A Montgomery County Middle School teacher had a 13-year-old girl escorted from the classroom after she refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance in clear violation of federal law.
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Category: Academia
There is an interesting controversy that has erupted over a recent speech by Martin Kramer, a fellow at Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. Critics at Electronic Intifada denounced Kramer’s speech as a call for genocide when he called for the West to end support for Palestinian clinics and hospital for “pro-natal” care.
A Pennsylvania school is accused of a remarkably abusive intrusion into the lives of its students. Papers in Blake J Robbins v Lower Merion School District (PA) et al, state that the laptops given to high-school students were equipped with webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools’ administrators. The lawsuit claims that officials not only activated the surveillance capability but disciplined young Robbins for “improper behavior in his home.” The Vice Principal reportedly used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence.
While the Obama Administration and Congress continue to spend hundreds of billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan, legislators continue to dismantle our public services, parks, and educational programs due to budget shortfalls. In Utah, state Sen. Chris Buttars proposed one way of dealing with a budget shortfall: just eliminate the 12th grade. It is not clear why legislators have decided to keep public education at all. If we simply eliminate education, we can send children directly into military training or to work for foreign companies from countries that are expanding their research and educational budgets at the same rate of our decline.
Continue reading “Utah Legislator Proposes To Deal With Budget Shortfall By Eliminating The 12th Grade”
In a remarkable discovery with transformative implications for humans, researchers have discovered and detailed the process by which a protein serves as the switch for releasing cancer cells throughout a body from an original cancer site. The protein called disabled-2 (Dab2) is critical to many of the most common and deadly forms of cancer, including breast and colon cancer.
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The academic community is shocked by the news that not only were three faculty members murdered at the University of Alabama but that the suspect is a fellow academic. Amy Bishop, a biology professor, is facing murder charges in the shooting deaths of three faculty members and will be charged with the wounding of three other employees Friday.
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For those who are suspicious of the massive stimulus payments to states, they need look no further than the Polk County school district where officials announced that they would give away $350,000 of free iPod Nanos. After media coverage, the school has backed down from its not-so-stimulating plan.
Continue reading “Florida School Officials Scrap Plan Give Away $350,000 Worth of Free iPods”
For many, voting for your favorite lawyers is akin to voting for your favorite parasitic worm, but LawDragon has announced the roughly 3,000 lawyers who made the cut as National Finalists to the annual selection of the top 500 lawyers. I am thankful to have been nominated (here), but the greatest interest is who is also on the list and not on the list of finalists.
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No, this is not a story about Congress. A new program shows what scientists believe it would look like to approach a black hole. Now, you can experience the light show without the inconvenience of being crushed to the size of a pea by the gravity.
Continue reading “Welcome to the Black Hole”
This month, members of Congress have introduced an amendment to the Constitution to reverse a recent ruling by the Supreme Court to allow Congress to regulate corporation engaged in political speech. Constitutional reform is no simple task. However, if we are finally ready to amend the Constitution to achieve political reform, why not make some real changes to our system? The proposed amendment would do little but return us to the status quo before the decision in Citizens United which (in case you have a short memory) was hardly a period of celebrated good government. To paraphrase the Beatles’ song, if “you say you want a revolution,” this is not it but there is a way.
Before we can change the system, we have to change our attitude passivity and collectively declare “enough.” While our leaders control the political branches, they do not control the political process itself. That is controlled by the Constitution, which remains in control of the people, in our control. It is not too much speech or too much money that is draining the life from this Republic. It is a lack of faith in ourselves to force change without the approval or support of our leaders. If we are going to go through the constitutional amendment process, then let’s make it worth our while and achieve real political change in this country.
Below is today’s column on fundamental reforms that could change not just Congress but our political system. I discussed the column on this segment on National Public Radio.
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If you see these men on the streets, you are advised to be cautious and avoid eye contact Charles Gill and Ryan Knight, both 21, are felonious snowballers. The James Madison University students were arrested in Harrisburg when they threw a snowball at a city plow, which hopefully could handle the hits. The snowplow driver was aghast and called police. The men then threw snowballs at the officer’s unmarked vehicle. Of course, in Washington, our detectives go directly to the use of their handguns to warn snowballers, here.
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There is an interesting story out of England where a teacher is suing the school system for failing to take action after he made various complaints over Muslim students who direct anti-Christian language toward him and praised the 9-11 hijackers. Nicholas Kafouris, 52, is suing his former school for racial discrimination. It appears that things may be a bit tougher since the days of Mark Thackeray in East London in “To Sir With Love.”
A recent study raises an alarming concern over people blogging on other sites. Scientists at Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University College London have found that people can die from boredom. The logical conclusion is that regularly blogging at this site is not simply a social but medical necessity.
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For those of us who are Sir Ernest Shackleton groupies, this story is wonderful. Five crates of whisky and brandy belonging to Shackleton have been recovered from under the Antarctic ice after 100 years. Just for the record, as we wait to receive our estimated 30 inches of snow today, I am burying crates of my favorite wine under the house for the regulars of my blog to recover after my demise.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas appeared to take on President Obama this week in discussing the ruling in Citizens United — contradicting the President’s portrayal in the State of the Union. In my view, the President did overstate the holding (not unheard of in the halls of Congress), but I continue to despair over the increasing public role played by justices (here). In my view, Thomas should not be engaging in such a public debate and should allow these decisions to speak for themselves.
Continue reading “Clarence Thomas Defends Recent Ruling on Campaign Finance”