Quote of the Day
Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone.
The Dhammapada
What Progressive Spherehead Thought Up This Idea?
Well, you'll be glad to know our progressive schools of education and enlightened Seattle public school administrations know their priorities. A private high school volunteer decided to organize an Easter egg hunt (plastic eggs filled with treats and jelly beans) as a fun activity for third graders. She was given permission by the third-grade teacher so long as she referred to the items as 'spring spheres', not 'Easter eggs'. The King County censors administrators have also stripped the word 'Easter' from their egg hunt activity. You see, some Constitutionally-protected freedom of speech words are "more equal" than others. You see, the mere utterance of the word 'Easter' is a magic spell which will instantly convert Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Wiccan and atheist children into devout Christians, praying for the conversion of their parents and siblings. [Of course, it also causes the mystical transfer of funds from public to Christian church coffers.] One must be officially intolerant of Christian words or else children from other backgrounds might traumatically learn by accident that Christian children live in America (before their parents have been able to prepare their kids for that awful truth--it's not a valid education topic like why it's okay for Uncle Harry to wear Granny's underwear and dresses). Thank God Mother Earth we have wise progressive sphereheads in public office to protect emotionally fragile kids from having to cope with the unbearable fact that they live in a pluralistic society with the expectation of mutual tolerance...
The Corrupt 'Business As Usual' Obama Administration:
NLRB Backs Frivolous Complaint From Union Special Interests:
Thumbs DOWN!
Boeing has been stung by four strikes at the end of 3-year contracts by its Seattle area International Association of Machinists union, costing the company some $2B in revenue. Boeing decided to create a second 787 Dreamliner factory; it started to talk to IAM in 2007 about a second Seattle factory. In 2008, IAM conducted a 2-month strike. IAM balked at Boeing's desire for a longer-term contract, knowing that Boeing has the economic liberty to build a factory in any state it chooses. Boeing decided to build its new factory in right-to-work state South Carolina, which it selected in October 2009.
This week the pro-union acting counsel for the NLRB, Lafe Solomon, issued a complaint, claiming that Boeing's decision to choose South Carolina was illegal retaliation against IAM for the 2008 strike. The complaint is totally without merit and based purely on Obama Administration paying off its special interest supporters. The idea that a union can veto management decisions by stonewalling negotiations, whether or not a second factory was raised in negotiations, is fundamentally unacceptable in principle. Boeing decided, as a business decision, that it needed to more control over its operational risks; it could do that locally by getting an agreement for a longer contract or building the second factory elsewhere. The union knew Boeing wanted a longer contract, and one of the benefits to a better contract would be an increased confidence for the company to expand locally, which would likely increase union membership. The union declined a longer contract.
Decisions have consequences. Boeing never had a contractual commitment to expand its capacity locally. Moreover, IAM's accusations of Boeing's "union busting" are even less tenuous when you consider that Boeing, since October 2009, has hired over 2000 new Seattle area workers versus 1000 in South Carolina. Obama's attempt to pack the NLRB with pro-union cronies, like the recess appointment of SEIU/AFL-CIO counsel Craig Becker, is nothing but a job-killing attack on American businesses. Unions have become state-of-denial anachronisms in an era when American businesses must be highly productive and react with speed and flexibility in a competitive global economy
Guest Editorial:
Charles Murray/CATO, "Bearish on the Bachelor's Degree": Thumbs UP!
In yesterday's post, I published a commentary on a different, related Murray essay, dealing with what could replace a bachelor's degree. This essay focuses on three reasons given for buying earning a college degree: (1) a great liberal education, (2) a bridge to adulthood, and (3) a job ticket in the future, given expected earnings.
It goes without saying when a libertarian conservative like myself speaks of "liberal", we aren't speaking of the current political ideology, but an education that is "concerned mainly with broadening a person's general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training" (Google Dictionary). Of course, this means going beyond the pervasive progressive groupthink in academia. (Some of us learned to think for ourselves rather than seeking approval by genuflecting in front of the self-righteous, condescending, self-important, judgmental politically powerful progressive elitists.) In fact, a liberal education necessarily means going outside of one's comfort zone, e.g., getting rigorous exposure to ancient through modern civilizations, religions, literature, art, science and mathematics, music, economics, and languages. Years ago I was attracted to the Paideia Proposal. (Anyone who agrees with this approach, like me, is aghast at what is going in the K-12 classroom, and the fact that education majors did not fare well in Arum & Roska's Academically Adrift is truly disconcerting. Cheers for Tiger Moms!)
