Weekend Pundit

Make Your Speeches Short

Thu, 17 May 2012 09:57:18 -0500

And homilies too. I wish my parish priest would figure this out.

"What orators lack in depth they make up for in length." - Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755)

What's happening in Buffalo?

Tue, 15 May 2012 18:30:50 -0500

Jews going down from an estimated 20,000 in 2000 to just 8,000 today? Oh, I see. The Catholic Church is pushing for more Muslim immigrants. Riiiight. Just like socialized medicine, which blew up in her face when the coverage for abortifacients and contraception came through.

During that same time the Muslim population has over tripled. And the Catholic parishes are in rapid decline.

Source. HT John Derbyshire writes:

Huge loser from that growth? The Catholic Church. Major enabler of that growth? The Catholic Church. You can't make this stuff up.

Warren's 1/32nd; Censored Race War?

Tue, 15 May 2012 15:02:22 -0500

Although a law prof at a place that covets those who publish, it's becoming increasingly obvious that Democratic candidate for the Senate seat held by Scott Brown, Elizabeth Warren used her bogus claim that she's "Native-American," whatever that's supposed to mean, to get her job at Harvard Law in the first place.

Aren't you as tired as I about affirmative racism, er, "action"?

Quick, as I read in David Mamet's _Secret Knowledge_, about his conversion from Jewish birthright lib to a thinking conservative, what did Custer say at Little Bighorn? "Look, here come the _______ ?"

Anyway, a new name making the rounds for Warren is not Fauxcohantas but She Will Sioux. More here.

Thomas Sowell writes on the ongoing black-white intifada, "A Censored Race War?" He's the smartest man in America, and it's obvious the dead tree media refuses to make clear how much interracial crime is taking place. It's much more black on white than the other way round.

Trying to keep the lid on is understandable. But a lot of pressure can build up under that lid. If and when that pressure leads to an explosion of white backlash, things could be a lot worse than if the truth had come out earlier, and steps taken by both black and white leaders to deal with the hoodlums and with those who inflame the hoodlums.

Listening to a podcast of a CSPAN interview with Max Hastings and his WWII history, _Inferno_, I learned about a genocide that I had never heard about before: the Bengal famine or 1943.

Are you going to celebrate Towel Day this May 25? How?

From The Archives - So You Really Want To Live Out In The Country??

Mon, 14 May 2012 21:23:52 -0500

This post comes from the Weekend Pundit archives, in this case back in October 2002. I have made a few minor edits, mostly grammatic, though one change was more along the lines of "this sounds awkward so I'll change these three words." The post below was actually part of a much larger post covering a number of topics, a precursor to my regular Thoughts On A Sunday posts.

This one was near and dear to my heart, dealing with seasonal visitors opining how great it would be to "live out in the country." The problem is that quite often they don't have a clue what that entails.

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Have any of you urban or suburban dwellers out there have ever wondered what it would be like to live out in the country? I hear this quite often from visitors to this state. Usually it's from someone spending a week or two of their vacation time at the lakes, up in the mountains, at some campground in one of the many forests, or at one of the ski resorts. All they've seen or experienced of New Hampshire (or Vermont, Maine, or upstate New York) in the limited time they're here is what is aimed at the tourist trade.

Many have no concept what it means to live someplace where pizza parlors and Chinese restaurants don't deliver; where the nearest convenience store might be 20 miles away down a dirt road; where winters can be harsh and deadly; and where you haul your own trash to the dump. There are no Starbucks, Taco Bells, or tofu burgers. The closest thing to a Sak's Fifth Avenue is the L.L. Bean outlet store in one of the shopping meccas in the heart of tourist country.

Most have never experienced cabin fever after being stuck inside for a week or more because of the brutally cold temperatures and heavy snowfalls in the winter. The same can also be said of mid-spring - the black flies are out in force making any time spent outside uncomfortable to an extreme.

Few are cut out for small town life, where everybody knows your business. For some of us hardy Yankees, it's no big thing. But for others it can be quite trying. Up here, neighbors watch out for neighbors, even if that neighbor lives on the other side of town.

Some people have trouble with the concept of town meeting, where the residents of the town gather once a year to decide how the town will or will not spend their tax dollars. It can be a very personal thing, town meeting. Though it is local government at its best, people also have to contend with egos, feuds, and the ubiquitous anti-flatlander mentality. Most new folks make the almost fatal mistake their first time speaking at town meeting by starting their remarks with, "Back where I come from....". Most folks at town meeting could care less about where you come from or what you did there, unless you're going to use the reference to show how something the town is thinking of doing is a bad idea. Then they might let you get away with it. Maybe.

