Another reason to not to re- Elect Bush

Oops, he did it again

In a widely-quoted comment, Justice Scalia said at a university in Cleveland that civil liberties may be properly curtailed during wartime:

"The Constitution just sets minimums. . . Most of the rights that you enjoy go way beyond what the Constitution requires."

*      *      *

Scalia did not discuss what rights he believed are constitutionally protected, but said that in wartime, one can expect "the protections will be ratcheted right down to the constitutional minimum. I won't let it go beyond the constitutional minimum."

Sheesh.  An incredibly dumb comment.  And he didn't even say "we won't".

I am far from being a Nino-basher. Indeed, his approach to jurisprudence and statutory interpretation is close to but not identical to mine.  But this comment strikes me as, let us say, injudicious.  I don't think he had any idea of the connotations carried by his comment.  Things that are "ratcheted right down" in times of crisis include thumbscrews and the rack. 

There is a reason that judges are expected to approach these issues with a sense of solemnity and deliberation.  Off-the-cuff comments by Supreme Court Justices do not play well in the political arena. 

[Franco Castalone: Politics]

Bush would put folks like this on the Supreme Court.
8:10:42 PM  #  comment []

Get LInked Weblog and Journal Service Journal and weblog linking directory service. Jump in. http://www.fried-spaghetti.com/links/
5:40:27 PM  #  comment []

Segue - CMS from Middlebury College which uses a blog model.

http://segue.middlebury.edu/ [EdTechPost]

Described as being able to be used similarly like BB Courseware or as a personal weblog. hmmmmm. It is open source.
4:36:58 PM  #  comment []

Pedagogy & the Role of the CMS.

Now here's a novel idea - instead of telling instructor's they need to move their courses online, ask them to:

• Determine a goal you would like to achieve in your teaching and/or your student's learning
• Develop an instructional strategy to accomplish the goal.
• Select an element of the Course Management System (CMS) that can be used in the strategy.
• Identify what skills in the use of the CMS you need to develop in order to implement the strategy.
• Identify any software you need to learn as part of that skill development.

This seemes fascinating on a number of levels - both as a really interesting faculty adoption model, and also for its mapping of CMS features to pedagogical goals. - SWL

[EdTechPost]

If we continue to do the same thing.. we will get the same damn results... We need new models of praxis and web based services development that is student centered. Easier said than done.
4:22:11 PM  #  comment []

Vote Bush out next electlon for incompetent. A silver lining to all this war misery. People are getting politically active. If you ever doubted that your vote matters, now all doubt should be gone. Try to remember that next time you get a chance to say who runs things. [Scripting News]

Well said. Hopefully, we will see a change at the top. I think with the economic cuts hitting schools, health care and even veteran benefits (as mentioned by Repbulican Senator Snowe) , we will have a new president. The incompetency of the present administration is only supported by a corporate media machine that for all intensive puporses has lossed its objectivity and critical eye. Welcome to the post constiutional America
4:09:12 PM  #  comment []

War in Iraq.

To be fair it's more scary than September 11 - to see dividing international community and powerless international organisations. It's scary to see that time stops and that there is no way we can turn it back. I believe that this war is a big mistake. I hope we will be able to correct it and to learn from it. I hope...

[Mathemagenic]

We are sliding down the slippery slope... Welcome to the post constitutional America. The Genie has out of the bottle and it sure has hell doesn't want to go back in! Occasionally, I have seen some local tv reporters doing decent coverage of the local Pro Peace protests in Chicago. Usually some talking head anchor person spins the Pro Peace movement as either as unpatriotic and not significant, even though the video says another story.
12:57:27 PM  #  comment []