May 6, 2010
I get e-mail from the NAACP; the rest of the nation is paying attention to the follies run by the conservative bureaucrats at the SBOE:
Ed,
I wouldn’t want to be a Texas State Board member this week.
Last week, we asked you to write to your representative, telling him or her that rewriting Texas history textbooks is ignorant and unpatriotic.
Over 1,500 people have already written in, filling the inboxes of our school leaders.
This week, we’d like to offer you one more chance to get involved. The NAACP is planning rallies, hearings and press conferences in Texas to stop the state board from rewriting history. But we can’t do it without you.
An issue as controversial as rewriting history elicits strong emotions, and we want to give you the chance to speak out. Do you have something you would like to say at the hearing?
http://action.naacp.org/TextbookHearing
The NAACP works to ensure equal rights and to eliminate discrimination against all racial and ethnic groups. The proposed changes to our textbooks threaten our mission. This is not about Republicans or Democrats — it’s about our shared history as Texans. That’s why we want to use the words of our Texas supporters to turn the tide.
The Texas textbook vote is just two weeks away, so we need to push ourselves harder now than ever before.
The future of our children’s education is in the hands of just a few State Board members. Your voice could be the one to tip the scale.
Take a moment to tell us what you think about the Texas State Board rewriting history. The best submissions will be read at the hearing on May 19th.
http://action.naacp.org/TextbookHearing
Thank you for helping to protect our history.
Gary Bledsoe
President, Texas NAACP
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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Bogus history, Economics, Education, Education reform, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, History Methods and Tools, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, State school boards, State Standards, Texas, Texas history, Voodoo history | Tagged: Bogus history, Economics, Education, geography, Government, History, Politics, Social Studies, Texas State Board of Education, Voodoo history | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
May 3, 2010
What? The Texas State Board of Education is doing such a shoddy job of writing social studies standards that they don’t even name the current president of the U.S.?
It’s a cautionary tale of overprescribing, and of looking at everything as if it has some ulterior motive. But is there any rational reason why the SBOE refuses to utter the name “Obama?”
Who is this man? Texas social studies standards let his identity remain a mystery, despite the historical significance of his election.
SBOE should stop gutting social studies standards and vote to simply accept the updates provided by teachers, historians, economists and geographers. The process is out of control, embarrassing to Texas, and damaging to education.
Grading Texas has the story (from TSTA), here in its entirety (but go check out that blog):
April 28, 2010
The president has a name: it’s Barack Obama
TSTA President Rita Haecker created a stir among legislators today when she testified, at a hearing hosted by the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, that the State Board of Education, in its recent rewrite of social studies curriculum standards, had refused to name President Barack Obama.
That bit of news seemed to catch several lawmakers by surprise. They already knew that the right-wing bloc on the board had attempted to rewrite history. But to go so far as to omit the name of the historic, first African American president of the United States seemed preposterous, even by conservative leader Don (the Earth is 5,000 years old) McLeroy’s standards.
Haecker was correct. Barack Obama’s name, so far, has not been included in the history curriculum standards on which the SBOE is scheduled to take a final vote next month. The standards do note the “election of first black president” as a significant event of 2008, but they don’t say who that black president is.
Haecker urged legislators to make changes, if necessary, to the curriculum setting process to protect educator input and ensure that “scholarly, academic research and findings aren’t dismissed or diminished at the whim of a board member’s own political or religious view of the world.”
State Education Commissioner Robert Scott accepted the caucus’ invitation to voluntarily testify on the curriculum adoption process. He said his and the Texas Education Agency’s role was mostly in technical support of the SBOE.
Board Chairwoman Gail Lowe of Lampasas, who also had been invited, declined to attend, even though the caucus had offered to pay her travel expenses.
Predictably, Lowe was skewered for her failure to show up by the mostly Democratic legislators who attended the caucus hearing. Lowe must have figured it was better to be skewered in absentia than in person.
