'The Mismatch Effect'.....

"....the system of affirmative action that enables hundreds of minority law students to attend more elite institutions than their credentials alone would allow. Data from across the country suggest to some researchers that when law students attend schools where their credentials (including LSAT scores and college grades) are much lower than the median at the school, they actually learn less, are less likely to graduate and are nearly twice as likely to fail the bar exam than they would have been had they gone to less elite schools. This is known as the "mismatch effect."

This so-called 'effect' does not make sense to me, why would going to a less 'elite' school improve the chances of a minority student graduating and passing the bar? It would seem to me that the 'elite' schools would have better faculty and resources that would be beneficial to the students, particularly if their credentials are much lower than the median of the schools.

Also what about the 'legacy effect' as the sub-par Geo. Bush exemplifies? No one attributes his lackluster performance as a student and as president, to the 'legacy effect'. There has got to be thousands of examples of sub-par 'legacy' admissions, and yet no one analyzes and criticizes their admissions, nor their eventual sub-par performances.

Also what about the hundreds of thousands of 'preferences' granted to returning servicemen and women from WW2, Korea and Vietnam under the GI bill? Would anyone argue against such a sensible investment in their education by providing preferential admissions, even if some eventually failed or dropped-out from their courses of study?

I definitely distrust the motivations of those who have 'coined' this term and definition. It makes more sense that such elite institutions would be ideally suited to help those students that have been marginalized, rather than hinder their march towards graduation.

Is the 'mismatch effect' theory, which smacks of elitism, discrimination and classism, just another rationalization to maintain and keep the lily-white elite's paternalistic grip and stranglehold, on the rest of society???

- just wondering?

Was This a Set-Up?

Just a few days ago, the president of Columbia University hosted an appearance by the highly educated but controversial president of Iran, Armadinejad. While introducing him to his audience, Lee Bollinger said the most insulting, jingoistic, nonsense about his invited guest, who is the democratically elected president of a sovereign nation.

The academician's self-important, self-righteous histrionics was not just simple arrogance, but the poisoned fruit of malicious propaganda foisted upon an ignorant American public. Who is really the petty dictator, the invader, the uneducated C- student who avoided the Vietnam draft, and who has caused the deaths of over 1 million people in a country that did nothing to us and was virtually defenseless? That person should be loudly condemned by Bollinger, instead of Armadinejad. To his credit, the disrespected guest, ignored the "petty dictator" label and other insults hurled by Bollinger in his introduction, and proceeded to deliver a credible, dignified address to his audience in spite of the insults.

So why did Bollinger unleash this attack, even before Armadinejad started speaking? Because he, along with Geo. Bush, Dick Chaney, John Hagee and many others allied with the BuchCo administration, are Zionists, who believe that Iran is a threat to Israel, and whatever is bad for Israel is also bad for the United States. This theory conflates Israel's interests with those of the US, and makes it impossible for a rational diplomatic American discourse with Iran. Instead Iran is now being demonized, much like Iraq was prior to their being attacked and occupied. Any country that has a valuable resource like oil that America and Israel covets, and is perceived to be a threat to their interests, is turned into an object of contempt and ridicule, in an attempt to make an attack on them more palatable to the voters.

Iran is one of four countries in the middle east who elects their president democratically. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan and Egypt do not, and yet they are allies in good standing with the US - so it's clear that it's not about having a democratic government, but is instead about empire and who will control that part of the world and it's resources.

Whatever has happened in Iran over the last 60 years, has been a direct result of US intervention. The people of Iran chose the way they are governed and the way they live, and the laws they live by is their choice and is just as valid as the laws under which Americans live. Also in Iran, about 25-35,000 religious Jews comprise the largest Jewish community in the middle east outside of Israel, and has resided there peacefully and protected by the Iranian government for centuries. They are apparently so happy there, that they have consistently refused to emigrate to Israel, as many Israelis would have them do.

