tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-131016152024-03-14T10:06:38.002-06:00Kip Austin Hintonquien habla dos, vale por doskipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-13151802403880089952019-06-30T00:01:00.003-05:002019-06-30T16:17:13.060-05:00Jared Kushner & the Meritocracy<span style="color: #009000; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<b><span style="color: #f1765e; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0px;">Congratulations</span></b><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0px;"> to Jared Kushner for getting the federal
government to cover a well-deserved $800 million loan! This is such a feel-good
story, showing our meritocracy at work:</span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0px;">As a child, Jared's
family ran a small business of owning 25,000 apartment units. They barely
scraped by on less than $100 million income per year. The Kushners were forced
to live off of government assistance, via the rent received from their
low-income tenants. When it was time to apply for college, Jared didn't have
the advantages of other applicants. For example, he wasn't a great student, his
GPA was low, and he got a bad score on the SAT. It was only by a stroke of luck
that Jared's dad Charles cobbled together a $2.5 million donation to Harvard.
Just in time to get him a spot. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8U8R5tCDK34f5U_GKa8GkNMs2QiJquDJflPF1wuxKJc6jcl6QDWUvmDrzXJxQWrKfgoYP5N1MGhIuF6NtGxZWHeOhNC6u6VaS-dTLzuCikUNp7Qng8A1gcdaO1qUuFhlCBwRWcQ/s1600/jared+kushner+and+steven+miller.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="343" data-original-width="609" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8U8R5tCDK34f5U_GKa8GkNMs2QiJquDJflPF1wuxKJc6jcl6QDWUvmDrzXJxQWrKfgoYP5N1MGhIuF6NtGxZWHeOhNC6u6VaS-dTLzuCikUNp7Qng8A1gcdaO1qUuFhlCBwRWcQ/s320/jared+kushner+and+steven+miller.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0px;">Yet even with a
Harvard degree and Ivy League connections, poor Jared didn't find anyone willing
to hire him! Except for his dad. So, he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and
took an entry-level position as a vice-president for Kushner Companies. Through
hard work, plus the fact that his dad Charles was sentenced to federal prison
for multiple felonies, Jared quickly rose to become CEO. Jared was, by far, the
most qualified among all the children of Charles Kushner (Jared’s only sibling,
Joshua, was still a teenager).</span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0px;">It turns out that
being CEO for the company your dad owns is not much of a time commitment. So
Jared signed up to take classes instead. He completed a law degree as well as
an MBA during his first couple years as CEO. Additionally, he worked as an
(unpaid?) intern for the Manhattan district attorney <i>while he was CEO</i>. I ask
you, how many 26-year-olds can say they did that? (full disclosure: the
district attorney Jared worked for was not the same office that arrested and
convicted his dad.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0px;">As CEO, through little
more than his own sweat and tears, Jared took the small nest-egg of 1 billion
dollars he received from Charles, then turned it into 1.1 billion dollars. Minus
the $500 million debt he borrowed from the federal government (for a total of approximately
$0.6 billion). Not so bad for a hardscrabble kid from New Jersey! Jared has
been described as "very smart" by both his father and his
father-in-law. He also has either a large or small amount of what is known in
the industry as “business acumen.” That, my friends, is how the son of a
billionaire from a forgotten corner of Jersey rises from obscurity to become
the point person for solving the opioid epidemic, fixing the VA, running the Office
of American Innovation, reforming the criminal justice system (here’s looking
at you, Charles Kushner!), and creating peace in the Middle East. </span><br />
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; margin: 0px;">Once Jared entered government,
he attempted to not lie on his disclosure forms, but unfortunately he did lie
several times (which is a felony, though for the record it is not his fault
that this act is classified as a felony). Once they sorted out the things he
had lied about, Jared was unfairly forced to turn over control of his company
to other family members. So technically speaking, all the work of getting this
week’s new capital injection was done by people who are not Jared Kushner. Yet this
$800 million subsidized loan only confirms what we already knew about Donald
Trump's son-in-law: Jared Kushner has totally earned the level of admiration
that everyone has for him.<br /><br /><span style="color: #b00000; font-family: "times new roman";">https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-23/kushner-cos-gets-800-million-federally-backed-apartment-loan</span></span></div>
kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-66857179742459892212019-06-27T14:22:00.000-05:002019-06-27T15:35:23.165-05:00When you call white people racist for supporting refugee detention camps<div data-block="true" data-editor="3ardk" data-offset-key="4lnom-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="4lnom-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; position: relative; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="4lnom-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Yes, many of us white people do remain silent. We don't think of ourselves as racist. And we prefer not to think about our government herding 80,000 impoverished men, women and children into internment camps or crowded shanties without soap or medical care. But when it comes down to it, many of us value law and order more than we value human lives.
</span></span><span data-offset-key="dt2s9-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">
But then it turns out that U.S. laws actually <i>support </i>the rights of the refugees. And it turns out that requesting asylum is completely legal. Still, isn't it better to just blindly obey what our government says? I mean, I don't endorse 100% of the administration's policies, but what am I supposed to do? Fight for change? Protect innocent victims? Even if Border Patrol and ICE are not following the law, surely they have my best interests in mind. Right? It's not like they're violating the constitution to oppress my own (white) family. BP and ICE are government, so just obey their orders! What's so hard about that?
</span></span><span data-offset-key="7pagj-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">
As for the children in cages, sucks to be them amiright haha. But seriously I'm trying very hard not to empathize with them right now, so don't mention how many of them got sick with the flu in the middle of summer due to unsanitary internment conditions. Don't mention that the outdoor camps are reaching 100 degrees, or that some indoor camps are kept at 56 degrees (according to the Inspector General). It's not as if indefinite detention of humans who are not even charged with a crime was my idea! So stop blaming me. It really feels like you're blaming me.
</span></span><span data-offset-key="8s7cp-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">
And don't accuse me of trying to make this tragedy all about myself, either. I get it, that my tax dollars pay for these camps and the salaries of the guards, but it's not like I'm Secretary of DHS. Turns out DHS doesn't have a Secretary right now. Which proves this very unfortunate tragedy is nobody's fault. Also I realize my tax dollars pay for the AC that's set as cold as Abu Ghraib, and the instant noodles, and the soap and the toothpaste, but it's still not my fault. (Never mind about soap and toothpaste, turns out nobody pays for those haha. But somehow it still costs $750 per child per night? I guess I'm trying not to think about that, either, because I'm opposed to government waste and our detention system is making me feel like a hypocrite for not accusing the administration of gross financial corruption.)
</span></span><span data-offset-key="8bo0k-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">
By the way, you want to know how I know our internment camps aren't racist? Because if those refugee kids were technically white but were still foreigners speaking a foreign language, most of us wouldn't show up to protest, either. See, that proves we aren't racist. Still don't believe me? Well, one time a boat full of 937 white refugees showed up at a Florida port of entry, claiming to fear for their lives, and we refused to give them asylum. Our government sent the boat a law-and-order message saying all refugees must "await their turns on the waiting list and qualify for and obtain immigration visas." Why? I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure the important lesson here is We Don't See Color. That happened in 1939. Anyway, assuming the children survive our camps in 2019, they will learn another important lesson: They should fear and obey the U.S. government -- just like a real American! Then we will deport them.
</span></span><span data-offset-key="f78vk-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">By the way, please stop telling me that we are deporting them back to some of the most dangerous cities in the world. Where there's a good chance they will be killed by corrupt government agents or a cartel. See, that reminds me that some of my own government's agents are kind of similar to a cartel. Why are you telling me that? Don't tell me that! Sure the children are technically humans, but they were not even born in the United States, were they? So case closed. Also this whole situation is making me curious about what happened to the refugees on that 1939 boat, but I'm not going to look it up because I seriously do not want to know. We white people realize that U.S. immigration policy at the time was intentionally discriminatory and blatantly unconstitutional, violating the 14th Amendment, but still, we prefer not to know.
</span></span><span data-offset-key="13fu2-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">So, ok, maybe it's a lie to say that we white people care about law and order. It turns out that many of us don't care really care about law, as long as we have order.
</span></span><span data-offset-key="13fu2-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">#detentioncenter = #internmentcamp = #concentrationcamp</span></span><span data-offset-key="13fu2-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">
</span></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="3ardk" data-offset-key="13fu2-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="13fu2-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; position: relative; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<span data-offset-key="2l8qh-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">(Photos: DHS internment camps in Clint, TX; McAllen, TX; El Paso, TX; Tornillo, TX) </span></span><span data-offset-key="2l8qh-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">
</span></span></div>
</div>
<div data-block="true" data-editor="3ardk" data-offset-key="2l8qh-0-0" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="2l8qh-0-0" style="direction: ltr; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; position: relative; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span data-offset-key="2l8qh-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZgNfFxCh_VSAsuk5aiBRgnoOrL5lWMgK_RuCW54lH9VWqp_MKcnO5cKcj2LRFhEVGn7xogzsCzOXvyLqssmxrWqfsctMKCu2XtInat0GprGnBzNLhPDES8nrjMdEMvXpsOL-UpQ/s1600/Tornillo-Photos-for-Reveal-News-01-1013x675.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: right; color: #0066cc; float: right; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;"></a><u><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVIQYuHhO8ph5XevPY3ttitrdk3zaYbthnWa42tUzdzxP4kbHGV97zXQMP7g_3vkNutzLf1NrDdTqmBTO8PjBMkDQEKKXho6iUssxejz1TEIegocz9axknokIiyvtobPrjzjWc5A/s1600/Clint%252C+Texas+detention+camp.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVIQYuHhO8ph5XevPY3ttitrdk3zaYbthnWa42tUzdzxP4kbHGV97zXQMP7g_3vkNutzLf1NrDdTqmBTO8PjBMkDQEKKXho6iUssxejz1TEIegocz9axknokIiyvtobPrjzjWc5A/s200/Clint%252C+Texas+detention+camp.png" width="200" /></a> </u><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="937" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-f4B1fxQVwLdDU2obuTEayeZDX3I3ukedOMJXbYPYmzC9T4LJcg-XPMqUUJ5PuA3vpzwJqtnsEA2uvoiqyAqAxbjIbm-ZkTEKENt9d_JqSHvA5efUZlUMTh80l950xRWDtknCWw/s200/crowded+children+detention+texas.jpg" width="200" /><u> </u></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZgNfFxCh_VSAsuk5aiBRgnoOrL5lWMgK_RuCW54lH9VWqp_MKcnO5cKcj2LRFhEVGn7xogzsCzOXvyLqssmxrWqfsctMKCu2XtInat0GprGnBzNLhPDES8nrjMdEMvXpsOL-UpQ/s1600/Tornillo-Photos-for-Reveal-News-01-1013x675.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 14px; margin-right: 14px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: pre-wrap; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1013" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZgNfFxCh_VSAsuk5aiBRgnoOrL5lWMgK_RuCW54lH9VWqp_MKcnO5cKcj2LRFhEVGn7xogzsCzOXvyLqssmxrWqfsctMKCu2XtInat0GprGnBzNLhPDES8nrjMdEMvXpsOL-UpQ/s200/Tornillo-Photos-for-Reveal-News-01-1013x675.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvqMWWLDlp9TxgAyIktWqPdiu-YcjS48WWoq_bwhIItbsOj7oxX68pxz8cS8k6E3h2UKAKj6KwIdsNRcOFFPi0Bwy1WDnf4bokcNfF-0BvuPrd5DzVqOTiYMaSJITjweuvXMRJw/s1600/El-Paso-Sector-Detention-Facility-2-02-2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvqMWWLDlp9TxgAyIktWqPdiu-YcjS48WWoq_bwhIItbsOj7oxX68pxz8cS8k6E3h2UKAKj6KwIdsNRcOFFPi0Bwy1WDnf4bokcNfF-0BvuPrd5DzVqOTiYMaSJITjweuvXMRJw/s200/El-Paso-Sector-Detention-Facility-2-02-2019.jpg" width="150" /></a></span></span></div>
<span data-offset-key="2l8qh-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">
<br />
<br />
<br />
</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span data-offset-key="2l8qh-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-f4B1fxQVwLdDU2obuTEayeZDX3I3ukedOMJXbYPYmzC9T4LJcg-XPMqUUJ5PuA3vpzwJqtnsEA2uvoiqyAqAxbjIbm-ZkTEKENt9d_JqSHvA5efUZlUMTh80l950xRWDtknCWw/s1600/crowded+children+detention+texas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvqMWWLDlp9TxgAyIktWqPdiu-YcjS48WWoq_bwhIItbsOj7oxX68pxz8cS8k6E3h2UKAKj6KwIdsNRcOFFPi0Bwy1WDnf4bokcNfF-0BvuPrd5DzVqOTiYMaSJITjweuvXMRJw/s1600/El-Paso-Sector-Detention-Facility-2-02-2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></span></span></div>
<span data-offset-key="2l8qh-0-0" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span data-text="true" style="font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">
</span></span></div>
</div>
<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0McAllen, TX, USA26.2034071 -98.23001239999996425.9755021 -98.552735899999959 26.4313121 -97.907288899999969tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-49977779972077354952015-09-04T13:21:00.003-05:002015-09-04T14:08:57.480-05:00Refugees in Europe deserve help, but refugees in U.S. deserve to "be sent back"?<h3>
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073786111 1 0 415 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
</style><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">
-->
</span></b></span></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">September 4, 2015</span></b></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Hillary Clinton on the refugee crisis in Southern Europe:</span></b></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></b></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Well the pictures, well the stories, <span style="color: purple;">we’ve been watching
this terrible assault on the Syrian people now for years, are just
heartbreaking.</span> I think the entire world has to come together, it should not be
just one or two countries, or not just Europe and the United States. We should
do our part, as should the Europeans, but this is a broader, global crisis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We now have um, more refugees than we’ve had,
in many years, I think since the second world war. And <span style="color: purple;">as we’ve seen tragically, people are literally dying to
escape the conflict in Syria.</span> Uh, I think that the, the larger Middle East, I
think Asia, I think everybody should step up and say we have to help these
people. And I would hope that, under the aegis of the United Nations led by the
Security Council, and certainly by <span style="color: purple;">the United States which has been such a
generous nation in the past, we would begin to try to find ways to help people
get to safety in other lands.</span> However, that does not solve the problem. And the
problem is one that the entire world now sees, doesn’t just affect the Syrian
people, it affects all of us… <span style="color: purple;">the millions of people who are fleeing need safe
places to be, but the conflict needs to be brought under control.</span>”
<br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-syria-refugee-crisis_55e9d18ce4b03784e275bf72 </span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">June 18, 2014</span></b></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Hillary Clinton on the refugee crisis in South Texas:</span></b></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Well, two quick points, the numbers are increasing
dramatically. And, the <span style="color: purple;">main reason I believe that’s happening is the violence
in some of those Central American countries is increasing dramatically.</span> And
there is not sufficient law enforcement or will on the part of the governments
of those countries to try to deal with <span style="color: purple;">this exponential increase in violence,
drug trafficking, the drug cartels, and many children are fleeing from that
violence.</span>”</span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">[interviewer: “Should they be able to stay here? It’s safer."]</span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Well, it may be safer but that’s not the answer. Well first
of all, we have to provide the best emergency care we can provide. <span style="color: purple;">We have
children, five and six years old, who have, come up from Central America. We
need to do more to, provide border security in Southern Mexico</span>. </span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">[interviewer: “So they should be sent back?"]</span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">Well,<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="color: purple;">they should be sent back as soon as it
can be determined who responsible adults in their families are, because, there
are concerns about whether all of them can be sent back</span>, but I think all of
them who can be should be reunited with their families, and just as Vice
President Biden is arguing today, in Central America, we’ve got to do more, I
started this when I was secretary, to deal with the violence in this region, to
deal with border security, but <span style="color: purple;">we have to send a clear message, just because
your child gets across the border, that doesn't mean the child gets to stay.</span> So,
we don't want to send a message that is contrary to our laws or will encourage
more children to make that dangerous journey." </span></span></span></h3>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/18/hillary-clinton-immigration_n_5507630.html </span></span></h3>
</div>
kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-71200266559164778342015-05-25T23:42:00.000-05:002015-10-01T05:14:01.680-05:00Should we use a capital framework to understand culture? Applying cultural capital to communities of color<br />
<div class="page" title="Page 2">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtEmMLPlzINnveHuhqw8bd5lro_PVh-MwadCF3rx_ZixZ0dpzBQbbqRBkS5c4FnV-CG_A2Rob7PYZd1BFRLgvrvhAdGGFxxgDOMYvCghscZQu0S5axDmvh3aFQS-giqmLNxfL7BQ/s1600/pdf+chart2c+the+acceleration+of+metaphorical+capital.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtEmMLPlzINnveHuhqw8bd5lro_PVh-MwadCF3rx_ZixZ0dpzBQbbqRBkS5c4FnV-CG_A2Rob7PYZd1BFRLgvrvhAdGGFxxgDOMYvCghscZQu0S5axDmvh3aFQS-giqmLNxfL7BQ/s400/pdf+chart2c+the+acceleration+of+metaphorical+capital.jpg" width="315" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The Acceleration of Metaphorical Capital, from my published article. Copyright Kip Austin Hinton.</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
"Social science research on communities of color has long been shaped by theories of social and
cultural capital. This article is a hermeneutic reading of metaphorical capital frameworks, including
community cultural wealth and funds of knowledge. Financial capital, the basis of these frameworks,
is premised on unequal exchange. Money only becomes capital when it is not spent, but is instead
invested, manipulated, and exploited. Metaphorical capitals have been criticized as imprecise, falsely
quantitative, and inequitable. Some research assumes that, rather than reinforcing economic class,
metaphorical capital somehow nullifies class or replaces economic capital. Yet marginalized students, by definition, have been excluded by dominant culture. Compared to low socioeconomic status
(SES) students of color, high SES students have a wealth of capital, in all forms. Metaphorical capital conjures the economic worldview of capitalism, imposing a capitalist, market-based worldview.
