Owner: Matters of Manner and Type URL:http://mattersofmannerandtype.blogspot.com Join Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:26:33 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: This is a weblog of thoughtful conservative commentary on politics, culture and media. Site statistics:Click here
Dum and Dumed Down 2007-10-07 15:33:00 As discussed previously, eighth-graders in Illinois made significant gains on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) for reading and math, with 82 percent passing the reading exam. Incredibly, these gains were not reflected in the results of the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Indeed, there was a decline in in the number of eighth-graders passing the test versus previous years, with only 30 percent passing this year, versus 35 percent in 2003.All of this takes on significance as student proficiency is a key component of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The Adequate Yearly Progress requirements of NCLB dictate that schools improve their percentage of students achieving "proficiency" in math and reading. According to a study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute entitled "The Proficiency Illusion", many states - to include Illinois - have watered down their proficiency tests such that "improvements in passing rates on state tests can largely be
Dum and Dumer [Digg] 2007-10-05 17:41:59 The news from America's education plantations continues to disappoint. Read more:Digg
Florist sued for $400,000 over wedding flowers [Digg] 2007-10-18 12:16:01 A New York couple sued a florist for $400,000 for using the wrong color flowers at their wedding
-- a mistake the newlyweds said caused them "extreme disappointment, distress and embarrassment." Read more:Digg
Too Good No More [Digg] 2007-10-16 21:57:30 With the Washington Post's publication of good news coming out of Iraq, the media embargo is slowly crumbling. Read more:Digg
Too Good No More 2007-10-16 21:48:00 As noted elsewhere, an unfortunate truism vis-a-vis the Iraq War posits that any lull in coverage of the war is a sign that the U.S. is winning. For her part, Katie Couric did not mention the war one time in her broadcast tonight. In like fashion - with the exceptions of addressing Iraq by way of goings on in Turkey and pronouncing the names of the fallen - today's New York Times makes nary a mention of any effects of the surge that the impeccably botoxed Maureen Dowd recently judged as not working.With so through a media blockade surrounding Iraq, it has fallen to the second tier of mainstream media to declare the military's successes. Yesterday's Washington Post more than filled the bill in detailing the "devastating and perhaps irreversible blows" that al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has suffered at the hands of U.S. and Allied forces. The deployment of more U.S. and Iraqi forces into AQI strongholds in Anbar province and the Baghdad area, as well as the recruitment of Sunni tribal fighte
The Truth Will Out [Digg] 2007-10-15 17:08:29 Even the Washington Post's editorial page concedes that things are getting better in Iraq. Read more:Digg
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The Truth Will Out 2007-10-15 17:01:00 One of the sad consequences of being a conservative in the present age is that one must repeatedly endure seeing truth crushed to earth. We exist in a time where stupidity and cowardice - the two gravest threats to certitude - reign largely unchallenged. The idea, for example, that the 1-2 percent of CO2 that mankind puts into the atmosphere is the determining factor between global temperateness and planetary immolation is scientifically untenable. Yet it has taken such a hold on the collective imagination that supposedly prestigious awards can be given for attempting to convince much of the world's population that a 0.6 degree Celsius increase in the temperature of the earth's atmosphere over the last 100 years is more a cause for concern than terrorism, famine, poverty or disease.So it is with the currently fashionable idea which posits that America's adventure in Iraq is an abject failure, and that all hope of remediation or salvage is lost. That such an idea was false from the m Read more:Truth
For Whom the Nobel Tolls [Digg] 2007-10-14 17:04:10 Perhaps it is fitting that Al Gore won the Nobel
Peace prize, as his contributions to world peace are as significant as those of Yasser Arafat. Read more:Digg
For Whom the Nobel Tolls 2007-10-14 16:49:00 Once again establishing itself as a near-solitary redoubt of opinion page sanity, the editors of the Wall Street Journal gave us a list of worthy nominees for next year's Nobel
Peace Prize, all of whom would have made outstanding recipients for 2007. The list includes the Burmese monks who exemplify the power of non-violent social change in their protests against the ruling junta in Myanmar, as well as Columbian President Alvaro Uribe, Britiain's Tony Blair along with Ireland's Bertie Ahern, Russia's Garry Kasparov, Presidents Viktor Yushechenko and Mikheil Saakashvili of Ukraine and Georgia respectively, and the brave citizens of a nascent Iraq.It also includes many who have gone on to their eternal rest, such as the late Lebanese lawmakers Walid Eido, Pierre Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem, Rafik Hariri, George Hawi and Gibran Tueni, all of whom met their demise at the hands of assassins as they struggled to free their country of Syria's chokehold. Each of these brave souls and many mo
If fruits were human.... [Digg] 2007-10-11 13:00:57 What if fruits really lived with all emotions? A humorous view trying to depict how few of them would have been... Read more:Digg
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Sad is as Stupid Does [Digg] 2007-10-21 22:52:16 The failure of Congress to advance a coherent agenda is a reflection of poor leadership in the House and Senate, and may cost the Democratic Party in 2008. Read more:Stupid
