2/8/12
2/7/12
Prop 8 Overturned! Humans Free To Love Each Other Again!! Updated
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal appeals court on Tuesday declared California's same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional but agreed to give sponsors of the bitterly contested, voter-approved law time to appeal the ruling before ordering the state to resume allowing gay couples to wed.
Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz
Update: Some analysis of the ruling: (h/t DWT)
Let's be clear at the outset what the three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals did and didn't decide in its ruling today on the constitutionality of California's ballot-approved Proposition 8, which you'll no doubt recall had the (intended) effect of overturning the state law, already in effect, that had legalized same-sex marriage.
(1) What the panel did decide
Yes indeed, the ruling -- written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt (appointed to the court by Jimmy Carter) on behalf of himself and Judge Michael Hawkins (appointed by Bill Clinton) -- says that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.
(2) What the panel did NOT decide
The ruling goes out of its way to make clear that the panel is not saying that it is necessarily unconstitutional to legally ban same-sex marriage.
Are we all clear on that? Anyone who says, or imagines, that the Ninth Circuit panel ruled today that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional doesn't know what he's talking about, or perhaps is just fibbing for reasons you'll have to ask him to explain.
SO WHAT DID THE PANEL RULE UNCONSTITUTIONAL?
2/2/12
2/1/12
Education And The Business Model: Pwned. Sound The Death Knell
Using the rules of economics, and assuming we must achieve universal post-secondary readiness, MN2020’s latest report, False Choices: Market-Driven Education Reform Doesn’t Work, demonstrates why free market thinking in education comes at a high price for students, parents and teachers.Michael Diedrich
The main problem, among many, is that school systems cannot function as free markets if we want to achieve universal post-secondary readiness. Free markets produce efficiency, not equity for all. Efficiency helps maximize profit, but what about students that aren’t profitable to educate?
As a result of competition-based thinking, many schools have focused on teaching-to-tests and advertising instead of broad based cognitive development that will provide students with the necessary skills to be successful in a 21st century workforce.
In moving Minnesota back toward a proven educational path, our latest report makes the following recommendations:
There is a place in education for efficiency, incentives, and innovation; however, policymakers must stop trying to achieve these competitive goals with a false, market-based approach.
Schools must adapt to achieve universal post-secondary readiness by focusing on initiatives that enhance teachers’ professional development and provide comprehensive teacher assessment and feedback.
Instead of using a false market-mentality as political cover to systematically defund schools, we must invest in education for the 21st century, using some of that investment to develop a comprehensive and fair teacher evaluation metric.
Charter schools have a place in the public education system as partners, not competitors, with traditional schools.
Don Cornelius, R.I.P.
Don Cornelius, the producer and television host who created the television dance show “Soul Train,” was found shot dead in his Los Angeles home on Wednesday morning, and detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department were trying to determine if his death was a suicide.NYT
1/28/12
Song Of The Day: I'm Easy
Yeah, Slim's. Don't forget Slim's. I saw Johnny Winter there. Love that place.
But Boz goes back to the 60s. He was in Steve Miller's band when they were youths (pronounced "yoots"), and spent time in London before coming back to hippieville. He could sing and play that guitar real good, and that got him signed.
He rocks.
In fact, on his first (sort of) album from 1969, he seems to have written a rocker for Newt Gingrich called, I'm Easy:
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