A prayer for New Orleans

Lord please guard the people of Louisiana and Mississippi as Hurricane Katrina approaches. Most especially, Lord, watch over those people trying to escape the city of New Orleans. I don't know what will come of this storm in terms of human suffering, but please bring those who perish into your arms. As for those who survive please open the hearts of all Americans and make our generosity overflow. I know that that will be the simplest of your jobs in the next week, Lord. What will be tougher is tending to the immediate needs of the survivors. Their homes will most likely be gone. They will have lost loved ones. They will have a hard time getting medical attention if they are injured or sick. They will have no jobs to go to. Please draw us closer together with them through you, Lord Jesus. Amen.

Recent commentary: HS memories

What's your favorite memory from high school?

(published 22-Aug-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Memories, plural. Getting in on yearbook pictures with clubs that I either didn't belong to or that weren't officially recognized. Scarfing three regular pretzels in less than a minute -- without water -- to get an ‘A' for the quarter in junior trig. Getting to play with a 45 pound Singer-Friden programmable calculator in senior statistics class. This was 1969. Like, no confusers, eh? Concocting smelly esters in organic chemistry class. Going to the Chicago Art Institute by train with the senior art class. Realizing that I had enough credits to graduate after my junior year and that I could fritter away my senior year in self-indulgent pursuits. Cast parties. Hearing about "The Lord of the Rings" for the first time in sophomore English class. Getting kicked out of senior English. Going on dates in my parents' car and leaving footprints on the inside of the windows from ... well, you know!

Recent commentary: Advice to collitch stoonts

What advice would you give college-bound teenagers?

(published 1-Aug-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

One word: Wapatuli! College is the perfect laboratory for determining whether you actually CAN mix sloe gin and Mad Dog 20-20. Just don’t come crying to me because a hangover made you miss a final. But I suppose you want advice on college in general. (sigh!) All right. The theory is that you’ve got enough brains to know that high-paying jobs don’t grow on trees and that a Wall Street investment house or top-notch engineering firm won’t hire you because of your wardrobe. Just find the easiest-grading professors you can and remember two words: student evaluations. Don’t worry if you can’t multiply 6 x 7 or write your name in cursive. Most colleges offer bonehead ... I mean, remedial math and English. Hey! They need the tuitions. Oh, and figure out how to pay for your Adderall yourself. Mumsy and Dadsy can’t foot the bill any more. Like, you’re an adult, eh?

I'm sorry, but

...when I finished reading this story my first thought was, "Well, there's a candidate for next year's Darwin Awards."

"Just before it happened he was looking in the air towards the roof. He put the microphone down and crouched down before leaping off the stage which was about a metre high and trying to grab the lighting rig.

"I don't know whether he caught it or not but his momentum carried him forward and basically he went upside down and hit the floor head first. The whole thing lasted about five seconds, it was horrendous.''

Our fearless leaders

You look at this story and you just have to shake your head. I mean, these civic events don't just pop into being in an instant. There are committee meetings and organization and signage and advertising and public hearings...didn't anybody think twice about this before putting out a news release for it?

Miami city leaders are apologizing for a news release that invited summer campers to a “Ghetto Style Talent Show” and “Watermelon Eating Contest.”

The release said that children participating in the summer camp who “know the meaning of ghetto style” would have a chance to “prove just how ghetto they are.”

Biblical retribution?

I don't wish ill of the French. I took French for eight years in primary and secondary school. French historical figures (Lafayette and Napoleon, to name two), French mathematicians (Laplace, Pascal, Poisson, Fermat, Descartes, Poincare, and Hadamard), French wine, French pastries, the Tour de France (since Lance Armstrong began to dominate it!)...mais, oui! But French philosophers (Rousseau, Derrida, and Sartre), French politics, the Maginot Line, French politics, French whining...did I mention French politics?

But I don't wish ill of the French. It's just that a story like this made me think of the increasing ratio of Muslims living in France and the fact that France was a vocal opponent of the war in Iraq while at the same time being heavily involved with Saddam Hussein as a supplier.

So, comes this story and I just naturally thought of the Egyptians and the Jews with a decidely modern twist: "the only insecticides which might make a difference are banned." Can't have locusts dying from deformed mandibles!

France faces drought, locusts

Jul. 17, 2005 at 9:41 pm

On top of a severe drought, France is fighting a plague of hundreds of thousands of locusts.

The locusts are devouring everything from crops to window-box flowers, reported the Observer.

"At the beginning they seem small, insignificant insects but they grow very quickly," said Aveyron region farmer Gerard Laussel. "They eat everything that is green, leaving only stalks, and when they have finished they leave some kind of scent so the cattle do not want to graze on what is left."

