Jim Manis on Most Anything

Jim Manis can formulate an opinion about a good many things, including those about which he has little knowledge. (And some dude named "Lazlo.") Visit The MagicFactory.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

The Educational Farce:

Today's New York Times editorializes on one of the failures of the "No Child Left Behind" policy by pointing out that many states have opted out of the federal testing program, preferring to substitute their own dummied down versions of assessment.

The schools, it should be noted, cannot do what society as a whole refuses to do, place high value on education. If you push a job off onto someone else with nothing more than a "do a good job," you'll end up with the least possible benefit, if even that. As long as parents can't agree that learning is the responsibility of the student and can't be accomplished for the student, the student isn't going to learn. Tell the kid he must score well on a test, and he'll probably learn to score well on a test. If that's all you're concerned about, that's all you'll get.

Many states have complained that the federally mandated "No Child Left Behind" policy included funding promises that have never been fulfilled. This, it has been argued, is the the primary reason the programs put into place have fallen far short of their advertised success.

However, the same people who advocated the policy were also the people who have worked for decades to gut federal funding for education. "No Child Left Behind" was never intended to promote education, it's intent is to mask the manipulation of education to benefit the few who can guarantee their children's education.

To make a leap, the same folks who begin their speeches with "We must protect our borders" are the same ones who desperately want that illegal imigration to continue unabted. These are the people who want to proclaim "No Child Left Behind" so mask. When that pol wants to kiss your baby because some guy with a camera is near buy, make sure he doesn't draw blood.


On a Personal Note:

This month marks the fourth year that I've been posting to the blog. That's a lot of hot air, and I'm not even running for office.

It all started when my friend, Andy, who has been in the computer business for a long time and sold me my first personal computer back in the mid 1980s, suggested the site to me. About two and a half years later, he said, "You ought to keep a blog." And I said, "Andy, I've been posting for over two years to the site you suggested to me." He said, "Oh?"

There are millions of bloggers around the world, and lots of anonymity in a crowd.

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Saturday, February 24, 2007

Understanding the State of the Nation:

While most of us interesed in things beyond on-line gaming, gambling and porn are focused on Iraq, Iran, and whether Hillary or Obama will come through the longest pre-election electoral process in tact, the real state of the nation can be better understood by what is happening in the world of high finance. Want to know what's really driving the nation? Check out ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and CLIFFORD KRAUSS's article, "At $45 Billion, New Contender for Top Buyout," in today's New York Times.

Sorkin and Krauss cover it all, from leveraged buyouts to energy and global warming. It's all here, and if you think about it, this speaks to taxes and the state of social security. A few people have an awful lot of money, and they are driving everyone's agenda.

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Sunday, February 18, 2007

Your Privacy? The Farmer Knows the Cow's Privacy Is a Delusion:

Turning our health care records into electronic data has been the battle cry of administrations from both parties in terms of solving the health care industry financial crisis. It's supposed to save tons of money and deliver better health care much faster.

But low and behold, the cost is loss of privacy. Robert Pear reports in today's New York Times that "The Bush administration has no clear strategy to protect the privacy of patients as it promotes the use of electronic medical records throughout the nation’s health care system, federal investigators say in a new report."

That's right, your health care data is up for sale to the highest bidder. Or maybe it'll just be given away. Think this is unimportant? Well, Pres. Bush has stated otherwise: “One of the things I’ve insisted upon is that it’s got to be secure and private. There’s nothing more private than your own health records.” Evidently Bush thinks it's important, he just doesn't have a clue what to do about it. Or maybe he just doesn't care.

As the pundit said, we are just so many cattle in the field, so shut up and eat the grass so the farmer can milk you.

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No Librarian Left Embarrassed, or Silencing the Lambs:

Yup, this is about censorship. Today's New York Times reports on the state of the latest Newberry Award winner, The Higher Power of Lucky, by Susan Patron, a children's book that has terrified school librarians around the country. On its first page, the very beginning of the book, Ms Patron has dared to use the word scrotum!

Now here's the problem: schools around the country regularly order two or more copies of Newberry Award winning books every year. For some reason, foolish librarians have the notion that it is good for our children to read, as long as they don't read anything that might upset them. The them in this case is the school's librarians, teachers, principals, school board members, and two or three parents who are seeking an issue to draw attention to themselves, not the kids.

So what happens after copies of Newberry Award winning books are ordered for the school library? Why teachers, often the librarian, read the books to students. That's right, read them out loud to students. After all, everybody knows kids don't read books themselves. So here's the heart of the problem: No teacher or librarian wants to read that word (scrotum, in case you've forgotten) out loud to a bunch of ten-year-olds who will either giggle out loud or ask the teacher/librarian, "What's a 'scrotum,' Ms Smith, and do you have one?"

