We have a new minister, Ned Wilson, coming all the way from Grand Junction to serve our tiny Sugar Hill Community Church. He and his wife haul their 10 children around in a bus identical to a Greyhound Bus except that it is fitted with four bunk beds, a queen bed and a kitchen. He made his fortune designing, building, and selling golf courses in the western part of the U.S. The family does musicals like the Von Trapp family. Now we will have the Sound of Music in these mountains.

 The Wilson's bought a former B&B called the Foxglove next to the church. It has eight bedrooms and 8.5 bathrooms. It will not be a B&B since they need the entire place just for their family.

Erika will have her 11^th spine surgery at the New England Baptist Hospital in Boston on September 29. Dr. Parizan thinks that a spinal chord blockage is causing much of her leg pain. Her leg pain keeps getting worse and worse. I don’t think I will have to live quite as long in the Brookline Holiday Inn as I did when she had her last two surgeries. I stayed in the hotel for two months that time --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Erika2007.htm
This Holiday Inn is a 600-room hotel within walking distance of the  Harvard Medical School and maybe ten other nearby hospitals. The traffic is awful, but there is a hotel van that takes me to and from Erika's hospital.

 I will be suspending further editions of New Bookmarks and Tidbits until I return to these hills. There's a chance I can squeak out one more edition of Tidbits on September 25. And the September 30 edition of New Bookmarks is already longer than anybody will want to read.

Tidbits on September 16, 2008
Bob Jensen

For earlier editions of Tidbits go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/

CPA Examination --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination

Despite these noteworthy linguistic strides, the Academy presents Orwell 2008 to a college counselor who advises his clients to deliberately make mistakes on their applications so they "don’t sound like robots." After all, "if you fall into the trap of trying to do everything perfectly," without "typos" and other "creative errors," there's just "no spark left."
Fifteenth Annual Emperor's Awards, Guest commentary by Poor Elijah (Peter Berger), The Irascible Professor, August 19, 2008 --- http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-08-19-08.htm
Jensen Comment
The same can be said for blogs and newsletters.

On May 14, 2006 I retired from Trinity University after a long and wonderful career as an accounting professor in four universities. I was generously granted "Emeritus" status by the Trustees of Trinity University. My wife and I now live in a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm

Chronicle of Higher Education's 2008-2009 Almanac --- http://chronicle.com/free/almanac/2008/?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on higher education controversies --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm
Bob Jensen's threads on economic and social statistics --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob1.htm#EconStatistics

Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Time for Campaignin'  (cute) --- http://www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm

Saturday Night Live Spoof of Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ral-zByaSU4
Also see --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=Jukzu_dMuPk
Read about it at --- http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_10464760?source=most_viewed

Saturday Night Live Spoof of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=kBxnThAJknY

George W. Bush Impersonation  --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=pDE9U0j_gns

Atta texana: An Underground View of an Ant Colony (video) --- http://www-viz.tamu.edu/faculty/lurleen/main/attatunnel/

Institute for Public Policy Research: Podcasts [iTunes] http://www.ippr.org/podcasts/

Metropolitan Police Service: Crime Mapping --- http://maps.met.police.uk/ 

Benin-Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from Nigeria (video) --- http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/exhibitions/benin/index

Free music downloads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Cellist Haimovitz: Classic Bach, Classic Rock --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93587797

U. of Texas Web Site Offers Marching-Band Basics (series of videos) --- http://www.music.utexas.edu/LonghornBand/Auditions/BandClinic.aspx
The next time the collegiate half time entertainment begins, you might appreciate the effort that goes into bringing you this entertainment.

Some Marching Bands

• America the Beautiful (Notre Dame Band) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_D-uMX11JE 

• Texas Marching Band Entrance --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=a3lFFmRVOec
  Also see http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=tgoI2beuq24

• Texas Marching Band at the Rose Parade --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=IYl5_9xfpPw

• Texas A&M bands are a big, big deal --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=50Rc62JLJm0
  Also see http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=HvdRXy_Hv20

• Queen City High School --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hi6OPtiYgw

• Texas State Marching Band Performance --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z4WW32-Kf8

• Texas Southern --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=tsvVsHS8uvk

• Rutgers --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=-LoQTdEah7A

Bob Jensen listens to music free online (and no commercials) --- http://www.slacker.com/ 

Photographs and Art

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

This course examines the role of the engineer as patent expert and as technical witness in court and patent interference and related proceedings. It discusses the rights and obligations of engineers in connection with educational institutions, government, and large and small businesses. It compares various manners of transplanting inventions into business operations, including development of New England and other U.S. electronics and biotechnology industries and their different types of institutions. The course also considers American systems of incentive to creativity apart from the patent laws in the atomic energy and space fields.
MIT OpenCourseWare: Development of Inventions and Creative Ideas ---
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-Science/6-931Spring-2008/CourseHome/index.htm 

From MIT
Searchable Lecture Browser --- http://web.sls.csail.mit.edu/lectures/

Profiles in Science: The Alan Gregg Papers --- http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/FS/

Profiles in Science: The Paul Berg Papers --- http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/CD/

From the Scout Report on September 14, 2008

The Bibliothecary: Ed & Edgar --- http://bibliothecary.squarespace.com/ed-and-edgar/ 

The Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore --- http://www.eapoe.org/ 

Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site --- http://www.nps.gov/edal/ 

Edgar Allan Poe --- http://etext.virginia.edu/poe/poebiog.html 

Scholar, Athlete, and Artist: Edgar Allan Poe at University of Virginia --- http://www.literarytraveler.com/literary_articles/edgar_allan_poe_author.aspx

In an effort to return Edgar Allan Poe to the City of Brotherly Love, scholar and pundit issues a challenge Baltimore Has Poe: Philadelphia Wants Him [Free registration may be required] --- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/us/06poe.html?em

Banned Books --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_books
ACLU Texas Project (comprehensive list of banned books starting with Tom Sawyer)--- http://www.aclutx.org/projects/bannedbooks.php
Also see the ACLU list of 50 Banned Books --- http://www.aclu.org/freedomwire/books/booklist.htm
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Banned

Index on Censorship --- http://www.indexoncensorship.org/ 

Free Online Textbooks, Videos, and Tutorials --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Textbooks
Free Tutorials in Various Disciplines --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Bookbob2.htm#Tutorials
Edutainment and Learning Games --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/thetools.htm#Edutainment
Open Sharing Courses --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/000aaa/updateee.htm#OKI

Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
Putt's Law as quoted by Mark Shapiro at http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-09-09-08.htm

Physicists may one day have found the answers to all physical questions, but not all questions are physical questions.
Gilbert Ryle --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_Ryle

Biden quoted as saying that Israel will have to reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden was quoted Monday as telling senior Israeli officials behind closed doors that the Jewish state will have to reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran. In the unsourced report, Army Radio also quoted Biden as saying that he opposed "opening a additional military and diplomatic front."
Haaretz News Service, September 1, 2008 --- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1017129.html
Jensen Comment
The political divide between Israel and American Jews voting for this aspect of "Democratic Party Change" seems to grow wider with each election. Meanwhile Israel is praying that Bush and Cheney take out Iran's nuclear weapons program before leaving office ---
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1220186494776&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The problem for Bush and Cheney is that doing so most assuredly will ruin all hope for the McCain/Palin ticket. Israel is losing the military and diplomatic wars.

