I was completely prepared to enter my (also public) university when I graduated. The school drew from a large area, rural to suburb, a good mix of incomes and ethnicities. One of the things my old school system did was "track" the kids based on grades and test scores. I understand there were some problems with this method -- but there are problems with any method, and afaik this was pretty effective. We had college prep and we had vocational tracks; it was understood that not everyone had the...

... what you described was the freaking status quo: "abortions except for rape and mortal risk to the mother were illegal." Yessir, THAT was the status quo the SCOTUS changed, because actual public opinion and actual behavior dictated otherwise. The illegality of abortion does NOT make it go away, ever; it only drives it underground and makes it dangerous. The problem with the "rape and incest" loophole is that the living, breathing, victims of these crimes often don't report -- especially ...

Jesus (who they have the nerveless gall to claim to follow) has some things to say about treating children kindly. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke he is quoted as saying: Mark 9:42 And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. Matthew 18:6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and...

... of the time one of the cops at the University was interviewed by the student newspaper about the history of the Foot Patrol unit that serves the adjacent student ghetto -- oh, excuse me, crappy high-density housing. In recounting her time on the force, she mentioned in passing that the stray dog problem (which is HUGE due to irresponsible students letting them wander during the school year and then abandoning them over the summer x( ) all-but-vanished during the years that a high concentra...

At Chris Matthews' age, there's no cure for foot-in-mouth disease. I was going, "Oh Tweety, just shut up," as he fumbled with the concept, even though I understood what he was trying to say. I think a lot of us look at Barack Obama, we know very well he's a black man, but what we SEE is the President of the United States. Our President. The office fits him like a well-tailored suit. Obama's blackness/ mixed-race heritage/ etc. isn't a "so-what"-- it's who he is, and he's given it considerable...

There never was a peasant class as such in this country, and for quite awhile there was significant social mobility on the frontiers -- the East Coast, settled first, had a settled upper class fairly early on -- what used to be called "old money," like the Roosevelts. Also for quite awhile nearly every generation of immigrants saw their children and grandchildren become significantly better off than in the Old Country. After WW II there was really a prosperity boom as the nation rebuilt and ne...

Are they all people who are assumed to be able to know absolutely everything the first day on the job, or is one of the criteria for hiring that they demonstrate a strong potential to deal with a steep learning curve and come up with creative solutions to unforeseen problems? Do you cut them loose at the first sign of difficulty, or do you give them a chance to show you what they can do? President Obama is our key executive, and we have given him a 4-year contract. Sure we can give him an annu...

... taught me a tremendous amount about the "fetishization of lightness" by non-whites in Jamaica down through the generations. Jamaica's slave system was different from ours in some substantial ways: whites were outnumbered at least 10 to 1 by their slaves, and there were few if any white women. Ultimately white men took black concubines (i.e. they bought a woman who took their fancy). The children of those unions were emancipated, treated as heirs, and sent to England for schooling. Their m...

That's how Bush did his destruction in the first place, and that is how it will have to be undone. Okay? Now that Elaine Chao is gone from her Cabinet post as Labor Secretary, the new appointed-by-Obama Labor Sec is starting to revivify OSHA and a host of other worker-friendly agencies and policies. Remember "Heckuva job Brownie"? He was a political appointee -- a friend of a friend, a crony. No qualifications other than that. Bush did the same thing every place there was a political appo...

I was one of those who really did think better of Justice O'Connor than that, and I was as appalled as everyone else that she voted with the four toads. I didn't know how much her personal biases overrode her judicial duty -- I didn't know the depth of her delusion that Bush Jr. was going to be the same as her friend Bush Sr., and not the fundie neocon whackjob he really was. I learned that from this interview. She truly put party over country, and knew she was doing it; she simply had not pai...

"Bully for you!" is an archaic positive term used by Theodore Roosevelt. It expresses approval. (My mother occasionally used it, only in her case it was slightly sarcastic.) TR's favorite phrase was "Bully!" meaning "Fantastic!" (Link) So when TR said that the White House was a "bully pulpit" he meant it was a terrific platform to advocate an agenda. (Link) He didn't mean he was going to throw his weight around and run roughshod over everyone else. "Speak softly and carry a big stick," ano...

I will never forget being awakened by my daughter's phone call, urgently telling me to turn on CNN. Images from that day and the next week are burned into my brain. Thousands dead, some of them from jumping out of windows hundreds of feet in the air while smoke and flame urged them on. First responders caught in the collapse of buildings at the heart of our arrogant global financial system. As a nation, we always had been protected by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Even Pearl Harbor could ...

DUers, there are some very hopeful headlines just now. I think a bunch of Bush-Cheney-Rove crap we've been hoping for/working for/praying for to be over is now starting to be rectified/legally dealt with/treated as crimes/exposed to the harsh light of day... Campaign promises are beginning to be kept.... Do you see what I see? I don't know about you, but I've been so accustomed to feeling frightened, angry, and depressed about my country that it took until after midnight before all these vari...

...she will discover that all future cancer diagnoses (gods forbid) and treatment will NOT be covered at all, because they will be considered a pre-existing condition. Her health insurance is very likely job-related. If she's a minor, the job in question is her parents' -- meaning she will eventually age-out of their plan; also, your parents better not change jobs. If she's an adult, she and/or her husband better not ever leave her/his current job. Sure, there's COBRA, but the monthly premiums...