Look at this screen shot from CNN’s coverage of Katrina’s aftermath (specifically, the ad at the bottom of the page) and tell me: is this appropriate?
Maybe I’m just overreacting, but using a tragedy like this for advertising strikes me as somewhat in bad taste.
It appears that I’m actually a law student now. I’m all moved in to my boxlike but surprisingly well-windowed dorm room. I have food and a fridge to keep it cold. I have my books (and it only cost $500 and the lives of fourteen trees). I’ve met a few people, I still remember their names… I think… and I’m heading out to a bar-type place later in the evening to meet a few more.. But, most importantly, I have internet access. Fast internet access. Oh yeah, that’s the ticket. Daddy likey.
Tomorrow is an empty day, so I’ve made it my mission to explore Cambridge a little. Primary objective: finding a grocery store. Secondary objective: finding ice cream. Wish me luck.
One week left. Posting will be sparse, as I’m busy packing, making last-minute shopping trips, helping my girlfriend move, and seeing as many friends as possible before I leave.
It’s usually a mistake when I pick up the newspaper. I know this, but I still pick it up from time to time. Something always manages to ruin my day.
Today, it was a column by Michael Barone of the U.S. News & World Report. Mr. Barone looks at two surveys claiming that social mobility is decreasing in both America and Britain and tries to convince us that this is a good thing.
First, he tries to justify things by saying, basically, that it’s okay, poor people didn’t want to be rich, anyways. “Not everyone has an emotional need to be on top: How many people, if they thought seriously about it, would really want the burdens of a CEO, however lavish the pay?”
That may be true, Mr. Barone, that’s not the point. It doesn’t matter that most people wouldn’t want to be a CEO. The point is that a lack of social mobility means that someone from a lower class cannot become a CEO, even with the required social skills and intelligence, even if she wanted to.
Which brings us to our next point: a society where the lower classes and the upper classes remain static is not a meritocracy, contrary to Mr. Barone’s claims. A meritocracy would allow smart, talented people to transcend the lower classes and would not permit untalented people to remain in the upper ones. This social mobility is exactly what the cited surveys say we have less of now. Unless you feel that upper-class people and all their descendants inherently have more merit than lower-class people and all their descendants–y’know, noble bloodlines and all that–social mobility is required for a meritocracy.
Mr. Barone takes snips from The Bell Curve to suggest that this is just a case of intelligence concentrating in the upper classes. But he also quotes the author of the British survey as saying that one of the reasons for the lack of mobility is the abolition of good schools available to working-class kids. You can’t both take away the lower classes’ opportunities for good education and then claim that they’re not intelligent enough to become upper-class.
And then we get to the money shot: Barone quotes David Brooks to show that crime, violence, divorce, and many other social ills are declining, and then says that this justifies the decline in social mobility without even attempting to show a causal relationship between the two. I don’t expect opinion columns to meet the standards of academic work, and I know Mr. Barone only has a law degree, but come on. Say it with me: Correlation does not equal causation. Correlation does not equal causation. Correlation does not equal causation.
Never mind the bit that “all you need to do to avoid poverty in this country is to graduate from high school, get and stay married, and take any job.” This is just elitist junk, completely divorced from logic and common sense. Michael Barone, you are an asshat.
I had a great weekend. Note only did I take a surprise trip to Cleveland to visit my girlfriend, but I was also able to take my yearly journey to the Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy.
The Feast is a Roman Catholic celebration of the Virgin Mary’s ascent into Heaven (Wikipedia page here), but really, it’s just an excuse to have a four-day-long street fair. All the stores and restaurants in Little Italy set up booths on the street and sell cheap Italian food to the passers-by: think of a county fair, but instead of hot dogs, you have Italian sausage and bowls of pasta; instead of ice cream, you have Italian ices and gelato; instead of cotton candy there is tiramisu. You can also get a few of the usual suspects: shaken lemonades, elephant ears, and funnel cakes. So it’s like a fair, but with the best fair food you’ve ever had. Little Italy is within walking distance of my undergraduate school, and the Feast was the standard destination after a long day spent moving in to your new apartment or dorm room. It has become a yearly tradition, so I was glad I had the opportunity to go last weekend.