…it is a right for the most righteous to be considered as the best humans….[S]ome powers…think of nothing but destroying the traditions and customs of different nations in the world in order to keep them under their illegal sway…The…story of Palestinians has been going on for the last 60 years. The usurper Zionist regime has continued to exist through murder…[B]y the grace of God Almighty…the nuclear issue is closed…[T]he Non-Aligned Movement’s struggle against…racism, Zionism…has to be praised and lauded.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (President of Iran) as quoted by Anne Bayefsky, "Lethal Politics: Antisemitism as Human Rights," July 6, 2008 --- http://www.antidef.org.au/secure/downloadfile.asp?fileid=1010330
To hear the 2008 Oration, please click here.
Jensen Comment
Seems like we heard something about best humans (read that "superior race") intentions to destroy Zionism in the not-so-distant past
Mein Kamph  by Adolph Hitler --- http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/
Hitler - Mein Kampf (full documentary) Part 1 --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=sw837zt81nw
Hitler - Mein Kampf (full documentary) Part 2 --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=njGrci0meW8
Hitler - Mein Kampf (full documentary) Part 3 --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=i-pg7p0bxQo
Hitler - Mein Kampf (full documentary) Part 4 --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=POSBWP4Y6Sg
It was most fortunate in the 1940s that allied forces did not have to reconcile themselves to a nuclear "superior race." The Nazi regime, however, did come close, but allied efforts (such as destroying Norsk Hydro Nazi heavy water plant) did block Hitler's dream. Nothing will block Ahmadinejad's dream.
In the 21st Century we will in the future have to reconcile ourselves to nuclear "best humans."

That's Bull! Iran is No Threat in Reality (Obama) --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=SB_DFfIolOE
Obama's Military --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=mZVqGuwRqnw

Human rights are the most powerful ideological currency of our time. Unless the free people of this earth take back the nomenclature, the institutions and the implementation tools of human rights, I fear we will witness the destruction of Israel, if not by lethal force, then by lethal politics.
Anne Bayefsky, "Lethal Politics: Antisemitism as Human Rights," July 6, 2008 ---
www.antidef.org.au/www/309/1001127/displayarticle/1001840.html 
Also ast http://www.antidef.org.au/secure/downloadfile.asp?fileid=1010330
To hear the 2008 Oration, please click here.

The war in Lebanon may have ended two years ago, but that hasn't stopped the UN from exploiting the conflict to besmirch Israel. In a move that harks back to the bad old days of UN hypocrisy and double standards vis- à-vis the Jewish state, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon is reportedly set to demand that Israel reimburse Lebanon and Syria for damage caused during the war against Hizbullah. Yes, you read that correctly. The UN wants Israel to pay for having the gall to defend itself. According to the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, Ban has prepared a report that he will present to the upcoming General Assembly in New York. Based on calculations made by the World Bank, he will insist that Israel cough up approximately $1 billion in "compensation" for material and environmental harm to Lebanese society and infrastructure.
Michael Freund, "Payback Time at the U.N.," Jerusalem Post, September 10, 2008 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
I suspect Israel should also repay Iran for the rockets needed to destroy Jewish homes, businesses, and children. It's only fair in the eyes of the Islam-biased U.N.

Israel does not lack for worries. There is an Iranian bomb handing over our heads. A corrupt and nonfunctioning government ready to turn over vital strategic and historic areas in exchange for nothing, laying the heart of the country bare to deadly missile attacks. And homicidal maniacs aplenty heading Hamas and Hizbollah and the PLO.
Naomi Ragan, September 14, 2008 Newsletter --- naomiragen@mail-list.com

The waters in the Caribbean and around Latin America for a long time have provided a path for illicit drugs to flow into the United States, but the U.S. Navy has increased its patrols in the region now looking for something else – Hezbollah terrorists, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. The Navy, in trolling for mini-submarines sometimes used to transport drugs, has discovered that some of them apparently are being operated by Hezbollah. The mini-subs are small semi-submersibles, made of fiberglass and capable of carrying up to four people plus a payload.
Joseph Farah, "Now terror subs prowl Caribbean Navy fears Hezbollah bringing drugs, weapons to United States," WorldNetDaily, September 4, 2008 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=74344
Jensen Comment
Obama and Biden will have to negotiate harder with Iran once those Hezbollah mini-subs are smuggling nuclear payloads. The billions in extortion that we’re paying North Korea will be peanuts in comparison to what it costs to fend off Iranian nuclear extortion

That's Bull! Iran is No Threat in Reality (Obama) --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=SB_DFfIolOE
Obama's Military --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=mZVqGuwRqnw

Britain's MI6 intelligence service has issued a global-wide priority warning to all security services that Islamic terrorists now are closer to obtaining material to create a "dirty bomb" to launch against Western targets, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Osama bin Laden long has made this a priority and reinforced it with regular messages from his mountain redoubt in the northwest province of Pakistan. He repeatedly has said every "true Muslim must make it his duty to assist in all ways possible to find the next powerful weapon to destroy our enemies."
Exceroted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, "Al-Qaida hikes 'dirty bomb' efforts," WorldNetDaily, September 11, 2008 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=74928 

AUSTRALIA has been singled out as a target for "forest jihad" by a group of Islamic extremists urging Muslims to deliberately light bushfires as a weapon of terror. US intelligence channels earlier this year identified a website calling on Muslims in Australia, the US, Europe and Russia to "start forest fires", claiming "scholars have justified chopping down and burning the infidels' forests when they do the same to our lands".
Josh Gordon, "Islam group urges forest fire jihad," The Age, September 11, 2008 ---
http://www.theage.com.au/national/islam-group-urges-forest-fire-jihad-20080906-4b53.html?page=-1

Election Year Fakery

Obama's 50 Lies --- http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/50lies.asp
Also see http://www.slate.com/id/2199923/?from=rss
Hugh Downs --- http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/hughdowns.asp
Also see http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/distribute.asp

Some Faked Palin Quotations --- http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/newsquotes.asp
Also see http://www.snopes.com/politics/palin/newsquotes.asp
Book Banning --- http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/hughdowns.asp
Sex Photos --- http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/palin.asp
Smear Fest --- http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/11/beck.palin/index.html

McCain admits being a war criminal --- http://www.snopes.com/politics/mccain/warcriminal.asp

