February 13, 2009

Ideas for a Senti-mental Journey

Posted by Dr. Karen Y. Palasek at 2:05 PM

I've seen and/or received a few unusual, practical, and very sentimental gifts in the past. Among my favorites are:

Valentine message made up of candy 'sayings' hearts (stuck to a page, produced by my kid for her Dad);

Circular saw (for me, by request);

Blood —not in the same year as the circular saw—(donated to the Red Cross by the hub, on my behalf, while I was unable to donate blood myself).

Or, if you are really a martyr for love—take a trek to Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome and

1) stick your hand into the Mouth of Truth (if you are a liar—in love or otherwise— you will lose it), and

2) see the real St. Valentine's deal, in person:

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Fox News program on the stimulus

Posted by Dr. Michael Sanera at 1:47 PM

Former president of the Goldwater Institute and current Arizona Congressman Jeff Flake will be featured on the Fox News special program this weekend, "Trillion With a "T": How to Spend $1,000,000,000,000."

Saturday, February 14 at 9 p.m. ET
Sunday, February 15 at 3 and 10 p.m. ET

So how do you spend $1,000,000,000,000?

In this exclusive FOX News investigative report, “Special Report” host Bret Baier will address the trillion dollar question.

We'll reveal the good, the bad and the ugly of President Obama's spending bill:

President Obama's 700-page, trillion-dollar stimulus plan has moved through Congress with breathtaking speed — too fast even for lawmakers to read it before they voted.

So, for the past month a FOX News investigative team has gone behind the chaotic scenes with Senators and members of Congress, Capitol Hill staffers, liberal and conservative interest groups as they wrestled with the bill.

But will this mammoth spending bill save the economy or will the politicians' partisan agendas bankrupt America?

And is America doomed? Or is help on the horizon?

That's the trillion-dollar question.

 

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PBS wants to waste stimulus money on light rail

Posted by Dr. Michael Sanera at 1:25 PM

The notoriously hard left show Now is featuring a segment on NC transportation including a plea for more stimulus money for light rail. JLF transit expert and light rail critic Professor David Hartgen will be featured.

UNC-TV at 8 pm tonight. 

Dave's latest numbers on the Charlotte LYNX light rail system show that ridership continues to drop. The January total of 13,900 riders is down 10 percent in just one month and down 18 percent from the peak last July. 

For more on the Charlotte light rail system, see Dave's JLF report here. I wrote this N&O op-ed on the sure-to-fail light rail system planned for the Triangle.

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Re: "Carkoon"

Posted by Dr. Karen Y. Palasek at 1:12 PM

I like your analogy, and for good measure, I think we can compare the whole of the legislative budgetary/ discussion process to the Bog of Eternal Stench:

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The real Keynes

Posted by George Leef at 12:11 AM

John Maynard Keynes is back in the news, thanks to the irresistible political allure of his proposed remedy for recession -- more government spending to increase demand.

It's lousy economics, but popular with leftists who will take any excuse to expand government's size and scope.

In his column today, Sheldon Richman examines some of Keynes' writings and finds that beneath the exterior of a crummy economist beat the heart of a complete authoritarian.

I suggest that the stimulus bill be amended to add a hundred million or so to build a new museum -- The Museum of Overrated People. Keynes deserves a place of honor in such a museum.

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The state of arts education in North Carolina

Posted by Dr. Terry Stoops at 11:25 AM

Representative Becky Carney (D-Mecklenburg) is sponsoring a bill that would add arts education to the state's graduation requirements. If the legislature approves the bill, all high school students will be required to take a one credit arts course.

I really don't have strong objections to the bill, but I do have some thoughts about how to improve the bill and improve arts education generally.

First, arts education needs to return to an emphasis on developing proper technique and understanding the complexities of artistic expression, not just "appreciating" the arts.

Second, why not allow students to fulfill the requirement through their participation in extracurricular or after-school arts activities, such as private music lessons, community theater, or dance?

Third, why not find some clever ways to integrate the arts into the core curriculum in a meaningful way? At my former high school, math teachers taught students how to use geometry to design quilt patterns. Students designed and produced beautiful quilts and (as test scores confirmed) learned a lot about geometry along the way.