Frameworks of metaphorical capital use neoliberal vocabulary, arguably endorsing capitalism’s hegemony. The supposed metaphorical capital is not capital at all; by presenting it as capital, researchers’
goals become inconsistent with their own theoretical frameworks. There may be better ways to theorize culture. This article concludes by proposing four frameworks—possibilities that interpret culture
without relying on capital."<br />
<a href="https://www.academia.edu/13932915/Should_We_Use_a_Capital_Framework_to_Understand_Culture_Applying_Cultural_Capital_to_Communities_of_Color" target="_blank">Preview article (pdf)</a><span id="goog_139125137"></span><span id="goog_139125138"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Published in </span><a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10665684.2015.1025616" style="font-size: 10pt;" target="_blank"><i>Equity & Excellence in Education</i>, May 2015</a><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Hinton, Kip Austin (2015). Should We Use a Capital Framework to Understand Culture? Applying Cultural Capital to Communities of Color. <i>Equity & Excellence in Education 48</i>(2), p. 299-319. DOI: 10.1080/10665684.2015.1025616</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-42913093774644022742012-03-14T18:02:00.003-06:002012-03-14T18:29:14.876-06:00"Great education institutions are being decimated through budget cuts"<span jsid="text" class="commentBody">The effect of this will be to undermine the entire concept of public education. Private colleges are not raising tuition as fast, and their students use <span style="font-style: italic;">much</span> more federally funded loan aid than UC students.<br />State institutions will stagger. For poor<span class="text_exposed_show"> students, access is reduced, while for middle class students, private schools may become the norm (non-profit and for-profit). For now, this will save some state money, but it will greatly increase the federal burden, greatly inflate total student loan debt, and greatly reduce the investment in California's economy -- which will reduce future tax earnings.<br />This disinvestment is not only inequitable, it is financially stupid. Penny wise pound foolish.<br />_________________________________<br /></span></span><br />By Steve Lopez<br />March 14, 2012<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">My daughter attends elementary school in Los Angeles Unified, which has just sent out 11,700 layoff notices in the latest round of miserable news.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">...</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">I was in the Bay Area recently and caught this headline in the Contra Costa Times:</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"Believe it: Harvard cheaper than Cal State."</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Well, certainly not if you go by the sticker prices for tuition, room and board. But on Harvard's website, there's a calculator that says a family of four with a $130,000 annual income could qualify for as much as a $39,750 scholarship for the undergrad program. So instead of $56,750 for freshman tuition, room and board at Harvard, the bill would come to $17,000.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">...</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Class sizes have gone from 25 to 50 in some cases, Bradford said, to help manage costs. And many students have been forced to hang on an extra year or two, while managing jobs and families, as they wait for classes to open up.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"It's really painful to have students who know what they want to do, and we can't help them," Bradford said.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">...</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">You cannot fix any of this in a state more inclined to build prisons than schools, despite projections of a huge shortage of college-educated workers by 2025. You can't fix it when you're the only major oil-producing state with no excise tax, and you refuse to correct the huge property tax advantage Proposition 13 extended to corporations. You can't fix it without modest concessions from public employees, including teachers, on pensions and benefits.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">...</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><br style="font-style: italic;">http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0314-lopez-edcuts-20120314,0,1137047.columnkipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-88754691919810067012012-01-27T20:48:00.000-06:002012-01-27T21:08:45.685-06:00They know what schools do to them.<span style="font-family:verdana;">Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance.</span><br /><br style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success. The pupil is thereby "schooled" to confuse</span><br style="font-family:verdana;"><br style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">teaching</span> </span>with <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">_______</span></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">learning</span>,<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">grade advancement</span> with <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">_______</span></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">education</span>,<br />a <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">diploma </span>with <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">_______</span></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">competence</span>, and<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">fluency </span>with the <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">_______</span><span style="color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">ability to say something new</span></span>.<br /></span><br style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">His imagination is "schooled" to accept service in place of value.</span><br style="font-family:verdana;"><br style="font-weight: bold; font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">Medical treatment</span> is mistaken for <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">_______</span></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">health care</span>,<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">social work</span> for the <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">_______</span></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">improvement of community</span> life,<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">police </span>protection for<br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">_______</span></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">safety</span>,<br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">military </span>poise for<br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">_______</span></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">national security</span>,<br />the <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 102, 102);">rat race</span> for<br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">_______</span></span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 0);">productive work</span>.<br /></span><br style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Health, learning, dignity, independence, and creative endeavour are defined as little more than the performance of the institutions which claim to serve these ends, and their improvement is made to depend on allocating more resources to the management of hospitals, schools, and other agencies in question.</span><br style="font-family:verdana;"><br style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-family:verdana;"> --- Ivan Illich, </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-family:verdana;" >Deschooling Society </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">(1973, p. 9)</span><br style="font-family: verdana;"><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.amazon.com/Deschooling-Society-Open-Forum-Illich/dp/0714508799">http://www.amazon.com/Deschooling-Society-Open-Forum-Illich/dp/0714508799</a><br style="font-family: verdana;"><br style="font-family: verdana;">kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-32288690378141651582011-12-13T21:41:00.000-06:002011-12-13T22:03:57.172-06:00squeezing jobs through a pipe"TransCanada numbers count each job on a yearly basis. If the pipeline employs 10,000 people working for two years, that's 20,000 jobs by the company's count. The estimates also include jobs in Canada, where about a third of the $7 billion pipeline would be constructed... Even according to TransCanada, the amount of permanent jobs created would be only in the hundreds."<br /><br />The pipeline plan would have very little impact on the unemployment rate in the states it passes through. The pipeline plan would have no measurable effect on the supply or cost of petroleum in the U.S. Finally, the petroleum will not belong to any of us. It will belong to TransCanada, who will obviously sell it to the highest bidder (for many barrels, experts say that will be China).<br /><a href="http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/jun08/images/feature_tar_sands.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 280px;" src="http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/jun08/images/feature_tar_sands.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />The greatest problem is the process of gathering and processing oil from oilsands. This is not like the stereotype of a gusher, with oil bursting from the ground. They have to dig down with gigantic machinery, hauling out ton after ton of goop - dirty, tarry sand. It is very expensive and wasteful to separate the sand from the oil, polluting thousands of gallons of water, which is then simply dumped onto the ground by TransCanada. All this arguably makes oilsand one of the most wasteful forms of energy. The process creates 25% more pollution and greenhouse gas than regular oil, such as is generally found in Arabia, Mexico, and Russia. <br /><br />In short, everything that is bad about regular petroleum is even worse with the stuff that would come through the proposed pipeline. Even if it does satisfy some of our appetite for fossil fuels, it will only delay the inevitable, while accelerating the destruction of our climate.<br /><br /><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/13/news/economy/keystone_pipeline_jobs/index.htm?hpt=hp_t1">http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/13/news/economy/keystone_pipeline_jobs/index.htm?hpt=hp_t1</a>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-22261730452006475882011-11-22T20:12:00.000-06:002011-11-22T21:10:54.591-06:00How to admit Chinese studentsI have taught many Chinese students who are honest, hard-working, and creative (unlike profs in this story, I did not reduce the number of presentations to "help" them). I also taught a few who plagiarized in class, and probably plagiarized their UCLA admissions essays. Supply and demand at work:<br /><blockquote><br />... Zinch China was contacted by the provost of a large American university who wanted to recruit 250 Chinese students, stat. When asked why, the provost replied that his institution faced a yawning budget deficit. To fill it, he told Mr. Melcher, the university needed additional students who could pay their own way...<br />The company concluded that 90 percent of Chinese applicants submit false recommendations, 70 percent have other people write their personal essays, 50 percent have forged high-school transcripts...<br />"If a student isn't placed, we've got screaming, yelling parents in the lobby," says Kathryn Ohehir, who works in [Aoji Education Group], in Beijing. "They don't want their money back. They want their kid in an Ivy League school."</blockquote>Before they begin to recruit, universities need to understand what they are dealing with. Every admissions office needs an employee who is not only fluent in Chinese (putonghua), but also knowledgeable about China's educational system and the agent system. For smaller colleges and universities that admit less than 200 Chinese students per year, it is a good idea to interview <span style="font-style: italic;">admitted </span>Chinese candidates before making a final decision. This should be done via Skype or videoconference. It should only take 3 to 5 minutes. An interview will allow the university to confirm and document 1) what the student looks like, and 2) the students' level of fluency in English. If the student's alleged TOEFL score does not match the reality of the interview, obviously admission must be refused. If the student who eventually shows up for class is not the same as the person from the interview, obviously admission must be refused. [as of right now, there are cases when a wealthy Chinese "applicant" has no knowledge of what was even written in the application. As the article mentions, some even expect to simply buy their way through coursework.]<br /><br />This is not a screening for English proficiency. Of course a successful applicant could have a low TOEFL score; that will mean taking pre-major ESL courses, which is a delay but not a punishment. A fraudulent applicant, on the other hand, should be rejected. To keep this fair, a Chinese speaker must also be part of these interviews.<br /><br />This is an argument in favor of acknowledging the agent system, and requiring China's agents to reveal themselves. Perhaps even a "registration" system (similar to the one already followed for student-athletes who have declared eligibility for professional sports drafts). By doing this, America's universities could push the agents to increase honestly, with the threat of banning them from future representation of students. I understand such a system would be drastically different, but it might be a good idea. And there are wealthy students in the U.S. who similarly hire "agents" to help them prepare applications, whether private tutors or after-school study centers. These should also be monitored, this is one of the unpublicized ways rich kids build advantages in the admissions process.<br /><br />Back to the topic, if the student is from a region that speaks one of China's many other languages, it is unethical to accept those students <span style="font-style: italic;">unless</span> the admissions office first hires someone who speaks that language. Dependence on so-called "official" translations, essays that may be written by a professional, and transcripts that are often forged? That is a highly questionable business practice, advocated by universities that value money more than education. I do not actually support the use of translated transcripts at all. I don't expect non-English institutions to produce them, that is not their job. I do not trust private, third-party translation services to hire only honest brokers. They are interested in serving their customers, the foreign applicants. The university that is interested must do the work itself, to assure an accurate understanding of what the student can do. If that means extra cost, it is reasonable to charge a small fee to applicants who need translation. At the same time, this must <span style="font-style: italic;">not </span>become a profit source to exploit foreign applicants (as it already is in Great Britain).<br /><br />We cannot look the other way just because the university is having budget problems (problems that in the case of public universities invariably originate with the state itself). Investment in Chinese recruiters alone is not acceptable. More time and resources must be devoted to verification and academic honesty, on applications and coursework. This will require advanced technology (turnitin, SafeAssign) along with human resources -- humans with cultural and linguistic knowledge of whichever countries our students come from.<br /><br />......................................................................................................................................................<br /><br /><a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Chinese-Students-Prove-a/129628/">http://chronicle.com/article/Chinese-Students-Prove-a/129628/</a><br /><br /><p class="dateline">November 3, 2011</p> <h1>The China Conundrum</h1> <h2 class="deck">American colleges find the Chinese-student boom a tricky fit </h2><p><img style="float: left; padding-right: 6px; width: 229px; height: 419px;" src="http://chronicle.com/img/photos/biz/12NYT-China-graphic-new.gif" alt="" /></p> <p style="font-style: italic;" class="byline">By Tom Bartlett and Karin Fischer</p> <p>Dozens of new students crowded into a lobby of the University of Delaware's student center at the start of the academic year. Many were stylishly attired in distressed jeans and bright-colored sneakers; half tapped away </p> <p>silently on smartphones while the rest engaged in boisterous conversations. Eavesdropping on those conversations, however, would have been difficult for an observer not fluent in Mandarin. That's because, with the exception of one lost-looking soul from Colombia, all the students were from China.</p> <p>Among them was Yisu Fan, whose flight from Shanghai had arrived six hours earlier. Too excited to sleep, he had stayed up all night waiting for orientation at the English Language Institute to begin. Like nearly all the Chinese students at Delaware, Mr. Fan was conditionally admitted—that is, he can begin taking university classes once he completes an English program. He plans to major in finance and, after graduation, to return home and work for his father's construction company. He was wearing hip, dark-framed glasses and a dog tag around his neck with a Chinese dragon on it. Mr. Fan chose to attend college more than 7,000 miles from home, he said, because "the Americans, their education is very good."