Newark Peace Education Summit
On May 13-15th His Holiness the Dalai Lama and an impressive line up of speakers will be presenting at the Newark Peace Education Summit. The Peace Alliance is co-sponsoring the event, and our team will be there. Will you?
For more info visit: www.newarkpeace.org
Speakers include: The Dalai Lama, Mayor Cory Booker, Russell Simmons, Martin Luther King Jr. III, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Elizabeth Kucinich, Van Jones, Marjora Carter, Jodi Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Goldie Hawn, Edward Norton, and many other presenters.
Some of the most gifted peacebuilders in the nation, national figures and unsung heroes alike, will present workshops on about as many peace topics as you can probably imagine!
I'm so excited to participate in this summit. The story of Newark, New Jersey rising out of the challenges of crime and poverty into the national spotlight as a model city, is one of the great American tales of the last few years. I can think of nowhere better to host this gathering.
Over the last few months in particular, inspired in part by the shifts in the Middle East, we are feeling an uptick in the collaborative strength of the US peace movement as a whole—a growing sense that right here, right now, is our moment. The dynamite lineup of this event, and the incredible space that will be created for us to gather, demonstrates the power of this rising tide.
You in? Learn more and register at www.newarkpeace.org
We hope to see you there!
-Aaron Voldman
Student Peace Alliance Executive Director
PS: Are you able to make a small donation to help sponsor more staff, board and volunteers to be present in Newark? Together we will help translate the energy from the event and what we are learning into powerful action. Help us maximize our participation! Also, if you want to say hi, and hang out with us in Newark, drop us a line at info@thepeacealliance.org
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Obama running on empty?
Making Sense by Michael Reagan
Halfway through his term in office, President Barack Obama faces a crisis that could most probably doom his chances of being re-elected — he’s running out of gas.
According to press reports, the respected Lundberg survey showed that the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in Chicago, for example, now stands at $4.27 — a 12 cent increase in just the past two weeks. And that, the reports note, is just the average. Several gas stations in Chicago have been selling gasoline for between $4.60 and $4.70 a gallon, according to chicagogasprices.com.
David Fitzsimmons / Arizona Daily Star (click to view more cartoons)
The rest of America is in a similar fix. According to press reports, per-gallon gas prices are more than $2 higher than when Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009.
More: http://blog.cagle.com/2011/04/obama-running-on-an-empty-tank/
But let's not forget that Obama was underestimated and under-rated back in 2008. I was as wrong as anybody:
In 1962 a Rand Corporation strategist named Herman Kahn wrote a controversial book on nuclear war, which he entitled “Thinking About the Unthinkable.” The title came to my mind this week, as I listened to radio reports of polls that put Barack Obama’s lead at anywhere from five to 10 percentage points. No, his election is not unthinkable to me. Two years ago, I wrote him off as a fluke. A year ago I worried out loud about his lack of experience. As I write this, I am prepared to vote for him.
The “unthinkable” for me today is that some racist out there somewhere, hearing the same polling stats, is oiling his rifle right now. That’s what scares the heck out me, as the countdown to Election Day approaches its final hours.
We’ve been there before, and thinking about it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. This month marks the 45th anniversary of JFK’s assassination. Despite all the conspiracy theories, the thousands of books, the Oliver Stone movie, and all the rest, I continue to believe that a weird little nut named Oswald acted alone. Armed with a cheesy Italian war-surplus rifle, he killed the president… and, with him, the dreams of many in my generation.
Forty years ago, two more worthless cuckoos killed Bobby and Martin. I shall forever be amazed at colleagues who wax nostalgic about the Sixties. The decade was a time of terror, dissention, drugs and war. And madmen robbed me of the three heroes of my youth.
Why will I vote for Obama, when I have said so often that I would not?
First and foremost, because John McCain has let me --- and such GOP icons as Christopher Buckley and Colin Powell --- down… way down. It’s not that he is behaving like Hubert Humphrey in ’68, when Gonzo-journalist Hunter Thomson likened HHH to a bull moose in heat crashing through a Wisconsin forest. Old men may be forgiven for excessive zeal in their last runs for the White House.
No, I could forgive him for that. What I can’t forgive is his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin makes Obama look like an elder statesman. Her nomination is an insult to every thinking American. True, P.T. Barnum once said, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” But, folks, are we really that dumb? I sure hope not. But, if I were sure we weren’t, I wouldn’t be worrying about the unthinkable.
Second, whether Obama is good or merely mediocre in the White House, his election will do more to put behind us the centuries of slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation, than anything else that I can imagine. His presidency simultaneously will send a conciliatory message to what we used to refer to as the “Third World.” From the Bush Doctrine to the son of a black African in one election… what opportunities to rebuild America’s international image this offers!
Last, but not least, something in my aging gut tells me this guy may be the real deal, despite his limited international expertise. His aplomb in the three debates was exemplary. Hilary Clinton had me worrying about the crisis-call at three o’clock in the morning. I begin to believe that that call, when it comes (as it inevitably must), won’t shake this guy up at all. Besides, he has the good sense to surround himself with the best and the brightest, from Joe Biden to Warren Buffet.
So, I say to the Secret Service: be on your tippy toes, folks. Keep this candidate safe. He may be America’s Great Black Hope. In any event, he deserves a chance to change the course of our ship of state, which Mr. Bush has driven over shoals, nearly tearing out its bottom, and headed toward history’s rocks. Keep him safe and sound, fellas. I have come to believe that right now we need this guy.
Posted On: Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 22:21
Halfway through his term in office, President Barack Obama faces a crisis that could most probably doom his chances of being re-elected — he’s running out of gas.
According to press reports, the respected Lundberg survey showed that the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline in Chicago, for example, now stands at $4.27 — a 12 cent increase in just the past two weeks. And that, the reports note, is just the average. Several gas stations in Chicago have been selling gasoline for between $4.60 and $4.70 a gallon, according to chicagogasprices.com.
David Fitzsimmons / Arizona Daily Star (click to view more cartoons)
The rest of America is in a similar fix. According to press reports, per-gallon gas prices are more than $2 higher than when Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009.
More: http://blog.cagle.com/2011/04/obama-running-on-an-empty-tank/
But let's not forget that Obama was underestimated and under-rated back in 2008. I was as wrong as anybody:
In 1962 a Rand Corporation strategist named Herman Kahn wrote a controversial book on nuclear war, which he entitled “Thinking About the Unthinkable.” The title came to my mind this week, as I listened to radio reports of polls that put Barack Obama’s lead at anywhere from five to 10 percentage points. No, his election is not unthinkable to me. Two years ago, I wrote him off as a fluke. A year ago I worried out loud about his lack of experience. As I write this, I am prepared to vote for him.
The “unthinkable” for me today is that some racist out there somewhere, hearing the same polling stats, is oiling his rifle right now. That’s what scares the heck out me, as the countdown to Election Day approaches its final hours.
We’ve been there before, and thinking about it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. This month marks the 45th anniversary of JFK’s assassination. Despite all the conspiracy theories, the thousands of books, the Oliver Stone movie, and all the rest, I continue to believe that a weird little nut named Oswald acted alone. Armed with a cheesy Italian war-surplus rifle, he killed the president… and, with him, the dreams of many in my generation.
Forty years ago, two more worthless cuckoos killed Bobby and Martin. I shall forever be amazed at colleagues who wax nostalgic about the Sixties. The decade was a time of terror, dissention, drugs and war. And madmen robbed me of the three heroes of my youth.
Why will I vote for Obama, when I have said so often that I would not?
First and foremost, because John McCain has let me --- and such GOP icons as Christopher Buckley and Colin Powell --- down… way down. It’s not that he is behaving like Hubert Humphrey in ’68, when Gonzo-journalist Hunter Thomson likened HHH to a bull moose in heat crashing through a Wisconsin forest. Old men may be forgiven for excessive zeal in their last runs for the White House.
No, I could forgive him for that. What I can’t forgive is his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Palin makes Obama look like an elder statesman. Her nomination is an insult to every thinking American. True, P.T. Barnum once said, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.” But, folks, are we really that dumb? I sure hope not. But, if I were sure we weren’t, I wouldn’t be worrying about the unthinkable.
Second, whether Obama is good or merely mediocre in the White House, his election will do more to put behind us the centuries of slavery, Jim Crow, and segregation, than anything else that I can imagine. His presidency simultaneously will send a conciliatory message to what we used to refer to as the “Third World.” From the Bush Doctrine to the son of a black African in one election… what opportunities to rebuild America’s international image this offers!
Last, but not least, something in my aging gut tells me this guy may be the real deal, despite his limited international expertise. His aplomb in the three debates was exemplary. Hilary Clinton had me worrying about the crisis-call at three o’clock in the morning. I begin to believe that that call, when it comes (as it inevitably must), won’t shake this guy up at all. Besides, he has the good sense to surround himself with the best and the brightest, from Joe Biden to Warren Buffet.
So, I say to the Secret Service: be on your tippy toes, folks. Keep this candidate safe. He may be America’s Great Black Hope. In any event, he deserves a chance to change the course of our ship of state, which Mr. Bush has driven over shoals, nearly tearing out its bottom, and headed toward history’s rocks. Keep him safe and sound, fellas. I have come to believe that right now we need this guy.
Posted On: Sunday, October 26, 2008 - 22:21
A workshop for would-be college presidents
Dear Colleagues –
I am sending this message to NACUA General Counsel whose institutions are members of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). The attached information regarding the 2011-12 Executive Leadership Academy describes a year-long program that prepares Cabinet-level administrators to become college Presidents. Forty participants from all areas of the institution will be chosen, twenty from CIC institutions and twenty from AASCU (American Association of State Colleges and Universities) institutions. The program includes two seminars in Washington DC. The President to whom the Cabinet officer reports must nominate the candidate and the link to the form is referenced in the attachment.
The pending retirements of many college presidents over the next few years suggests that many paths to the Presidency must be considered. Those associations who run these leadership training programs welcome interest from General Counsel and other Cabinet-level officers. Please consider asking your President to nominate you if you are at all interested. Thanks.
NOTE: the deadline has been extended until June 6.
Kathleen
I am sending this message to NACUA General Counsel whose institutions are members of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). The attached information regarding the 2011-12 Executive Leadership Academy describes a year-long program that prepares Cabinet-level administrators to become college Presidents. Forty participants from all areas of the institution will be chosen, twenty from CIC institutions and twenty from AASCU (American Association of State Colleges and Universities) institutions. The program includes two seminars in Washington DC. The President to whom the Cabinet officer reports must nominate the candidate and the link to the form is referenced in the attachment.
The pending retirements of many college presidents over the next few years suggests that many paths to the Presidency must be considered. Those associations who run these leadership training programs welcome interest from General Counsel and other Cabinet-level officers. Please consider asking your President to nominate you if you are at all interested. Thanks.
NOTE: the deadline has been extended until June 6.
Kathleen
A workshop on Indonesia from IIE
Expanding Linkages with Indonesia: New Report and Workshop
Leaders from U.S. colleges and universities and Indonesian universities met in Indonesia from April 25-29 to take part in a workshop and study tour focused on strengthening higher education ties between the two countries. The event is part of the U.S.-Indonesia Partnership Program for Study Abroad Capacity, a two-year initiative sponsored by the U.S Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and launched with IIE's Center for International Partnerships in Higher Education in September 2010 to increase the number of U.S. students who study abroad in Indonesia.
The program focused on the challenges and opportunities for U.S. and Indonesian higher education leaders in building institutional linkages and improving Indonesia's capacity to host more study abroad students from the United States. Several officials from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and the Indonesian Ministry of National Education attended the event, including Mr. Ted Osius, Deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. Embassy; Dr. Harris Iskandar, Secretary, Directorate General of Higher Education for the Indonesian Ministry of National Education; and Mr. Frank Whitaker, Cultural Affairs Officer for the U.S. Embassy.
For the first two days participants discussed a number of relevant topics including the higher education systems of both countries, methods for developing successful international partnerships, and best practices in sending and hosting globally mobile students. The group also examined case studies of model study abroad programs. For the ensuing three days, the U.S. participants took part in site visits to the Indonesian participants' campuses, and met with students, faculty and administrators to learn more about Indonesian higher education and culture firsthand and work with the Indonesian institutions on expanding their capacity to host American study abroad students.
The six Indonesian universities participating in the program and workshop are Airlangga University, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Gadjah Mada University, and University of Indonesia. These institutions are committed to internationalizing their campuses and hosting more U.S. and international students through participation in the program.
The participating U.S. institutions are Chatham University, Lehigh University, Miami Dade College, Texas A&M University, University of Michigan, and University of Washington, representing a cross-section of America's colleges and universities.
