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Thursday, April 25. 2013

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Bitter Clingers Have Taken Over Your Television, or How America Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Duck

Why topless protesters will hound Islamic leaders

Gingrich, Cutter in Talks on Re-Launched ‘Crossfire’

NRA T-Shirt Is Back in School, in Multiple Copies

Keep the kids ignorant: Texas follows California in dropping algebra requirement

You can't do much in life without it

Michael Bloomberg's Authoritarian Instincts:

" Bloomberg is an authoritarian. He's not an authoritarian in the way Josef Stalin or Pol Pot was authoritarian, but every instinct tells you he's a man who would use any power given to him to govern every aspect of public and private life whenever necessary -- or, more precisely, whenever he finds it necessary, which is frequently. All said, he's exactly the type of person who makes the Constitution a necessity.

Anyone who believes your caloric intake is government's prime concern should be watched carefully..."

Wehner: Metaphysics and Politics in the
Modern Age

In Florida, a food-stamp recruiter deals with wrenching choices

How Many Will Get Legalized by the Gang of Eight’s Immigration Plan? Senator Says More than the Entire State of Texas!

Ban pressure cookers! Williams-Sonoma Pulls Pressure Cookers Off Shelves

Why is Chelsea Clinton an Administrator at NYU?

How American elites went insane

It's an opus

Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 05:10 | Comments (18) | Trackbacks (2)

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Re: a food-stamp recruiter deals with wrenching choices

I guess there aren't enough people on food stamps since we have to recruit them.

Over on Theo Spark, they point out that only in America could somebody be on a terror watch list and welfare at the same time.

Sigh...

#1 mudbug on 2013-04-25 08:56 (Reply)

How American elites went insane

Who are you calling elite? Having matriculated at a famous college, where they develop a severe case of diarrhea in speech and page does not make them elite. Famous perhaps, and certainly incestuous, which explains Chelsea Clinton's NYU job, but again not elite.

Granted, they like to consider themselves "elite" but when we use it we should use it with the like calling high government officials "The Honorable". On occasion, one is, but the majority, not so much.

#2 JKB on 2013-04-25 09:11 (Reply)

How American elites went insane

Wow - I guess - it took me a while to read and parse it. He makes no small amount of sense though. I'll have to read it again to get the full effect.

Michael Bloomberg's Authoritarian Instincts:

I'm very proud to say that I predicted this. He's a small man with the outsized sense of power that small men have when they begin to gain any sort of authority. However large these men think themselves to be, they usually play to a small audience - in this case the urban setting. He gets national play certainly, but he's not a national authority figure - he's a living, waking, breathing joke with limited national appeal.

Texas follows California in dropping algebra requirement

The further dumbing down of America's children. If anything Algebra I should be a graduation requirement rather than an option. For the life of me, I can't understand it.

#3 Tom Francis on 2013-04-25 09:18 (Reply)

It was an option in the 8th grade which I took and it was a requirement in my High School circa late 70's. Calculus was the High School option which I also took.

#3.1 phil g on 2013-04-25 10:17 (Reply)

What's worse than delaying algebra until high school is having students graduate high school not being able to do basic math.

Trying to be generous to my community, I offered summer internships to a few area high school graduates only to find they couldn't do long division or work with percentages, not to mention spell or punctuate a sentence.

Every few years, some dimwitted, but "connected" academic sells another program such as "New Math" or "Whole Language" to school districts that takes more time for teachers to master (forget about parents) than it would have taken for one-on-one tutoring to get the student(s) over the hump.

Back in the olden days at my high school, freshman year offered Algebra I and II; sophomore year consisted of Plane and Solid Geometry; junior year, Trig and Pre-Calc; senior year, Calculus. We had a math club in grammar school, so some students already had a background in algebra and some geometry, and some h.s. students chose a slower path, but all the elements for a solid math education were available to college-bound students.

Mastery is the issue. A sixty-year-old textbook on the basics still applies. Students with more enthusiasm can go to Kahn Academy online.

#4 jma on 2013-04-25 10:32 (Reply)

Order was slightly different when I was in HS, but same material. And it worked.

Even better, because of high expectations, many average students pushed themselves and took harder classes. They struggled but learned far more than sitting back and doing nothing. And I think it benefitted later on.

Mastery is an important key. Lost is the fact that it's particularly important for elementary school kids. Take some more time for them to master addition, and the rest will come (and come easier).

But that's not gimmicky enough for today's education professionals.

#4.1 DrTorch on 2013-04-25 12:02 (Reply)

"Keep the kids ignorant: Texas follows California in dropping algebra requirement"

Dropping a useless class that they'll never use in their lives is keeping kids "ignorant"?

