The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and the Establishment of Medical Impairment Panels: Are the Two Safely Compatible?

At least two proposals have been offered by prominent members of the medical community to establish “Medical Impairment Panels” to monitor the health of Presidents of the United States and to facilitate the implementation of relevant Sections of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. The first discussed in this Article was made by Dr. Herbert Abrams, a now deceased professor of radiology at Stanford University; the second by Dr. Bert Park, a prominent Missouri neurosurgeon. Dr. Abrams and Dr. Park spoke and wrote about their plans frequently over the years. The objective of each proposal was to ensure that the Vice President, the Cabinet, and Congress are informed as to situations when a President might be seriously impaired in terms of carrying out his or her official responsibilities as President of the United States. This Article assesses each proposal in turn

The Twenty-Fifth Amendment and the Establishment of Medical Impairment Panels: Are the Two Safely Compatible?

At least two proposals have been offered by prominent members of the medical community to establish “Medical Impairment Panels” to monitor the health of Presidents of the United States and to facilitate the implementation of relevant Sections of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment. The first discussed in this Article was made by Dr. Herbert Abrams, a now deceased professor of radiology at Stanford University; the second by Dr. Bert Park, a prominent Missouri neurosurgeon. Dr. Abrams and Dr. Park spoke and wrote about their plans frequently over the years. The objective of each proposal was to ensure that the Vice President, the Cabinet, and Congress are informed as to situations when a President might be seriously impaired in terms of carrying out his or her official responsibilities as President of the United States. This Article assesses each proposal in turn

The Presidential Office and the President As Party Leader

Syftet med studien är att undersöka kommunikationsmönster hos fem biologilärare på gymnasiet och deras elevgrupper med fokus på frågor. Frågeställningarna avser att undersöka i vilken omfattning lärare och elever ställer frågor och vilka typer av frågor som ställs. Studien analyserar vilka ramfaktorer lärare och elever anser påverkar kommunikationsmönster i form av frågor. Kvantitativ och kvalitativ data har samlats in genom observationer i klassrum, intervjuer med lärare och enkätundersökning med eleverna. Kvantitativ data har analyserats med hjälp av en statistisk programvara, SIMCA-P+. Resultatet visade att frågor utgör en stor del av den kommunikation som sker i ett klassrum, vid jämförelse av olika lärare och elevgrupper är det stor skillnad i hur många och vilka typer av frågor som ställs. Kommunikationsmönstret styrs främst av vilken lärare eller elevgrupp som observerats, därefter kommer undervisningens utformning. Elevenkäterna visade att i vilken grad eleverna förstår, undervisningens utformning och klassrumsklimatet är viktiga ramfaktorer för kommunikation i form av frågor

James R. Killian, Jr., Sputnik, and Eisenhower: White House Science Advice and the Reformation of American Science Education, 1955-1958

This paper chronicles the often-overlooked relationship between President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Dr. James R. Killian, Jr., the first-ever appointed Presidential Science Advisor. Emphasis is placed on the role of Dr. Killian and the President’s Science Advisory Committee (PSAC) in advocating curricular reform in the fields of science and mathematics, a reformation which became doubly important following the successful launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik I in 1957. This essay examines the efforts of Eisenhower and Killian to keep pace with the Russian scientific advances by improving American education in the scientific and technical fields. It concludes with a discussion of the National Defense Education Act of 1958 and Killian’s efforts to see the piece of legislation enacted

Hope, Hate and Indignation: Spinoza on Political Emotion in the Trump Era

Can we ever have politics without the noble lie? Can we have a collective political identity that does not exclude or define ‘us’ as ‘not them’? In the Ethics, Spinoza argues that individual human emotions and imagination shape the social world. This world, he argues, can in turn be shaped by political institutions to be more or less hopeful, more or less rational, or more or less angry and indignant. In his political works, Spinoza offered suggestions for how to shape a political imaginary and create collective identities that are more guided by hope than by fear or anger. In this talk, using the framework of Spinoza's theory of emotions, I will investigate how Barack Obama's promise of 'hope' was translated into Donald Trump's rhetoric of hate. Such a transition, from hope to fear is one that would be unsurprising to Spinoza. Spinoza worried about the political and personal effectiveness of hope. He argued that hope can easily be turned into what he called ‘indignatio’ or indignation – an emotion that he believed eroded trust in political institutions and was the limit of state power. Spinoza warned about the danger of governance that relies upon the emotions of anger and hatred. In the Ethics, Spinoza painstakingly reconstructs the way in which individual emotions, ideas and motivations are shaped within social worlds. He argued that emotions based on pain, including hatred and indignation, diminish the power of the individuals who experience them and the political collective in which those individuals reside. Anger, fear and indignation weaken the state. In the second section of the paper, I will set out how the Trump administration’s reliance on the motivational forces of hate and anger risk what Spinoza called indignation. Trump's reliance on exclusionary conceptions of American identity have fanned the flames of racial, ethnic and religious hatred to motivate his base have had widespread social and political effects. I will offer arguments and examples which bear out the Spinozan worries about the effects of anger and indignation on the political and the social. Spinoza’s political works were written not just to explain the worries about an angry and indignant multitude, but also to show how to turn political indignation and anger into a chastened, and perhaps more rational, hope. Finally, I will propose that we may derive from Spinoza participatory, democratic institutions and collective identities that can overcome this indignation

Because I Said So and Other Notions of Authority: An Advanced Course on Communication and Power

Many college students have inconsistent knowledge of historic and policy contexts where communication and power have played a key role. As Anton Ego, Ratatouillefood critic would say, “What we need is some perspective.” We have found one avenue for the development of such perspective is an advanced course for the consideration of power or, more accurately, the examination of powerlessness and how communication can be brought to bear for both the manifestation and limitation of power. By examining those factors that render one less powerful and historic instances that are glaring in this regard, the student can better understand communication as a valuable tool and better prepare themselves to use their communication skills to improve the world. This paper will describe our 400 level seminar course on the subject of power and communication