DAN MITCHELL: Europe’s Riots, America’s Future.
Archive for September, 2010
September 30, 2010
BARELY LEGAL Sea Bass? Shockingly, not a niche porn-market.
UPDATE: Bob Owens emails: “Hey, some fisherman just want a little tail.” I’m sure there’s a jail-bait joke in there somewhere, too.
JOEL KOTKIN: California’s Failed Statesmen. “Right now neither party seems focused on the state’s future besides enriching their core constituencies.”
SOME GOOD NEWS FOR commercial spaceflight.
VIDEO: The Night Jon Stewart Turned On President Obama. “We came, we saw, we sucked.”
DIGITAL SIGHT that could cure blindness. Faster, please.
IN THE MAIL: From Claire Berlinski, There Is No Alternative: Why Margaret Thatcher Matters.
This week, President Obama called for the hiring of 10,000 new teachers to beef up math and science achievement. Meanwhile, in America, Earth, Sol-System, public school employment has grown 10 times faster than enrollment for 40 years (see chart), while achievement at the end of high school has stagnated in math and declined in science (see other chart).
Either the president is badly misinformed about our education system or he thinks that promising to hire another 10,000 teachers union members is politically advantageous–in which case he would seem to be badly misinformed about the present political climate. Or he lives in an alternate universe in which Kirk and Spock have facial hair and government monopolies are efficient. It’s hard to say.
I’m having a lot of Bearded Spock moments lately . . . .
WHAT SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT do about airports? “In many places, a combination of zoning, and the local authorities who often run the airports, means that there’s no meaningful competition. The result is that they don’t have to do anything to please passengers, and boy, they sure don’t.”
SO IS THIS THE “HOPE,” OR THE “CHANGE?” Now, More Bad News: The ‘New Normal’ is Here to Stay.
AN ENDOGENOUS VIRUS that’s not a retrovirus. “Finding these viruses fossilised in songbird genomes tells us that they were once infecting these birds, like hepatitis B is infecting humans today.”
IS SPAIN cooking its books?
THE ANATOMY of evil.
JIM TREACHER: Gloria Allred makes accusation against California Republican gubernatorial candidate on eve of election. “I realize I need to be more specific. After trying and failing with Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003, this time Allred is striking at Meg Whitman.”
PROFESSORS: “Why do they hate us?” Backlash against New Class overreach. . . . Plus, from the comments: “Interesting that Benton’s take is largely that they just don’t understand us. Maybe they understand us too well. The academy is currently very out of step with the values and beliefs of mainstream America. Whether that is good or bad, it has consequences. And our response again is that they don’t get it. We have all the answers and we rarely show the willingness to question our own orthodoxy.” I think it’s also the sense that education has been oversold, to its consumers’ detriment and its producers’ advantage.
The discussion in the comments is pretty interesting. There’s also this: “I’m not nearly as worried about what the general public thinks of professors as I am about what the college administrators think of us. If we have enemies, and arguably we do, that’s where most of them live.” Well, that’s where most of the bloat comes from.
ILLINOIS: A history lesson for Phil Hare.
CLASS M PLANET DISCOVERED: Newly discovered planet may be first truly habitable exoplanet.
CHANGE: WELL, NOT SO MUCH. “Commerce released its final revision of the annualized rate of growth from the second quarter. Initially estimated at 2.4% in July, the number got sharply revised to 1.6% in August. Now, with the final numbers in place, economic growth still looks moribund.”
BONNIE AND CLYDE DIRECTOR ARTHUR PENN has died. I hadn’t realized that he was Irving Penn’s brother.
HOTLINE: Democrats Aren’t Staging A Comeback. “Democrats are only experiencing the benefits of a base that is finally engaging. That base will help some Democratic candidates, but in total, the party still faces serious rehabilitation work with independent voters. The party’s major problems are most evident in three prominent races that are slowly, but inexorably, sliding toward Republicans.”
L.A. TIMES: Put The Brakes On Red Light Cameras. “An audit released Wednesday by City Controller Wendy Greuel turned up little evidence that cameras influence driver behavior. Accidents fell at 16 intersections in the six months after cameras were installed, but rose at 12 and stayed the same at four. That makes it pretty hard to make definitive conclusions either way. OK, but at least the cameras are generating revenue for the city, aren’t they? Actually, no. Greuel’s audit showed that the cameras not only didn’t bring in a dime for the city in 2008 and 2009, but cost it a combined $2.5 million in those years.”
ANOTHER ILLEGAL ARREST IN CONNECTICUT: Senior arrested after filming another student’s arrest.
While there are no laws on the books in Connecticut that make filming a police officer illegal, Quinnipiac senior Kenneth Hartford found out on Saturday night that it isn’t quite so simple. According to multiple witnesses, within minutes of Hartford beginning to film a Quinnipiac student being arrested outside of Toad’s Place in New Haven, an officer tackled and handcuffed him. Hartford was charged with Disorderly Conduct and Interfering with a Police Investigation. He went on to spend the night in jail at 24 Union Avenue.
In a short video that he took on his cell phone before his arrest (viewable above) officers can be heard swearing at Hartford. The officer who ultimately arrested Hartford said, “Put that in your fucking pocket and get the fuck out of here.” When Hartford then tried to capture the officer’s name and badge number on video, the officer shoved him away.
If the police are behaving properly, they have nothing to fear. If they are behaving improperly, then they should be in fear. This sounds improper to me.