Comments

Episode-1540- Listener Feedback for 3-23-15 — 17 Comments

    • [4:03] History Segment – The Year 1540
      [18:46] Join me to have fun, drink beer and learn this Saturday (link)
      [17:08] AAR on this Weeks Work With Jack Weekend
      [19:51] Scum bags in New York attack small farm over frozen water
      [29:02] The reason you can’t ever expect to find, “the book” on permaculture
      [42:22] Get out of the plug and play mentality in Permaculture, or charge for it
      [53:33] Mandatory voting? What to do, turn off the fricken news again!
      [1:15:35] A Yelp for Teachers, hell how about a Yelp for all public servants

    • Amy just provided them, she was doing this before and put in a button for tipping for taking the time to do so. I guess no one who wanted it thought it was valuable enough to chip a few bucks her way and make it worth her time.

  1. New York is really “Occupied Territory”. Vote with your feet people.

    • Josie seems to say what Jack is saying, appealing to their personal integrity to respect their oath to the constitution. But there are problems with this approach.

      First, expecting cops to make judgements about what is constitutional all the time is tricky for the best of us. And cops are not known for being the sharpest knives in the drawer (in fact, really smart cops are not wanted…http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836 ).

      Second, and most important, is that cops are simply not the kind of people to take a stand on principle. Their greatest life choice was to join a group so that they could take on the identity of that group. I think it is more appropriate to think of them as someone that joined a gang. They want the protection of that gang, and in turn, they protect their fellow gang members. Brave people don’t join gangs, cowards do.

      This better explains why cops never seem to turn on their fellow cops even when their behavior is clearly illegal. It also explains why this is precisely the wrong kind of person to take a brave stand against the gang they joined and refuse an order. Larken Rose did a long piece on this concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oHEc7QjZ4Q

      I know there are the Oath Keepers and I respect them. But they are probably a pretty small minority among cops.

      I’m just saying that appealing to cops to be more brave is probably futile. They are cowards, they will cling to their gang no matter what, and they will probably never become part of our solution.

  2. Loved the Yelp rating systems for Schools, Law Enforcement idea, Freedom Loving vs Statists etc… I’ll talk to my son who’s a programmer to see how it can be done!

  3. Great show Jack. I live in Loudoun County, VA and we see some of the worst county government imaginable. I attend the board of surpervisors meetings regularly, (equivalent to county council) and just last month one of the supervisors said “I don’t want to go to war over this issue.” Basically he would go to war on other topics against citizens if they disagree with his or his cronies view point. I am calling for his resignation. All politics is local, I won’t be voting in any high level elections in the future. Thanks for doing what you do.

    • @JimM1911A1

      I live in Arlington ( more communist)… and in the 2012 election cycle actually did some door-knocking for Mitt out in your parts. Thank you for sharing this information about the Loudon County Board. I always thought that VA-10 was more conservative (comparatively) than closer in to town. I’m sorry to hear that I am wrong. (And I actually considered moving out that way, too.)

      Knowing what I know now (MUCH more than in Sept 2012 – thank you, Jack!), I too will be focusing more on myself and what I can do, rather than focusing outwardly, on idiot politicians who care only about themselves.

  4. So I received an email from WaPo(I’m not sure why I haven’t unsubscribed yet) a few days ago about the “mandatory voting”. What I say next will show you that your podcast is effective. I opened the article, read it and then looked for a video. I quickly determined that the story from WaPo and any subsequent article will be twisted to make it seem that Obama wanted mandatory voting. And like you said in the podcast, that is not what he said. I don’t like the guy but I know a bullshit story when I see one.
    The last episode of 2014, you read an email I sent you thanking you for how you have made difference in my life. This is further proof to me that I think critically now(not that I didn’t before, I just didn’t do it with politics). I can sniff out the bullshit. Whether is D or R bullshit. It’s not hard to see anymore. Thanks again Jack!!!!

  5. Something like this?

    http://www.greatschools.org

    You can’t rate individual teachers but you can rate the school itself and leave reviews. The site also pulls in testing and deomgraphic data. There is a place for the school to complete their profile but few (if any) have. Also, realtor.com links to this information when viewing for sale listings (at least on their mobile app.)

  6. During registration at UT circa ’92 outside the library there were many tables with paper table cloths, one table for each class and the professor, where students got to write reviews of professors. Yep, the crappy professors’ classes got filled last.

  7. I used ratemyprofessor dot com every time I scheduled my classes in college. Of course, I went to a small university so I didn’t have much choice in my professors, but at least I knew what to expect. If this site could be expanded to grade school and high school teachers (and all public employees), that would be great. If we had a closer-knit community, these ratings boards wouldn’t really be needed. Parents would know each other and could talk to each other about the teachers instead of reading things on a website. But, a website is better than nothing which we have now.

  8. The “upvote” is definitely the wave of the future. Science fiction has been elaborating on this idea for a while (check out Down and Out in the Magic Kindgdom by Cory Doctorow or Daemon by Daniel Suarez). In those scenarios, your “rating” is your actual currency. I love this idea. It’s only a matter of time before the tech can handle it. Look at the reddit model. the most popular items get the most upvotes, the best comments gain “karma” and commenters who shit on a popular post get the equivalent of a digital rotten tomato… you can even look up a commenter’s past comments and see if they are legit or just an asshole. it’s digital anarchy. The optimist in me sees this as inevitable. The realist in me knows it ain’t gonna happen without a fight. Good stuff as always, Jack.

  9. Found this sight, as a yelp! for teachers, its has been around for years (http://www.ratemyteachers.com). Of course you need to know it’s there and have enough determination to go rate people so you end up with “The Fanboys” and The Demonizers”. Greatschools seems to have the same issue and incorporates standardized test scores into a grade for the schools.