BUT WE WERE PROMISED “SMART DIPLOMACY!” The Utter Chaos of the Obama Administration’s Egypt Policy.
Archive for 2013
July 2, 2013
NEWS YOU CAN USE: A Note To Beginning Science Writers.
AFTER THE 2014 ELECTIONS, IN OTHER WORDS: White House delays employer mandate requirement until 2015.
GOING ALL-IN FOR 2014: Sebelius Highlights New Medicaid Grants as Treasury Rolls Back Obamacare Implementation.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Poll: Job Success Most Valued Factor in Picking Colleges.
A new Gallup Poll has found that the factor adult Americans are most likely to say is most important in selecting a college is the percentage of graduates who are able to find a good job. That factor was picked by 41 percent of those polled, followed by the price of the college (37 percent) and graduation rates (16 percent). The wealthier that respondents were, the more likely they were to say that the job success of graduates was the most important factor.
Like the rich guy in the old commercial — was it for Gulf? — said: “How do you think a man like me got to be a man like me?” Plus:
The same poll also asked questions about tuition.
Asked if higher tuition rates meant that the quality of the college was higher, 25 percent strongly disagreed and another 20 percent disagreed. Only 10 percent strongly agreed, with another 13 percent agreeing.
Price resistance is setting in.
THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION: “If you covet what rich people have, you should emulate their behaviors. If you want money, do with money what rich people do with money. If you want smart kids like the rich folk, you should raise your kids like the rich folk raise their kids.”
Kind of a variation on Reynolds’ Law.
The conservative reaction to Dr. Helen’s Men On Strike is interesting because it is the opposite of their general stance on government creating the wrong incentives. When high income taxes discourage investment and production, conservatives point to the Laffer curve and advise lowering tax rates to rectify the problem. The liberal response to conservatives pointing out that high taxes are strangling the economy is to accuse those responding to the current incentives of being selfish or unpatriotic. We see the same pattern across a slew of issues, including stifling environmental regulations, capital gains taxes, minimum wage laws, and rent control. Liberals tend to want to shame actors into going against their own best interest in order to prop up bad public policy, where conservatives tend to point out the folly of using shame and moral coercion to overcome bad policy. The solution to bad policy, conservatives regularly point out, is to fix the policy, not to try to strong arm companies and individuals to go against their own best interest.
But all of this suddenly changes when the bad policy is regarding marriage. Then the same conservatives who stand ready to offer a detailed lecture on the need to match risk with reward, authority with responsibility, and to have consistent and fair enforcement of contracts suddenly switch to the tactics of a liberal defending a 90% marginal tax rate.
Though the phenomenon is not universal, it is certainly noticeable.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Testicles Have Taste Buds.
THE JOY OF Grilled Pizza.
NOW SEE, THAT’S WHAT I THOUGHT: “Glenn Reynolds looks exactly the same in all three photos.”
Now to see how much I’ve changed over a longer period of time, check out this high school yearbook photo.
UPDATE: Related time-lapse photos here.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Compare with this time-lapse series.
ABORTION-RIGHTS SLOGANS THAT NEED ANOTHER DRAFT: “Hoes Before Embryos” and “Republicans Cannot Defetus.”
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: ‘Watered Down’ MOOC Bill Becomes Law In Florida.
AT AMAZON, bestsellers in Survival Skills.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: A Law School’s Possible Purge Of Its Junior Faculty Ranks.
THE HILL: White House Chief of Staff McDonough should be fired over IRS scandal. “While Edward Snowden’s excellent adventures, Hillary’s State Department escort services and Obama’s $60 million to $100 million African vacation (er, state visits) have taken some of the spotlight off of the IRS, the pesky timeline of events make it unlikely to go away completely. If, as appears to be the case, the White House never told the IRS to stop its policy of political targeting, heads need to roll, starting with Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough, who, if Jay Carney is to be believed, never even bothered to tell the president about it.”
JOEL KOTKIN: Beware The “Herbivore” Effect.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student debt flunking many first-time home buyers. “Where are these previously dependable first-time homebuyers in their late 20s and early 30s? A new national study released last week offers important clues: A lot of them are carrying such heavy debts from student loans that they’re postponing buying houses.”
52 WEEKS: Vegas, Baby!
ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What He Really Thinks About Your B.O. & Hairy Legs During Sex.
SCIENCE: How Men And Women Cooperate.
Related: New Study Shows Being Hen-pecked Does Not Work. Well, no.
AT THE VERY LEAST THERE’S A GREAT HISTORICAL NOVEL IN THIS: White man’s skull has Australians scratching heads. “The centuries-old skull of a white man found in Australia is raising questions about whether Captain James Cook really was the first European to land on the country’s east coast. The skull was found in northern New South Wales in late 2011, and police initially prepared themselves for a gruesome murder investigation. But scientific testing revealed that not only was it much older than expected, but possibly belonged to a white man born around 1650, well before Englishman Cook reached the eastern seaboard on the Endeavour in 1770.”
ED DRISCOLL interviews George Gilder about his new book, Knowledge and Power.