I assigned an essay exam last week, in addition to my regular multiple choice exam. I need the essay to have students fulfill the college's "critical thinking" requirement. Unfortunately, the majority of students weren't ready to do that kind of critical thinking, even after I gave them the basic question (prompts) in advance.
Anyway, I still have to finish grading the essays, but I'm thinking about the age-old problem of promoting academic success among disadvantaged groups, especially racial minorities.
I'm old school. I think all the progressive "equity" initiatives are a bunch of bull more designed to enrich leftist pockets and administrators' curricula vitae. More and more professional development at my college deals less and less with the problem of student academic unpreparedness. There's lots of talk about civil rights and supporting underrepresented groups, but little in the way of beating back stale leftist pedagogy and dogma. (For example, the idea of strong student discipline in the classroom is virtually out the window, as theories of "restorative justice" have taken over administrative regimes; to truly discipline disruptive, even violent, students is deemed "racist.")
In any case, here's a great book about getting back to basics.
At Amazon, Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom, No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning.
BONUS: Don't miss the indispensable, Annette Lareau, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (2nd Edition with an Update a Decade Later).
Friday, March 3, 2017
That's a Big Fish!
Heh.
That gator's going to have quite a meal, lol.
That gator's going to have quite a meal, lol.
Whoa! A woman in Florida captured this crazy sight of a gator carrying a fish across a golf course. https://t.co/Kj4cZjWEVg pic.twitter.com/yeMPoZs6gI
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 3, 2017
Heh. Fan Mail
Trump Won & Won Big!
Fan mail pic.twitter.com/5lU2DG2YVg
— Mark Z. Barabak (@markzbarabak) March 3, 2017
Fanatical Left-Wing Mob Attacks Charles Murrary and Middlebury Professor Allison Stanger
It's getting worse all the time.
I hate to say it, but conservatives could get killed by these mobs. This is horrific.
At the Daily Caller and Inside Higher Ed:
I hate to say it, but conservatives could get killed by these mobs. This is horrific.
At the Daily Caller and Inside Higher Ed:
Leftist Students Physically Assault Conservative Scholar, Professor Over Speech https://t.co/gRj8zpjMvS
— Scott Greer (@ScottMGreer) March 3, 2017
#MiddleburyCollege students shout down lecture by Charles Murray https://t.co/l7umGvRozk #highered pic.twitter.com/1pM4QbPpQ5
— Inside Higher Ed (@insidehighered) March 3, 2017
OMG.This happened after Charles Murray lecture. Female prof assaulted--car mobbed. @splcenter helped incite the hate pic.twitter.com/a6VMclPjxU
— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) March 3, 2017
ICYMI: Henry Olsen, The Working Class Republican
I'm looking forward to this one.
At Amazon, Henry Olsen, The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism.
RELATED: Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.
At Amazon, Henry Olsen, The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism.
RELATED: Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream.
Far-Left Journalist Arrested, Charged With Threats Against Jewish Centers
Well, I told you.
This guy, a leftist, along with apparently dozens if not hundreds of calls from outside the country to Jewish centers, are what's causing this so called "wave of anti-Semitism" in the U.S. Honestly, it has nothing to do with the Trump administration and everything to do with Democrat Party and leftist evil.
At My Pet Jawa, "Juan Thompson of St. Louis Arrested for Hate Crimes Against Jewish Targets": "Juan Thompson is a former staff reporter for the Intercept" and "a Black Lives Matter activist."
Via Memeorandum.
This guy, a leftist, along with apparently dozens if not hundreds of calls from outside the country to Jewish centers, are what's causing this so called "wave of anti-Semitism" in the U.S. Honestly, it has nothing to do with the Trump administration and everything to do with Democrat Party and leftist evil.
At My Pet Jawa, "Juan Thompson of St. Louis Arrested for Hate Crimes Against Jewish Targets": "Juan Thompson is a former staff reporter for the Intercept" and "a Black Lives Matter activist."
Via Memeorandum.
DREAMer Daniela Vargas to Be Deported Without Hearing
Radley Balko's all shaken up, the poor thing.
This is gratuitously cruel. She was brought here when she was 7. They're making an example of her. https://t.co/mu4VMoIZiT
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) March 3, 2017
The utter lack of empathy in some of the responses to this story is depressing. https://t.co/b8vDsZkFnn
— Radley Balko (@radleybalko) March 3, 2017
Obama Officials Waging War on Trump White House
From Noah Rothman, at Commentary, "Revenge of Obama’s ‘Former Officials’":
But keep reading, FWIW.