The French environment ministry said drought could be felt across most of France, but it mostly impacted from the Atlantic Ocean to Paris.

"There is nothing we can do for the 700 or 800 farmers affected," said Patrice Lemoux, an agriculture official. "The locust has no known predator and the only insecticides which might make a difference are banned."

Can we now shut up about 'tax cuts for the rich?'

The New York Times reports:

For the first time since President Bush took office, an unexpected leap in tax revenue is about to shrink the federal budget deficit this year, by nearly $100 billion.

Mr. Bush plans to hail the improvement at a cabinet meeting and to cite it as validation of his argument that tax cuts would stimulate the economy and ultimately help pay for themselves.

Well, hallelujah! Now the question is, will this shut the mouths of the anti-tax cut weenies, or will they complain that the deficit reduction isn't big enough? Hey! Maybe this could lead to more tax cuts to get bigger deficit reduction!

Democrats looking for their Core Values

The Orlando Sentinel has a story today about the "town meeting" held by Democrat Florida Senator, Bill Nelson. He brought in Senator Barak Obama (D-IL) to lend "star power" to Nelson's campaign. Here's the complete article. The choicest part of the story involves the answer to a tough question from the town meeting audience (emphasis mine):

"I see a Democratic Party afraid to say they're Democrats, who voted for the war in Iraq and voted for tax cuts for the wealthy," said Glenn Anderson of Orlando. "Why should I remain a Democrat?"

It was a tough question. But Nelson and Obama tried to answer it. "The Democrats at times have lost their way," conceded Obama. "We are trying to decide what our core values are."

The criterion for judging the party isn't whether it's to the left or right, "but are we true to our core values," he said. Nobody defined core values.

This is one of those stories where you can almost feel the writer pushing you to a conclusion. I mean, really! Obama says the Dems are "trying to decide" what their core values are, but they're "true" to them, whatever they are -- nobody thought it necessary to cough up a sample.

"Core values:" that's the hottest buzz phrase for the Dems now; maybe that's what Professor George Lakoff came up with as a winner. Doesn't matter if they can actually be articulated or enumerated; as long as the Democrats say the words, everything will be all right.

Just for fun I

From the old book, Felton and Fowler's Best, Worst, and Most Unusual, comes this entry for Worst Commercial:

Oxydol detergent ran an ad campaign in 1965 that included a TV commercial showing black women discussing their wash. This early attempt at representing the black buying public in advertising was marred by an announcer saying, "When it's whiteness you're after..." and at the end, "Colored things come out nice, too!"

Don't forget the Sokal hoax

Nine years ago, New York University physics Professor Alan Sokal submitted a paper to the prestigious cultural studies journal, Social Text, entitled Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity. It was a complete and utter hoax. You can read the paper here. It is one of the best comeuppances delivered to the pretentious academic left ever written. We need to remember that lots of people (especially professors of non-materialist sciences) take themselves way too seriously, and that the Emperor's new clothes really aren't there. Here's a sample of Sokal's paper, which purported to show that quantum gravity is affected by politics:

In quantum gravity, as we shall see, the space-time manifold ceases to exist as an objective physical reality; geometry becomes relational and contextual; and the foundational conceptual categories of prior science -- among them, existence itself -- become problematized and relativized. This conceptual revolution, I will argue, has profound implications for the content of a future post-modern and liberatory science.

Some choice commentaries about the hoax:

http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/rosen.html
http://www.salon.com/media/media960517.html
http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/weinberg.html

...and from Sokal himself:

The displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter by the idea that everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is -- second only to American political campaigns -- the most prominent and pernicious manifestation of anti-intellectualism in our time.

( http://www.physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/noretta.html )

An interesting definition

Jerry Pournelle came up with a description of democracy in action that is worth pondering

(paraphrasing) Most citizens are too stupid to manage their own affairs, so we only consult them about running other people's business, but never allow them to run their own.

The Dysfunctional Pooh

I found this once again today, an article from the Canadian Medical Association Journal: Pathology in the Hundred Acre Wood: a neurodevelopmental perspective on A. A. Milne. Pooh has ADHD with a capacity for developing Tourette's syndrome. Piglet has Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Eeyore has Dysthymic Disorder. Rabbit "has missed his calling, as he clearly belongs in senior-level hospital administration." Give it a read.

Recent commentary: Am I my brother's keeper?

Who is responsible for helping the Hmong still in Thailand?

