Republic of Indian Stream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Republic of Indian Stream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The establishment of Indian Stream as an independent nation was, essentially, the result of the ambiguous boundary between the United States and Canada as defined in the Treaty of Paris. There were three possible interpretations of where "the northwesternmost head of the Connecticut River" might be. As a result, the area (in and around the three tributaries that fed into the head of the Connecticut River) was not definitively under the jurisdiction of either the United States or Canada.

"



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"Cabinet Battle #1," explained - Vox

"Cabinet Battle #1," explained - Vox: "But one of its iconic tunes — "Cabinet Battle #1" — depicts the argument over one of Hamilton's most significant legislative initiatives without really explaining its content. In part, that simply reflects the inherent limits of musical theater as a venue for policy analysis. But it's also the product of artistic choices that reflect Miranda's larger project. Hamilton is the most prominent element of an even larger ongoing historiographical revolution in the United States — and, given the show's emphasis on questions of legacy, self-consciously so.



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Terrorism in the Age of Trump -- NYMag

Terrorism in the Age of Trump -- NYMag: "The tea-party movement had initially fashioned itself as wildly anti-statist. Now its advocates have veered into wild authoritarianism. None of this requires intellectual justification in lizard-brain America, and Trump, for now, is the Lizard King.

"



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Republicans need to stand up to Trump’s bullying - The Washington Post

Republicans need to stand up to Trump’s bullying - The Washington Post:

These are not random errors. All of them appeal to the basest instincts in supporters; they reinforce fears and prejudices. All of them, Mr. Trump knows by now even if he did not know when he first stated them, are false, but he does not care. The amplification of the lies is accompanied by growing intolerance in his campaign, with Mr. Trump praising supporters for beating a protestor, crudely denigrating anyone who challenges him and penning reporters into designated zones so that they cannot speak with his followers. And all of this matches the brutality of his policies: mass deportation of longtime U.S. residents, torture of foreign detainees, expulsion even of refugees who are here legally .

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Tales of the Super Survivors - The New York Times

Tales of the Super Survivors - The New York Times: "There are some foreground factors, too, traits super survivors tend to have that enable them to come back stronger then ever. These people are often deluded in good ways about their own abilities, but completely realistic about their situations. That is to say, they have positive illusions about their own talents, and an optimist’s faith in their own abilities to control the future. But they have no illusions about the world around them. They accept what they have lost quickly. They see problems clearly. They work hard. Work is the reliable cure for sorrow.

"



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Why is English so weirdly different from other langu...

Why is English so weirdly different from other langu...: "But language tends not to do what we want it to. The die was cast: English had thousands of new words competing with native English words for the same things. One result was triplets allowing us to express ideas with varying degrees of formality. Help is English, aid is French, assist is Latin. Or, kingly is English, royal is French, regal is Latin – note how one imagines posture improving with each level: kingly sounds almost mocking, regal is straight-backed like a throne, royal is somewhere in the middle, a worthy but fallible monarch.

"



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Conversion via Twitter - The New Yorker

Conversion via Twitter - The New Yorker: "Fred Phelps died in March, 2014, at the age of eighty-four. Former members of the church told me that Fred had had a softening of heart at the end of his life and had been excommunicated. (The church denies these claims.) Zach Phelps-Roper, Megan’s younger brother, who left the church later that year, said that one of the precipitating events in Fred’s exclusion had been expressing kindness toward the Equality House. At a church meeting, Zach recalls, members discussed the episode: “He stepped out the front door of the church and looked at the Rainbow House, the Planting Peace organization, and looked over and said, ‘You’re good people.’ ” ♦

"



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I worked in a video store for 25 years. Here’s what I learned as my industry died. - Vox

I worked in a video store for 25 years. Here’s what I learned as my industry died. - Vox: "With online streaming, we don't decide — we settle. And when we aren't grabbed immediately, we move on. That means folks are less likely to engage with a film on a deep level; worse, it means people stop taking chances on challenging films. Unlike that DVD they paid for and brought home, a movie on Netflix will be watched only so long as it falls within the viewer's comfort zone. As that comfort zone expands, the desire to look outside of it contracts.