Revenge of Obama’s ‘Former Officials’ - by @noahcrothman https://t.co/d8z9pZGl8i pic.twitter.com/Fhh6SywFeo
— Commentary Magazine (@Commentary) March 3, 2017
For a president who has a uniquely hostile relationship with the press, positive news cycles are both rare and fleeting. The Trump team displayed remarkable discipline by refusing to step on the president’s well-received address to a joint session of Congress. A lot of good discipline did them. Just 24 hours after Trump’s address, a series of troubling reports involving links among those in Trump’s orbit to Russian officials reset the national discourse. Those stories make for a trend, though, that has little to do with Trump and a lot to do with his predecessor. The Obama administration’s foreign-policy team seems to be campaigning to rehabilitate itself one leak at a time, and the press is helping.Democrats are treasonous scum.
The frenzy on Wednesday night began with a revelation in the New York Times that members of Barack Obama’s administration had left a trail of breadcrumbs for investigators who happen to be looking into the Trump campaign’s contacts with the Russian government. The report revealed that intelligence officials intercepted communications between Russian officials and “Trump associates,” and that the administration worked frantically in the final days to ensure those revelations could not be buried and forgotten after they left office.
More than six “former officials” described efforts to reduce the classification on some reports relating to Trump associates’ contact with Russians so they would be widely distributed. They also revealed their efforts to raise the classification level of some information related to Russia that was so sensitive they feared the Trump administration might leak it to Moscow. Some officials apparently even touted their efforts to ask leading questions during intelligence briefings so their questions would be transcribed and archived, leaving clues for congressional investigators should they ever come looking for them.
The Times report revealed that a “former senior American official” disclosed that Jeff Sessions had met with “Russian officials.” The Washington Post confirmed that Sessions took a private meeting with Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak, appearing to contradict testimony Sessions provided to the Senate. The controversy whipped up around the discrepancy between Sessions’ confirmation-hearing testimony, and these reports have resulted in Democrats calling for his resignation and Republicans running for cover.
Though it received less attention amid the flurry of reports involving Team Trump’s connections to the Kremlin, the Washington Post published another story involving the decision-making process that led up to the Yemen raid. That raid, in which Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens was killed, an Osprey helicopter was lost, and up to 31 Yemeni civilians died, cannot be said to have gone according to plan. This report alleges that the plan might have been the problem.
The report quoted former advisor to Vice President Joe Biden on national security, Colin Kahl, who averred that the raid was the result of an Obama administration-era initiative expediting the approval of partnered ground operations. Yet, this raid was greenlit as a result of “a more abbreviated White House process.” Kahl took particular issue with the revelation that a sub-Cabinet level meeting on the raid—a meeting scheduled after the raid had been approved by the president and following a variety of briefings on the mission—lasted less than an hour. “You can’t cover the complexity of a topic like that in 23 minutes,” he declared. Other “former officials” quoted in that piece criticized the raid for straining relations with the Yemeni government. In sum, the Obama administration deserves all the credit for what went right in Yemen and none of the blame for what went wrong.
At least a few of these “former officials” who so freely offer reporters at the Times and the Post intimate details about the Obama administration’s approach to foreign policy are members of the infamous gang of nine. These officials within the Obama administration’s intelligence apparatus confirmed to the Post that former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn had misled Mike Pence when he said he did not discuss the Obama-era sanctions regime in his phone conversations with Kislyak. As the Times revealed last night, federal officials monitored those calls, transcribed the conversations, and related the substance to the press.
There is an assumption permeating these reports: that those unnamed Obama-era officials are selflessly sacrificing in the effort to prevent the Trump administration from undermining American national security. Some have even dedicated themselves to creating an elaborate Da Vinci Code for future scavenger hunters to decipher. More likely, the Obama administration’s foreign policy professionals are doing their best to retroactively vindicate themselves after leaving office under a cloud of mistrust. In their effort to self-aggrandize at the expense of the current administration, these rogue officials have found willing partners in the press.
The Obama administration was engaged in narrative manipulation surrounding Russia’s intervention into the election process even in its final hours...
But keep reading, FWIW.
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Sharyl Attkisson, The Smear
This lady is the best!
At Amazon, Sharyl Attkisson, The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote.
At Amazon, Sharyl Attkisson, The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote.
Tom Perez, Keith Ellison and the Meaning of Anti-Semitism
From Caroline Glick, at RCP, "Perez, Ellison and the Meaning of Anti-Semitism":
PREVIOUSLY: "7,000 Anti-Semitic Incidents Under Obama?"
Was former Secretary of labor and assistant attorney-general Tom Perez’s victory over Congressman Keith Ellison over the weekend in the race to serve as the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee a victory of centrist Democrats over radical leftists in the party? That is how the mainstream media is portraying Perez’s victory.Keep reading.
