Just a Thought

Does it bother anyone else that our country's financial future is dictated by our ability to borrow money and that the decision of an accreditation bureau can make or break us?

The Dallas Sports Scene

Oh happy day! The Cowboys are in training camp and we can forget about all those irritating things like the drought and the debt standoff. Who needs it when we can hear pearls of wisdom from the Great Arkansas Guru (GAG for short) Jerry Jones.
It never ceases to amaze me how the sports media in Dallas fawns over the Cowboys. This is a team that has not won a Super Bowl in sixteen years. They have not had a Hall of Fame player since Emmit Smith retired. Since the Cowboys last won the Super Bowl, the Stars have been to two Stanley Cup Finals, winning one. The Mavericks have been to two NBA finals, winning one. The Rangers have been to the World Series. FC Dallas has been to the MLS Final. SMU has won a bowl game. TCU has won the Rose Bowl. All that and yet the Cowboys are still the main attraction, a carryover from the day when they were the only game in town and winning Super Bowls. Mark my words, the Dallas Cowboys will not be serious contenders until people stop going to the games and stop buying the merchandise. Until that happens GAG has no reason to win.

The NFL Lockout

Do you remember where you were when you heard the news? The NFL lockout is over. Whoopee. Better yet, who peed? What does it say when the ending of a lockout of millionaires by billionaires is a bigger news item than the debt crisis? The millionaires have said all along that they just want to play. What a load of hypocrisy! It has all been about the money. Your money. Not just ticket sales. Advertising, jerseys, shoes etc. It is not a sport, it is a business. Bread and circuses.

Why Can't They Learn?

Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. (2011)

Almost everyone wants to get into college, but how much do undergraduates really learn once they're there? According to Academically Adrift, the answer for many students is not much. The extensive research of the authors draws on survey responses, transcript data, and the College Learning Assessment, a standardized test administered to students in their first semester and again at the end of their second year. Their analysis reveals that a significant proportion of students demonstrate no significant improvement in a range of skills including critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing. Arum and Roksa argue that for many faculty and administrators they will come as no surprise- instead they are the expected result of a student body distracted by socializing or employment and an institutional culture that puts undergraduate learning close to the bottom of the priority list.

This is not a disturbing work to anyone who has spent time in a college classroom. There exist many deep problems but they are not insoluble. Colleges and universities suffer, not from a lack of vision, but from what is known as 'mission creep". 'Mission Creep" is trying to do so many things that none of them are done well. For the institutions of higher learning, there needs to be a return to First Principles: what are we here for? Are we involved in higher learning or vocational education? Are we something to fill the schedule for 18-21 year olds? Students also need to have a concrete idea of why they are going to college, something more than delaying major life choices after high school. Parents must also have an idea of what getting a college education entails. They must be more actively involved.

Borders is going away

The news that Borders is going into liquidation hit me hard. It was no surprise, the patient had been on life-support for four months and the chance of recovery was slim, but it still hurt. Why? I could go on like Greg Kinnear in You've Got Mail how the world will be a less friendly place without Borders but that would only be ironic. Will there be a sequel to You've Got Mail, where Meg Ryan leaves Tom Hanks destitute when Fox Books shuts down?
The end of Borders means the end of a phase of my life. Borders first arrived in our neighborhood when my parents were still alive. It was Heaven as we were all bibliophiles. The selection was always light years ahead of Barnes & Noble. You could find, on the shelf (pre-Amazon) obscure books from University presses. More than just the latest bestsellers, their philosophy and religion sections were unmatched. DVD selection was just a fringe benefit.
And soon it will be gone, except for the memories.

I can be whatever I want!

