Deep (Freeze) Thought

Wow, if you split the Republican vote in half in Alaska, you still can't get a Democrat elected there this year. How did Begich ever win??

How Well Do You Know Religion?
Most Americans didn't do so well on this survey from the folks at the Pew Forum. Here's the results. I was 15 for 15, but got lucky. Flipped a coin for the last one. How about you?

School Improvement: What's the Answer?
If only there was a single answer, right? Every year we get new approaches that seem to yield promising results, but that ultimately don't last, or don't translate from school school. Even more importantly, we don't have much agreement on the basics, like: What's the purpose of public education? and How do we measure progress and achievement?

The truth is, if there were *one simple structural thing* that need only be implemented to create a nation full of eager, well-educated, well-adjusted high school graduates, we would have figured it out, and everyone would be doing it. As it is, even trying to learn from the apparent successes of others seems difficult.

Still, I can't resist the occasional feel-good success story of a down-and-out school that, at the very least, experiences vast improvement. Yesterday's NYTimes tells of Brockton High School in Mass. At 4,100 students, Brockton is not only the largest in the state, it's one of the largest in the nation. With a high drop-out rate, and only a quarter of students passing the statewide exams 10 years ago, teachers and administrators - motivated mostly by shame - devised a new approach: reading and writing would be emphasized in each and every class.

The committee put together a rubric to help teachers understand what good writing looks like, and began devoting faculty meetings to teaching department heads how to use it. The school’s 300 teachers were then trained in small groups.

Writing exercises took many forms, but encouraged students to think methodically. A science teacher, for example, had her students write out, step by step, how to make a sandwich, starting with opening the cupboard to fetch the peanut butter, through washing the knife once the sandwich was made. Other writing exercises, of course, were much more sophisticated.

Some teachers dragged their feet. Michael Thomas, now the district’s operations director but who led the school’s physical education department at the time, recalled that several of his teachers told him, “This is gym; we shouldn’t have to teach writing.” Mr. Thomas said he replied, “If you want to work at Brockton High, it’s your job.”

Read the whole thing. Gains sound substantial there (though they had a long way to go), and the pride taken in improvement seems to have propelled the entire school even further. Anything here that can be used by other struggling schools, or entire school systems?  Who knows.

Is Stanley Fish Right?
Today's column argues that the liberal instinct to make light of Tea Party candidates is bad politics. That has the ring of truth, which has me worried since, as you know, I'm big into ridicule.

Commentators who explain smugly that O’Donnell’s position on masturbation (that it is a selfish, solitary act) is contradicted by her Ayn Rand-like attack on collectivism, or who wax self-righteous about Paladino’s comparing Sheldon Silver to Hitler and promising to wield a baseball bat in Albany, or who laugh at Sharron Angle for being in favor of Scientology (she denies it) and against fluoridation and the Department of Education, are doing these candidates a huge favor. They are saying, in effect, these people are stupid, they’re jokes; and the implication (sometimes explicitly stated) is that anyone who takes them the least bit seriously doesn’t get the joke and is stupid, too.

Once made fun of, Stanley concludes, marginal Tea Party sympathizers are lost forever to the Democratic point of view. Instead of backing down, they just dig in.

This time, he has it 60% right. We do need to be careful. Just because I have a hard time believing that these idiots nice Republicans with which I happen to disagree are winning doesn't mean they're going away. They are, in fact, winning, after all. Our arguments against should take them seriously in that regard.

Still, what else am I supposed to do in the face of a major party candidate for US Senate who views the world as Christine O'Donnell does? I mean, when you admit to dabbling in witchcraft and set as your agenda to get all of America to stop having sex, those are the sorts of things that really are supposed to end a political career in its tracks, aren't they?

Fish's argument here is mostly a practical one: ridicule is a counter-productive political strategy. Aimed at the voters, I agree. But wasn't it a pretty big factor though in driving down Palin's numbers, ultimately defeating McCain? In general, I don't think voters want to get behind a laughing stock, and if a campaign of ridicule can brand a candidate as one (see Sue Lowden in Nevada), isn't that a decent idea? What's the right balance? If we engage O'Donnell as a serious candidate, don't we validate and make legitimate her bizarre views?

