A lot of the time when thinking about education policy, I don’t like the positions of either side on an issue. That’s how I feel about testing and anti-testers: Despite all the people with great credentials who will tell you otherwise, standardized tests are accurate, cheap, and valid measurements. But that doesn’t mean I think states and governments should impose… Read more →
Last night, Nathaniel and I were talking in bed. And, yes, that was meant to sound suspicious, but we usually talk before bed about random stuff because I get weirdly jumpy and erratic right before sleep (something to do with…being tired…). With all the people running around the country demanding things from the government and other citizens (You make more… Read more →
I’ve had a little post percolating for a few days but didn’t feel the need to bump on here until I saw the news that President Obama is releasing part of the national oil reserves to…what, boost his re-election prospects? Gas prices have gone down about 50 cents in the past two weeks and supplies from overseas were just loosening,… Read more →
Jessica sent me this NPR article on the same theme we’ve been tracking these past few weeks: Measuring poverty. It discusses setting aside the “poverty line” for another measure: “economic security.” “We’re not talking about surviving,” McMahon tells Morning Edition host Renee Montagne. “We are talking about economic security that allows people to live day to day without fear of… Read more →
Before I begin, I’d like to direct readers to an article of mine published in The American this morning, reviewing the new movie adaptation of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. It actually does dovetail into the forthcoming revisit of poverty, as in Rand’s world all poor people are so because of their own weakness and ought not be allowed to “sponge… Read more →
Death has fingered about the edges of my day so far: a friend sent me this article on parents wanting to abort their severely handicapped baby and I just overheard a conversation in the hall about a man whose brother died recently. He said, “My dad died six years ago, and now my brother, so it’s just me and my… Read more →
I have an essay up at Front Porch Republic this morning, already generating comments. See what you think, and feel free to let me know how I could have improved my argument.
My parents live in Wisconsin and enjoy politics, but are not immersed in it to the insane level D.C. residents like me cannot avoid. So when we talked last night, mom and dad said they wanted to hear more political news about what’s happening in Wisconsin and what it means, especially because local news is not terribly incisive and a… Read more →
President Obama released his budget on Valentine’s Day this year. You can see a sweet interactive gadget from the NYTimes on it here. The gadget shows last year’s and this year’s budget in relation to each other, divided by program and colored by increase and decrease. What’s really stunning is the amount of “mandatory” spending—the spending “locked in” by long-run… Read more →
I cannot stop reading this book though it made me sob last night in bed, and though I’m getting suspicious looks at the cover while I ride and read on the Metro. Abby Johnson describes her slow conversion from vaguely pro-life teen to Planned Parenthood abortion clinic director to pro-life advocate, dotted throughout with glimpses of women in pain and… Read more →
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