House Hearings on the Impact of the ACA on Education: Part III: Rep. Miller Announces eForum on Adjunct Faculty in Higher Education

Nov 19, 2013 Issues: Education, Higher Education, Labor, Jobs and Job Training, Worker Rights,Wages and Benefits WASHINGTON – Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.), senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, today announced an eForum to investigate how an increased reliance on contingent faculty by colleges and universities nationwide has impacted the lives of…

Small Business Saturday: The Community-Based Alternative to Black Friday

The following infographics provide some statistical sense of the economic impact on our communities of Small Business Saturday:

The Point of the Review

A couple of years ago, when writing a review of a rather thin offering by a respectable scholar, I found myself struggling to keep from becoming snide and catty. I had learned that writing a professional review is quite different from tossing off cutting remarks on a blog post; I felt I had a responsibility…

Black Friday as a Spectacle of Rampant Materialism or of Economic Malaise

The phrase “Black Friday” originally derived from the fact that the sales on the extended weekend following Thanksgiving set the tone for the holiday shopping season and thereby determine whether a store will be profitable for the year—or finish in the “black.” Last year, stores began opening on Thanksgiving Day itself ostensibly so that shoppers…

Feeding the Less Fortunate after Thanksgiving

On this holiday, in almost every community across America, there are service groups and sometimes individual families who have made a tradition out of preparing and serving Thanksgiving dinner to anyone who would not have the means to provide such a dinner for themselves. In some communities, the same service groups have sustained this tradition…

Back When Celebrating Thanksgiving Meant Having a Good Smoke, a Good Beer, and Some Strange Side Dishes with the Turkey

The following are Thanksgiving-themed advertisements that demonstrate that the passage of time is, indeed, a mixed blessing. In our nostalgia, we often forget details that, when recollected, make us feel a little more positive about the present.

Real Thanks this Thanksgiving… Thanks to a Real Adult and Teacher

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a link on Facebook to a story on the high cost of higher education and student debt. Someone responded that he had worked his way through school so had no sympathy with struggling students today. I was not surprised. Often, the people unwilling to help those in need…

When an Analogy Indicates More about the Speaker than the Topic: Rush Reaches for Another Rape Analogy

In one of his most dubious arguments by analogy, Rush Limbaugh has compared the end of the filibuster on cabinet appointees and judicial nominees to the possibility that rape could be legally condoned. Here is a transcript of his comments on his radio show: “”Forget the Senate for a minute. Let’s say, let’s take 10…

Kenyon College Students Dress Up as Ghosts, Look like Klansmen, and Issue Apology

If anything characterizes the current period, it may be that when prominent people behave badly, they typically issue apologies that, at best, come across as half-hearted. Either the regret being expressed is undercut by persistent notes of self-justification, or the apologies seem very calculated attempts to mitigate the personal consequences, rather than the public impact,…

Two Cases of Plagiarism by Politicians

The following piece was written by my former student and friend Mike Lamm. Mike is a reporter for the Decatur Daily Democrat. _________________________ In the summer of 1987, a young, brash Delaware senator by the name of Joe Biden was attempting to become the youngest American since John F. Kennedy to become president of the…

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