Ignoring for the moment the substance of a certain new Supreme Court decision issued this morning, I’m going to be talking law to Spinner’s 5th graders tomorrow, and wondering if I should try to make them Venn diagram this:

KENNEDY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which ROBERTS,
C. J., and SCALIA and ALITO, JJ., joined, in which THOMAS, J., joined as to all but Part IV, and in which STEVENS, GINSBURG, BREYER, and SO-TOMAYOR, JJ., joined as to Part IV. ROBERTS, C. J., filed a concurring opinion, in which ALITO, J., joined. SCALIA, J., filed a concurring opin-ion, in which ALITO, J., joined, and in which THOMAS, J., joined in part. STEVENS, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part,in which GINSBURG, BREYER, and SOTOMAYOR, JJ., joined. THOMAS, J., filed an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

I’m taking the ‘scared straight’ approach to their exposure to the world of law. Just say no, kiddies.

I’m a huge fan of the University of California, and particularly proud of my alma mater, the Berkeley campus. Poor management and budget cuts are certainly taking their toll on the system, but I still believe it is one of the world’s best university systems, and includes what is probably the best public university in the world.  Budget cuts are painful for everyone, and there’s been plenty of pain spread around for nearly all the students and staff. I’d certainly argue the Regents themselves haven’t borne much of the pain, but that’s for another day.

I was very disappointed today to see an article in the Union-Trib on a proposed response by some of the UC San Diego faculty.  Basically the proposal boils down to ‘not us, them.’  Them being campuses that are not like theirs.  Some campuses are more equal than others, in the proposal’s author’s minds.  I suppose that in a better job market they’d be the rats on the sinking ship.  Stuck on the ship though, they’re looking for higher ground.  Research is clearly their priority, so they’re scurrying to the top of their ivory towers and looking down on what they call the “teaching institutions.” 

Let’s get something straight: teaching the next generation of California’s leaders in the most important thing the UC does.  If it’s supported by excellent in-house research and taught by excellent researchers with practical experience, so much the better, but any member of the faculty that thinks they’re above teaching needs to move on.

A couple of months ago I was at a retirement party for a local teacher who made an excellent point when it came time to respond to the accolades.  The teaching goal of a public academic institution is not the traditional three Rs, but the three As of academics, athletics and the arts.  The three Rs together are merely one-third of a complete program.  They should be producing well-rounded citizens fit to excel in all aspects of their lives.  Maybe Dean (the retiring teacher mentioned above and a Cal alum) could go over to UCSD now that he has some time free and show them how a complete program works.

Laughing at the closed-minded idiots in the news tonight.

First, from Indiana, a local crackdown on nekkidity in art. Personally, I’ve had problems with Michelangelo’s David for years. Not because of his genitals, but those damn unattainable abs. Art should make me feel good, not like an aging slacker.

But of course the big winner in tonight’s post is Salem, Oregon, high school principal Cynthia Richardson. Because of her school’s zero-tolerance policy on guns, she refused to allow a student to post a picture of an alumnus, a U.S. Marine serving overseas, who happens to be holding a firearm. What’s more scary than the policy is the fact that she probably does try to enforce it. She probably does try and teach WW2 and the Holocaust without photos of weapons. Can’t let the little one’s see that pesky picture of Washington crossing the Delaware with big, bad muskets either. I’ll be she’s there with her Sharpee removing offensive images of weapons from the textbooks and cutting the pictures out of Time and Newsweek to protect the delicate little minds in her charge. God forbid they be exposed to the real world (or even classical art) before they turn eighteen.