What a week it’s been… Just when you thought it was time to head to the beach and relax during the hottest days of summer, the world bursts into flames! Following is a rundown of important stories making the news. Signs of the times? You decide. Read the rest of this entry »
I feel compelled to respond to The Tea Party Ethos Crystallized, a recent post by one of our regular contributors.
If you are going to go as far as to say, “Until the Tea Party purges itself of hate speech there is no need for a right-left discussion,” I shall go equally as far and say, “until liberals are able to recognize satire when they see it, or to drop their blindness to hypocrisy, there is no need for a right-left discussion.”
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There has been much consternation and job related discussion within the F-35 debate in Vermont and more specifically Chittenden County. There are those on the left (of which I am one!) and the right that voice their concern(s) with a great degree of passion and genuine interest, but this discussion strikes me as one that avoids the most important point about the F-35 and the Military Industrial Consortium constructing and marketing it (primarily Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney, General Electric, and Rolls-Royce). The debate is primarily an example of wealth and “security” asymmetry, which is another way of saying this plane and its R & D costs are a zero-sum game for a variety of constituents. Read the rest of this entry »
I stated in a past post my thoughts on the Tea Party as “…bigoted, xenophobic, and often hypocritical bluster.” I was taken to task for this statement and rightfully so as it was overly general and I am sure by no means speaks to the true and structural frustration many in this country on the right and left have with government. My foot-in-mouth moment was pointed out by an author on this blog and I looked to clarify what I meant in a reply to his comment…….WHICH brings me to the Tea Party’s latest black eye Read the rest of this entry »
Summertime is well underway and ’tis the season for conventions. Along with personal favorites such as the San Diego Comic Con and the Star Wars Celebration, other intriguing shows such as the New York Int’l Gift Fair, Canon Expo and VMworld have been (or will be soon) taking place across the country. And the point of bringing this to your attention is…? Read the rest of this entry »
At this point we’ve all heard much too much about George Bush’s Axis of Evil [1]. For those of you that have been flying in outer space or tripping on some really good drugs for the last 8+ years since W. coined this phrase during his State of the Union Address on January 29th, 2002 it simply refers to the boogey men that ran Iraq, Iran, and North Korea at the time. Well Saddam Hussein is long gone and Kim Jong-Il either has 1 foot in the grave or will be poisoned by inhaling all the polyester he seems to have such a predilection for, which leaves us with Iran and its 2 headed leadership composed of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Read the rest of this entry »
This post refers to the article, A Popular Principal, Wounded by Government’s Good Intentions, recently published in the New York Times. I’m linking to this article not only for its mention of Burlington, Vermont, and for its focus on a local school attended by many friends’ children, but also because it helps introduce to AdPopulum.net the essential subject of education reform in America. Sending citizens forward in thought and wisdom is one of the most important and necessary investments any healthy nation must make. Read the rest of this entry »
A friend recently issued a challenge which brought out the wild animal in me… What do whales, Japan, and butt cushions have in common with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama? Read on, dear reader, read on. Read the rest of this entry »
In reading quite a bit about quite a bit the common theme is that everyone’s angle is nested within some hyperbolic statement designed to swerve the debate in one direction or another. This happens on both sides of any debate, whether it be abortion, deficit/debt austerity vs. profligacy, or healthcare. Unfortunately up until this point there has never been any way to reprimand those that speak such language. Of course we can vote them out or in at the polls, but by then their efforts have reaped countless explicit and implicit rewards. There are 2 kinds of statements: 1) errors of commission or 2) omission. Each are well known to the speech writers, lobbyists, and political generals in DC, Brussels, Beijing, etc. Obviously our primary concern is how this language and “statements of fact” are used here in the US. To that I propose a Fibbing Tax. Yep that’s right every time these scoundrels in DC lie or CANNOT back up their statements with the data/facts on the ground they are fined personally. Those moneys would then go into a general education fund. Half would be distributed to the failing DC public schools system and have to the legislator’s home state’s public schools. Read the rest of this entry »
Let me preface the below by stating that I loved most of what I read and aside from the Faustian pact academia has made with Powerpoint the author hit on The Biggest Elephant In The Room.
This from The Times editorial observer Brent Staples referring to the proliferation of cut-and-paste essays in higher education:
“They become like rap musicians who construct what they describe as new works by “sampling” (which is to say, cutting and pasting) beats and refrains from the works of others.” Read the rest of this entry »
