Catholic education

Today's Irish Examiner reports on a speech given by Archbishop Martin yesterday on secondary education. The Archbishop is worried that Catholic schools are becoming elite options for parents who want to "opt out of diversity".

The article in the Examiner also contains this:

[t]he archbishop criticised parents who deliberately opt out of diversification by sending their children to select schools and putting their education above the "common good".

I was alarmed when I read that so I decided to look up the speech for myself to see what exactly the Archbishop had said.

You know what? He did say that. Uggh.

I can understand the noble idea that parents should think about the "common good", but honestly, does the Archbishop really believe that other than a few zealots that parents will (possibly) sacrifice their child's education for the "common good"?

If he wants to argue that the benefits of the fee-based secondary system are more apparent than real, I'd agree with him. If he wants to argue that elite, fee-based schools can actually harm your children, I might agree with him again. But to talk about the "common good" as a factor when deciding where to send your children to school is pie-in-the-sky nonsense. Parents do what they think is best for their children. End of story.

To be honest there was a lot in the speech that I agreed with. 'The state should do more to provide secondary schools for people who want a different ethos'. Hear hear. 'Education is about more than "imparting techniques and information"'. Hear hear. And, 'education requires excellent, devoted teachers'. Hear hear again.

The Archbishop also challenged his audience - National Association of Principals and Deputy Principals - to ensure that Catholic schools remain Catholic.

The real heart of a Catholic school is and must be that coherent, integrated vision of the meaning of life, based on belief in a God who is love, which the finds an echo in a community of believers who reflect that vision of life in their lives.

Amen.

Lots of good stuff. The Archbishop then touched on the view that Catholic schools are seen as schools for the rich.

I would be unhappy if Catholic secondary schools were to become mainly elitist. I would be very unhappy to find that Catholic schools were being less open to diversity than others.

Okay, fine. Here's a suggestion that will help overcome this perception in one fell swoop. Eliminate all fees in Catholic secondary schools. All schools, starting with the next academic year. At the same time, demand that all Catholic schools make Catholicism central and bring back prayer and the catechism.

Those two moves will do more to eliminate the 'elitist' perception and the secularist trend than anything any of us parents can do. The Archbishop and the heads of the various religious orders can make this happen.

Note to Irish media - Bill Buckley was important

I can't get over how little coverage the life and death of Bill Buckley has received in the Irish media. He was a colossus.

I have no doubt that had Noam Chomsky died we'd be reading/hearing much about him. Yet, Chomsky's influence is no where near as great as Buckley's was. It's probably no exaggeration to say that without Buckley there would probably have been no Ronald Reagan, no conservative movement as we know it.

Port Tunnel is not unique

Tonight I heard George Hook talking about the problems in the Dublin Port Tunnel. I can't remember his exact words, but essentially he was saying that the Port Tunnel's troubles were unique that (among other cities' tunnels) Boston's Big Dig didn't have such difficulties.

Oh George, George, George. If only you'd check with me before you make such rash statements. The Big Dig was a nightmare construction project in Boston that has been plagued with problems since it opened.

Bill Buckley

I just found out that Bill Buckley has died. I remember when I first starting reading his columns while I was in my senior year in high school. I had trouble understanding all of what he wrote, but I knew he was right. I always found it easier to read what he wrote than listen to him. His voice always put me off, but he was always courteous on the air. He loved ideas and his enthusiasm was catching.

The Times has an obituary up on their site.

Minister still hasn't rowed back on bulb ban

Just because I haven't complained lately doesn't mean I'm any happier about the ban on incandescent bulbs coming at the end of this year. I haven't heard that the Minister has seen sense on this, so I assume it's all go for CFL lighting.

Over the weekend I came across a remark that these bulbs can cause problems for people with autism. I didn't find a whole lot online about this (other than this), so I don't know how big an issue this is.

I also came across the troubles Brandy Bridges of Maine experienced when a CFL bulb broke in her home.

Aware that CFLs contain potentially hazardous substances, Bridges called her local Home Depot for advice. The store told her that the CFL contained mercury and that she should call the Poison Control hotline, which in turn directed her to the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

The DEP sent a specialist to Bridges' house to test for mercury contamination. The specialist found mercury levels in the bedroom in excess of six times the state's "safe" level for mercury contamination of 300 billionths of a gram per cubic meter. The DEP specialist recommended that Bridges call an environmental cleanup firm, which reportedly gave her a "low-ball" estimate of US$2,000 to clean up the room. The room then was sealed off with plastic and Bridges began "gathering finances" to pay for the US$2,000 cleaning.

