OpEd


4
Jan 10

Education Policy Disagreements in My Household

My wife – a special education school teacher – and I have a bit of a policy disagreement regarding teacher merit pay.

Most can agree that our Education System is broken (see anything by John Taylor Gatto) and some sort of reform is necessary (even if it rankles some of the President’s core constituents).  Sometimes that change can only be motivated through monetary incentives.  On the macro-level, I can see the potential benefits.  On the micro-level, it’s likely that her students may not ever achieve sufficiently for her to earn said bonuses.


23
Mar 09

On AIG, Risk, Dynamics, and Populism

I want to write something about AIG, what got us into this mess, the initial bailout, the defenses and criticisms of the bonuses, the public’s outrage, the knee jerk reaction of politicians, the circling of the wagons by the elite, and how the plan rolled out by Tim Geithner enables socialism for the wealthy and insulates them from failure while fleecing everyone else.  Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture has some links to excellent reporting by Matt Taibi in Rolling Stone, another by Carol Loomis in Fortune, and yet another in the NYTimes by Gretchen Morgenstern.


6
Mar 09

Enough Already!! We’re all in – it’s time to show our hands.

The news has been consistently full of disheartening records of ‘lowest since’ and ‘highest since’ for quite a while.  Unemployment is still rising if not accelerating.   12% of all homes with mortgages are either in default, delinquent, or foreclosure.  Nearly every economic metric chart looks either like a moonshot or cliffdiving.  The Dow Jones has now fallen farther and faster than the it did in 1929.

It’s time to stop bluffing.

Dia 104: Derrumbandose
Creative Commons License photo credit: Freddy The Boy


16
Jan 09

Huh? How does Mr. 27% get a 7-point bump on his way out the door?

Despite his own claims to the contrary as demonstrated in print and via his ‘valedictory’ last night, the W is for ‘worst’.  USAToday has a visualization that shows the public approval trend.

History, as judged by historians, possibly after all those currently living are dead, may in fact judge him more kindly.  But by nearly every group and every measurement, the consensus is that nobody likes him and they want him to leave. He is and will always be a miserable failure.  So why the bump?

Even as the Bush Legacy Project churns away, grinding the remains into a more palatable form, it’s hard to stomach the revisionist history, whether it be on Iraq, housing, education, Veterans, or the economy.


24
Dec 08

Oh, this will end well…

It’s almost as if we (in this case, the Pentagon) are incapable of learning (via NYTimes):

Taking a page from the successful experiment in Iraq, American commanders and Afghan leaders are preparing to arm local militias to help in the fight against a resurgent Taliban. But along with hope, the move is raising fears here that the new armed groups could push the country into a deeper bloodletting.

The militias will be deployed to help American and Afghan security forces, which are stretched far and wide across this mountainous country. The first of the local defense forces are scheduled to begin operating early next year in Wardak Province, an area just outside the capital where the Taliban have overrun most government authority.

If the experiment proves successful, similar militias will be set up rapidly across the country, senior American and Afghan officials said.

faceplam

We will ensure that Allah stocks heaven with virgins and martyrs (and US citizen soldiers) for generations to come.


3
Dec 08

Carmageddon!!1

After the atrocious sales figures for the month of November with sales are at their lowest point in 26-years with per capita sales at their lowest levels since the 1950s, its fairly easy to forecast what comes next – widespread dealer liquidations.


1
Dec 08

The one where I advocate the pardoning of torturers, war planners, and domestic wiretappers…

The twilight of the Bush Presidency provides many loose threads, with a long list of rogues who may know ‘where the bodies are buried’. I suspect that the Bush legacy will include NOT pardoning the most notorious of his merry band of thieves, such as Scooter, Rummy, and Fredo Gonazalez, in order to preserve his legacy, but also to provide ‘red meat’ for the lunatics to fight over as a Democratic Congress and President attempt to restore order.

That’s why I think Obama should pardon the operators who executed potentially un-Constitutional orders from above – the nameless and faceless non-political law enforcement officials, military personnel, and other career governmental employees. None of them deserve to be haunted with the specter of future prosecution on the grounds of political opportunism, regardless of the party that benefits. But with strings attached.


16
Nov 08

On the Auto Industry Bailout…

Long story short?

No Fair!
Creative Commons License photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Yes, bail them out.


19
Oct 08

How does one liberate those people?

After seeing all the videos from the outside of the various McCain-Palin rallies, it feels like some sort of -bizarro 1960s, with the anti-hippies calling the hippies baby killers.  I also can’t figure out why they call the protestors communists and socialists – its almost as if they know absolutely nothing about  history, only what the radio and teevee tell them.

Fred at the Slactavist attempted to dissemble the motivation behind those who choose to believe the “P&G worships the devil meme”, and makes another attempt, this time regarding Target and accusations of their being anti-veteran:


15
Oct 08

Fear of a Black Planet

A month or so ago, a family member real-life concern-trolled me about Obama and the election:

I know Obama’s a good American. Neither of these two guys would let anything bad happen to the country. I’m just worried about what will happen if something bad happens to him.

So let me paraphrase. If Obama gets elected, “they” will act as if it’s basketball riot. If Obama loses, “they’ll” riot like with Rodney King. We shouldn’t even discuss what will happen if “something” happens to him. In their world, they are the innocent victims of racism, and such an event allows them to play out the action movie in their heads.

(See Wonkette and BoingBoing for the backstory about this graphic).

Rush Limbaugh isn’t so veiled in his speech.

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