EVERYONE READ THIS IF YOU CARE ABOUT KNOWLEDGE. AND ARTHUR AND THE BIG RED DOG NAMED CLIFFORD.
Funding Cuts loom for Public Broadcasting
Public Broadcasting may face funding cuts of up to 45%, $220 million, next year. The House of Representatives will first take up the issue Wednesday, June 22nd. Both local public broadcasting stations, KWMU 90.7 and KETC Channel 9, face significant funding cuts due to the reduction in federal fund.
While both KETC and KWMU both rely upon members for a major portion of their operating budgets, the reduction in federal funds will pose a major challenge for the stations.
Both KETC and KWMU are appealing to their viewers and listeners to contact both Missouri Senators Bond and Talent as well as Missouri Representatives Carnahan, Clay, Akin, Hulshoff and Emerson. Illinois listeners and viewers are asked to contact Senators Durbin and Obama as well as Representatives Shimkus, Costello and Evans.
KETC has a contact list http://www.ketc.org/community/contactofficials.asp , and KWMU has a contact list http://www.kwmu.org/cpbcuts.html.
posted by maggotsparklepow @ 1:10 AM
48 Comments:
If they shut down the programs will probably either die or move a different station. If they are cool, nova, they might move, if they suck, wishbone(is that even still on) they will die. If you watch channel 9 it probably means you dont have cable.
I just hope that if the gov takes their budget away they use it to make more bombs.
why the hell wold i care about that? i have cable.
you should care... some of us aren't cool enough for cable...
and besides i would like to write mean letters to blunt b/c he bothers me and thinks its cool to change my school's name a week after we start.. and i keep getting calls saying "don't forget the party at midnight" geez.. at least wait until i'm down there to remind me a million times
haha... didn't even realize blunt wasn't on the list of people to write to.. oh well write to him anyway and confuse him
Yes, Blunt is a dumbass. Not sure why other than he is a republican and I am shallow enough to make broad generalizations on character based purely on politcal affiliation.
wait wait = what is going on with your school steph??
southwest is changing it's name from southwest missouri state to missouri state.. which is stupid b/c then the initials are msu like alot of other places... and it's happening a week after we start school.. so it's "hey i go to southwest" one week and "hey i go to missouri state" the next
sorry, but i like channel nine, and i don't have cabel. it's a really great channel and the funding shouldn't be cut. and bombs suck.
Government funding should probably be cut. Let a private investor fund it. The goverment wastes so much money(as evidence by our huge debt) as it is, every little bit counts. Will this mean our taxes will go down, haha ya right. But for many of us, we will be paying for one less thing we dont use.
Oh and bombs are good because they create fear, and without fear we would have chaos. Think about it, if no one had anything to fear the race would go in the shiiter.
Oh and don't beleive the crap your religon tells you about be not afraid, thats bullshit and you know it.
Feel free to argue.
i agree that bombs create fear.. but it is fear that creates chaos... we are all so afraid of something that we make everything into this overly dramatic episode.. so i don't understand your logic of how bombs create order
i think the world already is in chaos, and that bombs just add to it. do you really think we need bombs to create fear? people are afraid of millions of things, without us building more bombs. i think i'm confused when you say that fear creates order. if you could further explain that, i'd appreciate it!
jeff- you say blunt is a dumbass because he is a republican. okay, so you're a democrat (or whatever). then you want the privitization of programs like pbs? that's totally republican ideals. and cutting funds for educational programs to make bombs is quite possibly the stupidest thing i've ever heard. and if you're so upset about the debt, why do you propose we spend more on defense, only to increase it?
and i don't think the us needs bombs to instill fear. we are the number one power in the world. what's there to fear? consider the only other countries with nuclear weapons (i assume that's what we're talking about, because just bombs are obsolete) north korea? their economy is in the shit hole. no way they could afford a war. same with russia. china? they need us. cold war is over for a reason. israel? we control them. just call them usa jr. same with the uk. and then there's france. but, come on. i mean, they're france. what are they going to do, attack us with their berets and croissants? (totally kidding because i am a french freak)
in conclusion:
pbs=good
bombs=bad
jeff=well, you know
good conclusions... i think that's all this pbs fund vs. not funding argument has needed
Things for post-its to think about:
I can understand ignoring Pakistan and India. They'd just use their nuclear weapons on each other.