The goals of the U.S.-Indonesia Partnership Program for Study Abroad Capacity are to help Indonesian institutions evaluate and improve their international capacity in order to increase the number of U.S. students studying abroad in Indonesia, and identify both general and country-specific best practices to build study abroad capacity.
Findings from a Survey on Expanding U.S. Study Abroad to Indonesia:
As part of the State Department-sponsored program and in advance of the workshop in Indonesia, the IIE Center for International Partnerships produced a report based on the findings of a survey of more than 150 U.S. higher education institutions conducted in December 2010 and January 2011.
"Expanding U.S. Study Abroad to Indonesia: U.S. Perspectives and Steps for Expansion" reveals that while the current level of engagement between the two countries higher education communities is relatively weak, the relationship is poised for stronger ties. Survey respondents identified a number of tangible ideas that could be implemented to improve U.S. study abroad to Indonesia, including: increasing knowledge and awareness about Indonesia on campus; providing more study abroad scholarship opportunities for students; offering more institutional funding for study abroad offices; and introducing U.S. institutions to appropriate Indonesian host campuses.
For more information about the workshop and to download the report of the survey, please go to: www.iie.org
Leaders from U.S. colleges and universities and Indonesian universities met in Indonesia from April 25-29 to take part in a workshop and study tour focused on strengthening higher education ties between the two countries. The event is part of the U.S.-Indonesia Partnership Program for Study Abroad Capacity, a two-year initiative sponsored by the U.S Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and launched with IIE's Center for International Partnerships in Higher Education in September 2010 to increase the number of U.S. students who study abroad in Indonesia.
The program focused on the challenges and opportunities for U.S. and Indonesian higher education leaders in building institutional linkages and improving Indonesia's capacity to host more study abroad students from the United States. Several officials from the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and the Indonesian Ministry of National Education attended the event, including Mr. Ted Osius, Deputy Chief of Mission for the U.S. Embassy; Dr. Harris Iskandar, Secretary, Directorate General of Higher Education for the Indonesian Ministry of National Education; and Mr. Frank Whitaker, Cultural Affairs Officer for the U.S. Embassy.
For the first two days participants discussed a number of relevant topics including the higher education systems of both countries, methods for developing successful international partnerships, and best practices in sending and hosting globally mobile students. The group also examined case studies of model study abroad programs. For the ensuing three days, the U.S. participants took part in site visits to the Indonesian participants' campuses, and met with students, faculty and administrators to learn more about Indonesian higher education and culture firsthand and work with the Indonesian institutions on expanding their capacity to host American study abroad students.
The six Indonesian universities participating in the program and workshop are Airlangga University, Bandung Institute of Technology, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesian Institute of the Arts, Gadjah Mada University, and University of Indonesia. These institutions are committed to internationalizing their campuses and hosting more U.S. and international students through participation in the program.
The participating U.S. institutions are Chatham University, Lehigh University, Miami Dade College, Texas A&M University, University of Michigan, and University of Washington, representing a cross-section of America's colleges and universities.
The goals of the U.S.-Indonesia Partnership Program for Study Abroad Capacity are to help Indonesian institutions evaluate and improve their international capacity in order to increase the number of U.S. students studying abroad in Indonesia, and identify both general and country-specific best practices to build study abroad capacity.
Findings from a Survey on Expanding U.S. Study Abroad to Indonesia:
As part of the State Department-sponsored program and in advance of the workshop in Indonesia, the IIE Center for International Partnerships produced a report based on the findings of a survey of more than 150 U.S. higher education institutions conducted in December 2010 and January 2011.
"Expanding U.S. Study Abroad to Indonesia: U.S. Perspectives and Steps for Expansion" reveals that while the current level of engagement between the two countries higher education communities is relatively weak, the relationship is poised for stronger ties. Survey respondents identified a number of tangible ideas that could be implemented to improve U.S. study abroad to Indonesia, including: increasing knowledge and awareness about Indonesia on campus; providing more study abroad scholarship opportunities for students; offering more institutional funding for study abroad offices; and introducing U.S. institutions to appropriate Indonesian host campuses.
For more information about the workshop and to download the report of the survey, please go to: www.iie.org
A warning about "Turn-It-In" hacking
CAI Colleagues –
UCSD has recently experienced two “hacks” into instructor’s turnitin accounts. Turnitin has been helpful in tracking down the student perpetrators (at least in the first case), but I am worried that this will be a continuing problem if they don’t make some permanent and structural changes.
My question to you – have you had any of your instructor accounts hacked? If so, what was done and what did turnitin do for you?
Please just respond to me – tbg@ucsd.edu – and I’ll compile the information and send one summary email to the listserv.
Thanks in advance,
Tricia
High-tech cheating: where there's a will, there's a gadget. (A Tech Perspective).(Brief Article): An article from: Community College Week
______________________________________
UCSD has recently experienced two “hacks” into instructor’s turnitin accounts. Turnitin has been helpful in tracking down the student perpetrators (at least in the first case), but I am worried that this will be a continuing problem if they don’t make some permanent and structural changes.
My question to you – have you had any of your instructor accounts hacked? If so, what was done and what did turnitin do for you?
Please just respond to me – tbg@ucsd.edu – and I’ll compile the information and send one summary email to the listserv.
Thanks in advance,
Tricia
High-tech cheating: where there's a will, there's a gadget. (A Tech Perspective).(Brief Article): An article from: Community College Week
______________________________________
My alma mater offers a lecture series on foreign policy and the economy
Lecture Series on Video
Stanley J. Michalak Jr., The Honorable John C. and Mrs. Kunkel Professor of Government, Emeritus, and William E. Whitesell, Henry P. and Mary B. Stager Professor of Economics, Emeritus, will present a 6-part lecture entitled Reflections on America's Economy, Foreign Policy and Political System for the Lancaster-based group Quest for Learning.
Stanley J. Michalak Jr., The Honorable John C. and Mrs. Kunkel Professor of Government, Emeritus, and William E. Whitesell, Henry P. and Mary B. Stager Professor of Economics, Emeritus, will present a 6-part lecture entitled Reflections on America's Economy, Foreign Policy and Political System for the Lancaster-based group Quest for Learning.
Gaddafi's way of keeping morale up?
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.S. envoy to the United Nations told the Security Council on Thursday that troops loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi were increasingly engaging in sexual violence and some had been issued the impotency drug Viagra, diplomats said.
Several U.N. diplomats who attended a closed-door Security Council meeting on Libya told Reuters that U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice raised the Viagra issue in the context increasing reports of sexual violence by Gaddafi's troops.
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/28/gaddafi-troops-rape-viagra-libya_n_855216.html?ncid=webmail
If it weren't so cruel and sick, it would be funny. The trouble is that these clowns kill!
Several U.N. diplomats who attended a closed-door Security Council meeting on Libya told Reuters that U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice raised the Viagra issue in the context increasing reports of sexual violence by Gaddafi's troops.
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/28/gaddafi-troops-rape-viagra-libya_n_855216.html?ncid=webmail
If it weren't so cruel and sick, it would be funny. The trouble is that these clowns kill!
Friday, April 29, 2011
A good netflicks rental on this day of the royal wedding
The end of the first decade of the 21st century may be remembered as the moment when Hollywood, once and for all, abandoned historical accuracy for dramatic impact. Most notable is Inglourious Basterds, reviewed by me for The History Place not long ago. Director Quentin Tarantino literally rewrote the end of World War II in Europe by blowing up the entire Nazi hierarchy at a film premiere in Paris. Director Jean-Marc Vallee is not so heavy handed in exercising poetic license in Young Victoria.
However, the luxurious costumer about the Britain's longest-reigning monarch’s coming of age highlights an entirely fictitious event – her husband, Prince Albert, suffers a shoulder wound while shielding his sovereign spouse from an assassin’s pistol ball. In real life, this act of heroism simply never happened.
Screenwriter Julian Fellowes explained that the fabricated crisis is intended to exemplify Albert’s devotion to his royal bride. Fair enough, I guess. A film can only be so long, and portraying devotion in a less dramatic fashion might have been too tedious.
At any rate, this complaint aside, Young Victoria is a delight to those historians and history buffs who, like me, love the Victorian era with all its trappings and intrigues. Unlike many historical costumers, this one does not come across as a bunch of miscast actors parading around in ridiculous period garb. Filmed on location at Westminster Abbey, Lincoln Cathedral, Blenheim Place, and several castles, the production is well-staffed by the lovely Emily Blunt in the title role, supported by Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent in a brilliant, hilarious portrayal of William IV; Miranda Richardson in a complex recreation of Victoria’s ambitious, scheming, yet ever-loving mother; Paul Bettany (who won me as a fan forever with his Surgeon Stephen Maturin in 2003’s Master and Commander) as the Prime Minister, Viscount Melbourne, and Rupert Friend as – pardon the pun – Victoria’s best friend and princely mate. These terrific actors wear their uniforms, ball gowns and outlandish headgear as if they had been born to them. In short, they carry it along and carry it off.
The story is age-old. We saw it before in Elizabeth, reviewed in this space a dozen years ago by Fred Harvey. In that movie, Kate Blanchet gave us the young Beth’s hazardous assent to father Henry VIII’s throne. The parallel to Blunt’s Young Victoria is compelling. The latter princess likewise is severely tested – albeit assassination or incarceration in the tower by royal rivals were not real threats in 19th century Britain – as they most certainly were some three centuries earlier.
Rather, Victoria’s challenge was to resist the intense efforts of her mother and mom’s private secretary/probable paramour to push the teenaged princess into executing a regency agreement. Successfully resisting their pressure, Victoria achieves her majority at 18, mourns the demise of Uncle William, and is crowned. Meanwhile, through occasional visits and frequent correspondence, Albert wins the child-queen’s love and respect. But, proud and determined, Victoria makes a few nasty blunders, resulting in scandal and some street protests, before deciding she needs the clever, devoted Albert at her side.
This is an engaging story of love, family, politics and statecraft, well-blended and well-told. I for one would have left the theater fully satisfied without the punch line of a foiled assassination attempt. But what the heck! If you share my enthusiasm for all things Victorian, Young Victoria is a great addition to a genre, which includes such other recent entrants as 2002’s remake of The Four Feathers. Both of my thumbs are up for this one.
However, the luxurious costumer about the Britain's longest-reigning monarch’s coming of age highlights an entirely fictitious event – her husband, Prince Albert, suffers a shoulder wound while shielding his sovereign spouse from an assassin’s pistol ball. In real life, this act of heroism simply never happened.
Screenwriter Julian Fellowes explained that the fabricated crisis is intended to exemplify Albert’s devotion to his royal bride. Fair enough, I guess. A film can only be so long, and portraying devotion in a less dramatic fashion might have been too tedious.
At any rate, this complaint aside, Young Victoria is a delight to those historians and history buffs who, like me, love the Victorian era with all its trappings and intrigues. Unlike many historical costumers, this one does not come across as a bunch of miscast actors parading around in ridiculous period garb. Filmed on location at Westminster Abbey, Lincoln Cathedral, Blenheim Place, and several castles, the production is well-staffed by the lovely Emily Blunt in the title role, supported by Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent in a brilliant, hilarious portrayal of William IV; Miranda Richardson in a complex recreation of Victoria’s ambitious, scheming, yet ever-loving mother; Paul Bettany (who won me as a fan forever with his Surgeon Stephen Maturin in 2003’s Master and Commander) as the Prime Minister, Viscount Melbourne, and Rupert Friend as – pardon the pun – Victoria’s best friend and princely mate. These terrific actors wear their uniforms, ball gowns and outlandish headgear as if they had been born to them. In short, they carry it along and carry it off.
The story is age-old. We saw it before in Elizabeth, reviewed in this space a dozen years ago by Fred Harvey. In that movie, Kate Blanchet gave us the young Beth’s hazardous assent to father Henry VIII’s throne. The parallel to Blunt’s Young Victoria is compelling. The latter princess likewise is severely tested – albeit assassination or incarceration in the tower by royal rivals were not real threats in 19th century Britain – as they most certainly were some three centuries earlier.
Rather, Victoria’s challenge was to resist the intense efforts of her mother and mom’s private secretary/probable paramour to push the teenaged princess into executing a regency agreement. Successfully resisting their pressure, Victoria achieves her majority at 18, mourns the demise of Uncle William, and is crowned. Meanwhile, through occasional visits and frequent correspondence, Albert wins the child-queen’s love and respect. But, proud and determined, Victoria makes a few nasty blunders, resulting in scandal and some street protests, before deciding she needs the clever, devoted Albert at her side.
This is an engaging story of love, family, politics and statecraft, well-blended and well-told. I for one would have left the theater fully satisfied without the punch line of a foiled assassination attempt. But what the heck! If you share my enthusiasm for all things Victorian, Young Victoria is a great addition to a genre, which includes such other recent entrants as 2002’s remake of The Four Feathers. Both of my thumbs are up for this one.
