Pejman Yousefzadeh

To wit:

High school is full of hypotheticals, like “How does one solve for x?” and “What happens if I skip class?” But this week, students at Albany High School were given an alarming thought puzzle: How do I convince my teacher that I think Jews are evil?

That question was posed to about 75 students on Monday by an unidentified 10th-grade English teacher as a “persuasive writing” exercise. The students were instructed to imagine that their teacher was a Nazi and to construct an argument that Jews were “the source of our problems” using historical propaganda and, of course, a traditional high school essay structure.

“Your essay must be five paragraphs long, with an introduction, three body paragraphs containing your strongest arguments, and a conclusion,” the assignment read. “You do not have a choice in your position: you must argue that Jews are evil, and use solid rationale from government propaganda to convince me of your loyalty to the Third Reich!”

The assignment — first reported by The Times Union of Albany — prompted an embarrassed reaction from school district administrators, who were alerted to it by a concerned parent on Wednesday night.

“Obviously, we have a severe lack of judgment and a horrible level of insensitivity,” said Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard, superintendent of Albany’s schools. “That’s not the assignment that any school district, and certainly not mine, is going to tolerate.”

Dr. Vanden Wyngaard, who met with Jewish leaders in Albany and made a public apology on Friday, said the assignment was apparently an attempt to link the English class with a history lesson on the Holocaust. The assignment itself seems to back up that theory, telling students to use “what you’ve learned in history class.” It also suggests using “any experiences you have.

And lest you think that this is an isolated problem …

[The assignment] echoed another recent, controversial assignment in Manhattan, where an elementary school class was given math problems featuring the whipping and killing of slaves, according to The Associated Press. That assignment was an effort to combine math and social studies lessons.

I don’t have any proof whatsoever that these assignments were motivated by racism or anti-Semitism. However, I have plenty of support for the proposition that they were motivated by extreme stupidity. And I am horrified to think that there are many more instances of stupidity—perhaps more subtle, but no less pronounced—occurring in our school systems nationwide. How kids can be expected to compete when they are held back by incredibly bad teaching is a complete mystery.

A blow against nannyism—and for personal autonomy—has been decisively struck:

A judge struck down New York’s limits on large sugary drinks on Monday, one day before they were to take effect, in a significant blow to one of the most ambitious and divisive initiatives of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s tenure.

In an unusually critical opinion, Justice Milton A. Tingling Jr. of State Supreme Court in Manhattan called the limits “arbitrary and capricious,” echoing the complaints of city business owners and consumers who had deemed the rules unworkable and unenforceable, with confusing loopholes and voluminous exemptions.

The decision comes at a sensitive time for Mr. Bloomberg, who is determined to burnish his legacy as he enters the final months of his career in City Hall, and his administration seemed caught off guard by the decision. Before the judge ruled, the mayor had called for the soda limits to be adopted by cities around the globe; he now faces the possibility that one of his most cherished endeavors will not come to fruition before he leaves office, if ever.

The mayor’s plan, which he pitched as a novel effort to combat obesity, aroused worldwide curiosity and debate — and the ire of the American soft-drink industry, which undertook a multimillion-dollar campaign to block it, flying banners from airplanes over Coney Island, plastering subway stations with advertisements and filing the lawsuit that led to the ruling.

Amazingly enough, Bloomberg actually wants to appeal the decision. One can only hope that it leads to a further legal humiliation for America’s Official Officious Meddler. And kudos to Judge Tingling, who pulled no punches in describing the soda ban as the misguided, overweening effort that it was.

If he really wants to fix things and solve problems, why doesn’t he do something about New York’s atrocious school system?

It’s an education bombshell.

Nearly 80 percent of New York City high school graduates need to relearn basic skills before they can enter the City University’s community college system.

The number of kids behind the 8-ball is the highest in years, CBS 2′s Marcia Kramer reported Thursday.

When they graduated from city high schools, students in a special remedial program at the Borough of Manhattan Community College couldn’t make the grade.

They had to re-learn basic skills — reading, writing and math — first before they could begin college courses.

Officials told CBS 2′s Kramer that nearly 80 percent of those who graduate from city high schools arrived at City University’s community college system without having mastered the skills to do college-level work.

