Say You're Sorry. "OK, You're Sorry."

Bill Keller: Who's Sorry Now?. A very interesting piece about how we Americans have mastered the art of the non-apology apology. Perhaps, Keller says, we need to move past the scripted mea culpa and instead focus on the "making up for it" part. And perhaps Frist has something to make up for — be sure to read this to the end.

Digging a Deeper Hole

Steven Mufson: Bush and North Korea: Where's the Big Stick?. "But the administration has not appeared to have any strategy at all for exacting that price [for North Korea's violation of the Agreed Framework]. It did not make demands, as it has with Iraq. It did not make any proposals, declaring that it would not 'negotiate' until North Korea gave up all its nuclear weapons programs. Meanwhile, Pyongyang is moving ahead. A U.S. official was quoted in The Post last week as saying that the administration is playing hardball now. One observer quipped that so far it was doing nothing but taking strikes."

The asymmetry between the Bush administration's reaction to Iraq, which doesn't pose an immediate threat to the US, and North Korea, which is doing all it can to pose an immediate threat to the US, is something I just don't understand. The cynic in me wants to say, "it's all about the oil", but that seems like such a moronic rationale for letting the Korean situation start to spin out of control that even I have a hard time believing that's what Bush is thinking. But what other answer is there?

Reform that Isn't

New York Times: More Schools Rely on Tests, but Study Raises Doubts. "Rigorous testing that decides whether students graduate, teachers win bonuses and schools are shuttered, an approach already in place in more than half the nation, does little to improve achievement and may actually worsen academic performance and dropout rates, according to the largest study ever on the issue."

Pushing standardized tests has always been the first choice of those who want to have their say on education, but who lack any real insight into what is wrong with the current system, and what needs to be done to fix it. Talking about testing and accountability might sound good during the campaign, but it shouldn't be any surprise that this kind of "reform" is counterproductive.