Before the Great Recession redes into the background...
There Will Be More Blood
By Jim Castagnera
Back in February I wrote about the film There Will Be Blood, which subsequently brought a best-actor Oscar to its star. While Daniel Day-Lewis had increased fortune and fame in his immediate future, the rest of us got dramatically increased oil prices in ours. We also got climbing food costs. And millions got mortgage foreclosures. For these folks, the first half of 2008 has been a perfect economic storm.
When will it end? Well, maybe it won’t. Three weeks ago, while on business in Washington, I read these observations by commentator Steven Pearlstein in the Post: “The tendency is to see these as separate developments, each with its own causes and dynamic. Fundamentally, however, they are all part of the same story—the story of the global economy purging itself of large and unsustainable imbalances that for a time allowed many American to think they were richer than they really are.”
Pearlstein continued, “The thing to remember is that it’s not just residential real estate. The same factors that were behind the housing bubble were also at work, to varying degrees, in the auto bubble, the commercial real estate bubble, the travel bubble, the college tuition bubble, the retail bubble, the Web 2.0 bubble and most recently the commodities bubble.”
He concludes with this sobering thought: “Is this the end of the world? For the richest country on the planet, certainly not. But it does represent the end of a decade or more during which Americans were permitted and even encouraged by the rest of the world—and by their own leaders—to live way beyond their means. … For the first time since the early 1980s, Americans will have several years of uncomfortably slow growth and uncomfortably high inflation as the US economy regains its balance and creates a foundation for more solid and sustainable growth.”
As gloomy as Pearlstein’s prediction may be, I fear it may be overly optimistic. Not only the US economy is seeking a new balance. The global economy is doing the same thing. Standards of living in the so-called “developing” nations are rising. China and India are growing by leaps. The same may be said for the nations of the European Union. Historically impoverished countries, such as Ireland, have enjoyed unprecedented growth inside the EU. Several South American countries, notably Brazil, are also on growth trajectories.
As an oil-dependant nation, America is competing with all these other regions for petroleum in a global marketplace where this vital commodity is destined to become ever more scarce as the 21st century marches forward. As the cover of National Geographic screamed almost four years ago, “The End of Cheap Oil.” The magazine sure got that right.
Food prices aren’t going anywhere but up in the long haul either. There are many reasons why: diversion of corn to ethanol production … ever-increasing world population … demand by millions of new members of the middle class in India, China and nearly everywhere else for meat, fish and other foods their parents could only devoir in their dreams … shrinking farmlands in the face of suburban sprawl.
Presidential-hopeful Obama insulted many small-town Pennsylvanians by speaking of their bitterness about lost jobs. Bruce Springsteen beat Barack to the punch by almost 25 years, when he wrote the lyrics for “My Hometown” on his Born in the USA album: “Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back.” The Democratic candidate’s caustic comments only confirmed what the Boss predicted.
As if all this were not enough, some even add that IQs in the developed West perhaps have peaked, while they will do nothing but climb in the developing world, as its people take advantage of the same cultural factors that drove IQ increases in America and Europe during the past 100 years or so. Time will tell. For now, suffice to say that, while the high tech revolution is probably eliminating jobs faster than it is creating new ones, “there are signs,” says reporter Andrew Anthony of England’s Guardian newspaper, “that [IQ growth] is coming to an end, at least in western Europe. Recent studies in Scandinavia show a plateau in results, and a drop in arithmetic.”
If the world economy is finding its equilibrium, our side of the seesaw will move down as the other guy’s side lifts off the ground. We won’t be going back up. Here’s hoping we don’t bloody our big butts at the bottom.
By Jim Castagnera
Back in February I wrote about the film There Will Be Blood, which subsequently brought a best-actor Oscar to its star. While Daniel Day-Lewis had increased fortune and fame in his immediate future, the rest of us got dramatically increased oil prices in ours. We also got climbing food costs. And millions got mortgage foreclosures. For these folks, the first half of 2008 has been a perfect economic storm.
When will it end? Well, maybe it won’t. Three weeks ago, while on business in Washington, I read these observations by commentator Steven Pearlstein in the Post: “The tendency is to see these as separate developments, each with its own causes and dynamic. Fundamentally, however, they are all part of the same story—the story of the global economy purging itself of large and unsustainable imbalances that for a time allowed many American to think they were richer than they really are.”
Pearlstein continued, “The thing to remember is that it’s not just residential real estate. The same factors that were behind the housing bubble were also at work, to varying degrees, in the auto bubble, the commercial real estate bubble, the travel bubble, the college tuition bubble, the retail bubble, the Web 2.0 bubble and most recently the commodities bubble.”
He concludes with this sobering thought: “Is this the end of the world? For the richest country on the planet, certainly not. But it does represent the end of a decade or more during which Americans were permitted and even encouraged by the rest of the world—and by their own leaders—to live way beyond their means. … For the first time since the early 1980s, Americans will have several years of uncomfortably slow growth and uncomfortably high inflation as the US economy regains its balance and creates a foundation for more solid and sustainable growth.”
As gloomy as Pearlstein’s prediction may be, I fear it may be overly optimistic. Not only the US economy is seeking a new balance. The global economy is doing the same thing. Standards of living in the so-called “developing” nations are rising. China and India are growing by leaps. The same may be said for the nations of the European Union. Historically impoverished countries, such as Ireland, have enjoyed unprecedented growth inside the EU. Several South American countries, notably Brazil, are also on growth trajectories.
As an oil-dependant nation, America is competing with all these other regions for petroleum in a global marketplace where this vital commodity is destined to become ever more scarce as the 21st century marches forward. As the cover of National Geographic screamed almost four years ago, “The End of Cheap Oil.” The magazine sure got that right.
Food prices aren’t going anywhere but up in the long haul either. There are many reasons why: diversion of corn to ethanol production … ever-increasing world population … demand by millions of new members of the middle class in India, China and nearly everywhere else for meat, fish and other foods their parents could only devoir in their dreams … shrinking farmlands in the face of suburban sprawl.
Presidential-hopeful Obama insulted many small-town Pennsylvanians by speaking of their bitterness about lost jobs. Bruce Springsteen beat Barack to the punch by almost 25 years, when he wrote the lyrics for “My Hometown” on his Born in the USA album: “Foreman says these jobs are going boys and they ain’t coming back.” The Democratic candidate’s caustic comments only confirmed what the Boss predicted.
As if all this were not enough, some even add that IQs in the developed West perhaps have peaked, while they will do nothing but climb in the developing world, as its people take advantage of the same cultural factors that drove IQ increases in America and Europe during the past 100 years or so. Time will tell. For now, suffice to say that, while the high tech revolution is probably eliminating jobs faster than it is creating new ones, “there are signs,” says reporter Andrew Anthony of England’s Guardian newspaper, “that [IQ growth] is coming to an end, at least in western Europe. Recent studies in Scandinavia show a plateau in results, and a drop in arithmetic.”
If the world economy is finding its equilibrium, our side of the seesaw will move down as the other guy’s side lifts off the ground. We won’t be going back up. Here’s hoping we don’t bloody our big butts at the bottom.
America's first bona fide mass murder is buried (practically) in my back yard
SOURCE: Lehighton (PA) Times-News (9-14-05)
Holy Cross Cemetery is a mere half dozen miles from my Havertown home… a quick drive down Lansdowne Avenue. An early burial ground of the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Holy Cross plays host to hundreds, if not thousands, of Irish and Italian immigrants; a common inscription on many a weathered tombstone reads something like, “Born County Cork 1846.”
Had I not taken a book called “The Devil in the White City” with me to the Shore this summer, I might never have known that Holy Cross is also the final resting place of America’s first bona fide mass murderer. According to author Erik Larson’s 2003 bestseller about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Herman Webster Mudgett, alias Dr. H.H. Holmes accomplished most of his killing in a suburban-Chicago building he called his “Castle.” The Castle combined businesses, such as a pharmacy, a restaurant and a small hotel with a Boris Karloff-like basement containing a crematorium and a sound-proof gas chamber. Holmes eventually confessed to killing 27; some say the real figure may be as high as 200.
Holmes penned his horrid confession in Philadelphia’s Moyamensing Prison, where in 1896 he waited to be hanged for the murder of a partner-in-crime, one Ben Pitezel, with whom he had launched a fake patent dealership along Philly’s Callowhill Street. Holmes had insured his partner’s life for $10,000. When he found Pitezel passed out from hard liquor at the Callowhill shop, he decided it was time to collect on the policy. Tying the helpless drunk’s hands and feet, “I proceeded to burn him alive by saturating his clothing and his face with benzene and lighting it with a match.” Homles coyly adds to the confession, “So horrible was this torture that in writing of it I have been tempted to attribute his death to some humane means --- not with a wish to spare myself, but because I fear that it will not be believed that one could be so heartless and depraved.”
The Chicago police who investigated the Castle following Holmes’s Philadelphia conviction had no trouble believing every word of his grizzly confession. They found claw marks on the walls of the “Vault,” the airtight chamber equipped with gas jets that Holmes controlled from upstairs. They also found skulls, ribs, a shoulder blade and a hip socket that the crematorium had failed to reduce to ash. The stovepipe from this gas oven was lined with human hair. Holmes even had a medieval torture rack.
The mad medico was as bold as he was crazy. After murdering Pitezel on September 2, 1894, he hastily left town. While he was away, Pitezel’s burned body was found by a customer, who stopped by the Callowhill shop to sell a patent. Pitezal was buried as a pauper in a Potter’s Field. But just a few days after the funeral, Holmes reappeared, advising the life insurance company that the supposed-pauper was their policy-holder, Pitezal. The body was exhumed and identified by Holmes and the deceased’s daughter Alice, whom Holmes subsequently killed along with a younger brother and sister. The insurance carrier paid up to an attorney for his widow, Carrie. Paying $2500 to the lawyer, Holmes then talked Carrie out of the lion’s share of the proceeds, told her that her husband was still alive, and took her on a whirlwind tour of Detroit, Toronto, and Ogdensburg, New York… always promising that her husband and children would be joining them at their next destination.
A Philadelphia detective named Frank Geyer finally caught up with Holmes in Boston. The insurance company had come to the conclusion that the body exhumed from the Potter’s Field was not Pitezel. Indicted in Philly for conspiracy to defraud the carrier, Holmes wisely pleaded guilty. However, the Philadelphia D.A. wasn’t satisfied with this conviction. The investigation was continued and on September 12, 1895, a grand jury indicted Holmes for murder. He and his attorney then changed their story, agreeing that Pitezal was dead, but contending that he had killed himself. Holmes claimed he had found his dead partner, and fearing that the insurance policy wouldn’t pay off on a suicide, had burned the body to disguise the self-inflicted wounds. The jury didn’t buy this yarn. Holmes was convicted and sentenced to hang.
When his motion for a new trial was denied on November 30, 1895, by a tribunal with the charming name of “the Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Jail Delivery of Pennsylvania,” his luck had finally run out. Awaiting the inevitable, he penned the confession published first by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Then, on May 7, 1896, behind the high walls of the prison at 10 th and Reed Streets (where an Acme now stands), Holmes was hanged. The Inquirer reported the presence of a huge throng of would-be spectators. “There was a good deal of fin de siecle brutality about the crowds,” commented the paper. “There was nothing that they could possibly see, but the high forbidding walls. There was nothing they could hear. Yet they all seemed drawn to the spot by some morbid fascination. Coarse jests were bandied from lip to lip as the crowd surged to and fro.”
Having sold the cleaned and polished skeletons of many a victim to Chicago medical schools, hospitals and private physicians, Holmes feared he himself might become a victim of grave robbers. ( Philadelphia’s Wistar Institute had made an offer to buy his pathological brain.) Consequently, on his instructions, his coffin was half filled with concrete. Then his body was placed inside and covered with more concrete. His grave, too, was filled half way with wet concrete, before the coffin was lowered and buried in more of the same.
Holmes’ Holy Cross grave has no marker. Author Erik Larson places it at “section 15, range 10, lot 41.” He adds, “At the gravesite there is only an open lawn in the midst of other old graves. There are children….” To be precise, there are four children, all of whom died in 1896. Ten or twelve feet in front of their tiny tombstones, adorned with marble lambs, is a rectangular depression in the grass.
Beneath the grass, half burned away by this summer’s sun, and the topsoil, and a few feet of ancient concrete, lies America’s first self-proclaimed mass murderer. He outdid Jack the Ripper by at least 20, and perhaps 200, slayings. Yet, prior to Larson’s “Devil in the White City,” he was practically forgotten… the nearly-anonymous monster in my own back yard.
