Columnist and public speaker
Heather Ravenstein is now unemployed, all because she thought she was doing her job. Ravenstein stopped a man who was trying to steal a $600 computer from the Kansas Walmart where she works Friday night and Saturday she was fired for breaking the store's black and white rule about which employees can stop shoplifters. Yes, …
Continue reading "Example of black-and-white framework being wrong"
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who is on a one-woman-columnist crusade to hold the feet of the Catholic Church hierarchy to the fire, said in a column Saturday that the “hero of the week” during a week of abuse allegation revelations and regrettable silence from Pope Benedict is Ireland’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. She said …
Whenever someone argues that the Catholic Church’s celibacy requirement of clergy is the reason sick, twisted men molest defenseless children (or confused adolescents) I want to smack them in the shoulder. Celibacy doesn't cause child sexual abuse; if it did, all the Demented Daddies out there wouldn't be grabbing after their own sons and daughters …
Continue reading "Sex Abuse in the Catholic Church: It's NOT the Celibacy"
I spent my blogging time over here today, talking about the new trend of "recess coaches." Feel free to jump over there and comment - especially you parents of school-age children. (I think you'll like the site simply because it is just easier on the eyes.) Other than that, you might want to note that …
Asking what teachers want is sort of like asking the age-old What Do Women (or Men) Want? The answer varies according to the prevailing wind, but Primary Sources: America's Teachers on America's School probably gets closer to the heart of the matter than the anecdotal comments normally batted around in discussions of the U.S. school …
Today I went all wild and crazy and rode a different route into the UA. I took the bus that drops riders at the UA Mall. It is about a half-mile walk from there to my office, and so, race-walking to make it in my door by 8 a.m. has the added benefit of a …
Tuesday's magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti has brought out the best in most people (although statements from both Pat Roberston and Rush Limbaugh show it brought out the worst in some). This urge to do good - something we always see in the aftermath of disasters - has me wondering what, exactly, is behind it. …
That's Nicholas Kristof's argument today over at the New York Times. He thinks it is no coincidence that Costa Rica has the top ranking in the World Database of Happiness and is also one of very few countries to get by without a military force. Instead of spending money on bombs, the country wisely invests …
You have to wait until minute 13 of this 18 minute video to hear it, but President Barack Obama, in a Dec. 21 visit to the Washington D.C. Boys and Girls Club, does a little evangelizing about the "reason we celebrate Christmas" after reading the Polar Express to the kids and listening to a litany …
Continue reading "Obama and the meaning of Christmas – and some advice for Christmas sermons"
Judith Warner over at the NY Times Opinionator blog is musing today about a section of the embattled health care reform bill that has the National Organization of Woman all atwitter: a so-called Bo-Tax. This proposal would levy a 5 percent tax on cosmetic surgery procedures, which, at last count, are still sought by women …
