One good word for our public schools

I'm informed by my brother "Sanford" that my visaless exchange article has been reprinted in the newspaper of my childhood and youth, The Atlantic City Press*, but I find no evidence on the Press' own site. I am also informed that Reason fave Michelle Malkin's column is regularly syndicated in the Press and that her bio line identifies Malkin as a graduate of regional Holy Spirit High School, but that my own line fails to tag me as a graduate of Atlantic City High School.

While I retain few fond memories of ACHS, I am proud of having graduated The High School (and I mean The High School, the now-demolished bombproof castle on Albany Avenue, not the cushy new palace on the Black Horse Pike). I'm also content to have avoided attending Holy Spirit. So upon my prodigal return, I will not carp that it is Malkin who gets the fatted calf. Instead I rejoice that two South Jerseyans have returned to infuriate our own people.

* Clarification of exaggeration: My paper was the Atlantic City Daily Tribune, for which I was gainfully employed throughout the two weeks of its existence.

Comments

happyjuggler0 | May 30, 2006, 1:08am | #

I checked out the link you provided. I couldn't find your article either, but I did find this which strikes me as well-reasoned:

No Such Thing As Price Gouging article

Eric II | May 30, 2006, 1:11am | #

her bio line identifies Malkin as a graduate of regional Holy Spirit High School

Dear God - as if I didn't have enough contempt for my alma mater enough as it was. Though for at least a few reasons, I can't find it too hard to believe that Malkin hails from it. Just as it didn't surprise me that Chris Ford went there. Given her reported age, I might have a cousin or two capable of relaying an interesting story about her.

Warren | May 30, 2006, 1:29am | #

Great article Tim. I recently encountered support from an unexpected source. My father believes that one of the fundamental roles of government is redistributing wealth. We often clash over politics. I was therefore surprised, when the conversation turned to immigration, to hear him declare, "if I had it my way, I'd do away with the border altogether". He wasn't especially suggesting that we allow more immigration however. His point was that the border was a big waste. Illegal immigrants get past the border and we have to hunt them down in the interior. He thinks we'd save a lot of time and money if we just enforced the laws same as we do now, do away with the border, and let traffic flow.

This issue saddens me more than most that there is so little support for the libertarian position. The consequential suffering seems more direct and visible than it does with say school choice. I'll tell you how sad I am, I'm too depressed to drink.

jf | May 30, 2006, 1:36am | #

happyjuggler0,

That was a great article, although the tagline was interesting:

Alex Epstein is a junior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute.

Patrick | May 30, 2006, 2:17am | #

Ah, Tim, The nuns at Holy Spirit would have taught you proper English, so you wouldn't be writing such illiteracies as "I am proud of having graduated The High School..." One graduates FROM high school, lad. Get yourself a good grammar book to undo the harm they've done you in that Protestant excuse for a school.

me | May 30, 2006, 6:29am | #

I'm glad you corrected him. I had no idea what he meant without that preposition.

Phileleutherus Lipsiensis | May 30, 2006, 7:27am | #

Tim Cavanaugh,

"They, too, do wrong who would debar foreigners from enjoying the advantages of their city and would exclude them from its borders... Still, to debar foreigners from enjoying the advantages of the city is altogether contrary to the laws of humanity."

-- Cicero, De Officiis, III xi. 47

http://www.constitution.org/rom/de_officiis.htm

Eric II | May 30, 2006, 9:33am | #

Ah, Tim, The nuns at Holy Spirit would have taught you proper English

I don't know whether to find that funny or sad. The one nun that I did have as a teacher, in addition to not being the shiniest penny in the fountain, was a borderline Marxist when it came to economic issues. In fact, she actually managed to show a couple of films during her class glorifying proponents of liberation theology.

The school's AP English teacher, on the other hand, was pretty damn good. But if even half the stories about her past are true, then she was pretty far removed from being a nun.

Tim Cavanaugh | May 30, 2006, 11:16am | #

One graduates FROM high school, lad.

Why stop there, Patrick? Why not say I WAS graduated from high school, and went on to be matriculated at university, where I read liberal arts and took holiday at the weekend?

R C Dean | May 30, 2006, 1:04pm | #

This is a recipe for even more of a police state than we have now:

He thinks we'd save a lot of time and money if we just enforced the laws same as we do now, do away with the border, and let traffic flow.

Down that road lies national ID cards, no-knock searches of jobsites and rental housing, and certainly no savings of time and money. It is far less damaging to the civil liberties of the nation to catch an illegal crossing the border than to track them down in the interior.