Some courses that are supposed to teach critical thinking amount to nothing more than severe criticism by professors of ideas they dislike. Students don’t learn how to think. Instead of learning to exercise careful judgment, they learn to mimic their professors’ opinions.
Second, critical thinking ought to mean thinking that reflects the Western rationalistic tradition. Unfortunately, that tradition is incommensurable with other prevalent academic orthodoxies, such as social constructivism, multiculturalism, and postmodernism. The philosopher John Searle has asserted that critical thinking is founded on epistemological assumptions that enable us to build a framework for determining whether a conclusion is legitimate or not. Those assumptions are basic and easy to understand, for example, that “reality exists independently of our representations of it” and that “knowledge is objective.”
17 March 2011
Should Holocaust Deniers Be Heard? | The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy
Emphasis mine:
11 March 2011
25 February 2011
CMA CGM offers cruises on giant containerships
The ONLY way to go. FYI the Euro trades at ~1.4:1.0 to the dollar.
Money quote: "They may not look like cruise ships from the outside, but CMA CGM, the world's third largest container shipping group, is offering cruises on board the largest vessels in its fleet, its 13,800 TEU containerships. It says that last year 690 people chose to experience "cruising another way" by traveling on a containership."
CMA CGM offers cruises on giant containerships
Money quote: "They may not look like cruise ships from the outside, but CMA CGM, the world's third largest container shipping group, is offering cruises on board the largest vessels in its fleet, its 13,800 TEU containerships. It says that last year 690 people chose to experience "cruising another way" by traveling on a containership."
CMA CGM offers cruises on giant containerships
25 January 2011
AP: Browner leaving as Obama energy adviser - USATODAY.com
Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
AP: Browner leaving as Obama energy adviser - USATODAY.com
Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
AP: Browner leaving as Obama energy adviser - USATODAY.com
13 January 2011
Across America, Latino Community Sighs With Relief : NPR
Safe to say that being Hispanic is the most important thing about this gal:
My eyes scanned the mobile papers. I held my breath. Finally, I saw it: Jared Loughner. Not a Ramirez, Gonzalez or Garcia.
Across America, Latino Community Sighs With Relief : NPR
I wasn't the only person on Saturday who rushed to her Android when news came of the Tucson shooting. I wasn't looking however to read about what had happened. My auntie had already filled me in — "Someone tried to murder una representante. People have been killed," she'd reported. What I wanted to know was the killer's surname.
My eyes scanned the mobile papers. I held my breath. Finally, I saw it: Jared Loughner. Not a Ramirez, Gonzalez or Garcia.
Across America, Latino Community Sighs With Relief : NPR
U.S. on the Way toward Losing AAA Credit Rating - By Kevin D. Williamson - The Corner - National Review Online
I todja so, I todja so. Hah hah hah, I todja so!
From the Wall Street Journal:
U.S. on the Way toward Losing AAA Credit Rating - By Kevin D. Williamson - The Corner - National Review Online
From the Wall Street Journal:
Moody’s said the U.S., Germany, France and the U.K. still have debt metrics, including the debt affordability, compatible with their triple-A ratings at Moody’s. But all four countries must bring the future costs arising from pension and healthcare subsidies under control if they “are to maintain long-term stability in their debt burden credit metrics,” Moody’s said in its regular triple-A Sovereign Monitor report.
Moody’s noted that measures were recommended by the U.S. National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, appointed by President Obama, to achieve a balanced primary budget by 2015, but that there was insufficient support to trigger consideration of those recommendations by the full Congress.
U.S. on the Way toward Losing AAA Credit Rating - By Kevin D. Williamson - The Corner - National Review Online
21 December 2010
Harry Potter Muslim Actress Beaten By Brother; Flees Home After Family Threatens to Kill Her For Dating Hindu Boy | The Gateway Pundit
And, as the Gateway Pundit so eloquently puts it: Look at this pig.
EXCEPT, there's TWO of 'em; therefore, look at these pigs.
Harry Potter Muslim Actress Beaten By Brother; Flees Home After Family Threatens to Kill Her For Dating Hindu Boy | The Gateway Pundit
EXCEPT, there's TWO of 'em; therefore, look at these pigs.