</p><hr /> <p>That opinion is widely shared in China, which is part of the reason the number of Chinese undergraduates in the United States has tripled in just three years, to 40,000, making them the largest group of foreign students at American colleges. While other countries, like South Korea and India, have for many years sent many undergraduates to the United States, it's the sudden and startling uptick in applicants from China that has caused a stir at universities—many of them big, public institutions with special English-language programs—that are particularly welcoming toward international students. Universities like Delaware, where the number of Chinese students has leapt to 517 this year, from eight in 2007.</p><br /><p>The students, mostly from China's rapidly expanding middle class, can afford to pay full tuition, a godsend for colleges that have faced sharp budget cuts in recent years. But what seems at first glance a boon for colleges </p> <p>and students alike is, on closer inspection, a tricky fit for both.</p> <p>Colleges, eager to bolster their diversity and expand their international appeal, have rushed to recruit in China, where fierce competition for seats at Chinese universities and an aggressive admissions-agent industry feed a frenzy to land spots on American campuses. College officials and consultants say they are seeing widespread fabrication on applications, whether that means a personal essay written by an agent or an English-proficiency score that doesn't jibe with a student's speaking ability. American colleges, new to the Chinese market, struggle to distinguish between good applicants and those who are too good to be true.</p> <p>Once in the classroom, students with limited English labor to keep up with discussions. And though those students are excelling, struggling, and failing at the same rate as their American counterparts, some pro</p> <p>fessors say they have had to alter how they teach.</p> <p>Colleges have been slow to adjust to the challenges they've encountered but are trying new strategies, both to better acclimate students and to deal with the application problems. The onus is on them, says Jiang Xueqin, deputy principal of Peking University High School, one of Beijing's top schools, and director of its international division. "Are American universities unhappy? Because Chinese students and parents aren't."<br /></p> <p>"Nothing will change," Mr. Jiang says, "unless American colleges make it clear to students and parents that it has to."</p> <h4 class="CHE-5-column-News subhead">The Role of Agents </h4><p>Wantin</p> <p>g Tang is quick to laugh, listens to high-energy bands like Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and OK Go, and describes herself on her Facebook page as "really fun" and "really serious." Ms. Tang, a junior majoring in management and international business, speaks confident, if not flawless, English. That wasn't always the case. When she applied to the University of Delaware, her English was, in her estimation, very poor.</p> <p>Ms. Tang, who went to high school in Shanghai, didn't exactly choose to attend Delaware, a public institution of about 21,000 students that admits about half its applicants—and counts Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. among its prominent graduates. Ms. Tang's mother wanted her to attend college in the United States, and so they visited the offices of a dozen or more agents, patiently listening to their promises and stories of success.</p> <p>Her mother chose an agency that suggested Delaware and helped Ms. Tang fill out her application, guiding h</p> <p>er through a process that otherwise would have been bewildering. Because her English wasn't good enough to write the admissions essay, staff members at the agency, which charged her $4,000, asked her questions about herself in Chinese and produced an essay. (Test preparation was another $3,300.)</p> <p>Now that she can write in English herself, she doesn't think much of what the employees wrote. But it served its purpose: She was admitted, and spent six months in the English-language program before beginning freshman classes. And despite bumps along the way, she's getting good grades and enjoying college life. As for allowing an agent to write her essay, she sees that decision in pragmatic terms: "At that time, my English not better as now."</p> <p>Education agents have long played a role in sending Chinese students abroad, dating back decades to a time when American dollars were forbidden in China and only agents could secure the currency to pay tuition. Admission experts say they can provide an important service, acting as guides to an application process that can seem totally, well, foreign. Application materials are frequently printed only in English. Chinese students are often baffled by the emphasis on extracurriculars and may have never written a personal essay. Requiring recommendations from guidance counselors makes little sense in a country where few high schools have one on staff. Many assume that the <em>U.S. News & World Report</em> issue on rankings is an official government publication.</p> <p>But while there are certainly aboveboard agents and applications, other recruiters engage in fraudulent behavior. An administrator at one high school in Beijing says agents falsified her school's letterhead to produce doctored transcripts and counterfeit letters of recommendation, which she discovered when a parent called to complain about an agent's charging a fee for documents from the school. James E. Lewis, director of international admissions and recruiting at Kansas State University, says he once got a clutch of applications clearly submitted by a single agent, with all fees charged to the same bank branch, although the students came from several far-flung cities. The grades on three of the five transcripts, he says, were identical.</p> <p>Zinch China, a consulting company that advises American colleges and universities about China, last year published a report based on interviews with 250 Beijing high-school students bound for the United States, their parents, and a dozen agents and admissions consultants. The company concluded that 90 percent of Chinese applicants submit false recommendations, 70 percent have other people write their personal essays, 50 percent have forged high-school transcripts, and 10 percent list academic awards and other achievements they did not receive. The "tide of application fraud," the report predicted, will most likely only worsen as more students go to America.</p> <h4 class="CHE-5-column-News subhead">'Studying for the Test'</h4> <p>Tom Melcher, Zinch China's chairman and the report's author, says it's simplistic to vilify agents who provide these services. They're responding, he says, to the demands of students and parents...</p> <p>Most Chinese students who are enrolled at American colleges turn to intermediaries to shepherd them through the admissions process, according to a study by researchers at Iowa State University, published in the <em>Journal of College Admission</em>...<br /><br /><a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Chinese-Students-Prove-a/129628/">http://chronicle.com/article/Chinese-Students-Prove-a/129628/</a><br /></p><p><br /></p>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-6157292709839594222011-11-10T00:55:00.004-06:002011-11-10T00:57:42.551-06:00‘I pay more federal income taxes than General Electric, Boeing, DuPont, Wells Fargo, Verizon, etc., etc., all put together.’<span class="postHeader"><span title="This date and/or time has been adjusted to match your timezone" class="localtime">Thursday, Nov 3, 2011</span> </span> <h2 style="font-weight: normal;" class="entry-title headline lg"><a href="http://www.salon.com/2011/11/03/the_great_corporate_tax_scam/singleton" rel="bookmark" title="America’s corporate tax obscenity">America’s corporate tax obscenity</a></h2> <h3 style="font-weight: normal;" class="deck"><span style="font-size:100%;">A new report about companies' finances won't just enrage you -- it'll make you run to the nearest protest</span></h3> <div class="meta clearfix"> <span class="byline">By <a href="http://www.salon.com/writer/andrew_leonard/">Andrew Leonard</a></span> </div> <div class="art"> <img style="width: 381px; height: 254px;" src="http://media.salon.com/2011/11/ows-corporations-460x307.jpg" class="attachment-lg_horizontal wp-post-image" alt="ows corporations" title="ows corporations" /> <div class="artMeta"> <p> <span style="font-size:78%;">(Credit: Reuters/Jose Luis Magaua) </span></p> </div> </div> <p>In 2010, Verizon reported an annual profit of nearly $12 billion. The statutory federal corporate income tax rate is 35 percent, so theoretically, Verizon should have owed the IRS around $4.2 billlion. Instead, according to figures compiled by the Center for Tax Justice, the company actually boasted a <em>negative tax liability</em> of $703 million. Verizon ended up making even more money <em>after</em> it calculated its taxes.</p><p>Verizon is hardly alone, and isn’t even close to being the worst offender. Perhaps most famously, General Electric raked in $10.5 billion in profit in 2010, yet ended up reporting $4.7 <em>billion</em> worth of negative taxes. The worst offender in 2010, as measured by its overall negative tax rate, was Pepco, the electricity utility that serves Washington, D.C. Pepco reported profits of $882 million in 2010, and negative taxes of $508 million — a negative tax rate of 57.6 percent.</p> <div style="display: block;" id="fold-10161027" class="hidden"><p>Altogether, according to “Corporate Taxpayers & Corporate Tax Dodgers 2008-10,” a <a target="_blank" href="http://ctj.org/ctjreports/2011/11/corporate_taxpayers_corporate_tax_dodgers_2008-2010.php">blockbuster new report </a> put together by the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that will have you reaching for your hypertension medicine before you finish reading the third page, 37 of the United States’ biggest corporations paid <em>zero</em> taxes in 2010. The list is a blue-chip roll-call.</p><p>As the authors acidly note, “Most Americans can rightfully complain, ‘I pay more federal income taxes than General Electric, Boeing, DuPont, Wells Fargo, Verizon, etc., etc., all put together.’ That’s an unacceptable situation.”</p><p><strong>The “high taxation” lie</strong></p><p>Reading through this report, you will find yourself seized by an irresistible desire to hurl yourself headlong into the nearest OccupyYourLocalCity protest. In an era of crushing government deficits and mass unemployment, corporate America is not only skating blissfully free of its civic responsibilities, but continues to complain that it is paying <em>too much</em> in taxes. Even worse: Congressional Republicans and many Democrats agree! Listening to our politicians talk, you would imagine that corporate America’s neck is permanently under the tax man’s steel-tipped boot. When, in fact, the exact opposite is the truth.</p><p>The list of companies that paid zero taxes is only the beginning of the travesties documented by the report. The authors looked at the tax filings from 2008-2010 of 280 of the nation’s biggest, most successful corporations. These companies reported $1.4 trillion worth of profit during a period when most Americans were struggling to stay afloat. The authors discovered that the average <em>effective</em> tax rate — what the companies really paid after government subsidies, tax breaks and various tax dodges were taken into account — was only 18.5 percent, less than half the statutory rate. Fully a quarter of the 280 companies paid under 10 percent.</p><p>Remember that fact, the next time someone tries to tell you that American corporations pay the highest income taxes in the free world. The only number that counts is the “effective tax rate.” One of the interesting tidbits provided by the authors is that in many cases, the tax rate on foreign income for many of these companies is actually higher than the effective U.S. rate.</p><p>The most distressing part of the tale is the big picture: The overall trend line is pointed in exactly the wrong direction. If you break out just the years 2009-2010, the effective tax rate was 17.3 percent. “In 2008, 22 companies paid no federal income tax, and got $3.3 billion in tax rebates. In 2010, 37 companies paid no income tax, and got $7.8 billion in rebates.” When measured as a percentage of total GDP, over the last three fiscal years, “total corporate income tax payments fell to only 1.16 percent of the GDP … a new sustained record low since World War II.</p><blockquote><p>Corporate taxes paid for more than a quarter of federal outlays in the 1950s and a fifth in the 1960s. They began to decline during the Nixon administration, yet even by the second half of the 1990s, corporate taxes still covered 11 percent of the cost of federal programs. But in fiscal 2010, corporate taxes paid for a mere 6 percent of the federal government’s expenses.</p></blockquote><p>How have these companies managed to cut their tax liabilities so far? The answer includes a mixture of targeted tax breaks that impact specific industries or companies, accounting games that corporations play with stock options, and sweeping adjustments to tax law such as changes in the rules in how companies can write off the value of depreciating equipment. The accounting rules for so-called accelerated depreciation are now so accommodating that companies can write off 75 percent of the cost of new equipment <em>immediately.</em></p><p>A look at the list of the 10 corporations receiving the biggest tax-subsidy breaks from the U.S. government will defeat the ameliorating effects of <em>any</em> medication: Wells Fargo, AT&T, Verizon Communications, General Electric, International Business Machines, Exxon Mobil, Boeing, PNC Financial Services Group, Goldman Sachs Group, and Procter & Gamble. “56 percent of tax subsidies,” write the authors, “went to four industries: financial, utilities, telecom, oil/gas/pipeline.”</p><p><strong>The companies that pay</strong></p><p>However, not all companies are tax dodgers. Of the 280 companies analyzed by the authors, about 25 percent of the total paid close to the statutory rate, a little over 30 percent. But there’s no rhyme or reason to who pays or who doesn’t.</p><blockquote><p>DuPont and Monsanto both produce chemicals. But over the 2008-10 period, Monsanto paid 22 percent of its profits in U.S. corporate income taxes, while DuPont actually paid a negative tax rate of –3.4 percent. Department store chain Macy’s paid a three-year rate of 12.1 percent, while competing chain Nordstrom’s paid 37.1 percent. In computer technology, Hewlett-Packard paid 3.7 of its three-year U.S. profits in federal income taxes, while Texas Instruments paid 33.5 percent. FedEx paid 0.9 percent over three years, while its competitor United Parcel Service paid 24.1 percent.</p></blockquote><p>The authors conclude on a wistful note, with a list of what Washington could do to bring sense and reason to corporate taxation, while providing the government with desperately needed revenue. But as the authors themselves readily acknowledge, their recommendations exist in an alternate universe from the one that we actually happen to live in.</p><blockquote><p>Unfortunately, corporate tax legislation now being promoted by many in Congress seems stuck on the idea that as a group, corporations are now either paying the perfect amount in federal income taxes or are paying too much. Many members of the tax writing committees in Congress seem intent on making changes that would actually make it easier (and more lucrative) for companies to shift taxable profits, and potentially jobs, overseas. Meanwhile, GOP candidates for president are all promoting huge cuts in the corporate tax or, in several cases, even elimination of the corporate income tax entirely.</p></blockquote><p>And that, ultimately, is the most enraging fact about the new report from the Citizens for Tax Justice and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. It won’t make a darn bit of difference.</p></div>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-3224278731443911912011-11-03T00:12:00.000-06:002011-11-03T00:18:59.557-06:00Support the Transaction Taxto slow computer speculation, decrease volatility, and raise revenue. support the transaction tax!<br />"The Benefits of a Financial Transactions Tax"<br /><a href="http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/financial-transactions-tax-2008-12.pdf">http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/financial-transactions-tax-2008-12.pdf</a><br /><br />"Taxation generally leads to economic distortions, with the possible exception of cases where the activity being taxed is itself harmful, such as smoking or drinking alcohol. While there are undoubtedly distortions associated with financial transactions taxes (it will have some impact on the cost of capital), much of the economic activity that will be lost as a result of the tax has the character of gambling. It will have very little effect on the effectiveness of capital markets.<br /><br />"In this sense, a financial transactions tax can actually increase the efficiency of financial markets. If the sector can just as effectively fill its function as an intermediary while employing fewer workers and requiring less capital, then the tax will have increased the efficiency of the financial sector. In this respect, it is worth noting the explosive growth of the financial sector over the last three decades...<br /><br />"There is a real economic benefit to this growth insofar as it improved the allocation of capital, allowing firms to better gain access to capital markets or for individuals to better adjust their saving and spending patterns over their lifetimes. However, if this growth in resource use was only associated with additional trading and did not actually lead to better allocations of capital, then the resources were wasted. If a financial transactions tax reduces the volume of trading, and therefore the resources used by this sector, without harming the sector’s ability to allocate capital, then it will be making the sector more efficient and freeing up resources for more productive uses."kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-9103051283465158352011-06-29T06:47:00.000-05:002011-06-29T06:55:25.035-05:00Letter to Governor BrownI am in favor of equal rights for agricultural workers. This means equal protections and a minimum wage equal to other jobs.