Something many others moving to the country end up learning the hard way is this: Never piss off the Town Clerk, the Road Agent, or the Police Chief (assuming the town actually has a police department). Getting on their bad side can make living in a small town an extremely uncomfortable and frustrating experience.

One thing anyone wanting to move out to the country will have to get used to is guns. Lot's of folks around here own guns for hunting, protection, or just plain plinking. By association, they'll also have to get used to the various hunting seasons. Getting all misty-eyed about the Big Bad Hunters out stalking Bambi so they can carve him in to venison steaks will earn you no points up here. It's more likely to get you talked about.

And one other thing: You are expected to take responsibility for your own actions. It's not 'society's fault'. It's not because your mother didn't breastfeed you. It's not because you ate too many Twinkies. That kind of pseudo-psychological BS won't fly out here in the sticks. Folks out in the country don't have time for it. We're too busy making a living, raising our kids, working on our homes, and paying our taxes.

If all of that sounds appealing to you, then we'll welcome you with open arms. Otherwise, don't even think of moving to any place like this. You'll hate it.

Thoughts On A Sunday

Sun, 13 May 2012 16:14:45 -0500

Summer-like weather returned this weekend, making it possible to start dealing with the almost overwhelming amount of yard work needed around The Manse. I'm even taking a couple of days off during the upcoming week to try and get ahead of it as well as get the decks cleaned, stripped, and re-stained.

Hopefully I can get BeezleBub to give me a hand with a few of the chores that require two people to deal with.

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As Blue states in his post, this is only a story...maybe.

Heaven help us if there's even a grain of truth to it.

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The "Romney was a bully in prep school" meme has been dying out rapidly, proving there was no "there" there. If the Obama campaign has started with digging up potentially embarrassing incidents from Romney's youth, it means they're desperate and they have nothing they can use to skewer his chances.

In the mean time Obama's campaign has been running his re-election ads and the one I've seen on TV has a couple of small truths, but for the most part it's an attempt to put a good spin on a do-nothing-but-hurt-the-economy-and-our-international-standing presidency. One thing's for sure, he's been a big disappointment to the rest of the world.

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Deb had a People of WalMart moment yesterday, spotting a fellow with a gaudy cowboy hat, overalls, no shirt, and a thick pelt of fur. If she hadn't been so hell bent on getting out of there she would have followed him and snapped a picture with her phone.

As she also noted, Massachusetts has emptied out and headed for the Lakes Region this weekend as most of the cars in the parking lots of WalMart and the local supermarket chain were dominated by cars with Massachusetts plates.

The summerfolk have returned, along with the always dreaded "summah people". With the good weather I'm not surprised to see them here to open up their cottages and summer camps.

Another indicator was the parking lot of one of our favorite breakfast joints this morning. The split between New Hampshire and Massachusetts plates favored New Hampshire, but barely. That will change once Memorial Day weekend arrives. Between then and Labor Day the ratio will favor Massachusetts plates.

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Speaking of summerfolk, summah people, and folks from away, I have been digging through the Weekend Pundit archives and re-reading pieces I wrote dealing with those three groups. This activity has made me realize that maybe it's time to revisit those posts, update a few of them, and putting a few together in an easily read compilation. Much of what I wrote 10 years ago (Has it really been that long?) is still true today. A few things have gotten better. Some have gotten worse.

If nothing else it gives me the opportunity to let my few dozen readers to see the Lakes Region of New Hampshire though the eyes of a year-round resident.

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With the recent elections in France and Greece it looks like the EU economy is heading to a major collapse. Both countries have elected leaders who will drive them hard to the left, increasing already unsustainable government spending, raising taxes to the point where anyone with money will leave, taking jobs and the economy with them when they go. It's obvious that neither they nor the people who elected them into office understand how economies work, how they can be negatively affected by government policies, regulations, and confiscatory taxation.

Ironically the UK learned that lesson the hard way during the 1970's and the only thing that turned it around was Maggie Thatcher's ascension to Prime Minister in the early 80's. She undid much of the damage done by previous governments, de-nationalizing industries, doing away with onerous tax rates, and letting business people run businesses. The economic turnaround was dramatic.

But now it looks like Great Britain will be dragged down by folks in the rest of Europe making the same mistakes as the UK made in the 70's. It's Santayana's axiom proven...again.