The editor of The Atlantic Monthly said Monday he is sending a letter of apology to John McCain after a woman the magazine hired to photograph the Republican presidential nominee posted manipulated pictures from the photo shoot on her Web site. Photographer Jill Greenberg, who is vehemently anti-Republican and expressed glee that the photos would stir up conservative ire, took pictures of McCain for the cover of The Atlantic’s October issue. During the shoot, she took several other backlit pictures, which she then doctored and posted to her site. In one photo, she added blood oozing from McCain’s shark-toothed mouth and labeled it with the caption “I am a bloodthirsty warmongerer.” In another, a caption over McCain’s head says, “I will have my girl kill Roe v. Wade,” an obvious reference to his running mate Sarah Palin’s anti-abortion positions.
"Atlantic Monthly Editor to Offer Apology to McCain for Photog’s Doctored Pics," Fox News, September 15, 2008 --- http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/15/atlantic-monthly-editor-to-offer-apology-to-mccain-for-photogs-doctored-pics/

 

Divided They Stand

With the U.S. presidential elections just two months away, many Arabs and Muslims are increasingly worried that a victory for another conservative Republican administration will exacerbate the tensions and turbulence that have followed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Sana Abdalla, "McCain-Palin Ticket Chills Arabs, Muslims," Middle East Times, September 5, 20085 --- http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/09/05/mccain-palin_ticket_chills_arabs_muslims/8625/

 

Sarah Palin: A Worthless Bag of Hair
Pravda, September 14, 2008 --- http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/14-09-2008/106355-sarahworthless-0
Palin's support of more domestic oil drilling and less dependency on Russia for oil had nothing to do with this insult. The Russians are weary of watching her fix her hair every day. And the Russians fear that Sarah Palin can actually see all the bad things going on in Russia from her house. Seriously though, Russia is strongly supporting the Obama-Biden ticket and hoping that Democrats will cripple the U.S. economy with more entitlements and zero drilling for new oil fields. Anything that takes weapons development away from the U.S. military is cause for celebration in Russia --- http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=mZVqGuwRqnw

"Feminist Army Aims Its Canons at Palin" by Johah Goldberg --- Click Here
Women Against Palin --- http://womenagainstsarahpalin.blogspot.com
Here’s another (a bit more Jewish) Palin hating blog --- http://www.yourish.com/2008/08/30/5286
Los Angeles Times Piece on Hating Palin ---
http://www.arguewitheveryone.com/elections/27054-most-democratic-women-will-not-cast-vote-palin.html

Palin is Out of Step With Jewish Public Opinion --- http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1016506.html
Also see http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1220444321718&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Jewish Voters Wary of Palin --- http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/9701

Barbara Streisand wants to rid the planet of all conservatives --- http://www.barbrastreisand.com/index.php?page=statements&n_id=854

 

Some Jews Do Not Like Either Choice --- http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3590992,00.html

Jews and Feminists are for Palin --- http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com/a/JVO200809c.html

"Feminists for Palin" --- http://whatsuddenly.blogspot.com/2008/09/feminists-vote-for-palin.html
Also see the San Francisco Chronicle piece --- http://whatsuddenly.blogspot.com/2008/09/feminists-vote-for-palin.html
Tammy Bruce is the author of "The New American Revolution" (HarperCollins, 2005)

GOP Jews (there aren't many of those) Defend Palin --- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/gop-jews-defend-palin-she_n_123340.html
Also see http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/09/sarah_palin_and_israel.html

Gov. Palin has established a great relationship with the Jewish community over the years and has attended several of our Jewish cultural gala events. Gov. Palin also had plans to visit Israel with members of the Jewish community, however, for technical reason, the visit has not occurred yet.
Chabad Rabbi Of Alaska Praises Sarah Palin

Jensen Conclusion: 
There are now about as few Muslim voters in the U.S. as there are Jewish voters (less than 3%). Muslim voters could make more of a difference in the swing state of Michigan, but it is doubtful that McCain and Palin will draw any support from the Muslim voters.

Jewish voters are more divided on McCain and Palin than are black and Muslim voters. However, Jewish voters are so concentrated in pro-Obama states, their votes one way or another probably will not turn the tide. Money does matter, however, and consistent with election history in the U.S. the Jewish money is funding mostly Democratic candidates --- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article4053816.ece
There's a long history of this going back to long before Israel became a state ---- a time when there were insulting prejudices against Jews in the U.S. There were times in our history when Jews were banned from country clubs, posh hotels, some private schools, and restaurants. They share a history of bigotry against minorities that hopefully is now behind us.

 

Even my media hero Charles Gibson twisted words and quotations when interviewing Sarah Palin
From James Taranto in "Best of the Web," The Wall Street Journal, September 12, 2008

The first cut of Charlie Gibson's interview with Sarah Palin reveals someone embarrassingly unprepared. His name is Charlie Gibson. Here's the transcript:

Gibson: You said recently, in your old church, "Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God." Are we fighting a holy war?

Palin: You know, I don't know if that was my exact quote.

Gibson: Exact words.

Palin: But the reference there is a repeat of Abraham Lincoln's words when he said--first, he suggested never presume to know what God's will is, and I would never presume to know God's will or to speak God's words.

But what Abraham Lincoln had said, and that's a repeat in my comments, was let us not pray that God is on our side in a war or any other time, but let us pray that we are on God's side.

Palin was right, as we noted Tuesday. Although she had spoken the words Gibson attributed to her, his rendition of the quote was a dowdification. He took the words out of context to make a prayer that "the task is from God" appear to be an assertion that it is.

This misleading quotation might have been an error rather than a deliberate deception, and it did not originate with Gibson. Our Tuesday item noted that CNN had misrepresented Palin's words on Monday, and on Sept. 4 "AllahPundit" pointed to an Associated Press dispatch from the previous day that might have been the origin of the falsehood.

But Lou Dobbs' (CNN "Tonight") criticism of Olbermann was just one element of the "liberal media" he criticized at the summit. Overall, Dobbs expressed his displeasure with the media's treatment of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin since Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, Ariz., selected her as his running mate. "One of the issues in all of this is the role of the national media," Dobbs said. "I was kidding with you a bit about having my national media card lifted. I make no pretense that I'm an independent populist - which has already upset both the left and the right every time I say that. But the truth is, we have a national media that is liberal in tone, liberal in its bias and that is dominant in the stories that we choose to report and the way in which we report them." Dobbs said the media's treatment of the Alaskan governor was a case study of the liberal bias of the media.
Jeff Poor, "Dobbs: Olbermann 'Hanging by a Highly Medicated String'," Newsbusters, September 12, 2008 ---
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/jeff-poor/2008/09/12/dobbs-olbermann-hanging-highly-medicated-thread

The New York Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong. There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration -- and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today. It is utterly different. He asked Palin, "Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?" She responded, quite sensibly to a question that is ambiguous, "In what respect, Charlie?"
Charles Krauthammer, "Charlie Gibson's Gaffe," The Washington Post, September 13, 2008; Page A17 ---
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202457.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