"



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The Suicide Clusters at Palo Alto High Schools - The Atlantic

The Suicide Clusters at Palo Alto High Schools - The Atlantic: "In the late 1990s, when she was an assistant professor in Yale’s psychiatry department, Suniya Luthar was doing research at an inner-city school in Connecticut. She wanted to know whether misbehavior correlated more with poverty or with a stage of adolescence. She needed a second school to use as a comparison. An undergraduate student she worked with had connections at a school in a Connecticut suburb that was more upscale, and Luthar got permission to distribute her surveys there. The results were not what she expected. In the inner-city school, 86 percent of students received free or reduced-price lunches; in the suburban school, 1 percent did. Yet in the richer school, the proportion of kids who smoked, drank, or used hard drugs was significantly higher—as was the rate of serious anxiety and depression. This anomaly started Luthar down a career-long track studying the vulnerabilities of students within what she calls “a culture of affluence.”"



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Isis: In a borderless world, the days when we could fight foreign wars and be safe at home may be long gone | Middle East | News | The Independent

Isis: In a borderless world, the days when we could fight foreign wars and be safe at home may be long gone | Middle East | News | The Independent: "What really manifested itself that year, I now believe, was a much more deeply held Arab conviction; that the very institutions that we in the West had built for these people 100 years ago were worthless, that the statehood which we had later awarded to artificial nations within equally artificial borders was meaningless. They were rejecting the whole construct that we had foisted upon them. That Egypt regressed back into military patriarchy – and the subsequent and utterly predictable Western acqiescence in this – after a brief period of elected Muslim Brotherhood government, does not change this equation. While the revolutions largely stayed within national boundaries – at least at the start – the borders began to lose their meaning.

"



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My white neighbor thought I was breaking into my own apartment. Nineteen cops showed up. - The Washington Post

My white neighbor thought I was breaking into my own apartment. Nineteen cops showed up. - The Washington Post: "I’m heartbroken that his careless assessment of me, based on skin color, could endanger my life. I’m heartbroken by the sense of terror I got from people whose job is supposedly to protect me. I’m heartbroken by a system that evades accountability and justifies dangerous behavior. I’m heartbroken that the place I called home no longer feels safe. I’m heartbroken that no matter how many times a story like this is told, it will happen again.

"



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Obama and Bill Simmons: The GQ Interview | GQ

Obama and Bill Simmons: The GQ Interview | GQ: "That military exercises we were doing in Texas were designed to begin martial law so that I could usurp the Constitution and stay in power longer. Anybody who thinks I could get away with telling Michelle I’m going to be president any longer than eight years does not know my wife.

"



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The Islamic State wants you to hate refugees - The Washington Post

The Islamic State wants you to hate refugees - The Washington Post: "The strategy is explicit. The Islamic State explained after the January attacks on Charlie Hebdo magazine that such attacks “compel the Crusaders to actively destroy the grayzone themselves. . . . Muslims in the West will quickly find themselves between one of two choices, they either apostatize . . . or they [emigrate] to the Islamic State and thereby escape persecution from the Crusader governments and citizens.” The group calculates that a small number of attackers can profoundly shift the way that European society views its 44 million Muslim members and, as a result, the way European Muslims view themselves. Through this provocation, it seeks to set conditions for an apocalyptic war with the West."



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Fearing Fear Itself - The New York Times

Fearing Fear Itself - The New York Times: "The point is not to minimize the horror. It is, instead, to emphasize that the biggest danger terrorism poses to our society comes not from the direct harm inflicted, but from the wrong-headed responses it can inspire. And it’s crucial to realize that there are multiple ways the response can go wrong.

"



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From_Ancient_Stars comments on My buddy had one of the best responses to the recent IsIS attacks I've seen so far. Please share. Vive Humanisme.

From_Ancient_Stars comments on My buddy had one of the best responses to the recent IsIS attacks I've seen so far. Please share. Vive Humanisme.:

If you believe that the attack on Paris - or any other terrorist act - justifies closing our borders to refugees, deporting Muslim or Arab Americans, or (and I can't believe I have to say this) using anything even remotely resembling the strategy of Internment we used against Japanese Americans during WWII....you're a coward.

Let me repeat that, so there can be no misunderstanding. YOU ARE A COWARD.

