Month: March 2010

Sara Mosle reviews Diane Ravitch's new book on school choice:

Obviously, some high-visibility [charter school] success stories exist, such as the chain run by the Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP, which I've previously discussed here. But these are the decided exceptions, not the rule. And there's no evidence that a majority of eligible families are taking advantage of charters, good or bad. "While advocates of choice"—again, Ravitch included—"were certain that most families wanted only the chance to escape their neighborhood school, the first five years of NCLB demonstrated the opposite," she writes. In California, for example, less than 1 percent of students in failing schools actually sought a transfer. In Colorado, less than 2 percent did. If all this seems a little counterintuitive, Ravitch would be the first to agree. That's why she supported charters in the first place. But the evidence in their favor, she insists, simply hasn't materialized.

This weekend on the Dish, we rounded up coverage of the pope-related sex scandal, Andrew absorbed the news, and a reader shared his perspective from Germany.

The Netanyahu government took heat from Tom Friedman, Haaretz, Petraeus, Goldblog, and Jake Tapper. Andrew put more heat on the WaPo editorial page. He also responded to Golblog's outrage over his use of a map showing the history of Jewish habitation in Israel. He then posted a more accurate map and made further corrections here and here.

McCarthy sunk even lower. Chris Hitchens and Walt Whitman presented their own Ten Commandments. Jonah Lehrer looked at what makes a good marriage, explained why we free associate when high, and examined how our decisions and moods affect our social networks.

Installments of Andrew's Princeton speech on homosexuality can be viewed here and here.

— C.B.

Cult classic Mystery Science Theater 3000 gets the tumblr treatment.

Ryan Sager asks if pornography is a social good.

I referred to Jerusalem being 84 percent Arab in 1946 according to the latest less loaded map I published. On the map, "Jersualem" refers to a large area that includes Jerusalem and a great deal of what is now the West Bank as well, as you can see from the map, not the city itself. My apologies for the confusion. In 1946, Jews were a majority of the inhabitants of the city itself, and had been since the 1870s or so.

A reader in Germany writes:

After lunch today I walked down to the Central Station to pick up a copy of the Sueddeutsche. There must be more than 10,000 words on the child abuse scandal in the A section, many jarring details, maps show how these problems were recurrent all over the country, especially in schools for young boys. These scandals progressed in America and we read about them, a reporter writes, but it turns out that exactly the same thing was going on all over Germany–but the German church was better able to keep it all under wraps.

They have a summary of an interview with the Regensburg Bishop, Gerhard Mueller, who says "Leutheusser is a liar," referring to Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, the Justice Minister. He goes on to says that the justice minister is part of a dark and secretive conspiracy led by Free Masons who want to bring the church down. This guy is just nuts. But how revealing of their strategy. Presented with undeniable evidence of abuse, they claim to be the victims!

The original interview is in La Stampa in Turin. The Sueddeutsche's editorial, penned by Matthias Drobinski, says that the scandal plainly now affects the pope directly since much of the worst abuse occurred during his tenure as archbishop of Munich and Freising, and his claims not to have been involved simply aren't credible.

"The crisis of confidence affecting the church has not occurred because the church is an association of abusers. The church is in crisis precisely because, confronted with undeniable evidence of abuse, it expresses concern for itself instead of offering to help the victims of the abuse, by offering compensation, for instance. This crisis results from the church's refusal to admit that the priesthood and religious orders are attractive to men with sexual identity issues."

This can't go on for ever. And the responses that come out of the Vatican and the Germany prelacies show that its instincts are still to insist that it's the victim and attack those who pursue the evidence of abuse.

Ask yourself: what business does Benedict have lecturing to the Irish in view of his own role in the scandal in Bavaria?

(Photo: A traffic sign depicting children is pictured at the Benedictine-run Ettal Monastery is pictured on March 12, 2010 in Ettal, Germany. Munich prosecutors opened an investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by priests made by 20 alumni of the Benedictine-run Ettal Monastery school in Bavaria, while a lawyer involved in the case charged that hundreds of boys had been beaten, many of them severely, by staff at the school decades ago. At least 170 victims have reported sexual abuse in a widening scandal involving allegations against priests at several Catholic high schools across Germany. Pope Benedict XVI is to meet with the head of the German Bishops' Conference, Robert Zollitsch, on Friday to discuss the abuse allegations. By Miguel Villagran/Getty)

I've explored its flaws here and proffered an alternative. DiA gets to the point more succinctly here:

The point is that the map fails to distinguish between land that is owned by Jews or Palestinians, and land that is controlled by Jewish or Palestinian political entities.

My previous defense of the map against Goldblog's outrage is here.

"If this bill passes this year, children with pre-existing conditions will now be covered, there'll be an end to lifetime caps and annual caps on what the insurance companies will cover, so if you get sick you won't go broke, if you get sick they can't throw you off your insurance.  The doughnut hole will be filled in so senior citizens will save hundreds of dollars on their prescription drugs, the life of Medicare will be extended, and on and on and on.

So, if the Republican Party wants to go out and say to that child who now has insurance or say to that small business that will get tax credits this year if he signs the bill to help their employees get health care. If they want to say to them, "You know what? We're actually gonna take that away from you. We don't think that's such a good idea." I say, let's have that fight. Make my day. I'm ready to have that. And every Member of Congress ought to be willing to have that debate as well," – David Axelrod.

It gets really good around 1:20: