Students at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles suddenly got smarter. The law school has increased the grade point averages — retroactively — across the board to make graduates more attractive in a tough job market. Loyola is not alone in such grade revisionism.
Category: Academia
We have been following the continuing scandals and criminal indictments of Detroit leaders. Now, we can add Detroit School Board President, Otis Mathis. Mathis is accused of fondling himself during meetings with Superintendent Theresa Gueyser. He apologized for his conduct, promised to seek help, and then resigned. He is now seeking to rescind his resignation.
Continue reading “Praying Mathis: Detroit School Board President Asks to Retract Resignation After Scandal”
David Morales, 8, thought that he had put together a cool hat to honor American troops when his class was asked to make special hats for a meeting with another second-grade class from another school. Officials at Tiogue School in Coventry, Rhode Island, however, quickly banned the hat. The reason? He placed a few small plastic soldiers on the rim and the tiny soldiers had tiny guns . . . and the school has a zero tolerance for guns.
A London Museum has triggered a controversy when it displayed an iconic picture of Sir Winston Churchill on its exterior with his equally iconic cigar airbrushed away into history. The well-known photograph shows Churchill with the cigar firmly in his clenched teeth, but the visitors to the exhibit Churchill’s Britain At War Experience are greeted with a smoke-free version. I suppose Churchill himself would take it in good humor and simply repeat his prior observation that “once in a while you will stumble upon the truth but most of us manage to pick ourselves up and hurry along as if nothing had happened.”
It seems that losing one sock or shoe has been a problem for thousands of years. Diana Zardaryan ,of Armenia’s Institute of Archaeology has discovered the oldest known shoe — a leather 5,500 year-old shoe complete with laces and grass inserts.
Continue reading “Notice: Looking For 5,500 Left Shoe Believed Left in Cave Near Armenia”
Recently we saw how the lawsuit filed by former George Mason Clinical professor Kyndra Rotunda (wife of constitutional law professor Ron Rotunda) against George Mason Law School and Dean Daniel Polsby (left) was largely dismissed by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema. At the time, I expressed doubt that Rotunda would want to go forward to trial on the remaining state counts. Now, it appears that Rotunda has settled the lawsuit without any payment of money. The settlement involves unreported “equitable relief.”
Continue reading “George Mason Reportedly Settles Rotunda Harassment Lawsuit With No Payment of Damages”
Tourists are flocking to see a rather gruesome display in Florence, Italy. The Museum of the History of Science has re-opened after years of renovation with a display of two of Galileo’s fingers. These fingers have been added to a pre-existing finger and tooth from the astronomer. The museum has been renamed The Galileo Museum — fitting since he is an actual part of the collection.
Continue reading “Galileo Gives Finger to Florence”
President Obama’s graduation speech at Kalamazoo Central High School appears to have produced more hibernation than inspiration in one student. Take a look at the kid on the upper row.
Continue reading “Video: Kalamazoo Student Naps Through President’s Graduation Speech”
A 25-year study has been released with a finding that children raised in lesbian households are psychologically well-adjusted and have fewer behavioral problems than children of hetereosexual parents.
Continue reading “Heather Has Two Mommies and Fewer Problems: Study Finds Children of Lesbian Parents Have Fewer Emotional Problems”
We have an interesting case here in my backyard in Fairfax County, Virginia. A Fairfax County jury deliberated only 10 minutes before acquitting Sean Lanigan, 43, a popular schoolteacher and coach of aggravated sexual battery and abduction. The jury’s reaction and the paucity of evidence in the case has led some to question why prosecutors brought the case in the first place. They were back within 47 minutes to find him innocent on all charges.
Continue reading “Jury Votes to Acquit Fairfax Coach of Molestation in Ten Minutes”
The Los Angeles Unified School District school board has announced that all public school students will be taught about Arizona’s new immigration law. Members, however, appear to want the law taught as an example of an un-American and racist law. In a unanimous vote, the board has asked schools to incorporate the lesson as part of their civics classes. I agree with the board that this is an appropriate subject for discussion some classes, but (even as a critic of the law) I have serious concerns over teaching students that such a law is “Un-American.”
Continue reading “The Los Angeles Board Calls For Teaching Students About the Arizona Law — Denounced As “Un-American””
There is an interesting economics column in the Wall Street Journal on the similarities between the Greek meltdown and our own fiscal policies. I have long been a critic of the wild spending of both Congress and President Obama, including the recent proposal to simply pay for an over $200 million short-range missile program for Israel (here). This article discusses the possible disaster awaiting the United States as our leaders blissfully assume that a recovering economy will pay for their various programs and pet projects.
Continue reading “Are We Heading Into an Economic Meltdown?”
In a little reported story, scientists have made a breakthrough in the fight against Ebola — the often fatal “bleeding disease.” Thomas Geisbert of Boston University and a team of researchers have developed an experimental drug that appears to protect monkeys from the most lethal strain of Ebola.
Continue reading “Scientists Announced Breakthrough in Ebola Drug”
There was a time when we got things like the Beatles and Monty Python from our British cousins. The most recent import from England, however, is far less redeeming: vodka eyeballing. Upset that vodka shots took too long to be absorbed into their blood streams, British drinkers have discovered that pouring vodka directly into your eye socket results in a faster avenue to inebriation.
Continue reading “Coming to a College Campus Near You: Vodka Eyeballing”
Arizona Senatorial candidate and conservative commentator J.D. Hayworth may have some explaining to do to the “greatest generation” and his high school history professor. Hayworth has insisted that the United States never declared war on Germany in World War II — leading to this video. (I must say that with the Frog video on immigration (here), this Arizona election is becoming quite entertaining). As Thomas Jefferson said, “History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.”
Continue reading “Hooked on History: Hayworth Becomes The Latest Casualty of World War II”