Is it a coincidence that Bollinger invited Ahmadinejad, called him petty and cruel....all he left out was the "axis of evil" part....and that this week's Newsweek asks "How far will Israel go to keep Iran from getting the bomb?" Do those calling him a tyrant, dictator, murderer, and worse, realize that he has far less power in Iran, than Bush and Chaney have here. This bogeyman has no control whatever over the Iranian military, cannot even appoint the members of his own cabinet, and must defer to the Ayatollahs in every important decision - how does this make him a dictator or tyrant?

We don't need more knee-jerk, anti-free speech jerks like Bollinger. Ahmadinejad has not attacked another sovereign country - George W. Bush has. Who is closer to being a "petty and cruel dictator?" See Abu Ghraib and Guantanomo and loss of habeas corpus and civil liberties in the United States. Ahmadinejad may be anti-Israel and a speechifying figurehead, but ask yourself - who has caused more actual, real, bloody death and destruction in this world - George W. Bush or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

It was a stunningly-synchronized campaign against Ahmadinejad, and I'd say many were pretty much on board for it. Which is timely, because this time we can ALL get behind Bush (as opposed to the last time), and feel all weepy and warm and patriotic when he drops bombs on Iran, and incinerates the flesh off their little children, and turns a functioning economy into a desolate hell of fire and sewage and death, as he has done in Iraq.

I think the Iranian President was SET UP!

Who 'Be-Trayed' Us?

Was it MoveOn.org for running an ad that accurately challenged Gen. Petraeus's assertion that the phony 'surge' was a success, and provided factual documentation that proved otherwise?

Was it the 22 cowardly Senate Democrats who lacked the cajones to stand up to BushCo and his war, and acted as enablers for the Repugnants, by voting against free-speech for MoveOn.org?

Was it the Senate Republicans who filibustered votes on bills supported by the majority of the Congress and the country--bills which would have supported our troops and kept our armed forces whole by giving them a year at home for every year at the front, and which would have restored the constitutional right of habeas corpus, and others of our freedoms?

Was it Harry Reid, Senate majority leader, for allowing this outrageous bit of Repugnant legislation condemning MoveOn's ad, to even get to the senate floor for a vote in the first place?

Was it the Democrats who control both houses of congress, and yet have been unable to or have refused to, stop the war funding and bring our soldiers home, post-haste, now?

The 'be-trayers' have now been exposed, and should be remembered when the voters go to the polls in 2008.

Did OJ Do It - Again?

Just when I think OJ has turned the corner of stupidity as I did in my 8/28 post, he outdoes himself with an even more outrageous shot in the foot - this one could very well get him some hard time for the rest of his miserable life.

I can only conclude that he must be seriously mentally disturbed - he can't possible be sane and make the kind of self-defeating decisions as he did in writing the book last year, and as he just did in Las Vegas. If he was sane he would have known the Goldman's would have a financial interest in setting him up in a high-publicity sting, so that the book they just released last week would get a much needed shot in the arm for increased sales. Sure enough the publisher just announced ordering an additional 50,000 copies from the printer - solely on the basis of OJ's arrest this week, and almost certain future conviction and jailing.

I believe the unsavory characters that were arrested with him, as well as the money-grubbing Goldmans, were in this caper together for the purpose of exploiting OJ's mentally ill condition, knowing that he would stupidly fall for the slightest provocation and enticement.

Some people can't be saved from themselves - OJ certainly falls into this category! Instead of acquiring another blond, live-in, Nicole look-alike, named Christie Prody (29 yrs. his junior), he should have just confined himself to some secluded area of the country and lived quietly. But no, he had to travel to the best known town for getting into trouble - Las Vegas, and now he's facing upwards of 50+ years of jail-time if he is convicted of all the felonies charged.

I'm embarrassed for him and his family, but I can no longer empathize with him on a racial solidarity basis - he's far too stupid to be black! It's one thing to be crazy, but it's far worst to be stupid - sadly OJ is both, big-time!

This time I think the jig is up, and the freedom he has enjoyed since his miraculous acquittal in his infamous 'trial of the century' 12 years ago, is almost certainly about to come to an end.

