One of the interesting things about the current government and debt ceiling impasses is that some of the harshest criticisms of Republican party tactics are coming from conservatives who can’t seem to believe how rapidly their party is going downhill. Here is Rod Dreher writing in The American Conservative asking, “Is this what American conservatism is turning into?” He cites a memo about what a focus group of Republicans revealed about what is driving the Republican party extremism. [Read more…]
A Malaysian court of appeals has ruled that only Muslims can use the name Allah to refer to god, even though other religions have been doing so for centuries, since the word entered the Malay language from Arabic a long time ago and is the word used for god in Malay translations of the Bible. This despite the fact that Christians in Indonesia and much of the Arab world use the word Allah with no problems (as yet). [Read more…]
The appalling testing mania that is permeating US education has steadily been going down to lower and lower grade levels. It has now reached even the kindergarten level, with little children having to learn how to answer multiple choice tests, one of the worst forms of assessment. [Read more…]
Malcolm Gladwell has made a good career out of taking a few research findings, buttressing them with a few stories from here and there, and creating sweeping, plausible, and appealingly counter-intuitive theories about human behavior, while ignoring anything that disagrees with his thesis. As someone once said, the facts agree with Gladwell’s theories except when they don’t but you’ll have to find those on your own. [Read more…]
Below is a video of a person who seems to have little idea of how to get out of a tight parking spot. It is excruciating to watch because you constantly feel the urge to yell out “No! No! Don’t cut that way, cut the other way!” We have to give credit to the driver though for not hitting any of the other cars. We also have to admire the patience of the person in the black station wagon at the top left who had to endure all this while waiting to exit. [Read more…]
Case Western Reserve University has been named one of the top ten geekiest colleges in the nation. (You can see the rankings in other categories here.) The list was compiled by HerCampus. In its description of my university, the site says: [Read more…]
Today is a federal holiday known as Columbus Day in the US because this country continues to honor the memory of one of the most horrific mass murderers in history, a greedy, vicious, slaveholding monster, someone who should actually be reviled and condemned. Having a national holiday in his name seems to put him on a par with Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr.. [Read more…]
The headline on this article in today’s Washington Post says it all: “Senate leaders’ talks on shutdown, debt limit stall as sides await market’s reaction”. Apparently, the leaders in Congress are waiting to see what happens to the stock market today to see if there is a crisis that will force them to act. [Read more…]