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The Browns come to mind… AG then Gov; Pat (not sure what before AG).Son Jerry; Gov... Mayor of Oakland, now AG (not sure before Gov).All I can think of right off; nothing on the local level that I can remember.Wally
... really the gateway between old and new; it basically closed the Middle Ages and ushered forth the Enlightenment Age and then the Industrial Revolution. An impressive age probably in need of more exploration and discussion here.
Agreed; when I taught 10th grade (here in CA) we began with a rehash of where the kids leave off in grade 7... Age of Discovery and beginning of the Renaissance. Your point is the basis of all I worked toward... after the Middle Ages the clearing out of the Moors and the rediscovery of all the knowledge they had rat-holed in their magnificent libraries plus the survival and growth of the Church were the seeds and the fertilizer of the grow of the Modern Era.Much of the gain was little more than picking up the pieces from the Classical Age, dusting them off and sometimes turning them up; lots of writing and thinking, not much action (save the beginnings of the scientific revolution and the Reformation). For me it isn't until the Enlightenment that folks really start to try to apply things to their own world... on to the Age of Revolutions!While I agree that things were moving toward Industrialization during the late Middle Ages... guilds etc., it isn't until the second agricultural revolution that the necessary surplus of workers is available to really make the factory system fly. No Jethro Tull nor the likes of Mendel... Watt and the rest are just glorified mechanics. This age does make us the consumer society we are as the workers move into more skilled and technical jobs, into middle management and so forth. They make more money (eventually enough to have some discretionary funds) and gain some time to spend it; eventually the workers have to ask for time to spend all the extra $, no? This is where we are expendable $ and leisure time to spend it (to often before it is earned but that is another side of this move into modernity).Hmm, looks like the first semester less the Fr. Revolution (it comes between Ren/Ref and I/R) and the Unifications of Italy and Germany (after...). 😉Wally
... most just try to find out who the lesser evils are and go there.
Sadly true; many very qualified and talented people aren't going to play the game to get the support of the monied interest groups or pander to all the varied non-monied interest groups for their body count. The lesser of the two evils is often the choice but still evil.A friend and mentor reminds us to always look at who supports the candidate but also (and perhaps more important) who the candidate has for staff and advisers. Some of the behind the scenes folks for both sides are pretty frightening to me.The only Dynasties I see look more like the TV show from a few years back... prime-time soap-opera! Just as campy to watch but the pols are as good looking as the cast of the TV show was (nor in some cases as bright).Just my $0.02 worth 🙄Wally
Interested in the Old West and Civil War as a kid, Calif. history and WWI and II in HS. Majored in geography (and Earth science… took some anthro. too) in college. My first rifle coach was a Ranger in the Pacific in WWII and current was in Task Force Smith.Came to teaching late... world for 10 of 11 years at a local HS and in 4th year of US at a a MS (1 class of ancient civ too ::)Sort of interesting that I have only 12 or so units of history but have learned more (on my own) and teaching than many of my collegues with majors bought at college.Bernard DeVoto... sez it all for me.Cheers,Wally
... easier to kill more persons with greater ease with a fully automatic weapon.
True but already illegal to own unless one happens to be a Class 3 dealer or lic. by BATF; GCA '36 I believe. Therefore not a valid consideration unless one is already a criminal. We already have plenty of laws that we don't enforce (or follow unless we are the non-criminals); sorry but this ol' dog (the need for more gun restrictions) doesn't hunt for me.Look at Oklahoma City... fertilizer and diesel; not illegal and no restrictions. If we give up liberty for safety we'll have neither. Many of the things that were going to make us safer after 9-11 haven't done anything except get us used to a more invasive and powerful government... don't look for any wholesale revisions to any of these things if and when the Dems. reoccupy the White House. We the Sheepeolpe of the United States....As the Canadian bumper sticker sez: "I love my Counrty but I fear my Government!" Me too.Wally
it's really a silly thing to call them as anything can be deemed an assault weapon.
Just my point; a number of years ago (the story goes) an ethnic gent in Canada and his wife had a disagreement over how she was going to cook the squirrel that they had in the freezer and, long story short, he brained her with it... result assault charges... hence my story to my students that anything one uses to assault another is an assault weapon.My logic dictates the more important concept is that the focus needs to be on the use of the item rather than the item itself. Cars kill more people than guns every year... how about an assault vehicle ban?Just a thought....Wally
... I think it's only a matter of time before "assault" weapons get banned anyway.What's the definition of "a State party" here?
So, too, what is an "assault" weapon?Wally
... really great idea, something which should probably be done at the high school and even college level as well. "Given this set of circumstances, what better ways could he have handled the situation of being picked upon?" Sounds like pretty basic stuff but evidently the basic lessons of living in a society where there is friction and people are mean to you does not get through to everyone. Granted, it sounded like this particular kid had some mental problems, but I would be that even someone like him could have benefited from being exposed to alternative methods of responding to adversity.
