Haha- fuck you Oafrah!

[shamrock227]

@Wee Bairn

… Its the sanity of marble tile in a school where many people are happy just to not walk on dirt. I get the whole “good surroundings you’ll do better, etc”, all that. But there is a difference in “nice” and ridiculously opulent. Hell, I would bet some places in Brunei don’t have the shit this school has.

You have brought things like this up several times in this thread. Sounds a little like you are jealous.

Personally, I think it’s great. If I put marble tile on my floor at home I will like it and think it’s wonderful and everything. But, someone, who, as you say, “is happy just to not walk on dirt” will really appreciate that touch. I don’t deny myself or the people I care about anything if I can afford it. Why should Oprah?

[wring]

@Wee Bairn

(if I stop now it’ll be seen as a sign of weakness

annoying and petty though that is, it really is the very least of your failings here.

(fixed coding)

[Wee_Bairn]

@shamrock227

You have brought things like this up several times in this thread. Sounds a little like you are jealous.

Personally, I think it’s great. If I put marble tile on my floor at home I will like it and think it’s wonderful and everything. But, someone, who, as you say, “is happy just to not walk on dirt” will really appreciate that touch. I don’t deny myself or the people I care about anything if I can afford it. Why should Oprah?

Yes, I don’t have marble tile, why should these poor South African girls have it, i’m a white 'merican? No.

Not to be a crass bastard, but do you really think a poor SA girl would know the look or feel of real vs. fake marble or whatever? What message is that to send anyway- if you work hard you can be like me, a wealth and luxury obssessed twit who spends money on pointless shit to impress others?

[dropzone]

@Wee Bairn

What I meant was, would a CEO at McDonald’s claims to know what’s happening at the one off Route 8 in Piscataway?

Y’know, I had a reasoned response all typed up but you are so monumentally stupid and obstinate there is no point in trying to reason with you. But hell, yeah, if the CEO of McDonalds does not know what’s going on at every store, and he won’t offhand, he’ll have the information at his fingertips and there’ll be hell to pay if somebody lies.

@shamrock227

You have brought things like this up several times in this thread. Sounds a little like you are jealous.

Sounds more racist or classist, to me. Like the girls at that school aren’t worth better than cheap linoleum and cutting each others hair.

[Maeglin]

@Wee Bairn

Sheets, period. the idea that 100 girls are handpicked to live in opulence while others live in shit is offensive to me. The internet is full of sensible people who agree with me. If whatever poster is thought of in the highest esteem posted same claim in a different amnner, most here would be in agreement. Oafrah’s (if I stop now it’ll be seen as a sign of weakness ) chosen few.

The internet is full of mouthbreathing, fanatical retards who say all sorts of strange things. The fact that you find some who agree with you says more about the internet than it does about your position.

Try this thought experiment. Say there are 1 million girls in Africa living in shit. Suppose Oprah picks 100 to raise in “opulence”. In a shocking twist of fate, Oprah takes your outrage seriously. Instead, she handpicks 101 girls to live in “opulence”. She then asks you your opinion. Let’s repeat this a few hundred thousand times.

How many girls does Oprah have to pick to satisfy you?

Let’s reverse this. She is committed to taking only 100 girls. So she switches to 299 count sheets and asks you your opinion. What thread count would satisfy you? 200? 100? A bit of burlap sack?

Why? What fucking difference does it make?

[Miller]

@Wee Bairn

yes, and it depends on the set up of the school, legally or what not right? If she has signed something that says nothing that happens there is her responsibility or whatever, then yes I agree she would not be legally liable, but perhaps morally.

Now she’s morally responsible for what that teacher did? How in the blue bloody fuck does that work?

[Hazle_Weatherfield]

@Miller

Allow me to once again highlight the glaring idiocy of your position here, Wee Bairn, because last time I pointed it out, you seemed to have missed it entirely:

Oprah donates a buttload of money to found this school. If the school runs perfectly, and the girls who attend it all graduate and go on to fabulously succesful professional and personal lives, Oprah can take no credit for this, because she was not personally involved in the day-to-day operation of the school.

However, if something goes wrong, and one of the students is assaulted, Oprah, despite not having any personal involvement in the day-to-day operation of the school, is entirely at fault for what happened, and should be on the hook for millions of dollars of her personal fortune.

Can you honestly not see the contradiction between those two scenarios, Wee Bairn? If the world actually functioned the way you think that it should, what sort of idiot would ever do anything charitable, where the giver is denied any credit for his deeds, but must take all of the responsibility? Does the mammoth unfairness of that make any impression on you at all?

Well done, Miller!

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

@Wee Bairn

IIRC, one present was cars. To many people who couldn’t pay the taxes on them.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/22/news/newsmakers/oprah_car_tax/index.htm

For a brand new Pontiac G-Six, the model given away on the show, the sticker price is $28,500. The $28,500 would need to be claimed as income so, depending on the individuals tax bracket, the tax could be as high as $7,000. And that was after Pontiac agreed to pay most of the local charges, including state sales tax and licensing fees.

…

The Harpo Spokeswomen said winners had three choices. They could keep the car and pay the tax, sell the car and pay the tax with the profits or forfeit the car.

Sell the car, pay the tax with the profits–that’s still $21,000 more than you had when you walked in.

I don’t see that they’ve got a kick coming.

@Wee Bairn

Its the sanity of marble tile in a school where many people are happy just to not walk on dirt. I get the whole “good surroundings you’ll do better, etc”, all that.

If you “get” it, then why keep harping on it? You’d prefer that the po’ folks be content with linoleum?

@Wee Bairn

But there is a difference in “nice” and ridiculously opulent. Hell, I would bet some places in Brunei don’t have the shit this school has.