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Rand Simberg delves into the increasingly uncivil war between the Warmist and Skeptic camps in the AGW debate.

The Warmists are using increasingly eliminationist rhetoric to try to win people over to their totalitarian viewpoint of what must be done, while Skeptics are pointing out that the Warmists are trying to impose draconian measures to deal with a problem that may not exist. In fact, the 'problem' may be more helpful than harmful, but don't tell the Warmists that.

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Does Obama really think publicly attacking donors to Mitt Romney's campaign is going to silence them? According to one recent 'victim' of this tactic, the answer is a resounding "No!" In fact, it may end up doing more harm, particularly when it gets compared to Dick Nixon's enemies list. That is not a positive image by any means and one you'd think the Obama campaign would want to stay away from.

Then again, the Obama campaign hasn't been showing much in the way of smarts lately.

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As if we need yet another example of how things aren't going so well for the Teleprompter In Chief, a stump speech he gave in Reno, Nevada drew dozens.

I remember when he drew thousands, even at such a small venue such as the one above.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Is the Chinese economic bubble about to burst?

From indicators many of us have been seeing over the past year or so, I'd say it's imminent. Between a housing market bubble that makes the one in the US look like a minor glitch (there are entire cities that are empty, built in anticipation of high housing demand that hasn't materialized). Wages are going up. Other business costs are rising. All in all, China is catching up with the rest of the world and the explosive growth of the Chinese economy has been grinding to a halt.

Some American companies that off-shored a lot of work to China are now bringing it back to the US. Rising costs in China and ever increasing transportation costs are making it more attractive to bring the work back here. That certainly isn't helping the Chinese economy.

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There's that word again - "Unexpectedly."

That's only true if you bought the hype coming out of the governor's office in Sacramento.

Anyone else with a lick of sense knew California's budget deficit was going to be higher than the official estimate, particularly in light of tax rates have passed the point of diminishing returns a long time ago.

The gummint folks in California still haven't realized their state does not have a revenue problem, but a spending problem. Until they're willing to admit to this, there is no hope the problem will be fixed.

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When it comes to energy news in the US, not much surprises me any more, including this:

The US Government Accountability Office reports that there are more oil reserves in the states of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming as the entire proven reserves of the rest of the world combined.

As Glenn Reynolds opines, "If I were the Russians and the Saudis, I'd be paying off some Green groups to block development."

Hey, wait a minute!!....

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Leave it to Bob Parks to ask the really important questions.

In this case he wants to know if fast food service has really gone down hill?

Frankly, I find this to be more important than 99% of the crap the Obama Administration is heaping upon the American public.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the summerfolk have been returning, the summah people have too, and where we'd much rather deal with the first rather than the second.

The Law Of Unintended Consequences Bites Germany's Environmental Movement

Sat, 12 May 2012 11:45:40 -0500

Call it yet another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Germany's push to become "greener than everyone else" is now showing some of the major downsides of the quasi-religious environmental movement.

We buy organic food, put E10 in our gas tanks and switch to green electricity. Our roofs are covered in solar panels and our walls plastered with insulation. This makes us feel good about ourselves. The only question is: What exactly does the environment get out of all this?

The answer is not much, really. One downside to a lot of the environmental measures being taken is that things stink more than they used to, literally.

Showerhead technology has undergone rapid development in recent years. Less water, more air, says the European Union's environmental design guideline. Gone are the days when it was enough for a showerhead to simply distribute water. Today an aerosol is generated through a complicated process in the interior of the showerhead. The moisture content in the resulting air-water mixture is so low and the air content so high that taking a shower feels more like getting blow-dried.

..."Think about how you can save water! Taking a shower is better for the environment than taking a bath. Turn off the water when you're soaping yourself. Never let the water run when you're not using it. And maybe you can spend less time in the shower, too."

This is all very well and good, but there's only one problem: It stinks. Our street is filled with the stench of decay. It's especially bad in the summer, when half of Berlin is under a cloud of gas.

--snip--

Our consumption has declined so much that there is not enough water going through the pipes to wash away fecal matter, urine and food waste, causing blockages. The inert brown sludge sloshes back and forth in the pipes, which are now much too big, releasing its full aroma.

...But toxic heavy metals like copper, nickel and lead are also accumulating in the sewage system. Sulfuric acid is corroding the pipes, causing steel to rust and concrete to crumble. It's a problem that no amount of deodorant can solve.

