setting the bar: the Pope stalls on Limbo reform

[apologies to Chubby Checker]


Every little boy and girl
Stuck down in a limbo world
In between is gonna stay
'Til the Pope decides to say.
Every dude and every chick
Has to wait for Benedict.
All around the limbo clock
Hey, let's do the limbo rock.


Six, five, four now,
Three, two, one now,
How low will he go?


Is a fetus on the list?
How about a blastocyst?
What of embryos on ice?
Is there room in Paradise?
Foreign folks who never heard,
For nobody brought the Word?
I sure hope they meet the test,
'Cause my conscience needs some rest.


Zygote, embryo, fetus now,
Aborigine, autochthon now,
Please, Your Grace: is there space?


If you're under seventeen,
And your slate is pretty clean,
Keep on floating in your hope,
'Cause it's now up to the Pope.
If you want to go to heaven,
Gotta wait until '07.
So enjoy the edge of bliss
Stuck in a "hypothesis."


Pope please move that limbo bar,
You'll be a limbo star.
How low will you go?

nothing new under the sun

I can't get away from a discussion of the intersection of--or the gaps between--morality, rationality, and theology. As I was typing, I remembered a similar three-blog discussion from a couple years ago, among Ed Brayton, Rusty Lopez, and Matt Powell.

In case you find this all very fascinating, here are some of Ed's posts (with links to the others), in chronological order.

The WorldNutDaily on Morality (the one that started it all)
Rusty Lopez on Morality
Another Response to Rusty on Biblical Morality
An Odd Response (wherein Matt Powell enters the conversation)
2nd Response to Matt Powell on Biblical Morality

the brain's justice module

While I'm having my students think about justice--especially retributive justice, meted out vigilantly--I might as well link to this neuroscientific fun:

Previous brain imaging studies have revealed that part of the frontal lobes known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, or DLPFC, becomes active when people face an unfair offer and have to decide what to do. Researchers had suggested this was because the region somehow suppresses our judgement of fairness.

But now, Ernst Fehr, an economist at the University of Zurich, and colleagues have come to the opposite conclusion – that the region suppresses our natural tendency to act in our own self interest.

They used a burst of magnetic pulses called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) – produced by coils held over the scalp – to temporarily shut off activity in the DLPFC. Now, when faced with the opportunity to spitefully reject a cheeky low cash offer, subjects were actually more likely to take the money.

If you see any used car salesmen pacing the lot, carrying strange looking helmets, run.

Update: The Times has a slightly different take.

When the right DLPFC is shut down, the way they play starts to change. When given a low offer, they still feel it is deeply unfair. But, instead of rejecting it as they usually would, their selfish, ultra-rational side wins out over their emotional reaction against the other player’s meanness. They accept any amount of cash, however small.

The implication is not that the DLPFC is generating a sense of injustice — that was still there even when the region was knocked out. Rather, it seems to be more like an executive decision-maker, balancing the claims of emotion and reason.

“It is as if it is the referee that enforces fairness, and overrides narrow self-interest,” said David Laibson, Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Iggy Pop's concert rider

I'm a drummer in a rock-and-or-roll band. Our lead guitarist, Mike Dean, is known for his massive email rants, paragraph after paragraph of zingers and self-deprecating snark.

I'm sure he'll appreciate this remarkable concert rider for Iggy Pop and the Stooges, which includes all the usual demands, but with a running commentary that would make Mark Twain proud. A sample:

Apparently we are going to be in your area, playing a concert, and you will be supplying the backline equipment. Good-oh! Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

ALL OF THIS LOT FOR A START

2X MARSHALL VBA 8 X 10 CABINETS (There's lovely.)

3X MARSHALL VBA BASS AMPLIFIERS Make sure they're good ones or we'll all end up as wormlike web-based life forms in the bass player's online literary diahorrea. Honestly. He's like a sort of Internet Pepys or Boswell, except without the gout and the syphilis. For all I know.

If you can't supply Marshalls, then
3 x AMPEG SVT2 amps and 2 8x10 cabs iinstead [sic].

1 X KORG 2000 DIGITAL RACK TUNER. Digital in the sense that it works via an electronically generated number system, not digital because it only works if someone holds it together with their fingers.

It goes on like this for 18 pages.


[Thanks to the lovely folks at The Smoking Gun.]

Trauma: causes pain

"Trauma causes pain," the idiotic summation of Robert De Niro's worst film, also fits Trauma, a pathetic British entry into the fractured world of a car crash victim, who may or may not be a murderer, a widower, and an ex-entomologist. (Guess which makes for the most interesting plot line? Yep.)

Ninety-four agonizing minutes, severely underacted, entirely predictable, and too dull to be funny. Watch Jacob's Ladder or The Machinist (or even Identity, if you're desperate) instead.

Friday gun link

Do you want people who can't master the intricacies of e-mail to carry concealed weapons in the name of safety?

gay marriage ban upheld in California

Apparently, the only way to get something done in California is if you have a little initiative. As in, a voter initiative. Why?