Shouldn't a protest vote this November have to feel the complete embarassing weight of the fools they would send to Washington?

"An Original Manuscript Can Only Be in One Place at One Time"
The NYTimes magazine explores a strange, depressing, riveting story - one in which the work of a masterful 20th Century author, an act of love/betrayal by his surprising best friend, the rantings of a reclusive 70-something cat enthusiast, and a bank vault in Israel all intertwine in a maze worthy of the writer's name.

While about two-thirds of the Kafka estate eventually found its way to Oxford’s Bodleian Library, the remainder — believed to comprise drawings, travel diaries, letters and drafts — stayed in Brod’s possession until his death in Israel in 1968, when it passed to his secretary and presumed lover, Esther Hoffe. After Hoffe’s death in late 2007, at age 101, the National Library of Israel challenged the legality of her will, which bequeaths the materials to her two septuagenarian daughters, Eva Hoffe and Ruth Wiesler. The library is claiming a right to the papers under the terms of Brod’s will. The case has dragged on for more than two years. If the court finds in the sisters’ favor, they will be free to follow Eva’s stated plan to sell some or all of the papers to the German Literature Archive in Marbach. They will also be free to keep whatever they don’t sell in their multiple Swiss and Israeli bank vaults and in the Tel Aviv apartment that Eva shares with an untold number of cats.
...
Etgar Keret, a best-selling Israeli short-story writer who considers Kafka to be his greatest influence, ...(says) Kafka...might be O.K. with it: “The next best thing to having your stuff burned, if you’re ambivalent, is giving it to some guy who gives it to some lady who gives it to her daughters who keep it in an apartment full of cats, right?”

Beatles Class Today

Today's topic is the album A Hard Day's Night

Question: Which songs have the strongest correlation between the music and lyrics? Which present the most conflict between the two?

What's the best song on the album?

Any takers?

Marry an Optometrist
Via Overcoming Bias, a recent study ranks occupations for their divorce rates, once other predictive factors are taken out of the equation. The top 6 divorce-prone jobs?

1. Massage Therapists
2. Bartenders
3. Dancers and Choreographers
4. Health Diagnosing Practitioners
5. Physicians and Surgeons
6. Gaming Services Workers

The bottom 6?

507. Optometrist
508. Clergy
509. Transit Police
510. Religious Education Directors
511. Agricultural Engineers
512. Communication Equipment Workers

Musicians, by the way, come in at 306. Post-secondary teachers, 351.

Transcript of Colbert Answering Questions
Video of his opening statement is in the post below, but some of the best moments were during questioning from the committee. Apparently nobody much believes in transcripts anymore (what happened while I was away?) Blue Wave News has transcribed the one moment when Colbert seemed to come out of character and explain to Rep. Chu why he cares so much about the issue of migrant workers. Here's a snippet:

You know, “whatsoever you did for the least of my brothers,” and these seemed like the least of my brothers, right now. A lot of people are “least brothers” right now, with the economy so hard, and I don’t want to take anyone’s hardship away from them or diminish it or anything like that. But migrant workers suffer, and have no rights.

Other favorite answers include telling Rep. Smith (R-TX) that being a farm worker for a day is pretty tough:

SMITH: Is that to say it's more work than you've ever done before?

COLBERT: It's certainly harder work than this.

SMITH: Is it harder work than the comedy show?

COLBERT: Absolutely harder than punditry.

SMITH: You don't want to return to it?

COLBERT: I don't even want to watch Green Acres any more.

Then explaining to Rep. King (R-IA) that he was indeed packing, not unloading, corn.

COLBERT: I was packing corn. I was a corn-packer. I packed it; I put it in the trucks and I iced it down to keep it at 38 degrees so it wouldn't go through the process where the sugar turns into starch and we got that corn out that day. I was a corn-packer. And I know that term is offensive to some people because corn-packer is a derogartory term for a gay Iowan and I hope I didn't offend anybody.

Watch those portions of the video here.

Stephen Colbert Testifies Before Congress
From the annals of great political ideas, Colbert was invited to speak before the House Judiciary Committee, in a hearing on immigration. Here's his opening statement.

On the Bright Side
If you need a little pick-me-up, some kind of positive note about your life for this week, remember this: at least you're not Woody Allen.

