Here is the third installment in our series of videos explaining the work and mission of our Preserve Innocence project.

Emmett McGroarty, Director of Preserve Innocence, talks about the problems in the math portion of the Iowa Core Curriculum.

The Iowa Core Math program and the elitism and adherence to education fads seen in its adoption are the subject of a recent Innocence Report:

If the video does not work, you can also view it directly on YouTube here.

Ashley Samelson comments on the latest episode in the Arizona imbroglio - proof positive that bad federal law, mishandled, brings about additional legal paradoxes at the state level.

An Institutionalized Oxymoron

The federal government has done some serious judicial dentist work on the Arizona immigration law. Specifically, U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton has removed the bill’s sharpest teeth, rendering Arizona’s latest effort to deal with its illegal immigration crisis lifeless.

The Politico Newsbreak announcing the development stated:

"A federal judge has blocked key provisions of a controversial Arizona law aimed at illegal immigrants. The judge blocked a requirement that police have to check the immigration status of detainees they reasonably suspect of being in the country illegally, and stopped part of the law that makes it a crime for immigrants to be in the state illegally.”

Can you read that without your head spinning? So police can detain someone they “reasonably suspect of being in the country illegally” and then what, have coffee with them? Because it’s no longer “illegal” to be in this country “illegally?”

In her ruling, Bolton writes, "Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully-present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked.”

Sign me up to be the first person who, if arrested, spends an extra two minutes while my legal citizenship is confirmed.

Much like the concept of a legal Cuban cigar, this federal ruling is little more than institutionalized oxymoron in the place of good rule of law. American citizens and the many hardworking legal immigrants in this country deserve better than that.

Ashley Samelson blogs about faith, feminism, and politics at www.rogueinrouge.com.

Photo Credit: Fred Smith