It’s Not the Rich, It’s the Educated

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If you're the parent of a teenager then you know one of the universal truths of teenage life has not changed since your own days in high school: if you want to be considered "cool" then you better not let anyone know you're actually doing your homework.  And if you're living in America these days you probably realize that anti-intellectualism is most definitely an in thing. If you don't then you should read this quote from Frank Rich's column about Sarah Palin's ascendancy:

It’s anti-elitism that most defines angry populism in this moment, and, as David Frum, another Bush alumnus (and Palin critic), has pointed out, populist rage on the right is aimed at the educated, not the wealthy. The Bushies and Noonans and dwindling retro-moderate Republicans are no less loathed by Palinistas and their Tea Party fellow travelers than is Obama’s Ivy League White House.

If an official from the administration of a President, who built his own image around being an average good 'ol boy, is pointing out that people are pissed off at the educated then you know we're in trouble. 

Progress

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Unfortunately the folks in Forsyth County, NC have been getting a lot of practice in dealing with teachers accused of inappropriate conduct in their school system.  In the latest instance, news came out today that a teacher and a teacher's assistant at Moore Magnet Elementary have been accused of inappropriate conduct and they've been suspended with pay until the police department completes an investigation. If you click through to the story you'll note this sentence at the end: "WXII isn't identifying the teacher or teaching assistant because neither has been charged with a crime."

While it's never good that a teacher's been accused of misconduct, this story at least shows that the folks at WSFCS and the local media have learned their lessons.  You may recall that administrators at WSFCS were accused of mishandling previous cases of teachers accused of inappropriate behavior by opting to hand investigations themselves rather than immediately contacting the police or sheriff's departments. This case makes it sound like they've finally gotten the message that they are to turn these cases over to the authorities right away.  

You also may recall that the local media has been in the habit of identifying the accused teachers, even before they're accused of a crime.  This, of course, has had a devastating effect on the teachers, some of whom have been cleared of any wrongdoing.  The fact that the media is protecting teachers' reputations from being unnecessarily damaged by a kid making false accusations because they're upset with the teacher is a good thing. (Let's hope that the rest of the local media follow WXII's lead). On the other hand the fact that the teachers have been suspended prevents them from doing any further harm if they are guilty of misconduct.

All in all this is a much needed improvement over how similar cases have been handled in recent years.

Al-Qaeda Marching Band in Macy’s Day Parade?!

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I love The Onion, and this piece titled Al-Qaeda Marching Band To Join Macy's Parade After Incredible Audition is a good example why. As with most satire there's always the risk that someone won't get it and take it seriously, which can offer its own form of entertainment.  A perfect example of this happened recently on Facebook when a friend of mine "shared" the aforementioned article and a friend of his took it seriously.  To avoid piling on I'm going to use pseudonyms when replaying the conversation that ensued in the comment section of the post:

Took It Seriously: absolutely obnoxious that this country even allows this to happen, what an insult to the Americans who have lost their lives to these people……….sorry <Jon'sFriend> call it as I see it, I hope you son never knows what it is like to find himself in the sight of an Al-Qaeda terrorist.

Jon's Friend: Its a joke <TookItSeriously>

Took it Seriously: It's a joke?

Jon's Friend: Yes – The Onion is a humor site.

Jon's Friend: Like this http://www.theonion.com/articles/worlds-power-brokers-hold-annual-summit-where-they,18474/?utm_source=recentnews

Took it Seriously: Quit givin me a heart attack <Jon's Friend>!! No chocolate for you this week!! Forgive my momentary loss of sanity!!

Before you're too judgmental about Took it Seriously, remember that we live in the post-9/11 age of hyperventilating news so we're inundated with seemingly implausible headlines like:

Seriously, if you live in a world where headlines like these appear on a regular basis I think you can be excused for mistaking The Onion for a real news outlet.

 

Sunrise Soccer

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My daughter’s team played in the Lake Norman Fall Classic this weekend, winning their division – Go Royals! Those of us who watched them chase the ball around the fields in Statesville enjoyed some fine North Carolina fall weather, even at 7:15 in the a.m.

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Lewisville the Scene for a Hallmark Movie

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Apparently the Hallmark Channel is filming a movie on location in the Piedmont Triad and one of the locations they're using is Lewisville.  Here's the story in the Greensboro News & Record and the Hallmark Channel's press release.  The movie will be based on the book The Shunning by Beverly Lewis.

Not sure where they're going to shoot, but there are at least four locations listed on the NC Piedmont Triad Film Commission's website.  You can probably guess a few of the locations listed on the website:

If you're in Lewisville and you see a bunch of people running around with a camera you can guess what they're up to.

Epic Rant by a DC Sportstalk Host

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Update: Not sure why the embed didn't work, but here's a link to the audio file just to be safe.

Below is an embedded audio link of Chad Dukes' epic rant about the Redskins after their crapfest of a game against the Eagles on Monday.  Bonus point for me: in the middle of his rant he mentions that he grew up in Springfield on the road where we bought our first townhouse, and went to my alma mater GMU.  For what it's worth I think he's pretty much right in his assessment of the millionaires lying on the grass at FedEx field. 

 

 

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Everyone Should Have a Printing Press

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I just read an interesting interview with Evan Williams, founder of Twitter (and Blogger) that had a great quote:

In response to a question from the audience about Twitter empowering people to publish and act as journalists, Williams — who founded Blogger and later sold it to Google — said that “lowering the barrier to publishing” has been something he has spent most of his career on, and this is because he believes that “the open exchange of information has a positive effect on the world — it’s not all positive, but net-net it is positive.” With Twitter, he said, “we’ve lowered the barriers to publishing almost as far as they can go,” and that is good because if there are “more voices and more ways to find the truth, then the truth will be available to more people — I think this is what the Internet empowers [but] society has not fully realized what this means.”

I like Fred Wilson's take on this too:

When I started blogging back in 2003, I would tell everyone how awesome it was. A common refrain back then was "not everyone should have a printing press." I didn't agree then and I don't agree now. Everyone should have a printing press and should use it as often as they see fit. Through things like RSS and Twitter's follow model, we can subscribe to the voices we want to hear regularly. And through things like reblog and retweet, the voices we don't subscribe to can get into our readers, dashboards, and timelines.

If I look back at my core investment thesis over the past five years, it is this single idea, that everyone has a voice on the Internet, that is central to it. And as Ev said, society has not fully realized what this means. But it's getting there, quickly.