Boxer Battalion

http://iphone.foxnews.com/story/0/521138-Gates-Hails-Soldier-Snapped-in-Pink-Boxer-Shorts.html


I found this article interesting. A U.S. soldier from Ft. Worth was photographed fighting the Taliban in his pink boxer shorts. This reminds me of the off-duty police officer in his boxer shorts, that was reported chasing a criminal a few months ago. It appears that terrorists and criminals should always be on guard because the authorities are ready (or not so ready) always.

Some may view this response as disrespectful to the U.S. for failure to comply with uniform requirements. I think this is giving the terrorists exactly the kind of respect they deserve.
The article points out the bravery of this young soldier to fight wearing his pick boxer shorts. It certainly makes him a target, but maybe Gates was correct about psychological warfare. It is probably only a matter of time before others try this new form of psychological warfare. What about Football players or hockey players showing up out of uniform to play. That would be brave!
-Jamie Herndon

Huckabee Loves the Arts!!

One of the required projects in my American government course calls for students to create a piece of legislation based on an issue near and dear to their hearts. A student from one of my summer courses authored a bill that would increase federal funding for teaching students art and music in public schools.

You see, No Child Left Behind as well as the focus on standardized testing of academic "fundamentals" by the state of Texas frustrated this student. She had always dreamed of teaching art and music but was convinced that creativity was a luxury doomed to the low-priorities file.

However, my former student has a new champion in former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. The former Republican presidential candidate calls for a renewed emphasis in the arts:


"I call it a weapon of mass instruction. It's a critical part of education," Huckabee said during a visit to Northern Virginia last weekend. "A lot of education today has become left-brain only. All we're doing is . . . nothing more than data download: taking data from the teacher and downloading it to kids. And we wonder why 6,000 kids drop out of school every day and why so many millions more kids sleep through the day with their heads down on the desk, taking the most expensive nap in America. The reason they're doing it is not that they're dumb but that they're bored."

He added: "If you don't stimulate both sides of a human's brain, you're simply generating half the capacity. This whole idea that music and art are great programs if you can afford them and have room for them -- that's utter nonsense. It's the stupidest thing we've done to education in the last two generations."

Huckabee, a former minister, speaks from personal interest: His parents bought him a $99 guitar when he was 11 years old, and he's played ever since, eventually becoming the bassist for a Little Rock band, Capitol Offense, that has played with Grand Funk Railroad, Willie Nelson and REO Speedwagon, among others. As governor, he pushed through a 2005 law requiring elementary schools to offer 40 minutes per week of music and art and requiring high school students to take at least a half-year of art, music or dance to graduate.


Good stuff!! I heartily concur that education exists to mold the entire person as opposed to creating a generation of technocrats. This is at the heart of higher education grounded in the liberal arts.

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/28/AR2007082801711.html

Links to feed terminal curiosity

• Graph of the day - visualizing job losses (Click "Start" in the map to see regional developments 07-09)
  
• Beautiful recent images of Aurora Borealis - the Northern Lights
• Terrible: 1500 farmers in India commit mass suicide. How should Christians respond? Is Capitalism (and microfinance) the problem or the solution?
  
• Great recent discussion on human rights and faith from Yale University (39 min). Miroslav Volf and John Witte, Jr. (Hat tip to Philip Mitchell for bringing up Witte, Jr.)

• Just fyi: if anyone is interested in listening to free audiobooks, Librivox offers free mp3 files of many classics (Locke, Dostoevsky, Adam Smith, others). Perhaps for a future discussion we could all listen to the same book and discuss?