This year, I started off with a lemonade and a bowl of gnocchi, which are basically small potato dumplings in a tomato sauce. They’re also basically the greatest thing ever. I then ate a piece of a companion’s fried dough, bought a lemon ice, and promptly gave it to my girlfriend when I saw the sign for chocolate-orange gelato. Gelato is like ice cream but denser, because air isn’t whipped into it. It’s tasty.
So yeah, good weekend. My stomach is still thanking me. Mmmm, gelato.
I move to Boston at the end of the month. That means I only have two weeks left to finish getting ready for law school.
I have a place to live and most of the things I need to put in it. I’ve started pre-packing, which is the first round of throwing things into boxes, before I realize that I own too much stuff and take half of it out again.
I want to buy some clothes before I leave. I desperately need some things that fill the space between tee-shirt-and-jeans and suit-and-tie, and I could really use a new suit, too. I hope my girlfriend will come along to supply the fashion sense, though she’s sort of being blackmailed into it (either help me or deal with the polka-dotted consequences!). I wouldn’t be surprised if she has nightmares about me going clothes-shopping alone. I know I do.
I’ve had a final transcript mailed to the school. I faxed in my immunization reports and waived the health insurance fee. And of course, I’ve taken out loans to pay for everything. I’m thinking about buying Microsoft Money to keep track of my budget, but I’m not sure.
I know which section I’m in and which classes I’m taking, but I don’t know which books I need. I have an 8:50 class on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but only one class on Monday and Tuesday. Not a bad schedule, I think. I got a letter from my section leader yesterday. That was cool. We’re having classes during orientation. That’s not so cool. But they don’t seem to be real classes, and we’re also having a dinner-and-a-movie night. So that’s cool. I’m really just hoping for a bunch of ice cream socials. Mmmmm, ice cream.
There’s not much left to do, but that just makes the waiting more difficult. Two weeks.
I have eaten approximately 485 clementine oranges over the last week. That is one excellent fruit.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled lack of posting.
…that Styrofoam is banned from prisons (well, at least some prisons) because it can be compressed and molded into knives? Apparently the shivs are especially deadly when combined with the sticky metal seal on the top of deodorant sticks.
I didn’t ask the friend who told me this whether inmates go without deodorant or if it is someone’s job to peel off the safety seals before passing out the Old Spice.
Can you tell fake smiles from real ones? Take this test from the BBC to find out.
I got 17/20. Bring the ruckus.
Per Professor Leiter’s request, here’s a link to the statement by the National Center for Science Education about Intelligent Design.
Favorite quote: “ID has been called an ‘argument from ignorance,’ as it relies upon a lack of knowledge for its conclusion…”
Indeed.
Seriously, wow. Yesterday’s special election in Ohio’s second congressional district, which is heavily Republican (Democratic candidates typically get a little over 20% of the vote), ended up really close. Paul Hackett, the Democratic candidate, ended up with 48.2% of the vote.
I’m sure it’s a disappointing loss, but turning a forty-point deficit into four is quite impressive. Way to go, Mr. Hackett.
So, PG is in the Federalist Society. Why not me too? I have liberal views in many areas, but I also have a bit of a libertarian streak. I like being exposed to different viewpoints, and it looks like the HLS Federalists have some pretty interesting events.
At Harvard’s Admitted Students Weekend, I talked with a couple members of the Federalist Society. They seemed quite willing to put up with me, though I forgot to ask whether they tar and feather any liberals who accidentally stumble into their meetings.
Eh, who knows if I’ll actually do it. I’m reluctant to commit to anything until I get settled in with classes and such. It’s just an idea I’ve been kicking around.
Any thoughts?