Anyone want to take up a collection for Buffista Island?

Well, there's a couple hundred in the F2F fund. How big an island do we want?

[Oooh, pretty.]

Have the kids been beat down that much since I graduated??

The rest of the article implies that it is the lack of school newspapers (funding for them, that is) that is causing the ignorance. Still, it scares me that, even if we were to start educating students on the Bill of Rights tomorrow, there will still be this big bunch of (soon to be) voters who think it is no big deal.

Trying to keep the bile from rising.

Yet, when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

I can see the going too far part. Not that I think they go too far, or that I have a right to dictate what newspapers print, but a good example of controversial newspaper content are the newspapers that publish lists of people arrested for drunk driving. There's that line of the public's right to know, the press's right to publish and the individual's right to privacy. We quibble in the courts about it endlessly. I can see high school students being very concerned with that last part of the equation, they tend to be very touchy about their "rights," particularly as to what they do, who they do it with, etc. being kept their own business and no one elses. Also, how deep an understanding of the first amendment can a high schooler have if he only just then is told the "exact text of the First Amendment" right before they answered the survey? Sounds like America's schools are falling down on the job if they haven't heard it by then. And I'm more worried about that than what the high schoolers think.

The story.

t struggles up from mountain of paperwork to wave at buffistae

Steph, let me know if you like the pork chop. I'm due for a TJ run by the end of the week.

When asked whether people should be allowed to express unpopular views, 97 percent of teachers and 99 percent of school principals said yes. Only 83 percent of students did.

The results reflected indifference, with almost three in four students saying they took the First Amendment for granted or didn't know how they felt about it. It was also clear that many students do not understand what is protected by the bedrock of the Bill of Rights.

Three in four students said flag burning is illegal. It's not. About half the students said the government can restrict any indecent material on the Internet. It can't.

full. body. shudder.

t goes back to looking at islands for sale

About half the students said the government can restrict any indecent material on the Internet

Would this be the half that hasn't sought out porn? Or do they just think the government's crap at it?

t tackle-tickles Gloomcookie