I’ve long been concerned with what seems to be an intractable flaw in our national education system. The ambitious “No Child Left Behind” policies of the last decade have failed spectacularly. Where to we go from here?

Harlem may hold the answer. Read David Brooks’ column here.

I encourage everyone to visit “No on 8″ and contribute what you can to ensure that the hate-mongers on the right don’t win.

This article from the Washington Post sums it up nicely:

As Campaign Heats Up, Untruths Can Become Facts Before They’re Undone – washingtonpost.com via kwout

This is the theme we see over and over and over again. In the unholy alliance between the big two parties and their big media friends, politics have degraded into “he said/he said” juvenile bickering with no adult supervision. No one is being held to any standard of honesty or integrity. Fact has become nothing but a four letter word.

In my mind, this election is as much a referendum on the American electorate’s ability for rational analysis as it is a contest between McCain and Obama. I really hope that fact still have a place in our Democracy. Because once we give up on that, what do we have left?

It’s amazing to me that people seem willing to put up with the most atrocious abrogations of liberty (warrantless wiretapping, warrantless searches of their persons and belongings upon entering the country, Guantanamo Bay, elimination of Habeas Corpus, etc.), but break a cracker and they go fucking gnuts!

I believe this is all part of the continuing move to the stoopid we seem to be experiencing in our society. We champion ignorance.  We admire the idiotic (Jackass, American Gladiators) and we elevate the most banal and tiresome people to the ranks of the famous (Paris Hilton, Donald Trump, etc.).  Why does this matter, you ask?  Well, let me sort it out for you.

Lest we forget, ours is a country built soundly upon the foundations of Enlightenment thinking and not upon the blind faith exhibited by the religious “right” we see today.  When Mike Huckabee says things like

I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution. But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.

I feel the icy chill of theocracy down my spine.  Got that?  Our Constitution, founded on the principals of rational Enlightenment thought, needs to be amended to make sure that we all practice the same fundamentalist non-thinking religion as Mike.  As Thomas Jefferson so rightly put it

…The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.

-Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

When will that day come?  Will it ever come?  Certainly when Jefferson wrote this, people were hopeful that the day would come when our magical thinking would become a thing of the past.  But alas, that day has not yet come.  In fact, that day seems further off in the distance than it ever did.

Let’s face it folks, religion makes you stoopid.  It excuses you from having to think or reason your way out of situations.  You can simply throw your hands up in the air and say “God’s will” or “Allah’s will” or “Flying Spaghetti Monster’s Will.”  Religion is a roadblock to rational thought and discourse.  And it makes us a nation of stoopids.  But worse, it makes us a nation of stoopids who are easy to control and manipulate.   And this, my friends, is the crux of the problem.

Stoopid people are easy to control.  They have already accepted the ideas behind some form of magical thinking (be it from Christianity, Islam or Judiasm) so it becomes a simple matter of injecting what you want done into the magical stream and voila!  You too can create suicide bombers or planned parenthood bombers.  Or Republicans!  Or any other flock of sheeple you want to create and they will do what you tell them to do.

September 11th has also been used to increase the flock of Republican sheeple through the use and manipulation of fear.  Guess what, folks?  Fear (in this context) is magical thinking.  Those wolves lurking in the woods aren’t really there, but if you’re predisposed to magical thinking, when we tell you they’re there, then you’ll believe us.

So what does all this mean?  It means that we, as Progressives, Democrats and Free Thinkers have a lot of work to do.  It’s much harder to be someone who questions the nature of things than one who simply follows dogma handed down generation to generation.  I’m afraid that, in the long run, we’re headed back to the dark ages where fear, uncertainty and doubt replace reason and rational thought.  It’s a grim prospect, but it’s hard to see how we’re going to get out of the magical thinking rut we’ve wandered into.

Peace.

9. You

Charges: You believe in freedom of speech, until someone says something that offends you. You suddenly give a damn about border integrity, because the automated voice system at your pharmacy asked you to press 9 for Spanish. You cling to every scrap of bullshit you can find to support your ludicrous belief system, and reject all empirical evidence to the contrary. You know the difference between patriotism and nationalism — it’s nationalism when foreigners do it. You hate anyone who seems smarter than you. You care more about zygotes than actual people. You love to blame people for their misfortunes, even if it means screwing yourself over. You still think Republicans favor limited government. Your knowledge of politics and government are dwarfed by your concern for Britney Spears’ children. You think buying Chinese goods stimulates our economy. You think you’re going to get universal health care. You tolerate the phrase “enhanced interrogation techniques.” You think the government is actually trying to improve education. You think watching CNN makes you smarter. You think two parties is enough. You can’t spell. You think $9 trillion in debt is manageable. You believe in an afterlife for the sole reason that you don’t want to die. You think lowering taxes raises revenue. You think the economy’s doing well. You’re an idiot.

