“Misinformation was presented as fact, truth was twisted and nobody showed any inclination to listen to scientists, let alone learn from them. It has been an embarrassing display, not just for the Republican Party but also for Congress and the US citizens it represents. One lawmaker last week [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Ideas’
Ran Yunfei (冉云飞): Another Chinese Imprisoned for Daring to Use Free Speech
Ran Yunfei (冉云飞) has been sentenced to ten years for advocating free speech on his blog. “In a free country I would happily spend my life in the library doing research. But I live in a country where I cannot in good conscience merely live such a a life. I feel that I have no […][...]
The Wedge: A Chilling Tale of a Possible Future
The sun shone on another day of Summer Session on campus in a small college town. In a large yet somewhat stuffy lecture hall in one of the oldest buildings, the professor had reached a favorite part of his lecture on this period in European history. His voice didn’t drone on—it rose as [...]
The Beatification of a Pope
by Bill Briggs, Huffington Post, excerpted Critics of (John Paul’s) sainthood … are simply asking is: did he, as pope, offer a blueprint that we, as humans, should be following?….. As I reported my book, The Third Miracle, the Indiana nun who spearheaded the campaign for the most r[...]
Taxing the Rich: Great in Boom Times BAD now!
Nearly half of California’s income taxes before the recession came from the top 1% of earners: households that took in more than $490,000 a year. High earners, it turns out, have especially volatile incomes—their earnings fell by more than twice as much as the rest of the population’s [...]
OF BLASPHEMY AND BLAME II
A week ago, I posted a comment on the Pope’s recent assertion that only a few Jews of Jesus time were guilty of deicide. My main argument was that the Pope, in the tradition of his predecessors, avoided the real issue … blaming Rome for its brutality toward the Jews.1700 years [...]
March 25th, 2011 - 2:12 pm § in America, Schools & Colleges
RIGHT OF FACULTY TO SPEAK OUT: Playing Zorro
GOP DEMANDS EMAILS OF UWisc. HISTORY PROFESSOR Ed. Remember Batman? How about Zorro? Batman and Zorro could fight crime only while their Bruce Wayne or Don Diego de la Vega identities were kept secret. Here on campus we are all “Zorro”: no matter how idealistic our goals might [...]
March 22nd, 2011 - 6:28 am § in America, Schools & Colleges
WGU’s model for “online education.” There IS a better way.
Ed. The discussion the last couple of days here has referred to “online education” as if that were some sort of magic. BroadWebcast a lecture, add some mulitple choice questions and … you are ONLINE! This sort of computer based learning is just a sad extension of the overlo0asded c[...]
OHIO: How to Eliminate Higher Education
Ed. This is hilarious. Among other ideas, Gov. Kasich wants students to graduate from college in three years. Combine that with the Washington state pattern of shifting the first two years out of Universities to the community colleges, and we can pump out BAs and BSs in ONE YEAR! Didn’t GM [...]
March 17th, 2011 - 3:19 pm § in America, Schools & Colleges
UTexas Extraordinary Alum Decries Efforts to Downgrade Academic Quality of UT
UT Regent: There’s nothing wrong with a Chevy education. Ed. I wonder if this guy actually thinks everyone in Texas is getting a Cadillac? Maybe there are even some kids there who deserve a BMW or Infiniti? Read the letter written to Regent Chairman Gene Powell by Gordon Appleman, ranked as [...]