<br /><br />I voted for Jerry Brown because he supported farmworkers' rights in the past, and promised to do so again, in the spirit of Cesar Chavez. I was then very disappointed tonight to read ( <a href="http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/06/emotions-run-high-as-jerry-bro.html">http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/06/emotions-run-high-as-jerry-bro.html</a> ) that Brown has followed the footsteps of Schwarzenegger, not Chavez. Brown vetoed the bill that would allow agricultural workers to protect themselves by organizing.<br /><br />This bill would improve the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Agricultural_Labor_Relations_Act">California Agricultural Labor Relations Act</a>; it would not destroy it. CALRA's framework is viable no matter how votes are counted.<br /><br />But beyond that, it is disheartening that Brown has become so cynical. He used his personal relationship with Chavez to win votes during the campaign, but vetoed Chavez's legacy the first chance he got.<br /><br />Brown does not step foot onto these farms. Brown has not lifted a finger to help the workers since 1983 - but he happily lifted a veto pen to hurt them, last night.<br /><br />Maybe Brown's conscience is clear, because Chavez is already dead, right? Brown will never have to look him in the eye. But the truth is, farmworkers have lost ground in the past 20 years. Fewer of them are union members, and more of them are paid substandard wages in substandard conditions, by dishonest farm owners. Calfornia's government lacks the will or money to enforce labor and safety laws in the agricultural valleys. Even under Brown's tenure as attorney general, violations increased in the San Joaquin Valley, the Central Valley, and the Coachella Valley. Therefore, the only ethical option is to put that power in the hands of the workers, by empowering unions. With more members, they would have more bargaining power and could at least stop the erosion of workers' rights.<br /><br />I urge governor Brown to reconsider his alliance with those growers who would exploit workers. If our governor is not happy with this modification to the CALRA, I urge him to support workers, and I hopw his abandonment of them is temporary. Find a new option that would protect our state's hardest workers.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />Kip Austin Hinton, Ph.D.<br />University of California, Los Angeleskipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-61590218430100604002011-06-04T16:32:00.000-05:002011-06-04T18:00:15.919-05:00translation of the Manu Chao song "Me Llaman Calle"this is about my translation of the Manu Chao song "Me Llaman Calle." [<span style="color: rgb(102, 0, 0);">video below</span>]<br /><br />i'm reasonably close to a literal translation, with changes to fit the rhythm and number of syllables per line. "baldosa" is like ladrilla (a brick to build a house) except flat like a tile. based on context, i translate it as "cobblestones." Chao also uses "maquinita," literally "little machine," but this implies a small device in english (a machine that does something, but does not move itself - such as a laminating machine, a blood-glucose meter, or an ATM) - so i use "little engine" instead, to imply movement. the one line i'm not happy with is the translation of "no me rebajo"; if i wasn't worried about rhythm, i would translate it as "it doesn't dig ruts into me." the tricky part is that this word, rut, is almost never used as a present-tense transitive verb in english. we generally use it as a noun ("in a rut") or participial adjective ("a rutted road").<br /><br />i'm not certain which meaning of "a la salida" too use. Chao has so many street metaphors, i'm tempted to say it means freeway exit, as in off-ramp. but of course since he's referring to a man, the man could simply be standing in the exit of a bar or hotel. either way, both versions would be symbolic exits, a way for the protagonist (street) to escape her life of prostitution.<br /><br />one of the cool things here, he says "calle tristeza," as if Tristeza were the name of the street (i.e., turn left on Sadness Street). but in English, we switch the order, which breaks up the flow into the next line. i tried translating it as "street of sadness from loving so much," to put the object next to the gerund phrase. but with ih the preposition in the middle, my version loses the clever double grammar from the spanish version. i avoided the switch entirely in a different place, with the words "street wounded," because i can take advantage of wounded's dual status as a participial and as a conjugated verb. this cannot preserve the idea of a street name, but it does allow a smooth, singular connection to the next line.<br /><br />another cool thing is Chao's line "calle más calle" (literally "street more street"), a common spanish way to artificially force a noun into an adjective. english does not do this; however, there are poetic forms that approximate it. i think of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner">Blade Runner</a> (1982) quote and White Zombie song, "more human than human." logically this makes no sense, but we can understand the intent of this slogan: the replicants/androids are better at <span style="font-style: italic;">imitating </span>humans than we are at <span style="font-style: italic;">being</span> humans. so we can extend this concept to other things, especially when we turn nouns directly into slang adjectives. "christmas" (noun) becomes "christmasy" (adjective). i could claim "this christmas is more christmasy than last year." sounds odd, but you can understand. this is what Chao is doing with street. so i turn street into a fake adjective ("streeter"), then translate it as "streeter than street."<br /><br />i inverted the refrain ("me llaman calle" becomes "street, they call me") to make the throchees fit. either way is grammatical, in either language. as a side effect, "street" is sometimes read as enjambment, part of the previous line. as in the 3rd and 4th line, "the revolting and the lost street." this works most of the time, especially in last full stanza, when the enjambed lines allow the refrain to appear split in the middle, across two lines with multiple subjects: "street, they call me/streeter than street/they call me always and/at any hour." do they always call her street? yes. do they always call her at any hour? yes.<br /><br />my full translation:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">street, they call me</span><br /><br />street, they call me<br />walking cobblestones<br />the revolting and the lost<br />street, they call me<br />street of night<br />street of day<br />street, they call me<br />i go so tired<br />i go so empty<br />like a little engine through the great city<br />street, they call me<br />i climb in your car<br />street, they call me<br />i owe happiness<br />tired street, street wounded<br />from loving so much<br />i go to the bottom of the street<br />i go to the top of the street<br />it doesn't rut me [it doesn't dig ruts in me]<br />neither does life<br />street, they call me<br />and that's my pride<br />i know one day it will arrive<br />i know one day<br />my luck will come<br />one day come looking for me<br />at the exit[off-ramp], a good man<br />giving life without a fee<br />my heart's not for rent<br />street, they call me<br />street, they call me<br />suffering street, street of sadness<br />from loving so much<br />street, they call me<br />streeter than street<br />they call me the street with no future<br />they call me the street with no exit<br />street, they call me<br />streeter than street<br />the one of women, of life<br />i climb up to the bottom<br />i go down to the top<br />like a little engine<br />through the great city<br /><br />street, they call me<br />street, they call me<br />suffering street, street of sadness<br />from loving much<br /><br />street, they call me<br />streeter than street<br />they call me always and<br />at any hour<br />they call me handsome<br />always at a bad time<br />they call me whore<br />and also princess<br />street, they call me<br />that's my nobility<br />street, they call me<br />suffering street, street lost<br />from loving so much<br /><br />street, they call me street, they call me<br />suffering street, street of sadness from loving so much (x5)<br /><br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lzZWXUfIyIs" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" width="425"></iframe><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">lyrics from internet:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me Llaman Calle</span><br /><br />Me llaman calle<br />pisando baldoza<br />la revoltosa y tan perdida<br />me llaman calle<br />calle de noche<br />calle de día<br />me llaman calle<br />voy tan cansada<br />voy tan vacia<br />como maquinita por la gran ciudad<br />me llaman calle<br />me subo a tu coche<br />me llaman calle<br />debo alegria<br />calle cansada, calle dolida<br />de tanto amar<br />voy calle abajo<br />voy calle arriba<br />no me rebajo<br />ni por la vida<br />me llaman calle<br />y ese es mi orgullo<br />yo se que un dia llegara<br />yo se que un dia<br />vendra mi suerte<br />un dia me vendrá a buscar<br />a la salida un hombre bueno<br />dando la vida y sin pagar<br />mi corazon no es de alquilar<br />me llaman calle (x2)<br />calle sufrida, calle tristeza<br />de tanto amar<br />me llaman calle<br />calle mas calle<br />me llaman calle la sin fututo<br />me llaman calle la sin salida<br />me llaman calle<br />calle más calle<br />la de mujeres de la vida<br />sube pa abajo<br />baja pa arriba<br />como maquinita<br />por la gran ciudad<br /><br />me llaman calle (x2)<br />calle sufrida,<br />calle tristeza<br />de tanto amar<br /><br />me llaman calle<br />calle más calle<br />me llaman siempre y<br />a cualquier hora<br />me llaman guapa<br />siempre a deshora<br />me llaman puta<br />tambien princesa<br />me llaman calle<br />es mi nobleza<br />me llaman calle<br />calle sufrida, calle perdida<br />de tanto amar<br /><br />me llaman calle, me llaman calle<br />calle sufrida, calle tristeza de tanto amar (x5)kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-72368688209052298552011-04-17T21:42:00.000-05:002011-04-18T01:43:50.630-05:00invites you to the Public Defense of the Doctoral Dissertation<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1w_Fcz-kJh7J2Lz_sFbDEuABeyS5OtHvkC28ui5vaQ6FGv6wgQrL_obnRtcctesUHX6YSBqAdcUTr95ALMTzazSRCe6KKeyCsNYfUtyOg6TXnQDUukyHvDgO_72q8DRvuWqkOXQ/s1600/dissertation+defense+invitation+april+19+2011.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 437px; height: 569px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1w_Fcz-kJh7J2Lz_sFbDEuABeyS5OtHvkC28ui5vaQ6FGv6wgQrL_obnRtcctesUHX6YSBqAdcUTr95ALMTzazSRCe6KKeyCsNYfUtyOg6TXnQDUukyHvDgO_72q8DRvuWqkOXQ/s1600/dissertation+defense+invitation+april+19+2011.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5596810197201395922" border="0" /></a><br /><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjBPtFpNaLCsVtp9mWUDH4tbDt0RAiYatVpbSHkMYqF-S-DreY0eww5Rds2wErz-M0hW4ZfJ0_MOl0jFVKmLucp9W0A4oCBdl_SS4bhJwacKp1plOvA8wv-h9EGLJGFfGRC7cVQg/s1600/dissertation+defense+invitation+april+19+2011.jpg"><br /></a></p>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-31614841482090995532011-01-12T19:05:00.000-06:002011-01-12T19:22:14.083-06:00define "terrorist."<div class="mvm plm uiStreamAttachments clearfix plm uiAttachmentNoMedia" ft="{"type":"attach"}"><div><div class="fsm fwn fcg"><div class="uiAttachmentTitle"><strong><span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fcharles-d-ellison%2Fwhy-arent-we-calling-loug_b_806729.html&h=06091" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Why Aren't We Calling Loughner a Terrorist?</a></span></strong> </div><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">huffingtonpost.com</a><div style="font-style: italic;" class="mts uiAttachmentDesc"><blockquote>I can't help but wonder why folks are so afraid to call the mass shooting in Tuscon, Arizona an act of terrorism. The fear of the "T" word seems almost palpable in describing the gruesome events that took place this past Saturday...</blockquote></div></div></div></div><br />my responses to the article:<br /><ul><li>- yes, there is a race component within how this word is used. but the politics are more powerful: some of the same Mujahideen who <a href="http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1983/32183e.htm">reagan called "freedom fighters"</a> in 1983 became "terrorists" in 2001. </li><li>- if shown to be politically motivated, i think a lot of americans will accept that Loughner is a terrorist. especially since it involves assassination. </li><li>- Sirhan Sirhan is regularly described as a terrorist - is it because he is palestinian, or because he assassinated a political figure? i think both.</li><li>- the man who flew a plane into the austin IRS building was described (in media) as deranged AND as a terrorist. same for Ted Kaczynski. so, maybe if you're white, you are called a crazy terrorist instead of a sane terrorist.</li><li>- this might reveal something about the way america sees itself: for a palestinian or iraqi to attack U.S. interests, well, that is sort of rational because they have a grievance (americans recognize that there is a motivation of some sort, even if they would label that motivation "evil"). on the other hand, we think of [white] americans as being the beneficiaries of U.S. policy, so if [white] americans are angry about it, they must be acting against their own interests. which would be "crazy." </li><li>- one of the effects popularly defining "terrorism" is a general sense of terror, a fear of continuing daily life. the southern white lynch mobs of the 1950s definitely fit the definition, but the word was not popular in U.S. media until the 1960s - and domestically, it began as a derogatory label only for leftist groups (weathermen, black panthers, etc.).<br /></li><li>there was initially a lot of resistance by U.S. conservatives to the idea that right-wing political actors could also be terrorists. this was played out in the controversy over the My Lai massacre. like Abu Ghraib, My Lai was so horrific it should not have been controversial at all. it was probably not until Timothy McVeigh that the republican party fully acknowledged the possibility of white, right-wing, U.S. born terrorism (i think of the perpetrators of all these events as terrorists; obviously, rumsfeld disagrees).<br /></li><li>- tucson is different because there is no critical mass of terror. the article gives a list of events, but the events have been separated by years and many miles. </li><li>- a sequence of events attacking a group of people, we would think that looks more like terrorism (even if the attacks were uncoordinated or the attackers were apparently "crazy")</li><li>- many "terrorists" who kill civilians in afghanistan are motivated by offers of money. without a political message, i'm not sure how it's useful to define them as "terrorists." maybe they were hired by "terrorists"? </li></ul>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-85007735884482640712010-12-05T19:40:00.000-06:002010-12-06T03:47:07.130-06:00The Alamo should be integrated into the San Antonio Missions National ParkThe Alamo should be integrated into the <a href="http://www.nps.gov/saan/">San Antonio Missions National Park</a>. It should be a place to see and understand the past, good and bad. It is not a "shrine." It is an old church, built to offer/force a foreign religion to indigenous people. And it is a battleground, where a few Tejanos and white immigrants fought in a rebellion against the Mexican army -- some because of greed, others because of principle.<br />In the 20th century, the Alamo became site of a battle over white Texas identity. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas have thrived on this battle. See Richard Flores: <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Rc4mtLSzu9oC&source=gbs_navlinks_s">http://books.google.com/books?id=Rc4mtLSzu9oC</a><br /><br />New York Times ran an article about a legal battle at the Alamo/Mision San Antonio de Valero. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas are at the center. Of course there are good women in the organization. But as long as the Daughters' goals remain divisive, they will create (rather than memorialize) conflict.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/05alamo.html">http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/us/05alamo.html</a><br />"Critics Accuse Group of a Serious Texas Sin: Forgetting the Alamo"<br /><p> </p><blockquote><p style="font-style: italic;">...<br /></p><p style="font-style: italic;">This summer, the attorney general began an investigation into the group’s finances and business practices, seizing thousands of documents. As the inquiry has gone on, donations have plummeted and speculation has grown that the state may take control of the site in downtown San Antonio...<br /></p><p style="font-style: italic;"> “There is a kind of mini civil war going on within the organization,” said Richard Bruce Winders, the historian and curator of the Alamo. “Unfortunately, the Alamo is caught in the middle.” </p><p style="font-style: italic;"> But beyond the controversy over maintenance is a larger debate over the future of the shrine and battleground, an emotional touchstone for many Texans. More than 2.5 million people visit it each year. </p><p style="font-style: italic;"> With 7,000 members, many from prominent Texas families, the Daughters, as they are known here, remain a political third rail no one wants to touch...<br /></p><p style="font-style: italic;">Still, Gov. Rick Perry clashed publicly this year with the Daughters over their attempt to trademark the words “the Alamo” to generate more revenue from souvenirs, and he has signaled he might consider switching custodians<span style="font-style: italic;">...