For the power of man to make himself what he pleases means, as we have seen, the power of some men to make other men what they please.
-C. S. Lewis. The Abolition of Man. (72)

C. S. Lewis on Education

The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles but to irrigate deserts.
-C. S. Lewis. The Abolition of Man. (24)

America's Obsession

No, not the Debt Crisis. Not the women's World Cup either. Media attention is focused on a courthouse in Florida, awaiting the release of America's most vilified mom, Casey Anthony. I am probably the last person in this country to weigh in on this matter. She was found not guilty of the murder of her daughter and that has ignited a firestorm. Actually, a lynch-mob is a better term. Headline News has been all Casey all the time. Jane Velez Mitchell and Nancy Grace are handing out pitchforks and torches. My own belief is that Casey Anthony knows full well what happened to her daughter. The state of Florida did not prove that they did, according to the jury. So she is set to go free in a matter of hours. How free? She will have to go into something like witness protection because there have been so many threats. Some consider that just punishment. What is more disturbing than the verdict is the misperception, encouraged by the media, that there is no justice in this case. They do not understand the American system of law. It is more than " better that ten guilty people go free than one innocent person is incarcerated. Our system is based, not on catching every single criminal, but enough to convince most that it is not worth it. Justice is administered in the hereafter. Bluntly, if you don't believe in a day of judgement, our legal system cannot be just. This is one of those things we will have to deal with in a nation that appears to be less religious.

Politics July 2011

Of course the big political news this month is whether Congress can reach some sort of agreement on the debt ceiling and the budget. What we have here is...failure...to communicate. Republicans and Democrats alike are entrenched in their positions. Republicans don't want to raise taxes, Democrats don't want to cut entitlements. If we look back at the earlier entry from T. Harry Williams, we are reminded that politicians need to compromise and cut the best deal possible for the most people. Failure on the part of Congress means they are not doing what we elected them to do. Unfortunately, what is happening in Washington at this time falls into the category of J. H. Plumb's definition of politics: it is all about power. A more earthy way to put it: the Debt Crisis has devolved into a dick-measuring contest.

Another Political Truism

It was patronage that cemented the political system, held it together, and made it an almost impregnable citadel, impervious to defeat, indifferent to social change. And yet there are historians who dismiss eighteenth-century patronage as little more than private charity. This is absurd, and arises from considering the pecuniary awards of place only. Place was power; patronage was power; and power is what men in politics are after. After 1715, power could not be achieved through party and so the rage of party gave way to the pursuit of place.
-J. H. Plumb. The Origins of Political Stability: England, 1685-1725. (189)

Political Truism- Possibly Archaic

If the politician is not a philosopher putting into effect eternal principles, what then is he? He is, and here we may speak of what may be termed the ordinary or average politician, an adjuster and a broker of the many conflicting and competitive interests in a democratic society. His role is not to ram one set of interests through but to compromise with all of them so that everybody can live with the settlement. When the politician is considered in this framework, he immediately appears in a much more favorable stance-he is the man who makes democracy work.
-T. Harry Williams. "Trends in Southern Politics. " in The Idea of the South, Frank Vandiver editor. (60)

Bad History

Matthew Algeo. The President Is a Sick Man. Chicago Review Press. (2011)

The author has a good grasp of the story but that is all. From a technical standpoint, the complete and utter lack of footnotes compromises irreparably the value of this work. He understands the complexity of the health issues but as to the political, economic, and historical issues he is, like the surgery he describes, "at sea."
Politically, Algeo does not comprehend the mood of the era. In the wake of the death of President Grant, Cleveland and his advisers deemed it was better to do this in secret, away from the public eye. Like Louis in Casablanca, the author is shocked to discover that a government would do this sort of thing.
Economically, he understands the issues of the Depression of 1893 only in part. He does not realize, or fails to acknowledge, the downside of the pro-Silver argument which colors his interpretation of the President's response to the crisis.
Historically, Algeo has only a vague familiarity with the history of presidential illness, mentioning the usual suspects: Washington, Jackson. Wilson, FDR. He lauds the Roosevelt cover-up, does not mention Eisenhower, Kennedy, or Johnson, but excoriates Reagan.
For a better reading of presidential illness, one should turn to Ferrell's Ill-advised. As for Grover Cleveland, Jeffers' An Honest Man is still the better choice.

Honor

Honor is a luxury for aristocrats, but it is a necessity for hall-porters.
-G. K. Chesterton. Heretics. "Celts and Celtophiles." (89)

Committees

God so loved the world that he didn't send a Committee.
- Marion Montgomery. The Truth of Things. (155)

Teaching

The good teacher emulates Socrates and Christ, neither of whom was popular with the majority of his hearers, nor wrote articles or books, nor held degrees-honorary or earned-from recognized institutions of lower or higher learning.
-Marion Montgomery. "The Segregation That Is Needed." in The Truth of Things. (39)