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The Spectacle Blog
None of your business:
This is a question that is often asked of officeholders (for instance, secretary of education Arne Duncan). Has it ever been answered better?
View all comments (40) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/06/17/why-dont-chris-christies-kids
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Al Adab| 6.17.11 @ 1:49PM
For the same reason that most of us who have a choice prefer something other than the local public school. There is a major failure of discipline at the schools and on the campuses, observe the "dress code" or lack thereof and then read the textbooks. I refer you to NRO today and to What Would the Founders Teach?
Tripp| 6.17.11 @ 9:35PM
LOLOLOLOLOL! God bless you Chris Christie. That idiot Mark Levin can trash you as much as he wants but you, sir, are the cure to all that ails this country. Americans deserve a Christie presidency.
ToddBeaucoudray| 6.17.11 @ 11:43PM
Obesity is a cure to all that ails this country? Talk about failure of discipline. Gluttony is listed in the same list as lust. If sex is so evil, then maybe overeating should be in there somewhere.
Note: I don't dislike this man, but when you judge, you do set yourself up to be judged. I actually find him quite likable, but I'm making the point Jesus made in that book so many on the Right claim to love.
NWBill| 6.18.11 @ 12:33AM
First of all, Todd, how dare you attack this man's physicality? It has absolutely nothing to do with how he carries out his duties as Governor, or where he and his wife send their kids to school. I just wonder if what you've posted on this site is something you'd be willing to say to the man's face; somehow, I doubt it ... just as I doubt your courage or manhood.
You've given us a typical liberal posted comment; attack the source, claim you "don't dislike" the person, and miss the entire point of what's being discussed here. And if you're going to talk about who follows the Bible and who doesn't, please point me to the Scripture that says you can verbally attack someone based on a point the Lord said! Don't bring Jesus into a discussion without the relevant verses to support yourself - that's sheer disrespect ... which is something you're obviously personally familiar with.
If you can open your mind and close your mouth long enough to watch this strong man, this leader, this courageous Governor and his actions, then you might learn something positive.
If you can't, then you're doing nothing but proving you're a liberal.
FastJohnny| 6.18.11 @ 9:17AM
Well, if obesity is his biggest problem, I am ok with that. Obesity can be managed, unlike some other maladys, like say: moral decrepitude (Weenerhead), narcississitic philandering (Clinton), bald faced bigotry (Eric Holder), pathological lieing (Edwards) or arrogant lecturing and finger waving (Obama). Yeah I know, finger waving and lecturing the American public isn't really a malady in most cases, but in his it seems to be, he can not stop himself from spitting on us unwashed masses.
Fr0sty| 6.17.11 @ 1:50PM
Priceless. But how come no one ever asks Obama that question? I wonder what he would say?
Timothy L. Pennell| 6.18.11 @ 7:47AM
OBAMA? Why doesn't anyone ask RANDI WEINGARTEN, the head of the TEACHER'S UNION, why HER KIDS didn't go to Public Schools. Ask the THOUSANDS of Public School TEACHERS and ADMINISTRATOS why THEIR KIDS don't go to Public Schools.
PattyMor| 6.17.11 @ 2:09PM
No one with any amount of money sends their kids to the Chicago Public Schools, except for the few magnet schools and the swells cheat to get their kids admitted over the minorities.
USSAlabama| 6.17.11 @ 2:43PM
Don't they do that with everything else too?
(What ARE swells? )
Teflon93| 6.17.11 @ 3:34PM
Swells: Glitterati. Elites. The Ruling Class. Apparatchiks. Nomenklatura. The In Crowd. The Kleptocracy.
Occam's Tool| 6.17.11 @ 10:41PM
Swells---Originally used in Edwardian England, I believe---a favorite term of Pierce Egan, author of Boxiana. Description--what Teflon said.
Teflon93| 6.17.11 @ 2:18PM
I love the Fat Man.
The real question is why so many public school teaches and administrators do the same.
daisy| 6.17.11 @ 2:36PM
I'm really starting to like this guy.
NWBill| 6.18.11 @ 12:41AM
I've been liking this guy for a LONG time! Forget "Jersey Shore" - they should just follow this guy around and put on tape how he deals with idiots and people who can't see beyond their noses, like "Gail." Governor Christie has shown, over and over, that he "gets" it - Americans don't want to be talked "down" to ... they want to be treated like adults. He treats people like adults - and when they poke their nose into his personal business like "Gail" did, he doesn't shy away from telling them to mind their own business.