Not likely, neither biologically nor metaphorically. Long live the dark ages!

While we're on the topic of books:

Looking for a good read? Go to the library and check out Valerie Martin's The Unfinished Novel and Other Stories (Vintage 2006) and Mary Karr's volume of poetry, Sinners Welcome (HarperCollins 2006). The latter contains an essay well worth your time even if you don't particularly like poetry.

The essay in which Martin examines what led her to converting to Catholicism was originally commissioned for an issue of Poetry, where it appeared last year. But be prepared, the first paragraphs has the word dildo in it. Let us suggest you not read this aloud at the family gathering tonight.

Here's an example of her poetry:

Descending Theology: Christ Human


Such a short voyage for a god,
and you arrived in animal form so as not
to scorch us with your glory.
Your mask was an infant's head on a limp stalk,
sticky eyes smeared blind,
limbs rendered useless in swaddle.
You came among beasts
as one, came into our care of its lack, came crying
as we all do, because the human frame
is a crucifix, each skeletos borne a lifetime.
Any wanting soul lain
prostate on a floor to receive a pouring of sunlight
might—if still enough,
feel your cross buried in the flesh.
One has only to surrender,
you preached, open both arms to the inner,
the ever-present hold,
out-reaching every want. It's in the form
embedded, love adamant as bone.
In a breath, we can bloom and almost be you.


Valerie Martin's book of stories, her tenth book overall, presents the reader with episodes from the lives of six artists of moderate capabilities as they struggle to understand exactly what they've become in life, mid-listers, which may or may not be so bad. The stories, though longish by short story standards, are a quick read, bespeaking of Ms Martin's mastery of prose style rather than a judgement about content. Beware, however, they contain adult themes, and also moderately explicit sex. (If you're still reading books to satisfy your prurient interest in sex, then you're not reading this blog anyway.)

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Saturday, February 17, 2007

Today in History:

Thirty-five years ago today, President "I'm not a crook" Nixon left on his historic trip to China. Many of us at the time were hoping they'd keep him. But the Chinese were too smart for that.

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The Glories of Deregulation:

Republicans tell us it will cure all evils. Let the big companies fight it out between themselves for our dollars. We'll get cheap everything, right?

Check out "Rising Price of Electricity Sets Off New Debate on Regulation" in today's New York Times. Deregulation hasn't caused energy prices to fall. Just the opposite. They've skyrocketed.

Friday, February 16, 2007

Russia v. Microsoft:

Some 650 miles east of Moscow, a Russian judge found the principal of a school guilty of pirating Microsoft software to the benefit of the children in his school. The sentence: guilty but no jail time and no fine. The judge ruled that the damage to Microsoft was too insignificant measured against Microsoft's world-wide profits.

Russia, as The New York Times points out, is rolling in cash as a result of its vast oil and natural gas resources, but the folks who benefit from these riches have no intention of sharing the wealth by helping to educate the youth of their country, especially in the deep backwaters. Pirating goods and services, especially those coming from the west, is a way of life in Russia.

Of course it's difficult to muster much sympathy for Microsoft, a company that has been found guilty repeatedly of its own infractions against the laws of many nations, through which it has enriched itself and its owners.

On the other hand, the principal might have simply downloaded a free copy of Linux, complete with OpenOffice and all of the other free software available, and he could have avoided the whole issue. Then he would have really made a statement about Microsoft.

It's worth noting that how this trial has worked out might tell us here in the west something about the Russian national character that we've failed to pay attention to in the past.

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Funding Public Education:

You don't want to miss this one. For years, people have objected to funding schools with property tax. This method of funding public education might have been a good idea in a pre World War II era, but everybody knows that the method serves only local and state politicians. The local politicians use property taxes as the base of their power, state politicians use it as a means of avoiding raising taxes state-wide.

In Arizona, the rich people's berg of Troon, who live in million dollar homes, recently created a school district of their own in order to avoid paying property taxes.

It seems their children attend school in a nearby school district, which was about to levy property taxes on the citizens of Troon. So the high minded citizens of Troon got together and formed their own school district, Christopher Verde School District. Don't be misled. They have no intention of building any schools. They just want the right to levy their own school taxes, which they intend to be a big fat ZERO, while continuing to send their kids to the other school district.

Sound like the time is right to change the funding of public education to state run? No real, substantial improvement in education will occur in this country until voters finally wise up.

You can read about Troon in today's New York Times.

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Genocide in Darfur Continues Unabated:

While testosterone driven tribalists gear up for the only thing that they seem capable of occupying their time with in Afghanistan and the U. S. Congress pounds its chest over Bush's imbecilic war over oil and the dollar in Iraq, genocide continues unabated in Darfur.

