Paul Krugman has pointed out, here and here that the meme that most of the inequality we have been experiencing of late has much to do with differences in educational attainment is bogus. Mankiw responds in typical fashion by changing … Continu…
Continue readingTag: Education
Blast Furnace Canada Blog: Perry’s brain freeze
Last night, Rick Perry, the most bloodthirsty governor in American history (he has permitted 234 legal murders and counting) had a major big time brain freeze when asked what three agencies he would try to cut from the US government (presuming of cours…
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Student Protests
Thousands of students marched through London yesterday to protest cuts to public education spending and a significant increase in tuition fees. Here’s one of the organizers, Ben Beech, a 21-year-old architecture student, holding forth on the issue in an interview … Continue reading →
Dead Wild Roses: Noam Chomsky on OWS
This is all repost folks. The article from alter.net is long, but clearly written and provides a great deal of context as to what OWS is and what it needs to do to continue its success. Do you want to actually understand some of what OWS? is about? Make the time and read this article. […]
Hey, Andrea Mrozek! Why Don’t You Practice what You Preach?
No, not at that dreadful site, Prowoman Pro-fetus. Her other activity, as manager of research and Communications at the Institute of Stepford wifery. You, boys ‘n’ girls, perhaps know it as the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada. …
Continue readingLeDaro: Stephen Harper’s concept of education
Build more prisons. He must have heard that prisons are universities for criminals. If young people with minor insurrection are imprisoned for fair length of time they learn from the hardened criminals how to commit more crimes. Punishment and vindicti…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Federal Post-Secondary Education Act
Last month, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) released a document entitled Public Education for the Public Good: A National Vision for Canada’s Post-Secondary Education System. I found the document to be quite informative, filled with a lot of useful statistics. For example: -Enrolment is rising in colleges and universities across Canada. Since the late 1990s, full-time enrolment has […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On virtuous choices
Margaret Wente’s latest isn’t that far off of my criticism of most of her reactionary pablum. And the fact-checking of her column is entirely deserved. But she does manage to highlight an important choice, even if she rhetorically assumes exactly the w…
Continue readingTerahertz: Is Zero Tolerance the best response to bullying?
School bullying, especially bullying targeted against LGBTQQ children, is finally getting the attention it merits. Rick Mercer’s viral rant on teen suicides (see below) has been viewed nearly half a million times in a mere week. This morning on the radio, Mercer discussed the video with local indie rock station The Peak, and admitted he […]
Continue readingThe Sixth Estate: Government Appoints Anti-Government Economist to Government Research Council
Some while ago, I documented the Harper regime’s attempt to privatize the leading research granting institutions in Canada to private-sector control: namely, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Today I regret to observe that, according to the Canada Gazette, Jack […]
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Pile of Carp – RBE’s plan to close schools
It shouldn’t take a genius to figure out that kids are better off when they are able to walk or bike to school, and don’t have to get onto school/city buses each day. Sadly, there are few geniuses at the Regina Board of Education. They want to take away more schools, in growing neighbourhoods, so […]
Dead Wild Roses: Ignorance is Strength – A view through the looking glass of “Conservative christian Thought”
I promised myself I would not do this again, but it happened anyways *sigh*. I went back to Usneakydevilu’s blog and perused the articles there. Bad move, I’m guessing my SIWOTI gnome needs feeding and wanted the *full* buffet style treatment. I am aware of the nuclear grade delusion running front and centre there, but […]
Quebecor And RLQ’s Chou-Chou, Eric Duhaime Has Hit a New Low–Enough With The Canadian Arrogant Complacency!
Yes, that would be the same Eric Duhaime, the one who begged the feds, not once, but twice, to somehow intervene in the construction scandal woes in la Belle province, a problem that dates decades that needs systemic changes that not even the feds can touch. That same scandal that ol’ Chrissie Paradis . . . → Read More: Quebecor And RLQ’s Chou-Chou, Eric Duhaime Has Hit a New Low–Enough With The Canadian Arrogant Complacency!
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Patriarchy – Killing Women Near You
Patriarchy offers so many yummy selections of shit sandwich for women. Rape culture, sexism, inequality are hallmarks of the patriarchal construction of our society. The implicit nature of Western patriarchal norms have nothing on what is going on in cultures where said norms are firmly entrenched in the bedrock of society. Modern medical technology coupled […]
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: What he said: education bureaucrats version #nlpoli
The Telegram’s Brian Jones puts the new school board policy on dishonesty in the correct perspective: Behaviour is not separate from their beloved “academic outcomes” (curses on educational jargon; in former times, teachers simply and m…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Terror in Sarajevo? Islam in Bosnia & the Rejection of Extremism
It is not customary to begin a discussion about terrorism with a joke but, given the context, I think it appropriate. How else, after all, is one to deal with the idiocy of this recent attack on the US Embassy in Sarajevo? Mujo and Suljo are the two stock characters of Bosnian humour: a sort […]
Continue readingTrashy's World: Really? Seriously? Part 2…
… cuz I kinda like this theme. We’re pretty sure that our youngest has a nut allergy – at least to tree nuts, but since tree nut and peanut allergies often go hand in hand, we are keeping nuts of all types away from both of the young ‘uns. We’ll know for sure when he […]
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On decision points
Leftdog rightly points out that the Saskatchewan Party’s sudden, zero-consultation announcement about changing Saskatchewan’s school year looks to be nothing more than a distraction tactic. But let’s note why they would have felt the need to inject any…
Continue readingBrigette DePape, iconic images, and Occupy
While establishment journalists muck around in muddy waders searching for a clue about the Occupy movement, condescending in their attitudes because they do not understand, I look back on perhaps a bit of the genesis of our Canadian versions of Occupy.
Brigette DePape.
Like the Occupy movement itself, Brigette’s action . . . → Read More: Brigette DePape, iconic images, and Occupy
Continue readingBlast Furnace Canada Blog: Rick Mercer: "It gets better" isn’t enough
Frankly, Rick says it way better than most of us. The crap that leads 300 students in this country to commit suicide every year because they can’t stand the bullying over their being LGBT has got to stop.(Transcript here, thanks Rick …
Continue reading