podpolia » Politics

Absolutely Terrifying

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:43:35 +0000

This is absolutely terrifying. Not only is this bald-faced justification for offensive holy war, but it actually contains the blueprint for atomic genocide on a scale that would make Hitler proud. Allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons would be suicidal on the part of Israel, and tantamount to complicity for the rest of the world.

Educational Philosophy

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 01:39:39 +0000

Via the World’s Only Rational Man, we have this link to an article discussing low grading standards in education departments in colleges and universities. I could have told them about that without all the trouble of doing the research — my experience in education classes in college was prettymuch spot-on with this assessment. I can’t paint with too broad of a brush, as I did have a couple of good professors for education classes, but my educational psychology prof stands out in my mind as a perfect example of this phenomenon. She even admitted to us one day in class that she had taught sixth grade for a while, but stopped because she couldn’t keep control of the classroom. It was not hard to understand why after hearing some of the drivel she spouted in class — all of your students must feel good all the time, you can’t ever embarrass them or criticise them, they should always get good grades, etc. Oddly enough, this philosophy was largely followed by the elementary ed majors, but not those of us in the class who were in the secondary ed program (and incidentally, majoring in our particular field rather than in education). We mostly just sat in the back of the room and laughed at her, imagining her trying to teach high schoolers.

Another way they could have done this study would have been to look at commencement programs. I seem to recall my undergraduate commencement program listing an astoundingly high number of elementary ed majors as graduating with honors. They really made other majors look bad, but those of us who had taken education classes knew what the true score was. Pity that it takes papers like these to bring it to the attention of the broader public.

Lurking In The Wings

admin — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 03:11:09 +0000

While most of the country has moved on from the pat-downs that TSA agents now perform at airports regularly, it really does remain an open topic. I ran across this article today which just raises more awkward questions that the TSA refuses to answer. At this point, air travel is one of those things that is becoming less and less of an optional mode of travel and more a primary mode, what with increased globalization and all. Violating Americans’ 4th amendment rights just because they have to travel long distances quickly strikes me as blatantly wrong. Why is nobody doing anything about this? At this point I would be hesitant to fly (even if I had somewhere to fly to) because I could not in good conscience allow my rights to be violated. I’m rather surprised that we’re not hearing more about it.

Gorbachev Looks Back

admin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:29:47 +0000

Drudge had an interesting link today to an interview the Guardian did with Mikhail Gorbachev recently. There are a couple of nuggets of new information about the chaos surrounding the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 – nothing too surprising, but things that give better insight into what was going on within the Soviet government before the coup. Gorbachev is an eminence grise in Russian politics, and deservedly so. He makes some interesting comments regarding liberalization in China as well as on Putin’s leadership as well. Definitely worth looking into, as the man quite obviously shows his vast experience as well as his sound political intuitions.

Putting The War On Terror In Perspective

admin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:29:01 +0000

Now that Bin Laden is dead, we can finally start putting the past decade into perspective. Via Powerline I ran across this article that begins to do just that. It’s definitely good to be able to step away from the day-to-day skirmishes over politics of the moment and look at things in context.

Are We Headed Down This Road?

admin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 05:41:54 +0000

The recent problems in Britain raise some major questions about the way government has begun to do things – the European countries that had been leading proponents of the welfare state are now backing out of it, just as Obama tries to increase the level of government intervention in daily life in America. One question that the rioting has raised in Britain has been whether government programs CAN help those with no interest in helping themselves. I think it’s pretty clear that some of the critics that have been tearing down the ‘liberal’ dogmas of the welfare state are pretty close to the money.

The Rights of Hoosiers

admin — Fri, 13 May 2011 22:14:33 +0000

I certainly hope that this ruling is quickly overridden. Destroying fundamental rights that are as old as this one probably won’t go over well with Hoosiers, and unfortunately the Supreme Court of Indiana is apparently filled by appointment, rather than by election. Another case to keep an eye on.

Another Side Of The Story

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:03:44 +0000

Rewatching the coverage of the September 11 attacks the other day, it made me wonder what the reaction of those students in that classroom in Florida thought about being front and center while history was being made. Apparently the folks at Time were wondering that too.
It’s difficult for me to realize that the little kids you see in that footage are the same age as the students I have every day in class. It’s hard for me to imagine what growing up in the shadow of the smoke rising from the Twin Towers and never knowing things to ever be any other way would be like. I suppose it would be similar to the Cold War in that respect, but even I can only barely remember the end of that – I was about the same age when it ended that these kids were when the war on terrorism began. Definitely food for thought there.

UPDATE 5/5/2011 21.20: CNN has been taking a look at comments made by their users on this subject as well, and their coverage of that is also rather illuminating. There are definitely views from all sides on the issue.

Behind Bin Laden’s Killing

admin — Tue, 03 May 2011 02:47:11 +0000

There’s an excellent article here about the organizations moving behind the scenes to make operations like the hunt for bin Laden successful. Definitely worth the read.

Nuclear Physics

admin — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 05:19:16 +0000

Nuclear physics is something else that journalists really don’t seem to be that good at. Understandable, I suppose, but when they go out and start making sweeping (and blatantly false) claims about what’s going on with the nuclear reactors in Japan, it becomes a major problem. Reporting that the accidents were a result of “[losing] offsite air-conditioning power” or mentioning the “second nuclear explosion” (18,978 articles on that one!) is horribly and blatantly WRONG. Add to this the newest trend of reporting radiation dosages without putting them in perspective (bananas, anyone?), and voilà! A whole bunch of terrified people, afraid that the radiation from the Fukushima plants is going to kill us all.

Finally today I found an article that actually explains what has been happening inside of these plants, and provides a basic understanding of how the reactor works, and what all of this means. I would, however, suggest not reading the comments that go with it. Some people seem to get quite snippy that a mechanical engineer would DARE to claim to know anything about the construction of machinery and how it handles stresses and external forces, and get even MORE upset when people try to point out that things aren’t as bad as some of the media are saying. You know, the typical troll stuff, only apparently trying to make people paranoid about the odds of them growing extra limbs or unwanted super powers.