Author: Leslie Eastman

College Insurrection posts are often inspired by a pithy synopsis of campus news by Professor Glenn Reynolds (aka Instapundit). So, with great joy, I wanted to share items from a new book featuring his wit, wisdom, and expertise on the subject of higher education, K-12 schooling, and possible technology-based transformations of how students learn that we may be seeing in the near future. One word for his newest publication, The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself: Compelling. I am the mother of a 6th grader who is currently attending public school. While my son's school is a good one, I find myself supplementing his education with trips to Kahn Academy (his math "coach" describes the program in a great article). A core theme in The New School is that online courses are one of the many new tools that will allow parents to customize an educational approach that makes sense for their children. In fact, he is an "early adapter" himself.

My daughter did most of her high school online, after spending one day in ninth grade keeping track of how the public high school she attended spent her time. At the end of eight hours in school, she concluded, she had spent about 2½ hours on actual learning. Switching to online school let her make sure that every hour counted. The flexibility also allowed her to work three days a week for a local TV-production company, where she got experience researching and writing for programs shown on the Biography Channel, A&E, etc., something she couldn’t have done had she been nailed down in a traditional school. And she still managed to graduate a year early, at age 16, to head off to a “public Ivy” to study engineering.

My boy will be doing an online course on robotics, which is a developing interest of his. He just informed me he wants to invent the "warp drive." This Halloween-time picture of us may explain why: In fact, this burgeoning industry in educational customization is counter to the 19th century approach that was the basis for today's American educational system, which was Prussian-inspired standardization during the Industrial Revolution.

It is so bad that even New York is now trying to poach businesses from the Golden State. ...

As Americans are recovering from their New Year's celebrations, it may be time to sober up with a look at some new laws that took effect January 1st. From the Washington Post, some of the more fascinating state rules now in place.

...2. Colorado became the first state to legalize recreational marijuana use -- perhaps the most talked-about new law of 2014 -- starting on Jan. 1. While Colorado stores have already begun selling marijuana, it isn't the only state with new drug laws. Washington has also legalized recreational marijuana use, and Illinois has legalized medical marijuana. 3. Illinois passed a law that prohibits drone-use that interferes with hunters or fisherman. This law was passed after PETA called for the use of "Air Angel" drones to monitor "hunters engaging in illegal activity." Another new law in the state prohibits state law enforcement from using drones to gather information without a warrant. 4. There's now a bigger fine for planning violent flash mobs on social media in Illinois. 5. In Oregon, it's now legal for mothers to take their placentas home from the hospital after childbirth. 6. It's now illegal to sell, distribute or possess shark fins in Delaware.

Colorado's rule change has already had some unintended consequences: Colorado 2-Year-Old Tests Positive For Pot (via Tammy Bruce).

At the start of the New Year, Legal Insurrection reader Nicholas wrote to ask Professor Jacobson the following question: Could 2014 be the year of the Tea Party Democrats? The political climate certainly seems appropriate. As Legal Insurrection's designated "Tea Party Democrat," I would like to answer this: Yes and No. Yes: Democrats are becoming as frustrated with their establishment leaders and failed policies as "Tea Party Republicans" have been with theirs. Exhibit 1: A townhall meeting in Chicago a hosted by Al Sharpton transformed into a "tea party" against “Chicago Machine” politics, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the aldermen in City Hall.

“This was a historic event,” Paul McKinley of V.O.T.E. (Voices of the Ex-Offender) and former 2nd Congressional District GOP nominee to replace Jesse Jackson, Jr. told Breitbart News..... McKinley told the room, “Stop blaming just anybody for the violence in the city of Chicago. Blame the right people, not just white people, but the right people. Because it’s not just white folks a part of this, but it is on the fifth floor. The fifth floor took your schools, the fifth floor just took your jobs that he said that he gave to the ex-offender… and every single alderman was a part of this criminal process.”

The video will delight fans of schadenfreude:

As a Tea Party activist, one of my earliest assignments was trying to determine where we might be helpful in an ongoing battle between seal-loving eco-activist extremists versus the citizens who wanted to enjoy the La Jolla cove area and the businesses dependent on them doing so. In 2009, I wrote:

Over the years, my thoughts on the seals’ presence at the Children’s Pool has mirrored my growing anger at the “do-gooder”, anti-humanity, liberty-crushing environmental activists who have used a combination of emotionalism, poor science, and political gamesmanship to redesign regulations and control businesses to meet their distorted worldviews. An action item for the grassroots “Tea Party” movement is to address the disparity in activism, so that the needs of all citizens can be addressed in a manner that is friendly to businesses, the people that depend upon these businesses for their livelihoods, and the environment.