[The court said,] ""The time may come when California chooses to expand the definition of marriage to encompass same-sex unions. That change must come from democratic processes, however, not by judicial fiat."

...[T]he Legislature last year became the first lawmaking body in the nation to legalize gay marriage. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, saying it was up to voters or the courts, not lawmakers, to settle the contentious issue.

So much for "democratic processes" including the legislature. Or the courts, for that matter.

watch for changes

I enjoyed an hour at Starbucks* with the WEA's affable communications guru, Rich Wood, who shared his thoughts about getting more teachers involved in political activism, and not only listened, but asked for mine. Maybe it was the magic of a decaffeinated mocha, or the nostalgic anecdotes about TRS-80s and Apple IIe's, but I came away energized. Pumped, you might even say.

I've got an agenda.

First, I want to sign up at least five other teachers--or, for that matter, get signed up--onto a group teaching / politics / activism blog, following this model. Partisans, union members, sure, but most important, authentic, sincere people who care about education and are unashamed to tell you about it.

Second, you're going to see new links on the sidebar very soon, as I start to figure out which area teachers are blogging, and which might be interested in building a community of bloggers.

Third, if I get signed up for this whole NewsCrew thing, I'm going to be even better informed, even wiser, even cleverer than I am now.

In a year's time, we'll revisit and see how these goals matched reality. Watch this space, and watch out.





*Batdorf and Bronson closes at 7:00 p.m. Why? Do we not deserve superior coffee at all hours?

what the world needs now

Crossposted at that cornucopia of color, Mr. A's world of tacky ties.

hamster euthanization at home

Martin and Cecilia loved Spiffy the Hamster, but Spiffy's contracted proliferative ileitis and has to go. You already know what to do--but there are four essential guidelines you simply can't afford to forget.

Safety First
Have all the proper equipment at your disposal, including gloves, goggles, Ziploc baggies, masks, and the necessary pharmaceuticals.

Kids Out
Under no circumstance do you want Martin and Cecilia to accidentally stumble across your efforts. Wait until they're at school, or until after they've gone to sleep.

Story Time
Martin and Cecilia will soon notice Spiffy's absence. Time for a cover story. Spiffy won the lottery and is on a fast plane to Aruba. Or he decided to return to his native country, where his parents have been pining for him for decades. Or he was abducted by aliens. Or maybe Spiffy enlisted.

Under no circumstances do you admit the cold hard truth, that you hastened Spiffy's demise, that Spiffy would have suffered and died a cruel death if you hadn't. You don't want your kids to turn into atheists, do you?

Bury Deep
At least three feet, in a cardboard box that will soon decompose. Let Spiffy return to the earth that bore him.



[122nd in a series]

battle of the losing streaks

My poor brother. Right after he predicts the Twins will take it all, his beloved franchise drops its first two against Oakland. ESPN notes potentially contradictory statistics:

Oakland has arrived at yet another elimination game. The perennial playoff underperformers are 0-9 in those since 2000, losing four straight first-round series....

The Twins -- whose 54-27 home record this year was baseball's best -- have lost seven straight at the Dome in the postseason. Their last win coming in Game 1 of the 2002 AL Championship Series against the Angels.

Take that, oddsmakers.

yeas, hmms, and nays in various legislative races

Read this Seattle Times article for the full story. Condensed version to follow. (Positions are speculative, bound to change, and represent no prevailing orthodoxies. Darn the WEA. I'd have liked to compare my results with their endorsements, but finding their endorsements is just about impossible.)

Senate, 33rd District (SeaTac, Des Moines, and surrounding)

Hmm: Karen Keiser (D)
Saith the Times, "Keiser also co-sponsored legislation to have schools teach students basic financial skills, including information about credit cards, loans and insurance." Good, but not particularly great.

Nay: Karen Steele (R)
Says Steele: "They're not being taught to think critically and solve problems... They're being taught how to give the correct answers on the WASL. There's a big difference." Her solution: a greater variety of tests. Which, I'm sure, are bound to be better than the WASL. Right.


House, 33rd District

Hmm: Shay Schual-Berke (D)
Saith the Times: "If re-elected, she'll pursue more money for the state's public-health system and introduce a bill to further limit campaign contributions in state Supreme Court races." Education, anyone?

Nay: Mike Cook (R)
Saith the Times, "Cook says that fewer boys would drop out if schools brought back vocational classes and if police had the power to detain truants and charge them with a misdemeanor." Uh, Mike, we already are adding more Voc programs--innovative ones, like New Market--but they're suffering because the WASL and culminating projects keep sucking up revenue and staffing.


Senate, 47th District

Yea: Claudia Kauffman (D)
Saith the Times, "As an active parent leader in the Kent School District, Kauffman says she will focus on improving public education. She says the state should provide full-day kindergarten and allow voters to pass school-district levies by simple majority vote."

Nay: Mike Riley (R)
Number one on his to-do list is traffic congestion. Understandable, but lame.


