education in the USA

It is sad that leaders in the USA do not understand how important education to national security. Comparison scores declined for decades last century. Some improvement can be seen this century, but USA scores still fall shamefully behind other countries.

1995 results: "...tests showed U.S. fourth-graders performing poorly, middle school students worse. and high school students are unable to compete. By the same criteria used to say we were "average" in elementary school, "we appear to be "near the bottom" at the high school level. source

2003 comparison of more than 250,000 15-year old students from 41 countries. USA Ranks: Math: 27th, Reading: 18th, Science: 22nd. source

2010 Ranks show minor improvement, but when considering the wealth and resources available in the USA, these scores still show a sad disregard for education in the USA: Math: 25th, Reading: 14th, Science: 17th.
source

This does not address the unavailability of higher education for the majority of Americans who cannot afford $100,000+ for a basic college education and double that for an advanced degree. Government loans and long-term debt or bankruptcy is not the answer, but the only alternative for many young people.

Until Education is as high a priority as Defense, no amount of bombs/guns will protect us from the defenselessness of technological and intellectual inferiority.

cars

i drive a twelve year old car, a chevy cavelier... it needs a tune up, a new clutch, new tires, and other work... and it gets better gas than most of the new cars being sold as 2011 or 2012 cars... ridiculous... the car manufacturers are so very irresponsible and government is worse for not forcing the manufacvturers to improve gas mileage... it can be done... it is being done on a very few cars sold at higher prices because they are scarce because the manufacturers will not mass produce the technology that privides 50mpg and better...

let's not even get started on the lack of effort to produce alternative fuel cars... the government allows ecologically criminal and economically unethical practices and all but the very consumers suffer...

i am part of the problem... i could choose to live in a place where i do not need a car, but i choose to live in a car-dependant suburb... my choices in life have not provided the income to buy a nissan leaf or even a toyota prius, so i am hunting for a car within my budget which leaves me with choices that are not as economical as the twelve year old car i drive... adding to the challenge is the lack of availability of economy cars, at least in this area... i visited six large dealers today and found less than ten economy cars, a few dealers had none, new or used...

so philosophically, scientifically, ecologically, ethically, and practically the auto industry in this country is a clear sign of the corruption, confusion, and suicidal thinking that goes into the decision making in this modern world... we, as a species, do not do what we can do to improve our chances of survival... natural selection will eliminate us from the life cycle of the planet unless we wise up and start making decisions and taking actions that will improve our chances for survival on this planet... simple as that...

you want to live?...