One more thing. The arts are not in decline in North Carolina's public schools. In a 2007 study of course enrollment, I found that, between the 2000-01 and 2005-06 school years, there was a 24 percent increase in high school students. At the same time, there was a 21 percent increase in high school students who enrolled in arts courses and a 34 percent increase in arts courses.

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Obama's logic

Posted by George Leef at 10:36 AM

In this column David Limbaugh observes that our supposedly highly intellectual president resorts to fallacious arguments to defend his foolish spendathon. Specifically, when the question of fiscal responsibility came up, he pointed out that the Republicans had also run up huge deficits while in office, expecting people to conclude that for that reason his own (and even greater) deficit is fine.

In logic, that's known as the "tu quoque" fallacy: I'm above criticism because you did it too!

If Obama can do no better than to hide behind an elementary logical fallacy when confronted with skepticism about his policies, I think it's time for American voters to conclude that they were had.

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Deroy Murdock on the idiotic spending binge

Posted by George Leef at 10:18 AM

Deroy Murdock gets a 10 for this column on the idiocy of the "stimulus" package.

While Obama could admit that he screwed up on nominating Tom Daschle, he can't, just can't, admit that his policy of trying to restore prosperity by an enormous binge of borrowing and spending was a screw up. Leftists can admit to mistakes about individual people, but never on their whole worldview that government creates prosperity through its beneficent spending.

So what's going to happen when the economy keeps sliding despite all the "stimulus?" Probably the same thing as when medieval doctors (remember Steve Martin as Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber?) bled patients and they failed to get better. More bleeding!

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Re: NEA vs. right to home-school

Posted by Jon Sanders at 10:10 AM

David, in response to your question, I think the NEA would be opposed regardless. I think it's more a matter of power to them, and I doubt they are pleased when "liberals" evince the greater benefits of learning out from under their thumbs.

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You don't have a right to homeschool

Posted by David N. Bass at 10:03 AM

Julien Brygo, a freelance journalist based in France, here laments that American homeschooling has become a "breeding ground for conservative ideology."

Near the end of the piece, Brygo quotes this anecdote from a member of the National Education Association:

Whatever their faults, state schools play a vital training role in culture and knowledge of society. The children learn about life there, they encounter different opinions, and just because parents fear 'bad influences' does not mean they have a right to keep their children away. [Emphasis mine.]

Does anyone think the NEA would be so dead set against home education if most homeschooling families were liberal? This quote reminds me yet again why the NEA is one of the most liberty-threatening groups in the nation.

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Freedom is the best policy

Posted by George Leef at 09:20 AM

So argues former Estonian prime minister Mart Laar in today's Wall Street Journal. Read his piece here.

Laar actually knows something about economics and economic history. Too bad our inexperienced and economically naive president won't bother with any such counsel.

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He had me at "Great Pit of Carkoon"

Posted by Dr. Terry Stoops at 08:52 AM

In his most recent Townhall column, Jonah Goldberg compares the deficit to the Great Pit of Carkoon from "Return on the Jedi." Brilliant.

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This weekend on Carolina Journal Radio

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 07:05 AM

Looking forward, John Hood will discuss the role Carolina Journal in each of its incarnations will play as the media landscape changes in the coming years. Also in the looking-forward department, you’ll hear predictions for the 2009 legislative session from N.C. Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight and House Speaker Joe Hackney.

Now that a new presidential administration is in place, Terry Stoops will discuss the likely impact for federal education policy, and we’ll learn why at least one key state lawmaker is wary of spending another $20 million a year in taxpayer funds to help local school systems offer healthier meals to elementary school students.

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Today's Carolina Journal Online features

Posted by Mitch Kokai at 06:54 AM

This week's Carolina Journal Online Friday interview features Donna Martinez's conversation with Terry Stoops about career and technical education in North Carolina public schools.

Speaking of Terry, his guest Daily Journal focuses on reforms state lawmakers could consider as they debate the future leadership of the state public education establishment. 

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