Thank you for admitting that the basics, Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic are no longer taught in the public school system. I suspected that the computer, calculator, and cell phone have taken the place of the book, the pen, and the brain--an abomination in my view.

Now I suppose that you will tell me that rote training is not required to produce fine musicians, creative artists, a competent fighting force, a winning football team. Indeed anything worth doing requires rote training, including brushing one's teeth.

Yeah, I call it trickle down incompetence, the headwaters of which are located in the Oval Office.

Right, use a calculator and push the wrong buttons, without the multiplication tables one has no idea whether the result is anywhere near being correct.

So one can't write a sentence (assuming one has been taught what a sentence is comprised of) without going to a spell checker (assuming one cares about spelling--or vocabulary).

That's right, penmanship takes work on the part of students and teachers, we can't have that, and learning to write is no longer required because we have machines to do it for us.

Our education system no longer teaches the basics because they require effort and dedication--what a disgrace.

Finally I assume that you don't believe that making good music is a worthwhile effort, or being able to create art or learning how to use a firearm properly are worthwhile efforts. Kindly give me a break.

Have you ever heard of the multiplication tables, correct spelling, and penmanship? All require rote training. Incidentally, learning how to drive requires rote training, any worthwhile endeavor requires rote training. How about playing football? In the military all basic training is by rote. Lastly, rote training instills discipline' It is difficult for me to believe that you even asked the question, "What is the problem with removing rote training?" Without it our whole society would be comprised of incompetent, fumble-fingered, dimwits.

You must not have very much constructive to do with your time since you use three paragraphs of meaningless jargon to tell me to go-to-hell. Your whole argument is based upon the premise that counter-arguments are meaningless and derived from ignorance. Also I note that you use the liberal lexicon of pejorative adjectives to describe arguments with which you disagree, ie. "Tired assertion", "parroting", "false narrative", My question: What makes you believe that your argument has any facts associated with it? Finally, if it weren't for our oh-so-evil private sector you would have starved to death a long time ago--unless of course you are a fat habitue of Mc Donald's.

Typical liberal, judging American historical events by their perverted definition of what is right and just. Quite frankly you may have been born here but you don't come off as an American, you are a Modern Progressive Liberal.

The Confederate Battle Flag is an historical symbol viewed with hatred by those people who make themselves victims of past injustices and refuse to consider themselves Americans. Rather than take the opportunities for self advancement that this country provides they whine about their lot in life and use all their energy sustaining that victimhood.

What private sector culpability? All the private sector does is provide goods and services that the market demands. If people didn't demand fast food there would be no fast food outlets. It's not up to the private sector (or our federal government, or liberals) to dictate what people eat. Now I'll repeat my "simplistic parroting"--personal irresponsibility is why people get fat eating fast food. Incidentally, if you're too thin skinned to stomach disagreement with your opinions then I suggest that you just shut up.

I'm sorry that you are a victim of revisionist history and don't understand what war is all about. The reason for killing the enemy is to destroy his will to fight and thus bring the war to a victorious end. It is estimated that invading Japan would have cost 200,000 American lives and over a million Japanese lives, most of those Japanese would have been civilians armed with pitchforks. For your further enlightenment, both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war materials production centers. The bombing was completely justified. Thank God for the guts of Harry S. Truman, he certainly was not cast in the mold of wishy washy modern Democrats who live in a world based upon sentiment rather than reality.

I'm going to answer this question with a question. Was it necessary for Japan to bomb Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7th. 1941? The bombing of Tokyo was a result of bombing Pearl Harbor.