(published 11-Jul-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

They are themselves. Oh, there's no doubt that they're in a pickle. Laos doesn't want them. Thailand considers them illegals. But there IS a Hmong insurgency. Good for them! Who's responsible for helping ANY of the benighted people on this mixed up planet? The one million people a year that die from malaria because we're too squeamish about the possible harm to birds from DDT. The victims in the "conflict diamond" trade in the Sudan. Remember when the Hutus went mad and started chopping up a million of their Tutsi neighbors? Americans that contribute to bringing the Hmong to Minnesota or Wisconsin may not be aware of the meaning of "Chinese obligation." Perhaps the Hmong that are already here can teach their Laotian brothers what they've learned about American-style self-reliance and can-do spirit. Just remember what Cain asked God and be prepared to answer the question for yourself.

A few things I've read lately

Some disturbing, some elevating, some amusing, some puzzling. Check out these columns:

Patrick Buchanan on Condi Rice
Remote Mammary Exams?
Astrologer Sues NASA
Could George Washington be a Supreme Court justice today?
Tandem Writing Assignment
Thomas Sowell on Judicial Havoc
Map of the Dead Servicemen in Iraq

Math Follies I

This piece is from today's Wall Street Journal. It deals with the revolting concept of "Ethnomathematics," the idea that math teaching cannot be neutral with respect to politics and culture. This concept deserves pride of place as one of the most ridiculous modern ideas for teaching math:

Ethnomathematics

By Diane Ravitch
June 20, 2005; Page A14
Wall Street Journal

It seems our math educators no longer believe in the beauty and power of the principles of mathematics. They are continually in search of a fix that will make it easy, relevant, fun, and even politically relevant. In the early 1990s, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics issued standards that disparaged basic skills like addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, since all of these could be easily performed on a calculator. The council preferred real life problem solving, using everyday situations. Attempts to solve problems without basic skills caused some critics, especially professional mathematicians, to deride the "new, new math" as "rainforest algebra."

In a comparison of a 1973 algebra textbook and a 1998 "contemporary mathematics" textbook, Williamson Evers and Paul Clopton found a dramatic change in topics. In the 1973 book, for example, the index for the letter "F" included "factors, factoring, fallacies, finite decimal, finite set, formulas, fractions, and functions." In the 1998 book, the index listed "families (in poverty data), fast food nutrition data, fat in fast food, feasibility study, feeding tours, ferris wheel, fish, fishing, flags, flight, floor plan, flower beds, food, football, Ford Mustang, franchises, and fund-raising carnival."

Those were the days of innocent dumbing-down. Now mathematics is being nudged into a specifically political direction by educators who call themselves "critical theorists." They advocate using mathematics as a tool to advance social justice. Social justice math relies on political and cultural relevance to guide math instruction. One of its precepts is "ethnomathematics," that is, the belief that different cultures have evolved different ways of using mathematics, and that students will learn best if taught in the ways that relate to their ancestral culture. From this perspective, traditional mathematics -- the mathematics taught in universities around the world -- is the property of Western Civilization and is inexorably linked with the values of the oppressors and conquerors. The culturally attuned teacher will learn about the counting system of the ancient Mayans, ancient Africans, Papua New Guineans, and other "non-mainstream" cultures.

Partisans of social justice mathematics advocate an explicitly political agenda in the classroom. A new textbook, "Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers," shows how problem solving, ethnomathematics and political action can be merged. Among its topics are: "Sweatshop Accounting," with units on poverty, globalization, and the unequal distribution of wealth. Another topic, drawn directly from ethnomathematics, is "Chicanos Have Math in Their Blood." Others include "The Transnational Capital Auction," "Multicultural Math," and "Home Buying While Brown or Black." Units of study include racial profiling, the war in Iraq, corporate control of the media, and environmental racism. The theory behind the book is that "teaching math in a neutral manner is not possible." Teachers are supposed to vary the teaching of mathematics in relation to their students' race, gender, ethnicity, and community.

This fusion of political correctness and relevance may be the next big thing to rock mathematics education, appealing as it does to political activists and to ethnic chauvinists.

It seems terribly old-fashioned to point out that the countries that regularly beat our students in international tests of mathematics do not use the subject to steer students into political action. They teach them instead that mathematics is a universal language that is as relevant and meaningful in Tokyo as it is in Paris, Nairobi and Chicago. The students who learn this universal language well will be the builders and shapers of technology in the 21st century. The students in American classes who fall prey to the political designs of their teachers and professors will not.

Ms. Ravitch is a historian of education at New York University, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a member of the Koret Task Force at the Hoover Institution.

Copyright © 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Recent commentary: Women in Combat

Should U.S. women be allowed to serve in combat?