Richard Baker| 6.17.11 @ 3:58PM
Christie said that which I'd love to say to the lefty busybodies. The voters aren't always right. Go Christie!
southernsue| 6.17.11 @ 4:30PM
i like him too, however, it is going to take a person with more courage than christie to change public schools.
the biggest way to change public school is to get the government out of it and privatize the whole thing.
NWBill| 6.18.11 @ 12:44AM
Leave it to the states. That's the answer. The feds screw it up just like everything else they get into that they really don't have constitutional authority to get into. If you leave it to the states, and just block-grant tax dollars to them instead of the useless Dept. of Education, then at least when Illinois screws up its' schools (as they've done), then it's just on Illinois; no one else is paying for it.
The politician who gets rid of both the feds' participation in anything having to do with education except for national standards, and the Department of Education, will be truly loved throughout the land.
rendite| 6.18.11 @ 1:03AM
NWBill, I am not disagreeing. But isn't even having say a Springfield (Illinois state capital and the place suffering from overabundance of Chicagoland state legislators) running the "Illinois state education program," isn't that also subject to overspending, abuse, corruption, and VERY, VERY poor results.
If one lives in, say, Carbondale, I really don't want Springfield or Chicago (certainly not Washington, D.C.) telling me how we're going to do it.
They are miles away. And just as they are geographically very distant, so I want them to keep their distance from my kids and our hometown's schools.
I agree with the poster that says we have to privatize ALL OF IT -- all K-12 education.
Schooling is NOT a governmental function.
mike w| 6.17.11 @ 4:31PM
He is quite the belligerent fatty I would say.
Regardless of the public vs private school issue, how a politician lives his private life, especially in the context of a public policy issue, matters. Just ask Weiner.
beebop| 6.17.11 @ 6:42PM
How you can make a connection with an exposed dick and the education of one's children is beyond me. Please tell me you vote demo ....
beebop| 6.17.11 @ 9:22PM
“When school children start paying union dues, that 's when I'll start representing the interests of school children.”
hope that makes it very clear.
Good friend -- voting demo -- teaches in a declining urban system and moves to upper middle class suburb so her kids get a "good" education. Gotta love those democrats.
Occam's Tool| 6.17.11 @ 10:44PM
Yes. Christie is saying that Liberal vermin have so damaged Public Schools that he wouldn't send his kids to them. Same reason I'm homeschooling mine.
I have my bones to pick with Mr. Christie on Foreign Policy issues. This is not an area I care to argue about. Republicans are in favor of school choice. Democrats are in favor of teacher's unions. Republicans can afford the "image hit" of sending their kids to good schools and stay in office. Dems can withstand the "image hit" of being sexual predators, and usually stay in office.
NWBill| 6.18.11 @ 12:49AM
And please explain to me how his girth has anything to do with this subject, or whether it's even you business. Are you his doctor? His brother? Trying to get him to jog with you every morning? Worried about what he eats? If it's "No" to those questions, then please keep your opinions on strangers' weight to yourself, ok?
Comparing Weiner to Christie, and saying there's a connection, shows a lack of intelligence that's surely the product of a public school education.
May I suggest to you a Catholic collegiate education? They teach civics and ethics there - which would be perfect for someone like you.
Frank| 6.18.11 @ 5:02PM
Mike W is a troll.
Christie's size has nothing to do with his intelligence or the validity of his opinions.
Anne M Erskine| 6.17.11 @ 5:18PM
LOVE CHRISTIE, THE STRAIGHT TALKER AND THE STRAIGHT SHOOTER and so are Paul Ryan, Allen West, Herman Cain, Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, Rudy Giuliani, and Perry - can't wait for Giuliani and Perry to get in the race. I HOPE HE WOULD ONE DAY Christie WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT - I AM SO SICK OF THE BS AND COWARDLY RESPONSES - outright lies and corruption OF SO MANY POLITICIANS AND THOSE WHO DESIRE TO BE POLITICIANS.
alice moore| 6.17.11 @ 7:09PM
It would be a valid question for Leftist politicians who extol public education but, send their children to cushy private schools.
We, on the conservative side, private citizens and politicians alike, don't have to justify it.
artesian jacket| 6.17.11 @ 7:37PM
I teach at a public high school. My daughter went to a local private Christian school. The deplorable state of the public schools was such that no one ever questioned me about it. Not that it would have mattered. The reason so many public school teachers send their children to private schools is that just maybe they know things going on that the public and the media are not aware of.
