This morning I stumbled upon (in the un-trademarked sense of the phrase) this article on Search Engine Watch, German State Bans Facebook Pages, Like Buttons. The German Independent Center for Privacy Protection has required local (German) websites/businesses to take down their Facebook pages and remove Facebook “like” buttons from their own websites. Why? ULD Commissioner Thilo Weichert for the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, said “the…
A Talent for Business, From Parables to Lemonade Stands
I was saying to our illustrious Web Content Editor the other day, “It’s sad that it took me until age 40 to give a shit about the way human life is organized and managed in ways I don’t control or consent to,” or something like that. Today I was scanning a chapter in a book by Stanley Aronowitz called Against Schooling: For an Education That…
Sunday Round-up: “NO!” to National Bloviators; Local Call to Stasi Collaborators
A few news items and editorial pieces in the HT drew the urge to comment and so instead of trying to sound the depths of one story or one topic culled from our local paper I thought I’d skate around and over several. 1. The HT has apparently decided to add “national” syndicated columnists to the Sunday paper. I think this started last week but…
Hoarding Cash While Sustaining Joblessness: Corporate Designs on Cheap Labor
Today’s HT (and yesterday’s, and the day before that…) set me off. Look: Unemployment rate up in Monroe County, state Fact check: Recession is culprit in high US debt Recession taking toll on US children This is only the tip of the “bad news” iceberg. Where to begin? Maybe let’s just look where there is money–where there is recovery, where there never was a “dip”…
School Reform is Redistribution, Isn’t it?
From the Huffington Post today, in an article titled “Superintendents Sound Off On School Reform at Harvard Conference“: In the eyes of Indiana State Superintendent Tony Bennett, America’s schools can only improve by taking on a number of different reforms simultaneously. Different parties to the education debate stress different measures — charter schools, voucher programs that use public money to fund private schools, looser union…
GOP Agenda Myths: Torts, and Schools, and Elections, Oh My!
In section E of today’s HT, the “Speed Read” section, which offers “capsules” of news-wire stories, printed this headline, “Most malpractice cases don’t pay.” You can’t read the whole AP piece in the paper or the HT online, but Salon.com offers it in full. “A lawyer would have to be an idiot to take a frivolous case to court,” said study co-author Amitabh Chandra, an economist…
Evaluating Valuation: Millions for Business and Games, Hundreds for Kids
I will give props where due even if what I’m giving props about is unintentional. In today’s HT on page A3 there are two stories headlined and their juxtaposition will tell you all you need to know about the human-scale of community care in Bloomington: 1. BHS North Band taking donations…; 2. IU looking at $19.8 million baseball/softball facility. Apparently it’s expensive to have a…
The Criminal State: A State of Criminality
Some Random thoughts today before I dive back into a longer piece about our constant and repetitive education “problems”. 1) Where does your “pet” organization stand on the Rights of Workers to organize and bargain collectively? I was wondering, seeing that Facebook offers so many opportunities to join “virtual groups,” how much these virtual memberships turn into any kind of “agency” in our communities. Any…
Jeb Bush’s Privatization Plan for Indiana Public Schools
This is a guest post by B-town Errant contributor, Doug Martin. This post was originally published on Mr. Martin’s blog on Fire Dog Lake, and has been republished on B-Town Errant with his permission. A few weeks after I criticized EdisonLearning’s invitation to Indiana, Supt this fall is only moderate, aging men show clinical signs of1 2 3 4 5 cialis online. other sexual disorders.performance, persistent erectile dysfunction should…
School Discipline: Spare the Rod, Spoil the Citizen?
(Update Below) Yesterday’s HT front page offered this reader instruction on the “hidden” ties among our cultural “institutions: schools (their management and measurement); police (authoritarian management of a population); and consumerism (school supplies). The first example was the direct message offered in Bethany Nolan’s headline piece–“Policing the Schools”–which detailed statistics of “bad” behavior in the Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) and the neighboring Richland-Bean…