However:
If we don't fear China or North Korea, why are most of our nuclear weapons on submarines in the Pacific?
Also: what about to make other countries keep from developing weapons? Think about what happened with Lybia. Or what we want to happen with Iran and North Korea.
Everbody:
Blunt has nothing to do with this. It's in the House and Senate.
how about nuclear weapons suck ass all over the world, no matter who owns them, and that they are a cowardly, destructive device that affords the owner too much power at any given time. i think they should all be destroyed.
I like NPR. And while I do think a certain number of weapons are needed to keep countries from attacking each other without fear of retaliation, the amount of time of money the US spends on nuclear weapons is ridiculously unnecessary. Seriously, there is evnough nuclear power in the power to kill every person on earth 32 times. Totally unnecessary. Also, in the book The New Nuclear Danger, Dr. Helen Caldicott says, "Globally, the annual military expenditure stands at 780 billion dollars. The total amount required to provide global health care, eliminate starvation and malnutrition, provide clean water and shelter for all, remove land mines, eliminate nuclear weapons, stop deforestation, prevent global warming, ozone depletion and acid rain, restore the paralyzing debt of developing nations, prevent soil erosion, produce safe, clean energy, stop overpopulation, and eliminate illiteracy is only one third that amount—237.5 billion dollars". I didn't believe this at first, but there is a website that explains it all. You can find it if you actually care.
Ok first off I never actually said Fear creates order so dont put words in my mouth and then base your argument off of that. What I said was without fear their would be chaos. Re-reading my post(and explanation) is probably the best way to understand that, so I wont waste other's time be copying and pasting what I just said.
Ya I actually have never met Blunt before so I really have no clue if he is an asshole or not. I think politcal parties are stupid, although neccesary. Because I believe the majority of voting americans are underinformed(or worse ill-informed) that voting based purely on party lines makes for a more streamlined and simple election proccess. We don't live in a perfect world, so I wont argue all of that.
Whoever said regular bombs are obsolete is a dumbass. When was the last time we dropped a nuclear bomb. And how many non nuclear bombs have we launched since then. Obsolete my ass.
Ok so I did say that the funding should be switched to making more bombs and apparently since you really dont know my that comment actually sounded sincere and less like I was trying to be a smartass and cleverly critize goverment spending. I applogize for the time you wasted trying to argue that point, but I will let it die at that.
Oh and bombs are not defense, they are offense. and by having them we can force others to do as we please(although with the UN and such around we really cant).
lastly before I go to bed(although i know i failed to adress several points) I must bash pipsqueaks hippy ideals(or rather the ideals of some doctor i have never heard of)
First off that second number is a pile of shit no matter how you look at it. Think of this. If all the people without jobs were given everything they need, what would be their incentive to work. Joe tax payer busts his ass to make a living after what the goverment takes from his paycheck, do you think he would be happy if some poor foreigner that has never worked a day in his life gets a house and healthcare and shit for free. Hell no, greed is to powerful for that. And dont try to argue that people would get jobs after they were given a good house and healthcare. First of all, where would those jobs come from? I mean they would obviously need to be new markets because there are a hell of a lot of unemployed and not a lot of open jobs. And even if their was jobs available why arent they avialable now so that the people can get them and earn their house and healthcare.
It is also an economic nightmare if everyone were to have a job. Unemployment is neccesary for a functioning economy. If everyone had a job their would be no possiblity for new jobs to form. In order for a new market to be created their has to be an avilable supply of labor who does not already have a job.
