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April 30, 2008
I Love This Ad
Throughout the election season, I've been a pretty wishy-washy Hillary supporter. For the most part, I just want to beat John McCain, but I've always had a lot of respect for Hillary, and I had some concerns about Obama's health care policy and attitude toward "clean coal" -- both of which are tepid at best.
But I have to admit: I love this ad.
I love what he says, and I love that he said it.
The gas tax is my favorite tax, (I probably like it even more than the estate tax,) and it always bothers me when people start complaining about it. First of all, driving is already hugely subsidized by the construction of "free" roads, and, second, anything that discourages people from driving is alright by me. So it's refreshing to see a politician say something reasonable about energy policy. Will it make me an Obama supporter? Meh. I'm already nine-tenths of the way there. But it certainly gives me another reason to move in that direction.
Posted by Drew at 08:10 PM
April 29, 2008
Repeat After Me
Alright, folks. We all need to say this together: Vouchers don't help kids learn.
Go ahead; say it again. Good.
The Washington Post today published a fantastically boneheaded editorial in support of the federally funded school voucher program in the District.
I can tell by the look on your face that you're already worried about how this discussion is going. "But Drew," I can hear you saying, "kids shouldn't be trapped in a failing school system."
Of course they shouldn't. Now take a deep breath and say it again: Vouchers. Don't. Help. Kids. Learn.
Study after study has shown that test scores of kids with vouchers aren't better than their peers in public schools. A congressionally mandated study by the Bureau of Education Statistics at the Department of Education is just the most recent in a series of reports that all come back to the same premise.
Don't get me wrong; there's a crisis in the American educational system that desperately needs to be addressed. And no one should hesitate to take on the entrenched interests that help to perpetuate the status quo; but vouchers are and always have been a distraction from the real problem at hand. It kills me that people as intelligent as the editorial board of the WaPo are incapable of seeing past the quick-fix allure of vouchers.
It's tempting to reach out for a silver bullet to fix public schools, but, alas, there isn't one. No child should be trapped in a failing school, but in virtually every case the only long term solution is to fix the school, not remove the children. I'll leave it to smarter people than myself to determine exactly how one does it, but it's fallacy to believe that it can be done without a reasonable amount of funding and and extraordinary amount of hard work.
Posted by Drew at 10:04 PM
The Least Scary Attack on Traditional Marriage Ever
Everyone's favorite elitist news source, the New York Times, this weekend had a story on young gay men who have gotten married in the last few years. The story is intermittently interesting, but I think I could have summed it up a lot faster:
Gays: As Domestic and Boring As Everyone Else!
Relationships: Still Difficult!
Whew. It's tough being a journalist.
I did like the pictures though, although as a big fan of highly constructed photography, that's probably not a surprise.
Posted by Drew at 12:10 PM
April 28, 2008
Dave Reads This Blog
Dave informed me that he was reading this blog, which, of course, I already assumed.
To be clear, when I say that two people read this blog, I mean Dave and you.
Here is a photo in which Dave, Ryan and I look awesome.
Posted by Drew at 09:42 AM
April 20, 2008
It's Not That I Don't Care What You Think . . .
Frequent readers of this blog may have noticed a few things recently.
The first is that there is new content (if you can call this stuff content) after a rather long hiatus. That's because, after being broken for a long, long time, Movable Type is now working again, thanks to an intrepid friend willing to lower herself working on this blog.
The second thing is that the comments are turned off. This isn't because I don't like you; it's simply because some people feel a need to post several hundred comments a day about cialis, online poker, and filthy, filthy websites you're better off not knowing about. Apparently, this causes lots of problems here at courtney5 headquarters -- problems I don't understand and about which I don't care to learn.
For the foreseeable future, comments will remain off. I apologize to both of the people who will actually read this.
Posted by Drew at 02:46 PM
April 17, 2008
We're Number Four!
In case you were wondering, DC currently ranks as the fourth most incarcerated city in the United States. Of course, the crime rate in the District is actually down at the moment, so it looks like our ignoble ranking is mostly the result of general socio-political dysfunction.
The report by the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based group that focuses on what it considers an over-reliance on incarceration, said that people are more likely than ever to stay in city and county jails before trial. One reason is they can't afford bail. A significant portion of those in jail are homeless, addicted to drugs or mentally ill -- not hardened criminals, the report said.
(I can't imagine that these problems are helped at all by Congress's refusal to allow some much needed changes in the city that could allow for improved social programs, but that's another story.)
Luckily for all involved, some of us still have a near-puritanical faith in the transformative power of education. Let's take a moment to watch this video as we remember that reading scores are powerful predictors of future incarceration rates. Ahhhh . . . That's better.
Posted by Drew at 10:47 AM
April 10, 2008
I'm Really Into Leonard Cohen Right Now
Because of my consistently uncool musical tastes, I sometimes find it hard to talk to strangers about music. After all, one never knows: will these people respect my semi-obsessive love of Belle and Sebastian? Will they think it's weird when I say that that I like male vocalists who sound like Nina Simone and sing about transsexualism and domestic abuse? Is The Arcade Fire still hip? Were they ever?
Finally, at an office event I attended with Nick, I found the seven words that are guaranteed to get you out of the awkward conversation with your dignity intact: "I'm really into Leonard Cohen right now." Try it. I guarantee that it will get you complete deference from whoever you're talking to and complete absolution for the fact that you've never even heard of M83 (whoever the hell they are.)
Why this semi-mystical reverence for Leonard Cohen? Is it because everyone listens to him? No. It's because no one listens to him, but (and here's the magic) they all think they should. After all, Jeff Buckley covered his music, as did, umm , Rufus Wainwright, and, you know . . . that other guy. And since those people, who presumably knew a fair amount about music, like his songs, your conversations partners will assume that they should too.
But, in fact, they don't, which is why they don't listen to him in the first place. Which isn't surprising, since his music is consistently depressing and almost comically self-serious. His popular obscurity is only enhanced by the fact that he's a seventy year old Canadian, Jewish Buddhist.
This point between what people actually like and what they feel they ought to like isn't just a great refuge from knowing condescension, it's the true high ground of indie/hipster one-upsmanship. The Leonard Cohen cocktail of ignorance and shame renders your conversational opponents impotent to knock you from your perch. Unless someone in the group stakes out yet a more extreme position (something like "I don't listen to music.") your position is nigh unassailable.
The only true danger lies in the off chance that someone you're talking to also listens to Leonard Cohen (or, more likely, actually is Leonard Cohen) in which case the results would be such a cultural-literacy bloodbath that we're better off not considering it.
I'm rather shocked that more people haven't taken advantage of this secret, and I imagine that as soon as word gets out you'll be hearing people trying it everywhere. But not with me, because I'm warning you, I've been listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen lately.
Posted by Drew at 08:40 PM