Part one in a series. Listen to the victim, abused by the system The basis is racist, you know that we must face this In 1991 Pop Will Eat Itself produced one of the most damning comments on racism in society in the history of popular music. “Ich Bin Ein Auslander” was specifically aimed at anti-immigrant racism in Europe, but
Read moreHey, America: are your politicians stupid or do they just think you are? Check this new analysis of Thursday night’s “debate”: An analysis carried out by a language monitoring service said Friday that Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at a more than ninth-grade level and Sen. Joseph Biden spoke at a nearly eighth-grade level in Thursday night’s debate between the vice
Read moreI believe I recall Barack Obama quoting Otto Von Bismarck’s edict that “politics is the art of the possible,” and evidence of that optimism abounds everywhere I look in Denver today. The two words we seem to be hearing more than any others are “hope” and “change,” and we saw a wonderfully eloquent articulation of this enthusiasm last night in
Read moreIn case you’ve been off-planet, the dumpster fire that is Election Season 2008 is in full swing. While this can be entertaining if you’re cynical enough, it’s a process that can exert a warping effect on the perspectives of even the best among us. In times like these, it’s often helpful to turn to the wisdom of the ages. Today,
Read moreI’ve been following the New Yorker/Obama cartoon dustup that my colleague, JS O’Brien, wrote about earlier today. In addition to the official and media reactions that have littered our news channels, I’ve also been tracking the heated debates raging across Left Blogistan with a mix of bewilderment and anger. I certainly empathize with JS and his “Archie Bunker” analysis –
Read moreA few weeks ago we showed you a painting by Miro and posed the question: is this art? The consensus opinion seemed to be that sure, I guess it’s art, although I wouldn’t pay a penny for it. Today we look at digitally generated images and ask the same question. Specifically, have a look at Electric Sheep, my cool new
Read moreAs our friend Pat so eloquently noted yesterday, graduation season is upon us. Commencements hit full stride today up the road at CU, and I suppose at hundreds of other institutions across the country, as well. So S&R would like to take a moment and congratulate the Class of 2008. If you’ve read us much at all you know that
Read moreThe header on the story reads this way: CU’s Campus Press Fights for Independence. The subhead is equally on-point: A contentious faculty meeting points to independence for CU-Boulder’s student newspaper — but at what cost? But at that point the journalism train jumps the tracks, because the first couple grafs eschew any consideration of the alleged story itself in favor
Read moreEric Haas and our friends over at the Rockridge Institute have a great Monday Weekly Workgroup feature that I encourage everybody to investigate. Today the subject is homeschooling, and that’s obviously one that’s going to matter to a lot of folks here. Several of us at S&R either are or were educators and it’s a topic our readers have demonstrated
Read moreJoe Brewer and George Lakoff have published a new analysis that looks at the importance of “cognitive policy” – the process of constructing the assumptions that underlie actual material policy decisions. For instance: Conservative cognitive policy over many years has resulted in the following ideas being promulgated to the public: Successful wealthy people merit their success. Those who are not
Read more[An artist] should copy the masters and re-copy them, and after he has given every evidence of being a good copyist, he might then reasonably be allowed to do a radish, perhaps, from Nature. – Edgar Degas I went to see the “Inspiring Impressionism” exhibit yesterday at the Denver Art Museum and came away struck by how remarkably it addressed
Read moreThe University of Colorado Regents have issued a statement apparently aimed at people who, like me, have deep reservations about their appointment of a highly partisan global warming denying oil executive who’s less educated than 99% of the college presidents in America and who has a track record of attacking the very foundations of tenure and academic freedom to run
Read moreI’m worried about the University of Colorado, the school where I earned my doctorate. Last night, in one of the more controversial moves in some time, the CU Board of Regents elected Bruce Benson to be the university’s new president. The 6-3 vote fell along party lines and marked the first time in nearly 35 years that a president has
Read moreThe results of the most recent S&R poll are in. Readers were asked: What issue do you feel has not been adequately covered in the presidential debates thus far? 1: Civil liberties (26) 2: Green energy (15) 3: Media consolidation (11) Net neutrality (11) 5: Executive power (10) 6: Mercenary forces (9) Sibel Edmonds/corruption conspiracy (9) 8: Native American rights
Read moreIt was only a matter of time. John Edwards Drops Out of Presidential Race — Former Senator’s Campaign Adviser: ‘It Just Became Clear It Wasn’t Going to Happen’ Former Senator John Edwards, D-N.C., will drop out of the Democratic presidential race on Wednesday. “It just became clear it wasn’t going to happen,” a senior Edwards adviser tells ABC News’ Rick
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lullaby pit 