Here's what I wrote to a friend about the book that is now on sale:

Jeff,
You have been hoodwinked by the book "If I Did It".

Simpson is a huckster and a hustler, that's his background and that is what he would have been even without a football career. This book is another one of his hustles. To pick out passages and assert that they constitute a 'confession' is ludicrous. He said exactly what he needed to say in order to make this a viable and saleable book - anything less would not make it marketable. If I was in a position to write such a book and make potential millions, I would write exactly what he wrote. It's not hard to do - the facts of the case are well known, and a collaboration with a skilled ghost-writer would help put it into the proper words for maximum effect.

Think about it - what incentive would OJ have to write a true 'confession' now, even if he could not be tried again for those crimes? - exactly none. White folks are just desperate to get a 'confession' out of him, and are fooling themselves into thinking that he finally did - but this sure ain't it!

Simpson is not the only hustler, Fred Goldman is also one. He has been hustling to get paid for his phony civil verdict for years, and thinks nothing of stooping low enough to use this hustle for his own enrichment, as Denise Brown has correctly noted. You are furthering this hustle by encouraging others to buy it and read it - that's buying into his and Goldman's hustle big-time!

I'm afraid the joke is on you Jeff - pulled off by an OJ who I feel is mentally disturbed, maybe insane, but still sane enough to write this book, and have his cartoonish tormentor, Fred Goldman, scam you and anyone else who buys this book!

benny

How Big is Your God ???

Mine is pretty big.....not to mention all-knowing, all-powerful, everywhere at once, having no beginning nor ending, and having such a keen interest in me, that each of the hairs on my head has been meticulously numbered by Him.

I'm aware that some have their own unique belief and concept of a god - others don't even believe in a god, and still others certainly don't believe in one who is bigger or smarter than they are. On the other hand, some like me, believe in a personal, engaged God, with Whom we have a personal, 24/7 relationship, and on Whom we depend for the very air we breathe, the sunlight we see by, and the water that sustains us, among everything else.

That being said, early this morning, I was struck by the thought that my God foresaw, foreknew, and created, my ancestral links that would snake across many continents, over many centuries, and eventually lead to me at this very moment in time and space as I'm writing these words. The thought of the enormity of the planning process necessary to produce and sustain me with all my faults and strengths to this very moment, is earth-shattering and mind-blowing.

I can't even begin to wrap my mind around what this all means - but I'm grateful and elated at the knowledge, that all the details had been worked out and put into place, long before time began.

"Iraq: WTF is Going On?!"

My buddy 'Nezet, Prophet of the Surreal', stopped by and gave his view of the war in Iraq and our political parties: -

"Frankly, I don't think either party has a plan (why I'm an avowed 'Independent' now...and will pine and work towards having multiple parties in future elections..this two-party nonsense might've worked at one time, though I doubt it...but it fails miserably in our times now for sure IMHO). I don't think the Republicans nor the Democrats have a freaking clue or a plan! Whatever plan there might've been changes like the seasons...and is being left to the next administration to "clean up"...nice legacy there Dubya (Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc.)!

I want to see logic and critical thinking from our so-called leaders...not the crap we get now....that is filtered by handlers, political 'consultants' and media advisers...and American men and women are dying daily (not to mention the Iraqi wounded and dead). The more that continues to leak out of the lack of Pentagon planning and Dubya's administrative gaffes at thinking that war is going to be a piece of cake...did they not read a smidgen of the reports of the Vietnam experience? This is not some glorified WWI or WWII operation...times have changed...the "enemy" (however defined) has changed...troops don't line up in nice rows and engage on some field of battle. Iraq is now a war zone for years to come. And I'm really trying to understand how this operation is serving to lessen/damper international terrorism and Islamic fascism. The logic is that "we'll fight them over there so they won't come over here"....they're probably already here. And our borders are sieves from every report I see....illegals still get in daily.

