A view of the 12th hole at Augusta, the second leg of Amen Corner

This year is a bit different at The Masters than any other year though. It’s the Year of the Tiger, and the year that Tiger tries to make amends. Will he be able to quell the rancor of the crowds and score at Augusta? I hope so.

I have to say that from the beginning I was a huge supporter of Tiger. He seemed to do it the right way both on, and off the course. Well, clearly, his antics off the course have proved me at least half wrong, and some of his behavior on the course has left a lot to be desired as of late.

Hopefully the past few months have given him a full serving of humble pie and he’s willing to come back with more respect for the game, for his fans, for women, and especially for his family.

© 2010, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

‘Stand and Deliver’ teacher dies of cancer: “During his tenure at Garfield High School, many of our students excelled in learning, aspired to a higher education and went on to become very successful in various careers,” Los Angeles School Superintendent Ramon Cortines said. “Today, they are living testaments to a teacher who demonstrated how high expectations coupled with constant support can overcome obstacles to a quality education.”

I remember Stand and Deliver in a theatre way back in 1988. I was completely blown away by the story. I loved the fact that given any kind of a chance and some help, these underprivileged students were able to rise up and pass the Calculus AP exam. What’s even more amazing is that it was, for all practical purposes, a true story. What’s even more amazing is that teachers didn’t have much use for it.

I remember talking to a teacher friend of mine who complained that the real story couldn’t have been like that, that it must have been modified by Hollywood to make the film more exciting. Well, it turns out he was wrong and that it is about 90% accurate, and about 100% accurate in all the details that matter.

Another amazing, but probably not too surprising, thing is that the teacher’s union opposed what he was doing because he was taking on too many students in his classroom! The union had negotiated that the classroom max was to be 35 students. He took on more than 50. Was the union concerned that the students weren’t being taught well? Nope… the students in those classes passed the AP exam at better than a 90% rate. A phenomenal achievement. The union was more interested in protecting their (other) members than helping the children (he was doing a labor of love)… as I said, not much of a surprise (the next time you hear the teacher’s union supporting something for the benefit of the children, take it with a grain of salt).

From Reason.com:

This leaves would-be school reformers with a set of uncomfortable questions. Why couldn’t Escalante run his classes in peace? Why were administrators allowed to get in his way? Why was the union imposing its “help” on someone who hadn’t requested it? Could Escalante’s program have been saved if, as Gradillas now muses, Garfield had become a charter school? What is wrong with a system that values working well with others more highly than effectiveness?

He was a unique teacher that showed what can be done when someone cares. Perhaps, as he passes, teachers and school districts around the country will be inspired as they read his example (and maybe even watch that fantastic film), stand up to the politicians and unions, and really deliver and leave no child behind.

© 2010, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

Pope ‘led cover-up of child abuse by priests’: The Pope played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests, according to a shocking documentary to be screened by the BBC tonight.

In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church’s interests ahead of child safety.

The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated.

If this actually happened (and given the recent issues that have surfaced, I think it likely), there’s no choice for this Pope but to resign.

They let Cardinal Law get away with it nearly a decade ago, and that was troubling enough. But now the Pope?!? It’s time for a complete overhaul of the church hierarchy. This cannot go on, and cannot be ignored.

© 2010, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

Entropy Production: All Medical Science is Wrong within a 95% Confidence Interval
or: A Review of Taubes’ “Good Calories, Bad Calories”: Recently I read a very impressive book by Gary Taubes, previously a reporter for the journal Science. The work in question is, “Good Calories, Bad Calories.”‘ In the book, Taubes collects research to challenge the common knowledge of nutrition: that fat is bad for you, that we should eat polyunsaturated vegetable oils, that we should exercise for sixty minutes a day, etc.

…

One cannot help but wonder how a number of the weak hypotheses that Taubes explores came to become common knowledge in the field of nutrition? Taubes paints a picture of a few egotistical researchers who were able to effect what was essentially scientific fraud, by fitting their bias to the data rather than examining it critically. In Taubes words (p. 451), “it is difficult to use the term “scientist” to describe those individuals who work in these disciples [ed: nutrition, chronic disease, and obesity], and, indeed, I have activity avoided doing so in this book.”

This article is a fantastic summary and commentary on Gary Taubes enlightening book. I highly recommend purchasing and reading the book. It changed my life for the better (starting with article that Taubes wrote for the New York Times Magazine). Since reading the article / book and following (for the most part) it’s tennets, the following has happened to me personally:

• I’ve lost 50 pounds
• My blood cholesterol has dropped from 220 to 160
• My trigycerides have dropped
• My blood pressure has dropped

If you are overweight or borderline diabetic, you NEED to read this book.

