Ok, I'm being vaguely political...

[wispfox]

Both links from kightp.

Anti-Bush poetry gets schoolgirl in trouble, costs teacher his job.

analysis of current foreign policy by The Independent Weekly's Hal Crowther

Comments

[scholargipsy.livejournal.com]

This sickens me on every level. Fucking hell.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Yeah. That's why I ended up posting one of the few vaguely political posts I ever make...

[zzbottom.livejournal.com]

Wow, that article made me ill. I mean, it was a good article, of course, but to think that this person is in a leadership role. It's unfathomable.

[keyne.livejournal.com]

Holy shit. :(

[dilletante.livejournal.com]

i always wonder when i see articles about stuff like that happening in high school. i mean, that may well be the right age for an excellent lesson in how to recognize abuse of power by public officials. in which case, maybe high school is a fine place to put bureaucrats with no moral sense and few brains.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

how to recognize

Yeah, but it's also an excellent way to show people how easy it can be to get power...

[cutieperson]

*speechless*

[intenselaura.livejournal.com]

Oh my.

I've read only the first one. I'm too disgusted right now to read the second.

[beowabbit]

That's revolting.

This is how Franco happened.

[ayalanya.livejournal.com]

could not get past the first third of either.

fuck.

who likes new zealand? k? how bout ireland? they're nice peoples..? they got the sensical laws and stuff maybe? *plots a move*

[thette.livejournal.com]

Sweden!

You'll get by perfectly fine in English, and might even have troubles learning the language, 'cause the natives will all want to try out their mighty English skillz on you.

[ayalanya.livejournal.com]

sweden would be wonderful, but i'm looking for a place that has temperate winters...

i actually know a chunk of swedish. my teacher told me that the government will pay you to take swedish classes until you're decently fluent, if you're going there as a citizen. sounds decent to me. just...cold!

[thette.livejournal.com]

(I'm from the far north of Sweden, where the climate resembles Chicago's quite close, so I might not be perfectly unbiased here.)

You could always try the southernmost provinces, such as Scania, where it almost never snows.

Also, the Swedish for immigrant classes are not all that good, since there's no prior division, which means that PhDs knowing four languages take the same class as analphabetic farmers...

[ayalanya.livejournal.com]

i wondered, when i saw your icon. you look swedish.

hmmmm...scania. i must consider this. is the government as useful and organized as i've been told?

[thette.livejournal.com]

Well, let me just say that all the votes (except the late post votes) are counted on the voting day.

We also know the name and number of every person legally in the country. (Though we don't have to have ID cards.)

Anything in particular you want to know?

[ayalanya.livejournal.com]

*grin* votes being counted. oh good.

can't think of anything right now that isn't long and involved. methinks it might be time to do some serious research, though.

[thette.livejournal.com]

Statistics Sweden (http://www.scb.se/).

The national tax board (http://www.skatteverket.se/).

The government offices (http://www.sweden.gov.se/).

Last but not least, our official webiste (http://www.sweden.se/).

[lerryn.livejournal.com]

OK, that principal's behavior is ridiculous. Someone needs to go over his head, and the lawsuit sounds like one way to go about it. I'm not usually in favor of using lawsuits to solve problems, but in this case, it's the principal himself that forced the issue.

[opalmirror.livejournal.com]

I skimmed the first article but chewed on the second with relish (a bitter relish, but I've always liked sauces and other toppings). Inspired writing that speaks from the heart and brain -- good eye.

As for escape, it's a reasonable option. I've eyed NZ closely but I don't want to subject my pets (read: family members) to a multi-month lockup. Canada's a good possibility since my spouse is Canadian, but I wonder if it is far enough away -- the more-sparsely populated and somewhat more sensical neighbor of America is tightly economically tied and sometimes works hard to ingratiate itself to America by accepting economic and environmental rape of its lands and people. I'd lean for one of the smaller countries of Europe, with NZ or Canada as a good backup. Most eveyone in these countries can speak English, just so long as you leave America-centrism at the door. :)

Will the last one out of America please turn out the lights?