HELEN AND I JUST WATCHED EVAN COYNE MALONEY’S FILM, Indoctrinate U. It’s a gripping hour-and-a-half, and the college administrators — and there are a lot of them — who call the cops on Evan rather than answer simple questions about matters of public record certainly give higher education a jackbooted-thug ambience. Even your dumber corporate PR people would know better, but they are used to a lot more public scrutiny than the folks who run colleges and universities.

I hope that the film gets a lot of attention. It certainly deserves it, and I think it’s going to leave a lot of people angry.

A NEW BUSH CLIMATE POLICY: Jonathan Adler has a roundup.

HOW TO HAVE SUCCESSFUL KIDS: Stay married.

Well, my parents didn’t, and I’m . . . well, never mind.

More on this topic here.

MICHAEL MALONE looks at strange doings in the tech world and offers some explanation.

CAPITALISM AGAINST climate change.

PORKBUSTERS UPDATE: More on Murtha’s secret Johnstown earmark, from CNN:

(Via Tom Elia). I like the term “Soprano-type politics.”

HANDS-ON TOYS FOR BOYS (AND GIRLS!): My earlier post on hands-on toys seem to have generated some interest, and there are still lots of cool things that will get kids away from the PlayStation and encourage them to do a few things with their hands. Something that was big in my childhood: The Estes model rockets, which are still around, and still fun, safe, and cheap. (Infinitely safer than building your own rockets from scratch, too: I did that and escaped unscathed, but I know a guy whose matchhead-and-scuba-tank rocket leveled his house and cost him some fingers. In fact, I think the impetus for the Estes-style model rockets was to provide a safe alternative to homemade pyrotechnics.)

In response to my earlier post on hands-on skills, Martin Greenberger emails:

Boy can I second the lack of basic skills in adults. I volunteer a lot with Habitat for Humanity here in Los Angeles. The volunteers that come out occasionally to help frequently can’t do something as basic as reading a tape measure (beyond the numbers which are printed on it of course). Many of my Saturdays are effectively a clinic on how to pound a nail.

If shop classes were oriented to teach good work habits along with basic instead mechanical skills, instead of worrying that the students weren’t learning on state of the art equipment, everyone
would be better off.

I got a lot of emails along these lines. My high school (and junior high) required this — and actually required a kind of home-ec-in-disguise course for seniors of both sexes on how to shop, budget, cook, and generally run a household that was really quite good. Of course, nowadays it’s all about teaching to the standardized tests, and they don’t test people’s ability to hammer a nail. If they did, every class would be hammering for an hour a day.

PARANOIA STRIKES DEEP. Or, in this case, maybe it’s shallow . . . .

RISING UP against Al Qaeda in Baghdad.

UPDATE: Omar at Iraq the Model says that this was actually a fight between Al Qaeda and another insurgent group. Between AP and Omar, I think I’d be inclined to trust Omar. But if one group of terrorists is killing another, well, I can live with that, I guess.

TORTURE: The sounds of silence. Silence is complicity, you know.

APPLE HIDES USER INFO in DRM-free iTunes tracks. “The big question, of course, is what might Apple do with this information?”

INDEED: “It’s the arrogance and condescension that finally makes your blood boil.”

BLUESTATERS BUY MORE compact fluorescent lights: Unless, apparently, they’re the blue-staters who hang out at Daily Kos!

Maybe they’re holding out for those promised high-efficiency incandescents.

AN ARREST IN ANBAR: Michael Yon has posted a report on the arrest of the Iraqi general that he emailed about the other day. He adds, via emails: “Note: An official press release stated that Iraqi Police conducted the arrest. That statement is untrue. Instapundit Readers found out first!”

Indeed they did. Thanks, Michael! And don’t miss the post, which offers insight into what’s going on, and how, that you won’t find many other places.

PRAISE FOR BUSH from an unlikely source:

STOP THE PRESSES!!! Barbara Lee has just issued her second press release in two days commending President Bush.

The liberal California Democrat, who is among the most vocal critics of the war, issued a statement Tuesday applauding the president for ratcheting up pressure on the Sudanese government to stop the killing in that country’s Darfur region. Now, she’s acknowledging Bush for asking Congress for another $30 billion to fund his AIDS relief program in Africa.

