Archive for January, 2009
House explained.
N.Y. Post: A Slippery Slope to Charter Failure
Published by January 27th, 2009 in Misc. Education and Misc. Self Promotion. 0 CommentsIn today’s Post, I look at a couple of mildly disturbing developments within New York’s charter-school movement:
NEW York state’s decade- old charter-school experiment is a success - so far. Yet these schools can lose hold of what makes them special - if teachers, administrators or bureaucrats lose sight of their responsibilities under a charter system.
Measured against traditional public schools, charters have performed above and beyond - boosting the scores of the mostly low-income and minority students they serve all across the state.
But this month the State University of New York’s Charter Committee made what appears to be a serious error - and it’s set to ratify it today.
…
SUNY … has chosen to punt on a tough choice. As one of two state bodies that grants charters, it gets to decide which schools “live” - and which close. Last week, it chose to grant a reprieve to a chronically poor-performing charter: New Covenant in Albany.
Along with the reauthorization of a failing charter school, this month has also seen the unionization of a successful charter school — a development not likely to help the school in remaining successful.
[archive copy of this column here.]
James Dobson: “[Ted] Bundy Was Right”
Published by January 22nd, 2009 in Misc. Miscellany. 0 CommentsBarack Obama may have made a shout out to non-believers in his inaugural, Tuesday (good for him [non sarcastically]). But he also took an unnecessary shot at cynics. I take this personally, in today’s Post:
To borrow from H.L. Mencken, the cynics are still right nine times out of 10.
What President Obama’s rhetoric fails to acknowledge is that most political disagreements are real. They’re rooted in competing interests, conflicting values and differing judgments.
While transcendent rhetoric can get one through a campaign and even a transition, the real challenges of governing won’t simply wither away from decrepitude.
I look at nine issues where the stale political arguements that have consumed us for so long still, most definitely, apply.
At the end of January, the Republican National Committee chooses its new chairman — and, until the 2012 primaries get started (sometime next month), the new public face of the GOP.
Unfortunately, most of the candidates seem to think the GOP has a technology problem. As opposed to an everything problem. I disagree, in the Post this morning:
If the GOP has a youth problem, the answer isn’t to Twitter them about how awesome Ronald Reagan and assault weapons are. (Or to post a picture on Facebook of Ronald Reagan firing an assault weapon - no matter how cool that might sound.)
And the GOP does have a youth problem, among other problems. Obama won 18-to-29- year-olds by a 34-point margin - and did even better among minority youth voters.
The GOP also faces a 36-point gap with Latino voters, plus a nearly 100 percent chasm with black voters.
There’s also the GOP’s loss of the interior West, when it’s already been shut out of the Northeast and the Pacific Coast. And the mirror-image problem of the GOP’s captivity by the South - where John McCain picked up 113 of his 173 electoral votes.
There’s the GOP’s 50-point gap among the growing ranks of the nonreligious (12 percent of the electorate, according to 2008 exit polls). There’s the 30-plus-point gap with urban voters. The GOP’s weakening in the suburbs.
Which candidate can start the process of working through these problems?
Spoiler alert: The best of the available candidates is Maryland’s Michael Steele. (How could I not go with Chip “Magic Negro” Saltsman? Right?)
President Bush’s Farewell Address (as seen in my head)
Published by January 16th, 2009 in Misc. Miscellany. 0 Comments
Vote on the New Definition of ‘Saddlebacking’
Published by January 14th, 2009 in Misc. Miscellany. 0 CommentsA wonderful column today from the Times Online on why Israel should have no regard for world opinion:
So when Israel is urged to respect world opinion and put its faith in the international community the point is rather being missed. The very idea of Israel is a rejection of this option. Israel only exists because Jews do not feel safe as the wards of world opinion. Zionism, that word that is so abused, so reviled, is founded on a determination that, at the end of the day, somehow the Jews will defend themselves and their fellow Jews from destruction. If world opinion was enough, there would be no Israel.
As they say, read the whole thing.
Also, for background on the entire conflict, one could do worse than to watch this online presentation.
In all its splendor:
Palestinian Arab supporter woman to Jews: “You need an oven.” [3:25]
Says just about all you need to know, doesn’t it?
Peter Berkowitz has a column in today’s Wall Street Journal arguing that the old fusionist coalition I wrote about in The Elephant in the Room is as viable as ever.
I wish I shared his optimism.
Nice to see it somewhere:
For Hamas the only thing more prized than dead Jews are dead Palestinians.
Read Charles Krauthammer’s full column on the Gaza campaign.
Happy New Year from the staff of Miscellaneous Objections.
Now, people, let’s all try a little harder this year.
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