I know something about the subject because, as the Wikipedia entry on the Bush doctrine notes, I was the first to use the term. In the cover essay of the June 4, 2001, issue of the Weekly Standard entitled, "The Bush Doctrine: ABM, Kyoto, and the New American Unilateralism," I suggested that the Bush administration policies of unilaterally withdrawing from the ABM treaty and rejecting the Kyoto protocol, together with others, amounted to a radical change in foreign policy that should be called the Bush doctrine.
http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2008/09/there-is-no-single-meaning-of-the-bush-doctrine.html

The Los Angeles Times was among the news outlets crying foul after ABC's interview yesterday with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, her first since Sen. John McCain named her his running mate. The Times took Charlie Gibson to task for distorting statements Palin made about the Iraq war at her former Assemblies of God church in Wasilla, Alaska.
"L.A. Times rebukes ABC for distorting Palin remarks," WorldNetDaily, September 12, 2008 ---
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=75091

The Times took Charlie Gibson to task for distorting statements Palin made about the Iraq war at her former Assemblies of God church in Wasilla, Alaska

"For Barack Obama, Bill Clinton says he'll do 'whatever I'm asked'," Los Angeles Times (video), September 12, 2008 --- http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-clinton12-2008sep12,0,6280126.story
Jensen Comment
For openers, how about asking her out on a date.

"McCain launches pro-stem cells ad," by Jeffrey Young, The Hill, September 12, 2008 ---
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/mccain-launches-pro-stem-cells-ad-2008-09-12.html
Jensen Comment
There may be a catch, however, since McCain has never yet supported embryonic stem cell research.

Broken Promises and Pork Binges
The Democratic majority came to power in January promising to do a better job on earmarks. They appeared to preserve our reforms and even take them a bit further. I commended Democrats publicly for this action. Unfortunately, the leadership reversed course. Desperate to advance their agenda, they began trading earmarks for votes, dangling taxpayer-funded goodies in front of wavering members to win their support for leadership priorities.
John Boehner, "Pork Barrel Stonewall," The Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2007 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119085546436140827.html

There is nothing more dangerous to entrenched Washington power than a populist conservative who looks unlikely to buy into Washington's creature comforts. Take a close look at Governor Palin's record on ethics and energy in Alaska, and it becomes clear what this Beltway outburst is actually about. The irony is that while Senator Obama is running on change, his acceptance speech made explicit that he's promising only more power and money for Washington. Sarah Palin's history of taking on the career politicians of a corrupt Alaskan GOP machine -- her own party -- shows that she's the more authentic change agent.
"The Beltway Boys," The Wall Street Journal, September 3, 2008; Page A22 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122039719000892745.html?mod=djemEditorialPage
Jensen Comment
The fear of Palin is bipartisan on the Beltway.

In just three years our opponent (Obama) has requested nearly 1 billion dollars in earmarks. That is about a million dollars for every working day,” Palin said. “So we reformed the bases of earmarks in our state and I’m ready to help President John McCain end these corrupt practices once and for all.
Sarah Palin, Fox, September 8, 2001 --- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2077652/posts

Pontius Palin:  Defeating Obama is Like Crucifying Christ
Sen. Barack Obama was likened to Jesus Christ on the floor of the U.S. House today, while Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was compared to the Roman governor responsible for ordering Jesus' crucifixion. Both comparisons came from Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., a supporter of Obama for president. "If you want change, you want the Democratic Party," Cohen said during his one-minute speech. "Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus, who our minister prayed about. Pontius Pilate was a governor."
Joe Kovacs, "Congressman likens Palin to Christ's crucifier," WorldNetDaily, September 10, 2008 ---
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=74896
But unlike in zero A.D. when the Jews sided with Pontius Pilate, the powerful Jewish lobby opposes Pontius Palin in 2008.

Obama's seldom discussed years at Columbia and Harvard (in context) --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=74877

Have you seen the polls? He should be talking more about the economy! Why isn’t Obama's campaign working harder?
If the Obama brain trust seems relatively serene compared with its seething base, it’s because they live in the Electoral College world, where the presidential race only takes place in a third of the country. They don’t care about national polls — a concept as quaint as measuring one’s wealth by caribou pelts. They worry about the undecided vote in Minnesota and Ohio and run their TV ads (about the economy) in places like Colorado and Michigan and Florida. If you live in California or New York or Texas, you don’t really have much of a feel for their level of effort because as far as they’re concerned, you’ve already voted.
Gail Collins, "Misery Loves Democrats," The New York Times, September 10, 2008 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/opinion/11collins.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Twenty-five years ago, when the school where I worked installed its first computers, I bravely (before the publication of DOS for Dummies) learned how to "C colon backslash" on a screen without windows. Over time, I learned how to build websites, set up spreadsheets, compose professional documents, and competently add things to motherboards. With each new electronic accessory, I gained a new set of skills. I have never had problem with cell phones, DVD players, coffeepots, all-in-one remote controls, electric pencil sharpeners, teller machines, faxes, printers, scanners, air purifiers, or other electronic devices with which I interact daily until recently . . . Now, I am scared. My husband, who usually compares me to my mother, despite my best efforts at concealing all hints of wrinkles, didn't make fun of me when I told him how I "broke" the cable. He was also exceedingly kind when I told him I was unable to open the bucket of chlorine tabs because I couldn't figure out exactly how to use the screwdriver and hammer to remove the tamper-proof plastic tab. But then again, he also depends on me to defrag his hard drive, turn his cell phone to vibrate at the movies, and program the clock on the coffee maker.
Felice Prager, "My Ever Steepening Learning Curve," The Irascible Professor, September 9, 2008 --- http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-09-09-08.htm

My students discuss cell phones with me more than most professors, though, because I do not own one, nor do I plan on buying one. Ever. According to what poll one looks at, somewhere between 82 and 85 percent of Americans own cell phones, so I realize that the hyper-connected professors will see me as the professor I knew in graduate school in the 1990s who refused to use a computer, insisting that a typewriter would work just fine, and the students’ image of my life is even more extreme.
Kevin Brown, "It’s Not Programmed Into Our Cells," Inside Higher Ed, September 9, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2008/09/09/brown

The University of Idaho has ordered that a uniform design change used in the football team’s season opener be undone. The Vandals’ uniforms featured their logos on their derrières, and many fans didn’t appreciate the location, The Idaho Statesman reported. Rob Spear, the athletic director, said, “I was disappointed with the look and the appearance. We didn’t realize how noticeable it would be until it was on our players.” While no causal relationship was established, the first game (and now only game) with the controversial design was not a success. Idaho lost to the University of Arizona, 70-0.
Inside Higher Ed, September 8, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/08/qt
Jensen Comment
Must've been a gas looking at the logos up close. Of all places, Idaho should know that the potato goes in front.

Say What?
Editorial in the ... no ... can't be ... well maybe ... yes ... YES! ... The New York Times, September 8, 2008 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/09/opinion/09tue1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The Bailout’s Big Lessons

As an act of crisis management, the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants, was a reasonable and reassuring move. It ensures the flow of mortgage credit and is likely to reduce mortgage rates, which are important steps toward the eventual recovery of the ailing United States housing market.

