In this month of Harry Potter (the latest movie and the last book both debut in July), a short article in Time caught my eye. In it, the Harry Potter series is described as “radical” (compared to Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia) because there is no religion mentioned: “If […]
Another partisan battle. The House and Senate Judiciary Committees sent subpoenas to the White House, asking for documents related to the U. S. attorney firings last year. Like many presidents before him, Bush is citing “executive privilege.”
This is not going to be a rant about that, however. This is a post to share some information […]
I’ll start out by stating my bias: I’m not a fan of on-line university education. Although I’ve never taken a course on-line, I’ve written and taught on-line graduate courses. I’ll admit that as a doctoral student I did it for the experience (something to put on my c. v.) and for the money. I taught […]
OK, nothing about politics or religion from me today. I like to write about whatever strikes me, and this week it was an article on CNN.com about different parenting styles. (This also fits neatly with Father’s Day, so there you go.)
The article basically says that fathers and mothers parent differently. Big surprise. Anyone who has […]
The controversial No Child Left Behind Act has been around for five years now and is up for renewal. States have been charged with ensuring students’ math and reading proficiencies as measured by standardized tests; schools can be sanctioned for not meeting the goal.
Results are mixed. For instance, in Mississippi, 89% of fourth graders […]
There’s something I’ve wondered about on and off for a while, but Brian’s line in Burden of Proof got me thinking of it again:
“If you count “spiritual” it encompasses about 70% of all scientists.”
I used to assume that “spiritual” meant “religious,” but then I got out into the great big world and people weren’t […]
A recent issue of time magazine has an excerpt from Al Gore’s new book, “The Assault on Reason.” Judging by the excerpt, Gore has many thought-provoking things to say.
Look, I know it’s Al Gore…the vice-presidency, the run for president, “An Inconvenient Truth.” It seems people either like him or not, believe him or not…but […]
A recent Time magazine article examines the convictions of Mitt Romney; an accompanying article studies the challenges he might face as a Mormon seeking the Republican nomination for president. A major questions posed is, “Is he going to face prejudice since he’s a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?”
During […]
Very recently, the major Catholic and Protestant parties combined and created a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland. Although still tied to London for major policies,
“The parties will share responsibility for the ministries with the DUP [Protestant Democratic Unionist Party] running the finance, economy, environment and culture portfolios and Sinn Fein taking on education, regional development […]
This isn’t about current events….more like ancient events, really. I just stumbled across something interesting when I was reading; it made me think, so I thought I’d share it.
I’ve been reading “Cross Bones,” by Kathy Reichs; the protagonist is a forensic anthropologist. She was studying some very old bones, and a reference was made to […]