</span><br /></p><p style="font-style: italic;"> The current turmoil inside the organization began in 2006, when it started a fund-raising campaign to collect $60 million for the expansion and for preservation...<br /></p><p style="font-style: italic;"> But Ms. Bowman soon fell out with the governing board after she asked for a business plan to show to donors and was rebuffed. She was fired in 2008. She and another disgruntled member, Dianne MacDiarmid, promptly started a separate charity to raise money strictly for preservation. Both women were kicked out of the group later that year. </p><p style="font-style: italic;"> “They punish anyone who disagrees with them,” Ms. Bowman said in an e-mail. “It is just sad that a group of stupid, vicious women could hijack an organization with a lot of good women in it.”...</p><p style="font-style: italic;"> “They honest to God think they own the Alamo,” Ms. Reveley said<span style="font-style: italic;">...</span><br /></p><span style="font-style: italic;">“The Alamo is not just a battle,” Ms. Rosser said. “It was going to be a beautiful church to convert the Indians to Christianity.”</span> </blockquote><br /><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Rc4mtLSzu9oC&source=gbs_navlinks_s"></a>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-74357036630761175532010-11-20T16:25:00.001-06:002010-11-21T17:12:10.453-06:00about "The man who writes your students' papers"Still contemplating this article. Though i am interested in the concept of online classes, this is the main reason i have not yet agreed to teach one. For now, i integrate online elements into a face-to-face course.<br />-<br /><img src="file:///C:/Users/kip/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot.png" alt="" /><a href="http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125329/">http://chronicle.com/article/article-content/125329/</a><br />-<br />I know cheating is endemic not just online but at all colleges, from community college to ivy league. I agree with one of the commenters: the only students likely to be immune to ghostwriting are those who are too poor to afford the high cost. Since application essays are a large portion of ghostwriters' business, a poor student deserving of a college education/scholarship is being unfairly excluded every time a rich student hires a professional writer. This is a strange way our admissions processes reward wealth and dishonesty.<br />-<br />Financially speaking, the only way the poor can cheat on a paper (thesis etc.) is to plagiarize it themselves - that is, copy and paste from wikipedia or a paper from the web. Colleges already use software which will detect this, even for purchased essays (these cost less than $100, which almost anyone can afford; in case you're wondering, <a href="http://turnitin.com/">turnitin.com</a> will detect these easily). It is important to note that our current tools only find the cheap ways of plagiarizing. In terms of a finished product, the commenters discussing this article present no practical way to catch the expensive form of cheating.<br />-<br />With a brick-and-mortar classroom, i emphasize and grade the writing <span style="font-style: italic;">process</span>. I can learn the writing style of all my students, i know what they look like (i can compare their appearance to the school database of student ID photos). I watch them move their pencils across a piece of paper as they create a first draft, and can require multiple drafts. Unlike a final draft, students' first drafts should be graded on content and concept, with very little regard for grammar or detail. Yes, the students could turn their first draft over to a ghostwriter such as Ed Dante. He would gladly write a second draft etc. On the other hand, since the first draft grade is substantial and the hand-written first draft is turned in with the final draft for comparison, hiring a ghostwriter is not a great investment in my class.<br />-<br />Can't say for sure it won't happen, or that the cheaters won't get away with it; only that if this is your chosen strategy to get a grade, you would probably find a different professor. Of course, cheaters always invent new ways to cheat, which could make my prevention efforts irrelevant...<br />-<br />An institution gave me a handout claiming honor codes -- actively read and signed in front of a teacher -- can measurably reduce all forms of cheating. I do not remember the study cited, i'll try to look it up. Anyway, i should remind myself of their verb choice, <span style="font-style: italic;">reduce. </span>There are 6 or 7 solid techniques to reduce (but not eliminate) cheating.<br /><ol><li>graded in-class writing for every class<br /></li><li>oral examinations in every class</li><li>multiple drafts of every writing assignment<br /></li><li>interactive assignments that require <span style="font-style: italic;">combined </span>action and writing (e.g., outline a project, explain it to the professor, gather data, explain data to the professor, submit multiple drafts of analysis/results/conclusions.)<br /></li><li>unique, unrepeated, and unannounced tests and writing prompts for every class</li><li>software to automatically detect plagiarism</li><li>a spoken and signed honor code from every student<br /></li></ol>All of these mean lots of extra work for the professor. I will try to use all of them, and i will still find students cheating. I've found cheaters everywhere i've taught.* The most skilled cheaters? I probably gave them As.<br />-<span style="font-size:78%;"><br />*this is not entirely true. i taught at a small language school in Quer<em>é</em>taro, where i worked with very small classes and did not give traditional grades. coursework was tailored to each student, and passing was measured by ability to orally explain (essentially, ability to teach) what was learned. this made cheating irrelevant. i understand this is not a reasonable model for most schools to follow.</span><em></em>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-39245202168769000162010-10-27T15:53:00.000-05:002010-10-27T16:15:22.116-05:00Re: the future of UC retirement, letter from president Mark YudofRe: the future of UC retirement, letter from president Mark Yudof<br /><a href="http://universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/ucrpfuture/">http://universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/ucrpfuture/</a><br /><br /><blockquote>[University of California, like many educational institutions, is bleeding money. Each year, more and more of money goes to non-employees, , former employees who no longer contribute to the prosperity of the campuses. Current employees are struggling to increase the amount of money they personally will get in exchange for retiring. As experienced people retire, the university struggles to find money to hire young replacements, all while continuing to pay the former employee up to 100% of his/her highest salary. Yudof's letter is attached below.]</blockquote><br />These cuts are not deep enough.<br /><br />The people commenting here all talk about UC employees, as if a university’s mission is to employ people.<br /><br />I am a student. As you (employees ) get more benefits, students get fewer benefits, at greater cost (specifically, experienced retirees are not being replaced for lack of funds). Your years of “service” mean you serve students, right? If you no longer serve students, you do not deserve “maximum pension benefit equal to 100 percent” of salary.<br /><br />Just because you desire something does not mean it’s the right thing to do. I survive on $25k/year; you can surely retire on just $50k. University resources should first and foremost go toward improved teaching and research. You want to retire wealthy? Good for you, but why should taxpayers and students pay for it?<br /><br />I understand that many years ago, somebody I never met (and never voted for) agreed to give UC employees a bunch of money. We students never signed that agreement. We are not here to help fund your health care and pension. You, on the other hand, are here to help educate <span style="font-style: italic;">us</span>. That is your mission.<br /><br />I like the idea of a pension system, and I do not want UC employees to go hungry in old age. They need a safety net, but not a golden parachute (for some, retirement benefits amount to millions of dollars). Morally, every percentage increase in student tuition should come with an equal decrease in employee retirement benefits, especially for UC executives. I don’t want to punish you – I want you to show we are all in this together. Otherwise, the future of UC will belong to wealthy students, taught by wealthy professors.<br /><br />Sure, some of you could earn more in the private sector. That’s why it’s called service.<br /><br />kip<br />UCLA<br /><br />--------------------------------------------<br /><p class="post-time-stamp"><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></p><blockquote><p class="post-time-stamp"><span style="font-size:85%;">October 26, 2010</span></p> <h3><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/ucrpfuture/news-updates/president-yudof-proposed-changes-to-retirement-benefits/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Letter to UC from President Yudof about proposed changes to UC retirement benefits">Letter to UC from President Yudof about proposed changes to UC retirement benefits</a></span></h3> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Dear Colleagues:</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">I am writing to share with you the recommendations I plan to discuss in November with the UC Board of Regents about changes to the University’s post-employment benefits programs.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">When I established the Post Employment Benefits Task Force, I made clear that the proposed changes needed to satisfy two critical objectives: Help address our financial challenges, and preserve good post employment benefits in support of UC’s commitment to excellence and in recognition of the vital role our faculty and staff play in the quality and delivery of UC’s service to the public. I believe these recommendations achieve those goals.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">As you know, for the past two months senior UC leaders and I have been engaged in extensive discussions with faculty, staff and administrators about how to ensure the financial sustainability of UC’s retiree health and pension programs while still providing attractive retirement benefits.<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Those discussions are continuing, but the feedback we’ve received to date has been very consistent, particularly as it relates to the design of a pension tier for future faculty and staff.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">My recommendations – which have the support of the chair and vice-chair of the Academic Senate, UC’s Staff Advisors to the Regents, and leadership of the Council of UC Staff Assemblies – reflect that feedback.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">In short, I am proposing a new pension program for future employees hired after July 1, 2013 that will preserve good pension benefits while also reducing UC’s long-term costs. Many elements are similar to the current UCRP program, including:</span></p> <ul class="standard"><li><span style="font-size:85%;">A defined benefit or “pension” plan;</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">A five-year vesting period;</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">A pension benefit formula based on an employee’s highest average compensation over 36 months; and</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">A maximum pension benefit equal to 100 percent of an employee’s working salary.</span></li></ul> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">There are also some distinct differences that make it a more conservative pension plan than the State of California offers its employees, including proposals to raise the minimum retirement age from 50 to 55 and the retirement age for maximum pension benefits from 60 to 65.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">I will also recommend that we no longer subsidize survivor benefits and that we eliminate the option of a lump sum cash out.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;"><strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">This recommendation does not affect pension benefits for current UC employees, or those hired between now and July 1, 2013 – only future employees.</span></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The annual cost to UC and its future employees for this proposed new pension program is 15.1 percent of annual payroll, 2.5 percent lower than the 17.6 percent that our current UCRP pension program costs UC and its faculty and staff.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">New employees and UC will together pay the full 15.1 percent cost of the new plan, with future faculty and staff contributing 7 percent of annual pay and UC paying 8.1 percent.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">I think this is a very fair and balanced approach, and one that, if adopted by the Regents, will allow UC’s retirement benefits to continue to be an important component in attracting and retaining excellent faculty and staff.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Although the new pension tier would affect future employees, I will also recommend changes to our retiree health program that will directly affect current faculty and staff.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Most notably, I will propose that the Regents adopt in full the recommendations from the Post-Employment Benefits Task Force on changes to our retiree health program including:</span></p> <ul class="standard"><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Reduce UC’s contribution to retiree health premiums over time to a floor of 70 percent;</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Change retiree health care eligibility rules, effective July 2013, so that UC’s contributions to retiree health care premiums are offered on a graduated scale based on years of service and employee age at retirement;</span></li><li><span style="font-size:85%;">Allow faculty and staff to remain under the current retiree health care eligibility rules if, on July 1, 2013, they have five years of UCRP service credit and their age and years of UC service together equal 50 or greater.</span></li></ul> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">I will also recommend a course of action to erase the UC Retirement Plan’s $12.9 billion unfunded liability.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">One of the most important components of that plan requires UC to increase its annual contributions to the UCRP by 2 percent per year, until UC is contributing roughly 20 percent of annual payroll to UCRP.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">There is no question that without state funding support, it will be difficult for UC to find the resources necessary to contribute such a large amount to the UCRP each year. But given the size of our current unfunded pension liability, it is essential that we find a way to do so.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Although the state has not yet agreed to pay its share of the UCRP, we have made some important strides on that issue this year, and we will continue to press our case in Sacramento. In the meantime, we must take sensible action now to address our unfunded liability.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">The Regents will hear and discuss my proposals at their board meeting in November, and will possibly take action at a special meeting in December. The full details on my recommendation will be contained in a Regents item that will be available in early November.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">In closing, I want to thank you for your thoughtful input and suggestions on these difficult issues. And I encourage you to stay involved. Together we are doing the hard work that is essential to preserving this great institution.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">With best wishes, I am,</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:85%;">Sincerely yours,<br />Mark G. Yudof</span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></p>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-85790833817771153102010-09-12T06:13:00.000-05:002010-09-30T05:11:46.866-05:00"Three Things About Islam" youtube videoThis post is about the Quran, specifically a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib9rofXQl6w">viral youtube video</a> about how "evil" the Quran is. I am a christian, not a muslim. Since I am not a religious scholar, I probably misunderstand some things about every religion. What follows is my opinion.<br /><br />--------------------------------<br /><br />There are a billion and a half muslims in the world; maybe you are a muslim, maybe not. regardless of what you or I think of their book, most muslims are <span style="font-style: italic;">not</span> terrorists, and are not trying to take over our government or create sharia law. So our options, as a society, are<br />1. fight against all muslims and their religion<br />or<br />2. figure out a way to stop killing each other<br /><br />I think most Muslims and Christians -- and others as well -- prefer option 2.<br /><br />Whoever made that video obviously thinks the Quran is evil. Well, even if this were true, what is your solution?<br />Should we fight a war against all 1.57 billion people who call themselves muslim (ignoring that fact that almost all of them live normal, peaceful lives, and that many of them are part of our society and even military)?<br />Do you think 1.57 billion muslims will watch that video and magically abandon their religion?<br /><br />Right now, I teach many Iranian students. They grew up in a theocracy, being told America is "evil." Now, they tell me, the young people of Iran are muslim, but do NOT want sharia or ayatollahs. Many students have told me they love America, that it's the best place to be muslim, because the government doesn't control or interfere with religion. They do not choose to live in a place with a religious government.