Okay, let's get this straight right off - if a bulb breaks in my house I WILL NOT be contacting the Department of the Environment.

Eventually, the Maine government changed its call and recommended that people follow the Federal guidelines for handling broken fluorescent bulbs.

As I read these guidelines all I could think about is "Why do I want this in my house? Sure bulbs don't break that often, but they do break - especially if you have children who do, on occasion, throw socks, pillows, soft toys, whatever around the house. Again, why would I want this danger in my house or this hassle in my life?

I have a few CFL bulbs in use where I think they're safe and the opportunity for hassle is minimal, but I'm very, very reluctant to have them in carpeted rooms.

The case for Mahon

Enda Kenny inadvertently made a good argument in favor of letting the Mahon Tribunal continue it's 'work'. Kenny says that the Tribunal's revelations have caused paralysis in the government.

If that means that they're not able to do anything, I'm in favor of that. Carry on with the Tribunal!

Siblings' birth dates

It is an unusual occurrence, but I'm not sure it's the 130,000 to one shot that the Times says it is.

Two siblings being born on the same day in different years was unlikely enough. But when Kim MacKriell had a third child delivered on the same day, she beat odds of more than 130,000 to 1.

Okay, if we ignore this particular couple and just talk about odds the only way this is a 130,000 to 1 shot is if all the dates in the calendar are equally likely as birth dates for the siblings. I'm not going any further than to say that it's possible that is not actually the case.

Dublin Bus on tour

Okay, the government has decided that it will not open up Dublin's bus routes to the competitive market place. Dublin Bus's monopoly is safe.

I like competition and would probably think that competition would be good for Dublin's bus customers, but I'd be willing to listen to an argument against privatization and competition on city buses. So we're sticking with the status quo for another while at least.

Still, if Dublin Bus has a monopolistic position on the city's routes, does this mean it can use this tremendous power to try and drive competitors out of business in some of those areas where there is competition? Independent tour bus operators are having trouble competing with Dublin Bus, which is using its best new buses on the tour routes rather than putting them into use as 46A's or whatever. This is wrong and really the government should impose restrictions on Dublin Bus that prevent it from operating in those markets where there is competition for bus services.

McCain, the Times, the follow-up

Clark Hoyt, the NY Times's Public Editor, chastised his own paper's staff yesterday. Hoyt notes that despite the efforts of four "highly respected reporters in the Washington bureau", the Times couldn't find any real evidence that John McCain had had an affair with Vickie Iseman. Hoyt says that without that independent evidence the Times should not have suggested that McCain had "an extramarital affair with an attractive lobbyist 31 years his junior". No kidding.

Hoyt also says that "without the sex, The Times was on to a good story". He may be right. I know when I read this article in Saturday's Washington Post I thought, maybe there's something here. Maybe. I don't pay that much attention to the goings on in Washington to know whether (a) McCain's behavior is all that notable and (b) whether this is 'news'. Hoyt, however, helps out again saying "[m]uch of that story has been reported over the years".

So, maybe it was newsworthy, sort of, as a 'reminder' or background piece for voters, but is it front page material? And, if it's that significant, why did the Times endorse McCain for the Republican nomination on January 24? Hoyt doesn't address either of those questions. Despite Hoyt's efforts, the Times still stinks.

Proud as punch in Bray

What a big weekend! First Dustin wins the Irish national song contest and then fellow Wicklow denizen Daniel Day Lewis wins an Academy Award. Who could sleep with all the partying around here.

Okay, maybe not that exciting, but I think Dustin's from Bray. He did once sing his version of "Born In The USA" as "Born In Little Bray", so we can claim him if we want. And, so what if Daniel Day Lewis is from England, he's lived in Wicklow longer than I have, so he's a genuine Wicklower (Wicklovite? Wicklovian? What is the right term anyway?) as far as I'm concerned.

I couldn't care less about Eurovision and I figured that a Dustin entry would be at least entertaining. I was wrong. Unlike some of Dustin's offerings from the past, this song is G A R B A G E. Uggh. It's not amusing. It's not music. It's unfunny, obnoxious noise.

I haven't seen "There Will Be Blood", so I can't say whether Day Lewis's Oscar is merited, but I'll assume it is.

