Rational people can disagree on whether or not the escalating violent rhetoric of right-wing politics contributed to the recent shooting of Congresswoman Gabriella Giffords and the collateral murder of six others, but rational … [Read more...]
Tunisia: The First WikiLeaks Revolution?
That's the title of this article from Foreign Policy Magazine. This is the first real-time "revolution" we have seen of WikiLeaks documents in action. The piece is short, as events are still unfolding, but the point is clearly … [Read more...]
Sorting Out WikiLeaks & Julian Assange in a Swedish Television (English) Documentary of December 9.
Separating one's nurtured nationalistic tendencies from one's capacity for rational observation is difficult when those tendencies are viscerally invoked in a global controversy, but sometimes all it takes is a perspective from … [Read more...]
An Open Letter to Paul Reville, Mitchell Chester, and Deval Patrick
You and your educational leadership have been lead down the garden path. ALL of the foreign nations we trail in terms of academic achievement include a commitment to literature and the arts--ALL of them. I suggest you folks read … [Read more...]
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, you’ve been snookered.
Well, the Board of Education worked its magic today and voted for the new Common Core State Standards. The race to the bottom begins. Here are a few of the money quotes from the piece by the Globe appearing on the website now: … [Read more...]
And now for something completely different….
Well, sorta. Now that the postmortems are nearing completion on yesterday's fun in the primary election sun, here's a little something to make your day. Raving anti-intellectualism is the linchpin of Fox News' reporting, to be … [Read more...]
Once Upon a Time in America
Only that was then and this is now. That America no longer exists. The degradation in tone and quality of our national discourse as well as the marginalizing of civic education in our public schools has created an atmosphere of … [Read more...]
Billxi’s Framingham State Photographs
Billxi: Pics 1-3 are of mens rooms on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the newly remodeled campus center. Note the lack of disability signage. The 4th floor used to be accessible. The second set: Billxi: Pic 4 is the 5th … [Read more...]
Gregg Withdraws As Commerce Nominee
I'm sure someone will post some more details, but here is his statement: I want to thank the President for nominating me to serve in his Cabinet as Secretary of Commerce. This was a great honor, and I had felt that I could bring some views … [Read more...]
On Pictures and Thousands of Words
No text needed: … [Read more...]