Steve Ersinghaus

Mary Glassman comes to some interesting conclusions:
Our town is not unique. Connecticut is more reliant on local property tax revenue to fund local education than any state in the nation. Our state contributes only 40 percent to our K-12 education, compared with other states such as Michigan, which contributes 78 percent. As a result, towns [...]

In a period of rest today, I took some time to read the Democratic and Republican Party platforms. Here’s a bit from the Democrats:
Open, Accountable, and Ethical Government
In Barack Obama’s Administration, we will open up the doors of democracy. We will use technology to make government more transparent, accountable, and inclusive. Rather than obstruct [...]

I keep hearing that the surge is working. It’s hard, but I have a trillion dollar argument against this. The battle is also economic, blasted to start against the Twin Towers.
Everything is linked.

From Michelle Goldberg
It was an appalling display. The only reason it was not widely described as such is that too many American pundits don’t even try to judge the truth, wisdom or reasonableness of the political rhetoric they are paid to pronounce upon. Instead, they imagine themselves as interpreters of a mythical mass of “average [...]

I’ve enjoyed my debate with Josh in the comment space of this post. Comment space isn’t the best place to keep things going so I’ve decided to pose a question to my friend. It’s basically become a question of epistemology: how is it that we can know something.
Here’s the poser from Josh
I also [...]

I disapprove of the current flavor of language (maybe we should call it a semantical ecology) that calls lying misrepresentation. Most “misrepresentation” is a form of cynical slanting, where a speaker or writer claims one thing knowing well enough that he or she is slanting. Dean Baker catches this:
Senator McCain claimed that Obama’s [...]

Susan Gibb sends along this report on principals and cupcakes. But I wonder about the reportage. There’s a huge hole in the middle:
The controversy began when Frank Carbino delivered the goodies to the school May 6, intending to bring them to his daughter’s class for her birthday. He said he got as far as [...]

Reportage from the Second Curcuit Court of Appeals is coming in on the Avery Doninger case, an item often in the post space here. This case is about relationships. These relationships should not be overcomplicated.
It calls for a rethinking by school administrators of their role in public discourse. It’s not about whether [...]

I get tough questions this semester, which is excellent and refreshing. I run off to find an answer or a solution, but when I figure it I can only give back a hint:
. . . if no better place,
Thank him who puts me loath to this revenge
On you who wrong me not for him [...]

Collective nouns for animals are interesting. For example, tigers ambush and rhinos bust things up, therefore, we have an ambush of tigers or a crash of rhinos. We have lots of bird feeders, thus we have drays of squirrels in the yard, dray referring the nests they build, although I’m not quite sure of the [...]

Since we’re on the subject of reality, here’s a way of putting it together. From Juan Cole:
I personally find the controversy about Iraq in Washington to be bizarre. Are they really arguing about whether the situation is improving? I mean, you have the Night of the Living Dead over there. People lack potable water, [...]

I’m an advocate of open borders. I’d like to see gates and walls come down and any plan to maintain and build structures along the US Mexico border cease. This is, of course, a position of hypothesis that asks: what would happen if border gates, walls, and barriers were removed? And why would a particular [...]

From Reuters
Students in England could be banned from wearing full-face Muslim veils for security or educational reasons under government guidelines to be published on Tuesday, officials said.
The guidance paper from the Department for Education and Skills (DFES) would leave it up to individual head teachers to decide what pupils should and should not be allowed [...]

In the United States we now have a concrete star chamber. It’s all about trust, right. The press, in mind, hasn’t done enough to inform and evaluate citizens about the language of 3929. If this can be said
SEC. 106. HABEAS CORPUS MATTERS.
(a) In General- Section 2241 of [...]

I’m throwing out S.3929 which can be found via search of Thomas. Citizens should read this sort of thing and learn how to read legislation, in my opinion. But we need better disentanglers. The bill is made for hypertext and is almost impossible to read on paper because links are literalized. No habeas corpus here.