To imply or champion any of those ideas is to say that you are so scared of the potential harm that could befall you or yours, that you would rather allow children and innocents to suffer the worst indignities a human being can suffer. You are saying that you are so piss scared that you would see these people raped, maimed, tortured, and butchered by the thousands every single day, rather than take even an iota of risk.

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The media did cover attacks on *insert country here*. You just weren’t reading it. — Medium

The media did cover attacks on *insert country here*. You just weren’t reading it. — Medium: "“Why didn’t the media cover *insert country here*?” appears to actually be shorthand for “Why wasn’t this story shared extensively on my Facebook feed?”"



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Ruth Coker Burks, the cemetery angel | Cover Stories | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art

Ruth Coker Burks, the cemetery angel | Cover Stories | Arkansas news, politics, opinion, restaurants, music, movies and art:

Burks said she always made a last effort to reach out to families before she put the urns in the ground. "I tried every time," she said. "They hung up on me. They cussed me out. They prayed like I was a demon on the phone and they had to get me off — prayed while they were on the phone. Just crazy. Just ridiculous."

She learned to say the funerals herself, after being rebuffed by preachers and priests too many times. Even so, she said she never doubted what she was doing. "It never made me question my faith at all," she said. "I knew that what I was doing was right, and I knew that I was doing what God asked me. It wasn't a voice from the sky. I knew deep in my soul."

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Arsheun comments on The arrival of terrorists in Bataclan Theatre killing NSFW

Arsheun comments on The arrival of terrorists in Bataclan Theatre killing NSFW: "I was in the bataclan tonight. I went home an hour ago but I can't find sleep anyway. I don't got the full story, the situation quickly made that we didn't had any visibility on the terrorists objectives, the room, etc. I give my feelings, "my" version.
"



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Bibi And Barack: Scenes From A Failed Marriage - The Huffington Post

Bibi And Barack: Scenes From A Failed Marriage - The Huffington Post: "THE WORST RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A U.S. PRESIDENT AND AN ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EVER—AS AUTOPSIED BY THE PEOPLE CLOSEST TO THEM.
"



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vonadler comments on [Serious] I want to know what Swedes in general think about this.

vonadler comments on [Serious] I want to know what Swedes in general think about this.: "I'd much rather we continue to pay the bloody butcher's bill of weathering terrorist attacks and not give a shit, becase it is sometimes the price we have to pay for a free and secular society than take any kind of action agaisnt a religion.
When the son of a muslim immigrant shaves his beard, dons his smart suite, tightens his tie, takes his car to his job in the financial district, goes to mosque every other or third friday and worries more about what schools will give his kids the best education and grades than anything else, then we have won.
And it shall be a glorious, prosperous, free and absolutely anti-climatic victory."



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Words matter in ‘ISIS’ war, so use ‘Daesh’ - The Boston Globe

Words matter in ‘ISIS’ war, so use ‘Daesh’ - The Boston Globe: "The term “Daesh” is strategically a better choice because it is still accurate in that it spells out the acronym of the group’s full Arabic name, al-Dawla al-Islamiya fi al-Iraq wa al-Sham. Yet, at the same time, “Daesh” can also be understood as a play on words — and an insult. Depending on how it is conjugated in Arabic, it can mean anything from “to trample down and crush” to “a bigot who imposes his view on others.” Already, the group has reportedly threatened to cut out the tongues of anyone who uses the term.

"



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Peter Webb looks outward with 'Liminal Space' | Crib Notes | Creative Loafing Atlanta

Peter Webb looks outward with 'Liminal Space' | Crib Notes | Creative Loafing Atlanta: "Throughout Liminal Space,
songs such as "Spain," "Jared," and "Trees" are filled with spacious melodies, and a slow pace driven by Webb's subdued and strangely down-to-earth analysis of his relationship with the surrounding world."



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One Degree of Separation in the Forever War | Motherboard

One Degree of Separation in the Forever War | Motherboard: "This longest war in American history has created a warrior caste. Less than one percent of the US population, the “Other One Percent,” served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly half of those veterans completed two or more tours, and 51,000 of them, a Spartan-esque subculture than would barely fill Yankee stadium, have deployed six or more times. The Delta operator who fell in Iraq in October was on his fourteenth tour.

