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Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Record-Journal

All children should be bused because this LIT believes "poor" people can't afford cars?

I wonder if this is a school project for her. I wonder if she realizes this takes up community resources?


A Last-Minute Deal on Judicial Nominees

This is analogous (but not as serious) to appeasement of bullies. The Democrats had no ground on which to stand other than irresponsible and unprofessional rhetoric:

" Reid said: "Abuse of power will not be tolerated, and attempts to trample the Constitution and grab absolute control are over."

"We have kept the Republic," said Senator Robert C. Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, who had fought the rules change as an abuse of Senate traditions.

The worst part is the out the Democrats have to filibuster under extraordinary circumstances with "extraordinary" left undefined.

There is no doubt the toothlessness of this photo op compromise is exposed here.




Monday, May 23, 2005

Maybe Preschool Is the Problem - New York Times

Some thoughts.

I do not see the sophist jump from 6 "expulsions" per 1,000 pre-schoolers and No Child Left Behind.

As I live in a very wealthy community, I could see the overemphasis on skill development being an issue.

I seriously question the use of the word "expulsion" in this context. By using it, the debate is framed as one where pre-schoolers are being physically and sexually aggressive - the sorts of behavior that leads to expulsion in the higher grades.

That said, the article is a good read despite the sophistry of NCLB.

Another point to consider. Why don't we question whether pre-schoolers are ready to be in any non-parental situation for long periods of time? Oh wait, that was dismissed snarkily in the second sentence:

"Two-career families" - code words for working mothers - would be the easiest target, followed by violent cartoons or some electronic toy."

But I wouldn't have so faciley lumped parents in with cartoons and toys. The are not equal!

Saturday, May 21, 2005

Guant�namo Comes to Define U.S. to Muslims - New York Times

"Some muslims" necessarily includes Islamofascists and their sympathizers. So exactly what does this article tell us? That we should care what killers think of us?

I wish the NYT would go sooner to its pay-subscriber model so it can start to die.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Donald Luskin on Robert Wexler, Social Security, and the Media on NRO Financial

I'm a regular reader of Mr. Luskin (hence the link to his blog on the right.), and he makes a very importnat point.

The Democrats misconception of the $60,000 average earner is flat out wrong and gives credence to Joel Best's assertions of innumeracy of the general public. (Both books are worth reading and both a very readable. Even for stat-ophobes.)

What the Democrats have done is mistake avergae income of those currently working with the average lifetime yearly income of workers.

Average lifetime yearly income is the 35 best years. To get to $60,000, a worker could have worked for $60,000 in each if his best 35 years. Is that you?

I doubt it. My top years include the first job out of college. Heck it still includes the years I flipped burgers and delivered pizzas as a teenager! And this is the point.

Even if I earn $60,000 now, those much lower years will pull down that number when averaged with those much lower teenage years!

My question is whether the Democrats and their staffs of privileged Ivy leaguers know this and intentionally lie or whether the capability of reading lots of dry text (read: law cases) does not correlate well with mathematical knowledge (innumeracy.)

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

While I do not want the filibuster written out of the Senate rules (What? That isn't what is being done? Not according to the MSM!), I do not see any harm is what the Republicans want to do.

While I am sure the Democrats will make the sophist leap and try to apply anti-filibustering of advise and consent to legislation, I believe what the Republicans are doing is the right thing to do.

Deal with the the aftereffects later. When we know what they are!

Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Market Pulse: NYT.com to charge for Op-Ed, other content as of Sept

Geez, I enjoy the crossword puzzles but won't pay for them.

What makes NYT think anyone would pay for their op-eds? And what "news" columnists not contained on those disillustrious pages would anyone pay to read?

And for $50 per year? How about $10? Afterall, they're getting nothing right now.

Monday, May 16, 2005

WSJ.com - SEC Finds Retirement-Fund Issues

And this surprises who in what ways?

"SEC Finds Retirement-Fund Issues

Conflicts of Interest Exposed
Between Consulting Firms,
Managers They Recommend
By DEBORAH SOLOMON
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
May 16, 2005; Page C3

WASHINGTON -- A government examination of retirement-fund consulting uncovered significant conflicts of interest between consulting firms and the money managers they recommend to clients, according to people familiar with the matter.

A months-long study to be released today by the Securities and Exchange Commission is expected to confirm what regulators have long suspected: the existence of undisclosed financial ties between consultants and money-management firms that can influence the recommendations consultants make to their retirement-fund clients.

A number of firms such as Callan Associates, Watson Wyatt & Co. and Marsh & McLennan Cos.' Mercer Investment Consulting provide advice to retirement-funds. The SEC identifies broad patterns in the industry but mentions no firm by name, according to these people.