At the risk of embarrassing BD, I think I'll do a post on this ridiculousness next week. In the meantime, please start collecting all of those valuable times you've used algebra in your normal daily life.

If ever.

#5 Dr. Mercury (Link) on 2013-04-25 11:00 (Reply)

Well, it isn't the day to day usage but the formalized abstract thinking and learning to apply rules to reduce complexities to more understandable forms.

We certainly wouldn't want those kids to be thinking, now would we? Granted, most of Algebra is terribly taught by terrible teachers so you get rule based instruction but must develop the understanding on your own. But of course, if a kid at 15 choses not to study Algebra is shutting off the possibility at 18 of starting a course in science or engineering without spending time and money to catch up to those who chose differently.

Algebra is the start of deducing things even when the specifics are unknown. Choosing the reasonable solution while rejecting the other. Working out a multiplier which has a more profound impact than an additive or subtractive element. And let's not forget the Liberal Arts holy grail of critical thinking, problem solving, analysis. Sure those are fine to do with book and lecture but why limit the ability to apply them to the real world?

#5.1 JKB on 2013-04-25 12:42 (Reply)

Yes! An excellent example was a landscaper building a free-form garden pool and trying to calculate the amount of liner needed to accomplish the design at the lowest cost. If one has a good mastery of a subject, one often doesn't realize that it's algebra or geometry, etc. The brain just adjusts to use whatever accumulated knowledge to work out the best solution.

#5.1.1 jma on 2013-04-25 13:01 (Reply)

Chelsea is an administrator because NYU wants to make sure Bill & Hillary make appearances at their school from time to time for less than the going rate. I wonder how accomplished Chelsea feels in life? All of the doors opened for her have nothing to do with her own achievements. Must be pretty embarrassing to walk around campus knowing you didn't earn your place.

#6 MissT on 2013-04-25 11:06 (Reply)

Must be equally embarrassing to walk around campus knowing that everyone else also knows you didn't earn your place.

#6.1 Agent Cooper on 2013-04-25 23:23 (Reply)

Not sure the Clinton's are ever embarrassed, and she probably feels that she did earn her place, she used all the standard Washington maneuvers, it's not what you know it's who you know in Washington - and she knows everybody.

The concept of merit is for the schmucks in the red states, it is thrown out as "work hard and do the right thing and you too may succeed." The reality is that between Wall Street and the government the game is rigged for the insiders and it will continue this way until it all falls apart ala ancient (or even modern) Rome.

#7 Berourke on 2013-04-25 11:28 (Reply)

Clearly I need to be an Islamist leader so's I can have me sumathem protesters!

*********Talks on Crossfire links to NRA T-Shirts.***********

I had algebra in 9th grade; Trigonometry, Geometry, and Calc in HS. Haven't done calc since college, nor trig, but I'm glad I had them.

Bloomie is a clear illustration of how smart NYC voters are (not to mention subscribers to the NYT.

I'm not yet ready to say The Gang Of 8 is worse than China's Gang Of 4...

Let's not have anyone saying they're having a "blow-out sale" on pressure cookers.

Chelsea? It's because she's just so gosh-darn cute!

#8 Sam L. on 2013-04-25 12:18 (Reply)

Here is a link for the Crossfire story. I'm not sure it was the intended one, but I'm trying fruitlessly to avoid the annoying Newsmax any way that I can:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/04/cnn-in-talks-with-newt-gingrich-stephanie-cutter-for-162439.html

There are some amusing quotes about it on Twitchy and an Ezra Klein story also...

#8.1 Douglas2 on 2013-04-25 12:33 (Reply)

Here's what I wonder: does the average American pay much attention to any of this? Over on Drudge they have an article about the black caucus coming out against the immigration bill becuase black unemployment is already so high. Duh. Common sense. Applies to whites, too. Just take a look at how many older engineers get laid off to be replaced by cheap hires from India and China (the famous H1B visas which "everybody" favors, even conservatives -- except people w/ common sense).

I think most Americans do not want to think about any of this. So the elitist left get away with running everything.

#9 Park Slope Pubby on 2013-04-25 12:22 (Reply)

I think that most topless protestors would be...less than interesting. But I would think that some would be genuinely distracting. If I can get my wife's approval, I might volunteer to go study this trend.

#10 Dangerous Dean on 2013-04-25 13:02 (Reply)

Sheesh! The guy gets some bad press and...

http://www.stanforddaily.com/2013/04/16/in-defense-of-michael-bloomberg/

Never mind.

Joe

#11 Joe Rooney on 2013-04-25 13:34 (Reply)

I don't live in NYC and would never live in a city that prefers to allow armed criminals run free while disarming it's citizens.

#12 bgarrett on 2013-04-29 04:17 (Reply)

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Thursday, April 25. 2013

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