January 26, 2011 · 10:07 pm

Do We Really Need More College Grads?

This opinion piece by Matthew Biberman on AOL is really thought provoking and worth looking at…

Here are a couple of excerpts and a link, which I encourage you to use, to the full article:

 

First, the problem. The issue is not just that we need to hand out more college diplomas. What we need to do is produce an adult population that is more educated and more employable, and the troubling fact is that many students in college today come away from the experience without having learned much of anything.

In their new book “Academically Adrift,” researchers Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa have provided us with a sobering picture of higher education in America today. According to their findings, after two years of college, 45 percent of students fail to show any improvement in “critical thinking, complex reasoning” or “written analysis.”

All is not gloom and doom. Arum and Roksa then go on to note that the number of students showing no improvement drops to only 36 percent when the study was repeated with seniors.

I would suggest that we accept these numbers but then fashion a different lesson from them. The message we take away should not be that colleges are failing half of the students who are there.

 

The deeper truth is that many of these failing students simply should not be in college in the first place.

Why? Because they’ve been waived through high school. And now colleges — which really should turn these students away — are eagerly accepting them in order to bank their tuition dollars. Indeed, given the reality of the current recession, student enrollments at many American public institutions are now being capped not by entrance requirements but rather by fire marshals.

 

 

 

 

AND:

 

 

 

 

Why? Because college isn’t for everybody, and college doesn’t offer the training necessary to do everything. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17 million college graduates have jobs that don’t require a college education. (There are more than 100,000 janitors with at least a bachelor’s degree.)

At some point, students have to decide to do something, and the ethical thing to do here would be to make them cross this bridge before we saddle them with an insane amount of college tuition debt.

The point I am driving at is that real solutions will only materialize after we acknowledge that a large chunk of that 45 percent not learning at college should not be there.

Even more sadly, these students wouldn’t be wasting their time and money if their high schools had encouraged them to consider pursuing additional education outside of going the conventional, liberal arts college route.

But for that to happen, we need to change our approach to the problem.

Obama should have talked less in generalities and more in specifics. He should have told us that our high schools need to offer more vocational training and that these sorts of programs need to continue in community colleges.

If he can get a standing ovation for telling children at home that they need to help Uncle Sam and become a teacher, he could have mentioned a few other jobs that are just as rewarding. We need mechanics, and electricians, plumbers and builders too.

 

 

As I said, thought provoking…

MORE:  http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/26/opinion-do-we-really-need-more-college-graduates/

 

 

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January 26, 2011 · 9:30 pm

Is Evangelical Christianity Having a Great Gay Awakening?

My friend Renee sent me this and introduced me to Sojourner’s Magazine where this article appears.

I must say, it is making me revise my views about organized religion and admit there are some Christians who are not as judgmental, self righteous and self-absorbed as I thought…

Kind of a weird journey for this New Age Spiritual,agnostic, psuedo-Buddhist,  Jewish Wannabe, Gay Man who was raised in- and detests- the judgmental Southern Baptist Church and the Right Wing Political Evangelical’s message of hate….

I’m going to try to be more open-minded as I ask others to be…

It’s easy when Christians start saying some of the same things I do…

From Cathleen Falsani at Sojourners.com:

Some of my dearest friends are gay.

Most of my dearest friends are Christians.

And more than a few of my dearest friends are gay Christians.

As an evangelical, that last part is not something that, traditionally and culturally, I’m supposed to say out loud. For most of my life, I’ve been taught that it’s impossible to be both openly gay and authentically Christian.

When a number of my friends “came out” shortly after our graduation from Wheaton College in the early ’90s, first I panicked, and then I prayed.

What would Jesus do? I asked myself (and God).

According to biblical accounts, Jesus said very little, if anything, about homosexuality. But he spent loads of time talking, preaching, teaching and issuing commandments about love.

That was my answer: Love them. Unconditionally, without caveats or exceptions.

I wasn’t sure whether homosexuality actually was a sin. But I was certain I was commanded to love.

For 20 years, that answer was workable, if incomplete. Lately, though, it’s been nagging at me. Some of my gay friends are married, have children, and have been with their partners and spouses as long as I’ve been with my husband.

Loving them is easy. Finding clear theological answers to questions about homosexuality has been decidedly not so.

That’s why I’m grateful for a growing number of evangelical leaders who are bravely offering a different answer.

