Homer: Not a bear in sight.  The Bear Patrol must be working like a
       charm.
 Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, dear.
 Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Oh, how does it work?
 Lisa: It doesn't work.
Homer: Uh-huh.
 Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: Uh-huh.
 Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?
        [Homer thinks of this, then pulls out some money]
Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.

Well, the Republican House majority is now the magic rock protecting us from the socialism/fascism/tyranny/etc. of the evil Obama administration.

-AR

Goldstein argues that, by focusing narrowly on a story where unions are the villains and charter schools the heroes, the film misses the ways in which unions are engaged in reform, the limitations of charter schools, and the types of reforms that are not directly related to education but are necessary to fix our schools.  For instance, Goldstein points out that Finland, which is considered to have the world’s best school system, has a teaching force the is over 95% unionized, but also an extensive social welfare system that ensures the needs of all children are met outside the classroom and that parents can be more involved in their children’s lives.  (Goldstein addresses the importance of parental involvement in greater detail in a post on her blog).

Whether one ultimately comes down on the side of teachers’ unions or the anti-union crowd, Goldstein at least shows that the debate is more complicated than it’s portrayed.  Goldstein discusses Stephen Brill’s famous New Yorker piece on the “rubber rooms” in the New York public schools.  Brill’s piece discussed the New York public schools’ practice (since abandoned) of placing teachers who had been accused of misconduct or incompetence, but were entitled by their union contract to full pay pending a hearing before an arbitrator, together in a room where they simply hung around during the school day.  Brill’s piece generated significant controversy, and justifiably so.  But as Goldstein points out, the teachers placed in rubber rooms represent one twentieth of one percent of New York’s 80,000 public school teachers.  A meaningful conversation about tenure must also include the thousands, perhaps millions, of talented, dedicated teachers who never would have entered or remained in the profession with the security that tenure, and unions in general, provide.

-AR

Sad news this week. God decided to smite Touchdown Jesus (or as some refer to him, Big Butter Jesus). Touchdown Jesus was hit by lightning and burned completely to the ground, leaving only a steel frame behind. What are the possible implications of this smiting?

1. Burning Man is over.
2. God 1, Jesus 0.
3. Jesus tiring of more subtle face-in-toast, gentle-tears-down-statue-type miracles.
4. God is Jewish.
5. The end is nigh.

- AS

- AS

I recognize that looking for meaning or worrying about impact is giving the movie more credit than it seeks or deserves.  I also recognize that being socially responsible isn’t really Hollywood’s job.  That said, I don’t think that a time when the election of our first black president has driven right-wing, anti-government hysteria to a point that is leading to violent acts is the best time to make and release a movie about shadowy government figures terrorizing a small town of simple white farmers.  The movie includes tropes of the lunatic fringe such as black helicopters and a poisoned water supply.  There’s even a shot of a pregnant woman being gassed.

A brief scan of reviews of the movie makes it seem that I’m alone in my concern, but I couldn’t shake a strong feeling of unease through the entire movie.  I’ve never been more tempted to walk out on a movie, but I stayed in hopes that there would be some twist, an alternate explanation that it wasn’t the U.S. government torching innocent farmers.  Alas, the movie just gets worse as it goes on.

-AR

Rather than grapple with the crisis in American democracy that’s been laid bare by the events of the last week, I’m just going to quote liberally from a fairly perfect summation from James Fallows about why our government is so fucked up:

Fifty-nine senators, representing. . . some 63 percent of the American public, accompanied by a large House majority and a president recently elected with 70 million votes, cannot enact changes in the nation’s health-care system that have been debated for decades.
A 59-41 margin is not enough for a change of this magnitude.

Five Justices of the Supreme Court, outvoting their four colleagues, can work a fundamental change in election law that goes far beyond the issues presented by the parties to the case. . . Courts always have the option of deciding cases narrowly or broadly. The breadth of this one, reaching far beyond the merits of the case so as to enact the majority Justices’ views, is staggering even to a non-lawyer like me. A one-person margin is enough for a change of this magnitude.

In the least accountable branch of government, the narrowest margin prevails; in our elected legislative branch, substantial majorities are neutered.

So what’s next for America, and health care reform, and President Obama, and corporations, and the Democratic Party, and David Letterman? At the moment, I’m too disheartened to offer any ideas or predictions. But I promise to at least be more diligent about commenting on the thoughts and actions of others. At least until finals starts.

-AR

-AR

Anyway, thank you, Kate Harding. Your post about Tucker Max was also appreciated.

-AS

Polanski, who panicked and fled the U.S. during that trial, has been pursued by this case for 30 years, during which time he has never returned to America, has never returned to the United Kingdom., has avoided many other countries, and has never been convicted of anything else. He did commit a crime, but he has paid for the crime in many, many ways: In notoriety, in lawyers’ fees, in professional stigma. He could not return to Los Angeles to receive his recent Oscar. He cannot visit Hollywood to direct or cast a film.

There are a lot of things I don’t like about our criminal justice system and sentencing processes. One thing I do agree with, though, is that the perpetrator of a crime not get to choose his own sentence. As Kieran Healy says,

See, you or I might think that not going back to the U.S. or U.K. is an action Polanski took in order to make sure that, having raped a minor and fled the country, he would not be rearrested. But you or I would be wrong. In fact these are punishments that Polanski has suffered.

Further, as flawed as our penal system may be, it should affect all equally, and not exempt those with the means and connections to hide out in Europe for decades.

-AR

It’s the second most beautiful place in America!

It has the best baseball stadium!

Just one small city outside Pittsburgh is the birthplace of Arnold Palmer, Rolling Rock, the banana split, professional football, and my father, and is the childhood home of Mr. Rogers!

Thirteen out of 43 Super Bowls have been won by either the Pittsburgh Steelers or a starting quarterback from Western PA!

It is the birthplace of both the AFL and the CIO!

And, perhaps more important than the 6 Super Bowls, 5 World Series, and 3 Stanley Cups, during World War II the Pittsburgh area produced more steel than Germany and Japan combined, thus saving the free world from fascism!

-AR