Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
Okay, I’ll admit that my post title is awkward, but it sums up what California State Senator Mark Leno is trying to do in California public schools: namely, put a person’s sexuality front and center, with a tag-on coda about the person’s actual accomplishments. This isn’t the first time a
Continue readingA classic Seinfeld episode concerned George Costanza’s decision (at Kramer’s urging) to park in a handicapped zone. This being George, things went drastically wrong. What I remember from the episode, though, isn’t the cascading sequence of disasters; instead; it’s the opprobrium heaped upon George for parking in the blue. His
Continue readingThere is a pregnancy epidemic right now at the high school where I used to run a girls’ group. All the time I am shocked and saddened to see another young girl with a growing belly or another with babe in arms. There is no stigma at all. Whatever happened
Continue readingForty-one years too late, but it’s finally happening: Harvard University is welcoming the Reserve Officer Training Corps program back to campus this week, 41 years after banishing it amid dissent over the Vietnam War. The Cambridge, Mass., school’s change in policy follows the decision by Congress in December to repeal
Continue readingSeveral friends sent me links to a story about a “sex ed” class at Northwestern University. I was all set to write a post about the decline of Western standards, and the travesty that sees parents paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to send their kids to schools that do
Continue readingMr. Bookworm loves Jon Stewart. Most of his political views are shaped by Jon Stewart, except for those that get a helping hand from the New York Times. I therefore ending up watching more Jon Stewart than I like. What I’ve noticed about Stewart’s coverage on Wisconsin is that it’s
Continue readingBruce Kesler managed to burrow like a tick under the institutional skin of the AAUP (American Association of University Professors). Hurrah!!!
Continue readingMost of us here in the Bookworm Room express a healthy skepticism of “experts” in general. Most of us revel in our ability to think and discourse critically for ourselves, while others lament that socially-anointed “experts” are not solemnly revered through incense, incantations and burnt offerings made before the Temple
Continue readingThree people (and thank you to them!) have sent me a link to John Tierney’s article in the New York Times, about the almost complete absence of conservatives from the psychology field: It [this imbalance] was identified by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at the University of Virginia who studies
Continue readingI was at my church this past weekend and was struck by the large number of college-graduate children that are now back living at home with their parents, out of work. The impression I have is that many of these kids still have no idea what they want to do
Continue readingAs we settle into the Obama Depression era, one thing that I and others have noticed is that many of the very youth that voted enthusiastically for Obama are the ones already feeling the consequence of his policies: they are unemployed. As one of my college-age kids put it, “our
Continue readingThe University of Oregon has created a new job title: sustainability coordinator. What’s that you ask? It’s this: The position exists to harmonize the efforts of various environmental groups on campus in much the same way the Multicultural Center director works with the university’s multicultural student unions. This is a
Continue readingIvory Tower used to be a compliment. Now, just as ivory has degraded in social standing (the whole death of elephants thing), so too has the Ivory Tower’s star fallen (the whole death of logic, common sense, morality and actual education thing). This morning, I posted about UC Berkeley’s buffoonish
Continue readingI didn’t elect this guy. I can’t get rid of this guy. This guy is in charge of education for the roughly 33,000 students at UC Berkeley. This guy gets a salary that 90% of America would envy and that I, as a California taxpayer, help pay. This guy gets
Continue reading1. Bruce Kesler looks at the ramifications of the repeal of DADT. 2. The Ivy Leagues say they’ll allow military recruiters back on campus (which at least ends their hypocrisy of taking federal feds but denying the feds access). See here and here. I wonder if that will have a
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