In his new book Fall to Grace: A Revolution of God, Self and Society, Jay Bakker, the son of Jim Bakker and the late Tammy Faye Messner, gives clear and compelling answers to my nagging questions.

Simply put, homosexuality is not a sin, says Bakker, 35, pastor of Revolution NYC, a Brooklyn evangelical congregation that meets in a bar.

Bakker, who is straight and divorced, crafts his argument using the same “clobber scriptures” (as he calls them) that are so often wielded to condemn homosexuals.

“The simple fact is that Old Testament references in Leviticus do treat homosexuality as a sin … a capital offense even,” Bakker writes. “But before you say, ‘I told you so,’ consider this: Eating shellfish, cutting your sideburns and getting tattoos were equally prohibited by ancient religious law.

“The truth is that the Bible endorses all sorts of attitudes and behaviors that we find unacceptable (and illegal) today and decries others that we recognize as no big deal.”

Leviticus prohibits interracial marriage, endorses slavery and forbids women to wear trousers. Deuteronomy calls for brides who are found not to be virgins to be stoned to death, and for adulterers to be summarily executed.

“The church has always been late,” Bakker told me in an interview this week. “We were late on slavery. We were late on civil rights. And now we’re late on this.”

More:  http://blog.sojo.net/2011/01/25/is-evangelical-christianity-having-a-great-gay-awakening/

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January 26, 2011 · 8:34 pm

Revisiting The Renaissance In ‘Harlem Is Nowhere’ : NPR

This sounds fascinating…

Also from NPR:

Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts has had Harlem on her mind since she was a high school student in Houston reading the work of Jean Toomer, Ann Petry, Zora Neale Hurston, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and others. In 2002, a recent Harvard graduate, she moved into an apartment without a kitchen on 130th near Lenox. Her first book, Harlem Is Nowhere, is a tender, improvisational memoir of several years spent exploring the myths of this capital of African America and the realities of its 21st-century incarnation.

Rhodes-Pitts spends hours in a branch library on 135th Street, reading of the beginnings of Harlem as a farm suburb settled in the 1880s, its transformation in 1905 when the black migrations from the South began to fill its borders, and the point in 1925 when Alain Locke defined Harlem as a physical center that “focuses a people,” and set the stage for the Harlem Renaissance. She goes on a walking tour with tourists, attends community meetings about rezoning and muses on African street vendors, empty lots, chalk messages scribbled on sidewalks and relics of times past, like James Van Der Zee’s formal Depression-era photographs and the overstuffed scrapbooks of the early 20th-century eccentric Alexander Gumby.

From an older woman named Ms. Minnie, who lives in her building, she learns how to be a caring neighbor. Ms. Minnie is from a black town in South Carolina and at one point confides that her maiden name was Sojourner. “She looked me squarely in the eye before continuing,” Rhodes-Pitts writes. “That’s not a slave name.”

The author borrows her title from Ralph Ellison’s essay about post World War II Harlem as a metaphoric space in which “the major energy of the imagination goes not into creating works of art, but to overcome the frustration of social discrimination.”

More:   Revisiting The Renaissance In ‘Harlem Is Nowhere’ : NPR.

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January 26, 2011 · 8:18 pm

Gypsy Rose Lee & Burlesque’s Allure

Fascinating article about Gypsy, the inspiration for “Gypsy, ” from NPR:

Gypsy Rose Lee was hitting vaudeville stages across the country when she was four years old. By fifteen, she was headlining as a burlesque performer.

Eventually, she became beloved by Eleanor Roosevelt, the New York literati and longshoremen alike. She was described, in that day, as the only woman in the world “with a public body and a private mind, both equally exciting.”

The legend of her life is the stuff of Broadway show and film, in “Gypsy.”

Her patter to the audience as the clothes came off was of sociology, ballet, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Puritans and Noel Coward.

“If Lady Gaga and Dorothy Parker had a secret love child it would have been Gypsy Rose Lee,” says Karen Abbott, author of the new book, American Rose – A Nation Laid Bare: The Life and Times of Gypsy Rose Lee. “The woman knew how to make a dramatic entrance. She would arrive at opening nights at the Met wearing a full length cape made entirely of orchids.”

But the reality of who Gypsy — born Louise Hovick — was can be as hard to get at, as tantalizing concealed, as the end of her dance.

