EDUCATION

"Defense Department schools offer valuable lessons, particularly in educating low-income, minority students. Their successful strategies deserve wider application... Each year, for instance, about 35% of the student population turns over. Half the students qualify for free and reduced lunches. And only 20% of the students' parents have more than a high school education. In spite of these challenges, the black and Hispanic students in Defense Department schools lead the nation in minority test scores. The successes aren't limited to minority students, either. On federal writing tests, eighth-graders rank second nationally. Studies by researchers at Vanderbilt University reveal that such success comes by holding students to high expectations. All students - not just top achievers - are required to take demanding courses. Other reasons for success include focused teacher training. About 25 years ago, Defense curriculum experts selected an effective writing program and stuck with it. Each teacher receives elaborate training in teaching that program".

Sowell: The idea of providing black students with "role models" is counterproductive because it insinuates the notion that you can be inspired only by people who look like you. How in the world did the Nisei generation of Japanese American children ever learn, when their fathers were mostly farmers and these children seldom, if ever, saw a Japanese American teacher, much less Japanese American engineers, scientists or other professionals in fields in which these children went on to excel?

Education and class stratification: "True, under market education, the wealthy would spend more money on their children's education. News flash: that's already the case. Today, however, both the poor and the rich are taxed to subsidize grossly inefficient, bureaucrat-heavy, and less-than-optimal schools, and today mostly the rich are able to pay double for private schools. (The rich are also better able to put pressure on their government schools to perform.) So the poor are forced to pay for schools that serve them poorly."

Daniel Pipes looked at the latest list of books published by the University of California Press. Every conceivable Leftist cause was covered but out of the 140 titles, not one was conservative. The UC is the new USSR.

Affirmative action advocates assume all ethnic groups can produce equal outcomes given equal opportunities, but they can't prove it. Thomas Sowell wades through the empirical evidence. "The reality...is very different. In fact, for a host of reasons, some of which we know and some of which we do not know, some of which spring from malign oppression and many of which do not, ethnic and racial groups behave differently, perform differently, learn differently, and exhibit greatly different talents and temperaments. That is not crude stereotyping; it is plain fact. Justice will not be done if this fact is denied or goes unrecognized. "

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ELSEWHERE

Even Loony Toohey has got the point of what the Bush administration COULD have done to prevent the 9/11 attacks -- nix. Michelle Malkin also points out that GWB is a victim of a Democrat "Catch 22".

Wow! GWB is getting real about Israel: "President Bush on Wednesday endorsed Israel's retention of part of the West Bank in any final peace settlement with the Palestinians.... Bush also ruled out Palestinian refugees ever returning to Israel". He is finally recognizing the difference between friends and enemies. Well done, Osama!

I am pleased to say that one of my articles has just come out in dead tree format -- my first for a while. It is in Society -- one of the major outlets for intellectual conservatism (vol. 41, no. 4). They let me have nine of their large pages to set out my account of what underlies the Left-Right divide. It's online to subscribers only but it is essentially a severe condensation of my monograph on the subject. There is less severe but still considerable condensation of the monograph here which includes coverage of the psychological research on the subject.

"Root cause" nonsense: "For the Democratic constituency-at least at its top, New York Times-reading, latt,-drinking, NPR-listening end-is largely composed of the "root causes" school of politics. These are people who consider it proof of intelligence to treat as axiomatic the proposition that the real cause of all social evils, from drunkenness to murder to obesity, lie not with the behavior of the drunks, the murderers, or obese people, but in poverty, ignorance, large corporations, and George W. Bush.... For such people, root-causeism is a natural corollary of their own self-conceit as smarter than those they disagree with. Does one deal with crime by putting criminals in jail? Perish the thought! One deals with the root causes of crime by eradicating poverty and injustice so that there will be no more criminals." A pity it's all a delusion!

"Animal rights zealots will do anything for attention, even if it means attacking a fundraiser for cancer research. The misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a front group for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is protesting the American Cancer Society's 'Cattle Barons' Ball' events. The western-themed galas have raised more than $20 million for cancer research over the past 30 years. But PCRM will do anything to advance its vegetarian-only, animal rights agenda -- even jeopardize the search for a cancer cure and endanger Americans' health."

Carnival of the Vanities is up again with lots of pretty pictures this time.

The wicked one says Iraq is a fiction -- a "made up" country.

Today's recipe is for some yummy curry puffs. See here.

For more postings, see GREENIE WATCH and POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH

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The Left have always wanted more spent on welfare and made "Fascism" a swear-word. President Bush deposed a brutal Fascist dictator and sponsored a big expansion of welfare. But instead of being admired by the Left, he is hated with a passion. What does that tell you about the Left? It tells you that they have no principles at all: That everything they have ever claimed to stand for is fake.

Three more examples of Leftist dishonesty: They blame the 9/11 attacks on "poverty" in the Islamic world. Yet most of the attackers were Saudis and Saudi Arabia is one of the world's richest countries! They also say that they oppose racism yet support "affirmative action" -- which judges people by the colour of their skin! They say that they care about "the poor" but how often do you hear them calling for the one thing that would bring about a worldwide economic boom in poor countries -- the USA and the EU abandoning their agricultural protectionism? Leftists obviously care more about conservative farmers than they do about the poor!

America is engaged in a titanic struggle with hate. The American Left hate America, much of Europe hates America and, most of all, the Islamic fundamentalists hate America. Fortunately America is -- in every sense -- the world's strongest country.

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