I haven't seen Once either, but I get the feeling Glen Hansard's Oscar is merited too. Good for him. I never much cared for the Frames' music, but I doubt he's suffered greatly due to my inattention. Anyway, after hearing him being interviewed on RTE this morning I thought to myself 'good for you'. I don't know much about him, but he sounds like a decent guy. Here's the winning song.

Party like it's 1979

Usually the protesters just light the American flag on fire. Burning the embassy is a more refined art. I don't remember the last time an American embassy was burned down, but I seem to remember a few of them back in the late 70s.

I guess we can at least rest easy that the little respite in America-hating is over and things are reverting to normal.

To be honest, I'm not sure why the Bush Administration felt such a need to recognize Kosovo. A little time wouldn't have been inappropriate.

St. Patrick's Day in Georgia

Unlike Dublin and New York, Savannah moved their St. Patrick's Day Parade to March 14 to suit the change in the Church calendar this year.

Linguistic tyranny

A few years back I wrote "Quebec is like the Gaeltacht, only more successful at preserving the language". I knew there were laws regarding the use of French, but I hadn't realized the extent to which Quebec's government resorted to tyranny to ensure that French is the predominant language.

I know there are some laws on the use of Irish in the Gaeltacht areas, but I don't think they're as draconian as this. Quebec's Office québécois de la langue française objects to an Irish pub's excessive use of English.

It objects specifically to vintage ads that say such things as "Guinness Dublin 1759," "Ireland Trademark," "Cudthromach Aire," "Eat Palethorpes pork pies fresh today" and "Guinness Extra Stout, Draught & Bottled St. James Gate, Dublin" and "Caffrey's Cream."

Many of the signs - some hand-carved, some painted on tin - were acquired in Ireland by the owners of McKibbin's to give the bar an authentic Irish atmosphere.

In a letter to co-owner Rick Fon this month, the OQLF says that too much English is spoken by the bar's staff, that a customer has complained about not being served in French and that the English signs on the walls are an affront to Quebec's language laws.

"We advise you that the law requires the French language to be predominant in public signs and commercial advertising; if another language is used at the same time, French must be given overall priority and the visual impact of the French text has to be much more important," the letter says.

McKibbin's was given 30 days to remove the signs or face fines as high as $1,500 for each infraction.

I love that bit about a customer complaining. I can just picture the sort of guy whose visit to a pub is ruined because he wasn't served in French. It's people like that who felt comfortable turning in their neighbors to the authorities in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.

This is journalism?

Today's New York Times has a long, top of the front page article on John McCain. The article is full of rehashed information on McCain's past and his brush with scandal in the 1980s. If the New York Times was a history magazine, I could see how this story should be prominent, but the Times is supposed to print "All the News That's Fit to Print".

There's no "news" here at all, but there is one juicy tidbit that is the only reason the Times ran this story:

Convinced the relationship had become romantic, some of his top advisers intervened to protect the candidate from himself — instructing staff members to block the woman’s access, privately warning her away and repeatedly confronting him, several people involved in the campaign said on the condition of anonymity.

When news organizations reported that Mr. McCain had written letters to government regulators on behalf of the lobbyist’s client, the former campaign associates said, some aides feared for a time that attention would fall on her involvement.

Mr. McCain, 71, and the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, 40, both say they never had a romantic relationship.

The Times's sources are two former associates who have "become disillusioned" with McCain and John Weaver, who McCain fired last summer.

Gee, I wonder if it's possible these people have an ax to grind? There may be more substance to this story than appears in today's paper, but the Times better hurry it to print or we'll be left with nothing more than gutter journalism from the 'left wing press' for F. Finlay).

This has no place in the New York Times. Maybe it will damage McCain, but I actually doubt it. However, it could be very damaging for Vickie Iseman, who I hope is not married and does not have a family. This is garbage, pure and simple.

Not ready

When you read the Washington Post article I linked to below and this one you realize that Hillary Clinton is not ready to be President. How can she claim to be management material when she can't organize her own campaign?

For all the talk about how bad Rudy Giuliani's campaign was (and it was bad) Hillary Clinton's has been worse. Rudy had a strategy - a bad one - and followed it to defeat.

Clinton, however, has had a few strategies. Okay, she banked on having it wrapped up by February 5, but when it became clear that this wasn't going to happen she floundered until she came up with a new strategy - focus on Texas & Ohio. {She might have had a chance in Wisconsin if she'd paid any attention there, but it looks like she'll lose again.}

So she has her new strategy, only nobody in her team seems to have read the rules about how the Texas primary works. That's gross mismanagement. Meanwhile, Obama is in another class when it comes to managing his campaign.