You can read Rita Haecker’s prepared testimony here:
http://www.tsta.org/news/current/
Oh, go on — you can say it — tell your friends:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Barack Obama, Bogus history, History, History blogs, History Revisionism, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, State school boards, TAKS, TEKS, Texas, Voodoo history | Tagged: Barack Obama, Politics, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, Social Studies Standards, TAKS, TEKS, Texas, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
April 23, 2010
Texas isn’t the only state afflicted with people trying to gut social studies.
A Georgia legislator introduced a resolution to instruct the Georgia Supreme Court that our government is not a democracy, but is instead a republic.
See what the Texas State Board of Education wants to have happen?
Georgia House of Representatives H.R. 1770 (2010):
A RESOLUTION
Informing Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein that Georgia is a republic, not a democracy; recognizing the great differences between these two forms of government; and for other purposes.
WHEREAS, on March 16, 2010, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein appeared before the Georgia General Assembly for the State of the Judiciary address, and in her speech Chief Justice Hunstein mistakenly called the State of Georgia a democracy; and
WHEREAS, the State of Georgia is, in fact, a republic and it is important that all Georgians know the difference between a republic and a democracy -– especially the Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court; and
WHEREAS, the word “republic” comes from the Latin res publica, which means “the public thing” or “the law,” while the word “democracy” comes from the Greek words demos and kratein, which translates to “the people to rule”; and
WHEREAS, most synonymous with majority rule, democracy was condemned by the Founding Fathers of the United States, who closely studied the history of both democracies and republics before drafting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; and
WHEREAS, the Founding Fathers recognized that the rights given to man by God should not be violated by an unrestrained majority any more than they should be restrained by a king or monarch; and
WHEREAS, it is common knowledge that the Pledge of Allegiance contains the phrase “and to the Republic”; and
WHEREAS, as he exited the deliberations of the so-called Constitutional Convention of 1787, Founding Father Benjamin Franklin told the awaiting crowd they have “A republic, if you can keep it”; and
WHEREAS, a republic is a government of law, not of man, which is why the United States Constitution does not contain the word democracy and mandates that “the United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”; and
WHEREAS, in 1928, the War Department of the United States defined democracy in Training Manual No. 2000–25 as a “government of the masses” which “[r]esults in mobocracy,” communistic attitudes to property rights, “demagogism, … agitation, discontent, [and] anarchy”; …
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES that the members of this body recognize the difference between a democracy and a republic and inform Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Carol W. Hunstein that the State of Georgia is a republic and not a democracy….
Tip of the scrub brush to the Volokh Conspiracy, where you’ll find erudite and entertaining comment, and where Eugene Volokh wrote:
Now maybe this is just a deep inside joke, but if it’s meant to be serious then it strikes me as the worst sort of pedantry. (I distinguish this from my pedantry, which is the best sort of pedantry.)
Whatever government Georgia has, and whatever government the English language has, it is not government by ancient Romans, ancient Greeks, the War Department Training Manual, or even the Pledge of Allegiance. “Democracy” today includes, among other meanings, “Government by the people; that form of government in which the sovereign power resides in the people as a whole, and is exercised either directly by them (as in the small republics of antiquity) or by officers elected by them. In mod. use often more vaguely denoting a social state in which all have equal rights, without hereditary or arbitrary differences of rank or privilege.” That’s from the Oxford English Dictionary, but if you prefer the American Heritage Dictionary, try “Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives.” Government by the people’s representatives is included within democracy, as is government by the people directly.
“Joke” is an accurate description, but one that escapes the sponsors and irritates the impedants on the Texas SBOE.
Gavel to Gavel offers the insight that this is the legislative response to an address to the legislature by Georgia’s Chief Justice.
When legislatures have too much time on their hands, and engage in such hystrionics, one wonders whether the legislature wouldn’t be better off left in the dark by not inviting the views of the Chief Justice in the future. Perhaps the Chief Justice should decline any invitation offered.
What we now know is that some Georgia legislators are all het up about the difference between a republic and a democracy, though I’ll wager none of them could pass an AP world history or European history quiz on Rome and Greece. And what is really revealed is that some Georgia legislators don’t know their burros from a burrow.
