Joss Whedon was recently honored with the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism at Harvard University. Part of his acceptance speech is below (link).

If you know me, you know that I’ve been a long-time admirer of Whedon as a creator, thinker, and activist as well as a fan of his work, particularly Firefly/Serenity and [...]

His vision is inspiring, as is his message: "We will lose our economy right after we’ve lost our morality."

I’ve been reading Joseph Ellis’s Founding Brothers, a book that’s been on my shelf for a while, and I’m fascinated by the echoes between the struggles this nation faced in its early years and the ones it faces now.
In chapter one, Ellis explains that America was founded in the conflict between the opposing principles of [...]

Before I get going, a disclaimer: I don’t know enough economic theory or political science to even pretend to have an authoritative opinion about how to get out of the huge financial mess we’re in, my opinions about what moves we should take as a country are resting on shaky foundations, and I’m scrambling like [...]

“It’s a New Day” by will.i.am is still one of the most inspiring songs/videos I’ve seen, and as relevant in the days after the inauguration as it was in the days after the election. For me, the lyrics echo the central thrust of President Obama’s inauguration speech: “All this we can do. All this we [...]

I had planned on writing a series of reminders to the president elect: that we didn’t elect him so much as the ideals he gave us courage to hope for; that he must now face the future with humility, fear and trembling; that his power is not his own, but belongs to the people he [...]

I don’t know how anyone can listen to Obama’s campaign platform and not agree with the goals and principles he expresses or not feel the swell of pride and hope, despite the cynicism.
More than anything, as I’ve said before, he seems to be a man who embraces balance and cooperation, who is studied, thoughtful, and [...]

I got an email the other day that contained the content of this post. In the post, the author creates an analogy that’s supposed to explain the problem with Obama’s "spread the wealth around" statement to the now (in)famous Joe the Plumber. Take a minute to read the analogy before you continue …
Here’s my response:
The [...]

Pornography is in the news, and the classroom, again:
The Prince George’s County school system is investigating an incident in which a fifth-grade music class at Glenn Dale Elementary School caught a glimpse of a pornographic movie instead of the planned feature, “Star Wars.”
Glitch Gives Kids a Peek at Pornography – washingtonpost.com
From the little revealed in [...]

TMAO brought my attention to these prepared remarks of California Democratic Congressman George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. TMAO quotes this line:
Even with all of these changes, we will not meet our national goal of closing the achievement gap until and unless we close the teacher quality gap.
While I strongly [...]