I was not aware of this but apparently the use of all electronic devices is banned in federal courts. Maurtez Prince, 22, of Cleveland, learned this the hard way when he was sentenced to 30 days in jail for contempt for tweeting and taking photographs of a friend of his during the latter’s sentencing hearing in the U.S. District Courthouse in Akron. [Read more…]
President Obama has presided over one of the most opaque administrations in history, even worse than the Bush administration that was so bad that Obama’s promise to have the most transparent administration ever was greeted with great hope and optimism by advocates of open and clean government. [Read more…]
Nearly three decades ago, work by James R. Flynn revealed that average IQ scores in developed countries were rising at a stunning pace, of the order of 0.3 points per year or more. Later work showed similar explosive gains in developing countries and that the rise (now dubbed ‘the Flynn effect’) is still continuing. How did he find this? Recall that although IQ tests themselves have changed over time, each revision requires the IQ scores to be normed to always have an average value of 100. So does someone who scores 100 today have the same IQ of someone who scored 100 say fifty years ago, since they took different tests? Flynn found that if you give people today old IQ tests, their scores rose steadily the older the tests, suggesting that IQ tests have got harder over time. (James R. Flynn, Are We Getting Smarter?, 2012) [Read more…]
I just watched the latest work by guerilla filmmaker Robert Greenwald. He is developing a new form of journalism that makes documentaries on important issues that are timely because they are low-budget and filmed on a short schedule, and then sells them (or even gives them away free) directly to people, bypassing the usual channels of theaters or TV, and encourages them to arrange free screenings for others. He has produced and/or directed the following: [Read more…]
The Washington media talking heads had a wonderful week with the trifecta of scandals that suddenly engulfed the Obama administration. I paid just cursory attention to them, following my rule that the things that get the most attention from the chattering classes are the ones of least significance. The main consequence is to distract attention from major wrong doing that has bipartisan and elite approval, such as the continuing abuse of prisoners in Guantanamo, indefinite detention, the drone killing program, the egregious violations of civil rights, and the continuing swindling by the financial sector and the one-percenters. [Read more…]
In a previous post, I wrote about how in the US, the Supreme Court has ruled that although the government cannot force parents to send their children to public schools, the states can set reasonable standards that must be met by the educational system they do choose, whether it be private, parochial, or home school. The catch is what standards can be considered ‘reasonable’. It seems like in the US, the standards seem to be minimal, as can be seen in the fact that Hassidic schools spend seven out of the eight-hour school day on religious studies, which to me constitutes a form of abuse. [Read more…]
There is a conference scheduled to be held to try and bring together Catholics and Evangelicals to see if they can resolve their differences on heaven, hell, and purgatory. The announcement says: [Read more…]
Yesterday President Francois Hollande of France signed the same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption legislation into law making it the 14th country to do so, after the Constitutional Court rejected attempts by opponents to stop it. The court ruled, reasonably enough, that it “did not run contrary to any constitutional principles”, nor did it infringe upon “basic rights or liberties or national sovereignty”. [Read more…]
The balance between the rights of parents and the state to determine the wellbeing of young children is a delicate one. Few would argue that the rights of the parents cannot be infringed on in any way. If a child’s life and health is endangered because of abuse or neglect, the state should and does have the right to intervene. [Read more…]