Now you can argue that letting people starve because they can't work hard is inhumane, and maybe it is, but we shouldn't just give out free crap. It is best to help people help themselves or else they will become dependent for the rest of their lives.
I suppose someone is going to bring up the question, well what if someone is retarted, or has no legs, what do we do about them. I don't really want to get into a moral argument, but I feel the people that have an issue with that should be the ones paying for it, and that it should be a persons right to not give a crap.
i agree with jeff. sorry if you are poor but maybe you shouldnt sit on your ass and eat and watch tv all day and get my money to do it. get off your fucking ass and get a job. and i bet an argument will be "what if they cant get a job" first of all they arent looking if they cant get a job because there are jobs around. second maybe they should have worked harder in school. not my fault some slacker spent more time smoking pot then studying and now has to pay the consequences.
and why doesnt communism work? because there are no incentives. same works for the lazy people who sit on their ass and whine about being poor all day when they get free money for sittng on their ass and waste it all on alcohol and drugs. there is no reason for them to work.
and also in economics as missy knows we talked about how unemployment is necessary so jeff is right about that.
and i agree with jeff about the people who cant work. they can at least do something to give back to the community otherwise they should just die. think about how tribes lived. if you were old and could not contribute you were left to die. it was necessary for survival. so my feelings are that unless that person can give something back to the community (which anyone can do) then sucks for you. having no legs is a challenge but you can still get a job that people with no legs can do. and ive seen retarded people working before so i know they can gets jobs as well.
therefore jeff is right.
the reason i put my post up was so people could keep some quality programming on tv. some people can't afford cable, or choose not to pay for 200 channels, of which they watch about 7. channel nine is a fabulous station and i don't want 46% of their funding cut because it would severely cut back on what they can offer. i hope that the people who do care about channel nine were able to help in some way. and i'm glad that it spawned some healthy discussions.
i don't know how this post developed in the way it did... and i understand where everyone is coming from... but i would honestly like to know who here has an unemployed parent or severly disabled people in their lives (i'm referring to the people without legs or arms that two people referred to earlier) it is much easier to judge these people when we don't know what it's like to live their life.... we've all been pushed to succeed to our best abilities by parents/relatives/friends/etc who have cared about us... if we wouldn't have had that support i can't see too many of us making it as far as we have (granted some of us would have.. but just think that there would be people who would have given up)
so yes, the idea of needing unemployment for the economy to work is true but do not sit here and bash those people b/c they were not given everything that we were.. it is not their fault and i'm not saying hey let's give them everything that we've worked so hard for.. i'm just saying don't judge other people so quickly
as a matter of fact i have an uncle who is missing an arm. i also have an aunt who is struggling to keep her three kids alive because she is a single mother and she cant keep a steady job. i love my aunt i love my cousins and i love my uncle. i have experienced what its like to have people near me with problems providing for their family. yes it sucks. you know what sucks more is that my aunt didnt stay in school and work to get a job she wanted. my moms dad died when she was little and her mom worked all day. she could have skipped school just like my aunt she didnt have a parent pushing her to do her best her mom was just trying to keep them clothed and in a house. she still was able to get herself a good job (well she hasnt worked since she had kids but before we were born she had a good job). so it is completely possibly for someone without parents pushing them to go out and become successful.
i realize not everyone was given the opportunity to attend the good school i was able to attend or to have the things i have. life isnt fair. that will never change you just have to make the best of what you have and owrk hard.
look at the asian people to be specific. they are like the most successful of us all because they work the hardest. they had to start over when they came to america with nothing and do they sit around and bitch about it all the time? no they work the asses off until they have the life we want. if the asians can do it so can everyone else.
If channel 9 needs funding they should turn to add revenue. If people really do watch it then they will be able to suppor their efforts on adds or they can search out addtional private funding.
Phantom, I really dont see things the way you described. I was more thinking of third world countries when saying that people do not have anything, and were often times no jobs are avilable. I honestly dont think they should just all die, because that is a little morbid, but I dont think they should be given anything either, rather the people who actually care and spend their money on rallies and movements to get people to pay to donate should be the ones actively helping people help themselves.