House, 47th District, Position 1

Nay: Geoff Simpson (D)
His "top priority" is "improving public schools," by giving more feedback to students who fail the WASL, and revamping math curricula. Not that these are bad things, but they address symptoms, not causes.

Nay: Donna Watts (R)
She wants to "reward good teachers," but is vague on how this might be accomplished.


House, 47th District, Position 2

Yea: Pat Sullivan (D)
Saith the Times, "Sullivan says he wants the state to offer students more alternatives to the WASL to show they can meet academic standards. In addition, he'd like to expand students' access to vocational education, as a way to reduce the school dropout rate."

Yea: Andrew Franz (R)
Saith the Times, "Franz says the state should provide more money to reduce class sizes and beef up math and science offerings."

busy

Let's see...

1. Getting the Mazda out of the shop, not yet fixed. Alternator bad, maybe, or water pump, nobody knows, not even Mazda of North America. It's fun to be driven to school in the shuttle, dropped off near the buses. I note the changing of the seasons by the different drivers.

2. Researching the new LD topic. Two hours or so, tonight, at the Evergreen State College Library with whoever shows up from the team.

3. Figuring out how to condense Apocalypse Now into two 55-minute periods. Should I cut the part where the cow--the real cow--gets it? Should I let them know that it's a real cow?

4. Introducing utter novices to the minutiae of Lincoln-Douglas debate. Trying to parse values and criteria, contentions and subpoints, cards and blocks, philosophies and ethical systems. How would you explain deontology to a 9th-grader?

5. Blogging. Always blogging.

new WEA cards in the mail

Just got the new WEA membership card. Spiffy. Feels like a credit card, looks like a library card, with a mysterious barcode. What's the barcode for? I mean, I know that WEA membership (and, by extension, NEA membership) gets me scads of savings, but which one requires a barcode scan? Are there discounts I've never heard of? Will it get me into all the cool clubs?

michigan governor election in 2006, astrology prediction

The candidates:

Jennifer Granholm, Democrat
Dick DeVos, Republican
Greg Creswell, Libertarian
Douglas Campbell, Green
Bhagwan Dashairya, Constitution

The prediction:

Since the Moon is in the second house, and Jupiter and Mars are aligned, then peace and prosperity are coming soon. The Age of DeVos begins in November, when the charismatic and star-blessed Amway flunky-turned-politician will capture the hearts and minds of Michigan's electorate. Despite a liberal media effort to paint DeVos as a snake-oil salesman and teetotaler, and despite DeVos's inevitable gaffe where he will refer to the Bible as "a good book," instead of "The Good Book," center-leaning Republicans and waffling Democrats will hold hands across the aisle--metaphorically--to usher in an era of tranquility.

Jennifer Granholm will quickly concede, since the margin of victory will be greater than ten points. Creswell, Campbell, and Dashairya will debate each other on Michigan public television, angry that the major candidates refuse to face them on air. Two people will watch. They will vote Democratic anyway.



[121st in a series]

Kentucky River decision: so much for the freedom of assembly

David Goldstein has the story.

Voting along party lines, the Republican dominated NLRB gutted long-time federal labor laws by allowing employers to reclassify up to 8 million workers as “supervisors,” thus prohibiting them from forming unions.

Weird, isn't it? Take on the magical label "supervisor," and suddenly you can't join up with like-minded employees--er, supervisors--to secure better wages, better hours, or better working conditions.

Be sure to click through and watch the Colbert video, which sums up the basic absurdity of the change. If you want the arcana of the decision, they're here.

Update: As I read through Goldstein's post again, I see a potential point of confusion. It won't be illegal to join a union under the NRLB ruling--it just means that employers can ignore, disrespect, and otherwise squash burgeoning collective efforts without fear of sanctions.

happy Oktober

Crossposted at that fashion festival, Mr. A's world of tacky ties.

a bulletin board of the old-fashioned kind

One of the teachers in the English department put up a kick-ass bulletin board yesterday, boldly colored, immaculately arranged, bursting with student pride. At lunch, this led the older teachers to reminisce: thirty, even twenty years ago, bulletin boards were hot pedagogy, like sliding walls and slide rules.

In fact, you can measure educational ideologies by the technologies they spawn. The sliding wall came out of the team-teaching blended classroom movement, which was progressive for all of five minutes, and profoundly distracting for the rest.

I'm too young for such nostalgia, but I anticipate the day "blog" is as incomprehensible as "Log Log."

yet another quixotic candidate

This time it's Bruce Guthrie, who has discovered a terrible way to spend $1.2 million.

an open letter to Bruce Guthrie

Dear Bruce,

Just read that you're throwing your life savings into the race against Maria Cantwell and Mike McGavick. Now, I love hopeless contenders as much as the next pundit--and Libertarian Quixotes even more--but since your contribution lets the others dump even more money into the race, your bid is both foolish and counterproductive.

Why not set up a scholarship for bright libertarians, build a hospital somewhere, or establish a floating paradise casino tax haven on a retired aircraft carrier?

Hell, you could even hire me as a consultant.

Cheers,

Jim