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Sad is as stupid does 2007-10-21 22:45:00 Last Wednesday, President George W. Bush blasted the Democrat-controlled Congress for failing to "get things done for the American people." As reported by the New York Times, President Bush blames Congress for failing to deliver on any number of items. [H]e offered a list of areas where Congress "has work to do," including the budget, domestic surveillance, education, housing, trade, veterans' care and the confirmation of judicial nominees. He finished by accusing lawmakers of meddling where they did not belong, with a proposed House resolution condemning Turkey for the mass killing of Armenians nearly a century ago."With all these pressing responsibilities," Mr. Bush said, "one thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire."Oddly enough, perhaps Mr. Bush has a bit of a leg to stand on in his critique of Congress. Based on the latest polls, the Congress' approval rating hovers somewhere between 22 and 27 percent, which is still south of
the russian mp3 download sites list [Digg] 2007-10-21 10:07:58 Anyone who comes across AllofMp3.com or any of the other numerous Russian Mp3 download websites at first cannot believe they even exist. Whoa... But is this legal? CDs cost $2.50 each---there has to be a catch. Read more:Digg
This Is How They Do It [Digg] 2007-10-18 16:10:07 The politics of race and class in Chicago serve as a foreshadowing of life in HillaryTime. Read more:Digg
This Is How They Do It 2007-10-18 16:04:00 The young man on the left is named Coprez Coffie.His apparent exultation is understandable, as he was recently awarded $4 million during a jury trial.As life would have it, his happiness is tempered by memories of his previous ordeal.You see, he was sodomized by two Chicago Police officers some time ago.The officers, being the well-trained stalwarts that they are, used a screwdriver as their implement of choice to consummate their gruesome attack.My use of the present tense verb "are" is deliberate. The two officers, Gerald Lodwich and Scott Korhonen, are still part of "Chicago's Finest." (All of the particulars regarding this case have been dutifully reported by the Chicago Sun-Times.)Regrettably, this is far from an isolated incident. Allegations of gross police misconduct stem back for decades, going back as far as the 1970s involving rogue Chicago Police Commander John Burge (whose exploits are detailed here and here.)On most days, I feel proud and lucky to be a native of Chicago.
When War Gets Politicized [Digg] 2007-10-26 06:59:51 A recent ABC News item reported on an Israeli airstrike that took place early last month inside Syria. This airstrike allegedly destroyed a fledgling nuclear reactor being constructed deep in the Syrian desert. What makes this story more than it appears is that it exposes the fact the United States balked, flinched on preventing Syria, a State... Read more:Digg
Islamophobia and the Islamist Scarecrow [Digg] 2007-10-26 05:47:36 >... "Islamist
scarecrow". The term is meant for the ears of the West as well, and suggests that the autocratic governments play on the fear of the West that an Islamist rule will be the alternative if those regimes fall, so that by waving this "scarecrow" around, and alluding to the ominous repercussions of reform for Western interests....>> Read more:Digg
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Bonfire of the Fannies [Digg] 2007-10-25 21:00:50 Does being uncomfortable with gays having anonymous sex in public places make someone homophobic? Read more:Digg
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Bonfire of the Fannies 2007-10-25 20:48:00 No wonder the fortunes of the newspaper industry are so bleak as of late. We hardly expect to get any impactive news from anything on newsprint - newspapers lacking both the immediacy and depth of analysis that once served them well in the past. (Yes kids, once upon a time there was more than one edition of a newspaper on any given day.) One of the few remaining functions of a major metro newspaper is to serve as a barometer of the culture. Today's cultural air pressure reading comes from a recent article in the Chicago Tribune. In the article, we are informed of the habit of gay men coming to a local bird sanctuary in order to have anonymous sex. Birders and cruisers have found value in the same patches of land because not only do they attract scores of birds, but they also allow for partial privacy and chance encounters in a public setting. In cruiser communities, birding areas are known to be prime hook-up spots. The article goes on to note that cruisers are easy to pick out, as t Read more:Bonfire
Bill Clinton to "Truthers": “How dare you” [Digg] 2007-10-25 11:06:02 >....We know for sure that neither the top nor the bottom of the last Democratic ticket has the stones to tell them off to their face. Is this just a case of (gulp) Clinton
having a little more courage than the rest of them? Or can Hillary, the “centrist” with a 25-point lead, afford to kiss off the left’s Truther faction.....>> Read more:Digg
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The China Syndrome [Digg] 2007-10-22 22:29:45 Hillary Clinton's less than scrupulous fund-raising tactics threaten to jeopardize her election prospects as well as America's national security. Read more:Digg
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The China Syndrome 2007-10-22 22:22:00 The New York Times recently published a story describing letters that Sen. Hillary Clinton wrote to John Peavoy, a classmate from Maine South High School in Park Ridge, IL and college pen pal. In a letter to Mr. Peavoy from November of 1965, she jokes about saving his letters in order to "make a million" when he became famous, adding "[d]on't begrudge me my mercenary interest."While Ms. Clinton did not keep any of Mr. Peavoy's letters to her, she has maintained her interest in acquisition. Beyond her "Cattlegate" and "Billing-gate" episodes, her zeal for financial gain has once again been exposed as of late by way of her presidential campaign's questionable fund-raising practices. While the MSM's coverage of this unfolding scandal still amounts to a trickle, my sense is that as the primary season begins, the media dam on information will break.It all began some time ago with the Wall Street Journal's reporting on William Paw, a mail carrier who lives in a modest San Francisco su Read more:China
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Medal of Honor Ceremony at White House [Digg] 2007-10-22 18:08:51 Bush honored a fallen Navy SEAL Monday by presenting his grieving parents with the Medal
of Honor, the nation's highest military honor for valor, to Lt. Michael Murphy of Patchogue, N.Y. — the first given for combat in Afghanistan— and privately honored their sacrifice by wearing a dog tag they'd given him moments before. Read more:Digg
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