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Monthly Archives: August 2008

The Trail of ’08

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Word of the McCain camp’s hot new prospect for the second slot on the Republican ticket reached Alaska yesterday morning. The most common reaction – regardless of anyone’s political leaning – was amusement. Friday’s Alaska News Nightly radio podcast offers a range of local responses. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the world beat [...]

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When the Levee Broke

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Since reading Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine (chapter 20, especially) I’ve been thinking about what happened to New Orleans after Katrina. Klein tells how the disaster was a business opportunity for contractors who bulldozed homes and privatized long-neglected public schools. This story, or rather the version of it that would be told by people who’ve been [...]

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Reclaiming Education

Monday, August 11, 2008

Dissent Magazine kicks off a series of articles on education with this one from Susan Harman and Deborah Meier: No matter what the question is, these alarmists have the answer. Why is the economy in bad shape? Look at the lousy math scores of U.S. students in the international competitions. Why are so many young [...]

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More is More

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Here on the edge of the edge of the continent, my family’s view of the 2008 Olympic Games is a little fuzzy since we’re too far out of town for cable service, and the rabbit ears antenna won’t pull down the local broadcast signal. We do (as of 6 months ago) have a decent wireless [...]

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Rain

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

It’s been wet here – very wet. The governor declared us disaster area: FAIRBANKS — Damage assessments of hundreds of homes will move forward after Gov. Sarah Palin declared flooding across much of northern and Interior Alaska a disaster. She made the declaration Monday in Fairbanks. The declaration frees the state to use disaster-recovery programs [...]

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