Technical-fix education reforms have failed
I’m in Chicago, and I was pleased to open the Chicago Tribune and read a sensible op-ed by Steve Chapman on education reforms.
Considering reform moves over the past two decades, Chapman finds that “Coming up with solutions for public education, it turns out, is easy. Coming up with solutions that ...
Nebraska law is first to ban abortion on fetal pain basis
Nebraska passed a law on Tuesday that bans most abortions 20 weeks after conception or later. What’s unique about this law is that is is the first to restrict abortions on the grounds that the fetus feels pain.
Some states require counseling to women contemplating an abortion, and are told ...
South Hadley suicide: the dangers of stressing vulnerability
Guest Post by Nancy McDermott
A sad story of teenage suicide in a small town has become a national fascination.
Last week three teenage girls pleaded “not guilty” to civil rights violations and harassment in the death of Phoebe Prince, a ...
In defence of science and progress
In this TED talk video clip, Michael Specter, a New Yorker journalist who writes about health and ...
Family is becoming “more important” in America
Writing in Forbes, Joel Kotkin argues that the American family, despite claims of its decline, “is becoming not less but more important”.
Some facts that Kotkin marshals to establish his case:
“80 percent of Americans eventually get married, often after cohabitation” “Since 1982 the number of those over 35 who give birth have more ...Bacevich: “Osama is not Hitler,” use police not military
Bill Moyers has a very interesting interview with Andrew Bacevich, a professor of international relations at Boston University and a former US Army colonel (watch video here).
Here is Bacevich’s perspective on Osama bin-Laden and the war on terror:
BILL MOYERS: In this context, then, what do we do about what ...
Obama’s NASA plan: an “elaborate wake” for human spaceflight
Last month, President Obama announced proposals for restructuring the NASA space program, and a key plank of his new approach was to rely much more on commercial companies.
As I noted earlier, this sounds more like the outsourcing of leadership. And as an article in today’s New York Times today finds, it turns out ...
Play ball!: baseball season begins
Nothing says “spring is here” like the start of the baseball season. And this past weekend marked the beginning of Little League baseball in our town, like thousands across the country.
Major League Baseball inaugurated its ...
This week’s articles of note
“Time to rebalance: special report on America’s economy,” The Economist, by Greg Ip
“Building a green economy,” New York Times Magazine, by Paul Krugman
“Up from slavery,” Reason, by David Boaz
“Making the rest of the world crazy,” (Review of Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche, ...
Democratic Party image at historic low
After the health bill passed last month, the President Obama and the Democratic congress appeared to be on the rebound. Celebrations among Democrats suggested a new confidence, and Obama was said to have a new spring in his step. But as I noted earlier (here), these celebrations seemed inconsistent with the ...
ABOUT SEAN COLLINS
I write about American current affairs for Spiked, the online magazine. I am a native New Yorker, and I divide my time between New York City and upstate New York.
In addition to articles for Spiked, The Australian and other publications, I contributed an essay, "BDS: Demonizing Israel, Destroying Free Speech," for the book Unsafe Space: The Crisis of Free Speech on Campus (2016). I also wrote a chapter on New York City's economy for the book London After Recession: A Fictitious Capital? (2012).
My writings have been cited in American Conservative, Arts & Letters Daily, the Financial Times, Fox News, the Huffington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, the New York Times, Real Clear Politics, and the Times of London, among other media.
For more about The American Situation site, go here.
