SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:54 P.M. ET: 

AL SAYS GOODBYE – FROM FOX:    U.S. Sen. Al Franken said goodbye to staff members and supporters in Minneapolis on Thursday night, in his first public appearance in Minnesota since being accused of sexual harassment.  Franken will officially step down from the Senate on Tuesday, with his successor – Minnesota Lt. Gov. Tina Smith – scheduled to be sworn in Wednesday to complete Franken’s term, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported.  The Democrat, a former "Saturday Night Live" writer and performer, said he didn't know what to expect when he first ran for office, “and of course, neither did Minnesotans.”  I was not a political supporter of his, but I hate to see anyone destroyed before getting a true day in court.  This business of guilt based only on accusation is grossly un-American.

GREAT MOMENTS IN EDUCATION – FROM FOX:    A math education professor at the University of Illinois says the ability to solve geometry and algebra problems and teaching such subjects perpetuates so-called white privilege.  Rochelle Gutierrez laid out her views on the subject in an article for a newly published anthology for math educators titled, “Building Support for Scholarly Practices in Mathematics Methods.”  “School mathematics curricula emphasizing terms like Pythagorean Theorem and pi perpetuate a perception that mathematics was largely developed by Greeks and other Europeans," she says, according to Campus Reform.  She also says that addressing equity in mathematics education will come when teachers can understand and negotiate the politics outside the classroom.  “On many levels, mathematics itself operates as whiteness. Who gets credit for doing and developing mathematics, who is capable in mathematics, and who is seen as part of the mathematical community is generally viewed as white,” she writes.  Further, she says mathematics operates with unearned privilege in society, “just like whiteness.”  I'm so glad someone told me this.  I will never again add up my supermarket bill in front of a guy from India, even if he has a Ph.D.  I will show respect. 

PREPARING FOR THE BIG EVENT – FROM AM NEWYORK:  More cops, more bomb-sniffing dogs and more police snipers than ever are being deployed by the NYPD for New Year’s Eve to protect the 2 million spectators expected to cram Times Square to usher in 2018, department leaders said Thursday.
“People will be safe, and they should feel safe, too,” NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said at police headquarters in lower Manhattan.  Terence A. Monahan, the NYPD’s patrol chief, said that beginning at 11 a.m. Sunday, crosstown traffic would be shut from 37th to 59th streets and Sixth to Eighth avenues, and the area will be sealed off with concrete barriers, blocker cars and sand trucks. There will be truck restrictions on those avenues from 34th to 59th streets in effect at 11 a.m., he said.  To stop a suicide bomber from detonating an explosive like the one set off Dec. 11 under the Port Authority bus terminal, police officers will search celebrants twice, once when approaching the Times Square area, then again at each pen — with dogs trained to sniff air off a person’s body, by metal detectors and by officers who look through each person’s bags.  I suspect that the predicted cold will keep the crowd size down, which will make it easier for the police.  But the NYPD is on the job, and is particularly sensitive to terror.

December 28, 2017