Keith appears not to have reviewed this pearl, so here goes: I came upon this on TCM recently. A movie about a heroic architect, with Coop and Patricia Neal, what could go wrong? If you met Ayn Rand at the appropriate age and never went back to it, you have a really fun campy wallow […]
Michael O'Hare
Michael O'Hare is a Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Posted inPolitics
What Is Going on With These Ridiculous Art Prices?
An interesting, but probably not immortal, Bacon sold for $142 million at auction yesterday. Note that it’s a tryptych, which might (depending on the droit d’integrité laws in effect where it winds up), be broken up and treated as three paintings, so maybe this wasn’t the high point being proclaimed: asterisk in the record books. […]
Posted inPolitics
Snatching Food from the Mouths of Widows and Orphans
This is vile, it stinks to heaven. I used to be pretty good at teaching public policy in a non-partisan manner (we have some of my former students reading this blog and if I’m wrong, don’t hold back) but the last decade or so has really cramped my style, hooboy. The insouciant cruelty of fat […]
Posted inPolitics
Mass Violence and Overreaction
What we knew when the police and FBI started responding to the LAX shooting was that someone had walked into one of the terminals and shot several people. What the authorities did was to help the victims, check for a confederate, and secure the scene (Terminal 3), which sounds about right…and hold incoming flights to […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Quality Assurance for Higher Education Teaching
What would a quality assurance program for teaching at the higher-education level look like? We don’t have one now, nor even much to build on, but perhaps there are analogous programs we could adapt or copy. I think there are, and I will suggest an approach below. But first: We are starting from a very […]
Posted inPolitics
How Might Economics Education Be Improved?
Bob Frank opens his reflections on teaching economics with a discouraging examination of how badly we get our students to understand the really wonderful content of his discipline. Why do educated people think it makes them appear witty to repeat a dumb bromide like “economists know the price of everything and the value of nothing”? […]
Posted inPolitics
Why No One Watches the America’s Cup Races
Hey, the famous America’s Cup Yacht Races are happening right now in San Francisco Bay! Hey, really, is that exciting or what; you can watch this immortal series, cheer for your favorite boats, see thrilling…are you listening to me? Is anyone watching? What a bust. The Chronicle loyally slips an annoying page-and-a-half sheet about it […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Education: the Sabotage of a Generation
Everything in this heartbreaking article rings bell after bell, from the perspective of more than forty years on both sides of college and graduate classrooms. And from my desk, critiquing student written work. I think we will find the intellectual damage done to current American students by the testing/NCLB disaster is comparable to the effect […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
Five Ways to Fix College Education
Mark Kleiman’s gracious rejoinder to my letter to Janet Napolitano as she takes the reins of the University of California reminds me of an old joke: A rabbi of Chelm is assailed by two neighbors demanding he settle a dispute. The first presents a devastating indictment of the second’s housekeeping, garden management, child-rearing, and more. […]
Posted inEducation, Higher Education
An Open Letter to Janet Napolitano
Dear President Napolitano: Welcome to the University of California, one of the really great institutions of the world. I don’t know whether you will have fun, but you will never be bored here, especially if you can get out of the office in Oakland and go to and fro across the campuses. You’re coming to […]
