March, 2015 archive
A Question of Time 0
What might have caused this?
Hint: The answer involves two computers. (Answer below the fold.)
Chartering a Course for Disaster 0
Linda Welborn, once an advocate for charter schools, recants:
The word has gotten out that charter schools are huge money making machines. Corporate and education management companies are raking in millions from the taxpayer.
Whether or not you have children in school, you might want to start paying attention to the huge amount of taxpayer dollars these companies are consuming with no transparency and no accountability.
Follow the link for the full mea culpa.
“The Loyal Order of Buffaloes” 0
The Inky analyzes why so many college fraternities are swamps of drunkenness and misogyny and also why that swamp is unlikely to be drained*; the article focus on Penn State, no stranger to headlines in recent years, but can easily be generalized. A snippet:
Syrett said that Greek alumni were a powerful force, sometimes withholding donations if their fraternity or sorority is threatened by university action. And some schools often depend on fraternities to help shoulder the burden of student housing.
Doug Fierberg, an attorney who has helped people sue several universities and fraternities, expects little change to come out of Penn State’s latest scandal. He has overseen lawsuits involving hazing deaths as well as the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.
“Penn State and the fraternity will pat themselves on the back as if they’ve done something proper,” he said. “But until the fundamental flaws [are addressed] in the way the fraternities are managed – and mismanaged – this will continue to get worse.”
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*No every chapter of every frat deserves such a characterization, but the ones who do not are outliers. Hell, at my college, when I was a student back in the olden days, the Sig Eps were considered the sane ones.
U and the BS 0
Many years ago, Martin Mull hosted a parody late night talk show called Fernwood 2Night, purportedly the UBS network, “the network that puts you before the BS.” (It turned me into a confirmed Martin Mull fan.)
Now comes UBS bank, the bank that puts the BS before you.
Twits on Twitter 0
Twits who prove that men are pigs.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Accidental politeness is the politest kind.
The carnage ain’t gonna end, is it? not so long as the NRA and its ammosexuals hold sway over the legislative process.
Never-Ending Story 1
Mother Jones reprints (reposts?) William Astore’s “7 Reasons America Is Stuck in Never-Ending War.” Here’s one, the seventh; follow the link for the rest.
What’s truly “exceptional” in twenty-first-century America is any articulated vision of what a land at peace with itself and other nations might be like. Instead, war, backed by a diet of fear, is the backdrop against which the young have grown to adulthood. It’s the background noise of their world, so much a part of their lives that they hardly recognize it for what it is. And that’s the most insidious danger of them all.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Demonstrate politeness to your friends.
“Boys Will Be Boys” 0
Really now, what’s the big deal? Isn’t organized fantasizing about rape and lynching just good clean college fun?
Think about it. One day these will be your judges, business leaders, and pillows of your community.
“Bogie at Two O’Clock High” 0
The fascinating bit of this discussion is where Thom and his guest discuss how enforcers on campus select their victims targets.
Wrecking Crew 0
Dan Simpson looks back at 60 years of American interventionism–Indochina, the Middle East, Afghanistan, among others–and becomes profoundly depressed at the outcomes. A snippet:
Some analysts argue that this is U.S. policy, that the United States deliberately busts up countries and regions to keep them susceptible to our influence and incapable of presenting problems for us — though I don’t know that I would agree. The proclaimed cause can change. It might be anti-communism, anti-terrorism or the promotion of democracy, but our armed aggression and the resulting broken, weakened countries is the same, for the most part.
Read it, and think.
Blue Shielding Its Profits 0
The California Franchise Tax Board has yanked Blue Shield of California’s non-profit status because, surprise, Blue Shield makes lots of profits. Blue Shield, natch, will appeal. Here’s a bit from the story:
“It also opens the door for us to challenge the tax exemption of a host of other not-for-profit companies that act as though they were for-profit companies by stockpiling cash and paying executives seven-figure salaries and having skyboxes,” said Jamie Court, president of Santa Monica-based Consumer Watchdog.
Court was referring to Blue Shield’s $2.5 million purchase of a skybox at Levi’s Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers’ new home in Santa Clara. Blue Shield has called the skybox a business expense needed to increase sales.
I am mildly surprised that Blue Cross did not justify the skybox at the football palace as a treatment for acrophobia.