You can also be sure of this: Such action is exactly what the so-called conservatives on the Texas SBOE wish to have happen from their diddling of social studies standards.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | Government, Law, Legislation, Legislatures, Rampant stupidity, State school boards, Texas, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: Constitutional Law, Democracy, Georgia, Government, History, House of Representatives, Rampant stupidity, Republic not a Democracy, Supreme Courts | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
April 10, 2010
Nick Anderson in Houston Chronicle, April 2, 2010
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Education, Education quality, History, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas, Thomas Jefferson | Tagged: Education, education standards, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, state board of education, Texas, Thomas Jefferson | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 31, 2010
John Sherffius, one of my favorite editorial cartoonists, laid out the problem in his cartoon of March 18:
John Sherffius, Boulder Daily Camera, March 18, 2010
You may purchase a copy of the cartoon — or the original — here.
SBOE isn’t exactly asking that the Bible be rewritten — or at least, not directly. Suggesting we replace Thomas Jefferson as a founder with John Calvin in high school standards, is just as silly.
Tip of the old scrub brush to What Would Jack Do, “Lone Star Laughing Stock,” and Steven Schafersman.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
5 Comments | Capitalism, Economics, Geography - Economic, Geography - Physical, Geography - Political, History, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas, Texas Citizens for Science, Texas history | Tagged: Economics Revisionism, Geography Revisionism, History Revisionism, Lone Star Laughing Stock, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies Standards, Texas, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 29, 2010
You’ll find one of the posts I mentioned at P.Z.’s house, here.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
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Posted by Ed Darrell
March 19, 2010
Tony Whitson from Curricublog made the killing observation:
BookTV [C-SPAN] this weekend has Steve Forbes talking about his new book,
“How Capitalism Will Save Us.”
With these new Social Studies TEKS, TX students won’t know what such a
book is about.
Small bit of humor from a truly sad situation. One of the leaders of the Texas State Soviet of Education defended the evisceration and defenestration of social studies standards saying they didn’t need to listen to liberal college professors.
In economics, the professor was a conservative, well-respected economics professor from Texas A&M University, one of the most conservative state universities in the nation (with a Corps of Cadets numbering in the thousands and tradition deeper than Palo Duro Canyon and broader than the Gulf of Mexico). Calling these people “liberal” is tantamount to complaining about the communism espoused by Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower — that is, it demonstrates a divorce from reality and rationality.
In the grand scheme of things it’s not a huge problem, but it’s more than a trifle. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to fully comprehend market economics in the U.S. without understanding what capitalism is, and how it works. Teachers will be left to find their own materials to explain “free enterprise” and, if the students ever make it into a real economics course in college, they will discover “free enterprise” is a quaint, political term that is not discussed in serious economics circles. Texas students will, once again, be pushed to the hindmost by Don McLeroy’s odd views of America and what he doesn’t want Americans to know.
For example, look at the Council for Economic Education — while “capitalism” is not the only word they use for market-based economies, you’ll have a tougher time finding any definition of “free enterprise.” Or, more telling, look at the Advanced Placement courses, or the International Baccalaureate courses. AP and IB courses are the most academically rigorous courses offered in American high schools. The Texas TEKS step away from such rigor, however (while the Texas Education Agency rides Texas schools to add rigor — go figure). IB courses talk a lot about enterprise, but they don’t censor “capitalism,” nor do they pretend it’s not an important concept.
At the very conservative and very good Library of Economics and Liberty (which every social studies teacher should have bookmarked and should use extensively), a search for “free enterprise” produces 77 entries (today). “Capitalism” produces almost ten times as much, with more than 750 listings.
Which phrase do you think is more useful in studying American economics, history and politics?
Teachers will deal with it. It’s one more hurdle to overcome on the path to trying to educate Texas students. It’s one more roadblock to their learning what they need to keep the freedom in America.
