This Cox and Forkum cartoon is going to be on CNN's investigative show "God's Warriors" on Tuesday, Aug. 21, at 9pm EST. It seems it'll be part of a piece about critical reactions to Carter's book, "Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid."
Check it out. It's good, as always.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Multiculturalism and Education - A Bad Mix
Here's a nice piece on Capitalism Magazine's site on multiculturalism and its effect on education. I experience this at least once a week when speaking with my kids about what they learned.
A quote to whet the appetite:
What these textbooks reveal is a concerted effort to portray the most backward, impoverished and murderous cultures as advanced, prosperous and life-enhancing. Multiculturalism's goal is not to teach about other cultures, but to promote--by means of distortions and half-truths--the notion that non-Western cultures are as good as, if not better than, Western culture. Far from "broadening" the curriculum, what multiculturalism seeks is to diminish the value of Western culture in the minds of students. But, given all the facts, the objective superiority of Western culture is apparent, so multiculturalists must artificially elevate other cultures and depreciate the West.
If students were to learn the truth of the hardscrabble life of primitive farming in, say, India, they would recognize that subsistence living is far inferior to life on any mechanized farm in Kansas, which demands so little manpower, yet yields so much. An informed, rational student would not swallow the "politically correct" conclusions he is fed by multiculturalism. If he were given the actual facts, he could recognize that where men are politically free, as in the West, they can prosper economically; that science and technology are superior to superstition; that man's life is far longer, happier and safer in the West today than in any other culture in history.
The ideals, achievements and history of Western culture in general--and of America in particular--are therefore purposely given short-shrift by multiculturalism. That the Industrial Revolution and the Information Age were born and flourished in Western nations; that the preponderance of Nobel prizes in science have been awarded to people in the West--such facts, if they are noted, are passed over with little elaboration.
Again, I experience this weekly (most weeks, anyways), and so have my own evidence to back this up. I spend at least a few hours undoing some of this stuff. It's worse at public schools, but private schools certainly aren't perfect.
A quote to whet the appetite:
What these textbooks reveal is a concerted effort to portray the most backward, impoverished and murderous cultures as advanced, prosperous and life-enhancing. Multiculturalism's goal is not to teach about other cultures, but to promote--by means of distortions and half-truths--the notion that non-Western cultures are as good as, if not better than, Western culture. Far from "broadening" the curriculum, what multiculturalism seeks is to diminish the value of Western culture in the minds of students. But, given all the facts, the objective superiority of Western culture is apparent, so multiculturalists must artificially elevate other cultures and depreciate the West.
If students were to learn the truth of the hardscrabble life of primitive farming in, say, India, they would recognize that subsistence living is far inferior to life on any mechanized farm in Kansas, which demands so little manpower, yet yields so much. An informed, rational student would not swallow the "politically correct" conclusions he is fed by multiculturalism. If he were given the actual facts, he could recognize that where men are politically free, as in the West, they can prosper economically; that science and technology are superior to superstition; that man's life is far longer, happier and safer in the West today than in any other culture in history.
The ideals, achievements and history of Western culture in general--and of America in particular--are therefore purposely given short-shrift by multiculturalism. That the Industrial Revolution and the Information Age were born and flourished in Western nations; that the preponderance of Nobel prizes in science have been awarded to people in the West--such facts, if they are noted, are passed over with little elaboration.
Again, I experience this weekly (most weeks, anyways), and so have my own evidence to back this up. I spend at least a few hours undoing some of this stuff. It's worse at public schools, but private schools certainly aren't perfect.
Digg Report
Digg Report: Today's #1 Digg, at 3909 Diggs, is a link to a fake photo of what Steve Jobs's grave may look like one day. I suppose it's cute in a highly morbid sort of way, but of course, not of any importance whatsoever.
Racism on the Rise in Putin's Russia
I know from my wife (a former Soviet) that Russia has always been a racist nation. It seems, though, like it's getting worse. This post on La Russophobe brings the point home. Note that racism and nationalism are both collectivist ideas, and they tend to go hand-in-hand. And so, it should be no surprise that as nationalism is on the rise in Russia, so too is racism.