The waterworks must now periodically flush their pipes and conduits. The water we save with our low-flow toilets is simply being pumped directly through hoses into the sewage system below. On some days, an additional half a million cubic meters of tap water is run through the Berlin drainage system to ensure what officials call the "necessary flow rate."

Save water on one end, but blast huge amounts of water through the sewer systems to flush out what used to flow easily before the days low flush toilets and low-flow shower heads on the other end? I'll bet the Greenies didn't see that coming. Net savings? Probably somewhere on the negative side of the balance sheet, particularly if one takes into account the increased maintenance and replacement costs of the infrastructure. What makes this even more ironic is that Germany isn't suffering from water shortages by any means, yet they're acting as if the country is located in an arid climate.

As the author of the article states, much of Germany's environmental regulations and requirements are more of the "this makes me feel good about my contribution to saving the environment" type than any real efforts to "save" the environment. In other words, it's all feel-good legislation with a net-negative outcome.

The Spiegel article goes on to list a litany of failed environmental issues that are costing the German economy billions of Euros while giving little in return, including energy efficiency requirements that cause more problems than they solve, and intensive recycling efforts that end up with a lot of the materials saved from the landfill being "thermally recycled" - burned to generate electricity - which has its own environmental issues.

As much as we can point to Germany's problems with going green, we can't assume we won't go to the extremes the Germans have. All we have to do is look at California to see how many of their environmental regulations have done far more harm than good. While there are differences between Germany and California, one of the biggest being large parts of California being arid, many of the same side effects are being felt there as well. We can't assume that many of the same actions taken in California won't make it to the rest of the states, particularly if Obama's rogue EPA gets its way.

(H/T Small Dead Animals)

There are Some Sick And Evil People Out There

Fri, 11 May 2012 21:11:07 -0500

By way of Scary Yankee Chick comes this horrifying story that makes me question the humanity of some people.

The one thing I've learned about some of the truly sick people out there is that if they abuse animals they'll also abuse other people, particularly their own family members.

There are some people out there that are just too effin' sick and twisted to be allowed out into society. The sick bastard in the story linked above is one of them.

A Graduation Message To The Class Of 2012

Fri, 11 May 2012 20:59:01 -0500

Bret Stephens addresses members of the graduating Class of 2012, exposing them to some hard truths they haven't had to face until now. One of most salient points is something that will stand them in good stead, assuming they're willing to listen: "But if you can just manage to tone down your egos, shape up your minds, and think unfashionable thoughts, you just might be able to do something worthy with your lives. And even get a job. Good luck!"

Bret brings up a number of problems with our existing college and university system today, that being they are less about preparing students to face the real world and more about students "getting inflated grades in useless subjects in order to obtain a debased degree." What's worse is that many of these students put them and/or their families deep into debt, yet they won't be able to find jobs that will pay them anywhere what it is they owe.

Some of those commenting to Bret's piece miss the point, trying to make it seem that he's saying the only worthwhile degrees are in STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering, Medicine), but that's not what he's saying at all. Instead he's warning students who get degrees in Womyn's Studies, Urban Graffiti, or Transgendered Native American Studies shouldn't expect to be snapped up by corporate America when there are more than enough graduates with degrees in Business Administration, Statistics, Finance, Graphic Arts, Culinary Arts, and an almost endless list of other BA and BS degrees that are far more applicable to the real world.

What's even worse for many of these still unprepared grads is that is that a lot of their contemporaries who didn't go to college are doing far better than they can ever hope to do. This is particularly true of those who went into the trades. They don't have huge student loans to pay off. They started earning their way years earlier than their college-bound friends. And in many ways they've grown up while their friends lived an extended adolescence in college.

On a slightly different thread, one commenter fell into a semantic trap, claiming students are being taught how to think. He went on to claim that they're being brainwashed into being good little progressive puppets. But what he really meant was that they're being taught what to think, which is entirely different.

Being taught how to think, meaning being taught critical thinking skills, is something we need more of in our educational system. If one can think critically, then they can reason from available facts and their own experiences rather than being spoon fed radical and, in the end, socially destructive ideologies masquerading as knowledge and wisdom. Unfortunately we aren't seeing much in the way of critical thinking being taught in our schools any more, and it shows. (This is particularly true in many of our liberal arts colleges.)

Could it be that the lack of critical thinking skills and the abundance of money through loan programs has caused this rampant problem of students studying majors that don't prepare them for life in the real world? I don't know, but it's something worth pondering.