Holy Cross Cemetery is a mere half dozen miles from my Havertown home… a quick drive down Lansdowne Avenue. An early burial ground of the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Holy Cross plays host to hundreds, if not thousands, of Irish and Italian immigrants; a common inscription on many a weathered tombstone reads something like, “Born County Cork 1846.”
Had I not taken a book called “The Devil in the White City” with me to the Shore this summer, I might never have known that Holy Cross is also the final resting place of America’s first bona fide mass murderer. According to author Erik Larson’s 2003 bestseller about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Herman Webster Mudgett, alias Dr. H.H. Holmes accomplished most of his killing in a suburban-Chicago building he called his “Castle.” The Castle combined businesses, such as a pharmacy, a restaurant and a small hotel with a Boris Karloff-like basement containing a crematorium and a sound-proof gas chamber. Holmes eventually confessed to killing 27; some say the real figure may be as high as 200.
Holmes penned his horrid confession in Philadelphia’s Moyamensing Prison, where in 1896 he waited to be hanged for the murder of a partner-in-crime, one Ben Pitezel, with whom he had launched a fake patent dealership along Philly’s Callowhill Street. Holmes had insured his partner’s life for $10,000. When he found Pitezel passed out from hard liquor at the Callowhill shop, he decided it was time to collect on the policy. Tying the helpless drunk’s hands and feet, “I proceeded to burn him alive by saturating his clothing and his face with benzene and lighting it with a match.” Homles coyly adds to the confession, “So horrible was this torture that in writing of it I have been tempted to attribute his death to some humane means --- not with a wish to spare myself, but because I fear that it will not be believed that one could be so heartless and depraved.”
The Chicago police who investigated the Castle following Holmes’s Philadelphia conviction had no trouble believing every word of his grizzly confession. They found claw marks on the walls of the “Vault,” the airtight chamber equipped with gas jets that Holmes controlled from upstairs. They also found skulls, ribs, a shoulder blade and a hip socket that the crematorium had failed to reduce to ash. The stovepipe from this gas oven was lined with human hair. Holmes even had a medieval torture rack.
The mad medico was as bold as he was crazy. After murdering Pitezel on September 2, 1894, he hastily left town. While he was away, Pitezel’s burned body was found by a customer, who stopped by the Callowhill shop to sell a patent. Pitezal was buried as a pauper in a Potter’s Field. But just a few days after the funeral, Holmes reappeared, advising the life insurance company that the supposed-pauper was their policy-holder, Pitezal. The body was exhumed and identified by Holmes and the deceased’s daughter Alice, whom Holmes subsequently killed along with a younger brother and sister. The insurance carrier paid up to an attorney for his widow, Carrie. Paying $2500 to the lawyer, Holmes then talked Carrie out of the lion’s share of the proceeds, told her that her husband was still alive, and took her on a whirlwind tour of Detroit, Toronto, and Ogdensburg, New York… always promising that her husband and children would be joining them at their next destination.
A Philadelphia detective named Frank Geyer finally caught up with Holmes in Boston. The insurance company had come to the conclusion that the body exhumed from the Potter’s Field was not Pitezel. Indicted in Philly for conspiracy to defraud the carrier, Holmes wisely pleaded guilty. However, the Philadelphia D.A. wasn’t satisfied with this conviction. The investigation was continued and on September 12, 1895, a grand jury indicted Holmes for murder. He and his attorney then changed their story, agreeing that Pitezal was dead, but contending that he had killed himself. Holmes claimed he had found his dead partner, and fearing that the insurance policy wouldn’t pay off on a suicide, had burned the body to disguise the self-inflicted wounds. The jury didn’t buy this yarn. Holmes was convicted and sentenced to hang.
When his motion for a new trial was denied on November 30, 1895, by a tribunal with the charming name of “the Court of Oyer and Terminer and General Jail Delivery of Pennsylvania,” his luck had finally run out. Awaiting the inevitable, he penned the confession published first by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Then, on May 7, 1896, behind the high walls of the prison at 10 th and Reed Streets (where an Acme now stands), Holmes was hanged. The Inquirer reported the presence of a huge throng of would-be spectators. “There was a good deal of fin de siecle brutality about the crowds,” commented the paper. “There was nothing that they could possibly see, but the high forbidding walls. There was nothing they could hear. Yet they all seemed drawn to the spot by some morbid fascination. Coarse jests were bandied from lip to lip as the crowd surged to and fro.”
Having sold the cleaned and polished skeletons of many a victim to Chicago medical schools, hospitals and private physicians, Holmes feared he himself might become a victim of grave robbers. ( Philadelphia’s Wistar Institute had made an offer to buy his pathological brain.) Consequently, on his instructions, his coffin was half filled with concrete. Then his body was placed inside and covered with more concrete. His grave, too, was filled half way with wet concrete, before the coffin was lowered and buried in more of the same.
Holmes’ Holy Cross grave has no marker. Author Erik Larson places it at “section 15, range 10, lot 41.” He adds, “At the gravesite there is only an open lawn in the midst of other old graves. There are children….” To be precise, there are four children, all of whom died in 1896. Ten or twelve feet in front of their tiny tombstones, adorned with marble lambs, is a rectangular depression in the grass.
Beneath the grass, half burned away by this summer’s sun, and the topsoil, and a few feet of ancient concrete, lies America’s first self-proclaimed mass murderer. He outdid Jack the Ripper by at least 20, and perhaps 200, slayings. Yet, prior to Larson’s “Devil in the White City,” he was practically forgotten… the nearly-anonymous monster in my own back yard.
Remering Brown v. Board of Education
SOURCE: News of Delaware County (7-4-07)
[Jim Castagnera is the associate provost/associate counsel at Rider University and a 2007-08 Fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy.]
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decisions in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No.1. Yes, I said decisions, plural. No fewer than four separate opinions were filed in this 5-4 decision in which the bare majority struck down attempts by school-district defendants to assign students on the basis of race. The split decision is part of a pattern of disagreement and dissent on the nation’s highest judicial bench. If my count is correct, the nine justices have divided 5-4 on about one third of the cases they decided during this term. More precisely, my count is 22 decisions in which the vote was 5-4 in 19 cases, plus two 6-3 decisions and one 5-3 ruling… all these out of a total of some 60-plus cases.
More troubling still is the fact that 5-4 on the face of this highly significant school desegregation case masks the actual depth of the disagreements among the Supremes. The four-justice conservative clique --- Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito --- would allow no consideration of race whatsoever in assigning children to particular public schools. Never mind that the defendants’ purpose was to prevent de facto segregation along black-white lines. Justice Anthony Kennedy, increasingly the swing vote on the divided court, agreed with his four neo-con colleagues that the defendants’ approach was unconstitutional. But his separate, concurring opinion held that diversity remains a valid goal of our educational institutions and, therefore, some consideration of race in the assignment of school children may be permissible.
In dissent were Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsberg and Breyer. Not satisfied simply to join the dissent penned by Breyer, Justice Stevens wrote a separate dissent of his own as well. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of all these 185 pages of judicial pronouncements and pontifications is that both sides cited 1954’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas for their positions.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the bare majority, “Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin. The school districts in these cases have not carried the heavy burden of demonstrating that we should allow this once again, even for very different reasons.” Justice Stevens sadly retorted, “There is a cruel irony in the Chief Justice's reliance on our decision in Brown v. Board of Education…. The first sentence in the concluding paragraph of his opinion states: ‘Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin.’ This sentence reminds me of Anatole France's observation: ‘[T]he majestic equality of the la[w], forbid[s] rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.’”
What a contrast this case makes to the Brown opinion, penned by Chief Justice Earl Warren. The former California governor, who during WWII signed the order evicting 110,000 Japanese Americans from their homes, did not look like the man who would lead the fight to overturn separate-but-equal as the law of the land. Certainly, President Dwight Eisenhower, who appointed him to head a court as badly fragmented as the one we have today, did not expect this of the man who had said, “If the Japs are released, no one will be able to tell a saboteur from any other Jap.” (Talk about profiling!)
Shortly after appointing Warren, Ike seated him at a White House dinner next to the chief counsel for the segregationists in the consolidated cases collectively called Brown. Ike told Warren the attorney was “a great man.” As for his clients, said Ike, “These are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big black bucks.” To quote the late, great journalist David Halberstam, “If Dwight Eisenhower had decided… that the two of them shared similar attitudes and values, then he was wrong.”
In the months that followed his confirmation, Warren achieved the impossible, bringing liberals and conservatives, included segregationists, on the high court together in a unanimous opinion that is one of the truly eloquent pieces of literature in the annals of the common law. Its eloquence is enhanced by its brevity.
What should sadden all of us, liberals and conservatives alike, as we review the vast, unwieldy tome of Seattle School District No.1, is the apparent inability of our newest chief justice to bring together his eight colleagues on the big issues… this at a time when national elections are decided by the narrowest of majorities, if not mere pluralities, and we are in desperate need of the law’s guiding beacon in the dark days ahead.
[Jim Castagnera is the associate provost/associate counsel at Rider University and a 2007-08 Fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy.]
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decisions in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No.1. Yes, I said decisions, plural. No fewer than four separate opinions were filed in this 5-4 decision in which the bare majority struck down attempts by school-district defendants to assign students on the basis of race. The split decision is part of a pattern of disagreement and dissent on the nation’s highest judicial bench. If my count is correct, the nine justices have divided 5-4 on about one third of the cases they decided during this term. More precisely, my count is 22 decisions in which the vote was 5-4 in 19 cases, plus two 6-3 decisions and one 5-3 ruling… all these out of a total of some 60-plus cases.
More troubling still is the fact that 5-4 on the face of this highly significant school desegregation case masks the actual depth of the disagreements among the Supremes. The four-justice conservative clique --- Chief Justice Roberts and Associate Justices Scalia, Thomas and Alito --- would allow no consideration of race whatsoever in assigning children to particular public schools. Never mind that the defendants’ purpose was to prevent de facto segregation along black-white lines. Justice Anthony Kennedy, increasingly the swing vote on the divided court, agreed with his four neo-con colleagues that the defendants’ approach was unconstitutional. But his separate, concurring opinion held that diversity remains a valid goal of our educational institutions and, therefore, some consideration of race in the assignment of school children may be permissible.
In dissent were Justices Stevens, Souter, Ginsberg and Breyer. Not satisfied simply to join the dissent penned by Breyer, Justice Stevens wrote a separate dissent of his own as well. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of all these 185 pages of judicial pronouncements and pontifications is that both sides cited 1954’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas for their positions.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the bare majority, “Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin. The school districts in these cases have not carried the heavy burden of demonstrating that we should allow this once again, even for very different reasons.” Justice Stevens sadly retorted, “There is a cruel irony in the Chief Justice's reliance on our decision in Brown v. Board of Education…. The first sentence in the concluding paragraph of his opinion states: ‘Before Brown, schoolchildren were told where they could and could not go to school based on the color of their skin.’ This sentence reminds me of Anatole France's observation: ‘[T]he majestic equality of the la[w], forbid[s] rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.’”
What a contrast this case makes to the Brown opinion, penned by Chief Justice Earl Warren. The former California governor, who during WWII signed the order evicting 110,000 Japanese Americans from their homes, did not look like the man who would lead the fight to overturn separate-but-equal as the law of the land. Certainly, President Dwight Eisenhower, who appointed him to head a court as badly fragmented as the one we have today, did not expect this of the man who had said, “If the Japs are released, no one will be able to tell a saboteur from any other Jap.” (Talk about profiling!)
Shortly after appointing Warren, Ike seated him at a White House dinner next to the chief counsel for the segregationists in the consolidated cases collectively called Brown. Ike told Warren the attorney was “a great man.” As for his clients, said Ike, “These are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big black bucks.” To quote the late, great journalist David Halberstam, “If Dwight Eisenhower had decided… that the two of them shared similar attitudes and values, then he was wrong.”
In the months that followed his confirmation, Warren achieved the impossible, bringing liberals and conservatives, included segregationists, on the high court together in a unanimous opinion that is one of the truly eloquent pieces of literature in the annals of the common law. Its eloquence is enhanced by its brevity.
What should sadden all of us, liberals and conservatives alike, as we review the vast, unwieldy tome of Seattle School District No.1, is the apparent inability of our newest chief justice to bring together his eight colleagues on the big issues… this at a time when national elections are decided by the narrowest of majorities, if not mere pluralities, and we are in desperate need of the law’s guiding beacon in the dark days ahead.
Ned McAdoo on the Ancient Order of Hibernians
The Ancient Order of Hibernians: From the Molly Maguires to Malachy McAllister
SOURCE: Carbon County Times-News (12-1-07)
[Jim Castagnera, formerly of Jim Thorpe, is the Associate Provost/Associate Counsel at Rider University. His new novel, Ned McAdoo and the Molly Maguires,” is available at www.lulu.com.]