A quick quote:
Russia for the Russians. It's a phrase that I hear more and more often. One of my friends - as white as the Russian snow - was punched out for speaking English in Moscow. My wife and I were physically threatened by a group of skinheads on the metro who drunkenly told us "Yankees go home." The fact that Canada is a separate state was lost on him, so we got off at the next station even though it was nowhere near from our destination.
The Moscow police, Tolessa told me, were open admirers of the "Russia for the Russians" crowd. When an African student who was attacked called for help, the police would just as often join the beating as stop it. It wasn't just Africans. Anyone from the former Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia was liable to be targeted as chorniyy, or "black."
Read the whole thing.
A quick quote:
Russia for the Russians. It's a phrase that I hear more and more often. One of my friends - as white as the Russian snow - was punched out for speaking English in Moscow. My wife and I were physically threatened by a group of skinheads on the metro who drunkenly told us "Yankees go home." The fact that Canada is a separate state was lost on him, so we got off at the next station even though it was nowhere near from our destination.
The Moscow police, Tolessa told me, were open admirers of the "Russia for the Russians" crowd. When an African student who was attacked called for help, the police would just as often join the beating as stop it. It wasn't just Africans. Anyone from the former Soviet republics of the Caucasus and Central Asia was liable to be targeted as chorniyy, or "black."
Read the whole thing.
Ahmadinejad Invited to Visit Iraq - Yes. the Iraq He's Destabilizing
I now officially feel like I'm living in Alice in Wonderland. The Iraqi government has invited Iranian President Imajihadi (or whatever his name is) for a visit. This makes me doubt the Iraqi government even more, and makes the war even more painful to endure. It also makes me wonder if there's direct collusion between the Shiite elements of the Iraqi government and Imajihadi.
Rather than handling Iraq like Japan and Germany, we've now turned Iraq into a potential Iranian ally. Our leader's pathetic and inexcusable misunderstanding of "democracy," thinking that a vote is the same thing as freedom, is a large part of why this is happening. The rest is pure altruism, thinking that our goal in Iraq was ever or should ever have been to build a better world for the Iraqi people.
I'm now leaning in the direction of thinking the "war" is truly hopeless, because the best we'll be able to come up with is another stable Islamic dictatorship. Even carving out the Kurds and letting them setup a secular state wouldn't work, because Turkey would be all over that.
And before anyone blames Bush and his administration alone, let's not forget that it's the entire US government that plays by the same altruistic rules. Very few polititions were prepared to fight the kind of war we needed to fight, which was to root out the Baa'thist factions immediately, and more important force Syria and Iran to stay out of it. Our rules of engagement should have been like in any other war--shoot the enemy on sight, and bomb strategic and tactical targets with full knowledge that collateral damage was possible. Far fewer Iraqis would be dead today if we'd finished this as we should have years ago.
End of rant. I think I'll go empty my stomach now.
Rather than handling Iraq like Japan and Germany, we've now turned Iraq into a potential Iranian ally. Our leader's pathetic and inexcusable misunderstanding of "democracy," thinking that a vote is the same thing as freedom, is a large part of why this is happening. The rest is pure altruism, thinking that our goal in Iraq was ever or should ever have been to build a better world for the Iraqi people.
I'm now leaning in the direction of thinking the "war" is truly hopeless, because the best we'll be able to come up with is another stable Islamic dictatorship. Even carving out the Kurds and letting them setup a secular state wouldn't work, because Turkey would be all over that.
And before anyone blames Bush and his administration alone, let's not forget that it's the entire US government that plays by the same altruistic rules. Very few polititions were prepared to fight the kind of war we needed to fight, which was to root out the Baa'thist factions immediately, and more important force Syria and Iran to stay out of it. Our rules of engagement should have been like in any other war--shoot the enemy on sight, and bomb strategic and tactical targets with full knowledge that collateral damage was possible. Far fewer Iraqis would be dead today if we'd finished this as we should have years ago.
End of rant. I think I'll go empty my stomach now.
Police Sniper Shoots Gun out of Man's Hand
I had to post this: Gizmodo has video of a police sniper shooting the gun out of a man's hand as he threatened to kill himself. Amazing stuff. If you watch any YouTube video today, this has got to be the one.
What I want to know is, why isn't this sniper in Iraq? I'm sure he'd come in handy over there, as well.
What I want to know is, why isn't this sniper in Iraq? I'm sure he'd come in handy over there, as well.
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