29 August 2007

Intellectual Insight...

Another great essay from This I Believe on the workings of the world coming, this time, from the first Poet Laureate of Canada, George Bowering.  Yet another thoughtful person making ties to jazz.  Mr Bowering's essay is "The Holy Life of the Intellect"

I believe that the human intellect is the closest thing we have to the divine. It is the way we can join one another in spirit.

28 August 2007

A Ray of Sunshine...

So I listen to the NPR Podcast It's All Politics with Ken Rudin and Ron Elving. I think they're smart, clever and analytical, and their back and forth is full of beans. Of course, it's geeky, Washington political jibber-jabber. But tying in lots of things historically, this century especially, lends some perspective.

Listening to last week's podcast (8/23/07), they were commenting on the President's war speech talking about what we've done in the past and what we're doing now. Mr Bush made the controversial move of bringing up Vietnam in this speech. They commented on how relations between the United States and Vietnam have changed since the mid-70s, and the quote of the day is when the President visits Vietnam, he uses the slogan

I think we should let Saigons be Saigons.

Oh d'Joy...

21 August 2007

Leaving Different Ones Behind...

This has been the second day in a row reading articles in the Wall Street Journal (yes, I renewed it; I couldn't pass up my cheap subscription price) regarding the United States education reforms.  Particularly, these articles focus on mainstreaming disabled students into standard classrooms.  The original piece of legislation declaring this to be the law was written in 1975.

I think the idea works.  The idea, at least.  All too often, what occurs in practice isn't how it works in reality.  Still, these kids get a great chance to learn with their peers, and their peers get a chance to be exposed to some humility.  Goodness knows so many children these days need that lesson in humility and humanity.  While sometimes those with special needs get put where they oughtn't be (especially when there is a difference between behavioral disorders and learning disabilities), it's a good thing to try.

In 2001, our foresighted federal government passed another mass education reform: the No Child Left Behind Act.  Its principal was to ensure that children do not slip through the cracks during their education.  It is a noble goal, indeed.  However, it does expose some truths about children and schools.

Believe it or not, some kids do better in education than others.  I would even go far enough to say some are smarter than others, but that is quite an over-generalization on how things work.  So when the schools are told to make sure no kid fails, but they're already doing their best to get as many the best education they can, things get fudged.

Grades get fudged, and when the state requires 'checks' (ie, tons of testing) on students' academic progress, little things are done to help out. Extra time is given, reading comprehension exams are read aloud, and even calculators are given out when they are not called for. Every time this happens, the bar gets lowered a little more. And the bar has been lowering at an alarming rate for over a decade. We've succeeded! No child can be left behind now. We won the war on education.

But the truth is that it is different kids who are left behind. Reading a tidbit from Time, it turns out the gifted, the ones who will actually help continue and advance our world, are being left behind. Some argue that they will come out on their own; they don't need any help. That is hardly the case. What the best way to leave a bright child behind? Ignoring their achievements. You'll turn them off to the world so fast that by the time it's even realized, they would be as insubstantial as ghosts.

This very point was brought home to me a while back. I was working in the lab and looked out the window to see a select group of students waiting for a bus to arrive to take them on a trip. I could recognize about half of the kids, and quickly figured out that these were the under-achieving behavioral problem group. They were being awarded with a field trip. Why? I have no idea. Probably just because they showed up. I'm sure it was an incentive to keep their butts in the seats the rest of the year. All this while I'm sure there were twice as many gifted kids being bored out of their gourds in classrooms looking out at them.

These articles pointed out another group of kids being left behind still: those in special education. The mainstreaming combined with lowering of standards (punishment essentially ensues if a kid fails) means that the special needs kids aren't being taught to bring up their actual abilities. They are instead just being pushed through, helped along, and given diplomas that don't mean a thing. What good is a high school diploma when a kid is left at a sixth grade reading level? These kids deserve the little extra help from their qualified special education teachers to bring home the points taught to them in their mainstream classes, rather than being given assistance only to pass through the standardized testing that the system focuses too much on.

