Open Education lacking in the US

The United States is often reputed to be one of the most advanced nations when it comes to education. While this can easily be argued when compared to the achievements of the people from many "underprivileged" nations, there is a trend that is becoming more noticeable as each new year passes.

Education standards have fallen to a level that would terrify some of our grandparents and great-grandparents. News feeds are more and more frequently reporting that schools are lowering test requirements to benefit those who won't learn, and school boards are focusing their attention toward frivolous side matters, rather than the core skills of reading, writing, and general mathematics.

Among the differences noted when comparing the United States with several other countries is that most of these nations that pose such an academic challenge have gone the extra mile in making higher education available to the masses. The United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, India, the Czech Republic, China, Japan, and many other countries have either a central institution or a collection of state-level colleges that participate in an Open University concept.

With the use of the Internet these countries have taken the step into the 21st century by digitizing textbooks, even taking 2 or 3 year old textbooks that are no longer used in the classrooms, digitizing them and making them available to the public. Some also employ videos of lectures no longer used, and posting them on their websites, or open sites such as YouTube. Students register, some might pay a small fee to use the material, then they would either read the digitized material or watch the lecture. To earn credit, they would log in to the website, download a test for each video of lesson, take the test, and upload it back to the site where the computer would grade it. There is no need for instructor/student communication. The only staff is there to monitor the online sites. The United States stands alone in its refusal to offer open education on a public level.

The fact is that there are a lot of students who could earn a college degree this way, but they could never afford to attend college through traditional means. Fiance, family concerns, jobs, and health are only a few reasons why hundreds, if not thousands, of people can never make use of the traditional college setting.

If there isn't a score of professorial instructors jealously guarding the information used by a college who would insist upon being paid 6-figure overtime or royalties when their lectures are uploaded rather than personally attended, they don't consider that education. Both the institutions and the professors guard their lectures as if they were fully copyrighted.

These schools have even lobbied Congress to pass laws which would allow them to restrict and, or prevent, a US student from using a degree earned from one of these Open Universities. There are now several small colleges capable of granting degrees to students at very low cost, and in a relatively short time, but through these lobbying efforts, these schools are labeled “degree mills.”

Not only are there some fine schools in the country that would not only be enriched by an Open University experience, but it would certainly enrich the minds of countless students. And for the richest country in the world to be so selfish is a sad commentary, indeed.

Is this progress?

Can You Pass This Final 8th-Grade Exam from 1895?

This is the final exam you had to pass to graduate from the 8th grade in 1895.

I remember a time when many grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education. I used to think how sad it was that these elderly people were so educationally deprived in their youth. Educationally deprived? Perhaps not. I wonder how many college graduates today could pass an eighth-grade final exam from 1895?

This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA. These questions were taken from the original examination on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina , Kansas.

Take the test and see if you would have graduated with the eighth grade class in 1895.

GRAMMAR (Time, one hour)
1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph.
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of 'lie,' 'play,' and 'run'
5. Define case; illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation..
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.

ARITHMETIC (Time,1 hour 15 minutes)
1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. Deep, 10 feet Long, and 3 ft. Wide. How many bushels of wheat will it hold?
3. If a load of wheat weighs 3,942 lbs, what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1,050 lbs for tare?
4. District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6,720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7percent per annum.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft long at $20 per metre?
8... Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a Promissory Note, and a Receipt.

U.S. HISTORY (Time, 45 minutes)
1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus .
3.. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States ...
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.

ORTHOGRAPHY (Time, one hour) * Do you even know what this is?

1. What is meant by the following: alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication?
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of each: trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e.' Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7 Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.

GEOGRAPHY (Time, one hour)
1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas ?
3. Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America .
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia , Odessa , Denver , Manitoba , Hecla , Yukon , St.. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco .
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each..
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

How did you do? This is a telling example of how education has evolved over the years.

