Archive for December, 2003
Vouchers
Richard D. Kahlenberg and Bernard Wasow have an excellent article on “school choice” in the latest Boston Review New Democracy Forum.
First, they state the argument for school vouchers:
Many voucher advocates accept the superiority of vouchers on the basis of a general faith in markets. Since the private sector is assumed to outperform the public sector […]
Spider
Of course, “spider hole” was not concocted to describe Hussein’s hideout. According to two historians, the term goes back at least to World War II, when it was used by Marines and Army troops fighting in the Pacific.
…Applied to Hussein, the term is somewhat misleading, since Hussein reportedly was using his hole for concealment rather […]
Endangered
Back in June I wrote something on my old blog about a New York Times article, by David Berreby, entitled “Fading Species and Dying Tongues: When the Two Part Ways.” (As well as a followup post here.). Well, the editor for the Society for Linguistic Anthropology “section news” column in Anthropology News asked me to […]
Underrepresented
“The statistics in the Color of Money demonstrate the point we all know intuitively: communities of color and the poor are severely underrepresented because of their inability to keep pace with the campaign contributions from wealthier, non-minority communities. The disparity underscores why legislators spend 100 hours on telecommunications reform and 10 hours on welfare reform.”
–Dr. […]
Translation
NY City Government isn’t just for English speakers anymore:
In a reversal, the Bloomberg administration is expected to announce its support today for a law that requires city human services agencies to make all documents available in six languages and to provide translation to clients on demand for all languages.
If the European Union and South Africa […]
Koufax
The Koufax Awards are like the emmy’s of the blog sphere. Well, its the closest thing we have right now. I voted for Rush, Newspeak, and Fascism by Orcinus (reprinted here) in the “Best Series” post, and I voted for Body and Soul’s Resistance in the “Best Post” category. Unfortunately, the blogs that get recommended […]
Hekmatyar
We’re constantly trying to get more people to be with us than against us, and goodness knows, Hekmatyar is not with us,” Mr Rumsfeld said…
But does Rumsfeld know who Hekmatyar is?
This Rumsfeld memo, from a Robert Waldmann post, cited by Brad DeLong, seems to suggest not:
“USG has made reasonable progress in capturing or killing the […]
Facts
This article from The Nation, about one reporter’s efforts to try to find the source upon which statistics for job growth in Iraq cited by Rumsfeld in public statements, leaves you wondering if you should laugh or cry:
I had a brief telephone conversation with an official at the State Department who demanded that I not […]
Dividend
Does the war in Iraq help to stimulate the U.S. economy? In this City Paper interview, Doug Henwood why it doesn’t.
CP: One question I’ve heard a lot of people pose is why there’s been so little talk of a “war dividend” stimulus to the economy.
Henwood: Well, a lot of the money’s being spent on what […]
Sharon
Sharon and those closest to him have often expressed their surprise over how easy it has been, in the name of fighting terrorism, to “push the envelope” of what the international community finds acceptable Israeli behavior. During Israel’s last presidential election, Sharon’s son Omri explained to a group of Likud faithful how cleverly his father […]
An anthropologist and documentary filmmaker, 