Harry Potter Muslim Actress Beaten By Brother; Flees Home After Family Threatens to Kill Her For Dating Hindu Boy | The Gateway Pundit
20 December 2010
Samuelson - Cheating Our Children (Again)
It is cheating with the passive connivance of the cheatees. Actions like bailing out the states & cities, the sanctity of social insecurity, etc, poll as being very popular among the young (18-35).
that said, there's no excuse, baby boomers
What states and localities can do about this is limited. Pension promises to existing employees are probably legally inviolate. Retiree health benefits are apparently less so and should be reduced or eliminated to limit incentives for early retirement. Even if politicians manage this arduous feat, past decisions will burden the future. Along with an unwillingness to curb Social Security and Medicare costs, America's leaders have created another way to cheat their children.
RealClearPolitics - Cheating Our Children (Again)
that said, there's no excuse, baby boomers
What states and localities can do about this is limited. Pension promises to existing employees are probably legally inviolate. Retiree health benefits are apparently less so and should be reduced or eliminated to limit incentives for early retirement. Even if politicians manage this arduous feat, past decisions will burden the future. Along with an unwillingness to curb Social Security and Medicare costs, America's leaders have created another way to cheat their children.
RealClearPolitics - Cheating Our Children (Again)
17 December 2010
16 December 2010
New Advice for Nuclear Strike - Don’t Flee, Get Inside - NYTimes.com
This isn't new. Once upon a time a government official got made the subject of a lot of PC & late-night humor for suggesting a variation of getting under cover.
Interesting fact from the article (emphasis mine):
Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck New York or another big city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don’t come out till officials say it’s safe
Interesting fact from the article (emphasis mine):
Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far.
Mao's Great Leap to Famine - NYTimes.com
Borrowing a quote from the Instapundit:
Mao's Great Leap to Famine - NYTimes.com
As I reminded my conservative blogger friends who were applauding the latter – 'When the communists show up to protest the Nazis, you’re supposed to pray for an asteroid, not pick a favourite.'
Mao's Great Leap to Famine - NYTimes.com
09 December 2010
Marginal Tax Rates, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
Marginal Tax Rates, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
A very good point from Arnold Kling.
And a related point frrom Greg Mankiw:
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/11/poverty-trap.html
Pay really close attention to the left-hand side of the chart, boysengurls, not that the trend goes DOWN between $19K and 39K.
A very good point from Arnold Kling.
And a related point frrom Greg Mankiw:
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/11/poverty-trap.html
Pay really close attention to the left-hand side of the chart, boysengurls, not that the trend goes DOWN between $19K and 39K.
09 November 2010
08 November 2010
Vote Coach Clayton Kendrick-Holmes!
Fort Schuyler's first perfect season.
Vote Coach Clayton Kendrick-Holmes!
Vote Coach Clayton Kendrick-Holmes!
02 November 2010
2200 miles across the pond: Prepare for a new American revolution - Telegraph
Hat tip: Chris Johnson
And this anger – again, contrary to the general understanding in Britain – is not new: it goes all the way back to the Bush presidency. It was widely known in Europe that the American Left hated George Bush (and even more, Dick Cheney) because of his military adventurism. What was less understood was that the Right disliked him almost as much for selling the pass over government spending, bailing out the banks, and failing to keep faith with the fundamental Republican principle of containing the power of central government.
A Warning to the Phants
Money shot:
I am Simon Jester » Blog Archive » A Warning
Either act like adults charged with the responsible management of this country, instead of drunken teenagers with mom’s credit card, or we will un-elect you at the first opportunity.
I am Simon Jester » Blog Archive » A Warning
25 October 2010
On being out, proud and conservative | Tammy Bruce | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Money shot:
On being out, proud and conservative | Tammy Bruce | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
Having made my point, I trust, I'll now slip out of my snark suit and share a little secret with you. The real story of bigotry and intolerance is the fact that it lives and thrives on the left. As a gay woman who spent most of her adult life pushing the cart for liberal causes with liberal friends in a liberal city, I found that sexism, racism and homophobia are staples in the liberal world. The huge irony is liberals spend every ounce of energy promoting the notion that they are the banner carriers of individualism and personal freedom, yet the hammer comes down on anyone who dares not to conform to, or who dissents even in part from, the liberal agenda.
On being out, proud and conservative | Tammy Bruce | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
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