Exhibit A: You couldn’t get enough Anna Nicole Smith coverage.

Sentence: A gradual decline into abject poverty as you continue to vote against your own self-interest. Death by an easily treated disorder that your health insurance doesn’t cover. You deserve it, chump.

So there’s [one person's take] on what’s wrong with the masses. So how do we improve? Well, I’m glad you asked.

1. Improve education! Yes, it’s a standard response. But we desperately need a stronger education system. The first thing I would change is to eliminate or radically modify the tenure system for teachers. With all due respect to my friends in the profession, I think it’s absurd that you’re virtually untouchable after just three years of teaching. In my job, I need to continually improve or I will be unemployed. Why do we treat teachers differently?
2. Build strong communities! This one is a little trickier, because it runs counter to the popular concept of endless suburban sprawl. I fundamentally believe that it is impossible to foster vibrant, strong, diverse communities in low density suburban housing developments. We need to build (and zone) cities to offer mixed income, multi-use, walkable neighborhoods.
3. Get the money out of politics! John McCain and Russ Feingold tried to reduce the influence of money in elections, but there is much more work to be done. Until we can fix the inner workings of our democracy to empower people and not lobbyists, we will never have a satisfied electorate. (Or, for that matter, a balanced budget!)

So there’s my take on what we can do to make get YOU off the 2008 list of the most loathsome people. What’s your take?

It works something like this: you pay $400, your donation puts one laptop in the hands of a child, and you get one laptop to donate yourself (or keep to play with). These are pretty amazing little machines, designed to be rugged and low on energy use.

I can testify first hand that exposure to computers from a young age really changes the way your mind grows and learns to use the technology. My parents always wondered why computers came so naturally to me. . . could it be that I’ve been using them since I was 3?

So here’s your opportunity to give a child the toolkit to be competitive in the modern economic environment. Chances are the next Google or Apple won’t come from the US!

Submit your answers in the comments. Winner gets a prize!

[Answer will be revealed in one week]

Finance 101

IRA. 401(k). Pension. Mutual Fund. ETF. Health Insurance.

These and others are part of the vocabulary that is thrown at new hires as they try to plan for their future. The problem is for many young people, it’s all greek.

. . .

Hope you enjoy a little walk down memory lane. If it’s popular with you, dear reader, then maybe I’ll make it a regular event. If instead you are thinking to yourself “I know how to use the archives too, you dolt!” then I’ll ease off. As always, comments make me happy.

With increasing lifespans and changing social norms, I am currently part of a demographic that didn’t really exist just a few decades ago: young, professional, unmarried adults. In some ways, I love this phase in my life: I am independent, I live comfortably, and I have the freedom to focus on personal development. In some ways, I am terrified: my life is full of unknowns. I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on this over the last year and I’ve come up with a few theories on how to optimize this phase of life.

Surround yourself with people you love. This one seems obvious, but it deserves mention. As a child, and even to some degree during school years, you have external forces influencing your circle of friends. If you’re extremely lucky, everyone in your friendship cloud will bring you happiness and lift your spirits. For the rest of us, there are always those hangers-on who travel in a cloud of pessimism and contempt, and serve as black holes of energy. At some point, you have to cut the ropes and let these people drift on. Surround yourself with the people you love and you will be happier and much more content with life.

Minimize low-value activities. My shining example of this theory is a simple one: ditch the TV. I’ve been living sans-television for about 6 months now and I love it. I still watch a few TV-shows throughiTunes , but I’ve entirely eliminated the classic time-waster of channel surfing. (Advertisements are also removed, saving about 10 minutes per show.) We each get the same 24 hours per day, so why not optimize your time by reducing low-value activities. This is not to say you have to be working or doing high-intensity stuff all day–to the contrary, rest and relaxation time is very important. The key is to be conscious about how you spend your time, and seek out those activities that add richness and depth to the shared experience we call life.

Be passionate about your work. If you’re lucky, you are extremely passionate about your 9-to-5 job. If you’re like the rest of us, you find your work interesting and enjoyable, but you need to look outside the normal work day to fuel your passions. The important thing in feeling fulfilled in life is identifying what you are passionate about and incorporating that into your work. Hopefully you can incorporate your passion with your 9-to-5, or at least find a happy balance. Don’t know what you’re passionate about? Here’s a quick and easy test: if you read about a subject matter in your leisure time, chances are you’re passionate about it.

[. . . ]

So there you have it. Three nuggets of wisdom from someone with scarcely 23 years under his belt. Take them or leave them. I’d love to hear what your experience has been–add a comment!