WA: Human existence is a brutal experience to me…it’s a brutal, meaningless experience—an agonizing, meaningless experience with some oases, delight, some charm and peace, but these are just small oases. Overall, it is a brutal, brutal, terrible experience, and so it’s what can you do to alleviate the agony of the human condition, the human predicament? That is what interests me the most. I continue to make the films because the problem obsesses me all the time and it’s consistently on my mind and I’m consistently trying to alleviate the problem, and I think by making films as frequently as I do I get a chance to vent the problems. There is some relief. I have said this before in a facetious way, but it is not so facetious: I am a whiner. I do get a certain amount of solace from whining.

RL: Are you saying the humor in your films is a relief for you? Or are you sort of saying to the audience, “Here is an oasis, a couple of laughs”?

WA: I think what I’m saying is that I’m really impotent against the overwhelming bleakness of the universe and that the only thing I can do is my little gift and do it the best I can, and that is about the best I can do, which is cold comfort.

RL: In Everyone Says I Love You, the character you play gets divorced, and as he and his former wife review their relationship near the end of the film, she says, “You could always make me laugh,” and your character asks very sincerely, “Why is that important?” Do you think what you do is important?

WA: No, not so much.

High Fructose Corn Syrup
Not like other sweeteners (my emph):

A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors contributing to obesity trends in the United States.

"Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true...When rats are drinking high-fructose corn syrup at levels well below those in soda pop, they're becoming obese -- every single one, across the board. Even when rats are fed a high-fat diet, you don't see this; they don't all gain extra weight."

Patriotism
Harry Potter-style

I am indebted to the British welfare state; the very one that Mr Cameron would like to replace with charity handouts. When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major’s Government, was there to break the fall. I cannot help feeling, therefore, that it would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque. This, if you like, is my notion of patriotism.

That's author JK Rowling on why she stays in Britain even though she could move elsewhere and pay a much lower tax rate.

Could this be a key difference between liberals and conservatives? Liberals can imagine themselves in trouble and needing help; conservatives can imagine themselves on easy street and not wanting to be bothered.

Who Knew?
That Victoria Jackson wasn't just playing dumb on Saturday Night Live?

Thank You Justice Stevens
I'm sure he would prefer to be known for better things, but I will always remember him for being a sane voice in the middle of the most insane, damaging action the Court ever took in his tenure. From his dissent in Bush v. Gore:

Time will one day heal the wound to that confidence that will be inflicted by today’s decision. One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.

I respectfully dissent.

Thank you for being my voice, Justice Stevens!

Horrifying
New Orleans police officer tells what happened when cops got word one of their colleagues had taken fire in the wake of Hurrican Katrina. The Times-Picayune, which may have become the best local paper in America after its courageous post-Katrina coverage, has more.

iPad FAQs
from reviewer David Pogue:

It always surprises me how many people are made indignant by the very thought of the iPad, as though Congress passed a law that requires you to buy one!

You’re not, as it turns out. Buying one is totally optional.

That said, the question is a little odd, because the iPad really is very different from a laptop or an iPhone. I guess people have a lot of trouble with the idea that it’s a new category, something unlike anything they’ve used before. All people can do is compare it in their heads with stuff they HAVE used before.

But I’m telling you, the multitouch screen/software makes it very, very different from a laptop, and the screen size makes it very, very different from an iPhone. It’s something entirely new. So yes, if it appeals to you, you’d have to buy it in addition to your laptop or iPhone.

(Just one note of caution: If you have children in the house, don’t let them know there’s an iPad in the premises. I have three kids, 5, 10 and 12, and the competition for time with the iPad is like a daily World War III.)

Dear Mr. President
The Washington Post tracks a letter from Monroe, MI to the White House and back.

Wrapped in Plastic
This is pretty remarkable. In Washington, D.C. a new tax on plastic bags has had a much bigger impact than expected:

The District’s 5-cent bag tax, which started in January 2010, netted approximately $150,000 during its first month of enactment. According to the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue, only 3 million bags were issued in the month of January compared to 2009’s 22.5 million bags per month average, and it appears that the new law DC shoppers has been successful in altering shopping bag habits faster than was expected.

