TRAINWRECK UPDATE: Maryland officials were warned for a year of problems with online health-insurance site. “I think the wheels came off very early on.”
Archive for 2014
January 12, 2014
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Financial Aid Puts A Squeeze On The Middle Class.
Defenders of the higher-ed status quo are fond of defending sky high tuition by noting that “almost nobody pays full price for college.” This may have been true, but at many public schools “almost nobody” is beginning to cover an an increasingly large group of people. Although the concept of “set-asides,” where tuition rises on wealthier students to subsidize financial aid programs for poorer ones, is nothing new, cutbacks in state aid have decreased the money available to schools to the point where students of increasingly modest means are being asked to pay for these subsides. And as the WSJ reports, parents are becoming incensed. . . .
This is a difficult problem. Nobody wants a school system where it is impossible for the poor to go to college, yet it strikes many as deeply unfair that only slightly better-off students who are struggling to pay for college themselves are being asked to subsidize their education.
As I say in my new book — say did I mention that I’ve got a book out? — nobody likes to feel like a sucker.
Related: Is The College Of The Future In New Hampshire? “The result is a system which strives for efficiency and cost-effectiveness above all else. Classes are highly standardized, generally taught by low-paid adjunct professors who serve more as guides than teachers, and students’ activities are closely monitored by programs that analyze data to determine where professors should spend most of their time. It may not sound inspiring, but it’s cheap: a four-year degree costs only $35,000, and the school is already experimenting with new ways to lower the price still further.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE: The Financial Benefits Of Being Beautiful.
AT AMAZON, Deals Galore In Sports & Fitness.
Also, up to 70% off on select shoes.
Plus, today only: Save Up to 63% on Select ProForm Treadmills.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: George Will: “Soon the crucial distinction will be between those with meaningful college degrees and those with worthless ones.”
WELL, YES: Common traits bind Jews and Chinese. “The Chinese, in short have no reasons to dislike or fear the Jews, and a number of reasons to admire them simply because Jews display traits that Chinese admire among themselves.”
THE HILL: Democrats plead with Obama to abandon Social Security cut. “Democratic senators are pleading with President Obama to abandon his proposal to trim Social Security benefits before it becomes a liability for them in the midterm elections.”
I’M SO OLD, I REMEMBER WHEN OBAMA WAS AGAINST HIRING LOBBYISTS. Obama spins revolving door again: Former lobbyist named to Energy Dept. post.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Lauren Harrington-Cooper and Other Teachers Arrested for Sex Crimes. “Such crimes are far from unusual, as we have frequently observed, and here are just a few recent examples.” And here’s another.
Obviously, we need to end mandatory celibacy and let high school teachers marry.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: UNC Professor Receiving Death Threats For Revealing Low Reading Ability of Student Athletes. “Mary Willingham said her research of 183 football or basketball players at UNC from 2004-12 found 60 percent reading at fourth- to eighth-grade levels and roughly 10 percent below a third-grade level. She said she worked with one men’s basketball player early in her 10-year tenure who couldn’t read or write.”
MALCOLM GLADWELL: How I Rediscovered Faith.
Between this and Matt Drudge’s discovery of prayer, well. . . I guess we really still need one more anecdote to have enough of a pattern for punditry, according to Kaus’s rule.
January 11, 2014
BILL QUICK: Time To Bring Down The Gentry GOP.
FROM TOM PURCELL: An Elegy For The Incandescent Light Bulb.
You can stick it to the man by stocking up, but only until supplies run out.
21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Brazilian College Student Auctions Off Her Virginity AGAIN.
SPACE: In all the confusion of the past week — there was a traffic jam on a bridge! — it’s worth noting that both SpaceX and Orbital Sciences had successful launches. It’s actually good that those don’t make as much news as they used to. I hope that soon they’ll be no more newsworthy than a timely Delta nonstop making it from Knoxville to La Guardia. Oh, wait, that would be news, based on my recent experience. . . .
IS JOGGING BAD FOR OLDER PEOPLE? Nope. However, my personal opinion is that it’s better to exercise with a bit more intensity than jogging provides. But, of course, any exercise is better for you than sitting on the couch.
PERSONALLY, I THINK THE WHOLE “BIKINI BRIDGE” HOAX was a brilliant bit of social-media pranksterism, and also a warning, to those who can absorb it, of how easily people can be manipulated by viral campaigns.
But the linked article is especially concerned that a campaign glorifying slender women will “do lasting damage by giving people with eating disorders a dangerous new goal to obsess over.” Well, possibly. But if you look at the pictures, these are not shriveled, emaciated anorexic types — they’re healthy, fit women. If they look anorexic to you, it’s probably because your sensibilities have been distorted by rampant obesity.
In truth, anorexia is quite rare, and there’s plenty of reason to doubt that it has anything much to do with the kind of images that appear in the media. Meanwhile, obesity is by far the most widespread “eating disorder” in our society, but for some reason nobody worries that, say, Lena Dunham’s nude scenes are encouraging more young women to become fat.
UPDATE: Related: It’s Come to This: Plus-Size Models Just Aren’t ‘Plus’ Enough for Some People.
Before we get to the latest lunacy, let’s ask an obvious question: Has anyone ever heard guys complain that the male models in GQ are “too rugged”? I mean, why must all male models be tall and muscular? Isn’t the male fashion industry’s insistence on using these mesomorphic freaks in their ads inflicting body-image issues on men? Why haven’t men started a protest campaign to insist on having more male models who are spindly geeks or chubby bald guys?
The very idea is absurd, of course, and yet the women who complain that fashion models are too thin have now begun complaining that plus-size models aren’t legitimately fat enough.
It’s a species of narcissism, disguised as compassion.
A REALLY EXCELLENT PIECE BY KEVIN WILLIAMSON: Welfare’s Devastating Effect in The White Ghetto of Appalachia. “In effect, welfare has made Appalachia into a big and sparsely populated housing project — too backward to thrive, but just comfortable enough to keep the underclass in place. There is no cure for poverty, because there is no cause of poverty — poverty is the natural condition of the human animal.”
Robert Heinlein said something about that.
BRINGING BACK “COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM?” “Here’s a hint: If your approach to conservative governance would justify the Great Society, it’s usually a sign you took a wrong turn somewhere.”
WHERE’S MY TITANIUM UMBRELLA? Brown Dwarfs Racked By Planet-Sized Storms Of Molten Iron.