Don't blame the Super Committee

Don't blame the Super Committee for not being able to cut spending. They cut $2 Trillion over 10 years six months ago, and now they can't cut $1 Trillion over 10 years now.
A few important facts should be remembered:
FDR created the Welfare State in 1933. Today we call it the Nanny State. 8 years later, in 1941 the program was broke.
Lyndon Johnson created the Great Society, which sealed the welfare state. It also failed.
Richard Nixon's wage and price freezes were supposed to help balance the economy. Without a tax freeze, the government could still swindle the American people. Another epic failure.
Jimmy Carter had his "stagflation," and his Community Revitalization Act which opened Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans to people who couldn't afford them. During his 4 years we had a 20% prime rate, the highest in American history, and the deepest recession since WWII.
Ronald Reagan had an 8 year battle with the ghosts of the past, and an uphill fight against politicians on both sides of the aisle. When he left office there was a plan in place to pay off the national debt within 35 years, and reverse the trends of the past 40 years. Unemployment was at a 20th century low of 5%, inflation dropped to 4.7%, 17 million jobs had been created, and fewer companies moved overseas. Reaganomics had a simple 3-tier plan. Cut taxes, reduce spending, and stop borrowing.
Bill Clinton gave us one of the biggest tax increases, and one of the biggest single administration foreign debts in American history.
G. W. Bush made a weak attempt at cutting taxes. He tried his hand at Reaganomics, but he forgot to cut spending. Until '06 he at least kept his failures somewhat in control, but in the 2 years after the '06 elections, all bets were off with a tax and spend congress.
Today we have Barack Obama. What can I say. America has moved closer to Leninist Socialism and seen more money spent in such a short time than any administration in history. He is fond of saying "I inherited a $1.3 Trillion deficit from my predecessor." Unfortunately, like every other tax and spend progressive, he only tells one side of the story. He doesn't tell you of his record setting spending spree. Mr. Obama grouses about $1.3 Trillion in January, 2009. Let's look at this a little more closely:
$787 Billion Stimulus: Failed.
$525 Billion Bank & Corporation Bailout: Failed.
$410 Billion Omnibus Spending: Failed.
 $60 Billion GM, Chrysler Bailout: Failed.
  $8 Billion S-Chip Program: Failed.
  $3 Billion Cash for Clunkers: Failed.
$1.793 Billion Total. He complains about inheriting $1.3 Trillion from an 8 year administration, and ignores the fact that his administration spent nearly $1.8 Trillion in just 2 years. On top of that, new unemployment is up more than 4%.
Don't blame the Super Committee for not being able to cut spending. The Super Committee is made up of members of Congress. The very same people who gave us the crisis we are in now.
Republicans want to cut spending and taxes.
Democrats want to raise taxes and entitlement spending.
If nothing is cut, nothing is saved.

Not Democracy, Inverted Totalitarianism

Inverted totalitarianism is a term coined by political philosopher Sheldon Wolin to describe an "ideal type" government. Wolin uses the term to describe the government of the United States as it has evolved since World War II. Wolin contrasts the inverted totalitarianism of the United States with the totalitarian regimes such as Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union.#1, #2

Totalitarianism and superpowers

Since Aristotle, three archetypal political forms were broadly discussed: monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. A particular state could be a hybrid of these forms, and each form had an associated "pathological" form: tyranny, oligarchy, and ochlocracy, respectively. "Liberal democracy" came into widespread use during the twentieth century, signifying a hybrid of the democratic and aristocratic forms: democracy tempered by a constitution which de facto delegated political power to the elites.#3

By the middle of the twentieth century, it was recognized that two new political forms had appeared. Hannah Arendt – among others – argued that the governments of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, with their ability to control every aspect of society, could not be understood in terms of the old typology; the name of this new form would be totalitarianism.#4 With the emergence of a bipolar world with two powers dominating their own sphere of influence, the term "superpower" came into wide use. Superpowers were something new, because they possessed power that was qualitatively different from that of other states. In addition to their possessing vast nuclear arsenals, their being involved in an ideological struggle with each other led to each being in a state of permanent military mobilization, something that was new for countries in a time of peace (hence the term "Cold War"). Each superpower possessed extraterritorial power to influence countries within its sphere of influence: The Soviet Union mostly through military occupation, and the United States through its domination of multilateral institutions that were set up at the end of World War II.#5 With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States became the world's sole Superpower (or hyperpower). Wolin capitalizes the word "Superpower" to mark the United States' uniqueness as being an actual form of government and not an ideal type.

Inverted totalitarianism and managed democracy

Given the transformations that the United States has undergone during the military mobilization required to fight the Axis powers, and during the subsequent campaign of containing the Soviet Union during the Cold War, does the United States continue to resemble a liberal democracy domestically, or is it itself taking on totalitarian tendencies? Wolin suggests that the latter possibility is closer to the truth:

    While the versions of totalitarianism represented by Nazism and Fascism consolidated power by suppressing liberal political practices that had sunk only shallow cultural roots, the United States represents a drive towards totality that draws from the setting where liberalism and democracy have been established for more than two centuries. It is Nazism turned upside-down, “inverted totalitarianism.” While it is a system that aspires to totality, it is driven by an ideology of the cost-effective rather than of a “master race” (Herrenvolk), by the material rather than the “ideal.”#6
There are three main ways in which inverted totalitarianism is the inverted form of classical totalitarianism. First, whereas in Nazi Germany the state dominated economic actors, in inverted totalitarianism corporations and their lobbying dominate the United States, with the government acting as the servant of large corporations. This isn't considered corruption, but "normal".#7
Second, while the Nazi regime aimed at the constant political mobilization of the population, with its Nuremberg rallies, Hitler Youth, and so on, inverted totalitarianism aims for the mass of the population to be in a persistent state of political apathy. The only type of political activity expected or desired from the citizenry is voting. Low electoral turnouts are favorably received as an indication that the bulk of the population has given up hope that the government will ever help them.#8 

