Archive for 2025

WHEN “STANDARDIZED TESTS” AREN’T STANDARD: The SAT’s Trust Fall: Legacy standardized-testing firms are cutting rigor to please students.

First, most lawmakers are surprised to learn that the tests change at all. They are then flabbergasted to learn what the most recent changes to the SAT were.

The most noticeable changes were to the structure of the exam. The paper exam was scrapped, and in its place the College Board implemented a computer-based test that is adaptive, meaning students are served easier or harder questions in later portions of each section based on their early performance.

But while these changes were noticeable, they were not the most noteworthy. Many state exams are adaptive, and adaptive testing has been studied by psychometricians for decades. The way adaptive testing was implemented in the new SAT, though, caused eye-popping ripple effects—for those who were looking, that is.

Color me suspicious that this is all about making affirmative action harder to prove.

FALLING BEHIND:

MAGGIE HABERMAN: “Allies of President Trump are already gearing up to turn Mamdani into a national figure to attack and tether to other Democrats ahead of the midterms.”

As for New York itself next year (assuming Mamdani wins in November):

I’m pretty sure that Christopher Nolan didn’t write the kangaroo court and banishment to the ice floe scene in The Dark Knight Rises as a how-to guide for competent urban government.

BECAUSE CNN: Why Trusting CNN on Iran Is a Mistake.

Related (From Ed): Look who’s back on the air!

But as Hillary would say, what difference at this point, does it really make? CNN Prepares for the Afterlife.

IT’S UNCLEAR WHETHER HIGHER EDUCATION AS IT EXISTS TODAY IS A NET BENEFIT TO THE SOCIETY THAT FUNDS IT:

THE PREDICATE FOR TRUMP’S ABILITY TO DEMAND A CEASEFIRE: The U.S. Air Force 509th Bomb Wing’s jaw-dropping raid on and likely destruction of Iran’s most critical nuclear weapons facilities — located in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.

MOP. Massive Ordnance Penetrator. But there are other bombs…

Later:

Trump’s ceasefire began awkwardly. After a Trump F-bomb tantrum, Israel agreed to observe the ceasefire, though it meant giving up its air supremacy. With another five days Israel could have taken out scores of regime-maintenance targets — thug forces protecting ayatollahs and assets that can threaten Persian Gulf oil tankers. Sample targets: Iranian Republican Guard Corps leaders; speedboats, stored naval mines and anti-ship missiles the regime could use to close the Strait of Hormuz.

More:

The following paragraph comes from a Creators Syndicate column I wrote analyzing a potential U.S. strike on Iranian nuclear sites. The publication date is Aug. 4, 2010, during the Obama administration: “The (U.S.) claim is destroying these (Iranian) sites would seriously disrupt the (Iranian) bomb project. A ‘simultaneous strategic bombing strike’ (SSBS) on the facilities is one U.S. attack option. In a short time frame, aircraft, cruise missiles and perhaps ballistic missiles with conventional warheads would deliver hundreds of precision weapons, hitting nuclear targets and air defense sites. Follow-up raids could continue for weeks. Special operations commandos would enter Iran, collecting intelligence, providing target data and possibly attacking very high-value targets.”

The predicate to that military scenario paragraph? From the same column: “When ‘Meet the Press’ (earlier in the week) asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Admiral) Mike Mullen if the Pentagon had a plan for attacking Iran, Mullen replied, ‘We do.’ He added, ‘Military actions have been on the table and remain on the table …’ Mullen tempered his response by emphasizing an attack is always an ‘option.’ Mullen kept his hypothetical saber stroke in a diplomatic sheath by emphasizing the U.S. regards military action to destroy Iranian nuclear capabilities as an “option.””

And hysteric House Democrats want to impeach Trump for superbly executing an option Obama administration officials publicly acknowledged? We witness the dregs of war.

The dregs of war…Tell AOC I wrote that. Dreg, not dog.

Read the whole thing. Creators title sums it: Simultaneous Strategic Bombing Strike, 12 Day War and Mid-East Peace?

JUDICIAL TEMPERAMENT:

CUOMO CONCEDES TO ZOHRAN MAMDANI IN NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL PRIMARY.

UPDATE (FROM GLENN):