"While they were busy 'discovering' the rules, however, the Obama campaign had people on the ground in Texas explaining the system, organizing precincts, and making Powerpoints.

… "In this respect, Texas is simply a microcosm of the larger campaign dynamics. In fact, if the Clinton campaign were a corporation, the shareholders would have pretty good grounds for a derivative suit for Texas alone."

Primary education

It probably still won't come to this, but it's good to learn about how the primary/convention process in the Democratic Party works on the off chance that it's not decided when the primaries are done.

The Clinton campaign is targeting delegates to convince them to vote for her at the convention even though they are 'pledged' to Obama. This is separate to the superdelegates issue. 'Pledged' delegates are apparently free to change their minds and vote for whomever they choose regardless of who the voters wanted them to support.

Then there's Texas, which has some bizarre rules for its primary, and they don't favor Clinton.

Several top Clinton strategists and fundraisers became alarmed after learning of the state's unusual provisions during a closed-door strategy meeting this month, according to one person who attended.

What Clinton aides discovered is that in certain targeted districts, such as Democratic state Sen. Juan Hinojosa's heavily Hispanic Senate district in the Rio Grande Valley, Clinton could win an overwhelming majority of votes but gain only a small edge in delegates. At the same time, a win in the more urban districts in Dallas and Houston – where Sen. Barack Obama expects to receive significant support – could yield three or four times as many delegates.

"What it means is, she could win the popular vote and still lose the race for delegates," Hinojosa said yesterday. "This system does not necessarily represent the opinions of the population, and that is a serious problem."

If nothing else, this campaign has been a great education.

It's not the 90s now, Kosovo

Having mentioned the American flags in Kosovo, I should point out that if the Serbs really want Kosovo back and Russia wants to help them the Kosovars shouldn't expect American help. The Americans are overstretched in the Middle East and the Russians are much stronger, wealthier now than they were in the late 90s. The balance of power is not the same as it was in 1998.

Loving the Americans

Oh what a weekend. It's been a long time since we Americans abroad have had a weekend like this one. What, with American flags being waved happily (without the almost requisite burning) in Kosovo and the billboards thanking President Bush on display in Tanzania, it's almost like everyone doesn't HATE us. Almost.

Fukuyama

Fukayama's book was a much denser affair than Cockburn's. I actually stopped reading early on so that I could start again only this time taking notes. I have 4 pages of notes that I took while reading the book.

The truth is I really enjoyed the book, although I'd never read such a theoretical political book before. I actually would have enjoyed arguing with an enthusiast because I didn't agree with a lot of what Fukuyama had to say.

The gist of the book is that America needs to adopt proper neoconservativism, not the bastardized version that we've had under President Bush. Realistic Wilsonianism, he calls it. More idealistic guff is how it seems to me. Fukuyama is an interventionist and idealist. He argues that taking a hands off approach to how states are run would be bad for America, but no matter how often he made this point I found myself asking: "How does this approach hurt China"?

The Chinese don't seem too worried about how any other state is run, but all over the world they're making deals that benefit the Chinese. Every day you can find new stories about how China is beating America with deals in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The Chinese don't seem too concerned with what goes on inside each state. They apparently take no interest in the affairs of other sovereign states.

Throughout the second half of this book I kept wondering how such an approach would be bad for America. Maybe it would be disastrous, but Fukuyama doesn't make that case.

Cockburn's The Occupation

I've recently completed two books that I borrowed from a friend: The Occupation by Patrick Cockburn & After the Neocons: America at the Crossroads by Francis Fukuyama.

Cockburn's book was about Iraq and, needless to say, doesn't make for happy reading. This book doesn't do anything to change the perception that Iraq was very badly managed from the point of the Saddam regime collapse. If you've read the newspapers faithfully for the past 5 years then it's possible that this book will bore you to tears. I didn't find much that was new here, but it's a good, well written summary of how things went so wrong after April 2003.

I was wary when I picked up the book because who likes to read something that's like a big "I told you so". In fact, I didn't get that from this book. I don't know what he thought of the war in 2002, but I had the sense reading this book that he was at least hoping that life might be better for the Iraqi people.

The book was published before the surge, so at least we can hope that things are better now than they were when Cockburn finished writing The Occupation. I'd like to believe that his next book will be more hopeful and more upbeat.