Category Archives: Education

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Tolerance Canard

3 Comments

Thoughts on the religious intolerance of multicultural “progressive” secularism.

[Update a couple minutes later]

“Progressives” should worry about NPR’s urban provincialism:

If Schiller’s priority was to provide programming that “challenges and invigorates,” Williams would have appeared on NPR news show “All Things Considered” to explain. Instead, the only thing considered was the termination of his contract, he was canned, and Fox News wound up providing more airtime for Williams to thoroughly air his nuanced views.

It’s no wonder that Fox News fans now claim bragging rights as being more open minded. Censoring Williams has the added chilling effect of censoring every other person on NPR.

The irony is amazing.

Education, Humor, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Satire

Kos, Pwned

82 Comments

I’m capturing this history quiz here for posterity, before it scrolls off Twitter (not a permalink, which is why I’m doing it):

# #KosHistoryQuiz US const. establishes which 3 branches? (a) Exec, Judicial, Legislative (b) EPA, IRS, Sesame Street (c) Obama, Obama, Obama less than 10 seconds ago via web

# #KosHistoryQuiz who wrote the Marshall plan? (a) George Marshall (b) Penny Marshall (c) Josh Marshall (d) Marshall Law 5 minutes ago via web

# #KosHistoryQuiz Boston Tea Party was a protest against (a) taxes (b) tuition increases (c) insensitivity against the Founding Muslims 13 minutes ago via web

# #KosHistoryQuiz “1773” is (a) teabagger racist code (b) Chicago area code (c) L33t H4x0r code 24 minutes ago via web

# #KosHistoryQuiz how many lefty bloggers does it take to screw up a Palin-is-Stupid meme? (a) 1 (b) 1773 (c) how many do you got? 36 minutes ago via web

# #KosHistoryQuiz 1773 is (a) year (b) street address of Palin Derangement Clinic (c) Kos’ new nickname forever and ever 40 minutes ago via web

# #KosHistoryQuiz which party occurred in 1773? (a) Boston Tea Party (b) Boston Red Sox World Series party (c) Boston album release party about 1 hour ago via web

# #KosHistoryQuiz outline these Supreme Court decisions (1) Brown v. Board of Education (2) Plessy v Ferguson (3) Palin v Voices in Kos’ Head about 1 hour ago via web

# #KosHistoryQuiz which phrase is not is the constitution? (a) separation of chuch and state (b) right of privacy (c) ummm (d) potrzebie about 1 hour ago via web

# #KosHistoryQuiz what is the significance of 1773? (a) Boston Tea Party (b) year when GOP invented slavery (c) sales of Kos’ last book about 1 hour ago via web

# Bring a blue light and disinfectant. @DLoesch I’ll be on Parker/Spitzer tonight about 2 hours ago via web

# #tweetsfrom2009 Dear Lord, please give me more money than Suge Knight and a bigger package than Bret Favre about 2 hours ago via web

# MelissaTweets RT @TheSenator: For @pbsgwen, et al: http://tinyurl.com/2cw8fz2 #fail #eyeroll | LOL about 2 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by iowahawkblog and 3 others

# @jimgeraghty if all those swing district Dems lose, the ones left in DC will be some heretofore unknown level of super-concentrated idiocy. about 3 hours ago via web

# ridiculers of Sarah Palin’s “1773” reference respond http://t.co/YFMHcnT about 4 hours ago via Tweet Button

# MattOrtega @RevDrEBuzz @tahDeetz @iowahawkblog You people are fools. I wasn’t questioning the date of the original Tea Party. about 4 hours ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by iowahawkblog and 5 others

# @MattOrtega mmm hmm. And you can see 1776 from your house. about 4 hours ago via web

# @jtLOL Will the following students please report to remedial history class @pbsgwen @markos @mattortega about 4 hours ago via web

# @pbsgwen What kind of wallpaper did Palin choose for her rent-free apartment in you head? about 5 hours ago via web in reply to pbsgwen

# #KosHistoryQuiz sum year of the Boston Tea Party and # of US states. Divide by latest MSNBC Nielsen rating. (a) infinity (b) math is hard

For those who need a little background on how Markos “don’t know much about history,” Bryan Preston has a good summary and links. Of course, Kos is the guy who thinks that Turks are Arabs.

And I’ve never been as impressed with Gwen Ifill as my supposed intellectual betters expect me to be.

Education, Humor, Technology and Society

Pedagogy

50 Comments

An amusing XKCD.

That was the question I always had when people explained how wings worked and the Bernoulli Effect. The answer, of course, is that there are lots of ways to get lift, but that this is the most efficient one with the least drag. You can get lift from a barn door. Stick your hand out the window in a fast car, and you can get lift by just increasing the angle of attack, but the L/D is terrible. So when aerobatic planes are upside down, they have to keep nose up (down, from the pilot’s perspective) and up the thrust quite a bit to maintain altitude.

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Power Of Self Delusion

33 Comments

…by the left:

Guevara was a vicious, megalomaniacal sociopath who wanted to be the next Stalin or Mao. (Indeed, Stalin in his younger days was a figure very much like Guevara.) He overtly and clearly stated his desire to destroy America and to exterminate millions of Americans in the process.

Yet today he is considered to be a figure worthy of admiration by the far (20% most) left in America. Go to any college campus and you will see admiring posters and t-shirts. Even Robert Redford, one of the few leftists who actually spent tens of millions of dollars of his own money on charitable causes, made a hagiographic movie about Guevera.

The vast majority of leftists, however, know nothing about the real Guevera. All they know is the hagiography that came straight out the Cold War-era Soviet propaganda mill. Worse, they don’t even bother to question the hagiography at all. If you try to confront them about their mindless adoration, they will reflexively change the subject to some real or imagined evil of non-leftists somewhere in the world’s history. They are emotionally incapable of thinking about Guevera in anything but positive terms.

Gee, I think we’ve seen some of that recently, on this very blog.

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Academics Seduced

2 Comments

..by radical Islam.

I’m not sure that “seduced” is quite the right word. I agree with Instapundit:

Bending over for tyrants is a major aspect of today’s academic culture, even as the benders-over proclaim their own courage and independence, and demonstrate those by attacking those whom they need not fear, while fearing those whom they do not criticize.

Islamaphobes.