Sandra Fluke Affair Proves that it's Right-Wingers Who Are the True Adherents of Saul Alinsky

Saul Alinsky

Like most liberals under the age of 50, I've never actually read Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. I only know what the book is about from reading Right-wing blogs -- they're obsessed with Alinksy, and seem to think that studying him is mandatory in our Liberal Indoctrination Centers public schools.

One of Alinsky's rules -- again, I know this because conservatives keep telling me -- is that you've got to: 'Pick the Target, Freeze It, Personalize It and Polarize It.' And that's exactly what Rush Limbaugh and his slut-shaming is about. Sandra Fluke, after all, is not a prominent figure on the national stage. She is a a young woman in law-school who testified about the experience of a friend who required birth control pills to battle cancer. And here she is, a target picked, frozen, personalized and polarized. 

Anyway, Rush must be wondering what all the fuss is about - after all, his outrageously vile comments about Fluke aren't more outrageous or vile than any of the other bile he spews everyday.

Yet, there is a backlash, as Kristen Gwynne noted in an earlier post. Pressure is being brought to bear on Limbaugh's advertisers, and companies don't like to have their brand associated with the worst kind of misogyny.

Also, this is kind of nice...  

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The Religious Right's Plot To Take Control Of Our Public Schools

The people who brought you "Jesus Camp" are moving into your neighborhood school. And there's not a damn thing you can do about it.

March 6, 2012 

The Good News Club: The Stealth Assault on America’s Children by Katherine Stewart uncovers a right-wing conspiracy to infiltrate and destroy the nation’s public school system, using recent Supreme Court decisions as a lever. It’s a must-read for anyone who’s seen public school kids, perhaps their own, targeted for proselytizing by peers, teachers and adult volunteers. And for those who haven’t, it’s a wake-up call.  

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas once wrote, “Religion is certainly a source of positive values, and we need as many positive values in the school as we can get.” It sounds benign. But what if the particular brand of religion is coercive, and in conflict with the teachings and values of the family of the students being targeted? It doesn’t matter. Because under the law as it stands now, evangelical churches have the right to gather, teach and proselytize in your neighborhood school. 

Spiritual Warfare in Your Neighborhood

How did it come to this? If you haven’t personally observed today’s aggressive “spiritual warfare,” it may be difficult to imagine that young children are being taught that their school is a battlefield and they are the warriors who must save their classmates from themselves. With a remarkable amount of grace and restraint, Stewart describes the havoc in communities around the nation as initiatives to evangelize public school students have increased.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas once wrote, “Religion is certainly a source of positive values, and we need as many positive values in the school as we can get.” It sounds benign. But what if the particular brand of religion is coercive, and in conflict with the teachings and values of the family of the students being targeted? It doesn’t matter. Because under the law as it stands now, evangelical churches have the right to gather, teach and proselytize in your neighborhood school.    READ MORE

Do Politicians Know Anything About Schools and Education? Anything?

Jasmin Garces, 7, along with other second graders,
watches as President Obama delivers a back-to-school
address to school children in Denver, Colorado,
08/08/09.
(photo: John Moore/Getty Images North America)

By Diane Ravitch, Nieman Watchdog

08 February 12

Diane Ravitch poses a dozen piercing questions on education and school policy. Some of them turn conventional thinking on its ear, and each could be a starting point for reporting on elections, from the presidency on down to local school boards.

1. Both Republican candidates and President Obama are enamored of charter schools - that is, schools that are privately managed and deregulated. Are you aware that studies consistently show that charter schools don't get better results than regular public schools? Are you aware that studies show that, like any deregulated sector, some charter schools get high test scores, many more get low scores, but most are no different from regular public schools? Do you recognize the danger in handing public schools and public monies over to private entities with weak oversight? Didn't we learn some lessons from the stock collapse of 2008 about the risk of deregulation?

2. Both Republican candidates and President Obama are enamored of merit pay for teachers based on test scores. Are you aware that merit pay has been tried in the schools again and again since the 1920s and it has never worked? Are you aware of the exhaustive study of merit pay in the Nashville schools, conducted by the National Center for Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt, which found that a bonus of $15,000 per teacher for higher test scores made no difference?    READ MORE