A review and overview of The Cult of Smart, by Fredrik deBoer, All Points Books, 276 pages. Fredrik deBoer is the author of The Cult of Smart, a book that unwittingly explains the sharp left turn of the Democrat Party and a growing number of young Americans. It also shows why the widening chasm between […]
What history tells us about today’s identity politics. It’s an article of faith that diversity is a strength, a faith that appeals to me, given that I spent a career at the leading edge of equal opportunity, affirmative action (i.e., outreach), and, before it was hijacked by radicals and anti-intellectuals, the diversity movement. Even […]
The Rip Van Winkle media just woke up to realize that the U.S. is diverse. Like a well-rehearsed church choir singing from the same hymnal, the American media recently sang in perfect harmony about the latest U.S. Census showing that America is now so diverse that whites are in the minority. Not one media outlet […]
Certainly not large numbers of greens, politicians, climate bureaucrats, economists, elites in business and Hollywood, and left/right reporters and commentators. A few decades ago, I headed an influential environmental group in the competitive media centers of New York City and northern New Jersey. To establish trust with the press, the public, and politicians, my four […]
And why Pawan Dhingra has it wrong about extracurricular learning. Starting in elementary school and continuing through high school, aspiring athletes are encouraged by parents, coaches, and society at large to spend considerable hours training and practicing outside of the school day and off-campus, oftentimes at the additional cost of private leagues and coaches. And […]
The city gets fifteen-dollar jobs from Amazon while other cities get the company’s six-figure jobs. Local news outlets were all aflutter about Amazon recently announcing that it would be hiring hundreds of workers at $15.50 per hour for its sortation center near the Tucson airport. That’s actually bad news. What could possibly be bad news […]
The left accuses the right of fascism, the right accuses the left of socialism, and both engage in corporatism. Corporatism is the organization of the body politic and the economy by interest groups, such as farmers, corporations, banks, media, labor unions, educators, government agencies, and professional guilds. It’s difficult to find a more sobering example […]
But Trump was vilified and persecuted for unproven allegations of collusion. I’m far from being a Trump groupie or apologist but do love to read history, especially when it reveals that a beloved figure from the past had been guilty of the same accusations leveled today against a presently maligned figure, whatever the party affiliation […]
The forces that almost brought General Motors to its knees are even more powerful and ferocious today. Water buffaloes in Africa can be driven to madness and to their knees by swarms of flies. The flies came to mind as a perfect metaphor when reading “The Sack of Detroit,” the fascinating and balanced book authored […]
Editors’ note: A great holiday read and a superb dose of reality!! How scholarship has given way to polemics that divide the nation Scene: A Barnes & Noble bookstore in Tucson, Arizona. Just inside the door are display tables of featured books and best-sellers. They reveal how scholarship has given way to polemics that divide […]
Years ago it was popular for companies to sponsor a day for employees to take their kids to the office to see where mom or dad worked. My wife got stuck with organizing one of the days for her employer. In an introductory exercise, she had the kids sit around a conference table and take […]
How the pendulum of race has swung from one extreme to another. The month of May was “Asian and Asian Pacific Islander American Heritage Month.” Although that jumble of words was repeated for thirty-one days, l still don’t know what the words mean. I could ask an in-law who was born and raised in the Catholic […]
Mentioning the complexities and nuances of environmentalism in today’s partisan divide is a surefire way of being called names. If you want to start a fight and be typecast as either an ignorant left-winger or a reactionary right-winger, mention that some hot-button issue held dearly by one side or the other is more complex and […]
What comes to mind when you think of Baltimore? What comes to my mind is high crime, high poverty, widespread blight, a corrupt one-party government, and the TV series “The Wire,” which is set in Baltimore. What comes to mind when you think of my adopted hometown of Tucson? What comes to my mind is […]
A shameful story that begins at an exclusive country club I’m ashamed to admit it, but I was the epitome of white privilege as a kid, a privilege that carried over to adulthood. When I was fifteen and sixteen, for example, summer days were spent at an exclusive country club in a leafy suburb of […]
A wedding reveals the real America, not the America of the so-called wokes. TUCSON – The scene: a wedding and reception at a rustic adobe chapel surrounded by several acres of natural desert in the middle of metro Tucson. The historic locale had been the center of a Mexican immigrant community 120 years ago. The […]
Pick the points that support your ideology and ignore the rest, as is done by the left/right media and most Americans. Below are points about the African-American experience, especially the experience with shootings by cops. In totality, the points show that this issue, like most issues, is complex, nuanced and not black-and-white. But if confirmation […]
A fantasy about hundreds of minority groups demanding recognition after being excluded from diversity and inclusion initiatives. TUCSON – Hundreds of minority groups excluded from diversity and inclusion initiatives can now join the Federation of Real Minorities, or FORM. Membership is open to anyone from an ethnocultural group that comprises less than three percent of […]
From new reports that people sent me: In the name of equity (i.e., equal outcomes by race), the Virginia Department of Education is moving to eliminate all accelerated math options prior to 11th grade, effectively keeping higher-achieving students from advancing as they usually would. Because news coverage on the left and right is so pitifully biased, […]
Their coverage of the former chancellor of New York schools was different, but their use of contrived racial conventions is the same. TUCSON – On February 26, Richard Carranza resigned as the chancellor of New York City schools. His resignation was covered quite differently by two ideologically opposed publications. The main daily newspaper in Tucson, […]
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