Archive for the ‘Society’ Category
“Don’t touch my junk”
Will John Tyner become the latest American folk (mass media) hero for uttering those words? As you will learn from this video, Tyner refused to be scanned by one of the new, full-body Advanced Imaging Technology machines at San Diego airport. He then resisted a TSA agent’s attempt to swipe his hand over his body, including […]
Anti-religious holiday messages are not humanistic
The American Humanist Association (AHA) and similar groups will soon be launching an anti-religion advertising blitz to coincide with the holiday season. The AHA’s campaign will contrast violent and sexist passages from the Bible and Koran with quotes from non-believers like Albert Einstein and Katharine Hepburn. It differs from last year’s “Be Good for Goodness Sake” theme. […]
Juan Williams and illiberal liberalism
National Public Radio’s firing of its reporter and pundit Juan Williams is disturbing for advocates of free expression and debate. NPR is, of course, free to hire and fire whoever they want; Williams did not have a job for life. And, in my opinion, he’s not a particularly insightful commentator. But the circumstances of his firing are problematic. […]
Free speech not allowed on campus
Campus speech codes have not gone away, says George Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), in this video interview with Reason.tv. Lukianoff says that 71 per cent of campuses still impose highly restrictive codes. These codes stifle free speech, and treat students like children.
Authoritarian NYC to poor: “No soda for you!”
New York has announced another move in its authoritarian campaign against obesity. Thomas Farley and Richard Daines, the health commissioners for New York City and New York State respectively, have an op-ed in today’s New York Times entitled “No food stamps for sodas”. They announce: New York City and State are asking the United States Department of […]
The “small schools are better” dogma
At times it seems that everyone in the education debate is in favor of smaller schools and class sizes. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent millions to break up bigger schools. A new movie, Waiting for Superman, extols the benefits of charter schools with smaller-than-usual student numbers. As commensensical as it sounds, there is […]
Mapping segregation in New York and other cities
An interesting map of segregation by race in New York City, by Eric Fischer. Red is for Whites, Blue is for Blacks, Green is for Asians, Orange is for Hispanics, Gray is for Others. Each dot is 25 people. Fischer has mapped the largest 40 cities in the US (see here). Hard to know exactly what […]
Let the kids walk to school!
The always-interesting (and funny) Lenore Skenazy has a superb opinion piece in today’s Wall Street Journal, in honor of the start to the school year. Skenazy cites a statistic that only about one in 10 kids walks to school today. Even kids that live within walking distance aren’t walking to school. And forget about biking to school too. […]
Race to the Top: lasting damage in exchange for peanuts for a few
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that 10 states won education reform money in the second round of the administration’s “Race to the Top” contest. Now that nearly all the federal finance has been distributed, perhaps people will sit back and evaluate the competition in a more sober way. New York was one of the […]
Jay-Z’s “Empire State”: not the anthem to modernity we need
James Harkin’s recent comment piece in The Guardian, “Jay-Z’s hymn to modernity”, does not get the significance of this rap mega-hit exactly right. Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” does celebrate New York City, but falls short of upholding the challenge and potential of modernity – something that New York sorely needs today. Harkin says that, […]