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Dianne Wilkerson a felon - again
By adamg on Thu, 06/03/2010 - 6:56pm
As expected, former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges today. She'll be sentenced Sept. 20 in US District Court.
More details from the US Attorney's office.
She pleaded guilty in the early 1990s to income-tax evasion.
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Comments
another reason why Coakley should not be re-elected AG
Coakley dealt Wilkerson a plea-bargain and look what followed. Wilkerson violated the public trust for personal gain.
She's getting a slap on the
She's getting a slap on the wrist for what would be serious charges if the political corruption wasn't so entrenched and accepted in the state. Who wants to bet Wilkerson is back working for the state as a consultant or some other slightly removed functionary as soon as her sentence is up?
3 1/2 months to sentence her?
What the F is wrong with the court system? What happened to the right to a speedy trial? Why wasn't the sentence decision ready now? Did the court not anticipate that she would plead guilty?
These are things that should be taught in public school, not goofy crap like cursive writing.
Cursive hasn't been taught in
Cursive hasn't been taught in years. Neither has extensive civics, economics, geography, or non watered down heavily politically corrected history which focuses on personal stories rather than the big important picture.
Why do you think most kids today can't sign their name in anything but block lettering, have no idea how government actually works, don't have a clue how a basic economy operates, couldn't tell you where most countries are on the map, and have no idea what World War One was about (or worse can't even give a rough time-line of the the Civil War and the issues leading up to and following) but they sure as hell could tell you about 'going green' and sex ed. Most core subjects have been watered down to eliminate achievement gaps and time for core subjects has been cut in favor of promoting whatever social issues or awareness campaign is the cause de jour.
Maybe this is why we have such a horrible political class constantly being reelected with little question in the state. No one knows how anything works and the history of what has or hasn't worked.
Quibble
Kidlet can write in cursive and she just finished a project on the end of the Roman Republic, so there's at least one school where there teaching some of the traditional things. Now if only they'd go back to calling it "English," instead of "English Language Arts" ...
Quibble, Part 2
Yes, my son learned cursive in 3rd grade. They don't spend a lot of time on it (like ELA!!) but it is taught.
Um, what century did you copy this rant from???
My school system doesn't even offer sex ed until age 16 or 17. Um, yeah, real smart, that - even in the 1950s, kids started mucking around at age 17 on average.
On the other hand, kids are learning cursive in 3rd grade, as well as more science and math than was EVER required of their parents. They receive extensive lessons in social studies and "civics" (my aren't we quaint). My son had no problem passing the on-line quiz made up of questions asked of people seeking citizenship, thank you very much! He's 12.
As for "most countries on the map", well, his class located all the countries where either the kids themselves came from, or their parents, grandparents, etc. That accounted for about half of them right there. My husband and some of our neighbors don't have the grasp of geography required of today's kids - then again, my husband's teacher never left MA, insisted on teaching to a 1960s map of Africa, and, when using a more modern book, pronounced "Mozambique" as "moe-zam-b-que". Maybe this was the generation you were ranting about?
As for the business of "promoting whatever social issues or awareness campaign is the cause de jour" instead of core subjects? Well, BULLSHIT HORSEHOCKEY AND NONSENSE. Google MCAS why don't ya? (you know the Google - runs on a series of toobes?) or just read something from the Boston Globe or Herald. Of course that would mean actually learning what was going on from sources other than Reader's Digest and discovering some real facts and evidence that contradicts these deeply believed "gems of truthiness" that even my dad would roll his eyes at.
You might get a job out of this, though: I hear Andy Rooney is looking for a speech writer - and plagiarizing his old rants from the 1970s is considered acceptable.