Capitalism - Warren Buffett - BusinessWeek image
Free Enterprise - Bernie Madoff
The real difference? Literature on capitalism frequently address the issue of moral investments, and the need for some regulation to bolster the Invisible Hand in producing discipline to steer markets from immoral and harmful investments. The essential history politics economic question of the 20th and 21st centuries is, can economic freedom exist without political freedom, and which one is more crucial to the other? We know from every period of chaos in history when governments did not function well, but bandits did, that free enterprise can exist without either political freedom or economic freedom. I think of it like this:
Capitalism
|
Free Enterprise
|
| Adam Smith |
Blackbeard the Pirate |
| Warren Buffett |
Bernie Madoff |
| Investing |
Spending |
| Building institutions |
Taking profits |
| Retail |
Robbery |
| Wholesale |
Extortion |
| Save for a rainy day |
debt-equity swap |
| Antitrust enforcement to keep markets fair |
Don’t get caught, hope for acquittal |
| Milton Friedman |
P. T. Barnum |
| Ludwig von Mises |
Charles Ponzi |
| Friedrich von Hayek |
Richard Cheney, “deficits don’t matter” |
| Paul Krugman |
Kato Kaelin |
| Stockholders |
Victims and suckers |
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Accuracy, Business, Business Ethics, Capitalism, Economics, Education, Education reform, Freedom - Economic, History, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, State school boards, TEKS, Texas | Tagged: Capitalism, Economics, Free Enterprise, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, Texas, Texas State Board of Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 17, 2010
It’s astounding in its error.
Cynthia Dunbar told Chris Matthews today that Thomas Aquinas played a more important role in the American Revolution than Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson, Texas students learn in other places, wrote the great body of the Declaration of Independence, and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which is the direct forebear of religious freedom in U.S. Constitutional law.
If you hurry, you can see it tonight (at 6:00 p.m and 11:00 p.m Central, I’m told) on Chris Matthews’ “Hardball.”
Isn’t it astounding people who claim to be Christian will tell such bold lies to children? It’s as if they think Jesus said “make the children suffer” instead of what Jesus did say. Voodoo history at its most voodoo; history revisionism of the rankest sort. Where’s Mermelstein?
You can see it online here, at Hardball’s website.
Dunbar and her fellow travellers are effing idiots. Strong post to follow.
______________
SSOE? State Soviet of Education. Why do you ask?
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
2 Comments | Economics, History, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas, Textbook Selection | Tagged: Declaration of Independence, Economics, History, Rampant stupidity, Religious Freedom, Social Studies, Thomas Jefferson, Voodoo history | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 14, 2010
Lord Bertrand Russell in a BBC Radio studio,circa 1940 – BBC Radio 4 image
The trouble with the world
is that the stupid are cocksure
and the intelligent
are full of doubt.
– Bertrand Russell, The Triumph of Stupidity in Mortals and Others: Bertrand Russell’s American Essays, 1931-1935 (Routledge, 1998), p. 28
With these words Russell stated, in 1935, a phenomenon observed and chronicled by Justin Kruger and David Dunning, in research at Cornell University, published in 1999 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. “Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments” reported on research they had conducted on subjects at Cornell. The effect they observed is generally called, after them, the Dunning-Kruger Effect. According to the abstract:
People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of the participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)
In other words,
- Incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill.
- Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others.
- Incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy.
- If they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill.
Thus, the Dunning-Kruger effect explains the existence and arguments of creationists, climate change denialists, Tea Baggers and birthers, and the actions of the right-wing historical revisionist faction of the Texas State Board of Education, and provides Monty Python’s Flying Circus with volumes of new material each month, should they ever care to revive the program.
More:
Tip of the old scrub brush to Mal Adapted, commenting at Open Mind.
Broadcast the news:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
20 Comments | Dunning-Kruger Effect, History, psychology, Quotes, Rampant stupidity, Research | Tagged: Bertrand Russell, Dunning-Kruger Effect, Incompetence, Philosophy, Quotes, Rampant stupidity | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 10, 2010
A couple of months can make a big difference. Can.
A difference which way?
Two months ago the Texas State Board of Education suspended its revamping of social studies standards — the efforts to grind the standards into a right-wing crutch were so controversial that hearings, discussion and amending proposed standards took up more time than allotted. SBOE delayed final votes until March 10.
Today.
