Hurlshort

Except that public schools don't make a difference in those areas, they just warehouse kids until they're ready for prison. Did you feel good about this when you typed it? Because it is terrible.

Yeah, no. That is dumb. It is the equivalent of moving out of your house because it is dirty. You know, instead of doing the logical thing. Do yourself a favor and look at how charter schools are a failed experiment. I disagree with the analogy. Putting money in failed public schools is like putting a bucket under the leaking pipe and wiping the floor instead of exchanging the pipe. As for research: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/2015/03/19/new-study-shows-charter-schools-making-a-difference-in-cities I don't see a failure from this report and it's fresh - 2015. Also charter schools in nearly all countries are better than public ones. I never saw any studies that showed charter or private schools doing worse than public ones. If you have such I would check them out. In my opinion instead of giving the taxpayers money to schools it would be far better to give them to students in a form of voucher or bon. This will allow for the parents to choose the best school for their kid and competition between schools to recruit and keep the students will only benefit the quality of education. I'll get to the evidence a little later, but as wonderful as it sounds to have parents choosing the best schools and having competition for recruitment, in reality is just means you are going to create a much greater divide between the have's and have-nots. The biggest problem in public education is not the teachers, the facilities, or even the bureaucrats running the districts. The biggest problem is the parent communities themselves. When you have a strong parent community that supports the school and the students, you will have success. When you have a school in the inner city dealing with gangs, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, etc., it is because you have that in the home. Vouchers aren't going to solve any of these problems, and instead will take away the scant resources that these schools have to try and make a difference in these troubled areas.

Yeah, no. That is dumb. It is the equivalent of moving out of your house because it is dirty. You know, instead of doing the logical thing. Do yourself a favor and look at how charter schools are a failed experiment.

I've been playing through some more storylines. I got my trooper up to level 65 to join my Jedi Knight. I'm enjoying the fact you can level through the content by simply sticking to the class storylines now, that moves the game along at a nicer pace. Although I still have moments where I wish they would open up space and let us fly around a bit. Also why can I fly in WoW but not in a game already filled with flying vehicles?

Pilsner Urquell sounds very familiar, I am pretty sure I've had it. It has been along while though and I don't remember any details. I'll have to put a list of Czech-style pilsners together for an episode. Maybe do two imports and two from the US.

Natty light was always popular in my colleg days. That and Colt 45. I mean, I never drank it (I think) but you could get like 24 for $5.

I am super stoked that Ninkasi retweeted my podcast. They have like 40k followers.

That seems very dramatic.

Except that they do check and you can find plenty of investigations into voter fraud over the last 20 years. The allegations typically don't pan out. It makes for great headlines, both sides can yell and claim they were wronged. It makes all the losers feel better and the winners feel more smug. http://www.brennancenter.org/sites/default/files/legacy/The%20Truth%20About%20Voter%20Fraud.pdf

I should probably emphasize lifelong here. I have a problem with any one individual holding onto power like that indefinitely with no balances.

There are a number of alternatives to becoming a lifelong dictator, I imagine. I just don't get the need to defend the guy. There are very few presidents I would defend in such a way. I can't think of one, actually.

Who cares, they lost. I do think it is dumb that they are bothering with a recount in Wisconsin. But there is no evidence that a ridiculous amount of illegal immigrants voted in the election. We went over this whole voter fraud thing a few weeks ago. There were handfuls of people in many states (Pennsylvania was the most common) that were either improperly registered or voted twice. They are still a drop in the bucket. This 3 million number is insane and not a good look for the guy who won and is supposed to lead the country in a couple months.

Winning with grace.

The Avery Vanilla Bean Stout was pretty fantastic, although I noticed the vanilla a lot more after drinking the much stronger bourbon flavored Stout. Always interesting how our taste buds can jump around like that. It also wasn't cheap though. Gingerbread stout sounds pretty good. I am thinking about a Christmas theme for next week, Jubilale from Deschutes will probably make that cut, and I'll have to look up a few others.

Yeah, I'm all for term limits in congress too.

In regards to the whole "The US does bad things, too" response when criticizing Castro. The big difference I see is that US Presidents only have 4-8 years to do messed up things. Congress only has 2-6 years to do messed up things. Then the people get to vote to remove them, and despite what the media likes to cling to, those elections are remarkably fraud free. So you have a shared responsibility for the terrible things that the government does, and they face constant criticism while doing it. Castro wielded absolute power and put himself above criticism. That's an incredibly dangerous position for anyone to be in.

I've got episode 4 the the History of Hops Podcast up and ready for listening. We drink Porters and Stouts, and I talk about the Great London Beer Flood of 1814.

As a teacher, I'm aware of the fact that I don't know everything and am hesitant to pass myself off as knowledgeable about the situation in Cuba and Fidel Castro because I've read a couple books and articles on the internet. Of course the Cubans in the US have a rather one-sided view of things, but that is still one more side than I can make a claim to.

Every Cuban I've ever met has a serious issue with Castro. I take their word over anything else.

Well, only one of the guys is actually a soldier, the rest are psychopaths. But all the Predator films are a bit campy, I still think they are fun.

I thought the most recent Predators with Adrian Brody was fantastic, so I'm bummed that Aliens gets all the attention over that.

MK is bigger than HR, and it does some very cool stuff, but I'd still put it closer to HR than the original.

After reading interviews and listening to podcasts, I get the impression that MCA is not a fan of management positions in general. I just don't read much into this whole thing.

Glad to hear Grom is still kicking. I also didn't realize Raithe got a job at the post office. I'm not sure how it is in the UK, but that's a pretty good gig to get in the States. Grats.

Just got back from a Universal Studios Hollywood vacation. It had been about 2 years since we went last, and they changed a lot. The studio tour continues to be the highlight, it was awesome and had some great additions. The Harry Potter world was well done. It was super pricey, in fact I feel like they've upped all the prices since the last trip, probably because Harry Potter makes it a lot more popular. The best meal we had was at a hole in the wall vegetarian place. Need to remember to venture off the beaten path a bit more next time, it was also a bit more affordable.