Spain's Unemployment Rate; Is National CCW Reciprocity Closer?

Thu, 10 May 2012 09:49:44 -0500

I learned this morning that the Spanish unemployment rate is 24%. So why are going down the path of European economic policies, Mr. President?

Dick Lugar. I used to like him a lot. Several decades ago. He really cut me to the marrow, though, when the National Reciprocity for Concealed Carry Weapons nearly passed. He was one of the few Republican, if not the only one, who voted against it. This bill would have granted a person the right and privilege of being treated with respect when it came to his being able to have a sidearm concealed on his person--as long as he had a valid license to do so from his home state.

There were a few problems with it, but they were minimal in my opinion. One was Vermont didn't require a permit at all to do so for non-felons.

Acting on orders from Chuck Schumer--Doesn't she know she represents NH, not NY?--Jeanne Shaheen also voted against H.R. 822, which I hope comes back to bite her on the arse. It lost by two votes in the U.S. Senate.

But with Lugar's loss to a real conservative, it seems as though we're one step closer to the Second Amendment being treated like a marriage license or a driver's license.

Weltanschauung Is Like a Tie's Width

Wed, 09 May 2012 11:16:15 -0500

I came across this quote here and love it: "he who marries the spirit of the age soon finds himself a widower."

Like Ralph Waldo Emerson in his famous essay "Self-Reliance," I feel compelled to say be your own man and let others catch up to you.

Occupation Licensing Explosion

Wed, 09 May 2012 10:59:35 -0500

Back in the 1950s only one in 20 workers needed a license in order to do a job. Now it's one in three. Source.

I'm not sure we're better served by all that extra paperwork. I go to people who are good at what they do, not whether they have achieved bureaucratic success in getting pieces of generally meaningless paper.

This is most vivid with teaching. Getting a certification to teach almost guarantees mediocrity. Have you ever had to sit in for the "professors" of education courses? Guys like the lefty who writes for the Laconia Daily Sun?

Neither Albert Einstein nor David McColllugh could teach high school physics or history, respectively. They aren't certified!

Two Reporters of a Small Virginian Newspaper Get Ambushed by Black Mob and Beaten Up

Tue, 08 May 2012 18:36:28 -0500

And local journalists, even the editor of the newspaper where the couple worked, don't see anything there. And, aside from yeoman service by Bill O'Reilly, there's nothing there, folks. Move along.

The two videos from O'Reilly's TV program show how one of his reporters in one day's gum-shoeing getting more info than everyone else in weeks. I love it when he interviews the newspaper's editor-in-chief, who isn't going to investigate any claims of a hate crime because he's not aware if there's been a hate crime. It hasn't been brought to his attention. Okaaaay. The second clip is a lively and accurate exchange with Bernard Goldberg on the slanted coverage of the media, shown explicitly in this instance. Worthy viewing.

UPDATE: The local news coverage of the Norfolk, Virginia, altercation mentions the possibility of the police looking at the incident as a hate crime. Like something from a George Orwell novel, however, the report declines to mention the race of the perps, prompting blogger Lawrence Auster to ask, "In all of human history, have there ever been human beings as cowardly and contemptible as contemporary white liberals?"

Scott Walker Improves Wisconsin's Economic Standing

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:46:41 -0500

Listening to the Charlie Sykes Radio Program, which is out of Milwaukee, I learned that CEO Magazine gave Wisconsin a favorable rating in its survey of the states and their economic climate to foster businesses. Wisconsin went up 21 spots from where they were in 2010 when the excellent Scott ~~Brown~~ Walker first took office.

And this recall effort that is taking place--as I understand it next month--is second in importance only to the presidential election. Scott Walker is doing exactly what he said he would which, to Dems, is cause for his dismissal. So much for democracy. I hope people in Wisconsin remember the unruly public sector unions taking over Madison and the pusillanimous Dems who fled to Illinois to avoid voting.

Why didn't I get the memo? Pity the job market if the Milwaukee mayor, Tom Barrett, whom the dead tree media protects, gets the nod over Brown. That may be in part because the photo ID legislation was struck down. By an activist judge on behalf of the NAACP; unbelievably, this same judge was later shown had signed the petition to recall Scott Brown!

Kitteh Sings The Blues....

Mon, 07 May 2012 21:03:00 -0500

I haven't done any cat blogging in a while. When I saw this I couldn't resist.

