Archive for July, 2011

The criminal case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is growing weaker by the day. All indications now are that the Manhattan District Attorney, who almost gleefully announced the salacious sex charges against the former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May, is preparing to drop all charges. As noted in this blog on May 30, 2011 many media pundits, including such well-known neo-cons as Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter, were quick not only to declare Strauss-Kahn guilty, but by implication, all rich Frenchmen, especially those working for international organizations.

While I certainly will not hold my breath waiting for those who rashly decreed “DSK” guilty as charged, serious questions should be asked of DA Cyrus Vance, Jr.; whose office apparently was so anxious to pull Strauss-Kahn off an airplane set to take off for his native France, and very publicly send him off to Rikers Island to cool his heels for a few days, that they failed to conduct even the most basic …

Continue reading Strauss-Kahn prosecutor failed to do homework »

Education has always been considered an important factor in gauging a nation’s strength. Thomas Jefferson understood that an uneducated populace was doomed never to be free; and virtually every modern president proclaims “education” a top priority.

Determining how well a citizenry is in fact educated, however, always has been problematic. Standardized testing has long been employed as part of this evaluation.

However, in a rush to simplify the processes whereby colleges and universities judge the potential for success of their schools’ applicants, many educators rely on – and legislators in North Carolina recently mandated reliance on — the use of a standardized test now found to be significantly lacking in predictive capability.

The test in question is the ACT; which has been gaining in popularity among high school students as an alternative to the SAT.

A study released in May by the independent National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), casts serious doubt on the …

Continue reading College Entrance Test Shown To Be Flawed »

Sure I stole, but I stole for you. – Former Ga. Gov. Gene Talmadge

Things haven’t changed much in the nearly eight decades since Gene Talmadge whipped up an audience declaring that if you steal for the right reason, it is okay.

Rarely in Georgia’s modern history has the notion of “ethics” overlapped with the practice of “government service.” And recent actions by the state of Georgia and the Atlanta Public Schools system, indicate ethical lapses by public officials at all levels of government in the Peach State continue to pose a systemic challenge to those who actually understand that serving the public carries with it a responsibility to act not only lawfully, but ethically as well.

At least two Georgia lawyers — former state Attorney General Mike Bowers and the current occupant of that office, Sam Olens – are fighting what must at times seem a lonely battle to enforce the quaint notion that ethics does play a role in public service. Bowers is leading an outside …

Continue reading Ethics And Georgia Politics – Like Oil and Water »