Along these lines, Prof. Allen Dershowitz, a lifelong Democrat who promised to quit the party if Ellison was elected due to his documented history of antisemitism and hostility toward Israel, hailed Perez’s election. Speaking to Fox News, Dershowitz said that Perez’s election over Ellison “is a victory in the war against bigotry, antisemitism, the anti-Israel push of the hard Left within the Democratic Party.”
There are two problems with Dershowitz’s view. First, Perez barely won. Ellison received nearly half the votes in two rounds of voting.
Tipping his hat to Ellison’s massive popularity among the party’s leadership and grassroots, Perez appointed the former Nation of Islam spokesman to serve as deputy DNC chairman as soon as his own victory was announced.
There is a good reason that Perez is so willing to cooperate with Ellison in running the DNC. And this points to the second problem with the claim that Perez’s election signals a move toward the center by Democratic leaders.
Perez is ready to cooperate with Ellison because the two men have the same ideological worldview and the same vision for the Democratic Party. As Mother Jones explained, “There’s truly not much ideological distance between the two.”
Far from being a victory for the centrist forces in the party, Perez’s win marks the solidification of the far Left’s control over the party of Harry Truman. Only hard leftists participated in a meaningful way in the race for leadership of the second largest party in America – a party that less than a decade ago controlled the White House and both houses of Congress.
The implications of this state of affairs are disastrous for the US generally. It is inherently destabilizing for a nation when one of the parties in a two-party political system is taken over by people who have a negative view of the country.
While America as a whole will suffer from the radicalization of the Democratic Party, perhaps no group will suffer more from the far Left’s takeover of the party than the American Jewish community. The vast majority of American Jews give their partisan allegiance to the Democratic Party and their ideological allegiance to the Left.
While Perez made a name for himself by fighting the enforcement of US immigration and naturalization laws against illegal immigrants, and Ellison rose to prominence for his activism in radical African American and Islamic circles, thanks to the so-called intersectionality of the far Left, that makes the cause of one faction the cause of all factions, today Perez is as much an apologist for Israel bashers as Ellison.
Perhaps in response to the danger that the far Left’s takeover of the Democratic Party represents, Malcolm Hoenlein, the long-serving professional head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called on Sunday for the convening of a global conference on antisemitism. In a meeting with The Jerusalem Post’s editorial board, Hoenlein said that one of the goals of the proposed conference would be to reach a universally accepted definition of antisemitism...
PREVIOUSLY: "7,000 Anti-Semitic Incidents Under Obama?"
Today's Deals
Thanks for your support.
At Amazon, Today's Deals.
And, Stanley M. Elkins, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life.
Plus, Kenneth M. Stampp, Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South.
Ira Berlin, Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves.
More, Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860.
Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made.
BONUS: Christina Snyder, Slavery in Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America.
At Amazon, Today's Deals.
And, Stanley M. Elkins, Slavery: A Problem in American Institutional and Intellectual Life.
Plus, Kenneth M. Stampp, Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South.
Ira Berlin, Generations of Captivity: A History of African-American Slaves.
More, Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790-1860.
Eugene D. Genovese, Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made.
BONUS: Christina Snyder, Slavery in Indian Country: The Changing Face of Captivity in Early America.
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Ray Allen Billington, America's Frontier Heritage
*BUMPED.*
I picked up a copy, to continue my study of the American frontier and the Native American experience.
At Amazon, Ray Allen Billington, America's Frontier Heritage.
I picked up a copy, to continue my study of the American frontier and the Native American experience.
At Amazon, Ray Allen Billington, America's Frontier Heritage.
7,000 Anti-Semitic Incidents Under Obama?
Man, that's a lot.
And why were they ignored? What an excellent question.
At Algemeiner, "Why Were the 7000 Anti-Semitic Incidents Under Obama Largely Ignored?" (Via Memeorandum.)
The main reason, of course, is that leftists want to destroy Donald Trump. I don't believe there's any real increase in "hate incidents." For example, those vandalizing and terrorizing Jewish cemeteries are probably leftists. We won't know until there are some arrests. And as for the rest of the so-called "hate incidents" against Jews, every year anti-Semitic attacks top the Justice Department's hate crimes statistics. There's no new "increase." They're just being sensationalized for political gain.
We're looking at at leftist double-standard, designed to make President Trump's administration look like the coming of the Third Reich. It's despicable.
RELATED: "How the Democrats Became the Anti-Israel Party."
And why were they ignored? What an excellent question.
At Algemeiner, "Why Were the 7000 Anti-Semitic Incidents Under Obama Largely Ignored?" (Via Memeorandum.)
