Building the foundation for Idiocracy

This is how the end of the world looks… It looks like the slow disintegration of our society as we reward people who make stupid and selfish decisions. Single mom, on welfare, with 14 children; and now they are making her into a role model.

Octuplets mom gets TV, book offers
By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer
Monday, February 2, 2009

The mother of the longest-living octuplets in U.S. history is being deluged with offers for book deals, TV shows and other business proposals, but has made no decision on what she might do other than care for her children, her newly hired spokeswoman said Monday.

Hundreds of requests have poured in from all over the world since Nadya Suleman gave birth to six boys and two girls a week ago, said Joann Killeen, president of Killeen Furtney Group, a public relations company.

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Crimes Of The Future: Teen with Home Chemistry Lab Arrested for Meth, Bombs

Stories like this scare me. They show that we are descending into a new Dark Ages, where we will be ruled once again by Fear and Ignorance. Had I been born a few years later, this could have been me. I remember the absolute glee I felt in high school, when I discovered that my uncle had left the majority of his college laboratory equipment and chemicals in my great grandmother’s garage, and that she would let me poke around in there if I listed to some of her stories on the weekend. All the glassware, the hard to obtain chemicals, and the endless possibilities. That is the very thing we are losing these days, the endless possibilities that we have when someone with a real passion is allowed to explore their imagination. No, in the ‘post 9/11 world’ we must stamp out such passion. We must treat it with suspicion, and send it off to jail.

Imagine if you would the idea that Tomas Edison had been born in our time. Imagine his famous ‘boxcar fire’, where he accidentally started a chemical fire on a train. In the UK, the cops would have shot him in the head and then later claimed to have seen wires sticking out of his jacket. In the US, he would have been ‘extraordinarily rendered’ to some unpronounceable country and nobody would have ever heard of him again. In Canada, apparently, they would have accused him of building a meth lab and hauled him off to jail. This is what happens when we allow police departments to discriminate in their hiring practices because the applicant is too smart; they take a quick look and if they don’t understand what they see it must be against the law.

Crimes Of The Future: Teen with Home Chemistry Lab Arrested for Meth, Bombs
By Annalee Newitz, 8:16 PM on Sat Dec 27 2008

A Canadian college student majoring in chemistry built himself a home lab – and discovered that trying to do science in your own home quickly leads to accusations of drug-making and terrorism.

Lewis Casey, an 18-year-old in Saskatchewan, had built a small chemistry lab in his family's garage near the university where he studies. Then two weeks ago, police arrived at his home with a search warrant and based on a quick survey of his lab determined that it was a meth lab. They pulled Casey out of the shower to interrogate him, and then arrested him.

A few days later, police admitted that Casey's chemistry lab wasn't a meth lab – but they kept him in jail, claiming that he had some of the materials necessary to produce explosives. Friends and neighbors wrote dozens of letters to the court, testifying that Casey was innocent and merely a student who is really enthusiastic about chemistry.

[Follow the link above to read about how the authorities just wont admit a mistake, to the point of ruining this kid’s life.]

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Idiocracy in report cards

One more step towards the world of Idiocracy… We are so eager to create a world where everyone is ‘equal’ that we just keep lowering the bar. At this rate we might as well grant citizenship to chimps and gorillas, since they are far more intelligent than the kids who are getting H’s on their report card.

Some schools stop giving F’s – UPI.com
Published: Dec. 6, 2008 at 12:54 AM

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) — Some schools in the United States have stopped handing out failing grades, or at least are delaying them while students get a chance to improve.

In Grand Rapids, Mich., work that would justify an "F" will get an "H" for "held," ABC News reported. The school superintendent, Bernard Taylor, said students will have several choices — including retaking a course, doing additional work or agreeing on another plan with teachers — but the grade will become a failing one if nothing is done within 12 weeks.

"I never see anyone doing anything but punishing kids," Taylor said. "If the choice is between letting kids fail and giving them another opportunity to succeed, I'm going to err on the side of opportunity."

Taylor and many other teachers and administrators say they believe many children quickly become discouraged and failing them contributes to the country's high dropout rate. He argues that children need to see a way forward.

Critics say the practice is amounts to coddling children.

"The task is to change the reality, not the labeling of it," said Alan Kazdin, a child psychiatrist at Yale.

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