"



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One veteran’s view: How patriotic pageantry at sporting events lost its meaning - The Washington Post

One veteran’s view: How patriotic pageantry at sporting events lost its meaning - The Washington Post:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please take a moment to stand and honor our service members and veterans in tonight’s ‘Salute to the Troops.’”

I am a veteran. I served as an infantry officer in Iraq, and therefore I should appreciate these moments at professional sporting events. I did once, but not so much anymore. Neither do a surprising number of the men with whom I served. Don’t get us wrong. We do appreciate those who stand and sincerely applaud. And we are not embittered grumps, cursing into our beers. We enjoy the games with the most passionate of fans. But these moments, after a decade and a half of continuous war, have become rote and perfunctory, unintentionally trivializing what began with the best of intentions.

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DEAR READER: On a historic day for MU, protest against media wasn't most important | Local Columnists | columbiamissourian.com

DEAR READER: On a historic day for MU, protest against media wasn't most important | Local Columnists | columbiamissourian.com: "DEAR READER: On a historic day for MU, protest against media wasn't most important
"



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Mizzou, Yale and Free Speech - The New York Times

Mizzou, Yale and Free Speech - The New York Times: "The protesters at Mizzou and Yale and elsewhere make a legitimate point: Universities should work harder to make all students feel they are safe and belong. Members of minorities — whether black or transgender or (on many campuses) evangelical conservatives — should be able to feel a part of campus, not feel mocked in their own community.



 The problems at Mizzou were underscored on Tuesday when there were death threats against black students. What’s unfolding at universities is not just about free expression but also about a safe and nurturing environment."



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The Cook and the Chef: Musk's Secret Sauce - Wait But Why

The Cook and the Chef: Musk's Secret Sauce - Wait But Why: "But that’s not a great life model when it comes to brain software, and it usually leads to us making the same mistakes and living with the same results year after year after year, because our software remains unchanged. Eventually, we might wake up one day feeling like Breaking Bad’s Walter White, when he said, “Sometimes I feel like I never actually make any of my own… choices. I mean, my entire life it just seems I never… had a real say about any of it.” If we want to understand our own thinking, we have to stop being the dumb user of our own software and start being the pro—the auto mechanic, the electrician, the computer geek.

"



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France won’t dine with Iran unless wine is served - The Washington Post

France won’t dine with Iran unless wine is served - The Washington Post:

Ahead of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s landmark European trip kicking off this weekend, French officials reportedly nixed plans for a formal meal in Paris with President François Hollande following a dispute over the menu. The Iranians, according to France’s RTL Radio, insisted on a wine-free meal with halal meat — a request based on Islamic codes that amounted to culinary sacrilege in France, a nation that puts the secular ideals of the Republic above all else.

The French, RTL said, counter offered with a presumably alcohol-free breakfast — which the Iranians promptly rejected because it appeared too “cheap.” The two leaders will now reportedly settle for a face-to-face chat next Tuesday.

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The White House 3.0 — Medium

The White House 3.0 — Medium: "In traveling the country extensively, I’m convinced that Americans are tired of those feelings of helplessness, something they feel hearing the cynical partisan narratives. They want to be a part of the solution, rather than the problem, even if in very small ways, say a $5 gift, or a teacher volunteering to help educate her friends on an issue. They want to be a part of the solution, rather than a part of the problem. Americans need to see that change on some of America’s biggest challenges — be it climate change, educational improvements, or veterans support and transitions home, etc."



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npinguy comments on This painting just sold for $24,890,000.

npinguy comments on This painting just sold for $24,890,000.: "One very important thing to keep in mind is that paintings look VERY different in person than they do on the internet.
" [continues with poor language but great writing]



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Netanyahu Continues To Divide D.C. During Visit Designed To Mend Ties - BuzzFeed News

Netanyahu Continues To Divide D.C. During Visit Designed To Mend Ties - BuzzFeed News: "“I do believe that dialogue is important,” Axelrod said. “I obviously don’t agree with [Netanyahu] on a number of things, but we’re never going to resolve issues if we can’t talk about them. I think it’s a preposterous notion that he shouldn’t have been invited. I applaud them for doing it.”
"



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Six Problems with GOP Debate on Financial Reform - Roosevelt Institute

Six Problems with GOP Debate on Financial Reform - Roosevelt Institute: "Capital, unless you are demanding 100 percent equity, won’t solve this. There is always a risk of failure, and thus panic and contagion. As a result we need a process in place. We shouldn’t remove the one we have, which conservatives want to do, unless we have a better replacement ready to go, which conservatives don’t. We certainly shouldn’t pretend that the issue will simply go away with a higher this-or-that ratio.