Nothing has changed. However, the stench has become so bad that several of the area businesses have filed a lawsuit...including George's-at-the-Cove, where my husband proposed to me in October 1998.

A lawsuit has been filed demanding the city eradicate the "foul, noxious and sickening odors" left by birds and sea lions defecating on the rocks next to La Jolla Cove.

Target is my favorite store...

While Japan is continues to cope with the economic fallout from the 2011 earthquake/tsunami disaster that led to Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant catastrophe,it looks like members of the U.S. Navy are still struggling with real fallout.

When the USS Ronald Reagan responded to the tsunami that struck Japan in March 2011, Navy sailors including Quartermaster Maurice Enis gladly pitched in with rescue efforts. But months later, while still serving aboard the aircraft carrier, he began to notice strange lumps all over his body. Testing revealed he'd been poisoned with radiation, and his illness would get worse. And his fiance and fellow Reagan quartermaster, Jamie Plym, who also spent several months helping near the Fukushima nuclear power plant, also began to develop frightening symptoms, including chronic bronchitis and hemorrhaging. They and 49 other U.S. Navy members who served aboard the Reagan and sister ship the USS Essex now trace illnesses including thyroid and testicular cancers, leukemia and brain tumors to the time spent aboard the massive ship, whose desalination system pulled in seawater that was used for drinking, cooking and bathing. In a lawsuit filed against Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the plaintiffs claim the power company delayed telling the U.S. Navy the tsunami had caused a nuclear meltdown, sending huge amounts of contaminated water into the sea and, ultimately, into the ship's water system.

San Francisco Attorney Charles Bonner subsequently filed a federal suit in the Southern District of on behalf of a dozen sailors...but the number has since expanded to over 50. During a recent interview with Tammy Bruce, Paul Garner (an Encinitas attorney who is also involved with the case) said that number is likely to expand to over 70 claimants in the next few weeks. Though a San Diego judge dismissed the sailors case against the Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, that isn't the end of the legal battle on behalf of the sailors. The judge's ruling was based on a technicality and the case will continue in January.

Oregonians wishing for a ray of hope on the last day of Obamacare sign-up are in for a bad disappointment, as the shining light of awesome medical coverage has been sucked into the super massive blackhole of administrative incompetence.

Oregon's troubled health insurance exchange began robocalling applicants Friday, warning them that if they don't receive enrollment confirmation by Monday, they should seek coverage elsewhere for Jan. 1. "If you haven't heard from us by Dec. 23, it is unlikely your application will be processed for Jan. 1 insurance coverage," a woman's voice on the pre-recorded call from Cover Oregon says. "If you want to be sure you have insurance coverage starting Jan. 1, you have other options." It's yet another sign that the health insurance exchange's technological breakdowns will prevent some -- perhaps many -- Oregonians from getting subsidized coverage Jan. 1, despite Gov. John Kitzhaber's previous assurances otherwise. Out of more than 65,000 applicants, the exchange reports enrolling nearly 30,000, but only about 11,000 of them in private insurance plans.

Cover Oregon ads were a study in hippie-oriented marketing appropriate in the 1970's, so that the administrators are struggling with state-of-the-art web-based technology in the second decade of the new millennium should be no surprise.

The last time I wrote about the Catholic Church, the church had selected its new pope. And, as anticipated, the first pope from Latin America is shaking things up at the Vatican and around the world. However, I was a bit surprised that Pope Francis would so soon be engaged in an economics debate with Rush Limbaugh, triggered by the recently released 84-page "apostolic exhortation" Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel) that "attacked unfettered capitalism as a new tyranny" and seems to be a laundry-list of progressive dream programs. Gateway Pundit has a clip of Limbaugh's original comments and the papal response.

Today Pope Francis responded saying, “The Marxist ideology is wrong.” But, then he went on to attack free-market “trickle-down” economics. (Via Vatican Insider)

Some of the passages in the “Evangelii Gaudium” attracted the criticism of ultraconservatives in the USA. As a Pope, what does it feel like to be called a “Marxist”? “The Marxist ideology is wrong. But I have met many Marxists in my life who are good people, so I don’t feel offended.”

Here's the point I want to make:

Snow hits Cairo for the first time in 112 years....