Education: society doesn’t affirm adult authority
Last week I posted about the Obama administration’s support for closing schools, and Diane Ravitch’s response. Elizabeth Green’s feature in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, “Building a better teacher,” certainly provided a helpful corrective to the Bush and Obama top-down approaches, as it highlighted how much depends on the skills ...
Big Love and Mad Men: is America free-floating with anxiety?
While most of the country was watching the Oscars, HBO was airing the finale of Season 4 of Big Love, its drama about a polygamous family in Utah.
Big Love has been one of the best dramas on TV these past few months. It is interesting how its focus on a non-mainstream family ...
Obama to NASA: don’t boldly go
At the end of January, President Obama announced a major change to NASA’s space program when he put forward his budget request to congress. This week congressmen from both parties criticized the White House plans, and took it out on NASA chief Charles Bolden, who appeared before House ...
Gary Vay-ner-chuk on wine
The wine videos that sum up WLTV. Instant classic-Episode #125 @ Yahoo! VideoI have ...
This week’s articles of note
“Building a better teacher,” The New York Times Magazine, by Elizabeth Green
“Hotheaded Emanuel may be White House voice of reason,” Washington Post, by Jason Horowitz
“Undying creed: the acceleration of our exceptionalism,” World Affairs, by Joel Kotkin
“What happened to New York’s moxie?” Foreign Policy, by James Traub
From post-modern formalism to moral questioning
Paul Auster’s latest novel, Invisible, is a meditation upon the transition from adolescence to adulthood. It explores the intensity of experiences in that period, and how our ...
Health debate: Republicans offer career advice to Dems
So, it looks like President Obama and the Democrats in congress might finally make a run at passing healthcare reform legislation.
Obama today urged congress to arrange an “up or down vote” on the measure (by which he means the congressional tactic called “reconciliation”, which requires a simple majority). He wants a ...
Ravitch: school firings “mean and punitive”
Speaking to the US Chamber of Commerce on Monday, President Obama praised the Rhode Island school board that dismissed the entire Central Falls High School faculty and staff (93 in total).
This came as he was outlining his proposal to offer $900 million in federal grants to states and school districts that take drastic ...
Stiglitz gives Obama high marks
(Video: Joseph Stiglitz)
In this excerpt from a recent talk, Joseph Stiglitz says Obama’s economic policy should be graded an A+, if only because his policy is much ...
The Coffee Party?
The New York Times reports today on the rise of a group formed in response to the Tea Party – the Coffee Party.
But for a group based on a more caffeinated drink, the Coffee Party seems far less agitated than their Tea counterparts. The party aims to “support leaders who work toward ...
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.
