The Bride of Friday Follies

He's Back

In the past few weeks, Cold War era Russian singer Edouard Khil has become something of an internet sensation. We featured him here at TAC on Feb.26.

Someone did a very funny remix of his Trololo song.

No Cliche Left Behind

Last week, we commented on new educational standards issued by the  National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO).

This week, the Obama administration is presenting its version of Bush's No Child Left Behind nonsense.

Congress will have furious, nasty debates over it for months and, regardless, it won't do a damn thing to improve the dreadful situation in our schools.

As we said last week, the horrible situation in schools is due primarily to two intractable problems: a) bad parenting and b) bad teaching. 

The reason these problems will not get fixed are a) you can't replace bad parents and b) you can't replace bad teachers.

For a shocking, surreal look into our alarmingly ineffectual education system, be sure to read this. 

And Speaking Of Presidential Nonsense

Despite its promise of more open government, the Obama administration has been even more secretive than Bush. According to the AP...

The review of annual Freedom of Information Act reports filed by 17 major agencies found that overall,...withhold(ing) information rose in fiscal year 2009, which ended last October.

Major agencies... refuse(d to release) records at least 70,779 times during the 2009 budget year, compared with 47,395 times during President George W. Bush's final full budget year...

I Hope You're All Reading....

..The Grumpy Brit. He writes a very intelligent ad blog. Not about gossip or industry crap, but about the culture and practice of advertising. He's a lot like The Ad Contrarian, only smart.

And They Said It Wouldn't Last!

John Edwards and his girlfriend are still in love. It's a wonderful world.