Adding Music to Your Blog

Many have asked...

it is possible and easy...

I added 3 songs to my Economics Blog

check it out, it is on the sidebar...scroll down and you will see it.

Remember Blogger Help is your friend. It has answer to questions you have not though yet.

Click here for details.

I used imeem for my first experiment. 5 minutes later I had 3 songs posted. It was very user friendly.

Try the others ones as well. Automatic background music may or may not be an option. Look and see. But a short play list could enhance many of the blogs.

Good luck with it.

Chapter 3: Lecture notes

Click here for the notes.

Be able to list the agents of socialization.

Be able to list trends in contemporary political culture.

Blogging for AP Teachers

Click here for the basic rubric.

Click here for basic info on setting up class blogs.

Teachers,

Feel free to revise the rubric as needed to meet your needs.

I will revise the set-up instructions as needed to clarify issues and address problems you may experience.

AP Teachers of Comparative Government

I thought this would be a great way to assist you in learning more about incorporating current events blogging in your classroom.

I started blogging for my economics class at http://mayfieldeconclass.blogspot.com/
during the summer. I found it to be an easy way to get all of the interesting things that I read and wanted to share with my class organized and easy to find in the future.

I got the opportunity to take over the AP Comparative Government class in January. They had been doing a traditional current events project. I did not want to change that aspect of the class, but I wanted to add the use of technology. I set up a few blogs, created a rubric for assessing blog posts, and we started blogging.

So far, so good...

Let me know if I can assist or help you in any way.

Hey Guys: We Have Been Discovered

I received a great e-mail from Ken Wedding at http://compgovpol.blogspot.com/

He is interested in publicizing our blogging efforts on his blog.

We have an opportunity to be a model for other AP classes in how to use our current events blogging project in the classroom.

You may want to make a post on your blogs so you can answer questions that other teachers and students may have blogging.

Keep up the good work...others are watching:)

Suharto, Former Indonesian Dictator, Dies at 86

Suharto whose 32-year dictatorship was one of the most brutal and corrupt of the 20th century, died Sunday in Jakarta. He was 86…

Mr. Suharto was driven from office in 1998 by widespread rioting, economic paralysis and political chaos. His rule was not without accomplishment; he led Indonesia to stability and nurtured economic growth. But these successes were ultimately overshadowed by his pervasive and large-scale corruption; repressive, militarized rule; and a convulsion of mass bloodletting when he seized power in the late 1960s that took at least 500,000 lives.

As the leader of one of the world’s most populous countries, Mr. Suharto and his family became notorious for controlling state enterprises and taking kickbacks for government contracts, for siphoning money from state charities and for committing gross violations of human rights.

Yet Mr. Suharto remained virtually untouchable to the end, even as his successors in a new democratic system repudiated his rule. He was never charged with the killings committed under his command, and managed to escape criminal prosecution for embezzling millions of dollars, possibly billions, by having himself declared mentally incapable to stand trial….

In the following years, governing through consensus, traditional mysticism, military repression and authoritarian control, President Suharto restored order to the country and presided over an era of substantial development. Many Indonesians benefited from his programs, but none more so than members of his family, who became billionaires many times over. Last year, he topped a new list of world leaders who had stolen from state coffers. The list, by the United Nations and the World Bank, cited an estimate that he had embezzled $15 billion to $35 billion.

read the New York Times article

Another corrupt, brutal dictator is dead.

Chapter 3 Key Terms

Key are the terms for Chapter 3.

Click here.

Reagan: "Mr. Gorbachev,Tear Down This Wall"

Anarchist Petition

Roderick Long has started an on-line petition to abolish the US government.

Click here for his blog post.

Click here for his blog.

Long describes himself as "an Aristotelean/Wittgensteinian in philosophy and a left-libertarian market anarchist in social theory."

He is also a professor of philosophy at Auburn University.

Chapter 3: Political Culture and Political Socialization

This chapter will give us the opportunity to talk about the different political quizzes.

Be sure to take them. Print, mark, or remember your score or placement.

We will get to talk about them in class.

All Blogs Have Been Assessed

Very good job for the 1st time.

There are a issues that need to be addressed, but they can be fixed easily.

Basic Issues
1. Make the required number of posts
2. included all of the required elements
3. place all of the required elements in the correct order
4. avoid duplicating a post of a team member (don't use the same source)
5. neatness, especially spacing (if paragraph spacing messes up, delete the post and start over)
6. write "Grade this post" at the very end for the posts you want me to grade
7. don't be afraid to make more than 3 posts
8. make sure the color scheme is readable

Again, good job overall.

There will be a new rubric Tuesday.

Deadline Thursday 11:59 PM for Friday presentations

Chapter 2 Test Info

Format:

Matching
Multiple Choice
Short Answer: 1. list, describe, explain system functions
2. Compare large-N and small-N studies

Hope this helps.

Chapter 2 lecture notes

Chapter 2 lecture notes: click here

2008 Economic Freedom

Click here to find your country.

This something that everyone needs to include.

Did your country move up or down?

