This had to happen. At least these books are good for something.
President Obama is shocked, shocked that incompetence pervades the bureaucratic structures of U.S. security agencies and he is ordering changes. This is a political ploy–Express outrage at areas of your responsibility and then try to look magisterial as you fix something that should have never been broken. Although as long as terror bombers go flash rather than boom, there’s more startle than terror.
from the book: Shadow Dancing on the Grave of Hope:
Caricaturing most of what passes for social sciences is like fishing in a barrel with a hand grenade. Many of the things in current practice are so grotesque that we will wonder one day how they every could have been taken seriously, let alone done on a large scale. This true for Facilitated Communication, false memories, psychotherapy for alien abductions, Whole Language, in-depth psychotherapy, Interventions and many other data-free movements reviewed in this book.
"Facts don’t win cases.", is a lawyer’s pragmatic maxim. A jury trial is entertainment and the prosecution and defence are judged on amusement, believability and drama. Facts should inform and control social science programs, but decisions are usually based on who puts on the best show. Unfortunately, there are always people who can put on a show and others who are willing to applaud. If there is no consequence for failure or success, those who control programs will choose programs which are the most entrancing. As the programs I have reviewed show many times, the more powerful the results, the less frequently the technique is used. This is not due to active avoidance of good programs, but to active embrace of useless ones, although effective programs are much more difficult than the ones typically employed and will be avoided by those who have a choice.
There are very negative effects of implementing nonsense as seen with Whole Language, repressed memory, Facilitated Communication, multiple personalities, talking "depth" therapies, manipulatives and "whole mathematics" teaching, invented spelling and various kinds of ineffective programming in all areas. The negative effects weigh on the clients and those who suffer collateral legal damage while the practitioners get status and money. No teacher, principal or educational administrator has ever lost a penny of pay for failure to teach any of the hundreds of students I have seen in 36 years. The Law of Consequences tells us that the public education system is no more capable of producing effective education than the Soviet economy was of making reliable cars, tractors, computers or toilet paper.
Cheerio and ttfn,
Grant Coulson
Cui Bono–Cherchez les Contingencies