He’s been pretty good on that, but not many people have noticed.

NEWS ABOUT THE NEWS: And about not getting it.

FEW WILL MOURN:

A 27-year-old man described as one of the world’s most prolific spammers was arrested Wednesday, and federal authorities said computer users across the Web could notice a decrease in the amount of junk e-mail.

Upon conviction, he should be forced to consume off-brand Viagra substitutes and herbal penis-enlargement supplements while refinancing people’s houses.

JUSTICE GINSBURG: Passionate? or Political?

IN THE MAIL: Jim LIndberg’s Punk Rock Dad: No Rules, Just Real Life. The Amazon reviews are mixed — I’m not a particular fan of Pennywise, but this comment is kind of harsh: “This clown seems to think he’s somehow different than other suburban dads, just because he’s in a marginally successful ‘punk’ band. Sorry schmuck, you’re just another whitebread neocon who wears Vans.” Those punkers are a tough crowd!

IT’S EVERYWHERE: The Dangerous Book for Boys inspires this column by Christina Hoff Summers in the New York Post. Excerpt:

In a radical departure from modern schoolroom readings, the book has almost nothing to say about feelings, relationships or how boys can learn to cry. It valorizes risk, adventure and manliness.

Today’s boys inhabit a danger-averse world where even old favorites like tag and dodge ball are under a cloud – Too competitive! Someone might get hurt! The National Parent Teacher Association recommends a cooperative alternative to the fiercely competitive “tug of war” called “tug of peace.”

By contrast, “The Dangerous Book for Boys” has detailed instructions on how to hunt, kill, skin and cook a rabbit. . . .

The sad lesson of this book’s success is how far our current education culture has drifted from the world of boys. The special art of teaching boys – once so well understood by educators everywhere – is at risk of being lost forever.

One literacy expert reviewed several junior-high social studies texts and concluded: “Many students may well end up thinking that the West was settled chiefly by females, most often accompanied by their parents.”

Read the whole thing. As Dangerous Book author Conn Iggulden noted in our podcast interview, things seem to be changing. It’s about time.

THE EXAMINER WONDERS WHY BUSH IS insulting his most loyal supporters? As I’ve noted before, there seems to be some sort of bizarre Republican death wish at work. There’s a difference between disagreeing with your base and disrespecting it. And they’ve been very disrespectful to everyone who disagrees with them on this. Heck, I’m basically pro-immigration and I find the Administration’s arguments for the bill sufficiently unpersuasive and insulting that I’m leaning against it on that basis alone.

UPDATE: Uh oh.

OUTSIDE THE BOX:

Looking to prevent the next terrorist attack, the Homeland Security Department is tapping into the wild imaginations of a group of self-described “deviant” thinkers: science-fiction writers.

“We spend our entire careers living in the future,” says author Arlan Andrews, one of a handful of writers the government brought to Washington this month to attend a Homeland Security conference on science and technology.

Those responsible for keeping the nation safe from devastating attacks realize that in addition to border agents, police and airport screeners, they “need people to think of crazy ideas,” Andrews says.

The writers make up a group called Sigma, which Andrews put together 15 years ago to advise government officials. The last time the group gathered was in the late 1990s, when members met with government scientists to discuss what a post-nuclear age might look like, says group member Greg Bear. He has written 30 sci-fi books, including the best seller Darwin’s Radio.

Now, the Homeland Security Department is calling on the group to help with the government’s latest top mission of combating terrorism. . . . Why offer their ideas to the government instead of private companies that pay big bucks?

“To save civilization,” Ringworld author Larry Niven says. “We do it in fiction. Why wouldn’t we want to do it in fact?”

Not a bad idea.

UPDATE: N.Z. Bear emails that it’s about time!

I FOUND THE NOKIA N800 a bit underpowered. But I have to say this new quasi-mini-laptop from Palm, the Foleo, looks pretty cool. All it needs is EVDO to be a terrific blogging tool.

LOVE THE SINNER, hate the sinner’s sex toy business.

A PORNOGRAPHY-BASED STRATEGY for the War on Terror: “Whatever military action we take is just a holding action while our culture does a number on them.”