What do i mean by that? Perhaps free private education to third world countries so that they have the skills required to enter into other fields besides sweatshops or farming.
i don't really see what ethnicity/race had to do anything with this...
also, think of job profiling... it is out there... so it is almost impossible for some people to get a job...
think through all the possibilities before you say that working hard will get you somewhere b/c sometimes it will but sometimes it won't
so just telling people to get off their asses and work is pointless, let's see you help them help themselves instead of sitting here telling them what to do when they obviously don't know...
just stop being so judgemental
i didnt mean actually let them die. the dying thing was my example of how harmful it is to keep around people who arent helping anyone.
its really hard to be judgmental when i know for a fact that my money and my familys money and plenty of other peoples money is going to people who just sit around on their ass. many people dont deserve it. in fact more people dont deserve it than people who do. i mean i would definately love ot help the people i know are genuinely trying to help themselves. but there is no way of me knowing who is genuinely trying to help themselves and who is sitting around just taking in the money.
I'm gonna be Mr. Asshole here... But come on guys, we're not really a capitalist country anyway. Just like Commies arent really socialists. The first thing to go in a society is the ideology that it was based on. The people who worked the hardest aren't the richest. Maybe they were at some point but now their grandchildren's children have set it up so the social classes just won't change. This whole notion of work ethic is bullshit when you stop and look at the kind of people at the top in comparison to the people at the very bottom. There are success stories for sure, but there are also inumerable sob stories for each success story out there. I just think it's irrelevant to talk about your money (like you've really earned it) going to people who haven't earned it. There's just too much bullshit in the system to say anything objectively, so everyone should just stop trying. The whole process reeks of greed and bigotry.
like ive earned it anyway? my dad spends more time at work than he does at home. my dad is the most hardworking person i have ever met in my entire life. my dad is at work for three and four days straight. how is that not earning it?
ok, so he works and earns his money.. but i think you are defeating the purpose of money and the economy (which is so that the members can work and find a way to survive) when you say that your money is going to people who don't deserve it... then what makes you think that you deserve it in the first place either? what makes someone who has an income of 6 figures better than someone who makes minimum wage? they are both working hard and earning their money but undoubtedly the minimum wage person will always be screwed over
since we're talking about money and who earns it, how the fuck do baseball players and football players get paid so much? i hate the entertainment business. my dad is a teacher, he is helping prepare people for the world and he is educating them. he's getting paid WAY less than them, and he is a single parent who is still putting one of his children through school, and is helping all the other children financially. baseball and football players do provide entertainment, but that alone does not allow them to be paid so much money! and the most disgusting part of it is that now they're getting some big ass, ugly as fuck new stadium which is costing a lot of money, and so ticket prices will probably go up, and so will food and all that merchandise crap. and you know why they're doing it? because the people in charge know they can get even MORE money from that!! it's sick, it's disgusting, it's just plain greed. these silly boys are out there playing a stupid game while my dad has been working for 30 years at slu, teaching hundreds of people. he is actually doing work. and he's getting paid less.
same goes for celebrities. it's sick how much they get paid. and 95% of them are crap actors.
just wanted to get that out there.
Ok well maggots arguemtn is easy to explain. The reason that baseball players and movie stars make so much money is because most importantly, people are willing to pay high dollar to see them. If people were not willing to pay as much money, there would be no market and no baseball players would be employed or else ticket prices would have to be lowered and thus player salaries would also take a hit.