I’m going to need a cite for that “ridiculously opulent”. I’ve looked at the video tour twice now, and it seems pretty spartan to me. Nice hardwood floors, yes, but I don’t see any solid-gold taps or crystal chandeliers. The girls’ bathroom just looks like a nice upscale movie theater or mall ladies room, not the harem at Brunei. All I can find is this.

She included luxury elements such as fireplaces in every building and white duvets for each bed.

OMG! A fireplace! In…EVERY BUILDING!! And…duvets! White ones! The horror, the horror…ay me, the downtrodden masses who had to pay with their life’s blood, toiling away, plucking geese from sunup to sundown, so 450 girls could each have their own bedspread!

Oy. :rolleyes: My Aunt Dorothy will be relieved to hear that she’s living in the lap of luxury, up there in her mobile home park in Michigan, with her fireplace and her duvet, not to mention her 300-count sheets, which you keep harping on about, but which–got a news flash for ya, you non-shopper you–are widely available at Target and Wal-Mart for 30 bucks a pop. Hardly “ridiculously opulent”, unless your definition of “reasonable” for sheet sets includes whatever fell off the truck at Big Lots for $5.99 each.

@Wee Bairn

And just because someone gives, doesn’t mean its for the right reason- I know people who “give” to look good.

So what? The kids still get their Air Jordans, whether there’s a media circus, a book deal, and a Nobel Peace Prize involved or not.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

@Wee Bairn

You gotta be kidding me- a Bible quote to prove your point?

Yup. Marvelously apropos, wasn’t it?

[Shirley_Ujest]

The only similarity between Oprah and the Catholic Church is that both she and the pope wear Prada.

Props.

[Miller]

@Wee Bairn

Yes, I don’t have marble tile, why should these poor South African girls have it, i’m a white 'merican? No.

Not to be a crass bastard, but do you really think a poor SA girl would know the look or feel of real vs. fake marble or whatever? What message is that to send anyway- if you work hard you can be like me, a wealth and luxury obssessed twit who spends money on pointless shit to impress others?

Yeah, I’m sure that’s precisely the message these girls get, while they’re sitting in the brand new building filled with modern amenities, getting a first rate education, entirely on the dime of a woman who lives on the other side of the world, whom they’d never even met before they enrolled in the school. What a horrible role-model that Oprah Winfrey is! Let’s hope no one ever follows her terrible example.

[Telemark]

@Wee Bairn

You gotta be kidding me- a Bible quote to prove your point?

At least DDG provided a quote. So far, you’ve provided nothing.

[Wee_Bairn]

@Miller

Now she’s morally responsible for what that teacher did? How in the blue bloody fuck does that work?

One could argue if there were no school, that particular abuse would not have happened. And yes, the girl would not have a chance to succeed without the school, etc, I get all that.

[Maeglin]

@Telemark

At least DDG provided a quote. So far, you’ve provided nothing.

Now that’s not fair. I have gotten a little bit of entertainment out of this.

[wring]

@Wee Bairn

One could argue if there were no school, that particular abuse would not have happened. And yes, the girl would not have a chance to succeed without the school, etc, I get all that.

but if the school hadn’t existed, maybe the girl in question would have been murdered. dija ever think of that? huh? and it, of course, would also have been Oprahs’ fault.

[askeptic]

@Wee Bairn

The internet is full of sensible people who agree with me.

Cite?

Come on you knew it was coming…

BTW is there such thing as a reverse tautology? Because the quoted sentence sure looks like one.

[Wee_Bairn]

@wring

but if the school hadn’t existed, maybe the girl in question would have been murdered. dija ever think of that? huh? and it, of course, would also have been Oprahs’ fault.

I said in my post “I get all that” meaning what you just said, I get “all that”. By your logic, anything that happens in the school short of murder is OK, becasue of the alternatives?

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

@Wee Bairn

Outhouse to toilet is one thing- outhouse to one of those talking Japanese toilets that cost 5 grand would be a better analogy.

Got a cite that shows that the toilets at the Learning Academy are the extremely expensive state-of-the-art kind?

@Wee Bairn

the idea that 100 girls are handpicked to live in opulence while others live in shit is offensive to me.

May as well not help any of them at all, huh? I mean, if you can’t help all 3,500 who applied, you might as well not do anything at all. Right?

They weren’t handpicked to “live in opulence”. They were handpicked to be taught to be future leaders rather than simple babymaking machines.

The academy staff sent out 5,500 applications, and an astounding 3,500 were returned. Each girl had to write an essay describing her dreams for the future and draw her dream house. Overall, 484 girls were chosen for interviews and academic testing. In the end, only 152 girls would make the cut.

So that’s not just 152 any old poor girls from Boondocks, S.A. Those are the 152 best and brightest, teacher-recommended, the ones with the gumption to get an application filled out and sent in, and the smarts to pass the tests.

If you had $3,500 to spend on charity on the North Side of Decatur, what would be the best use of your money: would it be better to give $10 to each of the 350 losers, drunks, druggies, and burnouts? Or would it be better to find the 10 most promising young’uns, the ones who looked like they might actually graduate from high school and go on to something–and give each one of them a $350 scholarship?

[wring]

@Wee Bairn

I said in my post “I get all that” meaning what you just said, I get “all that”. By your logic, anything that happens in the school short of murder is OK, becasue of the alternatives?

sweetie pie, I’m not sure that you should attempt to use the word ‘logic’.

[Miller]

@Wee Bairn

One could argue if there were no school, that particular abuse would not have happened. And yes, the girl would not have a chance to succeed without the school, etc, I get all that.

You’re retarded.