The main reason, of course, is that leftists want to destroy Donald Trump. I don't believe there's any real increase in "hate incidents." For example, those vandalizing and terrorizing Jewish cemeteries are probably leftists. We won't know until there are some arrests. And as for the rest of the so-called "hate incidents" against Jews, every year anti-Semitic attacks top the Justice Department's hate crimes statistics. There's no new "increase." They're just being sensationalized for political gain.
We're looking at at leftist double-standard, designed to make President Trump's administration look like the coming of the Third Reich. It's despicable.
Why Were the 7,000 Antisemitic Incidents Under Obama Largely Ignored? by Seth Frantzman https://t.co/vjFkrkBDTd— Algemeiner (@Algemeiner) March 1, 2017
RELATED: "How the Democrats Became the Anti-Israel Party."
Lightning Deals
At Amazon, Today's Deals.
Thanks for your support.
Also, AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable - 6 Feet (1.8 Meters) - White.
Here, KIND Breakfast Bars, Peanut Butter, Gluten Free, 1.8 Ounce, 32 Count.
Alan Taylor, Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction, and American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804.
More, Kathleen DuVal, The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent.
Michael A. Lofaro, Daniel Boone: An American Life.
And Hampton Sides, Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West.
BONUS: Robert M. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865.
Thanks for your support.
Also, AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable - 6 Feet (1.8 Meters) - White.
Here, KIND Breakfast Bars, Peanut Butter, Gluten Free, 1.8 Ounce, 32 Count.
Alan Taylor, Colonial America: A Very Short Introduction, and American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804.
More, Kathleen DuVal, The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent.
Michael A. Lofaro, Daniel Boone: An American Life.
And Hampton Sides, Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West.
BONUS: Robert M. Utley, Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865.
Most Voters Think Trump is Delivering on Promises
Here's Morning Consult's poll from yesterday morning, "Ahead of Joint Address, Most Voters Think Trump Is Delivering on Promises."
And now, post-address, the president's going to get a bounce.
At Hot Air, "Polls: 76% who watched approved of Trump’s speech, 57% were “very positive” about it."
You can see why Dems are freakin'.
And now, post-address, the president's going to get a bounce.
At Hot Air, "Polls: 76% who watched approved of Trump’s speech, 57% were “very positive” about it."
You can see why Dems are freakin'.
European Union Revokes Marine Le Pen Immunity
The Euro-bureaucrats will try to destroy Marine Le Pen. She may win the presidential election this year, and then look out Brussels!
At Blazing Cat Fur, "EU REVOKES Marine Le Pen Immunity Which Could See Her in Court Over ISIS Tweets."
FLASHBACK: The don't-miss interview from last year, at Foreign Affairs, "Marine Le Pen Interview."
At Blazing Cat Fur, "EU REVOKES Marine Le Pen Immunity Which Could See Her in Court Over ISIS Tweets."
FLASHBACK: The don't-miss interview from last year, at Foreign Affairs, "Marine Le Pen Interview."
'Burnin' for You'
From this morning's school drop off for my young son, who's in 9th grade now.
Led Zeppelin was jammin' on the way over to the school. Blue Oyster Cult on the way back. (I'm an old man, lol.)
At the Sound L.A.:
Led Zeppelin was jammin' on the way over to the school. Blue Oyster Cult on the way back. (I'm an old man, lol.)
At the Sound L.A.:
Pat Benatar
Heartbreaker
7:59 AM
Same Old Song and Dance
Aerosmith
7:55 AM
BURNIN' FOR YOU
B.O.C.
7:51 AM
Let's Go
The Cars
7:47 AM
Stairway to Heaven
Led Zeppelin
7:39 AM
Wanted Dead or Alive
Bon Jovi
7:34 AM
Long Cool Woman
the Hollies
7:31 AM
Jungle Love
Steve Miller Band
7:28 AM
Your Love
The Outfield
7:24 AM
Suffragette City
David Bowie
7:21 AM
All Right Now
Free
7:04 AM
Amazon Web Services Crashing
My proprietary Pearson education REVEL webpage was down for a while yesterday, which sucked because it was exam day.
Don't know if it was related to the Amazon cloud service crash, but not good either way. (And my school's email web application is down at this moment. Again, don't know if it's related, but hundreds of websites were affected by the crash.)
At the Chicago Tribune, "Amazon Web Services goes down, taking swaths of internet with it..."
Don't know if it was related to the Amazon cloud service crash, but not good either way. (And my school's email web application is down at this moment. Again, don't know if it's related, but hundreds of websites were affected by the crash.)
At the Chicago Tribune, "Amazon Web Services goes down, taking swaths of internet with it..."
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