NWBill| 6.18.11 @ 12:56AM
Thanks, AJ. And, trust me - everyone in this country knows about bad schools, Even the union leaders who send THEIR kinds to private schools .... and why? BECAUSE THEY CAN!
If every parent in this country had the resources to send their kids to a private school, the public schools would close almost overnight. It's all about options; some people have more than others.
rendite| 6.18.11 @ 1:25AM
No, sadly, NWBill, many adult Americans have no idea what is occuring in our public K-12 schools (or the private ones for that matter).
The reasons are simple: One pays attention when one's own kids are attending. How much does the average resident in the county know about the county schools 6-7 years after your youngest has moved on?
Even as an involved grandparent there is MUCH that one cannot know.
At church about a month ago I learned about a 16 year old cross-dressing (every day apparently) male student who has 1) come out of the closet in a big way on his homsexuality -- with the aggressive backing of 6-7 faculty, 2) he's been lawyered up to force his way onto the football team (most of the heterosexual males, normal male teens have quit the team), and 3) this same boy? transexual? has boasted that he's getting -- this month -- gender altering surgery -- with again full support of 6-7 faculty.
This is in a red state. Easily 1/3 the families at this public high school attend churches or claim to. This is not a big city.
This is a high school where some teachers and staff prominently place rainbow stickers above their office nameplates to indicate that they are open and willing at any time to help encourage students to openly discuss their sexual interests, desires, relationships issues, and to aid in the "coming out of the closet" moments.
Where does 3R's education ever take place in a high school environment like this?
GROTESQUE!
I am sure it gets much, much worse than just this case.
So, no, I think that many, many are just unaware.
Frank| 6.18.11 @ 5:23PM
You are right about the popularity if people really had a choice. With our kids there was never any consideration of sending them to the public schools for K-8. Uniforms, smaller class sizes, less bureaucracy, and a 3 strikes policy for kids who violated the rules.
This is why teacher unions are so against voucher programs, they know if INFORMED parents have a choice, it will be good bye.
woohoo| 6.17.11 @ 9:56PM
None of our business, eh? He just made it our business that he sends his kids to Catholic school (we already knew that from his State Police helo trip to his son's baseball game) and he pays 13K a year in property taxes in one of the most affluent towns in NJ, So what's none of our business? The man needs to stop talking like a total tool to voters. There's gotta be more polite way to say "none of your business". After all, he's talking to voters.
NWBill| 6.18.11 @ 1:06AM
Let me remind you of something, Woo. A "voter" asked a personal question, and was rightfully rebuked for it. If it'd been me, I'd have said the same thing as Chris did. And the fact that he PAYS taxes for a system he chooses not to use is another justification for choosing not to use it - at least he's PAYING taxes, and not finding a loophole out of it, as Democrats try to do.
If Chris Christie had been standing right next to "Gail" when she asked that question, does anyone doubt he would have said the exact same thing? And what makes you think she'd think about voting for him more if he'd been more polite to her? Voters are stupid sometimes, just like politicians are. (see: Obama's election). Part of being adult is being able to handle it when someone is, perhaps, less than polite to you.
He didn't "make" it our business by saying he sends his kids to parochial school; "Gail" did. And that's why she was justifiably smacked down - because it isn't her business, and it isn't yours.
alice moore| 6.18.11 @ 8:21AM
"Gail" should ask the Obamas why their children attend Sidwell Friends and no a C Public School.
Frank| 6.18.11 @ 5:14PM
I think in Obama's case or any president with school age kids, before the election is even over, the secret service has a little chat with the candidate and in effect, says, "look, this is how it is going to be... your kids will go to this Sidwell school because we have it all scoped out, we know the background on everybody that comes within 300 feet of the place, and no arguments, thank you very much."
It is fine for Gail to ask the question. It was also fine for him to hammer her. There is quite a collection of youtube videos of Christie speaking his mind.
Occam's Tool| 6.19.11 @ 4:07AM
Frank,
I can certainly agree with that; however, it does not justify Obama stripping scholarships from poor smart black kids so that they will no longer be able to attend the Sidwell school.
Mike| 6.17.11 @ 11:19PM
I could care less where fatso's kids go to school.
Allie| 6.24.11 @ 5:20PM
I wish Gail was able to respond to such a rude response. If I was, this is precisely what I would have said..."Well Christie it's none of your business whether I CHOOSE to terminate a pregnancy or not so stop butting your head in my business and tell me what to do with my body (Christie is prolife) you disgusting human being. I don't tell you how to eat(although someone should) or do anything else with your body, life, etc.." I'd liked to see his "Christian" response to that!
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