Why doesn’t Michael Bloomberg take on this problem? Why hasn’t he in the past? Could it be because taking on this problem would mean having to take on the teachers’ unions, and Bloomberg is too scared to do that?

UPDATE: I swear that I didn’t see this blog post before writing my own.

America’s most officious meddler mayor is back:

Now listen up, if you can.

Mayor Bloomberg — who has already cracked down on smoking, junk food, trans fats, salt and super-sized drinks — is embarking on a new crusade: preventing New Yorkers from going deaf.

Hizzoner’s health officials are planning a social-media campaign to warn young people about the risk of losing their hearing from listening to music at high volume on personal MP3 players, The Post has learned.

“With public and private support, a public-education campaign is being developed to raise awareness about safe use of personal music players … and risks of loud and long listening,” said Nancy Clark, the city Health Department’s assistant commissioner of environmental-disease prevention.

The campaign, which will cost $250,000, is being financed through a grant received from the Fund for Public Health, the Health Department’s fund-raising arm.

Of course, it’s plenty dumb to listen to extra loud music and podcasts, and risk losing one’s hearing as a consequence. But why must the mayor of New York once again play Metropolitan/National Nanny regarding the issue?

Bloomberg is weird in other ways as well, He seems to believe that homeless shelters in New York city are being overrun by rich people looking for a roof over their heads. Because of course, if you park your private jet in New York, the first thing you think of is not your favorite room at the Waldorf. No, the first thing you think of is securing your preferred spot at the homeless shelter of your choice.

To be fair to Bloomberg, he does have his virtues. For example, he accepts that government has no right whatsoever to force you to exercise.

At least, he accepts that for the moment.

Seriously?

Take a big gulp, New York: Hizzoner is about to give you a pop.

Nanny Bloomberg unleashes his ban on large sodas on March 12 — and there are some nasty surprises lurking for hardworking families.

Say goodbye to that 2-liter bottle of Coke with your pizza delivery, pitchers of soft drinks at your kid’s birthday party and some bottle-service mixers at your favorite nightclub.

They’d violate Mayor Bloomberg’s new rules, which prohibit eateries from serving or selling sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces.

Bloomberg’s soda smackdown follows his attacks on salt, sugar, trans fat, smoking and even baby formula.

[…]

And consumers, especially families, will soon see how the rules will affect their wallets — forcing them to pay higher unit prices for smaller bottles.

Typically, a pizzeria charges $3 for a 2-liter bottle of Coke. But under the ban, customers would have to buy six 12-ounce cans at a total cost of $7.50 to get an equivalent amount of soda.

Because of course, people are utterly incapable of making these decisions on their own, right?

A new mayor cannot arrive on the scene in the Big Apple fast enough.

I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, but I have had loved ones go to the hospital to undergo significant surgical procedures. The aftermath of those surgeries presented said loved ones with significant rehabilitation demands which were made all the more daunting because of the post-operative pain involved.

When said loved ones—and any other patient, for that matter—experiences that pain, s/he is supposed to tell a doctor, who then adjusts pain medication accordingly. The rule set down by physicians is that you aren’t supposed to try to be a hero; if you are in pain, you are supposed to say so, and you are supposed to get the appropriate amount of medication for your pain as a consequence. That certainly was the rule when I had gum recession surgery this past October. I was instructed to take medication to proactively suppress the pain, not to chase pain by skimping on my medication—only to take it when I couldn’t bear the discomfort.

Of course, different people are differently medicated and need different doses of medication. I received a prescription for oxycodone when I had my procedure, but I didn’t have to take a single pill; ibuprofen was more than sufficient to do the job in managing whatever discomfort I felt. And of course, physicians are supposed to be careful about how and what they prescribe, since we don’t want to turn patients into addicts.

But it would be best to leave these kinds of decisions to the doctor and his/her patient. So when an officious, meddling busybody decides that he is in the best position to decide who gets painkillers and who doesn’t, and when said officious, meddling busybody declares that it is okay if some people “suffer” as a consequence of his decision, I tend to get more than a little upset. And you should get more than a little upset too.

Dealing with physical pain as the result of a particular ailment retards one’s ability to recover from that ailment. Michael Bloomberg ought to know that. Banning sixteen ounce soda sales was a stupid enough thing for him and his administration to do—especially since people could simply purchase two eight ounce sodas in order to get around the ban. But this decision is … well, look at the title of this post.