Kitteh sings the blues!!

Thoughts On A Sunday

Sun, 06 May 2012 18:48:21 -0500

Things are back to normal here at The Manse now that BeezleBub has recovered from his trip to St. Louis for the FIRST Robotics World Championships.

One thing I've noticed since he's back at school is that he's suffering from a moderate form of 'senioritis'. He's feeling less motivated to do homework or to put full effort into his classes because he has less than four weeks of school left before he graduates. It's not surprising. But both Deb and I are staying on his case, making sure he finishes his assignments in a timely (and complete) fashion.

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While we had a rather dry winter, spring is more than making up for it with rain almost all last week and for a few days this coming week. At least yesterday and today was warm and sunny, as will it will also be on Monday. But on Tuesday through Thursday we'll be back in the rain.

It certainly hasn't made it easy to get any yard work done during the week. (I much prefer to do it during the week because I have much better things to do on weekends.)

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As I constantly have to remind many of my friends, Cinqo de Mayo isn't all that big a deal in Mexico. It's right up there with St. Patrick's Day in Ireland. Both are purely American holidays.

But I do have to make the disclosure that St. Patrick's Day is gaining momentum in Ireland, again something driven by Americans of Irish descent. But then there are more Irish in the US than there are in Ireland, so that might have something to do with it.

(H/T Maggie's Farm)

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We keep hearing the 'dropping' unemployment numbers being touted by the Obama Administration as a show that Obamanomics is working. But what they choose to sweep under the carpet is why those numbers are dropping. It has nothing to do with more Americans being employed so much as it does with them dropping out of the labor force. If one takes a look at the overall employment numbers which include both underemployed (working part time or in jobs for which they are greatly overqualified) and those who have given up looking for work, the actual unemployment rate is closer to 16%.

The labor participation rate is the lowest it's been since 1981. How is this good news? But to hear Obama tell it things are just great.

Yeah. Right.

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Newsbusters digs into the New York Times' efforts to stir up racial strife in regards to the upcoming 2012 Presidential campaigns.

It appears the only racists left in the country work for the Lame Stream Media. Most Americans could not care less about the issue.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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Cap'n Teach offers this cautionary tale of the sperm donor in Obama's "Life of Julia" tale.

Age 22: Peter's in his senior year, working towards his Sociology degree. He supplements his meager income from student loans and a part time job down at the local Subway by selling his sperm to a local sperm bank, and signs documents which state that all "donations" will be kept completely anonymous.

--snip--

Age 27: Peter moves up the ladder, and is finally able to make money by skimming money from government grants. He receives a letter in the mail from Julia's lawyer slapping him with a paternity suit.

Age 28: Peter attempts to fight the suit, but, a liberal judge throws out the legal non-disclosure forms, saying Peter has to Do His Part. Peter's still in debt from college, and also has some sort of strange disease from his time in the 3rd world s***hole. Very few doctors accept his insurance and government centers have months long waits. He starts filing phony reports to the government in order to get more money.

And it goes down hill from there.

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Assistant Village Idiot points us to two studies that show the differences in TV preferences of Democrats and Republicans and differences in attitude between Democrat and Republican bloggers.

Looking at the TV show lists, I'm not surprised at the dichotomy at all. That there are shows that both sides like (or dislike) equally is also not surprising.

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Glenn Reynolds asks and answers the question "What comes after the higher education bubble?"

The Harvard/MIT EdX model looks good to me. I have perused a number of the courses MIT has available online. (It's entire curriculum is available online..for free.)

I know I'll be availing myself of a number of classes MIT will be offering which will help my career advance. The cool thing is that MIT will offer certificates of completion if you can pass the final exam. That part won't be free, but it will still be a fraction of the cost of actually taking the course at MIT.

As someone once asked (it might have even been Glenn), what would you prefer to have? A Princeton education without the diploma, or a Princeton diploma without the education? It all goes back to the "credentialed, not educated" meme.

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What excuse will Obama use to kill the Keystone XL pipeline this time? And how will he justify killing American jobs and making the US even less energy secure? Somehow I doubt his campaign will use the pipeline as an issue.

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I thought this was cool: maps showing the invisible borders that define American culture. The map below shows an interesting phenomenon, but it isn't what you might think it is. To find out what it means, Read The Whole Thing.

Click on image to enlarge

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where kids are thinking of the coming summer, the rains have held off for the weekend, and where soda pop is sometimes called 'tonic' by summerfolk.