Only 32% of American students are proficient in math.

This is a bit of a sidetrack from what I usually talk about, but I promise to tie it back in to my usual discussion of politics as quickly as possible.

A facebook friend, who is a math teacher at a community college, posted this article earlier this evening.

Can US compete if only 32 percent of students are proficient in math?

The US ranked 32nd out of 65 countries (or cities such as Shanghai and Hong Kong) that participated in the latest international PISA, an exam administered to representative samples of 15-year-old students by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

My first reaction, and the one that initially makes the link the politics for this blog, was “Well maybe that explains why so many people are incapable of understanding why spending more money won’t get rid of the national deficit.”

Suddenly it all makes sense doesn’t it? Because surely the only explanation for a country full of people who think that taking out more loans will get them out of debt is that somewhere along the line, the education system failed to teach them basic math skills.

We are a country of people who can’t understand math.

I mean, at 32% proficient, I get to count myself among some of the higher than average people in math skills…and if you knew me in high school…that’s pretty sad. I failed 9th grade algebra…nearly failed geometry.

Math was not my best subject to say the least.

But could this be why no one in this country understand economics? People would rather have a politician tell them what to do (and politicians who want to give them things, i.e. liberals, will always be more popular) because *”math is boring and really really hard!”best whiny voice*

I think that could be the case.

Of course I could be wrong, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was. I’m mostly kidding around.

Regardless of whether these scores of indicative of why people can’t understand the economy or not…it’s still extremely sad that in a country where there is so much opportunity, where people are handed a free education for 12 years of their life, that people could fail so badly to take advantage of that education.

Gutfeld: Homophobia and Islamophobia the Same Thing?

Back in March my friend over at The Conservative New Ager sent me a link to a Greg-alogue from Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld, a late night news and comedy show on Fox news. The show is the conservative answer to comedic news shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central.

Keep in mind that the Greg-alogues are rather tongue-in-cheek, but they do address serious issues.

Also keep in mind that Red Eye is a show whose main commentators, Greg Gutfeld, Bill Schulz and Andy Levy have never come across as homophobic in the least. They are good natured, silly, friendly, and, occasionally, foul mouthed, but never homophobic. They respect people for their accomplishments and disrespect them for their lack there of…never for their gender, sexuality or race.

The video is here

Here’s part of a letter from a group of concerned types, who claim the march will “oppress other marginalized groups.”

“We want both homophobia and Islamophobia addressed as a collective problem and not feed one against the other, we do not recognise these as distinct categories.”

So let’s rewind. Homophobia and Islamophobia are the same thing.

So I got to ask, do you think they would also group homophobia and anti-Christian attacks as one in the same? Do they see crude jokes aimed at Mormons as no different than anti-gay jokes?

I don’t think so.

So why are they embracing Muslims as marginalized brethren and not others?

Well, for one, it’s harder to protest around people who really hate you, so better to stay out of Islam’s way and target the gentler dissenters like white, pudgy Christians (the people who remind you of dad and don’t want you dead).

So here we have fear masked as tolerance forcing gays into contortions even circus performers wouldn’t try.

I mean, how can the gay left defend a religion whose practitioners want gays punished? They’re joining hands with folks who in other more extreme lands might cut off theirs.

Anyway, let me remind you that I hate all parades, so I don’t mind if this one’s cancelled. Marching to celebrate something you are as opposed to have achieved seems odd. And later I always wake up naked in a bush

I find it amusing that I wrote a post saying exactly the same thing that Greg says in that final paragraph and I wrote it months after, without input from the Greg-alogue.

As for the rest. I completely agree with Greg.

It is completely unconscionable to stand up in defense of one religion, which hates you more than (or at least as much as) Christianity, while attacking Christianity for being too judgmental of the gay community.

Homophobia and Islamophobia are in no way the same thing. The gay community in the UK is living in a fantasy world if they truly believe that. If the Muslim community wanted to embrace the gay community then they would have no problem with the gay pride parades in the first place and, therefore, the gay community would not need to feel they were hurting the Muslim communities feelings by having their parade.

But why should I be surprised?

The majority of the gay community seems to have bought into the liberal ideology that Christianity is evil and violent (and if the liberal is a Christian they should feel guilty about it and try to distance themselves from most of the religion) but every other religion (especially Islam) are wonderful and peaceful and should be respected and openly embraced.

Sorry. I choose to judge all religions equally and by my judgment…Islam is not worthy of my respect, nor is it worthy of my changing the way I live because it might hurt the Muslim community’s feelings. If I’m not willing to change my life to suit Christians, why the hell would I change it to suit Muslims?

That is a question that the gay community in the UK (and in other parts of the world) needs to be asking itself.