Last week Texas voted in primary elections. Several board members’ terms are up. Two incumbents lost primary challenges, Don McLeroy, the Boss Tweed of the right wing cultural war ring, and Geraldine Miller, a long-term veteran from Dallas, whose very conservative views cast her as a moderate among SBOE members. Both are Republicans.
How will those primary losses affect them and their work on the board?
In addition, other members of the culture war ring are retiring, including Cynthia Dunbar. Will the lame ducks be content to vote up the changes urged by history and economic professionals and professional educators, or will they do as McLeroy suggested they need to do earlier, and fight against the recommendations of experts?
How will the lame ducks walk and quack?
Stakes are high. New York Times Magazine featured the culture wars on the cover on Valentine’s Day (you should read the article). Texas Monthly weighed in against the culture wars, too — a surprise to many Texans.
Cynicism is difficult to swim against. I expect McLeroy to try as best he can to make social studies standards a monument to right wing bigotry and craziness. We’ve already seen SBOE vote to delete a wonderful children’s book from even being mentioned because the text author shares a name with a guy who wrote a book on socialism earlier.
Most of us watching from outside of Austin (somebody has to stay back and grade the papers and teach to the test . . .) expect embarrassments. On English and science standards before, the culture war ring tactics were to make a flurry of last-minute, unprinted and undiscussed, unannounced amendments apparently conspired to gut the standards of accuracy (which would not make the right wing political statements they want) and, too often, rigor. Moderates on the board have not had the support mechanisms to combat these tactics successfully — secret e-mail and telephone-available friends standing by to lend advice and language on amendments. In at least two votes opponents of the culture war voted with the ring, not knowing that innocent-sounding amendments came loaded.
In a test of the No True Scotsman argument, religious people will be praying for Texas kids and Texas education. Meanwhile, culture warriors at SBOE will work to frustrate those prayers.
Oy.
Thomas Jefferson toyed with the idea of amendment the U.S. Constitution to provide a formal role for the federal government in guaranteeing education, which he regarded as the cornerstone of freedom and a free, democratic-style republic. Instead, American primary and secondary education are governed by more than 15,000 locally-elected school boards with no guidance from the national government on what should be taught. Alone among the industrial and free nations of the world, the U.S. has no mechanism for rigorous national standards on what should be taught.
For well over a century a combined commitment to educating kids better than their parents helped keep standards high and achievement rising. Public education got the nation through two world wars, and created a workforce that could perform without peer on Earth in producing a vibrant and strong economy.
That shared commitment to quality education now appears lost. Instead we have culture warriors hammering teachers and administrators, insisting that inaccurate views of Jefferson and history be taught to children, perhaps to prevent them from ever understanding what the drive for education meant to freedom, but surely to end Jeffersonian-style influences in the future.
Texas’s SBOE may make the case today that states cannot be trusted with our children’s future, and that we need a national body to create academic rigor to preserve our freedom. Or they will do the right thing.
Voters last week expressed their views that SBOE can’t be trusted to do the right thing. We’re only waiting to see how hard McLeroy is willing to work to put his thumb in the eye of Big Tex.
More:
- Steve Schafersman will live blog the meeting today at http://www.texasobserver.org/stevenschafersman/ . Social studies agenda doesn’t start until 11:00 a.m. Central
- Curricublog from Tony Whitson discusses Texas’s sorry standards, and how the right spins them. Watch this blog generally for good and incisive comments from the meeting; Tony often follows the webcasts, and his writings are always, always informative.
- Texas Freedom Network gives you the background; watch TFN’s blog, TFN Insider, for more timely updates (heck, head over there now and learn a lot about today’s meeting). When you read the New York Times piece, you noted incisive comments by Kathy Miller — she’s the director of TFN. TFN is the tape that has held together the good parts of education standards so far, against the swords of the culture warriors. TFN’s blog will probably be updated through the meeting.
- National Center for Science Education is the always stalwart, working-for-the-good organization on Texas education standards — alas, we’re talking social studies now
- Paul Burka’s story on the culture war, at Texas Monthly
- Fox News’s Shannon Bream cites Jay Sekulow of the Pat Robertson forces urging more cultural war before the will of Texas voters can change things.