The study also won't call for new regulations but is expected to recommend better disclosure at consulting firms and money managers, among other changes.

The report stems from a broad probe into conflicts of interest in the retirement-fund consulting arena launched in December 2003 by the SEC's office of compliance examinations and inspections. SEC staff have been trying to determine whether consultants were swayed to recommend certain money managers to their pension-fund clients because they received direct or indirect payments from the asset managers and whether clients knew those payments existed. The SEC's enforcement division also opened its own investigation into retirement-fund conflicts.

Many of the conflicts the SEC has uncovered haven't been properly disclosed, according to people who have seen the report, and the conflicts are similar to those roiling other industries, such as mutual-fund companies and Wall Street research analysts.

Among the problems the SEC found are consulting firms that may steer clients to hire certain money managers and other vendors based on undisclosed compensation and relationships. Another undisclosed conflict the SEC has found involves consultants who may recommend money-management firms that agree to direct a retirement-fund's stock trades to the consulting firm's brokerage arm.

The study will also cite problems with the lavish conferences that many consulting firms have sponsored in the past for their pension-fund clients. These provide an opportunity for clients to mingle with money managers and discuss investment strategy, but critics have long complained that the conferences are little more than kickbacks from money managers to consulting firms.

While the SEC found no evidence of explicit quid pro quo arrangements, the agency is expected to say that money managers believe the conferences provide little value but are compelled to pay and attend in order to increase their chances of being recommended. Many consulting firms have dropped such meetings following increased regulatory scrutiny. An SEC spokesman declined to comment.

Consultants enjoy great leverage over which money managers or mutual-fund family their clients -- corporations, state and local governments and other employers -- pick for workers' retirement programs, including 401(k) plans. While it isn't illegal for consultants to take money from money managers for certain services, the compensation must be disclosed."


Thursday, May 12, 2005

How Do Japanese Dump Trash? Let Us Count the Myriad Ways - New York Times

Is this what the enviros want? A police state for garbage?

Full text in Comments.

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

OpinionJournal - The Western Front

Frightening.


Monday, May 09, 2005

The Final Insult - New York Times

Can he not do math as a Nobel Prize winner in Economics?

$1000 per year for 40 years at 6.5% would grow to $175,632.

Then in retirement, one depletes the account each year while it earns 4% over 15 years. The yearly payment? $11,746. And if this retiree dies prio to depletion, there would be money left over for his heirs.

Krugman should stay away from providing figures as the feed right into the rationale for private savings accounts and stick to the assumptions that caste Bush's proposals as unnecessary.


Facing the City, Potential Targets Rely on a Patchwork of Security - New York Times

In additon to the two examples of flat-out malfeasance, former Gov. mcGreevey put his gay lover in charge of the NJ Dept. of Homeland Security based on the qualification of having had sex with him!

Full text in Comments.

Saturday, May 07, 2005

A Blog Revolution? Get a Grip - New York Times

Certainly there is money to be made in anything that ads can be sold, and good for Mr. Denton.

Who doesn't blog in hopes of making it big? I will only become worried when the casting couch become an integral part of blog success.

Frankly, which blogger wouldn't "sell-out" for a well-paying job in Journalism Proper?

Calling Democrats' Bluff - New York Times

I had forgottent hat Brooks hwas moved to the Sunday Op-eds. This is a solid anti-Democrat piece.

Whether it is pro-Republican is another issue.

Hanson's NRO piece fits perfectly with Brook's.

Full text in Comments.

Drug Makers Reap Benefits of Tax Break - New York Times

"...The law will encourage drug makers to become even more aggressive about shifting American profits overseas because the companies will assume that they can lobby Congress for another tax holiday in a few years,..."

Just like an illegal immigrant amesty encourages more illegal immigrants in hopes of another amnesty???

Friday, May 06, 2005

Victor Davis Hanson on the Elections on National Review Online

Henninger and Hanson hit back-to-back homeruns.

If only the Yankees could do it.

Full text in Comments.

Al Pirro sues reputed mobster-client, claims slander

I guess this means that two people can't say bad things about other people in conversation?

Full text in Comments.

WSJ.com - Wonder Land

Perfectly said.

The money quote:
Science, of its nature, is always confusing. Medicine is uncertain. But public-policy formation in the U.S., especially as concerns health policy or the environment, whether obesity or the melting of the polar ice caps, admits to very little confusion. We claim to know. But in fact we usually don't know.

Full text in Comments

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

When Columnists Cry 'Jihad'

I'd have expected this to come out of Brent Bozell's Media Research Center not the Washington Post.

Full text in Comments.


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