First, he gets to the heart of the question of what makes a good teacher. Read the story, but it comes down to perception of a student's engagement and an ability to take the perspective of the student - and by doing so - direct a student's attention towards the material. The parallel discussion, regarding the difficulty of scouting college quarterbacks - and assessing how they might perform as a pro - provides an analogy to the difficulty in assessing who might be a good teacher.

Although this is an opinion piece and endorsement, it cites many justifications for the writer's position.

Frightening.

Detailed facts, placed in facinating context and exploring potential outcomes.

All I can say is that very many gas stations around the north side of Atlanta are closed or without gas. Gas lines are up to one mile long. Any station that is open with gas has a line. Only about 1 of every 10 stations has gas in the 40 square mile region that I drove through in the last week. My conclusion, gas sales are down because people can't buy it, at least near here. One person, I know, and his son got tickets for jaywalking because they were pushing their car in the street on the way to the pump. What is very real to the people near here seems to get no national press.

This quote sums it up, "Even as members of the American media strive to avoid appearing snobbish or elitist in their treatment of Mrs Palin, most commentators seemed unable to disguise their sheer consternation at a performance that at times seemed worthy less of a candidate for vice-president than for school president." It is terrifying to think that the least qualified VP candidate in modern history might be elected with the oldest President and the current state of our nation and the world.

A facinating history of political idealogues and how they view themselves as outsiders - even while in power. In the mean time, they relish the secure carrer move and retirement plan for political operatives, tax breaks for wealthy benefactors, wars started and maintained for the benefit of American industry, and fat contracts granted to the faithful. The other 98.1% of us will pay the bills run up by lobbyists and "angry, righteous profiteers."

Seems that the voice of "We the People of the United States" is lost in the din of non-citizen, special interests. This article shows how - and how easily.

In this decade, truth is refreshing.

My favorite is the last myth, claiming the world needs US leadership. The article's insightful observation is that the world needs contructive US participation as a great power, while sharing leadership with diverse stakeholders.

The Economist is able to see that "abortion still distorts American politics." It notes that much more competent contenders for VP were passed over based on a litmus test to staisfy a minority view within American society. It is disturbing to think that American politics continue to dismay and scare the entire world. Why is it so easy for the Economist and the world to see that Palin "...is the most inexperienced candidate for a mainstream party in modern history."

Excellent investigative jounalism. This is a truly sad story.

This is an excellent commentary on the state of American journalism, but using "The Daily Show" and host, Jon Stewart, as an example of indepenence, valid critism, and insightful questions. What should concern the mainstream television media is that Daily Show viewers are rated [Pew Trust] among the best informed of citizens in our society. This reveals how "sound-bite television news" is terribly ineffective. The other news shows, that are top-rated as having well-informed viewers are "The News Hour With Jim Leher" and "Charlie Rose," neither of which uses a sound-bite format.

This is a Q&A with Susan Jacoby, author of "The Age of American Unreason," a book about American anti-intellectualism, and writer for "On Faith," a Washington Post-Newsweek blog on religion. It provides a broad perspecitve on the issue of anti-intellectualism and the effect on the competitiveness of the USA. The discussion also comments on a uniquely American political system and culture that perpetuates and encourages an ignorance of and distain for fact.

Wow.

This story is truly disturbing. The bigger picture is how the lack of oversight diligence, and public interest on the part of legislators, at all levels of government, enable war, financial turbulence, and fraud.

This is a statement by a member of Congress and the House Judiciary Committee. It is factual and reminds the reader of the rights, responsibilities, and power of the Congress. The article notes the issue and responsibility of Congress holding the Executive branch accountable.

The main issue that I have with this story begins with the headline, which claims that Hilary (a) would be ahead and that (b) the rules don't make sense. It think it could be claimed that faulty, electronic voting machines - or the electoral collage don't make sense, but to claim that the established rules of the democratic presidential primaries don't make sense has no inherent legitimacy or truth - is is simply opinion. Although comparisons are made, which show the possible difference in delegate count, these also do not show that Hilary would be ahead, even by the author's own count. Ultimately, this looks like one of the many recent attempts to sway superdelegates or make Barack look less electable in November. In the end, ... More »

Philippe Sands interviews a broad cross-section of US and international lawyers. Many are direct participants in the Bush administration's efforts to remove legal restrictions to torture, effectively stripping detainees of legal rights afforded to them by US or international law (to which the US is a signatory). In addition, Mr. Sands cites the many documents, made public or not, providing a time line of the origin of each - along with when the participants claimed to know - and actually (likely) knew of the content, purpose, writers, and approval. He takes a realistic, global view of the potential criminality of the actions of the US attorneys, who conspired to circumvent detainee rights under US law and particularly Common ... More »

It is great journalism because it is so depressingly telling about the distortion of truth and perversion of the the US Constitution. John Yoo's idea that a president, as commander-in-chief during "wartime," cannot be limited by the courts and legislative bodies approaches treason and certainly attempts to revoke the protections and checks and balances designed to protect each of us.

This article treats an important, negative aspect of our criminal justice system. Prison rape and the nation's attitude towards it are shameful. The author reveals several insightful quotations, observations, and statistics that frame the story from differing views.