Conservative Republicans

Conservatives must keep up with the present issues and find ways to apply concervative principals. Cal Thomas, in his editorial today, highlights some of the issues and throws light on how to deal with them as Republican Conservatives. I concur.

Health plans

Hillary Clinton has been advocating changing our individual health insurance policies to a universal health plan. We all know that only 40 million of our citizens do not have health insurance coverage. Right? That means that more than 300 million do have a plan. It also suggests that the 300 million are satisfied with their insurance and are able to pay for it. We also know that indigents (who would include the 40 million not covered) have avenues to take for medical care. They are not turned away from  most hospital emegency rooms when in need, and can turn to welfare for help. Rather than change our whole system, why not give the uninsured extra help by compelling each to walk a half hour a day as part of a preventative measure and send them packets of  oatmeal and bags of walnuts to insure their health. Wouldn’t that be less expensive to the taxpayer?

Politicians

Why are so many politicians either lacking in the ability to express themselves clearly, or void of integrity? It appears that ALL politicians are totally dishonest.  Since this statement is true, our only hope is to stick to our guns and political party of choice.

hate

Getting hate out of the head is tough, but the accomplishment adds years and enrichment to life. Think of hate matters as objects on a floor in a room with one door to the unknown. Place the objects on a flat table and take a long look at them before you open the door and toss them out forever.

An explosive idea

What would our country be like if instead of spending our money on fireworks we used it to improve our highways and byways?

Originality

Mark Twain wrote in “Innocents Abroad”, 1869, ch. 26: To give birth to an idea – to discover a great thought – an intellectual nugget, right under the dust of a field that many a brain plow had gone over before. To find a new planet, to invent a new hinge, to find the way to make the lightnings carry your messages. To be the first – that is the idea. To do something, say something, see something, before anybody else – these are the things that confer a pleasure compared with which all other pleasures are tame and commonplace, other ecstasies cheap and trivial.

Religion and politics

Religion has always played a role in politics and always will. Rev. Jerry Falwell, who died recently, not only got involved but united many different Christian factions to create a huge majority of Republicans and Democrats to elect Ronald Reagan in 1980. It’s unlikely that we’ll see in our lifetime a successor to Falwell because he had one trait lacking in most all politicians: honesty.

Depressing news

It’s depressing the way the news media repeats and blows up bad news about Iraq. The media maniacs succeeded in convincing people that to win a war is to lose international friends; phooey! Might makes right and always has.

Public Opinion

Public opinion changes with a barrage of information disseminated by the news media. Four years ago the public was united in support of war against terrorism in Iraq. Now it’s the opposite. The Democrats, who control the news media and struggling to regain control of Congress and the White House, are keeping the American public blindfolded while ruthless gangs continue to murder people daily, mentally disturbed neighbors create their own terrorism, and innocent travellers die at a rate of more than 50,000 a year due to reckless drivers. When will the news media cease its effort to control politics and stick to reporting facts that could save thousands of lives daily?

The learning process

MARK: Still concerned about public education?

FRANK: It’s too politically controlled. Political leaders don’t seem to understand the learning process.

MARK: The focus shifted from the fundamentals of the learning process, to the complications of human behavior. In our day schoolmasters required memory of fact.

FRANK: It’s still that way but little is done to improve pneumonic power.

MARK: I was long out of school before I learned how to memorize.

FRANK: You described that in your essay “How to Make History Dates Stick”, something every student should read.

MARK: Thank you. Better still, teachers shouod be required to read that essay.

FRANK: After I read it, I started associating facts with pictures and it works. In fact, I think children would think it fun if they were required to do the same when preparing for a history test.

MARK: But the heart of the problem lies in the teachers’ neglect to realize that often a child can’t remember because he first can’t even understand.

FRANK: That brings to mind your comment, in your essay”English as She Is Taught”: “Isn’t it reasonably possible that in our schools many of the questions in all studies are servera miles ahead of where the pupil is?”

MARK: Good boy! Too many teachers think just because they know and understand the facts and situations, their pupils do as well – when told.

FRANK: And the results are often humorously reflected in responses to questions as you reported in your essay. Here are some definitions given by students: (1) ABORIGINIES, a system of mountains. (2) IRRIGATE, to make fun of. (3) PUBLICAN, a man who says his prayers in public.

MARK: Those responses were record in a book well documented and written.

FRANK: As you said, a pupil’s ears and eyes can be most deceiving.

MARK: One of the problems is that too many teachers assume their students are on the same intellectural level as themselves. The question remains: how do you penetrate the minds of all students in a classroom? The answer is: you can’t in  most cases.

FRANK:  That brings is to the problem of dealing with some 30 different individuals in one classroom at one time.

MARK: What do all these kids have in common that would enable the teacher to get through to them to meet each objective?

FRANK: They all have a certain level of skills, like some read faster with greater comprehension. Some have the skills of writing and speaking better than others. All have habits and need habits that would make them better students. And most of all, all students have an attitude.

MARK: So what we are saying is that the learning process to be most effective must deal with knowledge, habits, skills and attitudes.

FRANK: Without out the right attitude, excellent habits for learning and skills to work, a student is likely to learn little.

MARK: That’s it. Things haven’t changed much since my youth. 

FRANK: It’s not all doom and gloom. Not today.

MARK: It wasn’t in my day either. We all learned in spite of schools. We learned outside of school.

FRANK: And today it is even easier because we have the internet. Ask any question of a search engine and you will find the answer immediately.

MARK: I wonder what I would have done with my life if I had a computer at a  young age?

FRANK: Would that have depended upon “circumstance”?

MARK: Yes. Things have always and will always happen do to circumstance.  Now you can go back to sleep, Frank