This is beyond politics (if that's even possible to have a discussion/debate in this country anymore without some political angle)...I fear we have created enemies and sheet that will go on for our grandchildren to battle and die for. This whole "let's go to war" mentality just escapes me (in my reality, the folks that parrot this line haven't seen any parts of combat in their life....and none, to a person, wants their kids to go...but someone else's....by all means).

Makes one pine for the "good ol" days when we (the American government) sent in the CIA and we had covert ops assassinate a dictator or destabilized the offending government with operatives. As I was talking to an ex-Marine buddy one day, "You mean we couldn't set-up a "kill" of Saddam if that was the objective?" He explained that would've been do-able and would have spared the mess we have now. 3700+ American soldiers dead, a multiple of four or five of that number that are disfigured/maimed for life, and who knows how many Iraqi civilians are dead/wounded? I'm not getting this "war" at all. Then again, I know some folks who still think this all has something to do with 9/11 (ummmm...the hijackers were mostly, if not all, Saudis).

Just sad and such a waste of human lives. And if what we're seeing now is "The Plan"...it sucks, isn't working and goes to show how deluded we as a populous have become. Going into our fifth year of this crap...this is success? But like Tom Skerrit's character in "Top Gun" remarked, "I'm not going to blow sunshine up your asshole.." (or something like that)...and as long as Americans can go about their jobs, their families and the Starbucks has the lattes at the ready..... everything is okay."

"Glory Road"

A few days ago, an unlikely event happened at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The team that featured an all-black starting five, and who defeated the #1 ranked, all-white team from Kentucky coached by racist, Adolph Rupp, 72-66, and won the national NCAA title, was enshrined - 41 years late!

This seminal event on March 19, 1966, which I saw on television, was and is the best and most significant game I've ever seen, and I'm sure Pat Reilly, coach of the Miami Heat, still remembers it because he was the all-American forward, playing for the losing team, Kentucky.

Not only did the Miners out-play the Wildcats, but they whupped them while demonstrating a basketball 101 course on man-to-man defense, superior offense, superior rebounding - all done while committing only one-forth the fouls that the Wildcats committed. To add insult to injury, little guard Bobby Joe Hill, demonstrated several times how to steal the ball in mid-dribble from the best and brightest all-American players like Louie Dampier and Pat Riley.

My biggest thrill was seeing the shock on the face of the red-necked racist coach, Adolph Rupp, as this all-black starting five, destroyed them on a nationally televised broadcast. The victory was particularly sweet because they had been maligned in the press for months leading up to the final game, as thugs from northen ghettos with criminal backgrounds, non-student athletes, undisciplined playground denizens, and every other dismissive, libelous and racist characterization possible. Rupp was also reported to be incensed at having to play against black players at this Maryland tournament venue.

Their shocking win went over like a lead balloon with most of America, and no one even bothered to bring a ladder out, so the players could climb up and cut the traditional nets down. The Ed Sullivan Show which traditional invited the yearly NCAA winner to appear, did not bother to issue an invitation this time. Their innovative and courageous 36-year old, white coach, Don Haskins, was blackballed by the basketball establishment for having the temerity to start five blacks against 'America's all-white team', and worse, to beat them! Although they received a heroes welcome from their school in El Paso, Texas, they got death threats and hate mail by the bucketfull from much of America, particularly from the south. The NCAA even sent an 'investigator' down to El Paso, to uncover wrongdoing by the school's athletic department!

And as profound as their historic and social impact was, more significantly, their win opened the doors to literally thousands and thousands of athletic scholarships for black kids to colleges that had traditionally denied them admission. Colleges could no longer afford to ignore the Black athlete and hope to continue to win the championships they coveted.

Belatedly, the team received some recognition in the late 90s with a book and a movie titled "Glory Road" that chronicled their historic achievement. Coach Haskins was even inducted into the hall of fame in 1997 with 719 career wins at the college level.