And it does so while putting taxpayers first for future dividends or money that may be earned when the firms are reprivatized, holding out hope that the bailout costs may someday be recouped. Beyond the immediate crisis, however, the takeover raises disturbing issues that may get lost in the tumult of the moment.

¶ The need for an explicit bailout underlines the economic vulnerabilities of the United States. In July, Congress gave Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson unlimited authority to pay the debts of Fannie and Freddie and to shore up their capital, if need be. Yet investors the world over continued to doubt the companies’ viability, shunning their securities or demanding unusually high interest rates on loans. In effect, investors deemed the government’s commitment to Fannie and Freddie as either insufficient or not credible — an extraordinary vote of no confidence that, in the end, led to the bailout.

¶ There is no single reason for the lack of confidence. But investors have good cause to be concerned about the deep indebtedness of the United States, about the nation’s apparent political unwillingness to restore its fiscal health and about the ability of the government to responsibly make good on its commitments. A pledge of the full faith and credit of the United States still means something. That’s why the markets responded favorably to the takeover. But investors’ refusal to accept a promise to act is another sign of the need to reverse the fiscal mismanagement of the Bush years.

¶ The United States must acknowledge that its deep indebtedness is especially dangerous in times of economic crisis. The level and stability of American interest rates and of the dollar are now dependent on the willingness of foreign central banks and other overseas investors to continue lending to the United States. The bailout became inevitable when central banks in Asia and Russia began to curtail their purchases of the companies’ debt, pushing up mortgage rates and deepening the economic downturn.

¶ The bailout is new evidence of the need for better regulation of the American financial system. As the housing bubble inflated, the Bush administration often claimed that America’s unfettered markets were the envy of the world. But, in fact, they have sowed mistrust.

¶ The cost of the bailout needs to be carefully monitored. Fannie and Freddie own or back nearly $800 billion of generally junky mortgages, and some of those will inevitably go bad. So it is reasonable to assume that the cost could easily near $100 billion. There may be ways to make back some of that money later, but for a long time, the bailout will divert resources from other needs.

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have both voiced support for the bailout, which shows good judgment. But what the next president will need to worry about, and both candidates need to talk about, is the depth of the country’s economic problems. It will take discipline and sacrifice to address them.

Jensen Comment
The national debt is the reason for a weakening dollar, higher oil prices, inflation, and our diminishing stature in the world. George Bush was a spendthrift who plunged us deeper into debt by failing to veto spending bills of a run-away Congress. Barack Obama's unfundable populist programs will only bury us deeper in debt. John McCain is probably maverick enough to veto some spending cuts. Our real economic hope may lie in the ultimate veto pen of . . . gasp . . . Sarah Palin.

The New York Times had an earlier editorial that also makes economic sense:

Longer term, the challenge is perhaps even more daunting. Saving more is ultimately the only way to dig out of the budget hole that the nation is in. That will be painful, because higher government savings, done properly, means higher taxes and restrained spending. Candidates for president do not like to be pessimistic, or even candid, really, about the economy. But a leader who wants to steer the nation through tough times should not spend the campaign telling Americans they can have it all.
"There He Goes Again," The New York Times, July 12, 2008 ---
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/12/opinion/12sat1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Jensen Comment
But true to form, the NYT only criticizes John McCain's balanced budget goals in this context. No mention is made of the NYT's favorite candidate who certainly, albeit truthfully, is not promising anything within light years of a balanced budget. The question is which candidate, if elected, will heavily veto the outrageous spending bills that most certainly emerge from Congress over the next four or eight years. Sadly, George Bush, unlike Reagan, rarely inked a spending veto in his eight years. This country does not know what a life-threatening debt crisis is and will have a rude awakening after November when the U.S. dollar skids to all time lows never imagined. The real problem is that Congress is leaning to more of entitlement time bombs.

We Can't Tax Our Way Out of the Entitlement Crisis," by R. Glenn Hubbard, The Wall Street Journal, August 21, 2008; Page A13 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121927694295558513.html 

We can also secure a firm financial footing for Social Security (and Medicare) without choking off economic growth or curtailing our flexibility to pursue other spending priorities. Three actions are essential: (1) reduce entitlement spending growth through some form of means testing; (2) eliminate all nonessential spending in the rest of the budget; and (3) adopt policies that promote economic growth. This 180-degree difference from Mr. Obama's fiscal plan forms the basis of Sen. McCain's priorities for spending, taxes and health care.

The problem with Mr. Obama's fiscal plans is not that that they lack vision. On the contrary, the vision is plain enough: a larger welfare state paid for by higher taxes. The problem is not even that they imply change. The problem is that his plans are statist.

While the candidate is sending a fiscal "Ich bin ein Berliner" message to Americans, European critics of his call for greater spending on defense are the canary in the coal mine for what lies ahead with his vision for the United States.

Professor R. Glenn Hubbard is Dean of the College of Business at Columbia University and a member of the President's Council of Economic Advisors.

Bob Jensen's threads on the "Entitlement Crisis" are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/entitlements.htm

So I vote for an old age pension for John McCain and gallons of ink for Sarah Palin’s veto pen ink well. I'm pro choice, pro abortion, and all for embryonic stem cell research. But unbalanced budgets and entitlement spending on credit endangers the entire existence of the United States of America.

Bob Jensen's threads on entitlements are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/entitlements.htm

Anyone who thinks the path to "fiscal discipline" is through higher taxes ought to look at the current budget spectacles in New York and California. The two liberal states have among the highest tax burdens in the country, yet both now find themselves with huge budget deficits and are debating still higher taxes to close the gap . . . The "progressives" who dominate politics in these states target the rich on grounds that they have the ability to pay. They also have the ability to leave. From 1997-2006, New York State lost 409,000 people (not counting foreign immigrants). For every two people who move into the state, three flee . . . Except that sunny California is experiencing a similar exodus. Over the past decade 1.32 million more native-born Americans left the Golden State than moved in -- despite beaches, mountains and 70-degree weather. Mostly the people who have fled are the successful, the talented and the rich . . . If taxes don't matter, then maybe someone can explain the divergent economic paths of California and New York and America's two other most populous states, Florida and Texas. The latter two states have no personal income tax. Personal income has been growing about 50% faster in Florida and Texas than in California and New York. (See chart.) This year Texas became the No. 1 state for Fortune 500 corporate headquarters. About a dozen of those 58 corporations once called New York or California home, and taxes are one reason they departed.
"How Not to Balance a Budget September 13, 2008; Page A12," The Wall Street Journal, September 13, 2008, Page A12 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122126219384430423.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

Banned Books --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_books
ACLU Texas Project (comprehensive list of banned books starting with Tom Sawyer)--- http://www.aclutx.org/projects/bannedbooks.php
Also see the ACLU list of 50 Banned Books --- http://www.aclu.org/freedomwire/books/booklist.htm
Also see http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm#Banned

Index on Censorship --- http://www.indexoncensorship.org/ 

Think the history your kids are being taught in school is fair and balanced? Think again says Larry Schweikart, University of Dayton professor and author of "48 Liberal Lies About American History (That You Probably Learned In School)." Here are four examples from Schweikart's "worst offenders . . .
"Liberal Bias in U.S. History Textbooks," Fox News, September 11, 2008 --- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,421084,00.html
Jensen Comment
When a book is banned, it’s the loss of a book. In some ways, what’s worse is to force textbook authors into politically correct straight jackets and make them distort history and control how everything is phrased. This becomes censorship of every book a student ever sees. It's a sorry state of affairs when the censorship comes from the extreme left or the extreme, often religious, right. Our students become not only bored, they remain ignorant. We become more like Hamas and Nazi Germany in an exercise of thought control.