22 million down to 3 million in just one month? I have been reading about the success of little "nudges" like this in a book called, well, Nudge. Obviously we'd all like to think we'd do the right thing even without the incentive of a nickel. Would it work on me? I don't know. Currently my sadly immense plastic bag consumption can be attributed to 3 things:

1) I go to the grocery store all the time - every day in some stretches (I eat less, and more responsibly, when I don't buy a weeks' worth of food at a time) - and usually when I'm on the way home from somewhere else. So, I almost never remember to put my cloth bag in the car.

2) My newspaper subscription, which generates a bag, and sometimes two, every single day. They don't even bother trying to deliver it bagless anymore, even on perfectly clear sunny days. I love getting the paper every morning. Something about it just makes me feel good. But it's a pointless habit, right? That stuff is pretty much all online. I've been meaning to scale my subscription down to weekends, when I really have the time to read it through, and would still get the coupons and Sunday puzzles I put to good use. For some reason haven't made myself follow through yet.

3) Even though I don't remember my cloth bag often enough, I occasionally remember to put my stash of plastic in the car and take it to the recycling bin. Now that plastic bags can be recycled, it makes me feel (foolishly) less wasteful for using them in the first place.

Would a .05-cent/bag tax put me over the edge and make me call the newspaper and get better about remembering my cloth bags? I dunno. Would it help you? Or do you need help?

Good News Tuesday
1. It looks like insurance companies are backing away from a loophole which might have allowed them to ignore health reform's demand for an immediate end to denying coverage to children with pre-existing conditions. Of course, it will depend on taking their word for it, but they now claim they will "comply" with principles laid out in Secretary Sebelius' explanation (still to come) of the bill's meaning.

The bad news on that is - if I understand correctly - they can still charge elevated premiums for children with pre-existing conditions. Discrimination of that sort will end in 2014, but they have to offer some form of coverage to children in the meantime, according to the Secretary's reading of the bill.

2. It looks like we taxpayers will make somewhere in the neighborhood of an $8 billion gain following the temporary takeover of a significant portion of Citigroup. Stock purchased by the government at around $1.50 two years ago will be sold this week. The price currently hovers just over $4/share. More than a double is pretty good - I should have "rescued" Citi in my portfolio as well.

3. And last but not least, we are finally smashing subatomic particles. Apparently, particle physicists around the world are rejoicing. Their advanced degrees have not turned out to be worthless after all.

Health Care Reform Links
Here are video and transcript of the president's remarks at the signing ceremony this morning.

Today, I’m signing this reform bill into law on behalf of my mother, who argued with insurance companies even as she battled cancer in her final days.

I’m signing it for Ryan Smith, who’s here today. He runs a small business with five employees. He’s trying to do the right thing, paying half the cost of coverage for his workers. This bill will help him afford that coverage.

I’m signing it for 11-year-old Marcelas Owens, who’s also here. Marcelas lost his mom to an illness. And she didn’t have insurance and couldn’t afford the care that she needed. So in her memory he has told her story across America so that no other children have to go through what his family has experienced.

I’m signing it for Natoma Canfield. Natoma had to give up her health coverage after her rates were jacked up by more than 40 percent. She was terrified that an illness would mean she’d lose the house that her parents built, so she gave up her insurance. Now she’s lying in a hospital bed, as we speak, faced with just such an illness, praying that she can somehow afford to get well without insurance. Natoma’s family is here today because Natoma can’t be.

Rep. Gohmert (R-TX) is vying with Bachmann for craziest freak in the House. His new plan is to repeal the 17th Amendment to the US Constitution.

In case you missed it, here are the President's remarks Sunday evening after health care reform passed. Here is the video.

In his post-vote column, Paul Krugman rightly chides Newt Gingrich for his celebratory political predictions about health care reform. Newt's comparison of this bill to historic civil rights legislation was one of the more disgusting, telling, and honest statements anyone made in the entire debate. And, no, I don't believe Newt's attempt at a correction.

The Washington Post has a calculator up so you can see how reform impacts you personally. It's a bit overly simplistic but gets at the basics.

The House has prepared a handy timeline (pdf) of how the different elements of the bill will unfold, from now until 2018 when the excise tax is scheduled to go into effect.

49-40, Americans like the health care reform bill.