Harnessing teachers’ greed

March 12, 2007 By Fred Clark

Article in the paper today looks at the popular notion of "performance-based pay" for teachers: "Incentive-based teacher pay unproven." This is from a series of articles exploring the recommendations of something called "Vision 2015" — an ambitious school-reform plan that aims to turn Delaware's schools into the "best in the world" giving students the best education anywhere, ever. Plus a pony. A magical pony. Or something like that. The plan's goals are laudable, but it seems a bit quixotic. It... Read more

The over/under

March 10, 2007 By Fred Clark

So I'm re-reading an old favorite, George Orwell's essay "Charles Dickens," and I'm struck by how it compares to another old favorite, Todd Snider's "Conservative Christian, right-wing Republican, straight, white American males." Here's the passage from Orwell that caught my attention: Where [Dickens] is Christian is in his quasi-instinctive siding with the oppressed against the oppressors. As a matter of course he is on the side of the underdog, always and everywhere. To carry this to its logical conclusion one... Read more

L.B.: Conditional election

March 9, 2007 By Fred Clark

Left Behind, pp. 255-256 Journalists are calling out questions at Nicolae Carpathia's press conference: "What do you say to people who believe this was the work of God, that he raptured his church?" Somebody has been doing his homework. Buck doesn't ask this question, even though he was clued in to the Rapture theory early on, before he left the airport, and even though his Big Assignment is to identify and evaluate all such theories. This unnamed journalist, by contrast,... Read more

Happy Birthday Meathead

March 6, 2007 By Fred Clark

Here's an impressive run: This Is Spinal Tap (1984) The Sure Thing (1985) Stand by Me (1986) The Princess Bride (1987) When Harry Met Sally (1989) Misery (1990) A Few Good Men (1992) Rob Reiner never seems to get included in the list of Great American Directors, but look at that list and tell me he doesn't belong there, even if only for quotability. Looking at Reiner's IMDB page, I also noticed this... Read more

Standing by words

March 5, 2007 By Fred Clark

"Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking." — John Maynard Keynes "Giles, no one's using 'I' statements!" — Willow Rosenberg Bring up the subject of civility and you will inevitably wind up in a sideshow having little to do with the subject. Civility does not mean never having to say you're sorry. It does not mean baby-proofing all conversation to ensure its inoffensiveness for the most delicate of sensibilities. Nor... Read more

84% reject civility

March 4, 2007 By Fred Clark

Kevin Drum points out the results of an astonishing survey showing that basic civility is dead in a vast portion of the blogosphere. And no, this has nothing to do with profanity. The seven dirty words may be rude and inappropriate for children, but civility actually has very little to do with keeping one's language G-rated. I'm talking about a much more fundamental rejection of the foundations of civil conversation, as measured by this survey by Right Wing News, "Rightosphere... Read more

Michael Medved hates Catholics

March 3, 2007 By Fred Clark

Michael Medved, writing at TownHall.com, says that "liberals … hate the Ten Commandments." He reaches this conclusion because civil libertarian groups like the ACLU and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty believe that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." These groups oppose the establishment of any official state religion. Medved seizes on a particular instance of this opposition and pretends that it is based on the particular content of... Read more

L.B.: It Could Be Bunnies

March 2, 2007 By Fred Clark

Left Behind, pp. 253-255 After Carpathia outlined his eagerness to support the U.N. in any way possible, someone interjected a question about the disappearances. "Someone interjected" — that's all we're told. This "someone" is the first person we've met in many chapters who seems to have any grasp on the situation, any sense of perspective. The world has just witnessed the biggest thing since the K-T event and yet, a mere seven days later, no one seems to be paying... Read more

Park that car, drop that phone

March 2, 2007 By Fred Clark

"The State I'm In," Sinead O'Connor "Anthems for a 17-year-old Girl," Broken Social Scene "Skin Feeling," Crowded House "Don't Die in Me," Mirah "It's Not Your Fault," Ashley Cleveland "Into the Mystic," Van Morrison "She Don't Have a Clue," Mark Heard "She's an Addiction," Green "Riches," Unlikely Cowboy "Nobody's Crying," Patty Griffin Bonus: WXPN offers the new single from Iggy Pop and The Stooges, "My Idea of Fun" — free download here. Read more

Dulce et decorum est

March 1, 2007 By Fred Clark

Last month, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., spoke at a rally in Ames, Iowa, and said: We ended up launching a war that should have never been authorized, and should have never been waged, and on which we've now spent $400 billion, and have seen over 3,000 lives of the bravest young Americans wasted. Sen. Obama quickly apologized for using the word "wasted": "Even as I said it, I realized I had misspoken," Obama said. "It is not at all what... Read more