Third, while the Nazis openly mocked democracy, the United States maintains the conceit that it is the model of democracy for the whole world:#9 Wolin writes:

Inverted totalitarianism reverses things. It is all politics all of the time but a politics largely untempered by the political. Party squabbles are occasionally on public display, and there is a frantic and continuous politics among factions of the party, interest groups, competing corporate powers, and rival media concerns. And there is, of course, the culminating moment of national elections when the attention of the nation is required to make a choice of personalities rather than a choice between alternatives. What is absent is the political, the commitment to finding where the common good lies amidst the welter of well-financed, highly organized, single-minded interests rabidly seeking governmental favors and overwhelming the practices of representative government and public administration by a sea of cash.#10

Managed democracy

Wolin calls this form of democracy, which is sanitized of the political, managed democracy. Managed democracy is "a political form in which governments are legitimated by elections that they have learned to control".#11 Under managed democracy, the electorate is prevented from having a significant impact on policies adopted by the state through the continuous employment of public relations techniques.#12

This brings us to one major respect in which the United States resembles Nazi Germany without an inversion: the essential role that propaganda plays in the system. Whereas the production of propaganda was crudely centralized in Nazi Germany, in the United States it is left to highly concentrated media corporations, thus maintaining the illusion of a "free press". Dissent is allowed, although the corporate media serves as a filter, allowing most people, with limited time available to keep themselves apprised of current events, only to hear points of view which the corporate media deems to be "serious".#13

The United States has two main totalizing dynamics. The first, directed outward, finds its expression in the Global War on Terror and in its doctrine that the United States has the right to launch preemptive wars. This amounts to the United States seeing as illegitimate the attempt by any state to resist its domination.#14 The second dynamic, directed inward, involves the subjection of the mass of the population to economic "rationalization", with continual "downsizing" and "outsourcing" of jobs abroad and dismantling of what remains of the welfare state created by U.S. Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society.#15 (Thus, neoliberalism is an integral component of inverted totalitarianism.) The state of insecurity in which this places the public serves the useful function of making people feel helpless, thus making it less likely that they will become politically active, and thus helping to maintain the first dynamic.#16

References
1.   ^ Chris Hedges, "Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction"
2.   ^ Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
3.   ^ Wolin 2004, pp. 557–558.
4.   ^ Villa 2000, pp. 2–3.
5.   ^ Wolin 2004, pp. 558–560.
6.   ^ Wolin 2004, p. 591.
7.   ^ Wolin 2008, pp. 51,140.
8.   ^ Wolin 2008, p. 64.
9.   ^ Wolin 2008, p. 52.
10.  ^ Wolin 2008, p. 66.
11.  ^ Wolin 2008, p. 47.
12.  ^ Wolin 2008, p. 60.
13.  ^ Wolin 2004, p. 594.
14.  ^ Wolin 2008, pp. 82–88.
15.  ^ Wolin 2008, pp. 27,64–65.
16.  ^ Wolin 2008, p. 195.

Bibliography
    Villa, Dana Richard, ed (2000). The Cambridge Companion to Hannah Arendt. ISBN 0521645719.

    Wolin, Sheldon S. (2004). Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Western Political Thought (expanded ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691126275.

    Wolin, Sheldon S. (2008). Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691135665.

External links
    Inverted Totalitarianism - Article by Sheldon Wolin published in The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030519/wolin

    Inverted Totalitarianism: A New Way of Understanding How the U.S. Is Controlled - Review by Chalmers Johnson of Democracy Incorporated.http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9031
    
    http://newsjunkiepost.com/2010/02/16/chris-hedges-the-us-government-is-inverted-totalitarianism-2/

Is Barack Obama the Antichrist? Proof ???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcbloBA2Lek
The author of this video intends that in Luke 10:18, which reads "And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." actually means "And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like baraq from bamah."

This video is wrong on so many levels, and I think it is intentionally false and misleading.
First and foremost, there is no such thing as Strong's Numbers Online Bible Dictionary, as is indicated in the screenshots in the video.
Second, the narrator has his languages confused.
CLAIM: Aramaic is the most ancient form of Hebrew.
FACT: Aramaic is not an ancient form of Hebrew. It's an Afro-Asian language that is Canaanite in origin, and is 3,000 years old. This puts the origin of the language in the time frame of the captivity of Israel and Judah in Babylon. Most of the minor prophets of the Old Testament from that point onward are written in Aramaic. In the New Testament, Aramaic is commonly known as Greek. Jesus used Hebrew in the Temple, but spoke in Aramaic, as did most people of his time.

