We believe that learning is the most important thing that happens in our classrooms and throughout our system of residential education,” the school said in a statement from spokesman Jeff Neal. “The faculty are focused on creating positive and lasting learning outcomes for our undergraduates. We watch and review trends in grading across Harvard College, but we are most interested in helping our students learn and learn well.I'm sure you are as glad as I am that Harvard considers learning the most thing that happens in its classrooms. Dad would probably not be apt to shell out $54,496 per year if the most important thing was drinking or hooking up but when Harvard sweetens the deal by throwing in a positive and lasting learning outcome as opposed to a mere education, well, that's an offer no one can refuse.
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Think you're Harvard material?
Think you're Harvard material? Don't sell yourself short. Chances are you could carry and A average and graduate with honors. Put it this way. The odds favor that you will graduate with honors as 60% of graduates do. In a brief concession to common sense Harvard set the limit at 60% as graduating 90% honors students looked a little too silly. The most common grade at Harvard is an A-. The University issued this curiously worded statement to ABC news.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Taxing drivers by the mile is idiocy on steroids
If you thought Obamacare was the zenith of Democratic stupidity view this clever proposal. From the Hill:
As to the the Congressman's proposal to tax by the mile, it is idiotically inefficient. The federal gasoline tax is presently administered with a scant minimum of cost to either the government or the consumer / taxpayer. Abuse of the program hardly exists. Under this proposal the motorist would, I presume, report his odometer reading at some regular interval and and remit payment. Good luck on that. Americans are loath to pay taxes and especially loath to write checks to pay taxes. The reason the public tolerates excise taxes is because they are hidden but making them visible will only lead to resentment and opposition. One suspects that at some point Blumenauer would want to mandate some go to hell black box that one would tamper with only under a penalty of a 5 year prison term, equipped with a 4G interface that would dutifully tell the motorist's bank to send X dollars post haste. Writing such a program would be child's play for a tech savvy company such as CGI.
It's not about the money. This is the liberal mind at work. It is about making taxation onerous on the many so they will cultivate a proper fear of jackasses like Blumenauer. It's about pushing people around.
While researching the topic I stumbled across this graphic by Doug Short of The Business Insider. This chart was created using data from the Department of Transportation.
Viewing the chart does not indicate that more miles will be driven in the future. Off hand I would say it may have been a good idea 40 years ago but when oil prices started to surge in 2007 the number of miles driven declined. Would the Congressman's sustainable tax be producing more revenue today than it did in 2006? Before any taxes are raised the people in Washington need to explain why a nation that is driving less should be paying more for road building and repairs.
Rep. Earl Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) on Tuesday reintroduced legislation that would require the government to study the most practical ways of taxing drivers based on how far they drive, in order to help fund federal highway programs.First, it's merely a personal prejudice but I feel that anyone using the adjective "sustainable" should have molten lead poured down his throat to serve notice that the public will no longer accept such silly nonsense. Banality is not a virtue and when politicians learn to speak intelligent English without pretension maybe the public may begin to take them seriously.
Blumenauer's bill, H.R. 3638, would set up a Road Usage Fee Pilot Program, which he said would study mileage-based fee systems. He cast his bill as a long-term solution for funding highway programs, and proposed it along with a shorter-term plan to nearly double the gas tax, from 18.4 cents to 33.4 cents per gallon.
"As we extend the gas tax, we must also think about how to replace it with something more sustainable," Blumenauer said Tuesday. "The best candidate would be the vehicle mile traveled fee being explored by pilot projects in Oregon and implemented there on a voluntary basis next year."
He said the bill would help answer questions about "how best to implement a vehicle miles traveled [VMT] system," and said it "looks to the future and helps provide a more stable funding base for the next one hundred years."
(D-Ore.) on Tuesday reintroduced legislation that would require the government to study the most practical ways of taxing drivers based on how far they drive, in order to help fund federal highway programs.
Blumenauer's bill, H.R. 3638, would set up a Road Usage Fee Pilot Program, which he said would study mileage-based fee systems. He cast his bill as a long-term solution for funding highway programs, and proposed it along with a shorter-term plan to nearly double the gas tax, from 18.4 cents to 33.4 cents per gallon.
"As we extend the gas tax, we must also think about how to replace it with something more sustainable," Blumenauer said Tuesday. "The best candidate would be the vehicle mile traveled fee being explored by pilot projects in Oregon and implemented there on a voluntary basis next year."
He said the bill would help answer questions about "how best to implement a vehicle miles traveled [VMT] system," and said it "looks to the future and helps provide a more stable funding base for the next one hundred years."
