The Smallest Minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities. – Ayn Rand
Letting the Cat (farther) Out of the Bag
Fascinating headline in the Washington Post this morning:
Series of missteps by climate scientists threatens climate-change agenda
No mention in the piece of the revelation by University of East Anglia Climate Research Unit director Phil Jones’ revelation that there has been there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming in the last FIFTEEN YEARS, but that headline . . .
Science isn’t SUPPOSED TO HAVE an AGENDA.
But the media sure does.
If you have school-age children, you MUST READ THIS. Excerpt:
Some of the basic tenants of critical pedagogy are:
- ALL education is inherently political…
- A social and educational vision of justice and equality should be the foundation for all education
- Race, class, gender, sexuality, religion, and physical ability are important domains of oppression
- The purpose of education is the alleviation of oppression and human suffering
- Schools must not hurt students–good schools don’t blame students for their failures
- Good schools don’t judge the beliefs students have about their life’s experiences
- Part of the role of any educator involves becoming a researcher into social oppression
- Education must promote emancipatory change
Sixteen of the top educational schools in America are heavily influenced by Critical Pedagogy and are shaping the future leaders of our educational system. This belief system is now spreading out of the colleges into our K-12 systems and being promulgated by radical teachers as its ‘agents of change’. It’s a well-organized, widespread movement, firmly entrenched in many Universities and its advocates are actively seeking to spread it worldwide.
A quick Google on “critical pedagogy” brings up this link from the University of Denver School of Education. Among the “resources” listed, Rethinking Schools, the source of the article that inspired The George Orwell Daycare Center Überpost, and The Frankfurt School which I and reader Phil B. have had some things to say about.
My only quibble with the piece is that I think it’s been going on longer – and more “successfully” – than the author seems to believe.
The linked piece was published in December, part II is here. Read both. Understand what it is that’s going on in our public schools, and why.
RCOB™ all over again.
Thanks to Neo-neocon for the pointer.
Quote of the Day – American Dream Edition
Their (Tea Party supporter) values are pretty much mine. I live in a town in North Alabama where there are plenty of blacks driving Mercedes and living in big houses. Only in America can someone come from a little island and live the dream. I’ve liked it, and that’s what I want for my children. [But] I saw the window closing for my own kids.
— Les Phillip, candidate for Alabama’s fifth congressional district challenging Republican incumbent Parker Griffith, as reported in Glenn Reynolds’ WSJ piece, What I Saw at the Tea Party Convention
Now that I’m working again, I may have to send Mr. Phillip a campaign contribution.
More news from the “Global Warming” front:
Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995
By Jonathan Petre
Last updated at 5:12 PM on 14th February 2010* Data for vital ‘hockey stick graph’ has gone missing
* There has been no global warming since 1995
* Warming periods have happened before – but NOT due to man-made changesThe academic at the centre of the ‘Climategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information.
Colleagues say that the reason Professor Phil Jones has refused Freedom of Information requests is that he may have actually lost the relevant papers.
Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’.
The data is crucial to the famous ‘hockey stick graph’ used by climate change advocates to support the theory.
Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.
And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
PHIL. JONES. The center of the controversy since the CRU email release, JUST. ADMITTED. IT. ISN’T. REAL.
Read the whole thing.
Quote of the Day – Heavily Armed Edition
It’s very important to me that when they do my junk-on-the-bunk display, folks on internet gun forums will say “Okay, that is an arsenal.“
— Tam, commenting on her own post, If the pants fit, wet them about some guy getting arrested for having, as she put it, “fewer guns in total than I own, say, Mausers.”
Working on the Sidebar
You may note some changes on the sidebar. There are more to come. I intend to group the “Best Posts” into categories (already done in a few cases) but there’s much more to do. The blogroll has been updated. If yours is there, please make sure it works properly. If yours isn’t there, and you think it ought to be, please do email me. I’ve got some stuff to do today, and I probably won’t get back to this until tomorrow, but so far, so good.
I’m Going to the Range
And run a few rounds through the Power Tool™. I think I’ll go to the Tucson Rifle Club and use their 500 meter range, too.
I really like getting off early on Fridays! (Even though I worked 53 hours this week.)
Of course, true, hardcore Randians don’t really have friends….just other rugged individualists with whom they enter mutually-beneficial economic agreements. – “Anonymous” in comments over at Sipsey Street Irregulars
Get your mind out of the gutter. Via Sipsey Street Irregulars comes a very sharp analysis of Ayn Rand and her philosophy. It’s a bit longer than Dipnut’s from a few years back, but it goes into greater detail.
All the News That Fits the Agenda
I really get a kick out of Matt Drudge and his skill at arranging (and titling links). Example:
The authoritative New York Times tells us that all this cold and snow we’re getting may be the result of Global Warming! (Which even the high priests of Global Warming have admitted has been on a ten-year hiatus and they don’t know why: “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.” Kevin Trenberth from the East Anglia computer hack/leak.)
But the philosophy cannot be wrong!
However, there’s this interesting bit of continuing fallout concerning the “Paper of Record”:
UPDATE 3-New York Times ad outlook dim, shares fall
Print advertising declines to continue in first quarter
* Q4 adjusted EPS $0.44 vs $0.38 average analyst estimate
* Q4 revenue down 11.5 percent to $681.2 million
* Shares down almost 9 percent
NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters) – The New York Times Co (NYT.N) warned on Wednesday that print newspaper advertising will continue to decline, sending shares down nearly 9 percent, even as the company slashed costs to reach a higher-than-expected fourth-quarter profit.
The results, like that of other U.S. newspaper publishers, show that revenue declines are easing as the economy improves and advertisers are taking ginger steps back into the market. Even so, they are reducing what they spend on print media anyway, keeping newspapers’ long-term futures uncertain.
Obviously this is yet another of the myriad of problems we’re told that are caused or worsened by Anthropogenic Global Warming!