everything a human — a superior human?” Brilliant! I say, just brilliant! “For most of our history, schoolchildren were taught the guiding principles of the Constitution from the earliest age, and even members of Congress with controversial civil rights histories such as the late Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia kept a copy of that great document in their jacket pocket to remind them of the responsibilities and limits of governance.” This quote belongs on this list mostly because the two heroes of the Constitution he mentioned were both KKK members who did everything in their power to subvert the Constitution and keep people like Dr. Ben Carson from having any rights. Sometimes I wonder if maybe this is guy is just suffering from Stockholm Syndrome

He's neither ignorant nor a hick. And probably has a solid 100 IQ points above yours. Well, on the GOP intellect genius scale he is pegging the meter: In a speech delivered in 2012, Ben Carson said the big bang theory was part of the “fairy tales” pushed by “high-faluting scientists” as a story of creation. Similarly, Carson, a noted creationist, said he believed the theory of evolution was encouraged by the devil. “Now what about the big bang theory,” said Carson at speech to fellow Seventh-day Adventists titled “Celebration of Creation,” about the theory for the origin of the universe. “I find the big bang, really quite fascinating. I mean, here you have all these high-faluting scientists and they’re saying it was this gigantic explosion and everything came into perfect order. Now these are the same scientists that go around touting the second law of thermodynamics, which is entropy, which says that things move toward a state of disorganization. “So now you’re gonna have this big explosion and everything becomes perfectly organized and when you ask them about it they say, ‘Well we can explain this, based on probability theory because if there’s enough big explosions, over a long period of time, billions and billions of years, one of them will be the perfect explosion,” continued Carson. “So I say what you’re telling me is if I blow a hurricane through a junkyard enough times over billions and billions of years, eventually after one of those hurricanes there will be a 747 fully loaded and ready to fly.” Carson added that he believed the big bang was “even more ridiculous” because there is order to the universe. “Well, I mean, it’s even more ridiculous than that ‘cause our solar system, not to mention the universe outside of that, is extraordinarily well organized, to the point where we can predict 70 years away when a comet is coming,” he said. “Now that type of organization to just come out of an explosion? I mean, you want to talk about fairy tales, that is amazing.” Later, Carson said he personally believed Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was encouraged by the devil. “I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary, and it has become what is scientifically, politically correct,” said Carson.

See Meru instead: Meru is playing at the Guild 45th in Seattle .......and a review of Everest

Absolutely. The old "tracking" model has been dead for some time -- for a lot of good reasons. The model now is integration, where kids spend all or some of their time in regular classes with an Instructional Aid assisting to accommodate the lesson and homework to match their ability. And then they periodically get pulled out for more small group instruction and practice. It's not my field, but I think a couple of reasons for this is to help kids learn social integration skills and get bumped up a bit by association with higher learners. And I can only speak from my limited first-hand volunteer experience and from what my science-teacher spouse tells me. But for some kids, especially the bright Ausburger kids this really helps. Other developmentally handicapped kids - they get some basic skill out of the class but it's more for socialization. And yea, it can be quite the challenge for teachers. And the "normal" kids also learn from the experience, help these kids, are often quite protective of them, and learn some important humanity lessons.

I'm having trouble with this last sentence - which is a double negative inferring that developmentally impaired kids are not in "regular" school??? Nope... they kept the special ed kids in the basement, when I was in school. Did you have "speshuls" in class when you were a kid? Then I assume you meant to put a past tense verb in the sentence -- today it's different. Which is one of the Seattle Teacher's strike issues - very underfunded student-teacher ratios for speech therapists and various special education needs.

I'm having trouble with this last sentence - which is a double negative inferring that developmentally impaired kids are not in "regular" school???

I'm just saying it is what it is. It works out great for the folks who have enough time, money, energy to put into a system and then draw off public funds. And then the "real" public schools get to deal with the real-world problems of dealing with all-comers. Ya can't fault parents wanting to have the best for their kid - it's just a shame that we don't want to put the resources where they are needed in dealing with the relevant issues. It's more of the same -- those with more time, money, education, and resources come out on top.