A history textbook laden with errors was selected by a politically correctness censoring board that among other things did not object to the "fact" that the U.S. ended the Korean War by dropping an atomic bomb. . It was, however, in conformance with Jeremiah Wright’s “God damn America” rants.
"Dumbing Down, Political Correctness Distort U.S. History Critics Say," The Washington Times, April 5, 2004 --- http://www.waldengrove.org/wgarticles.html

Social studies textbooks used in elementary and secondary schools are mostly a disgrace that, in the name of political correctness and multiculturalism, fail to give students an honest account of American history, say academic historians and education advocates.

"Secondary and college students, and indeed most of the rest of us, have only a feeble grasp of politics and a vague awareness of history, especially the political history of the United States and the world," says Paul Gagnon, emeritus professor of history at the University of Massachusetts.

Most textbooks, produced by a handful of giant commercial publishers, are exposing generations of children to cultural and history amnesia that threatens the very basis of American free institutions and liberties, warn leading historians who are calling for better defined, more rigorous state teaching standards.

Just 11 percent of eighth graders show proficient knowledge of U.S. history on standardized tests—down from 17 percent in 2001, Mr. Gagnon noted in a recent study for the American Federation of Teachers.

"Less than half knew the Supreme Court could decide a law's constitutionality," he said in the Albert Shanker Institute study titled "Educating Democracy: State Standards to Ensure a Civic Core." "Only a third knew what the Progressive Era was and most were not sure whom we fought in World War II."

Publishers acknowledge having buckled since the early 1980s to so-called multicultural "bias guidelines" demanded by interest groups and elected state boards of education that require censorship of textbook content to accommodate feminist, homosexual and racial demands.

The California State Board of Education was the first to adopt such guidelines in 1982, according to New York University education research professor Diane Ravitch in her latest book, "The Language Police." The California guidelines instruct textbook publishers and teachers: "Do not cast adverse reflection on any gender, race, ethnicity, religion or cultural group." The board had informal "social content standards" going back to the 1970s.

Publishers followed with their own editorial anti bias guidelines, which banned words, phrases, images, and depictions of people deemed unacceptable — such as "man," "mankind," "manpower," "men " said to be sexist. Also banned are ' able bodied," "aged," "babe "'backward," "chick," "fairy,' "geezer:' "idiot" "imbecile ' "Redskin,' "sissy,' "suffragette" and "waitress."

A handful of commercial publishers produce most elementary and secondary school textbooks used in the United States, which cost the nation's taxpayers about $250 million per subject.

They are Glencoe, a subsidiary of McGraw Holt, Rinehart & Winston, owned by Harcourt, Inc., U.S. division of the Dutch publishing conglomerate Reed Elsevier Group; McDougal Littell, owned by Houghton Mifflin, and Prentice Hall, a subsidiary of British owned Pearson Education Inc., which also owns Scott Foresman, Addison Wesley, Silver Burdett, Ginn, and other school textbook imprints.

All companies have developed their own internal checklists that dictate writing, graphics, photos and other textbook content.

A team of 16 academic reviewers in Texas, the second largest state market for textbooks behind California, last year found 533 factual and interpretive errors in 28 social studies texts submitted for adoption by the state board of education.

The books were for sixth grade world culture, seventh grade Texas state history, eighth grade and high school American history, U.S. government and economics, and high school world history. "For 351 of the 533 errors identified, publishers agreed to either revise statements to correct factual inaccuracies or to add clarifying statements to rectify ambiguity," said Chris Patterson, research director for the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin, which commissioned the review.

For 35 percent of noted errors, “publishers denied that the information was incorrect and stated that the reviewers misunderstood the textbook," Mrs. Patterson said. "However, in these cases, publishers did not modify the text to ensure students would not fall victim to the same misunderstanding suffered by scholars and teachers who reviewed the texts."

She said many textbook errors cited by the foundation involved "clear bias"—opinions presented as fact, content "not sufficiently objective" or distortion through lack of substantive facts.

Sixth grade texts on world cultures were strongly criticized by reviewer Robert Gorman, teaching professor of humanities and political science at Southwest Texas State University at San Marcos.

He said McDougal Littell's "World Cultures and Geography" was marred by "weak treatment of American history," while "World Explorer: People, Places and Culture" by Prentice Hall "handled American history better but dropped the ball on the European history." Harcourt's "Harcourt Horizons" and Holt's "Holt People, Places and Change: An Introduction to World Studies" "largely bungle the history throughout, not only by giving it minimal attention, but also compounding neglect with many errors of fact and interpretation,” Mr. Gorman said.

"Almost all of the books have deficient treatments of religion in general or of particular religious traditions, with the Christian tradition being almost uniformly the least well developed in all of the books.

"There is in all the texts a general tendency to see religion as just one trait among many cultural traits, rather than as a primary foundation of culture," Mr. Gorman said. "In my own study of history and in my own personal experience, I have encountered many who are willing to give up their lives to keep or defend their religious faith, but rarely anyone who is willing to die for the right to eat pizza or dance the rumba."

Stephen D. Driesler, executive director of the Association of American Publishers' school division, told The Washington Times that textbook publishers "find themselves damned if they do or damned if they don't follow the guidelines set forth" by state and local school boards and national organizations insisting on censorship of particular terminology or ideas in school materials.

“California is our largest state, and as such, it is also the single largest purchaser of textbooks. The economic reality for an educational publisher is, if they want to sell textbooks in California, they have to follow these guidelines," he said.

Mrs. Ravitch, author of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute's recent "Consumer's Guide to High School History Textbooks," blames statewide textbook adoption laws for committee written books that students find boring and barely tolerable. "There's an incredible sameness about them. They're following the same script," she told reporters in a briefing on the study of a dozen American and world history texts issued Feh. 26.

In a 1,000 page textbook weighing almost eight pounds, "There's so much included," Mrs. Ravitch said. "They're incoherent because of the pressure to include everything. They're colorful but they have irrelevant graphics."

At a time when the Harry Potter series grabbed children's imagination and loyalty because the books "are exciting and well written, resonate with suspense, mystery, intrigue and showdowns between the forces of good and evil," school history textbooks had "achieved the heights of banality," thanks to political correctness, she wrote in an essay last fall for the Hoover Digest.

