In explaining the dark and ugly and angry mood that seems to have possessed large pockets of the citizenry in recent months, many commentators highlight populist media figures on the right.  Limbaugh, Beck et al stir the people into an ominous mob, we are told, their motives ranging from the cynical to the paranoid.

The anger is real, to be sure, and a whole host of acts and words originating inside the Beltway and in state houses, stretching across the ideological spectrum, have given it firm warrant. Conservative voices have, indeed, mobilized the popular feeling, but let's not overlook the role liberal media voices have played in the arousal of conservatives, libertarians, and independents of various stripes. 

Take the example of E. J. Dionne, columnist at The Washington Post. A while back he penned a column republished in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution under the title "Good, bad ...

No matter how many surveys, tests, polls, and studies reveal the faltering ignorance and incognizance of U.S. students and adults, we should continue to broadcast their findings each time they appear. It's a professional obligation, and when we recognize the mounting forces of distraction and diversion and anti-knowledge flooding individual minds in their (nearly) every waking moment, educators must form a counter-force and act vigilantly.

Furthermore, each survey that comes out contains interesting elements that sharpen or contextualize the ignorance factor in American life.  A recent example is "The American Revolution. Who Cares?" (full report here) issued by the American Revolution Center. The survey gave a 27-question test focused on the American Revolution to a national sample of adults.

It displays results to which we've become accustomed -- for instance, showing that "half did ...

A middle-school principal walks into a bar.  Out front stand painted pictures of Geronimo and Sitting Bull, while inside a ragtag collection of drinkers loiter in dim corners.  Over at the bar, the principal spots the person he seeks.  She didn't show up for a parent meeting at the school, and he figured she'd be here.

"I approached her and said, 'Ms. Night Owl, you can't come to a school meeting, but your ass can get drunk at a bar.' Some drunk asked, 'Who in the hell is that man running his mouth in our place?'  I looked at him and said, 'I'm Ben Chavis, the principal of her daughter's school.  Do you have a ----ing problem with me?' The drunk was surprised that I did not back down to him inside the bar surrounded by other red lovers of the liquid spirits.  I walked closer to him and he said with the speech of someone who had had too any drinks, 'I agree with you her kid should be in ...

The National Association of Colleges and Employers has released Winter 2010 results of its ongoing survey of starting salaries for different bachelor degrees. Here are the top ten:

Petroleum Engineering $86,220

Chemical Engineering $65,142

Mining and Mineral Engineering $64,552

Computer Science $61,205

Computer Engineering $60,879

Electrical/Electronics & Communications Engineering $59,074

Mechanical Engineering $58,392

Industrial/Manufacturing Engineering $57,734

Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical Engineering $57,231

Information Sciences & Systems $54,038

A...

Here's a notice in Business Week about a study whose findings are published in the April issue of Psychological Science.  The study covered 64 boys age 6 to 9, giving one group a video game system at one point in time, the other group a system four months later.  Researchers gave boys reading, writing, and math tests at the beginning, then after the first four months.

The finding: "Boys who received and started playing video games right away spent less time doing homework and other after-school activities than the boys without video game systems, the study found.  They also did not do as well on follow-up reading and writing tests, although no difference between the groups was found in the math scores."

It should be no surprise that kids who play video games at home will cut down on homework and related activities such as book reading.  As one expert in the piece put it, "It's a...

Yes, the Republicans made a big mistake in the health-care debate, starting way back last summer. While Obama and Democrats stumbled and cajoled and careened and bargained and blabbered their way toward #216, their goal got branded as "Obamacare." Stupidly, the Republicans didn't do the same. Instead of going all-negative on the evolving bill of the other side, they should have crafted a plan of their own, secured a critical mass of support among their own ranks, publicized it in speeches, interviews, and columns, and branded it as the positive alternative to Obamacare.

Yes, Republicans floated ideas along the way (tort reform, insurance across state lines, etc.), and Paul Ryan and a few others laid out a more formal road map, but they came too late in the day and didn't catch on precisely as a product. Instead of just arguing against the one, they needed to hold up the plan and...

The big hurdle is now behind them, and Democrats and the administration can press ahead with smiles and promises. It's been an ugly and unpleasant process for months, and it signifies both the executive leadership deficiencies of the president and the disconnection of Congress from constituents back home. I support some kind of health-insurance reform, with a large role for government (though I don't presume any financial understanding of the issue), but the bad taste of the American public's captivity to D.C. dealings is going to last for a long time.

Republicans are counting on it.  They believe that Congressional votes by members representing districts in which the current bill was widely unpopular signals a voter revolt to come in November.  Democratic leaders argue that once the bill is in place and people see some concrete changes in health costs, they will lighten their dismay an...

Here's an op-ed by Richard Whitmire in the Dallas Morning News. The piece opens by citing the standard numbers on gender gaps in college -- nearly 58 percent of bachelor's degrees go to women and 62 percent of associate's degrees go to women. But note, too, these strange and striking numbers that come later in the piece in response to the dismay of college admissions officers over the disparity in admissions:

"One possibility is that admissions officers are looking in all the wrong places. The boys are findable; it's just that they don't necessarily attend 11th- and 12th-grade college nights in the gym.

"My suggestion: Skip back a few grades to ninth grade, where you'll find schools awash with boys. Ninth grade is the "bulge" year, in which nationally there were 113 boys for every 100 girls in 2007, according to the Southern Regional Education Board, which tracks such statistics....

Like Laurie below, I read The New York Times's story on the Texas Board of Education deliberations and was dismayed at some of the Board's decisions and comments. The dropping of Jefferson from the group of figures who inspired revolutions around the world, as Laurie points out, is a mistake. Jefferson's writings have influenced radical and dissident figures not only abroad but at home as well. 

The New York Times's story states that conservatives don't like Jefferson because of his firm belief in "separation between church and state." Their position is doubly errant because it misses Jefferson's conservatism. Yes, Jefferson regarded the Church as just as threatening as the Court, and he sometimes casually linked "priests" and "kings" as dangers to democracy. But two strands of conservatism claim Jefferson as a forebear.

One, the agrarians: Jefferson regarded cities as zones of...

Harvard University's Institute of Politics has released the results of its latest poll of the political opinions of 18-29-year-olds. You can get to the survey here, with a Power Point here and a summary here.

The findings tally with a survey by Pew Research I mentioned last week. The survey compares numbers from Nov 09 to Feb 10. Here are some highlights:

The number of self-identified Independents has grown by six percentage points (Dems lost four points, Repubs lost three points). Researchers attribute the shift to people's "discontent" with DC in general.

Obama's approval ratings haven't much changed in those months. It stands at 56 percent (58 percent in November). Approval of Dems in Congress dropped from 48 percent to 42 percent, Repubs from 35 percent to 32 percent.

On specific issues, only 44 percent approve of Obama's handling of health care, 46 percent on the economy, ...