Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading and videos that I have been viewing lately:
Obama vs. Romney on Public School Jobs
www.cato-at-liberty.org
“The president wants to hire more public school teachers. Governor Romney thinks we have too many already. Rather than theorize about who’s right, let’s look at the numbers…” Quoting further from this article, “… (public school) enrollment is only up 8.5% since 1970, whereas (public school) employment is up 96.2%. In other words, the public school workforce has grown 11 times faster than enrollment over the past 40 years.”
www.nytimes.com
“Will yesterday’s pseudoscience become tomorrow’s temptation?”
Europe’s Latest Bailout
professional.wsj.com
Let’s see – the Spanish government was having difficulty selling bonds in the financial markets so it turned to the Spanish banks and had them sell bonds to fund loans to the Spanish government. However, since the Spanish banks have now loaned too much money to the Spanish government, they have enlisted the “help” of the Spanish government which has now turned to the EU for a bailout which the Spanish government will use in order to recapitalize Spanish banks which are capital impaired because they have loaned too much money to the Spanish government.
High finance can sure be confusing at times! Obviously this is one huge Ponzi scheme – barring an imminent and dramatic recovery in the Spanish real estate market in particular and the Eurozone economy in general, kicking the can further down the road in this fashion is only going to make the final resolution of the sovereign debt crisis much more painful for all parties involved… As this WSJ article notes, “Far better to clean up the mess once and for all, including the discipline of letting failing banks fail, erasing shareholder capital, and firing the managers.”
professional.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, FDIC Director Thomas M. Hoenig writes that the FDIC and the taxpayer are the underwriters of too much private risk taking.”
professional.wsj.com
“Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anatasia O’Grady writes that the Cuban dictator’s daughter gets a visa to make speeches here while the Castro regime continues to hold an American hostage.”
Citizens United and the Wisconsin Vote
professional.wsj.com
“Stanford professor Michael W. McConnell notes that Scott Walker’s opponent in the recall election, Tom Barrett, got millions in support from unions, whose contributions were legitimized by the Supreme Court.”
professional.wsj.com
“Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institution testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, June 5, on the relationship between individual initiative and poverty.” Dr. Haskins’ recommendations for poverty are 1) complete at least a high school education, 2) work full time, and 3) wait until age 21 and get married before having a baby. Quoting further from this article, “Based on an analysis of Census data, people who followed all three of these rules had only a 2% chance of being in poverty and a 72% chance of joining the middle class (defined as above $55,000 in 2010). These numbers were almost precisely reversed for people who violated all three rules, elevating their chance of being poor to 77% and reducing their chance of making the middle class to 4%.”
Obama’s Green Jobs: What’s In A Name?
www.youtube.com
“What is a “green” job?” See related Forbes article at http://onforb.es/NO1tST.
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman
amazon.com
I love this quote from Richard Feynman’s book entitled “Pleasure of Finding Things Out” (cf. http://amzn.to/LIgQZq): “Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.”
Actually, I don’t think science is unique in this regard – I think it is a problem that we all need to be aware of whenever we take in and process new information, concepts, and ideas. Confirmation bias – i.e., the tendency to favor information which confirms our own pre-conceived beliefs or hypotheses – is dangerously lurking everywhere we go…
Four Words That Moved the World: ‘Tear Down This Wall’
professional.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Peter Robinson writes: This may sound odd coming from a Reagan speechwriter, but for 25 years I have wondered—did that Berlin address really matter?” I am looking forward to the upcoming (June 13) luncheon at Austin’s Steven F. Austin Intercontinental Hotel featuring Peter Robinson who was the writer of Ronald Reagan’s famous, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” speech which was delivered by Ronald Regan at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on June 12, 1987. See http://bit.ly/17LRBD for an edited excerpt of this historic speech at youtube.com…
For Greater Glory
www.forgreaterglory.com
“What price would you pay for freedom? An impassioned group of men and women each make the decision to risk it all for family, faith and the very future of their country.” This is a fantastic movie; I was not aware of the history behind it prior to seeing it (i.e., the so-called Cristero War of 1926-1929); see the Wikipedia article located at http://bit.ly/LvpEqX for context…
Hitler finds out that Scott Walker won the Wisconsin recall election
www.youtube.com
Hilarious Hitler Parody about last Tuesday’s Wisconsin recall election…
Obama, Drones and Thomas Aquinas
professional.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, former Justice Department official John Yoo writes that Obama has avoided vexing detention issues simply by depriving terrorists of all of their rights—by killing them.”
What’s Changed After Wisconsin
professional.wsj.com
“The Obama administration suddenly looks like a house of cards.”
Why delay austerity decisions?
keithhennessey.com
“We meet Lefty and Righty, who are discussing stimulus and austerity.” Interesting thought experiment by Stanford professor Keith Hennessey…
www.washingtonpost.com
Here’s the latest missive from Charles Krauthammer. Quoting from this article, “The unions’ defeat marks a historical inflection point. They set out to make an example of Walker. He succeeded in making an example of them as a classic case of reactionary liberalism.”
‘Eliminate Dengue’ Team Has A Deep (Lab) Bench
www.npr.org
“Australian researcher Scott O’Neill is leading a charge to rid the world of dengue fever. And it’s a real team sport, he says: “We don’t work in isolation in any projects in science these days. The days of having someone beavering away by themselves in the backroom have long gone.””
11 Public Universities with the Worst Graduation Rates
www.thefiscaltimes.com
“With just 56 percent of college students completing four-year degrees within six years, here are 11 public universities with the worst graduation rates.” Southern University at New Orleans has the worst record of this group of 11 public universities, clocking in only 4 percent of its students completing four-year degrees within six years…
Crony Capitalism and the Crisis of the West
professional.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Luigi Zingales writes that in Italy and Greece, the most talented don’t get ahead—and that’s also increasingly true in the United States.” Excellent essay about crony capitalism in the USA by Luigi Zingales, who in addition to his day job as University of Chicago finance professor is also the author of “A Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity” (cf. http://amzn.to/LEecWF)…
‘Stick It to Mitt’ Won’t Work
professional.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Wonder Land columnist Daniel Henninger writes that Bain Capital and Mitt in Massachusetts are not what’s on voters’ minds in 2012.”