"They aim not to engage students' imagination, but to bolster their self esteem. Harry Potter has triumphed because his author understands the power of story. If the story is good enough, children will take a flashlight to bed so they can keep reading after the lights are out. Unlike textbook publishers, who must screen everything before they print to avoid giving offense."

Historian David McCullough who won two Pulitzer Prizes for his biographies of Presidents John Adams and Harry Thuman, also calls school history and social studies textbooks "deadly dull."

"It is as if they were designed to kill anyone's interest in history," he said in an interview. "A child made to read these books would ask, 'What did I do wrong today that I am being so punished?' "

Further evidence of "something that's eating away at the national memory" Mr. McCullough says, is a survey last year of seniors at 50 top colleges and universities by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. "It's astonishing. More than half didn’t know George Washington was the commanding general of the Continental Army during the American Revolution who accepted Brig. Gen. Charles Cornwallis' s render at Yorktown.

"Thirty six percent thought it was Ulysses S. Grant," commander of the Union Army during the Civil War. "Six percent said it was Douglas MacArthur, U.S. commander during the Korean War.

"Thirty two percent said Washington. It was a multiple choice question. They were winging it. "If you don't know what Yorktown was all about, and that Washington was the commander, you don't know a lot about Americ history that you ought to know," McCullough said.

Wilfred M. McClay, humanities professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said that when graduates of Harvard and other great universities "are not learning the basics of American history, it is safe to assume that almost no one is, and that there will be almost no one to pass such knowledge on to the next generation.

"Historical memory is as much a necessity to the preservation of liberty and American security as our own armed forces," he said.

Mrs. Ravitch said states should get rid of statewide textbook adoption laws and let teachers have freedom to select their own history books and original source material to teach history.

"This power is too easily compromised by pressure groups and by bureaucratic demands," she concluded in the Fordham study. "The states should set their academic standards, align their tests to these standards, and leave teachers free to select the books, anthologies, histories, biographies, software and other materials that will help students meet the standards."

Mel Gabler of Longview, Texas, a textbook reviewer for 40 years, said he "absolutely disagrees completely" that local textbook selection is better than statewide selection because publishers, teachers unions and other organized interests would block out parental interests.

"They'll offer the best of two that create less controversy at the state level," said Mr. Gabler, who with wife, Norma, founded Education Research Analysts in 1961 to revise textbooks from a Christian conservative perspective.

"Publishers are advantaged by local adoption because they have more personnel" to overwhelm possible criticism. At the state level where organized parents and pro-family groups marshaled objections against textbook content, ''that’s kicked out many a book," Mr. Gabler said. Better yet, Mr. McCullough said, teachers should abandon textbooks altogether and use other books and resources instead to teach history and geography.

Textbooks written to be "poitcally correct" do not tell the truth about struggle and conflict throughout the ages in order to avoid offending minorities, ethnic groups, woman and otlier advocates, he said.

"History is a story, cause and effect. And if you're going to teach just segments of history, women issues, these youngsters have almost no sense of cause and effect,” he said.

Mr. McCullough said, "I would away with the textbooks. Get rid of the state commissions that write the textbooks” because they fail to instill in students a sense of gratitude for the country's leaders over the centuries and what the American people endured and accomplished in order to pass on a legacy of freedom and prosperity.

"I think that to be ignorant or indifferent to history isn't just to be uneducated or stupid. It's to be rude, ungrateful. And ingratitude is an ugly failing in human beings."

In the post-September 11 world, the most important task of elementary and secondary social studies teachers is to make sure that students know and appreciate the foundations of individual liberty and national security in a free society, said Gloria Sesso, a K-12 social studies administrator in New York's Patchogue-Medford school district, and John Pyne, social studies supervisor in New Jersey's West Milford school district.

"It is vital that today's students are in touch with and able to affirm the values that define us as a nation—the values that the September 11 terrorists and their controllers scorned and attacked and the values from which tyrants shield their people," the educators write in a Fordham Foundation report.

In this context, many educators and school administrators are coming to believe that huge survey textbooks that cover centuries of history and world culture may be outmoded and too expensive in an era of state learning standards designed to increase student academic achievement and knowledge.

With a plethora of books, films, original and supplementary materials available from libraries and on the Internet, textbooks now often are used as a supplement with other materials, said Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools in Washington.

"It's almost like drinking from a fire hydrant," Mr. Casserly said of the wealth of materials available to teachers and students in addition to social studies textbooks. "The challenge is getting schools aware of all of the resources, and making sure that all resources link together in a coherent way."

E.D. Hirsch Jr., English professor emeritus at the University of Virginia and author of the widely acclaimed "Core Knowledge Series” said in the study that students must be taught "moral progress in history" and firmly understand that "America's religiously motivated enemies do not accept a founding premise of the First Amendment —that every culture or religion is deserving of respect."

Mr. Hirsch said: "Our very tolerant way of regarding other people's traditions and beliefs contrasts sharply with the intolerant way our adversaries view American traditions and beliefs. This contrast can create a problem for us and our children if our traditions of tolerance are allowed to lapse into facile relativism, under the bland illusion that everybody now operates under the benign post-Jefferson notion of tolerance, which is our inheritance from the European Enlightenment.

"It's therefore important to teach our children the big, crucial restriction that the Enlightenment and our founders placed on the idea of religious and cultural toleration. Every culture or religion, they said, deserves to be left in peace and freedom so long as it leaves every other culture or religion in peace and freedom."

In one century we went from teaching Latin and Greek in high school to offering remedial English in college.
Joseph Sobran as quoted by Mark Shapiro at http://irascibleprofessor.com/comments-11-27-07.htm

Most Students in Remedial Classes in College Had Solid Grades in High School
Nearly four out of five students who undergo remediation in college graduated from high school with grade-point averages of 3.0 or higher, according to a report issued today by Strong American Schools, a group that advocates making public-school education more rigorous.
Peter Schmidt, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 15, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/news/article/5145/most-students-in-remedial-classes-in-college-had-solid-grades-in-high-school-survey-finds

Are we really tough on them after they get to college?
The investigation revealed that 91 percent of Harvard's students graduated cum laude.
 Thomas Bartlett and Paula Wasley, "Just Say 'A': Grade Inflation Undergoes Reality Check:  The notion of a decline in standards draws crusaders and skeptics," Chronicle of Higher Education, September 5, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i02/02a00104.htm?utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on grade inflation are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#GradeInflation

This is a comment from Kevin Bacon on September 7, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/views/blogs/university_diaries/palin_fire

Education

I may get banned for this, but I have to say, what hubris!

When you’ve been, at some point in your life, seriously inside higher ed (to coin a phrase), you’re forever unsettled by the possibility you’ve glimpsed of existence pitched very high, dedicated daily to as much lucidity about the world within and without as humanly possible.

Why is it, then, that about the only place where the Marxist philosophy still thrives is academia? Lucidity about the world within and without? Sorry, no.

