Wednesday, June 26, 2002 :::
 
Well God damn.

Personally, I like the "under God" bit. I like that my money says "In God We Trust", and not because I'm a religious person. I like it because it suggests that maybe, just maybe, there's a higher power in the universe than George W Bush.

God doesn't have to mean Jehovah, or Christ, or Allah, or anything like that. To strip every modicum of religious influence from a country founded by religious men is ridiculous and unnecessary. In America, we don't persecute atheists or agnostics, yet at least one seems to think that we do. Children shouldn't be forced to recite the pledge in a secular school, but that doesn't make the pledge itself unconstitutional.

But overall, I think this reflects extremely poorly on us democrats. Rory has a point- we brought this on ourselves.

::: posted by Andrewski at 5:25 PM

Tuesday, June 25, 2002 :::
 
There are certain opportunities that you just don't miss. This is one of them. Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods and Good Omens, is coming to Berkeley on July 2. I plan on going for sure, perhaps with Kevin and anyone else who's interested (just email me).

::: posted by Andrewski at 7:16 PM

Monday, June 24, 2002 :::
 
Excellent posting at the Puddle, where the Berkeley frog blogger posts an article that takes a look at the origins of hate in a Palestinian kindergarten class.

::: posted by Andrewski at 3:15 PM

 
Fellow blogger, brother, and friend Marc Shapiro (he's on sabbatical, but his website should be back up when school starts) sent me a link to a Salon.com article about racial diversity in the UC system. You need to be a Salon.com member to read the article, but it's interesting stuff. Generally, my feeling on the number crunching of race in the UC system brings me to believe that there are no real barriers that keep minority students from getting into good schools. Programs such as the "top 4%" rule, which guarantees students in the top 4% of their class a position in a UC school (including inner city schools as well as mostly white prep schools) that are discussed in the article seem like they're somewhat working. What I don't like to see, though, are race-focused programs like Affirmative Action.

The root problem isn't at the University level- it's at high school and elementry school levels. If there aren't adequate teachers at inner-city schools, if not enough funding goes towards these schools with mostly minority children, if parents aren't as actively involved in their kids lives because they have to work to support the family, then those kids are going to be less likely to achieve as much as an upper class or suburban kid. I don't have the facts to back this up, but it seems like common sense.

I think John Douglass, a senior Berkeley "research fellow" who is quoted repeatedly in the Salon.com article, has some good points about what Californians are beginning to expect from Universities these days:

"There is no magic bullet," said Douglass. "And one doesn't make policy only with respect to diversity and ethnicity and race. If there's any good that's coming out of this politically contentious period, it is a comprehensive look at why the university admits students and what are our responsibilities. It's been a much more vigorous and critical look at policies that might better fit our social contract with the state of California. The system had become too myopic."

He's right- we're beginning to expect too much from the University level. My sneaking suspicion is that there's more to this than meets the eye, but with groups like BAMN that declare our system to be inherently racist, all the finger pointing and blame for predominantly white and Asian students won't do a bit of good.

But then again, we're still after that magic bullet, aren't we?

::: posted by Andrewski at 2:59 PM

Sunday, June 23, 2002 :::
 
Four extremely interesting national stories in today's news. Thanks to Drudge for the links.

The first is the report that the two separate Arizona wildfires have combined into one long, raging inferno- the largest in the nation, even larger than the Colorado wildfires. I have a great deal of sympathy for those that are losing their homes from these fires, but thankfully no lives have yet been lost. The Colorado fires continue to blaze, but CNN reports that firefighters have gained "the upper hand" due to a streak of favorable weather conditions.

Osama bin Laden, who I cannot believe we let get away, has released a new music video recently. Unfortunately, the only music to his ears is the sound of America getting really pissed off and scared. Osama's bold new single, Threaten The Nation, has irked politicians and civilians alike with lyrics such as "The Al Quaeda is going to launch attacks against America" and "98% of the leadership of Al Quaeda is sade". No word yet on the possibility of bin Laden hosting the Grammys.

Third, this article actually used the headline "Bush Declares War On Fat America". As amusing as the concept of squads of XXX-L uniformed men in the Twinkie Brigade may be, the point is that Bush is trying to get the nation into fitness, like Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter before him. He does this by telling us how exercise is a part of his life, thus it should be a part of ours. I think we should take it one step further: I encourage all Americans to be like our President in every way possible. If you would like to be a part of my excursion next week to drill for oil in the Alaskan Wildlife Preserve, drop me a line. Bring your own pickaxe.

And finally, all three of the above could mean only one thing: The End of the World. Time Magazine basically runs the same article they did before "Y2K", but it's good writing nonetheless. People have been predicting the end of the world for millenia now, and personally, I think that people will always fear the concept of "tomorrow". Tomorrow, anything could happen- a jetliner could crash into your office building, a wildfire could burn down your home, you could find a lucky quarter in your jeans pocket. Just because people have a Bible and a newspaper doesn't make them prophets- it makes them just as uncertain as the rest of us. But if all this still has you worried about getting out from under your covers, just remember the song from Annie: "The sun'll come up tomorrow/ You can bet your bottom dollar..."

::: posted by Andrewski at 2:26 PM