"



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The Man Who Won And Lost "American Ninja Warrior" | VICE Sports

The Man Who Won And Lost "American Ninja Warrior" | VICE Sports: "What the show's announcers seemed to suggest, what the fans echoed and what Britten, himself, believes—is that if he can do it, in spite of his 60-70 hour work weeks and walking his daughter to the school bus each morning and only really training during family outings to the gym, then anyone can do anything. This is at the core of "American Ninja Warrior," the idea that these superheroes of grip strength and persistence walk among us like mortals, not quite aware of the awesome things they can do.

"



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Missouri football players refuse to play until university president is fired

Missouri football players refuse to play until university president is fired: "Dozens of black football players at the University of Missouri have had enough. After months of protests by activists went nowhere, around 30 football players vowed to strike until university President Tim Wolfe steps down or is fired for his inability to deal with a series of racist incidents on campus, reports the Maneater. The players took to Twitter on Saturday night to announce they will not participate in team activities, posting a photograph of the athletes linking arms with Jonathan Butler, who is on his sixth day of a hunger strike to call attention to the issue.

"



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How American parenting is killing the American marriage - Quartz

How American parenting is killing the American marriage - Quartz: "When people choose to have children, they play a lottery. Children have the same range of positive and negative characteristics as adults, and the personalities of some children are poorly matched with those of their parents. Nature has protected children against such a circumstance by endowing them with irresistible cuteness early on, and by ensuring that parents bond with children sufficiently strongly that our cave-dwelling ancestors didn’t push their offspring out in a snowbank when they misbehaved. Much as parents love their children and have their best interests at heart, however, they don’t always like them. That guy at the office who everyone thinks is a jerk was a kid once upon a time, and there’s a pretty good chance that his parents also noticed that he could be a jerk. They just weren’t allowed to say so.
"



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Reading should not carry a health warning – Frank Furedi – Aeon

Reading should not carry a health warning – Frank Furedi – Aeon: "The representation of mass reading as an ‘insidious contagion’ was often coupled with sightings of irrational destructive behaviour. The most alarming manifestation of the reading epidemic was its potential for triggering acts of self-harm, including suicide among the impressionable young. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) – a story of unrequited love leading to the act of self-destruction – was widely condemned for triggering a wave of copy-cat suicides on both sides of the Atlantic.

"



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Startup Playbook

Startup Playbook: "Be optimistic. Although it’s possible that there is a great pessimistic CEO somewhere out in the world, I haven’t met him or her yet. A belief that the future will be better, and that the company will play an important role in making the future better, is important for the CEO to have and to infect the rest of the company with. This is easy in theory and hard in the practical reality of short-term challenges. Don’t lose sight of the long-term vision, and trust that the day-to-day challenges will someday be forgotten and replaced by memories of the year-to-year progress.

A quick word about competitors: competitors are a startup ghost story. First-time founders think they are what kill 99% of startups. But 99% of startups die from suicide, not murder. Worry instead about all of your internal problems. If you fail, it will very likely be because you failed to make a great product and/or failed to make a great company.
"



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The Lure of Luxury | Boston Review

The Lure of Luxury | Boston Review: "The debate over the psychology and politics of non-utilitarian goods isn’t just about the whims of millionaires, then. Everyone has an appetite for non-utilitarian things; most people own things that they don’t really need. It is worth thinking about why.