(published 20-Jun-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

For years I've told friends about the column I read in the Post-Crescent back at the time of the U.S. invasion of Panama. I don't remember the columnist's name, but I do know that he wrote about our use of women in combat roles when we went after Noriega. He compared men fighting one another to furry animals going at it: fur flies for a minute, then one is hurt. The victor establishes dominance, maybe beats his chest, and then they become buddies and have a beer. Women, however, fight like gila monsters: no holds barred, eyes gouged out, limbs torn off, until one of them lies dead, dead, dead. The columnist seemed to say that women don't have an innate sense of when not to destroy an opponent. That's why women shouldn't be allowed to serve in combat.

Oh, gawd! VII

From an article in the Boston Globe today by Robert "Hand-Wringer" Kuttner in which the author plays the popular game of "Will Hillary Run in '08?":

John Kerry may well give it another shot, as the candidate who came up just one state short in 2004, perhaps due to deliberately contrived long lines that held down Democratic turnout in Ohio.

Which James Taranto neatly skewers in Best of the Web Today:

Long lines mean high turnout. If Kerry lost a state with long lines, that would be because so many people in those lines voted against him.

Read the Bills Act

DownsizeDC.org is an outfit dedicated to, well, pretty much what its name says: cutting the size of the federal government. I subscribe to its newsletter and today I received an appeal to send an e-mail to my Congress critters in support of the “Read the Bills Act 2005,” (RTBA) which was constructed by DownsizeDC. There are times that I'll play along and send an e-mail, and other times I won't. Depends on whether the spirit moves me.

Today Jim Babka, the author of the e-mail, made me look at writing my Congressmen in a new way:

...it is not a waste of time because the lobbyists who want more government handouts are there on Capitol Hill every day and you are not. Congress thinks they can ignore the taxpayer. They believe you have a short attention span and will forget about RTBA. You must prove them wrong.

You must be like the big government lobbyist who is always there, begging, begging, begging for another handout. Only you are asking not for a handout, but for reasonable relief from Congressional irresponsibility. Remember, Congress works for you! Think of something new to say about RTBA and say it. And do it week after week until you get your way.

That is reasoning that speaks to me! So I wrote the following on the DownsizeDC WYC (Write Your Congressman) web site:

I was happy to see Downsize DC prepare the RTBA. I feel strongly that far too many (most? all?) bills are NOT read before passage. If my Representative and Senators insist on adding yearly to the mountain of legislation that is proposed and passed in Washington, DC, then I insist that every single piece of legislation passing through their hands—YOUR hands—be read in its entirety.

P. J. O'Rourke in “Parliament of Whores” posed the question: “So when can we quit passing laws and raising taxes? When will our officers, officials and magistrates realize their jobs are finished and return, like Cincinnatus, to the plow or, as it were, to the law practice or the car dealership?” I suspect that a partial answer, at least, can be found in the ‘Read the Bills Act.’ If our elected representatives must actually read every word of every bill, then they just might cut back on the number of bills they introduce. I hope that day comes soon.

I urge you to write your Congressman and Senators, too. Get your start by going to the DownsizeDC.org web site and pick a bill about which to badger your elected representatives.

Recent commentary: Recommended community reading

What book would you recommend for community-wide reading?

(published 30-May-2005, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Nothing wishy-washy, touchy-feely, or namby-pamby. I think that “A History of the American People” by British historian, Paul Johnson, should be read in every school and library in America. It takes a Brit, an avowed fan of the United States, to get us to stop feeling sorry for ourselves. For those whose education left a black hole where American history should be, come to it, as Johnson did, “completely fresh.” In full disclosure, he describes his approach à la former Vice President Spiro Agnew in his salad days: “I have not...accepted the fly-blown philacteries of Political Correctness.” Johnson's history is a tribute to us, the American people, “thrown together by fate in that swirling maelstrom of history which has produced the most remarkable people the world has ever seen. I love them and salute them, and this is their story.” How could you turn down an invitation like that?

I love stories like this XXIV

I was beaten up by a couple of bullies when I first started to attend Edison Elementary School in Appleton, WI, after my mother moved us there. But my mom never thought of such a wonderful retribution as in this story from the Associated Press!

Irate parent rams van into school

PHILADELPHIA - A woman apparently upset over the treatment of her children by other students rammed her minivan into the front of the Huey Elementary School in West Philadelphia this morning.

No children were injured, but a bus attendant standing inside the school was slightly injured when the van with the woman and three children crashed into the front door of the school, about 50 feet from the street.

There was no major damage to the vehicle or the school building and little more than a bumper mark on the door of the school.

School officials say the woman had been complaining that her children were being picked on by other students since being transferred to Huey Elementary in December.

Investigators say they found signs in the van protesting the children's treatment. Authorities say the woman had threatened to drive into the school on Monday, but police were notified and an incident was averted then.

The three children, two boys and one girl, were taken to a nearby hospital to be checked out.

The mother is in police custody and is being questioned.