As to the the Congressman's proposal to tax by the mile, it is idiotically inefficient. The federal gasoline tax is presently administered with a scant minimum of cost to either the government or the consumer / taxpayer. Abuse of the program hardly exists. Under this proposal the motorist would, I presume, report his odometer reading at some regular interval and and remit payment. Good luck on that. Americans are loath to pay taxes and especially loath to write checks to pay taxes. The reason the public tolerates excise taxes is because they are hidden but making them visible will only lead to resentment and opposition. One suspects that at some point Blumenauer would want to mandate some go to hell black box that one would tamper with only under a penalty of a 5 year prison term, equipped with a 4G interface that would dutifully tell the motorist's bank to send X dollars post haste. Writing such a program would be child's play for a tech savvy company such as CGI.
It's not about the money. This is the liberal mind at work. It is about making taxation onerous on the many so they will cultivate a proper fear of jackasses like Blumenauer. It's about pushing people around.
While researching the topic I stumbled across this graphic by Doug Short of The Business Insider. This chart was created using data from the Department of Transportation.
Viewing the chart does not indicate that more miles will be driven in the future. Off hand I would say it may have been a good idea 40 years ago but when oil prices started to surge in 2007 the number of miles driven declined. Would the Congressman's sustainable tax be producing more revenue today than it did in 2006? Before any taxes are raised the people in Washington need to explain why a nation that is driving less should be paying more for road building and repairs.
Martin Bashir quits MSNBC
Martin Bashir has left MSNBC. The Washington Free Beacon has put together this video to commemorate his most famous words (word). Indeed!
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Obama Worship Is Alive And Well: Son Of Promise, Child Of Hope
This blog covers a multitude of subjects but it was started by a miffed and confused and frightened observer who was trying hard to understand the deification of a petty human being of minuscule talent. This was not the elevation of Ray Kurzweil or Steve Jobs or some other accomplished individual. Quite the opposite.
We are still concerned about the rise of the most successful religious-political cult in the history of Planet Earth. It is too burdensome and too demoralizing to track this all of the time. However, we do feel the need to check in now and then.
The faithful have made another play in where else, our public schools. Once again, Barack Obama has been identified as the messiah.
We are still concerned about the rise of the most successful religious-political cult in the history of Planet Earth. It is too burdensome and too demoralizing to track this all of the time. However, we do feel the need to check in now and then.
The faithful have made another play in where else, our public schools. Once again, Barack Obama has been identified as the messiah.
A new lesson plan for American school students, offered on an open marketplace for educators, is reprising what some devout followers have called Barack Obama for several years already – a messiah.
Created by Sherece Bennett, it’s based on the book “Barack Obama: Son of Promise, Child of Hope” by Nikki Grimes.
Kyle Olson reported the plan on his Education Action Group website, commenting that it casts Obama “in a messianic light. Literally.”
2014 is shaping up to be a blowout for Democrats
Now, I’m starting to feel a sense of deja vu when talking with Democrats. Anytime 2010 comes up in a conversation, it is quickly dismissed as an aberration. Most Democrats can’t even imagine another election cycle where President Barack Obama is as unpopular and as much of a drag on Democrats as he was in his first midterm.He goes on to cite a recent Quinnipiac poll that shows Colorado Senator Mark Udall pulling no more than 45% against 4 unknown Republicans and states that there are at least 10 other Democratic Senate seats that are structurally more vulnerable than Colorado. Gonzales concludes that it's doubtful that Republicans can pick up another 63 House seats in 2014 but that is hardly necessary.
But I’m not sure we can rule out the possibility that next November will be a very bad year for Democrats.
The 2010 blowout was was attributed to Obama's lack of popularity but in 2014 the issue of personal culpability of many Senate and Congressional Democrats in misleading the public about being able to keep their health insurance can be documented on YouTube videos. This blog has posted several Democratic Senators making that pledge. All of this comes as the latest Rasmussen poll gives the Republicans a 5 point edge in the generic congressional poll which boost the GOP's margin to 2.5 in the RCP average of polls. 2014 could be a very bad year.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Wisconsin's John Doe Investigation
If the GOP does not retaliate in kind, we can go ahead and shroud them.
The news is full of references to an ongoing John Doe investigation concerning the activities of persons connected to Gov. Scott Walker while he served as Milwaukee County executive. John Doe, in this context, does not refer to a person; it is a legal proceeding.
The John Doe proceeding is an institution sanctioned by long usage since Wisconsin’s territorial days.1 The provisions of Wis. Stat. section 968.26 currently define the scope of a John Doe proceeding in Wisconsin, which is intended as an independent, investigatory tool to ascertain whether a crime has been committed and if so, by whom.
Continued at following link.
http://www.hbslawfirm.com/articles_display.php?id=72
Mr. O'Keefe says he received his subpoena in early October. He adds that at least three of the targets had their homes raided at dawn, with law-enforcement officers turning over belongings to seize computers and files.
Mr. O'Keefe and other sources say they don't know the genesis of the probe, and Mr. Schmitz declined comment. The first public reference appeared in an October 21 blog post by Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Mr. Bice is well known for his Democratic sources.