- McLeroy won the first annual UpChucky Award from NCSE
- The new, online newspaper, Texas Tribune, covers SBOE very well; watch that space
- Kelly Shackleford’s religious issues group will live blog at their site
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
1 Comment | Cargo Cults, Economics, Education, Education quality, Education reform, Government, History, History Revisionism, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, State school boards, Texas, Texas Freedom Network, Voodoo history, War on Education | Tagged: Culture Wars, Don McLeroy, Economics, Education, Education reform, Government, History, Rampant stupidity, Social Studies, Texas, Texas State Board of Education, War on Education | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 1, 2010
The New Mexico paralegal who claims to know more about the law than any federal judge including the Supreme Court has resurfaced here, at this post. He seems bent on making a case against President Obama’s eligibility for the presidency no matter how many fables he has to invent.
Don’t birthers eventually get a good night’s sleep and wake up and wonder why they waste their time on such a loser issue?
No, no, I guess not.
Previous posts at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub:
Special kind of birther crazy:
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
12 Comments | Birth Certificate, Citizenship, Natural Born, Political Smear, Politics, President Obama, Presidential Eligibility, Presidents, Rampant stupidity, U.S. Constitution | Tagged: Birthers, Citizenship, Eligibility, Natural Born, Political Smear, Politics, President Obama, Presidential Eligibility | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
March 1, 2010
Today I discussed legislative craziness, and she was surprised to discover Utah’s wackoes like Rep. Chris Buttars are national, and perhaps international stars of legislative dysfunction. In my e-mail I get notes talking about a silly resolution from South Dakota’s legislature.
Then I stumbled into this: “Utah bill criminalizes miscarriage.”
From what I’ve read of the bill, I agree that’s what it would do. It’s sitting on the Utah governor’s desk right now, deserving a veto, but probably headed into the Utah Code.
If it becomes law, women might be well advised to avoid any activity while in Utah, certainly not skiing or snowmobiling, nor hiking or river running, nor even jogging. A woman who had a miscarriage within a week of skiing in Utah would be hard put to provide evidence exculpating her from a charge that her actions caused the miscarriage. The contest of expert testifiers could be tremendously expensive. Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, California and other states offer all of those activities, but without the specter of a murder charge to women who miscarry later.
No, there’s no excuse for a woman who doesn’t know she’s pregnant.
Yes, I know the bill was designed to punish the bizarre behavior of some people who attempt to induce abortion by physical activity early in a pregnancy. No, I don’t think this bill does that job well, either.
You legislative drafters, take a look at the bill. The language is bizarre, it seems to me — it backs into a law by defining what is not covered. I see some great ambiguities. The bill excuses medical abuse of the fetus — failing to get medical care for the mother, for example, which leads to death of the fetus — but calls into question any action a woman might take in seeking an abortion from a medical practitioner. It seems to me that the bill directly strives to outlaw all medical abortions, though one section says that seeking an abortion is not covered.
Debaters would have a field day with the enforceability problems of this bill.
Oy. From Chris Buttars, the craziness disease has spread to the entire Utah legislature.
Is there a quarantine law in Utah, for people who carry dangerous infections?
Resources:
- Best description and discussion I’ve seen on the bill, at the New York Times; it confronts head on the chief problem with this proposed law: It criminalizes the activities of a desperate young woman who needs counseling and other help, but does not need to be jailed, nor deserve it:
Lynn M. Paltrow, the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a nonprofit group based in New York, said the focus on the child obscured the bleak story of the teenager, who also deserves, she said, empathy from the world, and the law.
“Almost nobody is speaking for her,” Ms. Paltrow said. “Why would a young woman get to a point of such desperation that she would invite violence against herself? Anybody that desperate is not going to be deterred by this statute.”
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
Leave a Comment » | Bad Laws, Bill of Rights, Health care, Legislation, Legislatures, medicine, Rampant stupidity, Utah | Tagged: Abortion, Constitutional Rights, Criminalizing Miscarriage, Criminalizing Motherhood, Medical Care, Utah Legislature | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 29, 2010
How long will the madness persist?