In the verse in question, Jesus said to His disciples "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven."
CLAIM: Lightning = Strongs Hebrew 1299 = baraq: To Lighten; Lightning, as in 'Cast forth light' Lightning flash.
FACT: The claim is essentially true, except that the language is wrong. Luke was written in Aramaic, not Hebrew. The word is actually, Strongs Greek 796: Lightning = astrapa = of the gleam of a lamp, which means 'to show light from, as light from a flame'.
The Aramaic 1299 is diatasso, meaning to arrange, appoint, ordain, prescribe, give order, and 1300 means diateleo: to bring thoroughly to an end, accomplish. Neither one has anything to do with this verse.
Baraq, Hebrew 1299 & 1300 is an Old Testament word meaning "a flash" & "lightning" respectively. 1299 occurs only once in the Bible: Psalms 144:6 - "Cast forth lightning and scatter." 1300 occurs 21 times. Astrapa can not be translated to mean baraq.

Isaiah 14:12-19
CLAIM: Heights = Strong's Hebrew 1116 = bamah: high place.
FACT: Bamah can be used to describe a high place of worship, such as for an idol's altar. It is not a name for Heaven.

The conjunctive "U" or "O" (Waw), assuming waw actually is a conjunction, cannot be used between the Hebrew baraq and the Aramaic bamah. Not only that, the phrase "lightning fall from Heaven is not a conjunctive statement. There needs to be two words connected by 'and'. Lightning, a noun and heights, an adjective can not be joined with the Greek conjunctive unless one describes the other. Not only that, but "waw", as a conjunction, may be expressed as "U" or "O", but the "U" or "O" expressions have different meanings, and are not interchangeable.

Let's keep some important facts in focus. Anti-Crist, as a concept, is here, already. It was discussed in the letters of the New Testament by Paul, Timothy, James, John, and Peter. Anything that opposes, directly or indirectly, by ommission or commission, is anti-Christ. The Anti-Christ, as a person, has been described in detail, and understanding the appearance of him relative to the Tribulation and the end times, with very few exceptions, Christians won't have to worry about ever seeing him.
The Anti-Christ is just that, Anti Christ. He will be the opposite of Christ. Using that definition, the vast majority of politicians throughout history qualify.
In principle and politics, Obama is opposite of scriptural, Biblical, and Christian values and principles. He may not be Muslim, but he certainly is not Christian. He does not believe in God beyond a nodding acceptance. His father was an atheist, and his step-father was Muslim, as he was for several years. He has often said that he follows his mother's example. She was agnostic, leaning toward atheistic. Obama is anti-Christ, but he is not the Anti-Christ.

Why President Obama Will Probably Be Re-Elected in 2012

COMMENTARY By Donald Pennington | In spite of the current protests over everything from dissatisfaction over the economy to any efforts at restoring the economy and putting people back to work, it's still all-too-easy to imagine President Barack Obama will be re-elected in 2012. Why? It's nothing other than religious extremism within the rank-and-file and the leadership of the GOP.

Not everyone flying the Republican flag is a religious extremist, but then again, not everyone within the GOP is running for office. While we as a country could use some people in office who follow better financial policies, the issues that keep getting addressed are abortion rights, gay marriage rights and teaching creationism in schools. All of these non-issues are religious extremists pushing "God" in the public square as well as the private bedrooms of grown-ups. We have enough real-world problems. "God" can take care of himself.

On abortion, why would religious extremists be concerned? Aren't all those lost lives going to heaven? Besides, the Bible is filled with stories of the Almighty ordering the deaths of babies -- without mercy. This point is not simply a matter of opinion. Those stories are really there.

When it comes to the rights of anyone wanting to marry someone of the same sex, who are these politicians to even have a say? Are we really going to try and tell others how to live because of the demands of a collection of stories from ancient times?

And as for insisting that creationism be taught as a theory in public schools -- really? With what we know about the cosmos (and still have yet to learn) no publicly funded school should be teaching as science anything other than what humanity has been able to verify with evidence. Or perhaps our Republican candidates "firmly believe in their hearts" we should also turn to Bronze Age legends for advice on computer repair and auto mechanics too.

The Socialist leanings of President Obama are not the answer to America's problems. We cannot save a free market by choking it to death. But when opponents to this administration espouse religious extremism as the solution, they sound to us non-Christians about like how a Taliban leader might sound to devout Christians. No single religion should dictate public policy -- ever. We all deserve our own choices in life. We cannot afford to trust extremists with the button.