what's the matter with kansas?

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the authoritarian "just world" mindset is a very punitive one IMHO.

So the working poor's kids don't deserve a good breakfast or lunch?According to you that would mean all the kids in this county would do without.What if the parents got disabled after they had the kids? What if the parents got laid off work?Its no where near as simple as you say.Surprised a nurse would want kids to go to school with an empty tummy.Dont you live with Mommy? Maybe you should move out and pay your own rent.

You are the one that can't speak like a normal individual and makes foul remarks.As in Asswipe,very classy.

I-Pads are becoming an important tool in education, just as computers had years ago. My daughter makes use of one in her special education class. I expect the best for any and every child in the public school system. If you and Guv Brownback don't agree with that, then that's your choice, Kansas can and will sink into obscurity, taking with it kids who can't be held responsible for such decisions of their elders. If anything, Kansas is a laboratory in which right wing libertarianism has been put into action, and proves to be unworkable.
And you're tired of feeding hungry children? You're demonstrating how conservatives are heartless. And to think, you people say you're the party of God.
And if you don't want Kansas bashed, then maybe the state government and majority of voters there should put common sense ahead of political ideology, while understanding that morality is a matter of caring for those without, rather than keeping gays as closeted second class citizens, or outlawing birth control.

their god is a mean one.

Guess so.

or at the least, very bossy

No, just plain mean, not to mention heartless. Funny how people envision their own values and traits in God.
Well, I'm going to bed; got church tomorrow.

remember to spring forward

This is when I feel smug for voting for Paul Davis. Look at the cesspool you help turn my state into, mom!

And just to say, I'm not ripping the whole state of Kansas. Kansas has an enviable old west history, plus was where the late, great William Burroughs was born, and was where he eventually moved back to (having lived in everywhere from New York, Texas, Mexico - where he shot his wife - Morocco - in what was the real Interzone - and Europe, and back to New York) at the end of his life.

^I saw some of the most amazing sunsets in Kansas. I particular loved the Flint Hills region -- very picturesque! (Not that is really pertinent to this thread.)

Lawrence is pretty liberal for Kansas.Great brewery there,Free State.

Brownback has plunged the state into economic crisis, and the people keep electing him. They deserve what they get IMO.

Nurseangela, if I may address this one point?

To people of my generation and older, handing out iPads does indeed seem extravagant. As did handing out of bound books, at one point in our history. We home-school one child via a district charter campus a few towns north & the other goes to the local public school. In both cases a few years back, supplying iPads/Chromebooks came up and the discussions went on for some time. We parents and the administrations worked the numbers and it's far cheaper than dead-tree textbooks, even taking into account lost, worn out or broken hardware & software maintenance. Even more so when Apple or Google wants to dump inventory of half-year-old models (they get the write-off, schools get current hardware super cheap). Paper textbook prices really have become that outrageous. It had reached the point where some districts were simply making due with outdated books until the teachers could no longer compensate with supplementary material ("read chapter 4, but ignore any mentions of XYZ and instead read the xeroxed pages I handed out"). Electronic media can be updated instantly to the latest version of an e-textbook. Also, the tablets and notebooks used are locked down, meaning they are *not* game and facebook/instagram machines. They are learning tools.

As an added advantage, by supplying tablets or mini-laptops all students get a chance to become familiar with using the technology that will be needed to do anything from taking fast food orders to typing up resumes & filling out online applications to finding those jobs in the first place. Typewriters and newspaper employment ads are long dead. In our capitalistic society, is this not a fair part of the purpose of an education?



Having been born and mostly raised in California, it always seems odd to me when people speak of places like St. Louis, Kansas or Oklahoma as "Old West". I mean, I understand the westward expansion and all that, but my childhood was soaked in the Old West meaning things like a Mexican or Spanish California, some parts of Nevada & Arizona...all which was driven by Gold and Silver, bored/out of work Conquistadors, and the final set of homestead grants. And Bonanza, of course.

Arkansas was once consider West,since it was west of the Mississippi.Think of the movie True Grit and Fort Smith.It was once called Hell on the Border.Judge Issac Parker,the hanging judge.He is quoted as saying "I never hung a man,the law did."