Continued at following link.
Is Milton Friedman The New Galileo?
With one Papal sucker punch I went from Cafeteria Catholic to Anorexic Catholic. For about half of my life I have been a practicing Catholic and for about half of my life I have been indifferent to all religious practice.
I originally grew alienated from all religion due to religious priorities. Every religion I had encountered emphasized matters of sensuality--more specifically the abstaining from sensuality-- to the exclusion of all else. All else!
What would I have liked to have them address? Abuses of governmental power would be nice. Wall Street witch hunts, excessive taxation, laws that facilitate predation, laws that facilitate parasitism, and any action that facilitates the theft of volition.
I could come to accept that religions are just politically neutral on things that really matter. But the recent Papal missive actually endorses tyranny. There is no way to otherwise state it. I cannot place my imprimatur on the tenor, tone or content of the Pope's statement.
In addition to my moral objection, I also object to the Pope's comments because they run counter to a body of empirical knowledge. Catholicism was sometimes easy for me because I agree with the Church's position on abortion and evolution and that Galileo thing, that was a long time ago. It was convenient that I was not asked to believe that our planet was four thousand years old or that dinosaurs never existed or that there was no such thing as mutation. When theology clashes with empiricism, I am siding with the empirical every single time.
The empirical evidence for the merits of capitalism is overwhelming. It depresses me that after a century of failed communism, failed socialism and the many efforts at relabeling and repackaging, we still have these discussions. South Korea vs. North Korea, West Germany vs. East Germany, Taiwan vs. Mainland China. Singapore vs. Mainland China. My favorite, Hong Kong vs. Mainland China. Hong Kong had zero natural resources. None. They even had to import water. Yet, they had to build fences to limit the starving peasants who tried to wander in from the People's Republic.
We can also measure the economic welfare of citizens of Russia or the Ukraine or Estonia vs. the welfare of the citizens of The Soviet Union. Standing in line for rationed goods was the national pastime of the USSR. A country loaded with natural resources produced mass starvation. Two decades after liquidation,has more billionaires than any city in the world. Trickle down/spillover economics has been good to yesterday's comrades.
Milton Friedman (along with his wife, Rose) summarizes collectivism's dismal record in "Free To Choose." It is an easy read and nicely summarizes his lifetime of observations. Friedman's conclusions are not consistent with the Pope's recent statements. Will free market economists be denounced as heretics?
I can sooner believe that the sun revolves around the earth than I can believe in the tyranny of unfettered capitalism. Empiricism trumps silliness. Sorry, Your Holiness.
I originally grew alienated from all religion due to religious priorities. Every religion I had encountered emphasized matters of sensuality--more specifically the abstaining from sensuality-- to the exclusion of all else. All else!
What would I have liked to have them address? Abuses of governmental power would be nice. Wall Street witch hunts, excessive taxation, laws that facilitate predation, laws that facilitate parasitism, and any action that facilitates the theft of volition.
I could come to accept that religions are just politically neutral on things that really matter. But the recent Papal missive actually endorses tyranny. There is no way to otherwise state it. I cannot place my imprimatur on the tenor, tone or content of the Pope's statement.
In addition to my moral objection, I also object to the Pope's comments because they run counter to a body of empirical knowledge. Catholicism was sometimes easy for me because I agree with the Church's position on abortion and evolution and that Galileo thing, that was a long time ago. It was convenient that I was not asked to believe that our planet was four thousand years old or that dinosaurs never existed or that there was no such thing as mutation. When theology clashes with empiricism, I am siding with the empirical every single time.
The empirical evidence for the merits of capitalism is overwhelming. It depresses me that after a century of failed communism, failed socialism and the many efforts at relabeling and repackaging, we still have these discussions. South Korea vs. North Korea, West Germany vs. East Germany, Taiwan vs. Mainland China. Singapore vs. Mainland China. My favorite, Hong Kong vs. Mainland China. Hong Kong had zero natural resources. None. They even had to import water. Yet, they had to build fences to limit the starving peasants who tried to wander in from the People's Republic.
We can also measure the economic welfare of citizens of Russia or the Ukraine or Estonia vs. the welfare of the citizens of The Soviet Union. Standing in line for rationed goods was the national pastime of the USSR. A country loaded with natural resources produced mass starvation. Two decades after liquidation,has more billionaires than any city in the world. Trickle down/spillover economics has been good to yesterday's comrades.
Milton Friedman (along with his wife, Rose) summarizes collectivism's dismal record in "Free To Choose." It is an easy read and nicely summarizes his lifetime of observations. Friedman's conclusions are not consistent with the Pope's recent statements. Will free market economists be denounced as heretics?
I can sooner believe that the sun revolves around the earth than I can believe in the tyranny of unfettered capitalism. Empiricism trumps silliness. Sorry, Your Holiness.
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