August 21, 2007 by Tom Armstrong.

Knowing a little something about the current state of public education, this article in today’s WSJ struck me.

It begins:

GREENPORT, N.Y. — On June 25, 2006, Michael Bredemeyer threw his tasseled cap in the air and cheered after getting his high school diploma. Two days later, his parents mailed the diploma back.

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The Bredemeyers represent a new voice in special education: parents disappointed not because their children are failing, but because they’re passing without learning. These families complain that schools give their children an easy academic ride through regular-education classes, undermining a new era of higher expectations for the 14% of U.S. students who are in special education.

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August 21, 2007 by Tom Armstrong.

John Goodman’s blog. Notable:

When I was young, teenagers ushered people to seats in theaters, pumped gas, washed cars, waited tables, and actually helped customers find things in stores. Today, we have floor lights, self-serve pumps, automatic washes, fast food, self-serve stores and a teenage unemployment rate - especially a black teenage unemployment rate - that is many multiples of what it once was. We also have one in every four young black males somehow involved in the criminal justice system.

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Why would politicians want to tell people that if they can’t produce $7.25 an hour they can’t work? Why would politicians want to tell people that if they can produce only $7.25 an hour they have to take all their compensation in cash and none in health insurance?

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August 21, 2007 by Tom Armstrong.

Occasionally, I enjoy reading leftish drivel, such as this.

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August 21, 2007 by Tom Armstrong.

Also good reads in Forbes:

Robyn Meredith writes:

American politicians often complain that China’s currency is undervalued, making its exports cheaper than they should be. That may be so, but the cheap currency’s big winners are American companies exporting inexpensive goods and American consumers paying less for them than they otherwise would. China’s world-beating exports are indeed thriving, but more than half of China’s exports , 56% in 2003, are produced by foreign-owned companies. Add in domestic Chinese companies under contract to exprot and nearly 70% of all Chinese exports are made by or for foreign companies, leaving China’s most profitable business activities out of the hands of mainland Chinese.

Also interesting is this article on frivolous lawsuits.

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August 21, 2007 by Tom Armstrong.

Mary Ellen Gilder in the most recent Forbes publication:

Carbon Dioxide has never driven temperature. In fact, the evidence shows that historically, temperature has driven CO2. We cannot rule out the possibility that CO2 drive climate, just as it would be hard to rule out the possibility of a devastating meteor striking the Earth. But we are not enacting expensive legislation to erect retractable meteorite shilds around the major U.S. cities, or pouring money into the development of meteorite-proof material.

Steve Forbes’ column is good this issue. Notable:

Gore’s movie has a visual that purportedly shows temperature changes over the last 650,000 years correlating closely with levels of carbon dioxide, suggesting that CO ₂ must be the culprit. Dig a little deeper, though, and another picture emerges. It turns out there was a 400- to 1,000-year lag during “all three glacial interglacial transitions on record.” In other words, there is no real correlation. “The ocean acts as an enormous organism that exhales carbon dioxide during warming periods of the Earth’s history, and absorbs it during periods of cooling.”

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