On the other side, there is a set price in the education business that maxamizes the market. If its two cheap then salaries will be low and their will be no teachesr avilable, if it is too high then there will be no students for the well paid teachers to teach. The education market your dad is in must find the balance if it is to be succesful. With baseball however, the balance is much higher and thus the economics are much different.
i didn't need you to explain it to me, jeff. i know how it works, it just pisses me off.
ok, laura, let's stop a moment here and think. let's pretend for a moment that you care about anything outside of your precious little south county bubble. (by the way, if you don't care about pbs, why did you start talking on the post anyway?)
what if your father got a serious illness? he wouldn't be able to work for some time. what if you were in a family with an abusive parent and your parents separated? what if your dad died? in any of these (and many more) situations, you would be in a precarious economic situation. and i'll bet you'd be wanting some money outside of a paycheck. as in possibly government support.
also, the point of financial support is to give people who need it a way to be able to take care of themselves. welfare only lasts for so long before forcing people to find jobs. naturally, the whole system isn't perfect, but it does help people.
finally, wishbone is a very good show, although no longer airing. it is from this show that i learned about pride and prejudice, the legend of sleepy hollow, and the count of monte cristo, to name a few. don't go dissing the dog who reads.
p.s. maybe some pbs shows will be picked up by other stations, but where will i find car talk? the savvy traveler? morning edition? what do you know? prairie home companion? the tavis smiley show?
p.p.s. (sorry about the non-finality here) i love arthur and i'm not ashamed, no matter how much my psycho mother thinks i should be.
um franklin is much better than arthur actually. franklin is the greatest show.
and anna. i realize there are people with problems and i agree that they should get help. but there are more people abusing that privelege than who actually need it. taking money from people who earn it and giving it to people who dont earn it is no way to help someone whos father died or has a serious economic problem that they really do need the help.
and i dont care about pbs i havent watched it since i was a child. ive moved on to bigger and better things (nickelodeon, cartoon network, tlc, disney channel, etc.)
jeff, sometimes people ask rhetorical questions. ever heard of those?
and just because i don't always say everything i know about one subject doesn't mean i know nothing. i tend to ask real questions when i want to know an answer. i was also complaining a lot in that comment, i wasn't trying to argue or sound smart. i was complaining.
but i thank you for taking the time to try and explain something to me, even if i already know it, and even if you were an asshole about it. i'll do the same for you when the need arises.
to say some stuff about pbs, it's not only a kids station, they have really cool information about famous actors, or physicians, or people who've changed history, or stuff about the universe. they had this cool thing about kinsey (anyone seen the movie? i really want to) and how his wife's hymen was so tough that they couldn't break it during sex and she had to have it surgically removed by a doctor. ouch, but cool.
and npr (it's 90.7, if anyone wants to have a listen) is an awesome station and one of the few very reliable sources to get true, pretty unbiased news (in my opinion, and i have been listening to it for a while. and my brother is super smart and really well educated, and he thinks so too). it would suck to have their funding cut.
i know that you can always turn to cable or whatever to get entertainment and edcuation, but come on, why should we just settle for that? why do we have to give in and just settle for spending lots of money to get a bunch of channels we really shouldn't be watching anyway, because the government wants to cut money from an educational program? i just don't understand why people don't support that. as long as you've got tv, channel nine is a wonderful free broadcast that has been educating children and adults alike for decades. it's too late now to call, but i hope that if anyone hears of something else we can do to keep it on the air that they let others know, and then we can try and help. who the hell knows if it will work, but we can try.
also, jeff, what's a podcast? i'm curious because i don't know (and this is a time when it's a real question, so iappreciate your answer.) thanks!
laura, if you don't care about pbs:
1)you probably shouldn't have started talking on this post.
2)maybe you could pretend to care because there are some of us (friends, remember?) to whom it is important and it might be nice if you thought about that.
just for the record, i love pbs for many reasons. one of my favorite childhood memories is of watching the concert version of les miserables on pbs, because it was on quite often. me and marygrace would watch it, even if we didn't understand the whole story. then once we taped it and then i watched it all the time and sang along. those were some pretty fantastic times.
oh, and merge, just so long as i'm on the subject, i'm going to leave another comment so you can look at the number of comments and say, at least some of these are about my original topic
by the way, did you catch that movie about the climbers in peru? where the one climber fell into a glacier and broke both legs and then dragged himself across the glacier and the rocks at the bottom of the mountain, dehydrated, starving, and slowly losing his mind? true story. pretty weird but cool movie.
