Lies, damned lies, and the Pacific Research Institute
Often, it takes a bit of time to uncover statistical flummery; one needs to dig deep inside arcane methods or the details of data collection. But sometimes it takes just a few clicks. Matthew Ladner’s blog entry today, $243,000 per student school districts?, quoted work by the Pacific Research Institute that claimed two small districts […]
Not closing up shop just yet
Kevin Carey’s Chronicle column this week, What Colleges Should Learn From Newspapers’ Decline reminds me too much of Willard Daggett’s slipshod prognostication: oh, yes, there will be surgery-by-wire where you can stay in Podunk while a surgeon in New York City opens up your heart (something close to what Daggett claimed in one speech I […]
Seattle will be drier
I spent some time this weekend finishing the first complete draft of a talk I’m giving in Seattle on Thursday. I’m going to be heading there while a few thousand historians are leaving Seattle after the end of the Organization of American Historians meeting. I’m either expecting to find a time machine or I am […]
Ward Churchill, delusional
A little over three years ago, I noted that Ward Churchill was an awful poster boy for academic freedom, and he continues to astound me with his trial against the University of Colorado. According to both the New York Times and Chronicle of Higher Ed reporting on his testimony today, Churchill claimed both that his […]
Fordham Fellows
Once again this year, as in 2007-08, the Fordham Institute has brought in a group of Fellows with a diverse set of views. Today’s blog entry by Catherine Cullen is a case in point. I side with Cullen on the substance about Charles Murray, but Mike Petrilli and Fordham in general deserve kudos for creating […]