Sunday, January 11, 2009

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

"Beer and Circus" by Murray Sperber

"Beer and Circus" by Murray Sperber

"Beer and Circus" is an interesting book. I am not fan of “Big-Time College Sports” but I do not think they are the cause of the problem, but I agree nothing good comes of them. That said the book does give a good view of nasty and dirty places American colleges have become. Sports is only a small part of the problem, the tolerance and even promotion of promiscuity, drunkenness, and drugs are a much worse problem. It is a good book and title “beer and circus” is all too true.

Worse yet, which topic Sperber does not cover, is the student is given two choices marxist indoctrination or going to an orgy; the student that wants a “meaningful education” has little available to them.


Using original research culled from students, faculty and administrators around the country, he proves that many schools, because of their emphasis on research and graduate programs, no longer give a majority of their undergraduates a meaningful education. Instead, they offer a meager and dangerous substitute: the party scene surrounding college sports that Sperber calls “beer and circus,” and which serves to keep the students happy and distracted while the tuition dollars keep rolling in.

Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education by Murray Sperber

Murray Sperber:Beer and Circus

Beer and Circus(google books)

Beer and Circus: review by Paul Trout

Sale of Homemade toys and children’s products to be banned January 20th!

Sale of Homemade toys and children’s products to be banned January 20th!

Handmade Toy Alliance

Help Save Handmade Toys in the USA from the CPSIA

...The United States Congress rightly recognized that the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) lacked the authority and staffing to prevent dangerous toys from being imported into the US. So, they passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) in August, 2008. Among other things, the CPSIA bans lead and phthalates in toys, mandates third-party testing and certification for all toys and requires toy makers to permanently label each toy with a date and batch number… For small American, Canadian, and European toymakers and manufacturers of children’s products, however, the costs of mandatory testing will likely drive them out of business.



Also see:

New Law will ban the sale of many homemade children’s products.

Millons of homecrafters face bankruptcy after Jan 20 from new law

Handmade toys may soon be too expensive for U.S. consumers

Handmade; Organic; European Toy Producers at Risk

Is eBay going to ban handmade and used children items?

ALA Urges Congress To Correct Law That Inadvertently Targets Libraries, Publishers