fix articles 437741, joe nocera
Pussy Riot Propaganda Is For Naïve Americans (tags)
Pussy Riot, a Russian female punk band of recent notoriety, very much seems to have one tunnel vision goal—at least as reported to Western audiences by Western media—and that is to discredit and defame Russian President Vladimir Putin. The band name ‘riot’ is not hard to understand, as their supposed “art form” resembles a riot, as punk music often enough does; but it is more anti-music in its ear-splitting aggression. Behind scenes of this shallow morality play …lays larger political stories, pseudo-stories, propaganda, foreign inspired revolutions with plenty of American tax money being circulated to bribe public relations schemes and more lately accusations that even NGOs that supposedly care about human rights and the environment have been infiltrated to the point that their real mission is to engage in propaganda operations.
A Curious New York Times Article on Teacher Evaluations (tags)
A recent New York Times article, “Curious Grade For Teachers: Nearly All Pass,” finds incredulous the idea that, “In Florida, 97 percent of teachers were deemed effective or highly effective in the most recent evaluations.” The author goes on to cite similar percentages in other states and concludes: “The teachers might be rated all above average, like students in Lake Wobegon, for the same reason that the older evaluation methods were considered lacking.” In other words, the teachers score well because the measuring standard is flawed. And this conclusion is reinforced by the observation that teachers’ high marks were achieved “even when students were falling behind.”
The wages of sin have come due.