[links] Link salad dances by the laser light

[jaylake]

Goodreads First Reads: Kalimpura by Jay Lake

Is This Grade School a 'Cult'? (And Do Parents Care?) - The Atlantic on Waldorf schools.

Comments

Re: the Rove/Anonymous article

[threeoutside]

Much as I rejoiced at the outcome of our elections in November, really, it makes me queasy to think of *anyone* being able to influence elections like this. Just because I liked the outcome this time doesn't mean I would next time. There are lots of brilliant hackers out there who don't care where the money comes from as long as it goes to them.

[joycemocha]

I'd been hearing various rumors about what happened in Ohio, plus since 2000 I've been monitoring/following allegations of election machine tampering. No real data collection, just reading and thinking.

I think the account is entirely credible. Knowing what I do about how election results are tabulated in Oregon (albeit, older knowledge), I don't trust non-paper ballots. Period. Hacking vote-by-mail is harder to do, and I'm suspicious about potential internet voting (plus there's issues of equity and access).

[houseboatonstyx]

ACORN doesn't exist anymore.

Dissolve the map, and the territory no longer exists? That only works for corporations.

It's said elsewhere that that was an artifact of the poll, which specified "ACORN" instead of something more generic, such as 'Obama operatives'. Personally I'm glad to see acorn-people-under-their-new-name, as well as Anonymous, to balance the GOP operatives who probably stole 2000 (and 2004).

[bovil]

It's said elsewhere that that was an artifact of the poll, which specified "ACORN" instead of something more generic,

Public Policy Polling is famous (infamous is more like it) for mixing goofy and strangely biased questions into serious polls. This is probably a less-obvious one. It's still a "gotcha" question if you're paying attention. So what does it say, besides that almost half of polled Republicans thought the election was stolen?

Well, it says those Republicans don't know much about their opposition. It's kind of like if Democrats blamed Lee Atwater for fixing the 2004 election. Or maybe the Tooth Fairy.

And it says those Republicans don't care who they blame when they argue the election was stolen. Some of them have to know that ACORN doesn't exist in the same large, government-supported form it did before the 2009 scandal.

[dionysus1999]

If true, the hackers should have mounted obvious proof, like electing Mickey Mouse, or whatever that Libertarian guy's name is.

[bovil]

The nature of Waldorf education is that all Waldorf Schools are very locally controlled. Some are far more deeply invested in anthroposophy and far more tightly linked to the Anthroposophical Society.

My nephew went to a Waldorf school for a number of years, and my sister-in-law was the board treasurer. In the end, it wasn't the anthroposophy that was the problem, it was basic politics and a majority of the board burying its head in the sand over business problems.

[jaylake]

Yeah. Kind of like non-denominational churches or something.

Ours is pretty mainstream and (insofar as I know) financially stable and well-run.

[bovil]

This one definitely had an AS old-boys-network running the board, but the school itself wasn't particularly AS.

[jaylake]

My opinions of AS are probably self-evident given my nigh relentless empiricism, but my opinions on the outcome of Waldorf education as measured by the various PWS high school students I've interacted with over the years are very high. It's an interesting example of good results from ambiguous premises.