Another issue of "Not 'The Essay'... Again"

:-) Needed to add this comment, again from Pournelle: "Jane Jacobs points out that a Dark Age isn't when you have forgotten how to do things. It is when you have forgotten that you ever could. French peasants in 650 AD were entirely unaware that Roman farmers could get yields of 10 bushels harvest for 1 bushel planted: they thought it a gift of God if they could get 3 bushels from each bushel planted, and generally didn't get more than 2. And American educators have apparently forgotten that there was a time when 96% of the people who finished 4th grade could read; we now have 100% attendance at schools and a literacy rate somewhat lower than Iraq's. But all will be well and No Child Will Be Left Behind, so long as we can juggle the tests and get increasing test scores. The purpose of the education system is no longer to educate but to produce people with certain credentials. Hurrah for the educational reforms of the past three decades." And so it goes. Another axe in the hands of the barbarians vigorously hacking away at the roots of Western Civilization... The MMPA, the LLMB and their partners in crime must thank god for government schools (they do that only while looking in the mirror, you know, since that is where they see their god... ).