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

Commentary: Drinking age of 21 doesn’t work – CNN.com: One year ago, a group of college and university presidents and chancellors, eventually totaling 135, issued a statement that garnered national attention.

The “Amethyst Initiative” put a debate proposition before the public — “Resolved: That the 21-year-old drinking age is not working.”

…Most of the rest of the world has come out in a different place on the drinking age. The United States is one of only four countries — the others are Indonesia, Mongolia and Palau — with an age as high as 21. All others either have no minimum age or have a lower age, generally 18, with some at 16.

Young adults know that. And, in their heart of hearts, they also know that a law perceived as unjust, a law routinely violated, can over time breed disrespect for law in general.

Exactly correct. In a country that was founded on the ideals of freedom and responsibility, that it can be acceptable for someone to be old enough to die for one’s country, but not old enough to raise a tankard of ale in tribute to that same country is insane. That it’s legal to drive at 16 (which causes WAY more deaths every year than drinking), and consent to sex at 16, and vote at 18 (which has a direct impact on the future of the country), and smoke at 18 (which is WAY more unhealthy than drinking)… that you are considered an adult in every way in this country, but you can’t have a beer is just plain stupid.

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

George F. Will – The Supreme Court’s Chance to Dump McCain-Feingold and Aid Free Speech – washingtonpost.com: Last March, during the Supreme Court argument concerning the Federal Election Commission’s banning of a political movie, several justices were aghast. Suddenly and belatedly they saw the abyss that could swallow the First Amendment.

A friend and I were talking a while ago and he made the argument that we needed term limits because Congress makes election law that affects their own election, and he pointed directly at McCain/Feingold as a prime example. Let’s take a closer look.

Don’t blame me. McCain-Feingold orders people to shut up when political speech matters most. It bans “electioneering communications” (communications “susceptible of no reasonable interpretation other than as an appeal to vote for or against a specific candidate”) paid for by corporations in the 30 days before primaries and 60 days before general elections. Corporations include not only, or primarily, the likes of GM and GE; corporations also include issue advocacy groups, from the National Rifle Association to the Sierra Club. So, yes, if a book published (as books are) by a corporation contains even a sentence of election-related advocacy, the book could — must — be banned by the federal government, and not just during the McCain-Feingold muzzle period.

I think he’s right, and I think George Will is right. McCain/Feingold must be thrown out as unconstitutional. The very reason for the first amendment is to protect political speech as a check against the state.

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

End Run on Free Speech: For several decades, most of the ingenuity that liberal academics have invested in First Amendment analysis has aimed to justify limiting the core activity that the amendment was written to protect — political speech. These analyses treat free speech as not an inherent good but as a merely instrumental good, something justified by serving other ends — therefore something to be balanced against, and abridged to advance, other goods.

Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.

I’d say those words are fairly unambiguous. How is it that Congress is continually trying to do exactly that which it is prohibited from doing? How is it that they get away with it?

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

Dodgers’ Ramirez suspended 50 games: Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing substance, incurring an immediate 50-game ban and serving the highest-profile reminder yet that the use of such drugs in the testing area may have been reduced, but not eradicated.

I always knew I didn’t like the guy, but now it’s absolutely, concretely set in stone. The guy is a total douche bag. What is it about some people that makes them think that the rules don’t apply to them?

He was always a problem. I guess now is lashing out and pushing down Jack McCormick has finally bee explained… ‘roid rage.

I’m really glad the Redsox got rid of this loser.

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

The 10 Star Trek movies so far, and why they mattered: As J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek beams into theaters on May 8, it seems like a good time to look back at the 10 movies that have previously gone where no one has gone before.

It’s been 10 films and 30 years since Star Trek was reborn on the big screen. The full list follows.

This is a fun read. Although I completely disagree with the assessment of Star Trek: First Contact which I still think is the best of the bunch. It definitely holds up the best.

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.

Pope outrages Jews over Holocaust denier: Jewish officials in Israel and abroad are outraged that Pope Benedict XVI has decided to lift the excommunication of a British bishop who denies that Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers.

It’s things like this and the sex scandal and the church’s response to it that are driving people away from Catholicism. Why would the Pope do something as wrong as this? He seems to be doing his best to undo all the good that his predecessor did, and take the church back a few centuries while he’s at it.

© 2009, Michael Carney. All rights reserved.