Archive for 2011
February 13, 2011
NRA WEIGHS IN on the ATF gunrunning scandal. “BATFE’s desire to mandate reporting of multiple long gun sales by border area firearms dealers is questionable since BATFE seems incapable of managing the criminal leads it already has and unwilling to submit to constitutionally mandated Congressional oversight.”
VIDEO: Herman Cain’s Speech To CPAC.
Also Mitch Daniels’ speech at CPAC.
And interviews with Haley Barbour and Allen West.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE: In response to yesterday’s post on Rick Perry’s $10,000 B.A. proposal, reader Steve Schroeder writes:
While visiting with old college friends on New Years’ Eve we did a back of the envelope calculation on the cost and value of our BA degrees in Accounting from 1981. We attended a small well regarded Midwestern liberal arts college from 1977 to 1981. Tuition, room and board was between $3,000 and $4000 per year so around $16000 for our BA. As entry level accountants in public CPA firms we earned a salary of around $17,000 per year. So we earned in salary an amount equal to the cost of a BA degree in our first year of employment. Now that same college, which my youngest daughter is looking at attending costs $42,000 per year. If she earned her BA in Accounting it would cost her $168,000. Her possible first year salary as a CPA? Not even close to $168,000. Maybe around $45,000. What a change in 30 years in the value of that BA in Accounting.
Indeed. Many degrees have seen a similar decline in their return on investment. It’s because the return has (more or less) kept pace with inflation, while the required investment has run wildly ahead.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Reflections On The Revolution In Egypt. “And does the West invariably keep silent about Iran (cf. spring/summer 2009) because in some strange way, in Western eyes, its virulent anti-Americanism lends a veneer of authenticity, of genuineness, even as we confess that the theocracy has lost popular support — while we assume that Mubarak’s alliance de facto made him more suspect in our eyes? (Would CNN be euphoric at news that the streets of Havana are in uproar?)” Yes on the first, no on the second. For certain values of “we,” anyway. Any other questions?
And Hanson’s point about the gradual — and dishonest — turn of the Iranian revolution from something that looked middle-class and liberal to something that was, as always intended by Khomeini and his followers, theocratic and dictatorial is very apt.
Related: Michael Barone: The risk that 2/11/11 will end up like Iran’s 2/11/79.
AT AMAZON, markdowns on select laptops.
PREDICTION: The in-dash CD player will be dead by 2015.
Hey, we’re just now saying goodbye to the in-dash cassette deck!
PAUL RAHE: How To Think About The Tea Party.
Most important, it should be humbling to those elites that ordinary American citizens choose spontaneously to enter the political arena in droves, concert opposition, speak up in a forthright manner, and oust a host of entrenched office holders when they learn that a system of punitive taxation is in the offing, when they are repeatedly told what they know to be false—that, under the new health-care system that the administration is intent on establishing, benefits will be extended and costs reduced and no one will lose the coverage he already has—and when they discover that Medicare is to be gutted, that medical care is to be rationed, and that citizens who have no desire to purchase health insurance are going to be forced to do so. . . . What we are witnessing with the Tea Party movement is one of the periodic recurrences to fundamental principles that typify and revivify the American experiment in self-government.
Read the whole thing.
A DEEPLY DISCOUNTED radio-controlled helicopter. Hey, from $129 to $29 counts as “deep” in my book.
UPDATE: Reader Ron Drees writes: “Hey Glenn, my son bought two of these (since he just came off the rolls of the unemployed!) and we have our own mid air battles in the kitchen. At $30 each, you should do the same and challenge the Instadaughter, since her superior hand – eye coordination will soon overcome your experience and treachery!”
And reader Stewart Greathouse emails: “I bought one for myself at Christmas. I showed it to my coworkers, they were astounded at the quality and stability. We ended up buying 12 more. I gave one to my son at college, plus I sent 2 to my nephews in Singapore. Way better than Airhogs!”
And yeah, I cracked and ordered one. (Bumped, because people seem to like this).
In a world where it depends on what the meaning of is is, all the government needs to do is interpret. Regulating interstate commerce includes forcing people to buy things they don’t want to buy, and smoking includes not smoking. You can make anything you want be true, if you only believe. And “you” means “the government,” and “believe” means “dictate.”
Thus spake the Constitutional Law professor. And who would know better?
OWN A SECOND HOME IN NEW YORK? Prepare For A Higher Tax Bill! “I expect a massive sell-off of second homes. New York has some of the highest tax rates in the country. No one is going to voluntarily subject themselves to such rates just for the dubious privilege of having their own apartment in New York. There are hotels for that.”
February 12, 2011
OUCH: Sarah Palin drops the hammer on Time. Noting that even US Weekly caught on faster is really twisting the knife. . .