“Gypsy Rose Lee was a brand before branding existed,” Abbott says. “And part of that brand was to laugh at herself. It was a bit of a self defense mechanism but it was also the way she connected with the audience and the idea that if she laughs first nobody else will be laughing at her.  And she wanted the audience to be just as culpable for watching her disrobing as she was for disrobing.”

via Gypsy Rose Lee & Burlesque’s Allure | WBUR and NPR – On Point with Tom Ashbrook.

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January 26, 2011 · 8:51 am

Raising False Alarms – NYTimes.com

Excerpt from a great column by Bob Herbert in the New York TImes…

I’m so tired of people beating up Social Security.  It’s definitely one government program that works well and it is not in crisis.

Irresponsible Congressmen and the Corporate Media want us to think it’s in trouble so they can move toward unnecessary benefit cuts and privatization.

Let me repeat:  Social Security is sound.  It is not in trouble.  What little concerns exist could be alleviated by increasing the taxable income cap for Social Security to over $106K.  Today, once your salary hits $106K, you don’t pay any more Social Security Tax, remove the cap and there is no more question of insolvency for Social Security.

I keep hoping the truth will win out and the GOP hypocrites move on to something else…

Mugging the nation’s grandparents by depriving them of some of their modest, hard-earned Social Security retirement benefits is hardly an answer to the nation’s ills. And, believe me, those benefits are modest. The average benefit is just $14,000 a year, which is less than the minimum wage would pay. With employer-provided pensions going the way of the typewriter and pay telephones, the income from Social Security is becoming more precious by the day.

“If we didn’t have Social Security, we’d have to invent it right now,” said Roger Hickey, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future. “It’s perfectly suited to the terrible times we’re going through. Hardly anyone has pensions anymore. People’s private savings have taken a huge hit, and home prices have been hit hard. So the private savings that so many seniors and soon-to-be seniors have counted on have just been wiped out.

“Social Security is still there, and it’s still paying out retirement benefits indexed to wages. It’s the one part of the retirement stool that is working.”

The deficit hawks and the right-wingers can scream all they want, but there is no Social Security crisis. There is a foreseeable problem with the program’s long-term financing, but it can be fixed with changes that do no harm to its elderly beneficiaries. One obvious step would be to raise the cap on payroll taxes so that wealthy earners shoulder a fairer share of the burden.

The alarmist rhetoric should cease. Americans have enough economic problems to worry about without being petrified that their Social Security benefits will be curtailed. A Gallup poll taken recently found that 90 percent of Americans ages 44 to 75 believed that the country was facing a retirement crisis. Nearly two-thirds were more fearful of depleting their assets than they were of dying. The fears about retirement are well placed — most Americans do not have enough to retire on. But there should be no reason to believe that Social Security is in jeopardy.

The folks who want to raise the retirement age and hack away at benefits for ordinary working Americans are inevitably those who have not the least worry about their own retirement. The haves so often get a perverse kick out of bullying the have-nots.

via Raising False Alarms – NYTimes.com.

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January 26, 2011 · 8:47 am

Bush White House improperly held political briefings

Is anyone really surprised?

Karl Rove ran the most political White House Operation ever…No differentiation between the Republican National Committee and the White House.  Like they never heard of the Hatch Act that is supposed to separate Governing from Campaigning….

A federal agency is reporting that officials in President George W. Bush’s White House improperly conducted political briefings on government property, and encouraged employees to get involved in campaigns, meaning that taxpayers footed the bill for political activity.

“As the 2006 election drew nearer, OPA (the White House Office of Political Affairs) became a partisan political organization,” reported the Office of Special Counsel, an advisory agency that reviews applications of the federal Hatch Act.

The Hatch Act forbids federal employees from engaging in election activity.

It should be noted that Bush’s Republican Party lost control of the House and Senate in the 2006 congressional elections.

Also worth nothing: President Obama eliminated his White House Office of Political Affairs last week, shifting its operations to the Democratic National Committee

via Bush White House improperly held political briefings, report says – The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency.

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January 25, 2011 · 7:16 pm

Hard Candy and Aggie Boys…

I’ve always loved the song “Hard Candy Christmas” from “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.

For some reason, it kept running through my head today, so I went to YouTube and found this excellent version.

I also found this…

If Hard Candy depresses you, the Aggie Boys should take the edge off and lift your spirits….

