Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading.- Alice posts the full party spending numbers from May's election. And the story in fact looks to have been near-maximum spending by each of…
Education
Returns to education: from a sure thing to a trip to vegas
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Brigette 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…
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…
Chrissie Blatchford–Shoot the Nurses; Ask Questions, Later, Maybe, If it Suits My Agenda
After reading Chrissie Blatchy’s latest scrawlings, just when I think she can’t get any nastier or more insane, she does! It’s why, where I used to think that before I…