THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts

 

† What’s Next For Spitzer: Washington Post columnist Colbert I. King takes issue with the conventional wisdom that “the government doesn't pursue men who buy sex acts”:

 

The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia does prosecute the customers of prostitutes.

 

Last time I checked, more than 500 men who bought sex in this city had been arrested. …

 

Most of the arrested customers benefited from a diversion to the U.S. attorney's “John School” - a one-day, eight-hour education and awareness program for the purchasers of prostitution.

 

The results are quite impressive. Of the 550 “johns” arrested as of last year, all signed up for the school; only two did not successfully complete the program (how do you fail?); and only two had been arrested again.

 

Sounds like a good program for a governor who's gone bad, though Spitzer may need more than a day.

 

† What Freedom Of Speech Means To Muslims: Leaders of Muslim nations gathered at a summit in Chad to devise a means of legal coercion to deprive non-Muslims in Western democracies of their freedom of speech, reports The Associated Press:

Concerned about what they see as a rise in the defamation of Islam, leaders of the world's Muslim nations are considering taking legal action against those that slight their religion or its sacred symbols. It was a key issue during a two-day summit that ended Friday in this western Africa capital.


The Muslim leaders are attempting to demand redress from nations like Denmark, which allowed the publication of cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 and again last month, to the fury of the Muslim world.


Though the legal measures being considered have not been spelled out, the idea pits many Muslims against principles of freedom of speech enshrined in the constitutions of numerous Western governments.


“I don't think freedom of expression should mean freedom from blasphemy," said Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, the chairman of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference. "There can be no freedom without limits.” …


The report urges the creation of a “legal instrument” to crack down on defamation of Islam. Some delegates point to laws in Europe criminalizing the denial of the Holocaust and other anti-Semitic rhetoric. They also point to articles within various U.N. charters that condemn discrimination based on religion and argue that these should be ramped up. …


The International Humanist and Ethical Union in Geneva released a statement accusing the Islamic states of attempting to limit freedom of expression and of attempting to misuse the U.N.


Human Rights Watch said in a statement that objectionable depictions of the Prophet Muhammad do not “give them the right under international human rights law to insist that others abide by their views.”

 

† Garbage In, Garbage Out: Part II: Ever wonder why Singapore’s fourth- and eighth-grade students perennially take the top spot in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study of math skills, while U.S. students are stuck in the middle of the pack? The U.S. Department of Education did, reports the Los Angeles Times, and “commissioned a study in 2005 that concluded, in part: ‘Singapore's textbooks build deep understanding of mathematical concepts through multi-step problems and concrete illustrations that demonstrate how abstract mathematical concepts are used to solve problems from different perspectives.’” CA recently became the first state to add textbooks based on the Singapore curriculum to its list of state-approved elementary math books, but “the Singapore books aren't easy for teachers to use without training, and some veterans are more comfortable with the curriculum they have always followed” notwithstanding the fact that “it is difficult to find a mathematician who likes the standard American texts or dislikes Singapore's.”

Posted by The Stiletto at March 17, 2008
Categories: The Other Shoe Drops
 

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