Peevish on Polls

   I admit that my distrust of surveys, or polls, has little statistical evidence to back it up — not that I’ve researched the question.  It’s just that they seem to be everywhere — especially in an election year — and they are reported in the media as hard evidence of what the larger, unpolled […]

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The Edwards Quagmire

As I write this, the Edwards jury is, hopefully, relaxing and enjoying the holiday before resuming its deliberations on Tuesday.  Judging from the number of times they’ve asked for certain exhibits, they seem to be a serious and deliberate body of citizens. One of the nagging questions about the trial, however, is just what constituted […]

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HBO: Girls

     This show is getting attention because it adds a fresh perspective on sex and youth today.  The four girls are shown dressed down, without makeup, and even on the toilet, but they still convince as confident, eager fledglings who enjoy sex, and get their appetites sated.  Lena Dunham, the star and creator (Tiny Furniture), wants to […]

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A Court Remand for Affordable Health Care

   While there is no precedent that I know of for this, it would be of great benefit to the country if the Supreme Court remanded the Affordable Health Care Act back to Congress without a decision.   Any ruling that does not uphold the law in its entirety will make it useless anyway, so it […]

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Bullet-Ins

 •  The Department of Labor has a fast triumph in the 3 million bucks settlement of various discrimination claims against FedEx.  The  NYTimes piece on Thursday (3/22/12) was so bare that you might have been reading about bacteria under a microscope.  Of  course none of these “victims of discrimination” were identified, but the summary was […]

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“College-ready” II

   Suddenly we are deluged with opinions on the value of a college education.  The floodgates have opened, and it seems like every newspaper and journal has some expert or other weighing in on how important it is for the future of the country, how much more it means for lifetime earnings, blah, etc.  One Times Op-Ed trotted out […]

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Creative Energy

  I was walking on the grimy upper level of the 179St. subway station in Jamaica, Queens today when I saw something strange.  All of the payphones had been removed from the thick pillars lining the walkway  —  that’s not the strange thing, I’d noticed it before  —  but  something hanging from the ceiling lightly brushed against […]

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The Hidden Meaning of “College Ready”

     The President has declared a campaign to fight rising college costs so that a college education is affordable for every high school graduate in the country.  He has said that we should have the greatest number of college graduates of any country, as we did in the past.  He has used the term “college […]

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N.Y.F.D.: Race-Approved By Federal Oversight

   Very quietly, the federal judge in the NYC firefighter case, Nicholas Garaufis, has approved a curious tactic by the   plaintiffs to advance its racial diversity agenda.  As reported in the N.Y.Times (12/22/11), the Vulcan Society will obtain a list of blacks who never completed their applications for the exam.  It seems that Vulcan members […]

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Bullet-Ins

•  I haven’t been to a Staples recently to check this out, but I wonder if a memorable part of my childhood is gone forever.  Sometime in the sixth grade, I bought my first 3-ring binder.  I filled it with three-holed, lined  looseleaf paper. Before that, I used the standard bound notebook.  I remember Mrs. Singer […]

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