Robert Hutchins says:
The liberally educated man has a mind that can operate well in all fields. He may be a specialist in one field. But he can understand anything important that is said in any field and can see and use the light that it shed upon his own. The liberally educated man is at home in the world of ideas and in the world or practical affairs, too, because he understands the relation of the two. He may not be at home in the world of practical affairs in the sense of liking the life he finds about him; but he will be at home in that world in the sense that he understands it. He may even derive from his liberal education some conception of the difference between a bad world and a good one and some notion of the ways in which one might be turned onto the other.
Getting back to Murray's point: only a handful of colleges deliver on the vision of Mortimer Adler and others. Instead, one has academic programs where, say (my example), Western Civilization course requirements are ditched in favor of politically motivated academic program survey classes in ethnic and feminist studies, multicultural literature, etc. You can fulfill degree requirements by taking (among other examples) frivolous classes on popular culture, e.g., Madonna, drinking and the college life, etc. So if a parent or student thinks, because of college hype, that for $30K or more a year, the college graduate will be a polymath or a Renaissance Man, it's a fraud. (In fact, many of today's college graduates don't even know what a polymath is... They probably have never met one.)
Murray's second point is consistent with my ideal of the college graduate as self-actualized. For instance, your professor is not your peer, friend, or drinking buddy. If you sleep through your final, you flunk the course; you don't get a make-up exam because the idea of failing a class might hurt your self-esteem. If you fall asleep at your job (let's take the improbable example, say, as an air traffic controller), you could be morally, if not legally responsible for deaths and destruction of property. Many college graduates have poor work habits, lousy communication skills and unrealistic expectations (they figure it might even take as long as a couple of years to make it to CEO).
Murray then talks about the idea of a college degree as a leg up in making a decent living. In essence, he's arguing that's true, but it doesn't mean that the employer is getting much of anything from that student's 4 years in college: a college degree simply provides a pragmatic first-cut filter when hiring in a buyer's market. He notes that the highly competitive nature of admission to certain prestigious programs (e.g., the Ivy League) provides a surrogate measure of an applicant's general intelligence and the timely completion of a degree plan an indicator of the student's motivation and persistence. I will point out some colleges/majors are more rigorous than others and with pervasive grade inflation and the lack of objective measures, it's difficult to compare graduates. (I will point out that some prestigious programs will provide what they consider a politically correct, more "balanced" student base, and in my case I was motivated by a college that offered a tuition scholarship and a college work-study stipend to cover my remaining expenses. I don't think there are many times today you'll find another 4.0 GPA student mopping cafeteria floors at 6AM or working at a library while his favorite team is playing in the Super Bowl. Of course, my favorite team is 0-4 in Super Bowl history, so maybe that was a blessing...)
I do think from Murray's two essays, he doesn't give enough credit to students whom manage to excel in areas I majored in, mathematics and philosophy. (I do realize I have a vested interest in such a consideration... I'll forget losing full credit on a freshman calculus exam for a proof. I argued my 10-step proof was valid, and my math professor agreed but pointed out I could have proved the theorem in 6 steps. Let's just say if I did that as a professor in one of today's colleges, I probably would have a line of parents and lawyers outside my office.) I have met others, especially during my years in information technology. Pure math and philosophy are probably as far from a professional program as one can get, but you have to have some serious intellectual bandwidth to do well (outstanding general analytical, problem-solving and/or communication skills). I would hire a talented graduate in a heartbeat for an IT position over any MIS student I've ever taught...
Fukushima Nuclear Incident Update
Atomic Power Review notes:
- Saturday afternoon update: The three problem reactors continue to stabilize in terms of temperature and pressure. Davis talks about the process and trade-offs in raising water levels in primary containment and reactor pressurized vessels, particularly in the context of any future earthquake activity, and the questions being raised about the level of building flooding. There was also the discovery of a piece of radioactive debris in a reactor 3 building; they are attempting to identify the source of the debris and why it's giving off high readings.
Political Humor
"In the whimsical nation of Iran, citizens are taking to the streets to support legislation that would make it illegal to own a dog as a pet. Finally a country in the Middle East that really has its priorities straight." - Jimmy Kimmel
[Iran is looking to expand its trade ties with China; it had been thinking of a new trade pact with North Korea, until the North Korean government placed a price cap on dog meat last year.]
"The FAA has suspended an air traffic controller for watching a movie while on the job. The guy explained that he just couldn't get to sleep." - Conan O'Brien
[What's worse: he was watching the movie "Airplane!"]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
ABBA, "Voulez-Vous"