"



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Taylor Swift’s GQ Cover Interview: Bad Blood, Kanye West, and Wildest Dreams | GQ

Taylor Swift’s GQ Cover Interview: Bad Blood, Kanye West, and Wildest Dreams | GQ: "“I used to watch Behind the Music every day,” she says. (Her favorite episode was the one about the Bangles.) “When other kids were watching normal shows, I’d watch Behind the Music. And I would see these bands that were doing so well, and I’d wonder what went wrong. I thought about this a lot. And what I established in my brain was that a lack of self-awareness was always the downfall. That was always the catalyst for the loss of relevance and the loss of ambition and the loss of great art. So self-awareness has been such a huge part of what I try to achieve on a daily basis. "



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How to Revitalize Young Conservatives: Don’t Pal Around with Fools | Christ and Pop Culture

How to Revitalize Young Conservatives: Don’t Pal Around with Fools | Christ and Pop Culture: "Of course I believe the conservative movement should be a big tent, but we all know that there are some positions that cannot be let in the tent. White nationalists, libertarian anarchists, overt dominionists, fascists — we have no problem excluding these groups, but more self-criticism and purging is necessary. There’s no reason why figures like Barton, Beck, and Boykin should be treated as valuable allies by a leader like Senator Cruz. Conservative politics has much to offer our country, but judgement needs to begin in our house.

"



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it’s my job to take college students seriously | Fredrik deBoer

it’s my job to take college students seriously | Fredrik deBoer: "One part of my life, the part that engages with the broader political conversation, is filled with well-meaning liberal and left people who say “oh, there’s no illiberal attitudes among college students — that’s all a conspiracy by the conservative media.” These people, generally, are not on campus. Meanwhile, my extensive connections in the academy, and my continuing friendships with many people who are involved in the world of campus organizing, report that this tendency is true — and often justify it, arguing that this illiberalism is in fact a necessary aspect of achieving social justice. It’s disorienting and frustrating to get arguments of denial in one part of my life and arguments of justification in another.

"



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Friend found this in an unopened shoe box at work. Shoes were made in Ethiopia. : pics

Friend found this in an unopened shoe box at work. Shoes were made in Ethiopia. : pics:

I work for an international NGO as my non-writing day job. A colleague told me of a factory she visited in India. Our organisation was working to improve the safety & quality of life for the children in the local community, many of whom worked in the factory.

When asked what they would like to change, one of the local girls said "Please help us get rid of the tennis balls." My colleague was confused - what did tennis balls have to do with anything?

Turns out the factory owners made the kids hold tennis balls under their chins. That way they couldn't look up from their work or talk to one another without the ball falling down and them getting beaten.

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Emoticons and emojis as evidence in court.

Emoticons and emojis as evidence in court.: "Courts are evaluating emoticons as evidence—but nobody really knows what they mean.

"



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This Is Why NFL Star Greg Hardy Was Arrested For Assaulting His Ex-Girlfriend

This Is Why NFL Star Greg Hardy Was Arrested For Assaulting His Ex-Girlfriend: "Unlike Ray Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens star who was filmed knocking his future wife unconscious in an elevator, Hardy hasn’t become a pariah. That’s partly because he’s more valuable on the field, but also because of the perception that nobody knows what really happened that night. Hardy won’t talk about it; Holder has gone quiet ever since, prosecutors say, she received a settlement, which contributed to the criminal case against him falling apart. And, crucially, no photos or videos ever came out. Police and prosecutorial records that detail what happened that night have largely been kept from the public—though not from the NFL."



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The House Freedom Caucus wants looser party control on the floor. This is what would happen if they got it. - The Washington Post

The House Freedom Caucus wants looser party control on the floor. This is what would happen if they got it. - The Washington Post: "The authors show that, from the 109th to 111th Congress, or between 2005 and 2010, House members proposed 7,250 amendments for consideration under structured rules. Of these, only one-third (or 2,440 amendments) actually reached the floor.

That’s a lot of demand. Allowing House members to introduce amendments freely  — and to have lengthy debates and votes, as the Senate does — would likely bring the House to a halt."



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Elder Bush Says His Son Was Served Badly by Aides - The New York Times

Elder Bush Says His Son Was Served Badly by Aides - The New York Times: "He was even harsher about Mr. Rumsfeld, who had been a rival of his since the 1970s, when both served in Gerald R. Ford’s administration. “I think he served the president badly,” Mr. Bush said. “I don’t like what he did, and I think it hurt the president having his iron-ass view of everything. I’ve never been that close to him anyway. There’s a lack of humility, a lack of seeing what the other guy thinks. He’s more kick ass and take names, take numbers. I think he paid a price for that.” He added, “Rumsfeld was an arrogant fellow and self-assured, swagger.”