Enshrined in my heart and memory are some of the names of these players - Bobby Joe Hill, Nevil Shed, Jerry Armstrong, Willie Worsley, David "Big Daddy D" Lattin, Harry Flournoy,......and I'm sorry that their fabulous little point guard, Bobby Joe Hill, passed away before they received this recognition.

I never forgot them in the 41 years that have passed since their historic achievement, and I'm glad the Hall of Fame - finally remembered.

...Another View of Iran...

With the rhetoric of war against Iran and the demonizing being ratcheted up as was done to Iraq, this is a side to consider that is seldom heard. These are the words of an Iranian -

"There is a brilliant article in the Wall Street Journal about Iran’s ongoing hit T.V. series that deals with the plight of Jews during WWII (It’s a sort of an Iranian “Schindler’s List” and is called “Zero Degree Turn”!).

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB118912609718220156-

Z0Iy3Ywp9pUdzCdCgf4JU5QzP4_20071006.html?mod=tff

_main_tff_top

Clearly, Iran is a very much misunderstood nation, and the neocons/Zionists have done their level best to exaggerate its purported evils so as to prevent the U.S.-Iran ‘rapprochement’ that should have occurred after Iran promptly sent condolences on 9/11 (the first nation globally to do so) and provided invaluable assistance to the U.S. in expelling the Taliban from Afghanistan.

You might also like to read the new book by Chicago professor, Mearsheimer, and Harvard professor, Walt, on the extraordinary and damaging influence of AIPAC on U.S. foreign policy. It’s called “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy”.

I personally believe the neocons and Israelis have dug their own grave, because “you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”.

The bitter irony of all this is that if the U.S. and Israel had extended the hand of friendship to Iran the world would have been far more capable of defeating terrorism than by demonizing Iran and praising Saudi Arabia and Pakistan (whose citizens perpetrated 9/11 and danced in the streets on seeing the Twin Towers collapse).

So what about the 1980 hostage crisis?! U.S. spies (every embassy has them!) were denied room service for 444 days. Not a single diplomat was harmed [and the criminal Reagan cabal, purposely conspired to delay their release as a tactic to defeat Pres. Jimmy Carter].

What America had done in 1953 in overthrowing the first ever democratically elected secular government in the region (leading to murder and torture under the U.S.-installed Shah), then encouraging Saddam Hussein to invade Iran (leading to one million deaths), was a lot worse. It is America that should have apologized to Iran for historical atrocities, not vice-versa.

As for Israel, Iran actually provided it with emergency fuel during the 1967 war, so the attitude of both America and Israel has been astonishingly inept and self-destructive. The neocons and Israelis are their own worst enemies. We need more voices of reason, especially among Jewish Americans, if we don’t want global terrorism to get unimaginably worse."

9-11 Retrospective

Sometimes it is useful to read how others in the world views what happened to us on 9-11 - this is one European's view;

"Very few people deny the positive role the U.S. played in preventing a 3rd World War, but its role of ‘dishonest broker’ in the Middle East left a 40-year scar that has made accommodation between Palestinians and Israelis almost impossible.

But I personally believe the problem goes much deeper than the trouble spots in which America has been involved: The crux of the problem is the extraordinary myth of ‘American Greatness’ with which the nation’s schoolchildren are bombarded and brainwashed day and night. They grow up singing the national anthem at every minor event, and in suburbia they walk along streets dotted with Stars and Stripes. (Britain also made huge sacrifices during WWII, but in 20 years of living in England I never once saw a Union Jack displayed on a private plot of land). Europeans (not just the Germans) despise overt displays of nationalism on a daily basis, because they know how dangerous the effect can be.

The 9/11 ceremonies will be an excuse for more flag-waving and the chance for Presidential aspirant Giuliani to relive his finest hour and garner a few more votes. Instead of a quiet, private, dignified affair we will be treated to a tasteless exhibition of U.S. flag-waving, trumpet-blowing and kitsch ceremonies — the perfect backdrop for Senator Lieberman to renew calls for the immediate bombing of Iran.