Remember Your Passwords

Chapter 2:Key Terms

Hope this helps.

Click here.

Bush Speech About Iran

President Bush said Sunday that Iran is threatening the security of the world, and that the United States and Arab allies must join together to confront the danger "before it's too late."

Bush said Iran funds terrorist extremists, undermines peace in Lebanon, sends arms to the Taliban, seeks to intimidate its neighbors with alarming rhetoric, defies the United Nations and destabilizes the entire region by refusing to be open about its nuclear program.

"Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terror," Bush said...

"Iran's actions threaten the security of nations everywhere," Bush said. "So the United States is strengthening our long-standing security commitments with our friends in the Gulf, and rallying friends around the world to confront this danger before it is too late."....

Bush said advancing democracy and freedom is the core of his administration's foreign policy and critical to U.S. security....

read the CNN story

The would an interesting story for the Iran blog groups to follow. Focusing on Iranian reaction.

European Union

27 members.

Interactive map with country info

Chapter 1 Info

Here are lecture notes I made while reading. It includes the best definition I could find for all of the terms as well.

Click the link below.
lecture notes

Hopefully this will help.

Also read/re-read the summary might be helpful.

Read the other posts below about the Treaty of Westphalia and Lighthouses.

Treaty of Westphalia

click map to enlarge

Treaty of Westphalia: October 24, 1648

A peace treaty between the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of France and their respective Allies.

The peace marked the end of the supremacy of the Holy Roman Empire and the emergence of France as a dominant power. It recognized the sovereignty of the German states, Switzerland, and the Netherlands; Lutherans, Calvinists, and Roman Catholics were given equal rights.

full text of the treaty

Lighthouses: Private Sector Collective Good

“The Lighthouse in Economics,” Ronald Coase’s renowned 1974 essay in the Journal of Law and Economics

Until that time, conventional wisdom from John Stuart Mill to Paul Samuelson had claimed that the lighthouse was the quintessential “public good,” which allegedly had to be provided by government due to the inherent free-riding of those who could not be charged for the services being provided. Coase showed, however, that in Britain, “contrary to the belief of many economists, a lighthouse service can be provided by private enterprise... The lighthouses were built, operated, financed and owned by private individuals, who could sell a lighthouse or dispose of it by bequest. The role of the government was limited to the establishment and enforcement of property rights in the lighthouse.” Only later did the British government consolidate all lighthouse services under its own monopoly in order to eliminate competition and directly reap the financial benefits developed by private entrepreneurs.

In addition to exposing the fallacies of a favorite public-goods rationalization, Coase’s essay rescued the lighthouse as a symbol of courage, enlightenment and independence.

source: the Independent Institute

Additional Readings:

The Lighthouse as a Private-Sector Collective Good

Was Coase Right About Lighthouses?

The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies

In theory, democracy is a bulwark against socially harmful policies. In practice, however, democracies frequently adopt and maintain policies that are damaging. How can this paradox be explained?

The influence of special interests and voter ignorance are two leading explanations. I offer an alternative story of how and why democracy fails. The central idea is that voters are worse than ignorant; they are, in a word, irrational—and they vote accordingly. Despite their lack of knowledge, voters are not humble agnostics; instead, they confidently embrace a long list of misconceptions.

Economic policy is the primary activity of the modern state. And if there is one thing that the public deeply misunderstands, it is economics. People do not grasp the "invisible hand" of the market, with its ability to harmonize private greed and the public interest. I call this anti-market bias. They underestimate the benefits of interaction with foreigners. I call this anti-foreign bias. They equate prosperity not with production, but with employment. I call this make-work bias. Finally, they are overly prone to think that economic conditions are bad and getting worse. I call this pessimistic bias.

In the minds of many, Winston Churchill's famous aphorism cuts the conversation short: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." But this saying overlooks the fact that governments vary in scope as well as form. In democracies the main alternative to majority rule is not dictatorship, but markets. A better understanding of voter irrationality advises us to rely less on democracy and more on the market.

read the Bryan Caplan essay

Blog Project: Questions, Problems, etc

Let me know about any problems, issues, etc.

Example Post Below

It meets all of the criteria

1 point—title (appropriate title for the post)

2 points—visual (picture, chart, table, graph, etc)

3 points—excerpt (limit to 5 paragraph max.); relevant, reputable source

note: use the quote button to automatically indent and give a different color to excerpts

1 point—link to the source

1 point—label (appropriate label(s) for the blog archive)

don't worry about multiple labels

2 points—significance (why is this important)

why was the event worth blogging about

So this post would get all 10 points.

Fighting in Israel

Four Palestinians were killed Sunday as a result of fighting in the area of al-Breij, in central Gaza, Palestinian security sources said...

The spokeswoman said IDF forces were carrying out a routine operation against the "terrorist infrastructure."

The operation was aimed against militants firing rockets at Israeli troops in southern Israel, she said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said at the weekly cabinet meeting that last Thursday's firing of long-range rockets that reached Ashkelon "was an escalation in terror activity."

read the CNN story

Terrorism, military action, and general unrest is volatile region can have major regional and global impact.