STATE OF THE CITY |
Trapped! No more cardiovascular exertion! cries the Clark County School District. Who needs hand-eye coordination, socialization and balancing skills? We have standardized tests to pass! Thanks to the No Child Left Behind Act, our elementary schools have gotten rid of recess (many had already eliminated it). They're going to spend more time teaching kids to pass tests and less time letting them be kids. There are still breaks, the district says. The kids have 30 minutes for their chicken-fried-lunch period, and any time not spent eating can be used as recess. And, of course, there are the bathroom breaks mandated by laws against torture. But no more recess? This seems like a human-resources approach to education, which is to say, all about the resource, not very human. Think of it this way: When's the last time you sat through six hours of your workday without getting up and moving around, unwinding? Kids have to spend so much of their school day being unlike kids—focused, quiet, still—that it seems wrong to deny them a few minutes to burn off the pent-up energy. Just ask a teacher. Not to mention the constant drumbeats of concern about our fattening kids needing supersize Ritalin when they're not being baby-sat by Nintendo. Eliminating recess seems counterintuitive. |
Please Open Your Leftist Textbooks To Leftist Page Lefty-Left
The Leftists are teaching! The Leftists are teaching! Which just ain't right, according to proponents of a UNLV report party-pooping the domination of seven university departments by liberals—91 percent of 125 UNLV faculty examined for political affiliation were registered Democrats or Greens.
"Students seeking diverse or dissenting political ideas have little chance of finding them represented among UNLV professors," reads the conclusion of Political Diversity of UNLV Faculty Spring 2004.
Conducted by the UNLV chapter of conservative activist David Horowitz's Students for Academic Freedom, and the university's College Libertarians, the report examined professors in civil engineering, economics, English, History, philosophy, political science and sociology. Of the 78 professors registered with any party, 69 were Democrats, two were Greens and six were
Republicans, findings that don't surprise Roger Roots, a UNLV sociology instructor, who helped conduct the study and blames UNLV's leftward lean on hiring practices and unconscious bias.
"People tend to hire their own kinds of people, the people they identify with, but some do this without intending to be biased…which has amounted to years of the academic control by the Tenured Left," Roots says in an interview. "If you are not liberal, you're chances of getting a job at a major university in any of the social sciences is very slender. You may be able to get a job at BYU or Oral Roberts."
Scariest Headline of the Week, or, the One Time We Wished that What Happened Here Didn't Stay Here
"LV sees cases of STDs resistant to antibiotics — visitors contribute to gonorrhea concern"—
From a Las Vegas Sun story noting that of the 150 gonorrhea cases reported here monthly, one in 25 carriers had a strain resistant to the antibiotics Cipro and Levaqual.
Apparently Girl Scouts and Prostitution Don't Mix
From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, in a story about Girl Scouts objecting to being named as sponsors of a conference on women's issue:
"... (H)ow about the March 31 lecturer, Kathryn Hausbeck? An associate sociology professor at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Hausbeck has written extensively on prostitution.
"A sample of books and papers authored or co-authored by Hausbeck include McDonaldization of the Sex Industries: The Business of Sex, Pro-Family, Pro-Prostitute: Culture and Politics in a Nevada Brothel Town and It's all in the Eye of the Voyeur: Working the Borders of Sex/Self in the 'Sin City.'
"Her speech title? 'Feminism and the State of Sex: Lessons from Nevada's Prostitution Industry.'
"Girl Scouts are all for teaching girls and young women entrepreneurial skills, but it's doubtful this is what Circle T Council officials have in mind."
When Munchkins Get Old
The munchkins had a late night, so they're appearance outside Fitzgeralds has been pushed back an hour, a munchkin manager tells me, standing behind two signs that say "OZ MUNCHKIN NOW APPEARING IN PERSON." There's not exactly a crowd forming. Finally, I hear it. That unforgettable tinny-yet-husky, topped-off-with-a-shot-of-helium munchkin voice. Karl Slover, aka Sleepy Head and The Trumpeter from the Wizard of Oz, is here. At 85, his skin looks like a water-logged piece of cake, soft beyond belief, with sharp crags eroding its smoothness. He's missing his top teeth and many of his bottom, so his lips form a crater around his mouth. He's hard of hearing. And he's tiny—a munchkin, through and through, who now he spends his time traveling to fairs and casino-sponsored St. Patrick's day festivities. We chat. He tells me of the other movies he's been in, and how movie stars are nice, but their body doubles are stuck up. He recounts with pride how Ringling Bros. wanted to purchase him, but his previous manager wouldn't let them. He remarks on the problems he's had with doors, because of either height or weight. I ask him if he gets propositioned much, since munchkins are pretty hot these days. "No," he laughs. "No, thank god." From his enthusiasm, it's clear that he could go on for hours, and so could I, but deadline is approaching so I bid him farewell, noticing that a crowd still hasn't formed. But he's ready, pen in hand, to sign autographs for anyone who's willing to pay $15 for one.
Three Questions With Johnnie Cochran
The man most known for freeing O.J. Simpson has merged his national practice, the Cochran Firm, with the Mainor Eglet Cottle law firm.
What prompted you to want to practice law?
From the time I was 12 years of age, I knew I wanted to be a lawyer. I studied Thurgood Marshall and how he used the law to bring about change. I saw the law as the most effective way to bring about change for everybody—African-Americans, poor people, Hispanics, everybody.
What was your most satisfying case?
Probably the case of Black Panther leader Geronimo Pratt. He was convicted [of murder] and I knew it was a wrongful conviction. It took me 26-plus years to win, but I never quit. I didn't even get paid.
What don't people know about you?
That after 41 years of practicing law, I still love to practice. I love the people around me, because they are the ones that make all the difference.