While I am in agreement, mostly, my concern is this should have (and used to be) gotten accomplished in the home. The schools have sooo many mandates that we aren't able to focus enough to be really effective. Society needs to realize the schools can't do it all.
I think at a time like this - right after a major incident - it's the best time for such as "teaching moment"....
Yes and I'm one who uses them; standards and NCLB don't make citizens out of our kids... teachers that make them think about their place and role in the scheme of things do. I'd rather make a good citizen than raise the test scores. [much to the dismay of some of the higher-ups in my dsitrict]Sorry to rant,Wally
... certainly didn't help the world much by broadcasting the images all over like they did. What better way to give some kid out there the impression that the killer went down in style. Irresponsible, irresponsible.
I'm a middle school social science teacher; another of the mandates we have is a program called "Too Good For Violence"... and a feature of it is to try to debunk the media (news and entertainment) driven misconception that we are a violent society. The point of the program is two fold, to make kids aware solving things by violence isn't the norm and to emphasize ways to solve problems without (or before) violence is the answer. It shouldn't be necessary but the circus surrounding VT (yes we need to know but not all that has been reported) demands that we reply, "THIS IS NOT NORMAL!"Sooo, along with content standarts, character building, drug and alcohol education, AIDS awareness, health food choices, and all the rest we need to tell kids it's not normal to kill everyone in sight if you get teased or feel like you're left out.My view from the classroom,Wally
That older thread says there was a lack of literature. How true is this?
That and the loss of "culture"... (non-church) art etc. after the fall of Rome. Much was achieved but it was the church focus on the here-after and little else that turned most folks to mere survival.
What do you think was the main reason for Romes fall? Civil wars? Political? It seems to me most of Romes probabal causes were internal. And when did Rome fall? (I've heard this is debatable as well)
They were trying to keep things under control by giving the citizens what they wanted... couldn't keep up; the tribes coming in weren't getting their share and revolted.Do we see a familiar pattern here? Wally
... a socio-political statement of fear and intimidation. .... If there was some socio-political motivation ....
IMHO; if this is applies and you disagree or are the target it is terrorism. If on the other-hand you agree or are the perp then it is patriotism. Sad but true.The VT killings (without real political intent) are neither... they are the work of a whack-job intent on getting his 15 minutes of fame. The media has granted his wish; condolences to all the families of the victims and the family of Cho as well.Wally
Sadly I think it is that many of the parents aren't adults in any sense of the word except chronological age. As an educator (ha-ha, read adolescent warehouse worker in an average American middle school) I spend 95% of my time controlling (read trying to control) the 5% that are a total waste of skin; the other 95% aren't being left behind but they are having to run faster to keep up with the bus! And NCLB (that doesn't know how what a bus looks like inside) is mandating that the driver to speed up and still requiring that all the kids be on the bus, as this is happening. Fat chance unless you live in Lake Woebegon.Many of us have mistaken the ideal of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (that is... the equal opportunity to work for these things) with the easy life, the freedom to do anything anytime to any end, and total entitlement.Truely... not understanding history assures that we will get another chance to make the same mistakes... really disturbing that we keep doing the same things and expect the outcome to be different.As far as too much running around at a site like Gettysberg; if the kids are acting out what they think happened ther (Yanks & Rebs) that would be pretty cool. If they are just being little sh*ts, then it's time the folks knocked the snot out of them... if they can't control them any other way.Just my $0.02.Cheers,Wally
We are too hung up on the anti nature of our Revolution; forgetting that most wanted the Crown to just recognize and protect our rights as Englishmen (ala Locke) and only latter were forced to admit that it was time to remake the situation to take care of that chore for ourselves.In another forum I frequent Locke is given very little shift, too bad... if he'd been French (wrong on sooo many levels) perhaps he'd have gotten more play.My $0.02....Wally
Just stumbled onto this thread. I read mostly non-fiction, I like to read older texts and general works on the particular area I'm working on and in related fields (geography, anthro, etc.) to get a feel for the conventional wisdom of previous eras. Often we can then spot revisionism in today's material (or at least an attempt at PC). We cannot (nor should we attempt to) rewrite history; history will rewrite itself as new things come to light. In any scientific endeavor we need to look for what is there, not what we want to find… as we'll always have a tendancy to find what we're looking for.While I'm not a history major of any sort my career has led me to teaching it in the public schools (trying to leave no child behind is pretty tough as many need to be dragged, kicking and screaming toward the study of history); trying to show the students that we got to where we are and what we're like because of what happened in history.Just my $0.02 worth...Wally