hey anna, i saw the movie/documentary about it called Touching the Void (i'mm pretty sure it's the same thing because that's exactly what happened to this guy and i doubt that happens very often) and it was INTENSE. i wish i'd caught the documentary. in the movie they reenacted it, and it was really sad. we should watch it sometime, paul owns it.
and another thing about pbs, who here didn't love sesame street as a child? it was amazing!! and you know what the sesame street people did? they took a version of it to africa to help children learn, and then they made one of the muppets have HIV to help the children understand it because it is so rampant in parts of africa. i have the article, cut from the newspaper, tacked to a bulletin board in my room if anyone wants to see it. how amazing is that? i love sesame street!
aw! it's like how on maya and miguel they have a kid with half an arm... well, that's more odd, i guess.
first i can comment on any post i want to comment on.
second why should i support something my friends want to support if i dont agree with it. if you dont agree with something i feel pasionate about than i wouldnt try and make you feel like a bad friend
third most people on this web page have not been "friends" to me at all so theres just another reason why i wouldnt waste my time for something they care about when they are assholes to me all the time and dont even think im worth dialing seven numbers on a telephone.
except for mike bono. hes pretty cool.
you know what, just forget it. i'm sorry i posted this. obviously it's stirring up mean things. this isn't what i inteneded at all. so just forget it. i'm sick of it.
and for god's sake, people just CALL LAURA. this has been upsetting her for a long time, and if it's still bothering her then obviosly people aren't paying attention. it sucks to feel left out, and everyone fucking knows that. so just fucking give her a call if you know something's going on, or if you're planning something. i know that everyone single person in our group of friends knows that this has really been bothering her, and the majority of people don't seem to be doing anything about it. so you know what, either people have got to do something about it, or laura, you need to reconcile this. please don't take offense laura, i'm not saying it's your fault. i don't want to be mean, but i'm just annoyed that this has been carried out for SO LONG, and yet, nothing has changed. this has been happening for months! so people, start calling her. laura, if you don't here anything and if it's still bothering you, then just forget it. move on. don't think about it or talk about it anymore. i would tell you this in person but you're always busy and i haven't seen you all summer. and when i try to im you, you don't answer. so this is a really personal statement from me for everyone to see. i hope no one hates me, but something needs to be done about this because laura has been hurting, and i empahtize with her pain because i have also felt this way throughout my life.
i realize i made a few typos in that last comment. forgive me.
" you know what, just forget it. i'm sorry i posted this. obviously it's stirring up mean things. this isn't what i inteneded at all. so just forget it. i'm sick of it."
consider you audience next time before posting. And realize that while partially my fault for stirring up stuff, you guys really like dumping tanker trucks of gasoline on lite matches(yes I know techniclly the volume of gas would put out the flame, but suppose for a second that the whole tanker truck were to light on fire and then you would have a good idea of how my often small(read ONE SENTENCE) comments get blown into 20 pages of people bashing and the requiste people telling me to die).
that was a waste of my reading time. and considering i re-read research papers i've written, that's saying a lot.
i already have "moved on" or whatever. i have only seen a few people since the last day of school. well minus graduation. ive been doing things with other people. but that doesnt mean im not still upset about everything.
" that was a waste of my reading time. and considering i re-read research papers i've written, that's saying a lot."
but, because you are a dumbass, instead of stopping while reading the thing you are displeased with and doing something usefull, you instead decided to say you wasted your time thus rendering your post active proof that while you realize your time is being wasted you continue wasting it anyway and then find the need to complain about your conscious decision. Doesn't paint yourself in a very good light to anyone with a third grade education level.
I suppose(if anything) you will simply attack me as a person and not my ideas like you all seem to usually do, for the reason(and im just speculating here) that you are shocked at how much the truth hurts.
it's your arrogance that kills me
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