Monday, July 23, 2012

Odds and Ends on Monday: Genting takes a pass, Stand Your Ground empties sanity from the Florida GOP ... by gimleteye

Imagine a business where you can spend (more like, park) $500 million on real estate in downtown Miami and not expect a return on investment. It is kind of like the government. That's how rich and powerful the gambling industry is.

Now comes news that Genting's plan for a mega development at the former Miami Herald site will not materialize any time soon. The lobbyists who sucked all the oxygen out of Tallahassee (and Miami) a year ago to advance the legalized casino plan are taking a step back. 

An election year is never a good time to push hard in Florida on the casino issue. Or gun control. Or common sense.

Leonard Pitts had a great OPED in the Herald on Saturday, "Dumbing down America one child at a time". Pitts shakes his head at the disappearance of common sense in the GOP, citing the example of the Texas GOP that "... has set itself explicitly against teaching children to be critical thinkers. Never mind the creeping stupidization of this country, the growing dumbification of our children, our mounting rejection of, even contempt for, objective fact. Never mind educators who lament the inability of American children to think, to weigh conflicting paradigms, analyze competing arguments, to reason, ruminate, question and reach a thoughtful conclusion. Never mind that this promises the loss of our ability to compete in an ever more complex and technology-driven world."

With our "Stand Your Ground" law, the Florida GOP is not far behind its brothers in Texas. Never has been. This calls into focus the results of a Tampa Bay Times analysis of shootings tied to "Stand Your Ground" defense; showing that an astounding "60 percent of those who claimed self-defense had been arrested at least once before the day they killed someone. More than 30 of those defendants, about 1 in 3, had been accused of violent crimes..."

So there you have it: the Florida GOP gives a whole new meaning to criminal rights. I can hear the hemming and hawing, but my friends in the GOP: you can't pin this one on a liberal conspiracy. No, sirree, Republicans did this one all by themselves. Vote Republican and vote for the rights of criminals. (click 'read more', for the Pitts OPED)


http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/21/2904889/dumbing-down-america-one-child.html
MIAMI HERALD
Sat, Jul. 21, 2012
Dumbing down America one child at a time
Leonard Pitts Jr.
lpitts@MiamiHerald.com

Some recent headlines from the alternate universe of modern conservatism:

Rush Limbaugh claims the bad guy in the new Batman movie was named Bane to remind voters of Mitt Romney’s controversial tenure at Bain Capital.

Michelle Bachmann, citing zero credible evidence, accuses a Muslim American aide to Secretary of State Clinton of conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio’s crack investigators announce that President Obama’s long form birth certificate is a fake.

In other words, it’s just an average week down there in Crazy Town. And that lends a certain context to a tidbit brought to national attention last week by Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. Meaning a plank from the 2012 platform of the Republican Party of Texas which, astonishingly enough, reads as follows:

“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”

Holy wow. That is, without a doubt, the most frightening sentence this side of a Stephen King novel.

The Texas GOP has set itself explicitly against teaching children to be critical thinkers. Never mind the creeping stupidization of this country, the growing dumbification of our children, our mounting rejection of, even contempt for, objective fact. Never mind educators who lament the inability of American children to think, to weigh conflicting paradigms, analyze competing arguments, to reason, ruminate, question and reach a thoughtful conclusion. Never mind that this promises the loss of our ability to compete in an ever more complex and technology-driven world.

Never mind. The Texas branch of one of our two major political parties opposes teaching critical thinking skills or anything that might challenge a child’s “fixed beliefs.” So presumably, if a child is of the “fixed belief” that Jesus was the first president of the United States or that 2+2 = apple trees or that Florida is an island in an ocean on the moon, educators ought not correct the little genius lest she (gasp!) change her “fixed belief,” thereby undermining mom and dad.

That’s just…just…

Holy wow.

For what it’s worth, the Texas GOP says that language was not supposed to be in the platform. Spokesman Chris Elam says its inclusion “was an oversight on the subcommittee’s part.”

If that explanation leaves you cold, join the club. That such an asinine position was even under consideration is hardly comforting. And the fact that something so neon stupid escaped notice of both the subcommittee and the full platform committee suggests the Texas GOP could use a little critical thinking instruction itself.

Remember when Republicans were grown-ups? Agree with them or not, you never thought of Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, even Richard Nixon as less than serious, substantive adults, susceptible like all serious, substantive adults, to logic and reason.

The party has since devolved. A toxic stew of faith-based politics, biased “news,” and echo chamber punditry has reduced it to an anti-science, anti-reason, anti-intellect caricature of itself. Thoughtful conservatives — thoughtful Americans — ought to be alarmed.

How can you have a healthy democracy when a major party not only tolerates lunacy, but elevates it to positions of power? In what sane nation does someone like Rush Limbaugh have a mass audience, Michelle Bachmann an elected office, Joe Arpaio a badge?

Well, the Texas GOP just came out against critical thinking. That explains a lot.


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hermanos, did Genting ever miscalculate when they trotted out Arquitectonica and its ridiculous renderings for downtown Miami. Who thought THAT was a good idea should be fired. The only good point: no britto sculpture

Anonymous said...

No Child Left Behind and Stand Your Ground: companion pieces.

Anonymous said...

So what happened to not being able to legally own a firearm if you have been convicted of a felony? So were they not all convicted of the crimes? I don't understand those statistics. Crazy people will always, always, find a way to kill others. Bombs, knives, flying a plane into a building, chewing your face off, and so many more.

Anonymous said...

Colorado had good gun constraint after Columbine for all the good that did. The clip the guy used as illegal.

Black and grey markets will rise as more and more controls are put in place.Law abiding, good, sane and responsible people have never been the problem here.

I take my 2nd Amendment Rights pretty seriously.
There are loopholes that should be closed, but can we stop trying to legislate to the lowest common denominator?

Where does that stop. Do we outlaw cars because kids will steal their parent's car. How about box cutters?

You're 180 degrees wrong on this one.

Anonymous said...

Who said the shooters in the Stand your ground cases legally owned the firearm?
They may have been able to use SSYG as defense for the killing that happened. Doesn't meant that they weren't charged with anything. or that the firearm was even owned by them.

Anonymous said...

Now we are onto something. They probably did not own the gun they used, or not legally. Now, what you want to do is take the weapons from people who LEGALLY own them. There is no way to take guns from people who posses them illegally, unless you catch them with it. So how does that make sense? Now we have a much worse situation in my oppinion. Bad guys with guns, good guys with their pee-pee in there hands.

Anonymous said...

Genting has invested too much money into the Miami Herald building site to give up. I hope Genting’s chairman, KT Lim, decides to put casino gambling on the ballot in the future. Once the casino-free hotel is built and the sky doesn’t fall, then Floridians will be able to see the benefits of building a casino, namely the revenue that a casino would bring to South Florida -- revenues for improving our schools. Genting is smart to amend their plans for now so there will be room to grow.

Anonymous said...

Miami Dade needs the jobs and the revenue from a destination resort casino. Let the people vote on it and get it done.

Geniusofdespair said...

Stop lying to our readers. The STATE of Florida would get the bulk of the funds. Very little would remain here.

Get off our blog liar. That jobs crap is another big lie.

Anonymous said...

You are correct, Genius. Devil is in the details. North v South politics. Pay attention folks.