Via Lenore Skenazy at Free-Range Kids comes word that MommaLou has a meeting to find out why her kid’s school wants the kids to spend recess time engaged in something other than recess.
Excuse me?
They aim to “change the perception of recess from free time away from learning to a valuable learning experience that will teach them and will help them cope in all social settings and environments. When children view recess as “free time” they have a tendency to act in a less responsible manner and push the limits of irresponsible behavior. In order to change the perception of recess, children must see that its content is respected and valued.”
The absolute best memories I have of my childhood consisted of me and my sister on the loose in our backyard making mud pies and playing “lost kids”. When I was in college studying early childhood education, I spent countless hours in classrooms learning about how kids learn. Kids learn through play. They just need the resources. The tools. And time.
Well, yeah, that’s what recess is all about, isn’t it?
Kids need recess to stay healthy, the studies show. Recess keeps them healthy. In my corporate consulting, we counseled managers to provide recess. Creativity and corporate problem solving experts, like Dr. Perry W. Buffington, recommend business people take a recess and get away from work for a while when things get tense, or when problem solvers get dense. In one session I watched with Buffington, one manager didn’t get it and kept coming up with all sorts of things to do to avoid taking a recess. Buffington finally spelled it out for him: Get away from the office; make sure that the activity is AWAY from the building . . .
Heck, do they have an “organizational health” survey at that school? The teachers need recess for the kids, too.
Recall these resources from my earlier post:
Nota bene: Even just a little movement works. It works for adults, too.
Resources:
-
PEDIATRICS Vol. 123 No. 2 February 2009, pp. 431-436 (doi:10.1542/peds.2007-2825) (subscription required for full text), “School Recess and Group Classroom Behavior,” Romina M. Barros, MD, Ellen J. Silver, PhD and Ruth E. K. Stein, MD, Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and Rose F. Kennedy Center, Bronx, New York
OBJECTIVES. This study examines the amount of recess that children 8 to 9 years of age receive in the United States and compares the group classroom behavior of children receiving daily recess with that of children not receiving daily recess.
- See this year-old post at The Elementary Educator
- Post in agreement from the venerable Trust for Public Lands, one of the best and best respected non-profits in America
Also, be sure to see this post from Ms. Cornelius at A Shrewdness of Apes. If you’re having difficulty telling the difference between school and a prison — or if your school kid is having that difficulty, it’s time to act.
Via doxpop.com. See Andertoons.com, and buy it for your newsletter.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.
3 Comments | Cargo Cults, Classroom management, Education, Education quality, Health care, Public health, Rampant stupidity, Teachers, Teaching | Tagged: Classroom management, Education, health, Rampant stupidity, Recess, School | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 10, 2010
Remember the latest Paluxy River hoax set of a dinosaur print and human print in the same stone? (See “Fred Flintstone waded here.”)
Now you can own your own. More than 10 specimens available, three already sold at eBay. Cheap, at $5.00!
Bloody Mary played by Keala Settle – photo by Peter Coombs
(I saw “South Pacific” on stage last week. I have visions of Bloody Mary selling these things. Much cheaper than a shrunken head, but the shrunken heads are real.)
Open your own “creation evidences museum.” Ken Ham needs the competition.
Latest Paluxy River dino-human track hoax
Dinosaur and human tracks offered for sale on eBay, in 10 copies
Compare the track below on the left, from the news story on the Paluxy hoax, with the track shown on eBay, on the right.
Invite your friends to bid:
Save
Save
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2 Comments | Creationism, Hoaxes, Humor, Rampant stupidity | Tagged: Creationism, Creationist Hoax, Dinosaur Track, hoax, Humor, Paluxy River | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
January 5, 2010
from Funnyjunk
This is a troubling piece of humor. From Funnyjunk.
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4 Comments | denialism, Hoaxes, How do we know what we know, Humor, Moon, Rampant stupidity | Tagged: denialism, Hoaxes, How do we know what we know, Humor, Moon Landing, Rampant stupidity, Wrestling | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Welcome, Pharyngulites!
March 29, 2010You’ll find one of the posts I mentioned at P.Z.’s house, here.
Spread the word; friends don't allow friends to repeat history.