Yearly Archives: 2001

Will Riordan Run on “English”?

Although national pundits regularly denounce our political leaders for doing whatever is popular, the truth is actually far worse than that. We live in a constitutional republic, rather than a plebiscitary democracy, and although public sentiment may eventually dominate at … Continue reading

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Will Riordan Run on “English”? – Sacramento Bee

Will Riordan Run on “English”? by Ron Unz Sacramento Bee, Sunday, December 23, 2001 As former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan gears up for his campaign to challenge Gov. Gray Davis, he faces some serious obstacles. First, no incumbent California governor has … Continue reading

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VDare.com vs. the “Goldberg” Review

The nature of the Internet provides a near friction-free (and cost-free) means of distributing information. Words and ideas are almost pure information, hence their natural applicability to this medium, and the current mushrooming growth of various Me-zines, We-zines, and Idea-zines. … Continue reading

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National Baby-Steps on English

The simplest means of judging whether a proposed change in a long-standing and controversial policy is significant or insignificant is to examine the breadth of its support. If political support is overwhelming, rather than contentiously divided, one may be sure … Continue reading

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Rounding Up Arabs, Blacks, and Jews

Up through the early morning hours of September 11th, denunciation of the ethnic profiling of suspects by the police looked well on its way to becoming a near-universal component of political stump speeches, on a par with praise for the … Continue reading

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And She Didn’t Even Run

Despite the overwhelming popular support for “English” in an endless series of highly-credible public opinion surveys, http://www.onenation.org/2000polls.htm, America’s quivering mass of timorous politicians seems reluctant to explore that issue. Most political leaders, despite the words that constitute that description, regularly … Continue reading

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Rounding Up Arabs, Blacks, and Jews – Salon.com

Rounding Up Arabs, blacks, and Jews by Ron Unz Salon.com, Thursday, December 6, 2001 Dec. 6, 2001—In the wake of the Sept. 11th attacks, Americans are debating whether we should adopt ethnic profiling policies that may ensnare thousands of innocent people—Arabs and … Continue reading

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One Thousand Words in Every Frame

Unveiling 150 Hours of Streaming Web Video Thoughtful words may dominate policy, but powerful visuals are what shape the feelings, emotions, and memories that ultimately control politics. The central focus of most modern political campaigns has become fundraising, with the … Continue reading

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Patriotism and Idiocy

Patriotism and Idiocy by Ron Unz New Republic (Letters), November 26, 2001 Given the all-encompassing focus of TNR and every other major media outlet on the very real Terrorism War, I suppose I should be grateful that a recent column of … Continue reading

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Down is Up in Arizona Schools

Those who have followed the convoluted, counter- intuitive political history of the “English” movement will not be surprised to learn that the educational leadership of conservative, rock-ribbed Republican Arizona is engaging in a far more widespread and determined effort to … Continue reading

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“English” vs. Educational Fraud in Framingham, Mass.?

Last month I participated in a debate on our forthcoming Massachusetts “English” initiative, sponsored by Lesley University in Cambridge, one of America’s largest institutions for the training of bilingual education teachers. When first invited, I had been informed that the … Continue reading

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100,000 Signatures for “English” in Massachusetts

On Tuesday, the leaders of our Massachusetts initiative campaign held a press conference in Boston to announce that they had gathered over 100,000 signatures for their petition, far more than the number necessary to qualify for the 2002 ballot. I … Continue reading

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Making TNR’s “Idiocy Watch”

The recent “Rocks Falling Upward” column on my amusing Harvard University “English” debate provoked sufficient positive response that I subsequently published a slightly modified version on National Review Online. Given the near-universal fixation of NRO and almost every other media … Continue reading

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Artificial Cloning

Artificial Cloning by Ron Unz Reason Online, Friday, October 26, 2001 The general debate: http://www.reason.com/bioresearch/bioresearch.html First, we should realize that a “clone” is simply the scientific name for an identical twin, which has been a rare though perfectly natural part of humanity since … Continue reading

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Rocks Falling Upward at Harvard University

Rocks Falling Upward at Harvard University by Ron Unz National Review Online, Friday, October 26, 2001 While most Americans have been transfixed by the terrifying prospect of massive deaths from anthrax or suicide bombers, a few in our society fear an even … Continue reading

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The Forgotten Cloning Debate

Long, long ago, before the events of September 11th eclipsed all national issues other than terrorism, public policy pundits had seen fit to focus some of their attention on whether or not Congress should ban research into cloning. Several prominent … Continue reading

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Rocks Falling Upward

This past Monday’s raucous debate at Harvard University brought back many fond memories of my 1998 California campaign. Although my opponent, Prof. Catherine Snow, one of America’s most prominent bilingual theorists, was new, nearly everything else was quite familiar. As … Continue reading

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Harvard University Debate

Bilingual Education Debate with Ron Unz and Catherine Snow Askwith Education Forum/Harvard University, October 15, 2001, 1:20:52 Askwith Educational Forum at Harvard University on Massachusetts English for the Children initiative; debate moderated by Tony Randolph of WBUR, with Ron Unz … Continue reading

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It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

As Education Week, the national newsweekly of America’s school establishment, marks its twentieth anniversary, its pages have begun running a series of reprinted stories on the major educational controversies of twenty years ago. Back when a Georgian peanut farmer occupied … Continue reading

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Prop. 227 Wins Again: No New News

Yesterday’s papers carried several brief accounts of the decision of the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals eliminating the last significant remaining legal challenge to Proposition 227.

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Do Black Students Also Need Prop. 227?

The latest sign of the stunning shift in conventional wisdom on the consequences of bilingual education unexpectedly comes from a leading black columnist, Pulitzer Prize winner William Raspberry of the Washington Post. On Monday, Raspberry provocatively speculated that the educational … Continue reading

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Good News is No News is Good News

The release of California’s third year of post-Prop. 227 statewide test scores was surely the most dramatic non-story of this past week. The academic progress of the state’s more than one million immigrant students was good, very good. Nationally-normed percentile … Continue reading

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The Washington Post: “Teach English”

Whereas the news pages of America’s major newspapers regularly provide us with the facts to support our national campaign for “English,” many editorial pages use these facts as grounds for advocacy. Just a few days ago, the hugely influential Washington … Continue reading

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New English in New England

As the dominant newspaper of New England, the Boston Globe influences informed opinion throughout a region containing six states, nearly fifteen million people, and endless numbers of quaint cobble-stoned towns, stained in the history of centuries. But most importantly, this … Continue reading

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English in Boston!

Earlier this week, the national campaign for “English” finally reached our East Coast, as an initiative drive was launched in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The road to Tuesday morning’s press conference on the steps of the Boston State House was … Continue reading

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