Impfung Macht Frei

I was thinking about the best way to get some yellow stars made for people who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19, to reflect the way that society will increasingly isolate and denigrate them, when I found that protesters in Germany had already started wearing such stars… until the German government banned the practice. Some … Read more

Weapons of War? You Bet.

Dianne Feinstein, in introducing yet another gun-grab bill, declared that ‘assault weapons’ are ‘weapons of war.’ Of course, by this point, the pro-rights reflex is to shout back:  No they’re not!  And then to start listing all the other uses for what are more accurately called semi-automatic sporting rifles.

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Canceling the Great Society

The Great Society was racist. How do we know that?  It was created by Lyndon Johnson.  And Johnson was a racist. How do we know he was a racist?  Because on various occasions, he used the N-word. And does it not follow from ‘progressive logic’ that anything created by a racist is itself racist, and … Read more

Is a Senator Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?

It would appear that, in general, this is not the case.  As evidence, consider the current discussion over ‘changing the filibuster’. President* (and former Senator) Biden’s new take on this mirrors that of Senator Manchin:  the rules should be changed so that, to engage in a filibuster, some Senator should have to be up there … Read more

HR1 (Amended) – The Separation of Voting and Looting Act

The basic reasoning behind HR1 seems to be: If you have a right to vote, the government can’t make you prove anything before you can exercise that right. The basic reasoning of opponents of the bill seems to be:  We require proof in order to exercise all kinds of other rights — to buy or … Read more

democracy wolves sheep

The Senate filibuster SHOULD be changed

Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) has been arguing of late that the rules governing the Senate filibuster should be changed, even though he graciously agrees that the Senate should continue to be required to take into consideration the views of the minority. But while Manchin thinks filibustering should be harder (he says ‘more painful’) to … Read more

How to be a ‘President for all Americans’ in three easy steps

Step 1:  Claim that a President elected by only about 1/3 of all registered voters, a 221-211 majority in the House, and a 50-50 split in the Senate, represent a ‘mandate for action’. Step 2:  Insult tens of millions of Americans by calling them Neanderthals because their views on the proper relationship between citizens and … Read more

HB206 and Dissociative Government Disorder

There’s a form of mental illness called Dissociative Identity Disorder, which used to go by the name of Multiple Personality Disorder.  Many people are familiar with the Hollywood version of the condition from its use as a plot device in movies like Psycho and Fight Club.

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Not impatial scales justice

Quote of the Day

From an episode of Peaky Blinders: Politics is about deliberately making things better for some people by deliberately making them worse for others. Has it ever been expressed more clearly than that? Note that the people for whom it’s intended that things will get better (like unions, or banks, or government employees and contractors) are … Read more

Too Late to Amend the House Rules?

Remember when Democrats were trying to use House Rules as an excuse for disarming legislators in the statehouse, arguing that there are essentially no limits on what a majority of the House can do in its own chambers? I suggested that the next time the Republicans found themselves in the majority, they should pass a … Read more

School Funding: The Streetlight Effect

Focusing on achievement — determining why some kids learn while others don’t, and exploring ways to deal with that — is hard.  It’s messy.  It can lead to uncomfortable conclusions — for example, that many of our traditional practices may actually be doing more harm than good. It’s much easier to focus on money.  It’s … Read more

It’s only Fair

Biden Wants to Bail Out Failure

There is almost no evidence lockdowns, business closures, stay at home orders and other strategies have reduced the infection rates or death rates from the virus. Think about this. The” open” state of Florida has had a lower death rate, adjusted for the age distribution of the population, than “closed” states of California and New York.

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Quote of the Day

The photo above shows a playground from the early 1900s. I know what you’re thinking:  Could something like that even exist today?  And should it? While you’re thinking that over, consider this perspective from Lady Allen of Hurtwood, a leader of the playground movement in Great Britain during the 1940s: Better a broken arm than … Read more

How NOT to Think About School Funding (Part 2)

Previously, I discussed the idea, popular in some quarters, that if a parent withdraws his child from a public school in order to send him to a private school, the parent ought to reimburse the district for lost adequacy funds. Today I’d like to discuss a complementary idea, also popular in some quarters, that if … Read more

Quote of the Day

‘Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.’ — John Basil Barnhill (often attributed to Thomas Jefferson) So, we’re getting closer to liberty, right?

School Spending: Think Different Instead of Just Spending More

Here are two questions that people never seem to ask when talking about schools, because they’re obsessed with money: 1. If you want to learn something, can anyone stop you? 2. If you don’t want to learn something, can anyone make you? Perhaps instead of a pedagogy problem, what we have is a motivation problem.  … Read more

School Funding: Adapt, or… raise taxes

On lists of ‘21st century skills’ that we’d like kids to be learning, adaptability is usually near the top. We don’t know what the future will bring, except change.  So students need to be prepared to deal with how the world will be, rather than how it used to be. But how can public schools … Read more

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