Guilty pleasures come in many forms. I would like to invite people to read The Soup and indulge in one of mine. Because if you read them more, they’ll write more. So my motivations are largely selfish.
I’ve heard a plausible theory that The Soup is a dumping ground for talented press people who can not only write humorously, but are normally constrained by journalistic integrity (yeah, I know), and who want an outlet for the more tasteless, uncorroborated or otherwise not-so-printworthy material. (And it’s pretty much equal opportunity gossip.)
Whoever they are, they serve a good purpose. And if you have gossip for them, make contact.
-Max Borders
Hood gives the N&O and Comrade Schofield a lesson in statistics and common sense on the issue of schoolchildren and poverty (after bad reporting by the N&O Schofield stumbles clumsily into this post).
-Max Borders
What’s the best way to dismantle public education and privatize schools? School choice. That’s what our friend Chris Fitzsimon says in a guest editorial in last week’s Public School Forum’s Friday Report. Amusing, but certainly not true — ask the Milwaukee Public Schools. If I really wanted to dismantle public education, let’s just say I could find more effective ways. Fitzsimon and anti-choice advocates like to demonize anyone who favors school choice and portray themselves as the guardians of the public schools. But are they? The real goal of those who oppose school choice seems to be not providing students with quality educational opportunities, but the preservation of the public school “system.” Yes, school choice may contribute to some schools losing revenue due to a loss of pupils. But curiously, liberals always only look at such a development as a “system” loss. No consideration is ever given to the benefits of less crowded classrooms, having children attend better schools or the potential benefits of market forces on institutional performance. A genuine interest in students generates an interest in why students choose to transfer to another school. I’m still looking for any examples by anti-choice advocates of the slightest expression of concern over any of the reasons WHY students and parents might want to flee a failing system.
At the heart of this issue is a simple question: Is government created to serve the individual, or merely to perpetuate the state? School choice empowers parents and families. And, it works. We trust students and families to make informed and wise decisions about which colleges their children attend. Could we ever contemplate not having that choice? Has doing so lead to the dismantling and ruination of public higher education? The silence is telling.
Here’s a post on the special interest whores, which Fitzsimon clearly seems to be ok with — if but by omission. The disdain for everything corporate dries up when corporations support their pet issues.
-Max Borders
(Update: Bank of America: $60,000 Wachovia: $60,000 Duke Energy: $50,000 Siemens: $50,000 (the maker of the trains!) EarthTech: $20,000 Goodrich: $12,000 US Airways: $12,000 Time Warner Cable: $12,000 AT&T: $9,000 Belk: $6,000 Charlotte Pipe & Foundry: $6,000 Carolina Panthers: $6,000 Coca Cola Bottling; $6,000 Carolinas Multiple Listing Service: $5,000 N.C. Association of Realtors: $5,000 Allen Tate Co.: $4,000 Charlotte Bobcats: $3,000 Pappas Properties: $3,000 (HT: Charlotte Observer & Chris Hayes).
Never one to forego an opportunity to tap into the herd mentality of populist sentiment, Chris Fitzsimon sings glowingly of an apparent "majority" in Charlotte on light rail:
As Election Day gets closer, it is becoming more and more obvious that the anti-transit forces, led by Raleigh’s leading market fundamentalist think tank and its followers, are not only out of step with the majority of voters in Charlotte, but even with conservative politicians that normally agree with much of their anti-government rhetoric.
Funny. A man as educated as Mr. Fitzsimons hasn’t yet grasped the concept of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs. (Read: Of course they want it Chris! It’s a golden goodie gotten at the expense of other people.) That’s ok. In Fitzsimon’s universe, costs don’t matter. Things fall like manna from heaven. Nevermind the rural folk who’re having to bankroll the folly trolley. Nevermind that only Bill Gates to pay the full cost of a fare. Fitzsimon is happy with the following calculation, which pretty much sums up the "progressive" worldview:
A wants x.
B wants x.
C wants x, and so on…
—————————
A, B, and C get together to figure out how to make D pay for x.
This is the new age of bread and circuses folks, which actually started back in 1936. If we run out of bread, says the progressive, let them eat cake! When it comes to the costs light rail relative to benefits (better news which Fitzsimon cannot point to), even Marie Antoinette would blush.
