In his new book, War Against the Weak, investigative reporter Edwin Black makes the case that 20th century American proponents of eugenics — the belief that controlled breeding can improve humanity — had substantive ties to the architects of Hitler’s racial extermination machine. — Dan Vergano —Book explores eugenics’ origins (USA Today)

A student in my “Seminar in Thinking and Writing” class blurted out, as part of a long and fairly entertaining rant/critique of a recent attempt to scare freshmen and athletes away from unsafe behavior, that a certain person (not someone in the room, someone in the news) was unfit to breed.

We had a lot to cover that day, so I couldn’t really follow up on her comment. Besides, in that class I work fairly hard not to let them know my opinions, because I don’t want them to think that their job is to parrot my opinions. I’ve blogged about eugenics before.