Then there is the myth of “the land of equal opportunity”, which is no longer applicable as the wealth gap has become a chasm and a sense of social ‘fairness’ seems to have all but disappeared from the U.S. social landscape. And where America once willingly assumed the burdens of others, now it refuses to assume responsibility even for its own actions or to acknowledge its own glaring mistakes.

In summary, America is suffocating under the weight of its own self-esteem, unable to come to terms with a genuine New World Order in which it has to consider the views of other nations, especially those on which it depends for access to their natural resources, like oil. America will not be in a position to regain its former glory until it discards the self-delusion of ‘greatness’ that has encouraged it to ride slipshod over the rest of the world.

I always say that Germans have become a great and responsible nation, not by thumping their chests but by climbing a Wall of Pessimism in everything they do. Americans need to practice less chest-thumping and more introspection, less preaching and more listening."

Who's on First....?

I have been analyzing the platforms of the various candidates for the presidency of the US. What I look for in a candidate is domestic and foreign experience, a consistent, progressive voting record, consistent opposition to the illegal war in Iraq, a plan to end the war now, a plan to implement a universal health care plan, and a plan to restore funding to the federal and state agencies charged with maintaining and improving the social institutions of our country. These are just a few of the essential qualities I look for.

I don't support Clinton nor Edwards, because of their votes for the Patriot Act, and their votes to authorize the war. They also voted for all supplemental war funding bills except the last one, they also supported NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO and other free trade measures that have resulted in the wholesale outsourcing of most of the jobs that had ensured and provided a living wage and a stable middle class in this country. They have no announced plans as yet for universal health care, and the majority of their campaign funding comes from large corporate and other special interests, to which they are beholden.

I like Obama, but he has been mentored by Sen. Lieberman who is one of the most disloyal and treasonous democrats in congress. He did not vote to authorize the war because he had yet not been elected to the senate when the vote was taken, but he voted for all the supplemental war funding bills except the last one, as Edwards and Clinton also did. His campaign contributions from corporate special interests has exceeded even Clinton's so far, and his obsequious, uncritical fawning over Israel in his annual speeches to the Israeli special interest lobby, AIPAC, is most revealing and most disturbing. His candidacy is noteworthy, inspiring, and hopeful, but I'm afraid he is too closely allied with the corporate elites and their interests, rather than with the interests of the common people.

Of all the candidates, Dennis Kucinich would do the most to disrupt and transform the political landscape, positively and progressively. For this reason, the media, backed by their powerful, special interest owners, has been dismissively marginalizing and deriding his candidacy. He voted against the Patriot Act, voted against the authorization for the Iraq war, voted against all supplemental funding for the Iraq war, proposes a national not-for-profit health care insurance program that covers everyone, advocates for immediate full withdrawal from Iraq, opposes any proposed attacks on Iran and Syria, and is the only one to actively campaign for and introduce legislation for the impeachment of Bush and Chaney. He is actively campaigning for the neglected rebuilding of this country's infrastructure, he promises to withdraw from the destructive trade agreements which the president has the power to do, he promises no more foreign wars for resources, a priority for establishing a guaranteed free education for all those qualified, paying off the huge national debt by stimulating economic growth resulting in increased federal revenues. He rejects the notion of the democrats not having veto-proof power to end the war in the congress. What he says is that they don't need that power, all they need to do is ensure that no war funding bill is created and voted for in the first place - they as the majority party, has the power to do that. He promises to repeal and eliminate the unfair Bush tax-cuts for the rich, to restore the full capital gains tax on the rich, to close the corporate off-shore tax loopholes, move away from wasteful spending to productive spending, reverse the destructive illegal immigration problem by canceling the free trade agreements that forced foreign workers to find work here, when work in their own country dried up.

Notably, there is not yet a single Repugnant that is worthy of my consideration, even for dog-catcher!

This is the way it looks to me 14 months before the 2008 election. Much may change by then, and maybe additional worthy candidates will emerge later, but if I had to vote now, Dennis Kucinich would get my vote.