Old Fogey Returns with Her Quotes

I spent some time at Cracks Central the last few days and found visiting with Mrs. F (my daughter) far more interesting than the national news--after all the election is over. Just kidding: Mrs. F is always more interesting to me, and certainly makes more sense.

"It's probably been 20 or 30 years for some of these folks since they've looked for a job."
Nels Olson, who heads the Washington office of Korn/Ferry International, a headhunting firm
Lame Ducks Wing It
[It must be disconcerting to these Republicans who have focused so long on making themselves invulnerable to find that voters dumped them anyway. Perhaps now they have an inkling how it felt to manufacturing workers who worked for years for the same company, only to be dropped at an age that you are unemployable for most jobs.]

"There is no reason Republicans can't someday win a big share of the African American vote. All the GOP has to do is adopt policies that most black Americans believe will work to their advantage, rather than leave them behind."
Eugene Robinson in WaPo
Diversity In Cannon Fodder
[It appears that black voters are less trusting of Republican tokenism than evangelicals. You actually have to deliver to get their votes. African Americans have far more experience with being political footballs, and it appears than many evangelicals are beginning to learn the hard lessons learned over centuries by them.]

"There is a growing technology of testing that permits us now to do in nanoseconds things that we shouldn't be doing at all."
Gerald W. Bracey, educational psychologist and research columnist for the Phi Delta Kappan education journal, referring to standardized testing
Just Whose Idea Was All This Testing?
[Standardized tests have their place, but they should be a very small component of public education--not the focus. As a college history professor, I would have loved to give all multiple choice tests for their ease in grading. However, they only tested students' ability to memorize, not their intellectual curiosity. I could never teach them all they needed to know, but I could equip them with the love of learning and the necessary skills to continue their own education.]

"The idea of the government negotiating drug prices really isn't about the government negotiating drug prices."
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt
HHS Chief Opposes Negotiation of Medicare Drug Prices
[I guess not--that would make too much sense]

"When we attained our democracy, we sought to distinguish ourselves from an unjust painful past, by declaring that never again shall it be that any South African will be discriminated against on the basis of color, creed culture and sex."
Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
- S. Africa Parliament OKs Gay Marriages
[Seems like a no-brainer to me. Any diminution of rights due to genetic make-up is discrimination and should not be tolerated in a society that calls itself just.]

"If the federal government wants to help parents, it could start by providing more money for low-income students."
Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, a Washington-based non-profit that represents small private colleges
Spellings, colleges at odds
[Seems strange to me that "party of limited government" now wants to expand federal control over the nation's universities. Instead of increasing access to low income students, Spelling wants to establish a database to track students. How do you track a student who never enrolls?]