Time for "Hooked on Phonics"? I know standardized tests aren't the ultimate indicator of future success, but this is still depressing.
NYC Pupils Expected to Repeat Third Grade
Fri Jun 4, 2:23 PM ET
NEW YORK – Up to 10,000 third-graders could be held back this year because they did not pass citywide reading and math exams, according to test results released by the Department of Education
This site sheds some light on the popular idea that before Roe v. Wade made abortion
legal, 10,000 women died each year from botched illegal abortions.
Before
Roe v. Wade, did 10,000 women a year die from illegal abortions?
28-May-2004
Dear Cecil:
Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman recently wrote, “After all, those of us
who remember when birth control was illegal and when 10,000 American women a year
died from illegal abortions don’t have to imagine a world without choices. We were
there.” I write a blog about life after abortion, and one of my co-bloggers
says that the claim of 10,000 deaths is well known to be an urban legend. However,
Ellen Goodman is a famous journalist, and she clearly believes that it is the truth.
Is it? – Emily of After Abortion, via e-mail
“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
– Albert Einstein
China
silences Tiananmen critics
Police are quickly clamping down on attempts to mark the crackdown
A leading Chinese doctor who criticised the Communist Party’s 1989 Tiananmen Square
crackdown has disappeared on the eve of its 15th anniversary.
Why do we (as a nation) keep ignoring China’s horrendous human rights record and
continue to trade so heavily with them?
If communism is so right and the Chinese government is so great, they shouldn’t
need to make people disappear to stop “dangerous” opinions. Mao forbid
people be free to think for themselves and protest openly.
R-Rating
Sought in Some Smoking Films
LOS ANGELES � If Nicolas Cage lights a cigarette in a movie, Hollywood’s ratings
board should respond as if he used a profanity, according to authors of a new study
that criticizes glamorous images of smoking in movies rated for children under 17.
Lawmakers
Urge Smoking-Related Film Rating
Industry Resists Calls to Use Ratings to Minimize Kids’ Viewing of Cigarettes in
Movies
May 11, 2004 — Lawmakers called on the film industry to use its rating system to
warn parents of depictions of smoking in movies, amid growing evidence that the
portrayals make children an adolescents more likely to smoke.
I think this R rating for smoking idea is deliberately extreme because controversy
gets discussions going. Do I personally think that there should be advisories or
restrictions placed on movies with smoking? If we do that, we need to put advisories
up for binge drinking, promiscuous sex, and a myriad of other negative behaviors.
I think the whole ratings system needs to be revamped. Age-based ratings don’t take
into account the highly variable maturity of children and shifts parenting away
from parents. A better idea might to put codes on shows based on particular acts
shown, such as drug use, harsh language, nudity, sexual acts, etc. Let parents decide
what’s best for their children. If the MPAA doesn’t want to break down the sinful
content of movies, then a Christian ratings organization should be formed. Perhaps
rating codes could be based on which commandment is broken or which deadly sins
are displayed (pride envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, sloth).
Limitation on freedoms is not a new concept. Speech is, on the whole, free, but
there are some utterances that can get you in trouble with the law. Shouting “Fire!”
in a crowded theater or joking about shooting the president are good examples. In
other words, there is legal precedent for placing limitations on constitutional
rights. Technically, abortion is not a right guaranteed by the Constitution. However,
the Supreme Court interprets the Constitution and decisions of the Court carry the
weight of the Constitution until they are overturned. For a federal judge to say
that the Partial Birth Abortion Ban places “an undue burden on a woman’s right
to choose an abortion”, thus making it unconstitutional, is a mighty strong
statement and had better be backed up with legal precedence. It will be very interesting
to see if this makes it to the Supreme Court.
On a side note, if a fetus is not a person, and thus not protected, when it is essentially
birthed to be aborted, what makes it a person if such a procedure is not performed?
I really don’t think it’s reactionary to say that the next logical step is legalized
infanticide. If this ruling goes unchallenged, we may one day wake up to headlines
telling us that a law protecting newborns places an undue burden on a woman’s right
to kill her infant.
Judge:
Bush Abortion Ban Unconstitutional
SAN FRANCISCO – In a ruling with coast-to-coast effect, a federal judge declared
the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional Tuesday, saying it infringes
on a woman’s right to choose.
Pro-Life Members of
Congress File Brief in Partial-Birth Abortion Case
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A pro-life law firm has filed an amicus brief on
behalf of 25 pro-life members of Congress in an effort to help the Bush administration
defend the partial-birth abortion ban from pro-abortion lawsuits seeking to overturn
the law.