I do so wish I had a solution. But I would say that this really was the reason I majored in Political Science, so that I might enter into politics to change these frighteningly low standards and bring back the dignity that used to go along with a high school graduation and the prestige brought about by having a rare university education. The common folk of our country got running water, electrical power while still managing to split the atom on a miniscule percentage of the people having college and university educations.

18 August 2007

I Suddenly want a Pin-Up Calendar...

Here's a good blog, and even more good (albeit sometimes a touch out of touch) commentary following it.  Some is nonsense, of course, particularly the strain on porn, but they come back around when commenting more on violent pop culture (which I do think is an oxymoron).  Still, it was nice to read a bit more of the generally good discourse that the internet is capable of instead of the rubbish spewed as commentary on YouTube or MySpace.


In all, I think in this day and age, tossing a pin-up in my basement or, if the fates allow, a cabin would be to me a nice reminder that beauty can come in forms other than what's seen on television and that popular tastes (thankfully!) change over time.  Or maybe I'm just me and happen to dig the curves of women and am unattracted to, and even unsettled by, stick-thin women.

16 August 2007

A Quick Question...

When did Russ Ortiz get traded back to the Giants, and why did nobody tell me?  I loved that pitcher ever since his debut; he's a workhorse.


Oh yeah, and the Twins are still great, even if they only managed to win a couple games in the past week and a half.  Owning the Mariners is a good way of getting out of a slump.

Baseball is good for the soul.

14 August 2007

Ding Dong, the Devil's Gone...

Karl Rove Quits


Now, I don't condone what he did, but I also don't give him full credit.  The realignment of the Republican party on almost solely religious and cultural grounds began its success with the Richard Nixon election campaign in 1968.  It was how he beat the Solid South out of being Democratic since the Civil War.  Mr Rove, though, was a part of maintaining a Republican majority across the board for over a decade.  Of course that changed in the past few years when people started thinking with their pocketbooks again (I don't think the Democrats won, I think the Republicans lost their other, and far more principal, small-business, small-government, small-taxes base.)

Still, of all that's happened, only one image springs to mind: rats fleeing a sinking ship.  So many of the primary staffers, and even more of the behind-the-scenes I'm sure, are quitting, resigning, or being asked to leave.  If I was in their shoes, now would be a great time to desert a lame duck, hoping that the awful that is guaranteed to happen in the rest of the decade will erase from our collective short-term memory their actions.  Lord knows being prosecuted for one's actions would be a terribly unfair act.

What amazes me, and I have to remember, that back in 2000, had I had the opportunity to vote, I would have voted for President Bush.  After all, the man backing him, and the rest of his associates, were old veterans of classic world diplomacy since Nixon (who I still argue was our last qualified President).
(Found via Andrew Sullivan and attached is a great article by Scott Horton).
This is who I would have elected. It is most definitely not who is currently holding office.

So I bid, well, not farewell, but... um... I don't know.  Not goodbye.  Not farewell.  Not even a cheeky ta.  Ah, I know, a curt bye.  I bid a curt bye to a man who manipulated the poor and the ignorant, who destroyed how many view good Christians, and a man who I will not forget.  I will not let history vindicate this man.  Bye.

13 August 2007

A Red Hope...

Shhh... don't tell my Granddad:


08 August 2007

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

Heretical Thoughts about Science and Society
By Freeman Dyson


Here is another heretical thought. Instead of calculating world-wide averages of biomass growth, we may prefer to look at the problem locally. Consider a possible future, with China continuing to develop an industrial economy based largely on the burning of coal, and the United States deciding to absorb the resulting carbon dioxide by increasing the biomass in our topsoil. The quantity of biomass that can be accumulated in living plants and trees is limited, but there is no limit to the quantity that can be stored in topsoil. To grow topsoil on a massive scale may or may not be practical, depending on the economics of farming and forestry. It is at least a possibility to be seriously considered, that China could become rich by burning coal, while the United States could become environmentally virtuous by accumulating topsoil, with transport of carbon from mine in China to soil in America provided free of charge by the atmosphere, and the inventory of carbon in the atmosphere remaining constant. We should take such possibilities into account when we listen to predictions about climate change and fossil fuels. If biotechnology takes over the planet in the next fifty years, as computer technology has taken it over in the last fifty years, the rules of the climate game will be radically changed.