RHODES SCHOLAR REX MURPHY on Al Gore and Keith Olbermann’s smarts. “As Gore’s star pales and recedes, and as the furious sanctimonies of global warming meet resistance, perhaps fading Al sees something of a mirror image in the fall of Keith. And perhaps both of them sense that each of them has had his moment, that this moment is past, so maybe the only fun left is to join hands and mutually console for what little of the gig remains to either of them.”
MARKDOWNS ON Levis For Men.
RICK PERRY CALLS FOR $10,000 B.A. DEGREE: Democrats Respond That Proposal Will “Dumb Down” Texans. Hmm. You can get a computer for a lot less than you could a few years ago. Is the new computer dumber? And maybe Texas can cut a deal with the Khan Academy — and maybe even answer the certification problem.
More on Perry’s proposal here.
Perry was inspired by comments that Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp. and co-chairman of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, made at a conference in California, said Catherine Frazier , a spokeswoman. A video posted on YouTube captured some of Gates’ remarks.
“College, except for the parties, needs to be less place-based,” he said. Web-based instruction and other technology could drive the price down to $2,000 a year, he said.
Perry wrote to university regents last week , urging them to develop $10,000 degree programs and to scale up those programs so at least 10 percent of the sheepskins awarded by their schools are based on this approach. He said programs could include online classes, classes at no-frills campuses, credit for prior learning, credit for Advanced Placement classes in high school and other elements.
There’s room for increased efficiency. In particular, certification based on skills rather than time served, offers real potential.
UPDATE: A reader emails:
From your link: “After Perry’s speech, State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, asked reporters, ‘Now how many people do you know that stated they got a Ph.D or a law degree online which you hired to represent you in court?” No one who utters a sentence like that should be lecturing anyone on education policy.
Heh.
“DRACONIAN” CUTS IN PERSPECTIVE:
These cuts barely scratch the surface of our fiscal problems. With deficits like those we’ve been running, a $100 billion-dollar cut is little more than a rounding error.
That said, I’m pleased the Tea Party has scored a major victory in pushing House Republicans to cut at least that amount ”in spending this fiscal year“, but that still leaves us with a deficit larger than any in the Bush years (when that good man’s detractors, including your humble bloggers, were faulting congressional Republicans for their big-spending ways). . . . Indeed, the deficit this year will be at least twice that of any comparable period when we had a Republican president and Congress. To be sure, these cuts represent a step in the right direction, but given the size of the deficit, they amount to little more than a few drops in a very, big bucket.
Indeed, but they also represent momentum. More perspective on just how small they are, though, is here.
UPDATE: Bruce Bartlett thinks the GOP is cutting with an axe. I really don’t think that’s true, but he says that like it’s a bad thing.
What I’d say is that for the time being at least, across-the-board cuts are better than cutting with a “scalpel.” First , scalpels aren’t good for cutting very much at a time. Second, wielded by incompetents, scalpels don’t cut any more precisely. Now, how competent do you think our political class is?
If they cut with a “scalpel,” it’ll mostly be used to carve out exceptions for favored constituencies. I’d rather see an honest axe than a dishonest scalpel.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader John Hyer writes:
To me, this is where we find out if the Republicans are good politicians AND conservative. If they were to propose a 10% across the board cut, and let each department/agency deal with the new reality, they can’t lose. When some guy from the EPA comes out and says that cutting their budget by 10% will lead to massive poisoned water supplies, everyone will roll their eyes. I don’t know a single family that hasn’t cut their budget by 10% and most by 40%, and none of us had to sell our children!!!! Someone in Congress has to learn to address these issues frankly like Christie in NJ. Tell the brutal truth, and let the other guy explain that it’s not fair that his pay only went UP 2%.
Even 5% across the board would be a good start, and even more politically defensible. Then repeat.
JOSHUA GOLDBERG HAS DIED. My condolences to Jonah and his family at what is surely an awful time.
UPDATE: A remembrance from Jeff Dunetz.
SYSTEMATIC EUPHEMISM: “We Don’t Do Anything to Remind Boomers They’re Getting Older.”
THE PALEO RODEO is a blog-carnival devoted to paleo diets and fitness.
CONCEPT: The Nautilus Long-Duration Spacecraft. “The Nautilus X would consist of a variety of ridged and inflatable modules, solar dynamic arrays, any of a number of mission specific propulsion modules, a manipulator arms, docking ports for Orion or commercial space craft such as the SpaceX Dragon, landing craft for destination worlds and (this is the key) a centrifuge that would simulate partial gravity to maintain the health of the crew for long duration space missions. There would be logistical modules, a radiation mitigation system, facilities for a hydroponic farm, and hangers for landing craft and EVA pods.”
VACUUM HAS FRICTION from something like the Casimir Effect.