The Fount of Useless Information
Your place for useless information that just might possibly be interesting.
The Real Trouble With the Birth-Control Mandate
Critics are missing the main point. There are good reasons that your car-insurance company doesn’t add $100 to your premium and then cover oil changes.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204136404577210730406555906.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Because I keep coming across articles like …
Can the 1 percent accept “enough”?
The rich can’t stop trying to justify exorbitant salaries for everyone from Wall Street bankers to college coaches
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/10/can_the_1_percent_accept_enough/singleton/
I have always felt that there is a very low value on the upper limit …
“Gutter service”
I was reading Matt’s Taibblog:
Why the Foreclosure Deal May Not Be So Hot After All
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-the-foreclosure-deal-may-not-be-so-hot-after-all-20120209
Where he backs off his earlier ‘praise‘ of the proposed mortgage settlement now that the fine print is available. …
Why Wall Street Should Stop Whining
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-wall-street-should-stop-whining-20120208
I haven’t made time to read the original article that is alluded to in the page listed above (not sure I would be happy with my blood pressure if I did), but I …
Forgetting a key lesson from Watergate?
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/04/politics/watergate-reform/index.html?hpt=hp_c3
Yes, corrupt money will find its way around any roadblock you care to put in front of it, power attracts the corruptible after all. However, when you legalize corruption, as we have done …
The privatization trap
From schools to prisons, outsourcing government’s works typically ends with cronyism, waste and unaccountability
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/the_privatization_trap/singleton/
Once again I have had to resist the urge to copy the post in its entirety and embedding it here. I strongly …
Thanks to bls for pointing this out:
..about using gambling to encourage saving (and then banning it)?
http://johnpapola.com/2010/11/gambling-to-encourage-savings/
It seems clear to me that lotteries were put in place by our government as a way to levy a substantial regressive …
Are high-tech classrooms better classrooms?
Despite the hype over Apple’s new iPad textbooks, there’s little proof that gadgets do much to improve education
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/03/are_high_tech_classrooms_better_classrooms/singleton/
A good friend and I started work on an idea for educational games years ago (we …
Lieberman, Cantor defend Capitol Hill’s inside traders
Wall Street’s favorites resist the effort to ban profiteering on non-public information
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/02/lieberman_cantor_defend_capitol_hills_inside_traders/singleton/
I hesitated in posting this because it is so boringly predictable it is hardly worth mentioning. However, some people (but …
The “education crisis” myth
Ignore the media spin. Wages and working conditions — not skills — are the real reasons jobs get outsourced
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/30/the_education_crisis_myth/singleton/
In my experience our educational system is quite dysfunctional and apparently incapable of churning out people …