-Max Borders
(UPDATE: Interesting article about light rail failures in Seattle. Particularly damning is this fact: “1996 promise: For $1.8 billion taxpayers would get 21.3 miles and 24 stations of light rail to be completed by 2006. 2006 results: For $4.45 billion (year of expenditure dollars) taxpayers will get 18.75 miles with 15 stations to be completed by 2016.” Sound familiar, Charlotte? HT: Brian Balfour.)
Another day, another six-figure payment to a company in the name of "economic incentives." This time it’s to Ply Gem Industries in Cary, who plan to add 100 jobs over the next four years.
In exchange, Governor Easley has granted them $100,000 from the One North Carolina Fund.
Now here’s the kicker… The One North Carolina Fund requires a local match. So Cary or Wake County or a combination of the two will also have to kick in an additional $100,000. That’s $100,000 less that those governments will have to build schools, hire police or pay for the additional growth that 100 new employees and their families will bring.
So not only do we pay to bring the jobs, the opportunity cost of that money being used somewhere else (perhaps somewhere more needed) is also lost. Thus, the true cost to us taxpayers is actually much higher.
Wake County residents, remember this next year when the County Commissioners come begging for a transfer tax or another $1 billion school bond to "pay for growth." They are using your tax dollars to buy more growth and not using your tax dollars to pay for the growth already here.
And another thing… I thought Cary was putting a stop to the growth, or at least that’s why they elected Harold Weinbrecht as Mayor. When you add 100 jobs, where exactly do they expect these people to live and their kids to go to school?
One of my heroes, Bruce Yandle, has a podcast on the tragedy of the commons. Every environmentalist and concerned citizen should understand this concept, as the phenomenon is responsible for 98 percent of all environmental issues — from pollution to over-fishing. Bruce is a scholar and a gentleman. Enjoy.
(Update: pay close attention to his wisdom on incorporation and use of the Common Law versus top-down regulation.)
-Max Borders
Check out more insight into what the so-called "progressives" want to do to America’s health care system. Seems like our friends across the pond are getting desperate for alternatives from their "single-payer" system.
"Thousands of "health tourists" are going as far as India, Malaysia and South Africa for major operations – such is their despair over the quality of health services."
Remember this when a lefty tries to tell you that government run health care in other countries – such as England – results in better "health outcomes." Seems that a state run health care system leads to poorer quality, long waiting lists and dangerous cost-cutting measures:
"The first survey of Britons opting for treatment overseas shows that fears of hospital infections and frustration with NHS waiting lists are fueling the increasing trend."
Hhmm…where have we heard that argument before?
Read more about cases that may soon be coming to America if progressives get their way. If government-run health care is the panacea lefties continue to claim it is, why are so many Britons flying thousands of miles to seek care? This quote from a former hospital employee who flew to India to have heart surgery pretty much says it all:
‘I’m sorry to say that Third World standards are what we now find in British hospitals’
Furthermore, a British doctor expresses her concerns over the NHS in this article.
"Faced with such a health service, it is easy to understand why those who can afford it choose to have private treatment or even to go abroad. So much money has gone into the NHS in recent years, yet it is hard to see where it has disappeared to. Is this really the value for money we keep hearing about?"
Combine this with a number of recent articles depicting the growing amount of people being forced to perform dentristy on themselves (ouch!) in England, and it becomes hard to take the progressive arguments seriously. Is this really the type of health care system we want to foist upon "the children?"
If as widely speculated, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-Guilford) rethinks her decision and does run for the Democratic nomination for US Senate against Sen. Dole, it sets up an interesting quandary for NC Democrats and for Sen. Hagan herself.
Does Sen. Hagan run on her purported record as a pro-business Democrat and try and secure the middle? Or does her party’s left-wing pull her towards the fringes in appealing to the progressive base that would seemingly throw its support behind Jim Neal? Does the Democratic base go towards the person that more aligns with their values or do they ride the horse they think can win. (And in turn reaffirm the conventional wisdom stereotype that a homosexual man can’t win statewide).
If Sen. Hagan runs left and cedes the middle to Dole, Hagan wins the nomination but will put herself in an even more uphill battle against Dole. But if she runs to the middle first, does she alienate her base and make her primary fight that much harder?
It seems exactly like the primary fights Republicans have been having for years (and currently are in Giuliani v. the rest). Run to the middle to win the state or run to the fringe to secure the nomination?
Should be interesting to watch.