“What do you know about the AOH?” I asked my pal Ned McAdoo during one of our regular Friday lunches, this one appropriately enough at Maggie O’Neil’s Pub in the Pilgrim Gardens Shopping Center in Drexel Hill.
“Say what?” Ned squinted at me. Being of Irish-American heritage, Ned, I had assumed, would be well-acquainted with the Ancient Order of Hibernians. A little bit of internet research had revealed more than 20 divisions in Greater Philadelphia, including the Dennis Kelly Division in Havertown, where I live and Ned maintains his law practice.
Realizing McAdoo was at a loss, I pulled from my coat pocket a page I’d printed from Wikipedia, unfolded it and read, “The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) is an Irish-Catholicfraternal organization. Members must be Catholic and either Irish born or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is now in the United States, where it was founded in New York in 1836. Its original purpose in the United States was to assist Irish Catholic immigrants, especially those who faced discrimination or harsh coal mining working conditions. Many members had a Molly Maguire background. Its mixture of religion and politics (similar to that of the Protestant Orange Order) has led its critics to accuse it of sectarianism and anti-Protestantism. In historical context, the Order may have emerged in America as a Catholic response to Freemasonry, which the Papacy forbade Catholics from joining.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Ned, before slurping the thin brown head from his pint of Guinness. “Now I remember. Some people claimed the AOH was the Molly Maguires. I ran across that when I helped my old man out with that case of his, when I was just a kid.” I knew Ned was referring to some work that his father Archie, also an attorney, had done to help win Black Jack Kehoe, the so-called King of the Molly Maguires, a pardon. I knew Ned had been only a teenager then. “I haven’t thought much about that in a long time. Why your sudden interest, Seamus?”
I explained that, while attending a funeral up in Schuylkill County last week, I’d run into one of my wife’s cousins. Jimmy Brennan was at the bar in the Middleport Inn, sporting a bright green AOH jacket. Together we’d taught the barmaid to make a White Russian. “I read your column every week,” attested the 76-year-old Jimmy. “Mention me in it sometime.”
“Thus my research into the AOH,” I concluded, as my own pint arrived and we sipped while reviewing the menu. After we’d ordered lunch, Ned picked up the thread. “So.” He asked, “Your research turn up anything interesting?”
I allowed that it had. “The organization is still in the thick of terrorist controversy, much as it was in the 1870s, when the Molly Maguires were arrested, tried and hanged for assorted acts of murder, arson and mayhem.”
“Alleged acts,” McAdoo cautioned me. “Some historians question whether the Mollies even existed or whether they were a concoction of the coal barons to nip Irish unionism and political power in the bud… not unlike the more recent claim that Saddam Hussein was in bed with Al Qaeda,” he added. “Hey, you’re not telling me the AOH is involved in the War on Terror, are you?”
No, I said. More predictably, the national organization, according to its web site [www.aoh.com], currently was championing the cause of a former IRA man, who fled Protestant death squads in 1988. “The Department of Homeland Security is apparently trying hard to deport one Malachy McAllister and his family from the U.S.” According to McAllister’s own web site [http://www.mcallistercampaign.com/about.htm], “The McAllisters are a Catholic family from the Lower Ormeau Road area of Belfast in the north of Ireland, who have been seeking political asylum in the United States. Malachy and Bernadette McAllister and their four children fled Belfast in 1988, after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt by pro-British Loyalists. Following weeks of evidence by some of the foremost authorities on the conflict in the north of Ireland, the trial judge found that the McAllisters had suffered severe persecution as a result of the attack on their home, ritual intimidation and abuse from the British security forces, public humiliation by those forces and a lifetime of discrimination. The judge awarded political asylum to Bernadette and the McAllister children, but ordered Malachy deported to face the same dangers, because he had served a prison sentence for fighting back against his persecutors.”
“So how does the AOH fit in?” queried Ned.
“For one thing,” I replied, “the web site supports a telephone campaign.” I pulled more paper from my pocket. The form I smoothed out on the table read, “Malachy McAllister and his two youngest children are facing deportation when the suspension of their order of removal expires in September. They have been advised that a private bill in the Senate would be their only hope to remain in New Jersey with the older McAllister children and their families.
Please call [Senator Frank Lautenberg’s] New Jersey Office at 973-639-8700 and his DC Office at 202-224-3224 and leave the following message:
My name is ________ I am calling from _________
I am calling to ask for Senator Lautenberg's support to prevent the deportation of Malachy McAllister and his children Sean and Nicola. Please, Senator Lautenberg introduce a private bill in the US Senate that would grant permanent resident status to this deserving family. Thank You.”
As Ned read, a bemused smile crossed his face. “Well,” he finally said, “Old Black Jack Kehoe, King of the Mollies, would be proud.”
Source:
Carbon County Times-News
Date:
12-1-07
SOURCE: Carbon County Times-News (12-1-07)
[Jim Castagnera, formerly of Jim Thorpe, is the Associate Provost/Associate Counsel at Rider University. His new novel, Ned McAdoo and the Molly Maguires,” is available at www.lulu.com.]
“What do you know about the AOH?” I asked my pal Ned McAdoo during one of our regular Friday lunches, this one appropriately enough at Maggie O’Neil’s Pub in the Pilgrim Gardens Shopping Center in Drexel Hill.
“Say what?” Ned squinted at me. Being of Irish-American heritage, Ned, I had assumed, would be well-acquainted with the Ancient Order of Hibernians. A little bit of internet research had revealed more than 20 divisions in Greater Philadelphia, including the Dennis Kelly Division in Havertown, where I live and Ned maintains his law practice.
Realizing McAdoo was at a loss, I pulled from my coat pocket a page I’d printed from Wikipedia, unfolded it and read, “The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) is an Irish-Catholicfraternal organization. Members must be Catholic and either Irish born or of Irish descent. Its largest membership is now in the United States, where it was founded in New York in 1836. Its original purpose in the United States was to assist Irish Catholic immigrants, especially those who faced discrimination or harsh coal mining working conditions. Many members had a Molly Maguire background. Its mixture of religion and politics (similar to that of the Protestant Orange Order) has led its critics to accuse it of sectarianism and anti-Protestantism. In historical context, the Order may have emerged in America as a Catholic response to Freemasonry, which the Papacy forbade Catholics from joining.”
“Oh, yeah,” said Ned, before slurping the thin brown head from his pint of Guinness. “Now I remember. Some people claimed the AOH was the Molly Maguires. I ran across that when I helped my old man out with that case of his, when I was just a kid.” I knew Ned was referring to some work that his father Archie, also an attorney, had done to help win Black Jack Kehoe, the so-called King of the Molly Maguires, a pardon. I knew Ned had been only a teenager then. “I haven’t thought much about that in a long time. Why your sudden interest, Seamus?”
I explained that, while attending a funeral up in Schuylkill County last week, I’d run into one of my wife’s cousins. Jimmy Brennan was at the bar in the Middleport Inn, sporting a bright green AOH jacket. Together we’d taught the barmaid to make a White Russian. “I read your column every week,” attested the 76-year-old Jimmy. “Mention me in it sometime.”
“Thus my research into the AOH,” I concluded, as my own pint arrived and we sipped while reviewing the menu. After we’d ordered lunch, Ned picked up the thread. “So.” He asked, “Your research turn up anything interesting?”
I allowed that it had. “The organization is still in the thick of terrorist controversy, much as it was in the 1870s, when the Molly Maguires were arrested, tried and hanged for assorted acts of murder, arson and mayhem.”
“Alleged acts,” McAdoo cautioned me. “Some historians question whether the Mollies even existed or whether they were a concoction of the coal barons to nip Irish unionism and political power in the bud… not unlike the more recent claim that Saddam Hussein was in bed with Al Qaeda,” he added. “Hey, you’re not telling me the AOH is involved in the War on Terror, are you?”
No, I said. More predictably, the national organization, according to its web site [www.aoh.com], currently was championing the cause of a former IRA man, who fled Protestant death squads in 1988. “The Department of Homeland Security is apparently trying hard to deport one Malachy McAllister and his family from the U.S.” According to McAllister’s own web site [http://www.mcallistercampaign.com/about.htm], “The McAllisters are a Catholic family from the Lower Ormeau Road area of Belfast in the north of Ireland, who have been seeking political asylum in the United States. Malachy and Bernadette McAllister and their four children fled Belfast in 1988, after narrowly escaping an assassination attempt by pro-British Loyalists. Following weeks of evidence by some of the foremost authorities on the conflict in the north of Ireland, the trial judge found that the McAllisters had suffered severe persecution as a result of the attack on their home, ritual intimidation and abuse from the British security forces, public humiliation by those forces and a lifetime of discrimination. The judge awarded political asylum to Bernadette and the McAllister children, but ordered Malachy deported to face the same dangers, because he had served a prison sentence for fighting back against his persecutors.”
“So how does the AOH fit in?” queried Ned.
“For one thing,” I replied, “the web site supports a telephone campaign.” I pulled more paper from my pocket. The form I smoothed out on the table read, “Malachy McAllister and his two youngest children are facing deportation when the suspension of their order of removal expires in September. They have been advised that a private bill in the Senate would be their only hope to remain in New Jersey with the older McAllister children and their families.
Please call [Senator Frank Lautenberg’s] New Jersey Office at 973-639-8700 and his DC Office at 202-224-3224 and leave the following message:
My name is ________ I am calling from _________
I am calling to ask for Senator Lautenberg's support to prevent the deportation of Malachy McAllister and his children Sean and Nicola. Please, Senator Lautenberg introduce a private bill in the US Senate that would grant permanent resident status to this deserving family. Thank You.”
As Ned read, a bemused smile crossed his face. “Well,” he finally said, “Old Black Jack Kehoe, King of the Mollies, would be proud.”
Source:
Carbon County Times-News
Date:
12-1-07
A message from "Barack"
Friend --
If it were easy to do the big, meaningful things we believe will make our country better -- if it were quick -- someone would have done those things long before any of us showed up.
We've chosen to do something hard.
You know that our victories so far have been hard won: taking the difficult steps necessary to put our economy back on track, reforming Wall Street excess despite an army of lobbyists against us, and making health care more affordable and accessible despite well-organized opposition by those who profit from the status quo.
You also know we have not yet done everything we set out to do -- not nearly.
But that's a reason to work harder, not to let up. That's why we're building this campaign now. And you have to take ownership of it.
So I will be direct: Can you step up and make a donation of $5 to get us started?
https://donate.barackobama.com/Begin-Again
We've had the chance to make historic changes that touch every American: from passing a law that says women should get an equal day's pay for an equal day's work to removing 100,000 troops from Iraq.
Those things and every other important change we've made happened because people like you built an organization to win an election in 2008.
The stakes are even higher this time.
As I've spoken with supporters who are helping get this campaign started, I've met folks who are frustrated by the pace of change.
I understand that. But we knew this wouldn't be easy. The kind of change we're working for never comes easily.
Now is the time to begin again, and build the campaign that will shape our country's future.
Thank you,
Barack
If it were easy to do the big, meaningful things we believe will make our country better -- if it were quick -- someone would have done those things long before any of us showed up.
We've chosen to do something hard.
You know that our victories so far have been hard won: taking the difficult steps necessary to put our economy back on track, reforming Wall Street excess despite an army of lobbyists against us, and making health care more affordable and accessible despite well-organized opposition by those who profit from the status quo.
You also know we have not yet done everything we set out to do -- not nearly.
But that's a reason to work harder, not to let up. That's why we're building this campaign now. And you have to take ownership of it.
So I will be direct: Can you step up and make a donation of $5 to get us started?
https://donate.barackobama.com/Begin-Again
We've had the chance to make historic changes that touch every American: from passing a law that says women should get an equal day's pay for an equal day's work to removing 100,000 troops from Iraq.
Those things and every other important change we've made happened because people like you built an organization to win an election in 2008.
The stakes are even higher this time.
As I've spoken with supporters who are helping get this campaign started, I've met folks who are frustrated by the pace of change.
I understand that. But we knew this wouldn't be easy. The kind of change we're working for never comes easily.
Now is the time to begin again, and build the campaign that will shape our country's future.
Thank you,
Barack
DOE manipulated by stock market speculators?
What place does all this have in educating our young people?
From the Chronicle of Higher Education:
Reports of Inspector-General Probe Cheer Education Department’s Critics
April 28, 2011, 3:05 pm
A day after more than 100 members of Congress wrote to President Obama, urging him to order the Education Department to halt its work on finalizing a controversial “gainful employment” regulation, critics of the rule were further cheered by unattributed reports by The Daily Caller and Dow Jones Newswires asserting that an investigation by the department’s inspector general was focusing on whether the department had been unduly influenced by ”short seller” investors, who stood to profit from declines in for-profit companies’ stock prices. Neither the inspector general nor the department would comment, and it could not be verified if the reports were accurate or if the scope of the reported investigation—sought by several members of Congress—would be much narrower. In a March appearance before a House of Representatives committee, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, facing questions about the accusations, said his agency had asked the inspector general to conduct “a thorough investigation.”