<br /><br />Are they lying? Is this a spy network of taqiyya, as the video warns?<br /><br />-----------------------------------------<br /><br />It makes sense that the youtube propaganda video is trying "to inform non-muslims," because muslims would know the things it says are not true.<br /><br />Now, according to that video about the Quran, all muslims want a religious government -- but I've met and taught many of them, and they do not want religious government at all. Students from Arab muslim countries generally do not like their own government. Of course, only 20% of muslims are Arab; governments of Turkey and Indonesia are a different story. These two countries are almost entirely muslim, and now have strong democracies. Fundamentalist political parties exist, but do not get many votes in either country. Turkey is constitutionally secular -- their separation of church and state is even stronger than in the U.S.<br /><br />The video presents a ridiculous version of "taqiyya"; in the Quran (chapter 16 verse 106), taqiyya was for muslims who live under governments that would kill them for their main beliefs (called "pillars," see below). Muslims are supposed to profess faith, but are parmitted to deny their religion while being tortured or threatened. For centuries this has been a minor theological issue, used specifically by Shia muslims living under Sunni governments, and vice-versa; it was also used by muslims in authoritarian christian countries, such as Spain after 1492.<br /><br />Taqiyyah does not permit muslims to lie in an effort to spread islam. That was in the video but was NEVER part of muslim theology or practice (Shafique 2007).<br /><br />Overall, I disagree with that video about the Quran. It makes me angry. It looks professional, but the information is deceptive, different from what I have read and what muslims have told me. Somebody is intentionally making videos with false information.<br /><br />--------------------------------------------------------<br /><br />So the passage written later takes precedence? Take a look at these verses -<br /><br />verses from the beginning of the Quran:<br /><blockquote class="templatequote"> <div class="templatequotecite">Verily! Those who believe and those who are Jews and Christians, and Sabians, whoever believes in God and the Last Day and do righteous good deeds shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve. (2:62)<br />O People of the Book! Let us rally to a common formula to be binding on both us and you: That we worship none but God; that we associate no partners with Him; that we erect not, from among ourselves, lords and patrons other than God. (3:64)<b><br /></b><sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_view_of_the_Last_Judgment#cite_note-10"><span></span></a></sup></div> </blockquote><br />verse from the middle of the Quran:<br /><blockquote>O ye who believe! Be ye helpers of God: As said Jesus the son of Mary to the Disciples, "Who will be my helpers to (the work of) God?" Said the disciples, "We are God's helpers!" then a portion of the Children of Israel believed, and a portion disbelieved: But We gave power to those who believed, against their enemies, and they became the ones that prevailed. (61:14)<br /></blockquote><br />verse from the end of the Quran:<br /><blockquote>Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it! <p>And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it. (99:7-8)</p> </blockquote><br />All of these verses build up similar ideas. There are dozens more like this, they can't be superceded because the ideas are repeated later!<br /><br />On the other hand, yes the Quran has contradictions. The video is right about that. And it's certainly not all peace and love. Violent verses throughout the Quran, like these:<br /><blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them, and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. </span> (9:5)<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><br />Those who reject the Book and the (revelations) with which We sent our messengers: but soon shall they know, When the yokes round their necks, and the chains; they shall be dragged along- In the boiling fetid fluid: then in the Fire shall they be burned; Then shall it be said to them: "Where are the (deities) to which ye gave part-worship- In derogation of God?" (40:70-74)<br /></span></blockquote> <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span><br />----------------------------------------<br /><br />The video is talking about "naskh," which is one possible theory from islamic theology. Naskh can be translated to English as "abrogate," which is when a judge claims a previous ruling is no longer valid.<br />Naskh is based on a real verse of the Quran:<br /><br /><blockquote>None of Our revelations do We abrogate or cause to be forgotten, but We substitute something better or similar: Knowest thou not that God Has power over all things? (2:106) </blockquote> <p>Some islamic scholars (Tabari) theorized that Satan had caused interference in the transcription or interpretation of God's will (based on Quran 22:52). For example, there was supposedly a verse of the Hadith (the list of "sayings," not part of the Quran) about stoning people to death for adultery. For a long time scholars have interpreted this verse as of questionable origin. They think Mohammad never said this - they think a human or Satan chose to lie and pretend Mohammad said this. Tabari wrote that Satan could interfere and create conflict with verses, which contradicts God's will in the Quran.</p> <p>Quran chapter 24 says male and female adulterers must be whipped 100 times unless they repent and ask God's forgiveness. Now, to me this is a horrible idea. I do not advocate whipping. My point is, whipped 100 times is not that same a death by stoning - so for centuries there has been controversy about it. This is why today, most muslim countries do NOT follow the saying about stoning. Even many fundamentalist muslims think stoning is unholy - not because they believe in women's rights, but just because of how they interpret the words.<br /></p> <p>Other scholars interpret naskh as referring to the previous, "imperfect" versions of God's word. Specifically, the Torah and the Bible. They claimed it was not that the Torah or Bible were wrong, or that their followers were "Satanic"; they instead said those books contain God's word, but also interference from bad interpreters or even from Satan. this interference caused people to believe imperfectly. In contrast, the Quran says that the Quran is a more accurate version of God's will. Unusual for a religious holy book, the Quran admits (within chapter 2 and 22) that even the Quran can contain errors.</p> <p>The theory used in that youtube video is that the HIGHEST number takes precedence. However, this is not a popular theory among muslims. The biggest problem is the the order they were written is not the same as the order they were put in, or the order they were "revealed" in. </p> <p>The bigger problem with the video's theory is that dominant muslim theology interprets Quran 2:106 as referring to the MAIN BELIEFS or "pillars" of the religion. So in controversies or contradictions, whatever verse is closer to the main beliefs takes precedence. God would "substitute" the more important verse. Not the higher number. I asked several muslims, they have never heard of anyone using the "higher number" idea.</p> <p>-----------------------------------------------<br /></p> <p>In my non-muslim opinion, this DOES come down to interpretation, and it IS similar to the contradictions in other religious books. Just because some guy made a video about the Quran doesn't mean all muslims agree with his idea of what their religion is. Obviously, Muslims don't even agree with each other about the contradictions. "Jihad" is important to some muslims, but is not a pillar for any muslim; the majority of muslims learn and believe that jihad is generally internal, and means "spiritual self-perfection" (Brockopp 2003, p. 99).</p> <p>Muslims who say jihad is violent and aggressive are a big problem for America and the rest of the world. Muslim terrorists are very few, but they do horrible things. Moderate muslims have not done enough to fight against these extremists. However, calling Islam "evil" does not help this situation at all. </p> <p>Sunni and Shia (and groups within each!) have their own versions of the sayings. But in all cases, there are only a few core beliefs. Here is my outsider summary of these pillars:<br /></p> <p>For Sunni Muslims (the majority of Muslims), the beliefs/pillars are</p> <ul><li> profess faith</li><li> pray to God<br /></li><li> fast during Ramadan</li><li> give generously to charity</li><li> visit Mecca once<br /></li></ul> <p>For Shia Muslims (maybe 15% of Muslims?), the pillars are</p> <ul><li> believe in God </li><li> believe in the day of judgement, when<br />Jesus will return and defeat the antichrist<br />everyone will be judged by the good and evil deeds<br /></li><li> believe in Noah, Moses, Abraham, Jesus, and finally Muhammad</li><li> believe in the 12 Shia imams</li><li> practice justice in thought, word, and action </li></ul> <p><a href="http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/">http://www.usc.edu/schools/college/crcc/engagement/resources/</a></p><br /><hr id="stopSpelling"><div style=";font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:14pt;"><div style=";font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt;"><span style="font-size:78%;">Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:58:07 -0400</span><br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:78%;">From: ________@_______<br />To:<br />Subject: If you read only ONE e-mail today - THIS is it. (UNCLASSIFIED)<br /><br />This is a little long, but take the time to LISTEN. It's important for our survival<br />If you read only ONE e-mail today - THIS is it.><br />Check this one out, it will shock<br />you.....................................(Hopefully)<br /><br />A group calling themselves "White Roses" created a video to inform non-Muslims about Islam.<br />The name of this video is "Three Things About Islam".<br />White Roses is headquartered in Sweden. This first version is in English.<br />The name "White Roses" is based on a student resistance group "Die weiße >Rose" in Nazi Germany.<br />The group became known for an anonymous leaflet campaign, from June 1942 until February 1943,<br />which called for active opposition to Adolf Hitler's regime.<br /><br />PLEASE view this video. TWICE.<br />> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib9rofXQl6w&feature=player_embedded<br />><br />><br />> (NOTE: If you're at work, send this to your home computer)<br /></span></blockquote></div> <div style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif;"> </div> </div>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-32619322098299484172010-09-01T01:53:00.000-05:002010-09-01T02:05:53.613-05:00Value-Added Modeling is not sufficient.re: the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/local/teachers-investigation/">la times sensationalist expose' series</a> on value-added modeling of LAUSD teacher "effectiveness"<br /><br />this is a report by eva baker, linda darling-hammond, and many others. necessary context for those newspaper articles.<br /><br /><a href="http://epi.3cdn.net/b9667271ee6c154195_t9m6iij8k.pdf">http://epi.3cdn.net/b9667271ee6c154195_t9m6iij8k.pdf</a><br /><br />"Nonetheless, there is broad agreement among statisticians, psychometricians, and economists that student test scores<br />alone are not sufficiently reliable and valid indicators of teacher effectiveness to be used in high-stakes personnel decisions,<br />even when the most sophisticated statistical applications such as value-added modeling are employed.<br />-<br />"For a variety of reasons, analyses of VAM results have led researchers to doubt whether the methodology can accurately<br />identify more and less effective teachers. VAM estimates have proven to be unstable across statistical models, years, and<br />classes that teachers teach. One study found that across five large urban districts, among teachers who were ranked in<br />the top 20% of effectiveness in the first year, fewer than a third were in that top group the next year, and another third<br />moved all the way down to the bottom 40%. Another found that teachers’ effectiveness ratings in one year could only<br />predict from 4% to 16% of the variation in such ratings in the following year. Thus, a teacher who appears to be very<br />ineffective in one year might have a dramatically different result the following year. The same dramatic fluctuations were<br />found for teachers ranked at the bottom in the first year of analysis. This runs counter to most people’s notions that the true<br />quality of a teacher is likely to change very little over time and raises questions about whether what is measured is largely<br />a “teacher effect” or the effect of a wide variety of other factors...<br />-<br />"Evaluation by competent supervisors and peers, employing such approaches, should form the foundation of<br />teacher evaluation systems, with a supplemental role played by multiple measures of student learning gains that,<br />where appropriate, could include test scores. Some districts have found ways to identify, improve, and as necessary,<br />dismiss teachers using strategies like peer assistance and evaluation that offer intensive mentoring and review panels.<br />"These and other approaches should be the focus of experimentation by states and districts.<br />-<br />Adopting an invalid teacher evaluation system and tying it to rewards and sanctions is likely to lead to inaccurate<br />personnel decisions and to demoralize teachers, causing talented teachers to avoid high-needs students and schools, or<br />to leave the profession entirely, and discouraging potentially effective teachers from entering it. Legislatures should not<br />mandate a test-based approach to teacher evaluation that is unproven and likely to harm not only teachers, but also the<br />children they instruct."kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-42427567121608136222010-06-18T18:05:00.000-05:002010-06-18T19:08:53.427-05:00racism, capitalism, libertarianism<span style="font-style: italic;">[re: Ann Wortham meme about Obama]</span><br />Well, I disagree with almost every claim in that article. First of all, the author is a strange "libertarian." Ann Wortham wrote a book claiming government should not make laws about racism.<br /><br />In her book, Wortham defended the right of business owners to discriminate against African Americans, or women, or the handicapped. She thinks the Civil Rights Act was unfair interference with businesses. In 1981, Wortham specifically defended <span style="font-size:100%;">"</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Lester Maddox, the owner of the Pickrick Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, who armed himself with a pistol and pick handle and ordered blacks to get off his property."</span> </span>( http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/a-reviewers-notebook-the-other-side-of-racism/ )<br /><br />So basically, she wants "liberty" for owners, but she opposes liberty for customers. She thought Black citizens should never have protested at Woolworth's counters. She wanted them to only "boycott" (how do you boycott a business that won't let you buy anything?). Maybe that's what she would recommend we do about BP today. After all, they're a private business. Let's just boycott BP gasoline, and the spill will magically fix itself.<br /><br />Wortham imagined a wall between government discrimination and private discrimination. This was a basic misunderstanding of Jim Crow racism in 1950s America: in the small towns of the South, local government and local business owners worked together. Often they were run by the same white racists. As of today, the civis rights movement was only partially successful. Restaurants serve people of every race, but schools do not give equal resources to kids of every race. (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/06/equal_funding.html )<br /><div><strong></strong><br />---------------------<br /><br />It is true that 94% of Black voters chose Obama. But this is almost the same as in 2000, when 90% of Black voters chose Al Gore, or in 1984, when 90% of black voters chose Dukakis (note: Gore and Dukakis appear to be white). Wortham is lying, with deceptive statistics. In general, more poor people vote democratic, a higher percentage of Black people are poor, and more Blacks vote democratic. For comparison, most middle-class voters are white; the middle-class often votes republican, so most middle-class whites always vote for a white man, but this does not prove they are "racist." It proves you can manipulate statistics.<br /><br />The 2008 election was not much different from usual. Yes, compared to previous elections, some people voted for Obama just because he's black: there was a 4% increase in the percentage of Black support, which equals 0.5% of total voters.<br /><br />0.5%? Are you serious? Obama's margin of victory was much higher than that. A more likely culprit may be people under 30 - 66% of them voted for Obama, the highest percentage of any candidate since 1976. Young people have more invested in the future than old people, so Obama's message of "hope" was probably appealing (especially after 8 years of messages about fearing terrorists, immigrants, and gay people).