When I listen to the public debates about climate change, I am impressed by the enormous gaps in our knowledge, the sparseness of our observations and the superficiality of our theories. Many of the basic processes of planetary ecology are poorly understood. They must be better understood before we can reach an accurate diagnosis of the present condition of our planet. When we are trying to take care of a planet, just as when we are taking care of a human patient, diseases must be diagnosed before they can be cured. We need to observe and measure what is going on in the biosphere, rather than relying on computer models.

07 August 2007

Selling the First Amendment...

It has been a regular debate in my mind the past month as to whether or not to renew my subscription to the Wall Street Journal.  I love the paper, but hardly get a chance to read it daily, and usually only skim what I can before someone calls my name and I'm off to save the world yet again.  Plus, with money being the necessity to feed and clothe my son (I still say kids should just be wrapped in towels until they get to school age) those things might take precedence over my reading tidbits of one of the last good news sources in the United States.


Now since reading and watching Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp's buyout of Dow Jones and, most importantly, its newspaper division.  While I am sure it was a tough decision for the Bancroft family that owns the majority of Dow Jones, I think it will be an even tougher decision for the millions of Journal readers whether or not to renew.  It is for me now, and I get a huge discount.

A big question about the Bancrofts is 'do they really need that much more money?'  It was already a profitable business, albeit not in the realm of billions upon billions, but quite securely profitable by any measure.  It is a bit of a sad testament that every person has their price, and with my family to provide for, my morals might be a little loosened as well.

Another is, did they sell out journalistic integrity?  The Wall Street Journal, arguably, is one of the last great maintays of American news reporting.  With its specific business and politics scope, people assume it does not really apply to them, but it touches everyone's lives, even my little one up here in the north.  Really, what part of an American's life isn't touched by either government actions or business plans?  Disney and Wal-Mart matter to us all.

But being an island of a business among the massive conglomerates of the world made the Journal special, and made it free.  Free to act and report as it sees fit, and really, its free enterprise has served it well.  Even when the world is turning away from print and even television media, Dow Jones is still turning a profit on its own.  It had to follow no other greater business plan beyond its very own.

That freedom is something it should not lose.  Having clean sources of news in the wireless world is a rare and valuable commodity.  And I will miss the Journal when it gets absorbed into whatever viewpoint sells.

Mark my words, my dear readers (both of you), that the Wall Street Journal will someday, most likely sooner than later, be tainted by Rupert Murdoch's grimy hands.  It will be slow and imperceptible at first, but in the coming years, it will be hard to find that which doesn't follow his views on each page.  Hopefully the terms that the Bancroft family insisted upon will at least keep it from looking like the crazy of Fox News.  I dread Bill O'Reilly or Ann Coulter printed in the Journal.  Those maniacs and their ilk need to be as far from authority and clout as oil and water.  That awful scenario might be more slick than one would think.  Since the opinions and editorials tend to have a more conservative tilt than the rest of the paper, that is where it would start slipping in.

Worst of all, I fear that this great newspaper will become another one of Mr Murdoch's whores.  What all his tabloid papers and cable channels really do is pander.  That's all giant conglomerates do.  Put out garbage that looks nice enough initially to buy into.  Some would argue that news and journalism work alongside all other forms of media and entertainment that it makes them just another choice.  But that is a rather dim view of the importance news and press have in maintaining a free society.

There is a very good reason that freedom of the press is in the very first of our Bill of Rights.  We citizens need a free press to help us keep an eye on the government (not necessarily be the 'fourth branch') so we may participate or even revolt if necessary.  If the press is not so different from watching videos on YouTube or voting for American Idol, then we do not even deserve our freedoms.

I still hold out a small hope that the Bancroft family will realize what they sold and renege on the deal.  I have a feeling that is why Mr Murdoch offered so much far and beyond the current stock value: so no one could buy it away.  I have hope, but then, I am a fool for hope.

Worst, though, I see Aldous Huxley and George Orwell in a great intellectual clash right now.  It is a battle in which there is no victor.