From the Chronicle of Higher Education:
Reports of Inspector-General Probe Cheer Education Department’s Critics
April 28, 2011, 3:05 pm
A day after more than 100 members of Congress wrote to President Obama, urging him to order the Education Department to halt its work on finalizing a controversial “gainful employment” regulation, critics of the rule were further cheered by unattributed reports by The Daily Caller and Dow Jones Newswires asserting that an investigation by the department’s inspector general was focusing on whether the department had been unduly influenced by ”short seller” investors, who stood to profit from declines in for-profit companies’ stock prices. Neither the inspector general nor the department would comment, and it could not be verified if the reports were accurate or if the scope of the reported investigation—sought by several members of Congress—would be much narrower. In a March appearance before a House of Representatives committee, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, facing questions about the accusations, said his agency had asked the inspector general to conduct “a thorough investigation.”
An "infographic" on social media from one of my readers
Dear Jim,
My name is Cathy and I help promote content across the web. I came across your site and thought you and your readers would enjoy this infographic.
Social media has seamlessly integrated into students' lives. But the ubiquity of social media in a student's life has some serious positive and negative effects. This infographic weighs the pros and cons of social media application in a daily student routine.
www.soshable.com/is-social-media-ruining-students/
I hope you and your readers enjoy this graphic as much as we do! If you have any questions regarding this infographic or want more, please feel free to contact me!
Thanks,
Cathy Vance
Cathryn.Vance@gmail.com
(815) 619-9076
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." - Bill Cosby
My name is Cathy and I help promote content across the web. I came across your site and thought you and your readers would enjoy this infographic.
Social media has seamlessly integrated into students' lives. But the ubiquity of social media in a student's life has some serious positive and negative effects. This infographic weighs the pros and cons of social media application in a daily student routine.
www.soshable.com/is-social-media-ruining-students/
I hope you and your readers enjoy this graphic as much as we do! If you have any questions regarding this infographic or want more, please feel free to contact me!
Thanks,
Cathy Vance
Cathryn.Vance@gmail.com
(815) 619-9076
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." - Bill Cosby
Another violation of academic freedom in the frantic attack on unions?
From The Chronicle of Higher Education:
April 28, 2011
Videos 'Ripped' From Online-Course Footage Bring Threats to Instructors
By Peter Schmidt
The University of Missouri system has been besieged with angry letters and phone calls, and top officials at its St. Louis campus have asked an adjunct faculty member to resign, as a result of the conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart's posting videos this week that appear to show two labor-studies instructors advocating union violence.
A contributor to Mr. Breitbart's Web site produced the two videos, which run roughly seven minutes each, from about 30 hours of lecture footage taped as part of a distance-education course and uploaded onto the university's Blackboard course-management system.
Because the footage includes depictions of students in the classroom and was supposed to be accessible only to faculty members, students enrolled in the course, and university technical-support personnel, its wide-scale online distribution has raised concerns about students' privacy rights and the unauthorized use of online course footage to put colleges' faculty members under political pressure.
April 28, 2011
Videos 'Ripped' From Online-Course Footage Bring Threats to Instructors
By Peter Schmidt
The University of Missouri system has been besieged with angry letters and phone calls, and top officials at its St. Louis campus have asked an adjunct faculty member to resign, as a result of the conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart's posting videos this week that appear to show two labor-studies instructors advocating union violence.
A contributor to Mr. Breitbart's Web site produced the two videos, which run roughly seven minutes each, from about 30 hours of lecture footage taped as part of a distance-education course and uploaded onto the university's Blackboard course-management system.
Because the footage includes depictions of students in the classroom and was supposed to be accessible only to faculty members, students enrolled in the course, and university technical-support personnel, its wide-scale online distribution has raised concerns about students' privacy rights and the unauthorized use of online course footage to put colleges' faculty members under political pressure.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Health and Safety Standards Institute of the Forum for Education Abroad
Register now for Health, Safety and Security Standards Institute
Join education abroad leaders and student development, risk management, legal and insurance experts to advance your organization’s practices in critical areas related to health, safety and security. Attend the Standards of Good Practice Institute on “Beyond the Basics of Health, Safety and Security” (Northwestern University June 24, 2011), where scheduled sessions will include:
* Appropriate Preparation: How to Address Critical Issues Before the Education Abroad Experience
* Beyond the Basics of Sexual Assault Education and Prevention Overseas
* Creation, Evolution, and Structure of University Travel Security Positions
* Dealing with the Death of a Student Abroad
* Developing an Institutional Travel Warning Policy: "Tripwires" and Other Challenges
* Effective Collaboration During a Disaster Response
* Everything You Ever Wanted to Ask About Insurance
* Health & Safety Crisis Management: Grounding the “Jetfighter” Parent
* Hot Topics: A Moderated Panel of Attorneys
* Program Survival and Travel Warnings: the Case of Mexico
* Strategies for Managing Mental Health Issues in Education Abroad
* The Adolescent Brain and Education Abroad: Risky Business?
The Institute luncheon plenary address will be delivered by Barrett Seaman, author of Binge: Campus Life in an Age of Disconnection and Excess (2005). For his book, Seaman spent two years living at colleges and investigating campus life. Seaman’s August 2005 piece in Time titled, "How Bingeing Became the New College Sport" served as a wake-up call to parents across the country. A former Time magazine correspondent and editor, he is a graduate and trustee of Hamilton College.
Mr. Seaman’s plenary will provide an insightful perspective on the workings of a 20-year old’s mind when placed in societies where cultural norms and laws related to the consumption of alcoholic beverages are different from those in the U.S., where binge drinking on campuses too often remains a rite of passage.
For more information about the Institute, and to register, visit: http://www.forumea.org/StInstit-June11.cfm
Call for Forum Council Nominations
Are you or one of your colleagues interested in contributing directly to the work of the Forum? The Forum Council is an elected body that sets the agenda for and carries out many of the Forum’s initiatives that benefit the Forum membership. Five positions on the Council are open this year, and the Forum welcomes nominations from colleagues who can dedicate their time and provide their expertise to contribute to the various Forum projects.
If you are interested in serving on the Forum Council or wish to nominate a colleague, please submit the following in support of your nomination:
• a description of the qualifications of the candidate and their interest, referencing specific ways in which they would contribute to the Forum’s goals and projects;
• a curriculum vitae;
• full contact information.
Please send these to info@forumea.org. The deadline for nominations is May 21, 2011. The Council nominations committee will assemble a slate of candidates and the Forum Council election will be held by e-mail ballot. Results will be announced in the Forum News. For more information on the Council, visit http://www.forumea.org/
In Memoriam: Mike Reddin
The Forum has been informed of the very sad news that Mike Reddin, a plenary keynote speaker at the Forum’s annual conference in Portland, OR in 2009, passed away on Monday, April 25. Mike was a well-known international education colleague who for over 14 years was Senior Tutor to the General Course at the London School of Economics, where he was responsible for overseeing all aspects of LSE’s recruitment and enrolment of full-year visiting undergraduate students. He was also a professor and researcher who wrote on a wide range of topics. One of his projects was to compile an authoritative annual report on tuition fees charged to overseas students in the UK (http://www.publicgoods.co.uk/). Mike was known for his sharp wit, keen sense of humor and warm support of colleagues. His writings about education abroad often were provocative and helped the field to look differently at topics and issues as well as question the status quo. The Forum extends its sincere condolences to Mike’s family and friends.
The Forum on Education Abroad
Dickinson College • PO Box 1773 • Carlisle, PA 17013
(ph) 717-245-1031 • (f) 717-245-1677 • info@forumea.org
Join education abroad leaders and student development, risk management, legal and insurance experts to advance your organization’s practices in critical areas related to health, safety and security. Attend the Standards of Good Practice Institute on “Beyond the Basics of Health, Safety and Security” (Northwestern University June 24, 2011), where scheduled sessions will include:
* Appropriate Preparation: How to Address Critical Issues Before the Education Abroad Experience
* Beyond the Basics of Sexual Assault Education and Prevention Overseas
* Creation, Evolution, and Structure of University Travel Security Positions
* Dealing with the Death of a Student Abroad
* Developing an Institutional Travel Warning Policy: "Tripwires" and Other Challenges
* Effective Collaboration During a Disaster Response
* Everything You Ever Wanted to Ask About Insurance
* Health & Safety Crisis Management: Grounding the “Jetfighter” Parent
* Hot Topics: A Moderated Panel of Attorneys
* Program Survival and Travel Warnings: the Case of Mexico
* Strategies for Managing Mental Health Issues in Education Abroad
* The Adolescent Brain and Education Abroad: Risky Business?
The Institute luncheon plenary address will be delivered by Barrett Seaman, author of Binge: Campus Life in an Age of Disconnection and Excess (2005). For his book, Seaman spent two years living at colleges and investigating campus life. Seaman’s August 2005 piece in Time titled, "How Bingeing Became the New College Sport" served as a wake-up call to parents across the country. A former Time magazine correspondent and editor, he is a graduate and trustee of Hamilton College.
Mr. Seaman’s plenary will provide an insightful perspective on the workings of a 20-year old’s mind when placed in societies where cultural norms and laws related to the consumption of alcoholic beverages are different from those in the U.S., where binge drinking on campuses too often remains a rite of passage.
For more information about the Institute, and to register, visit: http://www.forumea.org/StInstit-June11.cfm
Call for Forum Council Nominations
Are you or one of your colleagues interested in contributing directly to the work of the Forum? The Forum Council is an elected body that sets the agenda for and carries out many of the Forum’s initiatives that benefit the Forum membership. Five positions on the Council are open this year, and the Forum welcomes nominations from colleagues who can dedicate their time and provide their expertise to contribute to the various Forum projects.
If you are interested in serving on the Forum Council or wish to nominate a colleague, please submit the following in support of your nomination:
• a description of the qualifications of the candidate and their interest, referencing specific ways in which they would contribute to the Forum’s goals and projects;
• a curriculum vitae;
• full contact information.
Please send these to info@forumea.org. The deadline for nominations is May 21, 2011. The Council nominations committee will assemble a slate of candidates and the Forum Council election will be held by e-mail ballot. Results will be announced in the Forum News. For more information on the Council, visit http://www.forumea.org/
In Memoriam: Mike Reddin
The Forum has been informed of the very sad news that Mike Reddin, a plenary keynote speaker at the Forum’s annual conference in Portland, OR in 2009, passed away on Monday, April 25. Mike was a well-known international education colleague who for over 14 years was Senior Tutor to the General Course at the London School of Economics, where he was responsible for overseeing all aspects of LSE’s recruitment and enrolment of full-year visiting undergraduate students. He was also a professor and researcher who wrote on a wide range of topics. One of his projects was to compile an authoritative annual report on tuition fees charged to overseas students in the UK (http://www.publicgoods.co.uk/). Mike was known for his sharp wit, keen sense of humor and warm support of colleagues. His writings about education abroad often were provocative and helped the field to look differently at topics and issues as well as question the status quo. The Forum extends its sincere condolences to Mike’s family and friends.
The Forum on Education Abroad
Dickinson College • PO Box 1773 • Carlisle, PA 17013
(ph) 717-245-1031 • (f) 717-245-1677 • info@forumea.org
Gulf Coast Leadeship Summit Update
Dear James O.,
Last Thursday at the historic Gulf Coast Leadership Summit, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu announced that BP is contributing $1 billion for coastal restoration. The first $500 million will be received within 45 days.
Contracts will be awarded to support projects such as rebuilding coastal marshes, replenishing damaged beaches, restoring barrier islands and wetlands, building public boat launches and docks, and much more.
You are invited to the Coastal Restoration Financing Briefing, scheduled for Tuesday, May 10, 2011, in New Orleans. Receive the latest information from top officials and experts on:
* Coastal restoration priorities of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Each state will receive $100 million to be awarded for projects.
* Coastal restoration priorities of the U.S. Department of the Interior and NOAA. The agencies will receive $300 million to be awarded for projects.
* Proposal and contracting procedures.
This new coastal restoration program is an extraordinary opportunity for you to be involved in empowering a better U.S. Gulf Coast. Participate in the Briefing, get the latest information, meet key decision-makers, and get prepared to develop your proposal.
Seating is extremely limited. REGISTER TODAY!
Please click the link below, view the invitation, and respond by clicking either the Yes or No button at the bottom of the invitation. Your response is greatly appreciated.