<br /><br />Also, notice Wortham claims "94 percent of the 12 million Blacks in this country voted... to play the race card," but in fact, Black turnout was at 65% - which is better than usual, but is obviously <i>not the same as 100%</i> which Wortham erroneously believes. Again, voter turnout is generally lower for poor people, so since a higher percentage of Black people are poor, their turnout is also lower. This does not mean poor people are unpatriotic, of course. Poor people often deal with irregular work schedules and unstable living situations, which makes voting more difficult (this is not my excuse for them, I want everyone to vote - but you must admit that when voting information arrived at your correct address, and you have time to register or wait in line, voting is more convenient). (http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0805063897 )<br /><br />Wortham is grossly generalizing and stereotyping Black people. Somehow, she alone magically knows why they voted - how can someone ever know how someone else voted a certain way? Even polls which ask this question are notoriously unreliable. Voting is private, people say one reason when they really have another. But no, Wortham did not even ask voters. She is making a racist assumption: that if a Black person votes for Obama, it must be because of race? This is ridiculous. Just like it would be ridiculous to claim that White people who voted for McCain did it because of race. In both cases, a few people based their decision on race, but not enough to decide an election.<br /><br />And this brings me to McCain. In her entire essay about the election, Wortham never once mentions the Republican candidate. She mentions many other political figures ("Jimmie" Carter, Ron Paul, McGovern, Greenspan, Lyndon Johnson, Franklin Roosevelt, Kennedy) but cannot bring herself to say McCain's name. Why would this be? After all, if a Black person (or a white "progressive") were to vote against Obama, it would have been for the Republican candidate. She, of course, made an irrelevant protest vote for Paul. Paul, a candidate not even the republican party liked, a candidate not on the ballot, a candidate who was not nominated by any political party.<br /><br />This reveals much of the explanation she is deliberately hiding. Many republicans did not like McCain. Many women did not like McCain (55% of women voted for Obama). Many white people did not like McCain (43% of whites voted for Obama).<br />Most surprisingly, <i>41% of white males</i> voted for Obama - this is the highest percentage of white males a democrat has won since 1976. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1083335/Breakdown-demographics-reveals-black-voters-swept-Obama-White-House.html )<br /><br />Most libertarians did not like McCain. Not even Wortham liked McCain! So in Wortham logic, in order to prove they were not playing the race card, Black voters would have to choose a candidate <i>she herself could not vote for</i>. She is distorting the circumstance to create a racist impression of how Obama won. Obama won among women, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, whites under 30, Jewish Americans, Catholics, rich people, and poor people, while among men, Obama and McCain tied. Americans chose Obama, period. This was not drawn along imaginary racial battle lines. Anyone who says otherwise is a liar.<br /><br />I have sympathy for third-party voters, I voted for Ralph Nader instead of Gore. No, I did not choose Nader because of race. I chose Nader for the same reason I chose Obama: Obama was clearly the best candidate on the ballot.<br /><br />(I am white. So Wortham claims that proves I voted for Obama because he <i>doesn't</i> look like me. What does that even mean? Is she so simplistic that she thinks all my decisions are based on looks? Wait a second, Obama is half white, so maybe I voted for Obama because I only vote for white people? My point is, this is a ridiculous game.)<br /><br />-------------<br /><br />The last point I want to make is about capitalism. A lot of conservatives like to accuse Obama of being communist or socialist. Conservatives want to call the new healthcare law socialism, even though it will be fully serviced by private companies; they do so at the same time that they yell "keep your hands off my medicare." The truth is, medicare is socialized medicine, while the new healthcare law is not. So according to conservatives' logic, anyone who loves medicare is also a socialist. The truth is, all the new law really does is add some regulation to an industry where one or two companies control most of the market in many states. I see Obama as erring (unfortunately) on the side of corporations, because I have more personal knowledge of over-reaching corporations than of over-reaching government. This is debatable, but back to my point:<br /><br />We have seen insurance corporations ration care, interfering between doctors and patients.<br />We have seen banks manipulate homeowners and investors with immoral and manipulative investments.<br />We have seen petroleum corporations falsify safety documents and destroy seafood and tourism industries.<br /><br />Only corporate lackeys like Joe Barton (R-Texas) can look at the current state of corporations are say BP needs <i>less</i> regulation. Barton apologizes to BP for requiring them to pay for damages. After all, they are a privately owner corporation. But lack of regulation hurts people every day. If you are poor, you are vulnerable to corporate lawyers and accountants, who give you financial documents which are intentionally misleading. If you are an independent businessperson, perhaps with a shrimping boat, you are vulnerable to corporate polluters and their disdain for the earth we all share.<br /><br />I support freedom for individuals, regardless of race, creed, gender, or handicap. Wortham's definition of freedom only applies to businesses, and I disagree completely. I never declared "capitalism is dead." I never heard Obama say this, and I think it sounds crazy - our economic system is capitalist, the thousands of corporations in the US are capitalists. There are thousands of small business who have already benefitted from Obama's development and green technology initiatives and tax breaks. Is there even such a thing as a "socialist business"? People who talk about that all the time are fighting a straw man. Nobody is turning the United States into a socialist or communist organization, anyone who claims that is trying to sell something. For example, Glenn Beck is trying to sell you something:<br />"I could give a flying crap about the political process... We're an entertainment company." (http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/building-an-empire-glenn-beck-makes-32m-a-year.php )<br /><br />I support Beck's right to sell entertainment. We are a free society. but I oppose his slander against the President. Without evidence, he regularly says Obama is a new Hitler, and is a communist. Never mind that Hitler murdered all the communists, and murdered everyone who was mixed race like Obama. Obama has not nationalized our industries (even in the case of Wall Street crime, when there were strong reasons to do so, Obama preserved the free market structure), and corporations are all privately controlled. Obama is not fighting capitalism. He is not "destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth," as Wortham wrote on November 6, 2008, months before Obama even took office. See, Wortham could do this because she did not need evidence. Evidence is for suckers. She just had a feeling (i.e., "truthiness").<br /><br />Capitalism without regulation is anarchy. I am not a socialist and I am not an anarchist. I am an American who wants greater freedom for people. I place people ahead of institutions. Katrina's broken levees were evidence of bad government; BP's oil spill is evidence of bad corporations. Big corporations and government can both be harmful. We must watch them both, as we the people protect our interests. We must investigate BP <span style="font-style: italic;">and</span> the Minerals Management Service. (http://www.mms.gov/DeepwaterHorizon.htm )<br /><br />I am not happy or oblivious, and I hold Obama to a high standard. I press him to make the right decisions. About ending the wars, repairing education and our economy, and protecting the environment for future generations.<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><br /></span></div><hr style="height: 2px;" id="stopSpelling"><span style="font-size:85%;">Date: Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:04:24 -0400<br />From:<br />To:<br />Subject: God help us all<br /><br />She is a member of the American Sociological Association and the American Philosophical Association.</span> <style> .ExternalClass DIV {;}</style><span class="ecxApple-converted-space" style="font-size:85%;"><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />She has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty Fellow, and honored as a Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.<br /><br />In fall 1988 she was one of a select group of intellectuals who were featured in Bill Moyer's television series, "A World of Ideas." The transcript of her conversation with Moyers has been published in his book, A World of Ideas.<br /><br />Dr. Wortham is author of "The Other Side of Racism: A Philosophical Study of Black Race Consciousness" which analyzes how race consciousness is transformed into political strategies and policy issues.<br /><br />She has published numerous articles on the implications of individual rights for civil rights policy, and is currently writing a book on theories of social and cultural marginality.<br /><br />Recently, she has published articles on the significance of multiculturalism and Afrocentricism in education, the politics of victimization and the social and political impact of political correctness. Shortly after an interview in 2004, she was awarded tenure.<br /><br />This article by her is really something!<br /><br />Fellow Americans,<br /><br />Please know: I am Black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul's name as my choice for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a Black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a Black president to love the ideal of America .<br /><br />I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival - all that I know about the history of the United States of America , all that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack Obama as a politician. I would have to deny the nature of the "change" that Obama asserts has come to America .<br /><br />Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for over a century. I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million Blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that Blacks are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him because he doesn't look like them.<br /><br />I would have to wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration - political intellectuals like my former colleagues at the Harvard University 's Kennedy School of Government.<br /><br />I would have to believe that "fairness" is equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that a man who asks me to "go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice" is speaking in my interest.. I would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from the "bottom up," and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.<br /><br />Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting "Yes We Can!" Finally, I would have to wipe all memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is dead - and no one, including especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.<br /><br />So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a Black man to the office of the president of the United States , the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over - and Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedys have at last gotten their Kennedy look-a-like. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a Black person.<br /><br />So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America. Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton , Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a Black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin Roosevelt, promises to - Do Something! You now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and mine - what little there is left - for the chance to feel good.<br /><br />There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness. God Help Us all.</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />(online source for this essay: http://moneyrunner.blogspot.com/2009/05/anne-wortham-on-election-of-barack.html )</span>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-49442016058319525232010-06-09T04:31:00.000-05:002010-06-09T06:38:25.053-05:00<span style="font-size:100%;">http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_15256386</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span id="RDS-site"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section"><h1 id="articleTitle" class="articleTitle"><span style="font-size:100%;">Mexico blasts fatal shooting by Border Patrol agent</span></h1><!--subtitle--><div id="articleSubTitle" class="articleSubTitle"><span style="font-size:100%;">Rock throwing led to teenager's death, US says</span></div><!--byline--><div id="articleByline" class="articleByline"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a class="articleByline">By Daniel Borunda and Maggie Ybarra / El Paso Times</a></span></div><!--date--><div id="articleDate" class="articleDate"><span style="font-size:100%;">Posted: 06/08/2010 10:38:18 PM MDT<br />...</span><span id="RDS-site" style="font-size:100%;"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section"><p> U.S. authorities said [15-year-old <span id="RDS-site"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section">Sergio Adrián] </span></span></span>Hernandez was part of a group throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents who were trying to detain two men who had illegally crossed the border near the Paso del Norte Bridge in Downtown El Paso.</p><p><span style="font-style: italic;">[actually, this information was false. it turned out they only tried to detain teenagers, not adults. and "None were carrying backpacks or appeared to have weapons... While holding down one of the Mexican boys, this agent fired shots toward Mexico." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704256604575294950172855306.html?mod=googlenews_wsj ]</span><br /></p><p><span style="font-style: italic;">[photo: this part of the Rio Grande is small, so they put a double 12-foot barbwire fence (top right of bridge photo, close-up below) that prevents entry into the U.S. in the photo, the boy's dead body is not anywhere near the fence, and not even in the riverbed. click to enlarge.]</span><span class="ctedit"><a href="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/comment/7/2010/06/893622498e01fc097f0733e116f5a16e/original.jpg" rel="lytebox" class="commentImage"><img style="width: 247px; height: 157px;" src="http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2010/0608/20100608__0609-A1-BPShooting_GALLERY.jpg" align="right" /></a><a href="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/comment/7/2010/06/893622498e01fc097f0733e116f5a16e/original.jpg" rel="lytebox" class="commentImage"><br /></a></span></p><p> Chihuahua state police said the boy died on the Mexican side of the border from one gunshot wound to the head. A .40-caliber casing was seized by [Chihuahua state] investigators.</p><p><span style="font-style: italic;">[that shell was near the body, not near the fence. </span><span id="RDS-site"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section"><span id="RDS-site" style="font-size:100%;"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section"><span id="Global"><span style="font-style: italic;">http://www.orovillemr.com/news/ci_15250967</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">]</span><br /></p><p>...</p><p><span id="RDS-site"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section">[Bobbie] McDow, a U.S. citizen, ... </span></span></span>said she called 911 in El Paso and has since spoken with the FBI.<br /></p></span></span></span><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:100%;">She said the man who made the throwing motion was not the one who was shot. She said the man who was shot was on the Mexican side of the border.<a id="main-photo" align="right" href="http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/static.panoramio.com/photos/original/5999242.jpg" title="Looking North from the Border Fence - 2048 x 1536 pixels"> <img style="width: 170px; height: 128px;" src="http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/5999242.jpg" alt="Looking North from the Border Fence" align="right" /> </a></span></div><span id="RDS-site" style="font-size:100%;"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section"><p><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section"><p> "Where he was clearly on the Mexican side when he got shot," she said...</p><p><span style="font-style: italic;">[Hernandez's mother "</span><span id="Global"><span style="font-style: italic;">said he ran and hid underneath one of the bridge's pillars upon hearing gunfire." http://www.orovillemr.com/news/ci_15250967 ]</span><br /></span></p><p><span id="RDS-site"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section">Border Patrol agents have said that rock attacks have become frequent and can be deadly.<br /></span></span></span></p><p><span id="RDS-site"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section"><span style="font-style: italic;">[however, no agent was injured by the dead boy or any other boy by the bridge. No agent has ever died from a thrown rock. on the other hand, many people have died from being shot, especially if they are shot twice:]</span><br /></span></span></span></p></span></span></p></span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >[</span><span style="font-style: italic;">"The agent and the teenager 'had four seconds to look at each other' before the young man was shot, first in the shoulder and then in the head, he said." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704256604575294950172855306.html?mod=googlenews_wsj ]</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span><span><span><span><span><span id="RDS-site"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section"><span id="RDS-site"><span id="divhome"><span id="MNGi Section"><span style="font-style: italic;">[how did the shell casing end up south of the Rio Grande? it's against the law for a U.S. border patrol agent to cross the border without permission, but this man may have actually been inside Mexico while he shot that Mexican boy, who was also in Mexico. If true, the agent could be extradicted to Mexico and imprisoned for murder. http://www.orovillemr.com/news/ci_15250967 ]</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br /></div><!--secondary date--></span></span></span>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-84034684633560843992010-05-25T02:09:00.000-05:002010-05-25T02:47:56.611-05:00regulating accents<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572504575213883276427528.html">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703572504575213883276427528.html</a><br /><ul><li>in the mid 1800s when arizona was "acquired," 2/3 of population was native american. therefore, the traditional "accent" of arizona is a native american accent.</li><li>half the white people in phoenix were born in a different state. they speak outsider dialects, including new york english, chicago english, and valley-girl. </li><li>of course, most evaluators hired by the state speak a white, outsider variety of english. they all have accents, because everyone has some sort of accent. </li><li>the question is, which accent will get you fired?</li></ul>Lippi-Green, Rosina (1997). <span style="font-style: italic;">English with an Accent. </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/English-Accent-Language-Ideology-Discrimination/dp/0415114772">http://www.amazon.com/English-Accent-Language-Ideology-Discrimination/dp/0415114772</a><br /><br />the answer is obvious: accents associated with immigrants from mexico or other latino countries will get you fired (never mind that arizona actively recruited hundreds of teachers from mexico, and convinced them to move to the state years ago).<br /><br />this new law is not about knowledge of the language - there was already a state requirement that english teachers speak english fluently, and understand english grammar. the new law is redundant except for the pronunciation/accent provision.<br /><br />in kentucky, in elementary school, i was taught by competent english teachers with heavy kentucky accents. people of los angeles or new hampshire would have a very hard time understanding them. however, the teachers were completely comprehensible to us, the students. that's because we were part of the same language community. <span style="font-style: italic;">everyone </span>has an accent, and every accent can be understood within its language community.<br /><br />it is true that in the past 50 years, midwest english has become privileged in national contexts. midwest english is now spoken by media and political figures in major cities of most states. the rich and powerful know this dialect. however, learning this accent does not guarantee riches.<br /><br />midwest english is not useful to children in other parts of the country, therefore it is not spoken by them. and it is especially not spoken by ESL students, whose communities are not rich, and are more likely to speak, say, chicano english.<br /><br />here in los angeles, my ESL students frequently use the words "like" (as an interjection and filler word), "hot," "dude," and "yuh" (which means "yes"). they use these words way too much. but then again, that's just my opinion, and i don't speak the local dialect. believe it or not, in LA english, it makes sense to use those words <span style="font-style: italic;">all the time</span>. it makes sense to use the word "the" in front of every highway name. and it makes sense to inflect declarative sentences as if they were questions (for comparison, teenagers who do this in texas get labeled as stupid).<br /><br />even though british english is foreign to arizona, you know they will not reprimand or remove any of their british teachers. because this is not really about accent. it is legislation aimed at race and immigration status, part of a sad pattern in arizona.kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-55698036106101913302010-05-08T02:44:00.000-05:002010-05-08T13:52:17.704-05:00surviving AERAi went to a big conference, of the <a href="http://aera.net/Default.aspx?id=8358">American Educational Research Association (AERA)</a>. it was tiring and overwhelming, i don't know how many people were there. tens of thousands. it's the one everyone says we (grad students) have to present papers at - so i presented a paper.<br /><br />met great people, learned and partied with them. saw <a href="http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/profile/?p=72">carol lee</a> shake her groove thing.<br /><br />i submitted the same paper last year, but it was rejected. so i fixed the things reviewers didn't like, and this year they accepted it. appreciate criticism.<br /><br />by the way, AERA finally <a href="http://www.aera.net/membershipinfo/Default.aspx?menu_id=16&id=9918">has an opinion</a> about something.<br />education is part of our world. how did they make it through the 20th century without any "political" opinions (eugenics, fascism, genocide, internment camps, mccarthyism, jim crow, voter literacy tests, brown v. board, nclb, etc.)?<br /><br />my title:<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://kipaustinhinton.bol.ucla.edu/undocumented_paradox.ppt"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 103px; height: 77px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJTzd0Z-jKZNV-aKRLgE3kp_yKbAyfa-xrP5VjkSUHWX8CikDGAtrtjPP3LjXmLeBOTgCGE4ROvas4PkG6notE2JkFSXp1egP-2HHkY0lQEJlImpwzNZFcRi85IR3h07gLAgBoWw/s200/undocumented_paradox_thumb.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468963298951977554" border="0" /></a><br /><span class="headingtext">Undocumented Paradox: Activist Immigrants and the California Dream Act<br /><br /></span>my abstract:<br /><blockquote class="tight"><span class="fieldtext" style="font-size:85%;">IDEAS is UCLA’s undocumented student support group. My ethnography follows our planning of a conference on immigrant rights legislation. How do undocumented immigrants engage politically? This conference responded to opponents - Schwarzenegger had expressed sympathy, but vetoed legislation; ICE deported families; schools said “you’re not even supposed to be here” and seized merit scholarships, regardless of academic excellence. Students struggled with rent and tuition, so financial workshops were developed for our conference. Though politically influential, these activist immigrants cannot vote. “What sense does it make to keep them disenfranchised?” Against odds, IDEAS members succeed at UCLA by emulating Freirean ideals. IDEAS’ political engagement is unique in student leadership. These “illegal” American college students contest nativist versions of the American Dream.</span></blockquote>my PowerPoint (with no speaking or music; i recommend <a href="http://www.myspace.com/losdynamite">los dynamite</a>): <a href="http://kipaustinhinton.bol.ucla.edu/undocumented_paradox.ppt"><br />undocumented_paradox.ppt</a>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-18790742343858660852009-11-28T13:25:00.000-06:002009-11-28T14:22:17.720-06:00thanking the adjuncts?<div>I appreciate the general point of Hanson's title: adjuncts (like me) deserve more credit. But this article seems less about thanksgiving than about his beef with tenured professors and student protesters. </div><div><br /></div><div>He accuses us (the student protesters) of not caring about injustice, and slaims we should not be protesting tuition hikes." Long-term, tuition increases will push poor and middle-class students out of UC; the only poor students at UC will be those few who get a generous scholarship. That shift is what we mean when we say it will be like a private university. In protest, we exercise our first amendment right to speech and assembly. Thank you, Mr. Hanson, for describing it as a "riot." I guess students should pay whatever the state and university ask, and if we can't afford it, we don't deserve an education.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am a TA at a UC, and an adjunct at SMC. Compared to low-wage workers at Wal-Mart or foodservice, I am paid very well - several times the minimum wage. Compared to full professors or Victor Davis Hanson, I am very underpaid. </div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe that sucks, but wage inequality is a dominant feature of every capitalist society. So I should not be surprised (fun fact: the highest-paid professors are actually at private Ivy League universities, public research universities try to compete with them).</div><div><br /></div><div>Hanson's gratitude is insincere. He is criticizing all of higher education as "liberal," so in his mind, all of us who are exploited by "the administrative elite" are propping up a corrupt system, right? Hanson would perhaps prefer we all quit, then every public college would shut down. Then he would have his revenge on the priesthood of tenured professors. </div><div><br /></div><div>The only colleges left would be the private universities. Without interference from unfairly subsidized public systems, private organizations could let the market decide how much education costs, and how much profit to earn from us. Then, just get the government out of the student loan business, so loan sharks (i.e., Bank of America) can set interest rates. We will have a perfect system to serve every wealthy family in America. And the uneducated masses can forever work for Wal-Mart, where they should be thrilled to get $8 per hour. </div><div><br /></div><div>While many tenured professors (even in social sciences!) do great work, I fully agree that the tenure system is messed up. I have worked with professors and admins who suck; on the other hand, there are bad lecturers, TAs, and students, too. Sure, some professors' research is irrelevant, but a lot of it is at least as valuable as anything published in the National Review. </div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, we were actually protesting the UC Regents' meeting. The regents are the ones who set policy for hiring, pay, research, services, and tuition. Professors and administrators don't control this. Unfortunately for the National Review, regents do not fit their profile of leftist academics. <a href="http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/regbios/welcome.html">Regents</a> are the kings of the private sector: bankers, CEOs, real estate speculators, and lawyers, as well as politicians (they get the job by giving about $300,000 to the governor). Regents and politicians built the current system. If Hanson has a grievance or wants a change, it makes sense to talk to the regents or legislature, instead of vaguely complaining about snooty professors. </div><div><br /></div><div>Academics did not bankrupt our state. I think bankers, real estate speculators, and politicians deserve the thanks for that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kip Austin Hinton</div><div><br /></div><div></div><blockquote><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">-----Original Message-----</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">From: JIM</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Sent: Fri 11/27/2009 1:38 PM</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">To: FACULTY_ADJUNCT</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Subject: Thanks to the forgotten part-time teacher</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Here's a Thanksgiving article for all of you from an unlikely source.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Jim</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Soon-to-be former Adjunct Faculty member</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">***</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><a href="http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDRjMTgxMjlkZGU5YjE5YTI0NjUwZmQ5MmE0YjRiZWQ="><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NDRjMTgxMjlkZGU5YjE5YTI0NjUwZmQ5MmE0YjRiZWQ=</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Thanks to the forgotten part-time teacher </span></b></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Victor Davis Hanson</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Last week within about an hour, I got a form email from a UC administrator deploring California's cuts to higher education, asking for money, and pleading for support for the university-even as You Tube was airing the UCLA student protests over tuition hikes.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">.which got me to thinking. The students, of course, have no answers to the problems of California that sees some 3,500 professionals and the well-paid leaving the state each week, since our officials cannot explain why-with the nation's highest state income, gasoline, and sales taxes-we have among the nation's worst infrastructure, schools, and educated populaces. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If the students were really worried about injustice in the CSU and UC systems, they would not be protesting tuition hikes that will still not result in their educations even approaching the costs at private colleges. Nor would UC administrators be swarming the internet and emails systems warning that cuts will hurt their tenured faculty and research.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Instead the dirty secret in California is that at JC, CSU, and UC campuses, nearly half of the instruction offered-whether calibrated in the total number of students in classes, or by the number of courses listed or by the number of those employed-is taught by non-tenure-track lecturers, TAs, and part-time faculty.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">If one were to compare that cost per unit with instruction by regular tenured faculty for often essentially the same work, the exploitation makes any in the private sector mild in comparison. Wal-Mart is saintly in employment practices in comparison with CSU.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">An English 1A class taught by a TA or part-timer might service 30 students at a cost of $4,000 to 5,000 in instructional fees; an upper-division required course for the major, with 10 students, like "The Construction of Manhood in Blake" taught by a full professor might run the university $25,000. Part-timers might make $35,000 without benefits for juggling together 5-7 classes at different campuses, while tenured professors might make well over $100,000 for teaching 4-6 courses with full facilities, benefits, and support.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The problem is that all the old justifications for such wide imbalances-tenured faculty advising, publication, intangible college governance-don't wash any more, at least in the case of the humanities and social sciences-not when TAs, lecturers and part-timers often have PhDs, and are as good or better teachers than full professors, while the scholarship of the affluently tenured, especially in the humanities and social sciences, is either irrelevant or unreadable, while their teaching is not subject to the same scrutiny or consequences as part-time evaluations.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So next time students nearly riot at UCLA, the angst should be on behalf of a near majority of their faculty who are paid a pittance of what an elite makes for nearly the same sort of work.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The fact is that the students are subsidized by the bankrupt state. The governing administrative elite and cohort of tenured professors are, in turn, subsidized by tens of thousands of mostly unknown, exploited part-timers. The latter each day in California teach hundreds of thousands of college students at JC, CSU, and UC at a fraction of the wage that a tiny priesthood receives for essentially the same job.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">So on Thanksgiving Day, give thanks to the part-timers and temps who keeps the liberal system of higher education running by the very illiberal treatment they receive.</span></div></blockquote><div></div><div><br /></div>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13101615.post-89531340466646690272009-11-10T22:27:00.000-06:002009-11-10T22:30:59.549-06:00Memmi<div>"France, a rich and geographically accessible country, has had people come to it from every corner of the globe. Many have immigrated and successfully found a home here, despite efforts to the contrary by the native population... In France, four and a half million foreigners have come from the Maghrab, from sub-Saharan Africa, from Yugoslavia, Spain, and Italy..." (Memmi, p. 10)</div><br /><div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Albert-Memmi/e/B000APY0PQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" target=_blank><img src="http://citizens-international.org/news_portal/The_colonizer_and_the_Colonized.jpg" "width=150px"></a> </div><br /><div>"Similarly, the Americans, a mixture of people from everywhere, are second to none for the beauty of their babies, the creativity of their intellectuals, the know-how of their technicians and their business executives. Thus, the lesson is obvious: If we would maintain our superiority, we msut defeat purity and ensure adulteration by others." (p. 15)</div><br /><div>"I would instead reaffirm that there really does not exist a colonial relationship in whch racism is not only present but intimately linked to that relation." (p. 35) <img src="http://www.upress.umn.edu/images/Books/m/memmi_racism.big.gif" width="150px" align="right"></div><br /><div>"they have always been convinced that the colonized should thank them for having taken the trouble to devote themselves to the well-being of such poor, inferior people!" (p. 38)</div>kipaustinhintonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12418425049323222226noreply@blogger.com0