"



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an assumed admixture | Fredrik deBoer

an assumed admixture | Fredrik deBoer: "Again, it’s my observation that elite types tend to raise their own children to believe that they control their own academic fates; they don’t accept the notion that their children will succeed or fail thanks mostly to the performance of schools and teachers but because of what the children do themselves. They tend to demand excellence in a way that directly undercuts the assumption that it’s teachers, not students, that determine performance. In other words, I’m willing to bet that a lot of professional political and policy commentators out there write like the parents from 2010, in the comic above, but parent their own children like the ones from 1960."



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Declaration of Conscience - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Declaration of Conscience - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Surely these are sufficient reasons to make it clear to the American people that it is time for a change and that a Republican victory is necessary to the security of this country. Surely it is clear that this nation will continue to suffer as long as it is governed by the present ineffective Democratic Administration.



Yet to displace it with a Republican regime embracing a philosophy that lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty would prove equally disastrous to this nation. The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I don't want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny -- Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear."



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Freshman Senator To His Colleagues: 'The People Despise Us All' : NPR

Freshman Senator To His Colleagues: 'The People Despise Us All' : NPR: ""Socrates said it was dishonorable to make the lesser argument appear the greater — or to take someone else's argument and distort it so that you don't have to engage their strongest points. Yet here, on this floor, we regularly devolve into bizarre partisan-politician speech. We hear robotic recitations of talking points."

"



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Sorry, kids, the 1st Amendment does protect 'hate speech' - LA Times

Sorry, kids, the 1st Amendment does protect 'hate speech' - LA Times: "Outside those situations, hate speech is protected by the 1st Amendment against abridgment by the government, including a state university. (As a private institution, Williams College isn’t bound by the 1st Amendment in the way the University of California is. But its policies on speech have nothing to do with “legally recognized hate speech.”)





“Haters gotta hate," the saying goes. But if they do, their words are protected by the Constitution -- whatever college students think."



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Free Speech Not Always 'Unwelcome' on Campus | Jane Swift

Free Speech Not Always 'Unwelcome' on Campus | Jane Swift: "This February, for the ninth year in a row, I will serve as a Distinguished Lecturer in Leadership Studies at Williams, teaching a seminar course called Political Leadership. As a former Republican Governor, my mere presence at Williams should be controversial, at least according to common wisdom. However, not once have I ever felt unwelcome on campus and have found the faculty and administration to be warm, open-minded individuals.



 Even more controversial should be my course, which is non-partisan but has brought some high profile conservative political operatives and media to the college, including--gasp!--a prominent Fox News anchor. However, the college has consistently paid not only my salary but also the travel expenses for these conservative personalities to speak their minds to portions of the student body."



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considerthesnail comments on This is how you deal with disrespectful students and gain their respect

considerthesnail comments on This is how you deal with disrespectful students and gain their respect: "This is a story about setting expectations. Goddammit, listen to me: If you treat someone like a dog, they will act like a dog. If you tell someone, outright or implicitly, that you think they're yet another ne'er-do-well young black gang-banging fool, they will be that. I refused to be anything but positive with Dante. It would be easy to say that he rose to my expectations, but I don't believe that. He rose to his own expectations; I just helped him realize what they were. I knew he could be better. Deep down, he knew he could be better. But he needed someone, for once, to say, "I see you. I see you in there. Come out."
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Microwave oven to blame for mystery signal that left astronomers stumped | Science | The Guardian

Microwave oven to blame for mystery signal that left astronomers stumped | Science | The Guardian: "The mystery behind radio signals that have baffled scientists at Australia’s most famous radio telescope for 17 years has finally been solved.

The signals’ source? A microwave oven in the kitchen at the Parkes observatory used by staff members to heat up their lunch."



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How Mergers Damage the Economy - The New York Times

How Mergers Damage the Economy - The New York Times: "The presence of a few dominant companies in an industry also makes it harder for entrepreneurs to start new businesses in that sector. The rate at which new businesses are created in the economy as a whole has been steadily falling since the 1970s, according to the Census Bureau. In 2013, the growth rate was 10.2 percent, down from 17.1 percent in 1977.

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