Click here to respond
For more information, contact us at info@leadershipforum.us
Best Regards,
Gulf Coast Leadership Forum
http://gulfcoastleadershipsummit.com
www.leadershipforum.us
Last Thursday at the historic Gulf Coast Leadership Summit, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu announced that BP is contributing $1 billion for coastal restoration. The first $500 million will be received within 45 days.
Contracts will be awarded to support projects such as rebuilding coastal marshes, replenishing damaged beaches, restoring barrier islands and wetlands, building public boat launches and docks, and much more.
You are invited to the Coastal Restoration Financing Briefing, scheduled for Tuesday, May 10, 2011, in New Orleans. Receive the latest information from top officials and experts on:
* Coastal restoration priorities of Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Each state will receive $100 million to be awarded for projects.
* Coastal restoration priorities of the U.S. Department of the Interior and NOAA. The agencies will receive $300 million to be awarded for projects.
* Proposal and contracting procedures.
This new coastal restoration program is an extraordinary opportunity for you to be involved in empowering a better U.S. Gulf Coast. Participate in the Briefing, get the latest information, meet key decision-makers, and get prepared to develop your proposal.
Seating is extremely limited. REGISTER TODAY!
Please click the link below, view the invitation, and respond by clicking either the Yes or No button at the bottom of the invitation. Your response is greatly appreciated.
Click here to respond
For more information, contact us at info@leadershipforum.us
Best Regards,
Gulf Coast Leadership Forum
http://gulfcoastleadershipsummit.com
www.leadershipforum.us
TOEFL E-Newsletter
Dear TOEFL® score user:
This month's e-newsletter is all about expansion and connection. The TOEFL program has seen a lot of growth over the past year and we're pleased to announce that now more than 8,000 institutions globally use TOEFL scores. For TOEFL test takers, this means more options to help realize their study abroad dreams.
We're also excited to provide new resources for students, including a one-stop brochure to TOEFL test resources and a new Facebook page for students in India.
In our continued commitment to supporting you, we'll also tell you more about the TOEFL® ITP Assessment Series, TOEFL iBT® Online Speech Sample Service and the next volume of our TOEFL iBT® Research Insight Series.
We hope you find this useful and welcome your feedback.
Sincerely,
Eileen Tyson
Executive Director of Global Client Relations, ETS
toeflnews@ets.org
TOP STORY
The TOEFL® Test Is Accepted By 8,000 Institutions and Counting
The number of institutions worldwide that accept TOEFL® scores for English language proficiency has climbed to more than 8,000. Find out which regions have the most growth.
Read more button
NEWS
The TOEFL® Test Is Now On Facebook® for Students in India
Recently the TOEFL program launched the TOEFLGoAnywhere|India page on Facebook® to engage English language learners and present valuable resources to help prepare them for their test-taking journey.
Read more button
Get to Know the TOEFL® ITP Assessment Series
Make the best decisions for your program and students with the TOEFL ITP Assessment Series — a research-based, standardized and global test series. Designed by ETS, the creator of the TOEFL® test, the TOEFL ITP tests are used in universities, English language institutes and other organizations for student placement, monitoring progress, program evaluation and more.
Read more button
Visit the TOEFL® Program at Upcoming Events
The TOEFL® program will be attending conferences all over the world. Be sure to stop by our booths, speak to a representative and get information on the latest TOEFL developments.
Read more button
RESEARCH CORNER
New TOEFL iBT® Research Insight Series
Volume 4 of the TOEFL iBT® Research Insight Series, Validity Evidence Supporting Test Score Interpretation and Use is now available. This issue discusses the many types of evidence that support the proposed interpretation and use of test scores as a measure of English language proficiency in academic contexts.
Read more button
RESOURCES
New TOEFL® Test Resources Brochure for Students
Brochure Cover Provide your prospective students with a concise overview of all of the resources the TOEFL® program makes available to make their test-taking journey easier. This new brochure includes four main steps in the study abroad journey: plan, learn, register and practice.
Read more button
Free Service: Listen to an Applicant's TOEFL iBT® Online Speech Sample
The first of its kind for the industry, the TOEFL iBT® Online Speech Sample Service gives TOEFL-designated institutions the power to listen to a candidate's spoken response in English. The service provides institutions with an actual 60-second audio clip taken from one of the four integrated tasks of the speaking section of the TOEFL iBT test.
Read more button
World Globe
This Edition of
TOEFL eNews
Top Story
News
Research Corner
Resources
Valuable Sites
TOEFL Website
TOEFL Go Anywhere
Download Library
Scores
Destinations Directory (PDF)
Contact Us
Feature of the Month
Feature of the Month -- Pabló García Photo
Meet Pablo García Gómez, Assessment Specialist at ETS
Pablo García Gómez is an Assessment Specialist in the Research & Development Division at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. His job is to develop fair and reliable test questions for the TOEFL® test. Watch this video to see Pablo describing a day in his life at ETS.
Read more button
Privacy Policy
ETS — Listening. Learning. Leading.®
Copyright © 2011 by Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. ETS, the ETS logo, LISTENING. LEARNING. LEADING., TOEFL and TOEFL iBT are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service (ETS). TOEFL JOURNEY is a trademark of ETS. ETS10188
ETS | Rosedale Road | Princeton, NJ 0854
This month's e-newsletter is all about expansion and connection. The TOEFL program has seen a lot of growth over the past year and we're pleased to announce that now more than 8,000 institutions globally use TOEFL scores. For TOEFL test takers, this means more options to help realize their study abroad dreams.
We're also excited to provide new resources for students, including a one-stop brochure to TOEFL test resources and a new Facebook page for students in India.
In our continued commitment to supporting you, we'll also tell you more about the TOEFL® ITP Assessment Series, TOEFL iBT® Online Speech Sample Service and the next volume of our TOEFL iBT® Research Insight Series.
We hope you find this useful and welcome your feedback.
Sincerely,
Eileen Tyson
Executive Director of Global Client Relations, ETS
toeflnews@ets.org
TOP STORY
The TOEFL® Test Is Accepted By 8,000 Institutions and Counting
The number of institutions worldwide that accept TOEFL® scores for English language proficiency has climbed to more than 8,000. Find out which regions have the most growth.
Read more button
NEWS
The TOEFL® Test Is Now On Facebook® for Students in India
Recently the TOEFL program launched the TOEFLGoAnywhere|India page on Facebook® to engage English language learners and present valuable resources to help prepare them for their test-taking journey.
Read more button
Get to Know the TOEFL® ITP Assessment Series
Make the best decisions for your program and students with the TOEFL ITP Assessment Series — a research-based, standardized and global test series. Designed by ETS, the creator of the TOEFL® test, the TOEFL ITP tests are used in universities, English language institutes and other organizations for student placement, monitoring progress, program evaluation and more.
Read more button
Visit the TOEFL® Program at Upcoming Events
The TOEFL® program will be attending conferences all over the world. Be sure to stop by our booths, speak to a representative and get information on the latest TOEFL developments.
Read more button
RESEARCH CORNER
New TOEFL iBT® Research Insight Series
Volume 4 of the TOEFL iBT® Research Insight Series, Validity Evidence Supporting Test Score Interpretation and Use is now available. This issue discusses the many types of evidence that support the proposed interpretation and use of test scores as a measure of English language proficiency in academic contexts.
Read more button
RESOURCES
New TOEFL® Test Resources Brochure for Students
Brochure Cover Provide your prospective students with a concise overview of all of the resources the TOEFL® program makes available to make their test-taking journey easier. This new brochure includes four main steps in the study abroad journey: plan, learn, register and practice.
Read more button
Free Service: Listen to an Applicant's TOEFL iBT® Online Speech Sample
The first of its kind for the industry, the TOEFL iBT® Online Speech Sample Service gives TOEFL-designated institutions the power to listen to a candidate's spoken response in English. The service provides institutions with an actual 60-second audio clip taken from one of the four integrated tasks of the speaking section of the TOEFL iBT test.
Read more button
World Globe
This Edition of
TOEFL eNews
Top Story
News
Research Corner
Resources
Valuable Sites
TOEFL Website
TOEFL Go Anywhere
Download Library
Scores
Destinations Directory (PDF)
Contact Us
Feature of the Month
Feature of the Month -- Pabló García Photo
Meet Pablo García Gómez, Assessment Specialist at ETS
Pablo García Gómez is an Assessment Specialist in the Research & Development Division at Educational Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. His job is to develop fair and reliable test questions for the TOEFL® test. Watch this video to see Pablo describing a day in his life at ETS.
Read more button
Privacy Policy
ETS — Listening. Learning. Leading.®
Copyright © 2011 by Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. ETS, the ETS logo, LISTENING. LEARNING. LEADING., TOEFL and TOEFL iBT are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service (ETS). TOEFL JOURNEY is a trademark of ETS. ETS10188
ETS | Rosedale Road | Princeton, NJ 0854
A Washington (DC) Law School Forum
Dear Prelaw Advisor:
I am pleased to invite you and your students to the annual Washington, DC Law School Forum.
Washington, DC Law School Forum
Saturday, June 18 (10:00 am–4:00 pm)
Marriott Wardman Park
2660 Woodley Road
Admission is free. Registration is available online at www.LSAC.org/lawschoolforums, and a participating school list will be available shortly.
This is an excellent opportunity for prospective students to talk with representatives of over 180 LSAC-member law schools; obtain admission materials, catalogs, and financial aid information; and attend live informational sessions. To save time at the forum, please recommend that your students preregister at www.LSAC.org/lawschoolforums. Prelaw advisors do not have to preregister for the forum. Simply check in at the registration desk when you arrive.
Several panel presentations and workshops will be offered, including a workshop designed to help attendees make the most of their time at the forum; a discussion of issues of particular relevance to diverse applicants; and workshops on the application process, the legal profession, the LSAT, and financing a legal education.
You can find a list of scheduled times for the workshops at www.lsac.org/jd/choose/law-school-recruitment-forums-workshops.asp
For more information, please encourage students to check the Law School Admission Council website at www.LSAC.org or call 215.968.1001.
Prelaw advisors from HBCU, HACU, and Native American institutions can contact Yessenia García-Lebrón at ygarcia@LSAC.org to determine reimbursement eligibility for prelaw advisors and students to attend the forums. The application deadline for the DC forum is Friday, May 6. For direct access to the guidelines and forms, log in to www.LSAC.org and select Forum Subsidy Information from the Events & Recruitment drop down menu on the left. If you do not have a username and password to log in to the Prelaw Advisors area of www.LSAC.org, please e-mail prelaw@LSAC.org.
Prelaw advisors are invited to join the law school representatives for lunch and to enjoy complimentary beverages throughout the day. Please stop by the registration desk upon your arrival to pick up a name badge and lunch ticket.
We hope you will also post a flier to inform your students about the forum in your area. Fliers can be found at www.lsac.org/members/EventsRecruitment/ls-forum-fliers.asp.
If you need additional fliers or would like a camera-ready ad to include in your campus newspaper, please call Judy DiBenedetto at 215.968.1228 or e-mail to jdibenedetto@LSAC.org. If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 215.968.1297 or abrandt@LSAC.org. Also, please check LSAC.org for a complete listing of other prelaw informational events coming to your area. We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you and your students at the forum!
Sincerely,
Anne M. Brandt
Executive Director for Education,
Prelaw Programs, and Member Support Services
Law School Admission Council
I am pleased to invite you and your students to the annual Washington, DC Law School Forum.
Washington, DC Law School Forum
Saturday, June 18 (10:00 am–4:00 pm)
Marriott Wardman Park
2660 Woodley Road
Admission is free. Registration is available online at www.LSAC.org/lawschoolforums, and a participating school list will be available shortly.
This is an excellent opportunity for prospective students to talk with representatives of over 180 LSAC-member law schools; obtain admission materials, catalogs, and financial aid information; and attend live informational sessions. To save time at the forum, please recommend that your students preregister at www.LSAC.org/lawschoolforums. Prelaw advisors do not have to preregister for the forum. Simply check in at the registration desk when you arrive.
Several panel presentations and workshops will be offered, including a workshop designed to help attendees make the most of their time at the forum; a discussion of issues of particular relevance to diverse applicants; and workshops on the application process, the legal profession, the LSAT, and financing a legal education.
You can find a list of scheduled times for the workshops at www.lsac.org/jd/choose/law-school-recruitment-forums-workshops.asp
For more information, please encourage students to check the Law School Admission Council website at www.LSAC.org or call 215.968.1001.
Prelaw advisors from HBCU, HACU, and Native American institutions can contact Yessenia García-Lebrón at ygarcia@LSAC.org to determine reimbursement eligibility for prelaw advisors and students to attend the forums. The application deadline for the DC forum is Friday, May 6. For direct access to the guidelines and forms, log in to www.LSAC.org and select Forum Subsidy Information from the Events & Recruitment drop down menu on the left. If you do not have a username and password to log in to the Prelaw Advisors area of www.LSAC.org, please e-mail prelaw@LSAC.org.