In his state of the union address a few weeks ago, Bush promised to "awaken the conscience of the world to save the people of Darfur," but like most everything else spoken from the bully pulpit that too was so much hot air.

The poor black Africans who are being systematically murdered at the behest of Khartoum have no control over the Sudanese oil fields, so they are expendable. And the genocide keeps the thugs busy. Otherwise they might turn on their own leaders.

Will the west do anything that might endanger the flow of oil? Not likely. China gets a major part of its oil from Sudan, and right now the west is courting China, as the editors of The New Republic point out.

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

Assignment: Choose a strong emotion and define it so that others gain a clear understanding of who you are—

Thanks to Lazlo for passing this link along: Robin Hemley's "No Pleasure But Meanness." Freshmen, here's the example of a good deffinition essay you've been looking for.

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Saturday, February 10, 2007

An Opinion Worth Considering:

GAR ALPEROVITZ published an op-ed piece in today's New York Times well worth reading, "California Split" (see the 1974 Robert Altman film by the same name). Gov. Schwarzenegger recently gave a speech in which he spoke repeatedly about California's size and economic prowess in terms of "nation state," suggesting that the gold coast state should think of itself as nearly a seperate entity from the rest of the country. Alperovitz points out in his piece today that this may be more than iron pumper's bravado. The nation may simply be becoming too large to govern centraly.

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Saturday, February 03, 2007

The Web, Unsafe at Any Speed:

How serious is the hacking problem faced by Internet browsers? ZDNet reports that the official Web site of Dolphin Stadium where Sunday's Super Bowl is to be played was hacked by someone in China. A java script code was inserted into more than one of its pages so that anyone visiting the site, and there have been many, will find their computer hijacked by someone in China to do with as they please.

The folks running the Dolphin Stadium site finally managed to rid their sit of the malicious script, but no one knows how many machines have been hijacked at this time. But things only get better, or worse, depending on your sense of humor and fears.

The U. S. government's Centers for Disease Control site has also been hacked with the same malicious code.

So, are you still paying your bills and buying things on line?


Viacom v. YouTube:

Friday, Viacom demanded that YouTube remove over 100,000 pirated video clips from the YouTube site. Interestingly, many companies, like CBS, have deals with YouTube, allowing for the activity which it is said promotes the companies' shows by having avid viewers pass around the clips. Viacom, which owns MTV and Comedy Central, prime networks for the company's youthful clientel, in other words, those folks with the most discretionary income, seems unaware of the advantages it is thumbing its nose at.

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Oil Profits Continue to Soar:

Here's hoping you own stock in Exxon Mobil. Ever since Bush's "it ain't about oil" war started, the big oil companies have been making record profits. Last year was no exception. Exxon Mobil and Shell Oil reported combined profits of (think about this) $180 million PER DAY last year. Exxon Mobil, by the way, are the same folks who have paid millions to pseudo scientists to create propaganda denying human contribution to global warming. Recently, Republican congressmen have written to Exxon Mobil warning them to cut out this nonsense.

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Friday, February 02, 2007

Sign of the Times:

Florida was hit today by horrific tornadoes, but the news coming out of that state that might mean the most for our futures is its lead in moving toward creating paper trails for voting. After being the site of what historians will probably be called "America's Stolen Election of 2000," the state has recently voted to establish a paper trail for future elections. Let's hope the other 49 states jump on that bandwagon. (Read the NYTimes article.)


More Signs:

Al Gore's environmentalist film receives a nomination for an Oscar, and China will build 350 coal fired electricity plants in the next year. In three years, China will be the biggest emitter of CO2.

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Thursday, February 01, 2007

Press Blasts Biden for Saying What Every White Person Thinks:

Sorry, Jesse Jackson, but "clean" and "handsome" aren't words that white folks, especially males, immediately think of when you come to mind as a presidential candidate, either past or present. Barack Obama has got the lock on that. He's pure Hollywood and the closest thing to star image power that's come along in the Democratic Party since JFK.

In case you haven't heard, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware kicked off his 2008 presidential campaign yesterday by planting his foot squarely in his mouth. If his molars had been goal posts, he'd have won the Super Bowl. Biden, in critiquing his Democratic competition described Obama as “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

The press, naturally, is having a field day watching Biden try to extract that foot. Did he mean all black candidates are "non mainstream"? "Not bright"? "Not clean"? "Not nice-looking"? Sounds like some racist views buried beneath the surface.

But come on, folks, this is exactly what every American thinks when they see and hear Obama. Had Gen. Colin Powell accepted a presidential nomination when the Republicans were trying to talk him into it, this topic wouldn't be coming up now. But it has. As the kids say, deal with it.

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