Why does John McCain hate education?
John McCain has brought up a specific item that Barack Obama fought for recently a couple of times, if memory serves, and it really bothers me. "A 3 million dollar overhead projector!" he declares, and frankly, this bears scrutiny.
This obscenely expensive bit of equipment is a bit reminiscent of the 700 dollar screwdrivers of the NASA of 20 years ago, but it turns out this isn't a standard transparency projector like Miss Britton used in my Biology class, back in the day. Turns out this is a star projector, intended for a planetarium in Chicago that has one in need of repair. Unfortunately, there are no parts available for it; the thing is too dang old. You'd think McCain would have a little sympathy for another old fart like this aging projector :p
More to the point, isn't McCain in favor of education? Especially science education, a discipline a pilot should understand the importance of. Who does he want mixing his fuel? A person who trusts in faith to get the percentages right, or someone who aced his trig final?
I was bothered the first time I heard McCain go after this; it seemed likely to me that the "overhead projector for a Chicago planetarium" was probably something like the projectors I had seen in St. Louis during field trips to Forest Park, or at the Griffith Park planetarium in Los Angeles. As such, it would be an item used to educate and excite people about the stars, and education related to the Universe. I was right, it turns out.
Unfortunately, Mr. McCain let his ideology about party lines and pork guide him, instead of his beliefs and the facts. So he attacked something that could contribute to the education of a child in the Chicago area who might just turn into the next heroic pilot that Senator McCain once was.
Seems a shame that McCain seems to hate education...
This obscenely expensive bit of equipment is a bit reminiscent of the 700 dollar screwdrivers of the NASA of 20 years ago, but it turns out this isn't a standard transparency projector like Miss Britton used in my Biology class, back in the day. Turns out this is a star projector, intended for a planetarium in Chicago that has one in need of repair. Unfortunately, there are no parts available for it; the thing is too dang old. You'd think McCain would have a little sympathy for another old fart like this aging projector :p
More to the point, isn't McCain in favor of education? Especially science education, a discipline a pilot should understand the importance of. Who does he want mixing his fuel? A person who trusts in faith to get the percentages right, or someone who aced his trig final?
I was bothered the first time I heard McCain go after this; it seemed likely to me that the "overhead projector for a Chicago planetarium" was probably something like the projectors I had seen in St. Louis during field trips to Forest Park, or at the Griffith Park planetarium in Los Angeles. As such, it would be an item used to educate and excite people about the stars, and education related to the Universe. I was right, it turns out.
Unfortunately, Mr. McCain let his ideology about party lines and pork guide him, instead of his beliefs and the facts. So he attacked something that could contribute to the education of a child in the Chicago area who might just turn into the next heroic pilot that Senator McCain once was.
Seems a shame that McCain seems to hate education...
posted by Fuzzy2k at 10/23/2008 07:56:00 PM
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