The DeWeese Report2, No. 11, p 5, November (1996), available from 13873 Park Center Road, Suite 316, Herndon, VA 22071, reports that People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals has called onFishkill, New York to change its name to "Fishsave.'' Fishkill is a 300 year old Dutch town. In Dutch, its name means "channel or creek.''
The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 1996, p A20 reports that, regardless of a July Federal Court order to do so, the Department of Energy has notified the owners of American nuclear power plants that it will not be able to meet its obligation to provide nuclear waste storage in 1998. Nuclear utilities have paid $12 billion into a federal fund for nuclear waste storage.
Kris Sanda, commissioner of Minnesota's Public Service Department and spokesman for 73 nuclear plants in 34 states is quoted as saying, "It's outrageous that DOE can build a central nuclear waste storage facility in Russia by 1998 but not in the U.S.''
"MTV Math Doesn't Add Up'' by Marianne M. Jennings, director of the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University, in The Wall Street Journal, December 17, 1996, p A22, relates her experiences after learning that her straight-A daughter could not compute 10% of 470 or convert one-fourth to 25% in an algebra problem. Some highlights: Her "Addison-Wesley text, Secondary Math: An Integrated Approach: Focus on Algebra, has color photos, essays on the Dogon tribe of Africa, and questions such as 'What role should zoos play in today's society?' There's Maya Angelou poetry, pictures of Bill Clinton and little insights from Tabuk and Esteban (youngsters chosen to enlighten students about cultural differences in the ever-fluid concept of slope). The book, with its busy pages and journey through environmentalism, is an 800-page pedagogical nightmare.'' Based on new National Standards, the students are supposed to gain a "conceptual understanding'' of math without outmoded ideas like problems and practice. Group work is emphasized with students who do not know math and do not practice it trying to teach each other.
When she asked school officials why the students were not required to practice simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, they labeled her as a member of the "extreme Christian right.'' Her daughter explained that she had been taught "that people who demand learning as a part of education are 'religious zealots'.''
"It's a Wonderful Life,'' an editorial in The Wall Street Journal, p A16, December 20, 1996, relates the plight of Wiley Berggren, manager of a 7-Eleven store in Odessa, Texas who successfully captured a thief in the act of running away with the store's merchandise. Mr. Berggren was fired for violating 7-Eleven's national policy that no employee shall make any effort to thwart a criminal. (See the Jeff Cooper quote on page 1.) It is likely that 7-Eleven does not fear criminals; but it does fear lawyers. (See again the Jeff Cooper quote.) This reminds me of the story circulating some years ago that in Oakland crime had become so prevalent that it was considered entrapment to open a 7-Eleven store. (See yet again the . . . . . . . )
