Posts by Noted

October 20, 2010, 01:17 PM ET

Imagine a Recent Morning With Ginni and Clarence Thomas

By Noted

Picture the scene: Clarence Thomas returns home last Saturday afternoon after a few hours of golf, or gardening, or taking yet another peek again at Rush Limbaugh’s wedding album (Thomas presided over at least one of Rush’s wedding’s—the third one, I believe, and not the one with Elton John). Thomas is, we know, the most fun and cuddly of all the Justices and is no doubt drawn by the sweet sentimentality of his nature towards nostalgia. Imagine his surprise, then, when Clarence saw his cheerful dumpling of a wife, Ginni-- herself an activist in many conservative groups and a hard-liner on wildly divisive issues like the Family and Medical Leave Act (she was against it, of course)—sitting at the breakfast nook with a particularly cheery smile on her dimpled cheeks. She wasn’t always happy in the mornings. Imagine him saying, as he pours the Dunkin’ Decaf’, “You look... Read More

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October 13, 2010, 05:07 PM ET

More College Graduates Needed

By Noted

It was released three months ago but if you haven't yet you really should read Anthony Carnevale, Nicole Smith, and Jeff Strohl's comprehensive-yet-accessible Projection of Jobs and Education Requirements Through 2018. Their top-line conclusion is that conventional Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts systematically underestimate the number of future jobs that will require college degrees:

Compare, for example, the results of a simple test pitting our methodology against the Bureau’s. In its 1998 forecast, which covered a 10-year timeline through 2008, the Bureau under-predicted how many workers in the U.S. labor force would have Associate’s degrees or better by 19 million. That projection was off by 47 percent. Our methodology, for that same period, over-predicted postsecondary educational demand by about 2 million workers—an error rate of just 4 percent. Unfortunately, the poor ...

October 12, 2010, 04:27 PM ET

The Trolley Problem

By Noted

The moral philosopher Philippa Foot has died. I have to be careful, lest my blogs turn simply into a series of obituaries for well-known philosophers. So let me assure you that I am not going to write one now. I never knew her and never heard her speak, not even at a conference. (Incidentally, after the jealous reactions to my last post, where I said that I had been at a conference in Marseilles, you may rest assured that--unless I am going to Gary, Indiana or Wolverhampton Staffordshire--I will never again tell people where I am going. The fact that my next trip will be to the Taj Mahal for a conference on the philosophy of tomb stones will be forever concealed from view.) However, Foot is worth a bit more than a footnote, for it was she who first started us onto the moral paradox that has consumed more paper than anything since Plato in the Parmenides asked if the Forms are... Read More

April 29, 2010, 09:00 AM ET

Congratulations to Sara Goldrick-Rab!

By Noted

Our cherished Brainstorm contributor has been named a 2010 William T. Grant Scholar.

Here are some details, quoted from the University of Wisconsin news release:

This year the foundation received 70 applications. Each scholar receives research support through mentorship, interdisciplinary experience and $350,000 distributed over five years.

"This is an extraordinary opportunity," says Goldrick-Rab. "I'm grateful to the foundation for recognizing that, after we become professors and researchers, our own education should continue."

The program will help Goldrick-Rab expand on a landmark, randomized trial of need-based student financial aid, which she co-directs with Douglas Harris, associate professor of educational policy studies and public affairs. In this new project, "Rethinking College Choice in America," Goldrick-Rab will apply ideas and methods from developmental psychology and ...

April 19, 2010, 12:00 PM ET

Verdict in Long Island Race Killing

By Noted

The New York Times reports a verdict in the Long Island killing of an Ecuadorean immigrant. A year ago, Julian Rothenberg, a sociology professor, wrote in the Review about how the case provided a sad, timely lesson for her students.

April 9, 2010, 04:44 PM ET

Stephen Walt in the Hot Seat—Again

By Noted

At the end of March, Politico ran a story that quoted "one U.S. official" saying that Dennis Ross, a member of President Obama's National Security Council, "seems to be far more sensitive to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's coalition politics than to U.S. interests." Over at the Foreign Policy Web site, Stephen Walt, a professor of international relations at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, noted the anti-Semitic origins of the "dual loyalty" charge. Nevertheless, Walt argued that there is cause for concern when a high-ranking policymaker's "own activities or statements give independent evidence of strong attachment to a particular foreign country." In the case of Ross -- who has advised four presidents on Middle East policy -- that particular foreign country is Israel. During the administration of George W. Bush, Ross was a fellow at the Washington...

April 7, 2010, 11:52 AM ET

Berlinerblau Interviews Ross Douthat

By Noted

Jacques Berlinerblau, who directs the Program for Jewish Civilization at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service, has written for The Chronicle about books on secularism and atheism, candidates' religious rhetoric, and related matters. In this Faith Complex video, he interviews New York Times columnist Douthat about public discussion of religion.