Soldiering.

Good news: The U.S. is giving money to aid in the education of Lebanese college students. They're also giving 100 times that much to the Egyptian military.

Harvard Tackles Teaching

Harvard kicked off its Initiative for Teaching and Learning with a daylong conference. Thanks Gustave M. and Rita E. Hauser, for the grant which financed the project.

Romney's Tax Plan

Leaked on a hot mic, the only thing this plan does is confirm that our problems with the two-party, electoral-college system are severe.

The Conversation About Women's Bodies

Here is the Ashley Judd piece that has gone viral, with good reason.

Shame on You, AZ.

So this got signed into law this week.

Jan Brewer and the Arizona legislature effectively ended medication abortions.

Derek Boogaard

A 3-part New York Times piece on Derek Boogaard, a hockey enforcer who was diagnosed with CTE after his death age 28. (CTE can only be diagnosed post-mortem.)

A Boy Learns to Brawl.

Blood on the Ice.

A Brain 'Going Bad'

A Jeremy Linfusion

An ESPN profile of Jeremy Lin.

A New York Times piece.

The New Yorker.

The Reproduction of Privilege

“The education system is an increasingly powerful mechanism for the intergenerational reproduction of privilege.”
— Anthony Carnevale

"The 'income achievement gap' – differences in standard test scores and grade point averages – between children from families in the top 10 percent of the income distribution and those from families in the bottom ten percent has been growing. Reardon has found that the income achievement gap between children from the highest and lowest income deciles is roughly 30 to 40 percent larger among children born in 2001 than among those born in 1976."

That is, if you come from a wealthy family, the more likely you are to test well, and go to and graduate from college. Which strengthens your earning potential, and your kids' likelihood of the same. Upward mobility is becoming impossible.

Takeaway: We need to make education more accessible.

6 Pakistani Women

"According to a 2011 poll of experts by the Thomson Reuters Foundation Poll, Pakistan is the third most dangerous country for women in the world. It cited the more than 1,000 women and girls murdered in "honor killings" every year and reported that 90 percent of Pakistani women suffer from domestic violence."

Here are the stories of 6 incredibly brave women from Karachi.

Not a Slam-Dunk

Florida v. Zimmerman isn't going to be easy. We need to prepare ourselves for the real possibility that Trayvon Martin's killer will be freed. Either way, the law needs to be revisited:

"A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."

I'm not an attorney. But the wording of this portion of the "Stand Your Ground" law seems to give ordinary citizens a power equivalent to that of police officers, who receive specialized training to determine the severity of the threats around them, as well as to handle weapons.

It also seems that if I were a lunatic, I could go around baiting people to punch me so I'd have the opportunity to shoot them.

My Doctor Still Has to Tell Me if I Have Cancer, Though... Right?

Oh, Kansas. You're so silly. You, and Oklahoma, and Arizona, and all you states who are trying to or have passed bills which give doctors the right to withhold information about the health of your child in utero.

That anyone could possibly think this is a good idea is totally beyond my comprehension.

Kill the Head and the Body Will Die

If The New Yorker is writing about football... in the wake of this mess, I don't know how I'll be able to bring myself to continue watching and supporting what is "in its essence, a great sport."

Side note: I love Amy Davidson, though I think conflating this story with the Paterno story is a stretch.

Unsurprisingly Alarming Numbers

I can't tell which is worse: These numbers on income inequality, or the fact that I'm non-nonplussed.

2012 is an election year. The first, and most important, step we can take to make sure that the trends reverse course is to elect officials who will write and pass laws to that end.

A Government Agency That's Working For Me?

This is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Joe Nocera thinks it's an agency devoted to making a difference in people's lives.

Ester Dean and the Hit Machine

A Norwegian duo and a vocalist from Oklahoma have changed pop music as we know it.