Prelaw advisors are invited to join the law school representatives for lunch and to enjoy complimentary beverages throughout the day. Please stop by the registration desk upon your arrival to pick up a name badge and lunch ticket.
We hope you will also post a flier to inform your students about the forum in your area. Fliers can be found at www.lsac.org/members/EventsRecruitment/ls-forum-fliers.asp.
If you need additional fliers or would like a camera-ready ad to include in your campus newspaper, please call Judy DiBenedetto at 215.968.1228 or e-mail to jdibenedetto@LSAC.org. If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 215.968.1297 or abrandt@LSAC.org. Also, please check LSAC.org for a complete listing of other prelaw informational events coming to your area. We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you and your students at the forum!
Sincerely,
Anne M. Brandt
Executive Director for Education,
Prelaw Programs, and Member Support Services
Law School Admission Council
An invitation from the FDD Congressional Breakfast Series
I would like to invite friends of FDD to our next seminar in our Congressional Breakfast Seminar Series on Nuclear Terrorism, Arms Control, Deterrence, Missile Defense, Defense Policy.
On May 6th, we will feature FDD's Mark Dubowitz to speak about Iran and Economic Sanctions and Tom Joscelyn of FDD who will speak on the proliferation dangers of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.
The event is from 8-9 AM at the Capitol Hill Club on May 6th.
Please RSVP to rhuee@nduf.org or huessyp@nduf.org .
Any questions can be directed to Mr. Huessy at 202-685-2208.
Thanks very much,
Peter Huessy
On May 6th, we will feature FDD's Mark Dubowitz to speak about Iran and Economic Sanctions and Tom Joscelyn of FDD who will speak on the proliferation dangers of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program.
The event is from 8-9 AM at the Capitol Hill Club on May 6th.
Please RSVP to rhuee@nduf.org or huessyp@nduf.org .
Any questions can be directed to Mr. Huessy at 202-685-2208.
Thanks very much,
Peter Huessy
Why the name change?
When I started this Blog some nine months ago, I had just begun work on a new book, intended to deal with terrorist trials from 1993 to the present. That book's publication date was pushed back a year by the publisher (to 2010), and now is delayed again. Meanwhile, the topics covered by this Blog have been much broader than just terrorism, or even just Homeland Security.
As for me, while Homeland Security studies and terrorism are recent interests... represented most notably by my 2009 book:
and my 2011 novel:
my much deeper background lies in higher education, see, e.g., my 2010 book:
and employment law:
Consequently, it only seemed appropriate to me to rename the Blog to reflect both the breadth of is foci and my own much broader professional background.
The growing number of daily visitors is gratifying. I hope you continue to drop by and enjoy.
As for me, while Homeland Security studies and terrorism are recent interests... represented most notably by my 2009 book:
and my 2011 novel:
my much deeper background lies in higher education, see, e.g., my 2010 book:
and employment law:
Consequently, it only seemed appropriate to me to rename the Blog to reflect both the breadth of is foci and my own much broader professional background.
The growing number of daily visitors is gratifying. I hope you continue to drop by and enjoy.
Updates from the NIH Office of Research Integrity
ORI TO RELEASE INTERACTIVE VIDEO ON RESEARCH INTEGRITY
A video simulation on research integrity, entitled "The Lab" will be released soon on the ORI web site and as a DVD. In the simulation, research misconduct causes a noted lab to lose funding, creates bad publicity to the university, and eventually causes the withdrawal of a multi-million dollar endowment. In "The Lab," viewers have the opportunity to undo the damage by assuming the roles of a graduate student, post doc, principal investigator, and a research integrity officer and make decisions to prevent misconduct from occurring unnoticed. The interactive video addresses the handling of misconduct, data management, authorship, mentoring, work-life balance, and other issues that today's researchers face.
The trailer can be viewed at http://ori.hhs.gov/TheLab
FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: RESEARCH ON RESEARCH INTEGRITY (R21)
The ORI and NIH have released an request for applications for R21 grants studying research integrity. Of particular interest are topics related to research integrity such as public trust, bias, community-based participatory research, and factors affecting researchers' behaviors. Funding is anticipated to be $900,000 in total costs to support two to three awards. Direct costs are limited to $275,000 over a 2-year project period, with no more than $200,000 in direct costs allowed in any single year.
Letter of Intent Due Date: February 5, 2011
Application Due Date: March 4, 2011http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-ES-11-004.html
NEW RESEARCH MISCONDUCT CASE: SAGAR MUNGEKAR
ORI found that Dr. Mungekar falsified five tables and five figures in his Ph.D. thesis entitled "Autoregulation of Ribonuclease E," by discarding certain spectrophotometric data, to increase statistical significance, used to calculate repression ratios and RNA decay rates.http://ori.hhs.gov/misconduct/cases/Mungekar_Sagar.shtml
NEW RESEARCH MISCONDUCT CASE: BENGU SEZEN
ORI made twenty-one (21) findings of scientific misconduct against Dr. Sezen based on evidence that she knowingly and intentionally falsified and fabricated, and in one instance plagiarized, data reported in three papers and her doctoral thesis.http://ori.hhs.gov/misconduct/cases/Sezen_Bengu.shtml
A video simulation on research integrity, entitled "The Lab" will be released soon on the ORI web site and as a DVD. In the simulation, research misconduct causes a noted lab to lose funding, creates bad publicity to the university, and eventually causes the withdrawal of a multi-million dollar endowment. In "The Lab," viewers have the opportunity to undo the damage by assuming the roles of a graduate student, post doc, principal investigator, and a research integrity officer and make decisions to prevent misconduct from occurring unnoticed. The interactive video addresses the handling of misconduct, data management, authorship, mentoring, work-life balance, and other issues that today's researchers face.
The trailer can be viewed at http://ori.hhs.gov/TheLab
FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: RESEARCH ON RESEARCH INTEGRITY (R21)
The ORI and NIH have released an request for applications for R21 grants studying research integrity. Of particular interest are topics related to research integrity such as public trust, bias, community-based participatory research, and factors affecting researchers' behaviors. Funding is anticipated to be $900,000 in total costs to support two to three awards. Direct costs are limited to $275,000 over a 2-year project period, with no more than $200,000 in direct costs allowed in any single year.
Letter of Intent Due Date: February 5, 2011
Application Due Date: March 4, 2011http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-ES-11-004.html
NEW RESEARCH MISCONDUCT CASE: SAGAR MUNGEKAR
ORI found that Dr. Mungekar falsified five tables and five figures in his Ph.D. thesis entitled "Autoregulation of Ribonuclease E," by discarding certain spectrophotometric data, to increase statistical significance, used to calculate repression ratios and RNA decay rates.http://ori.hhs.gov/misconduct/cases/Mungekar_Sagar.shtml
NEW RESEARCH MISCONDUCT CASE: BENGU SEZEN
ORI made twenty-one (21) findings of scientific misconduct against Dr. Sezen based on evidence that she knowingly and intentionally falsified and fabricated, and in one instance plagiarized, data reported in three papers and her doctoral thesis.http://ori.hhs.gov/misconduct/cases/Sezen_Bengu.shtml
Castagenra and Cihon on Employment and Labor Law
Lexis/Nexis lists our book among the best in employment law
Employment Law: Top Publishers and Authors
Employment law is the branch of jurisprudence that deals with workplace health and safety standards, compensation, benefits and equal opportunity in the workplace. Outlined below are some of the top-selling publishers and authors of employment law books.
South-Western "Legal Studies in Business Academic Series"
This popular series from South-Western College and West Publishing offers several employment law titles that are considered essential texts for law students. Relevant titles in this series include "Employment and Labor Law" by Patrick J. Cihon and James Ottavio Castagnera, "Labor and Employment Law: Texts and Cases" by David P. Twomey and "Employment Law for Human Resource Practice" by David J. Walsh.
Employment Law: Top Publishers and Authors
Employment law is the branch of jurisprudence that deals with workplace health and safety standards, compensation, benefits and equal opportunity in the workplace. Outlined below are some of the top-selling publishers and authors of employment law books.
South-Western "Legal Studies in Business Academic Series"
This popular series from South-Western College and West Publishing offers several employment law titles that are considered essential texts for law students. Relevant titles in this series include "Employment and Labor Law" by Patrick J. Cihon and James Ottavio Castagnera, "Labor and Employment Law: Texts and Cases" by David P. Twomey and "Employment Law for Human Resource Practice" by David J. Walsh.
A DVD on "Sink or Swim" Teamwork
Sink or Swim Teamwork: We're All in This Together DVD + Bonuses
What makes an organization successful?
Every organization can trace its success to the fundamental concept of teamwork. Yet not everyone knows how to be a team player. Our best selling video can help, Sink or Swim Teamwork: We're All in This Together.
Show this video to your team (especially your problem employees) and they will learn how to:
* Self-manage tasks that contribute to the team
* Work with others using the CLING method
* Cooperate—no matter if it's a big assignment or just a routine task
* Apply 4 easy principles for becoming a better team player
* Employ simple communication techniques that build respect and trust among team members
This short, concise, 17-minute video is ideal to show before a staff meeting or at in-house training sessions. Some of our customers have added this video to their employee orientation program to emphasize to new employees the importance they place on teamwork.
Throw your team a lifeline—order your copy of Sink or Swim Teamwork: We're All in This Together—today—and receive 2 valuable bonuses:
Bonus # 1
The 47-page Special Report, Teamwork: Proven Solutions to Frustrating Problems, is not a bunch of theories or buzzwords. This book is full of practical, proven solutions to dozens of the most frequently asked questions by our readers.
* "How do we help a team member who is having personal problems?"
* "How do I prevent a team member from hoarding important information?"
* "How can we overcome the bad feelings that come from downsizing?"
* "What can I do with an employee that doesn't fit in?"
* "What are some strategies to get my team to give a little extra effort?"
We usually sell this Special Report for $25, but it's yours when you order the video.
Bonus # 2
The 44-page tip book, 50 Powerful Teamwork Tips for Employees, is packed with tips that will show employees how to:
* Build team spirit
* Set team goals
* Take training seriously
* Support other team members
* Increase productivity.
This book usually sells for $12.50, but we'll throw it in when you order the video.
You will want copies of the bonuses for every person on your staff. Keep in mind that both of these resources can be copied and distributed to your staff, with no licensing fees.
As always, you may preview any of our training materials for 30 days and return them, with no obligation, if they do not suit your needs.
For more information or to order visit http://www.essentialbusinesstraining.com/Prod-1260.aspx?sourcecode=EMB4FF or call 1-800-791-8699.
What makes an organization successful?
Every organization can trace its success to the fundamental concept of teamwork. Yet not everyone knows how to be a team player. Our best selling video can help, Sink or Swim Teamwork: We're All in This Together.
Show this video to your team (especially your problem employees) and they will learn how to:
* Self-manage tasks that contribute to the team
* Work with others using the CLING method
* Cooperate—no matter if it's a big assignment or just a routine task
* Apply 4 easy principles for becoming a better team player
* Employ simple communication techniques that build respect and trust among team members
This short, concise, 17-minute video is ideal to show before a staff meeting or at in-house training sessions. Some of our customers have added this video to their employee orientation program to emphasize to new employees the importance they place on teamwork.
Throw your team a lifeline—order your copy of Sink or Swim Teamwork: We're All in This Together—today—and receive 2 valuable bonuses:
Bonus # 1
The 47-page Special Report, Teamwork: Proven Solutions to Frustrating Problems, is not a bunch of theories or buzzwords. This book is full of practical, proven solutions to dozens of the most frequently asked questions by our readers.
* "How do we help a team member who is having personal problems?"
* "How do I prevent a team member from hoarding important information?"
* "How can we overcome the bad feelings that come from downsizing?"
* "What can I do with an employee that doesn't fit in?"
* "What are some strategies to get my team to give a little extra effort?"
We usually sell this Special Report for $25, but it's yours when you order the video.
Bonus # 2
The 44-page tip book, 50 Powerful Teamwork Tips for Employees, is packed with tips that will show employees how to:
* Build team spirit
* Set team goals
* Take training seriously
* Support other team members
* Increase productivity.
This book usually sells for $12.50, but we'll throw it in when you order the video.
You will want copies of the bonuses for every person on your staff. Keep in mind that both of these resources can be copied and distributed to your staff, with no licensing fees.
As always, you may preview any of our training materials for 30 days and return them, with no obligation, if they do not suit your needs.
For more information or to order visit http://www.essentialbusinesstraining.com/Prod-1260.aspx?sourcecode=EMB4FF or call 1-800-791-8699.
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