Let’s look at the first myth from the WaPo piece:

(B)y every measure social scientists have devised, voters are spectacularly uninformed. They don’t follow politics, and they don’t know how their government works. According to an August 2006 Zogby poll, only two in five Americans know that we have three branches of government and can name them. A 2006 National Geographic poll showed that six in ten young people (aged 18 to 24) could not find Iraq on the map. The political scientists Michael Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter, surveying a wide variety of polls measuring knowledge of history, report that fewer than half of all Americans know who Karl Marx was or which war the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought in. Worse, they found that just 49 percent of Americans know that the only country ever to use a nuclear weapon in a war is their own.

What does that say to you? Americans are ignorant, no? But why?

Because the present population is the product of the last 100 years of the American education system — a system designed by people supposedly “serously inside higher ed” and run by people taught by them. And the result? At the turn of the 20th Century our high schools taught Greek and philosophy. At the turn of the 21st Century our Universities teach remedial English and mathematics.

The failure isn’t the American people who haven’t learned, it’s the products of higher education who have systematically failed to teach them.

The question I have is “WHY?”. As someone whose opinion I respect once wrote, “it is difficult to conclude that incompetence is the reason why our public schools have deteriorated. There comes a point where you have to suspect sabotage, or a conspiracy.”

Someone else I read put it very well:

One of the problems is with our elites. We are wrong to think that the difficulty lies in the uneducated and unsophisticated masses—as if inadequate education, in and of itself, is the problem. As a matter of fact, no one is more prone to illusions than the intellectual. It has been said that philosophy is simply personal error on a grandiose scale. Complicating matters is the fact that intellectuals are hardly immune to a deep emotional investment in their ideas, no less than the religious individual. The word “belief” is etymologically linked to the word “beloved,” and it is easy to see how certain ideas, no matter how dysfunctional—for example, some of the undeniably appealing ideas underpinning contemporary liberalism—are beloved by those who believe them. Thus, many liberal ideas are believed not because they are true, but because they are beautiful. Then, the intellectual simply marshals their intelligence in service of legitimizing the beliefs that they already hold. It has long been understood by psychoanalysts that for most people, reason is the slave of the passions.

Thus far too many in academia are not “dedicated daily to as much lucidity about the world within and without as humanly possible,” they are dedicated daily to defending their beloved ideas — regardless of their lucidity (or lack thereof.) The education system of our nation illustrates this quite lucidly.

"Federal Panel Seeks Cause of Minority Students' Poor Science Performance," by Peter Schmidt, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 15, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/09/4594n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which previously had called for research on whether affirmative-action preferences set minority law students up for failure, turned its attention on Friday to the question of whether disproportionate numbers of minority students leave science, technology, mathematics, and engineering because they are admitted to colleges where they cannot keep up.

Most of the experts who testified before the commission subscribed to the "mismatch" theory, which holds that minority students are harmed by being placed in academic settings that are too rigorous for them, and stand a better chance of staying on track academically if they enroll in less-demanding institutions where they will not be in over their heads.

Believers in the mismatch theory so dominated Friday's briefing that Michael J. Yaki, one of two Democrats on the eight-member commission, argued that the expert list lacked balance. "There are many people who are not part of this panel who would not agree that mismatch does occur," Mr. Yaki said.

"Ultimately," he said, "what we are talking about here is the potentiality of human beings." How well people will end up doing in a given field cannot be accurately measured just by the grades and test scores on their college applications, he argued.

Support for 'Mismatch' Theory

One of those who testified, Thomas E. Fortmann, a volunteer high-school math teacher and former technology-company executive who sits on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, argued that "affirmative action comes into play pretty late in the game and it doesn't address the underlying mathematical deficiencies" of many minority students. Because mathematics is very much a "cumulative" field in which students need to learn one subject, such as algebra, before they can master another, such as calculus, he said, "it seems self-evident" that minority students admitted to colleges through affirmative action will have trouble succeeding in the absence of vigorous, sustained efforts to bring them up to speed with their classmates.

The panel also heard from Rogers Elliott, an emeritus professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth College. He is a co-author of a 1996 report on a study concluding that affirmative-action preferences cause highly selective institutions to admit many black students who will end up dropping out of science programs. Since that study's publication 12 years ago in Research in Higher Education, "the gaps that are illustrated in this data have not gotten any better and in fact are getting a little worse," he told the commission.

Richard H. Sander, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, presented an analysis of data recently obtained from the University of California system showing how students from different racial and ethnic groups fared before that state voted in 1996 to bar public colleges from using affirmative-action preferences. He said his data showed that academic mismatch accounted for 25 to 30 percent of the gap between racial and ethnic groups in the attainment of degrees in the sciences, and that most of the rest of the gap was attributable to a basic lack of academic preparation on the part of many black and Hispanic students, no matter where they enroll. He said he had found no evidence suggesting that such students are less interested in science or are being held back by racism.

Mr. Sander tempered his remarks, however, by saying mismatch seemed to be a problem mainly for students admitted through substantial affirmative-action preferences and did not seem to stand in the way of those for whom the bar had been lowered only slightly.

Echoing an assertion that Mr. Sander has made based on his previous research on law schools, Mr. Elliott said many black and Hispanic students would have a better chance of graduating in science- and math-related fields if they enrolled in less demanding institutions that were a better fit for them. But, he said, such a downward "cascading" of minority students would have the drawback of leaving some at less wealthy institutions, where they would not have access to as much financial aid and academic support.

Effect of Early Inequality

Much of Friday's briefing was spent discussing inequities in elementary and secondary education that cause disproportionate numbers of black and Hispanic students to graduate from high schools inadequately prepared for rigorous college work in math.

Mr. Fortmann placed much of the blame for such gaps on the lack of mathematical knowledge among many elementary and middle-school teachers. "Until we solve that, improvements and innovations at the high-school and college levels really can't have much effect," he said.

Continued in article

Are we really tough on them after they get to college?
The investigation revealed that 91 percent of Harvard's students graduated cum laude.
 Thomas Bartlett and Paula Wasley, "Just Say 'A': Grade Inflation Undergoes Reality Check:  The notion of a decline in standards draws crusaders and skeptics," Chronicle of Higher Education, September 5, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i02/02a00104.htm?utm_source=wb&utm_medium=en
Bob Jensen's threads on grade inflation are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#GradeInflation

Accounting firms once again dominate BusinessWeek’s third annual ranking of the “Best Places to Launch a Career”: Ernst & Young jumps two spots to No. 1, followed by Deloitte and PricewaterhouseCoopers. KPMG, moved up six spots to No. 5.

"The Best Places to Launch a Career," Business Week, September 4, 2008 ---
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_37/b4099036445894.htm?chan=magazine+channel_special+report

BusinessWeek’s 50 Best Places to Launch a Career

2008 Rank	2007 Rank	Company	Industry
1	3	Ernst & Young	Accounting
2	1	Deloitte	Accounting
3	2	PricewaterhouseCoopers	Accounting
4	13	Goldman Sachs	Investing Banking
5	11	KPMG	Accounting
6	45	Marriott International