I somehow just don’t see any of these guys going to the above mentioned place of business…

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January 25, 2011 · 6:44 pm

Fox News’ $55 Million Presidential Donation | Media Matters for America

I’ve always thought this really should be either a Campaign Finance Law violation or they should at least declare it an “in kind” donation.

In addition to the millions of dollars they give in cash to the GOP.

Fair and Balanced?  Yeah, right….

Faux News….

Last year, five potential Republican presidential candidates (Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, John Bolton, and Rick Santorum) who also serve as Fox News contributors or hosts appeared on the network for more than 85 hours. Media Matters for America estimates this time to be worth approximately $54.7 million in free advertising.

Fox News Candidates Appeared On The Network For More Than 85 Hours In 2010. Media Matters calculated the amount of on-screen time each of the five potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates appeared on Fox News as contributors or hosts in 2010. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee appeared for a total of almost 48 hours. Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, appeared for close to 14 hours. Fox gave former House Speaker Newt Gingrich almost 12 hours. John Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under George W. Bush, and Rick Santorum, former Republican senator from Pennsylvania, each received around six hours.

More:   UPDATED REPORT: Fox News’ $55 Million Presidential Donation | Media Matters for America.

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January 25, 2011 · 6:33 pm

Martin Thielen: What’s the Least You Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?

Very interesting article from HuffingtonPost.com.

Click the link at the bottom for the full story…

When I first met Danny, he said, “Preacher, you need to know that I’m an atheist. I don’t believe the Bible. I don’t like organized religion. And I can’t stand self-righteous, judgmental Christians.”

I liked him right away!

In spite of Danny’s avowed atheism and my devout Christian beliefs, we became close friends. Over the next year Danny and I engaged in numerous conversations about faith. During that time Danny softened his stance on atheism. One day he announced with a laugh, “I’ve decided to upgrade from an atheist to an agnostic.” Several months later Danny said, “I’ve had an epiphany. I realize that I don’t reject Christianity. Instead, I reject the way that intolerant Christians package Christianity.” A few weeks after that conversation, Danny said, “Martin, you’ve just about convinced me on this religion stuff. So I want to know–what’s the least I can believe and still be a Christian?”

“What’s the least I can believe and still be a Christian?” What a great question! Danny’s provocative question prompted me to write a new book, using his question as the title. Part one of the book presents 10 things Christians don’t need to believe. In short, Christians don’t need to believe in closed-minded faith.

For example, Christians don’t need to believe that:

• God causes cancer, car wrecks and other catastrophes

• Good Christians don’t doubt

• True Christians can’t believe in evolution

• Woman can’t be preachers and must submit to men

• God cares about saving souls but not saving trees

• Bad people will be “left behind” and then fry in hell

• Jews won’t make it to heaven

• Everything in the Bible should be taken literally

• God loves straight people but not gay people

• It’s OK for Christians to be judgmental and obnoxious

More:   Martin Thielen: What’s the Least You Can Believe and Still Be a Christian?.

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January 24, 2011 · 8:45 pm

Financial Crisis Commission Finds Cause For Prosecution Of Wall Street

This could be getting interesting…

Time will tell…

From the HuffingtonPost.com

The bipartisan panel appointed by Congress to investigate the financial crisis has concluded that several financial industry figures appear to have broken the law and has referred multiple cases to state or federal authorities for potential prosecution, according to two sources directly involved in the deliberations.

The sources, who spoke on condition they not be named, declined to identify the people implicated or the names of their institutions. But they characterized the panel’s decision to make referrals to prosecutors as a significant escalation in the government’s response to the financial crisis. The panel plans to release its final report in Washington on Thursday morning.

In the three years since major lenders teetered on the brink of collapse, prompting huge taxpayer rescues and amplifying an already painful recession into the most punishing downturn since the Depression, public indignation has swelled while few people who played prominent roles in the crisis have faced legal consequences.

That may be about to change. According to the law that created the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the panel has a responsibility to refer for prosecution any evidence of lawbreaking. The offices that have received the referrals — the Justice Department, state attorneys general, and perhaps both — must now determine whether to prosecute cases and, if so, whether to pursue criminal or civil charges.

Though civil charges appear a more likely outcome should prosecution result, one source familiar with the panel’s deliberations said criminal charges should not be ruled out.

The commission’s decision to refer conduct for prosecution underscores the severity of the activities it has uncovered and plans to detail in its widely anticipated final report, the sources said.

via Financial Crisis Commission Finds Cause For Prosecution Of Wall Street.

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