There's nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view that I hold dear.
Daniel Dennett
Image of the Day: No Salute For You, Hitler!
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| Via Drudge Report |
State Department Spends $400K on Camel Statue in Pakistan: Let's Be Grateful They Economized on One Hump vs. Two
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| Via Citizens Against Government Waste |
Facebook Corner
(Illinois Policy Institute). Illinois lost $39.3 billion in annual income to net out-migration from 1992-2010.
Every single year, the average income of people who leave is higher than the average income of people who enter Illinois. The people who leave make $8,700 more per year than the people who enter. The people who leave also make $13,100 more than the Illinois median household income.
$39.3 Billion in lost income per year,
times 3% income tax
equals $1.2 Billion per year in lost income tax revenue.
That is nothing, compared to
the raising of income tax from 3% to 5%
that raised an extra $8 Billion per year, in IL income tax.
Democrats and union bosses are slapping each other on the back,
for the extra income tax revenue that they are able to collect.
But the point is, they've barely dented their debt problems and still have an unsustainable pension liability; their bond ratings are in the toilet. If we hit a recession, the Perfect Storm could take out Quinn's rose-colored glasses.
(Illinois Policy Institute). Our favorite talking point from last week's progressive tax hike rally comes from state Sen. Iris Martinez, who gave a lesson on the definition of the word “fair”: “The word ‘fair’? What does the word ‘fair’ mean? It means fair.”
A Clintonian "it depends on how 'fair' the definition of 'fair' is" But I suspect this is "progressive"-speak for "You didn't earn that'...
Perhaps, but if we use a similar scenario with slightly higher than 1% as the starting point while cutting spending, it could work.
Nope. This is economic lunacy. This will slow economic growth. Spending cuts and "real" pension reform are needed, and politicians won't act until a crisis forces their hand.
I am hoping for a donation from the Koch brothers.
They're waiting for the Illinois "going out of business" sales and state bankruptcy...
Become a climate-change denial front group. They would be happy to donate to your "cause."
Unfortunately, the Koch brothers didn't invest in Big Green swindles of the American taxpayers.. They actually pay taxes...
(Illinois Policy Institute). Former Blago press secretary and out-of-state political operatives are using a special interest, front-group called A Better Illinois to push for higher taxes in Illinois.
As The One is fond of saying, "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig..."
(Reason). It's time to stop tolerating ruinous zero tolerance policies.
One can only dream that zero tolerance applied to stupid politicians, mediocre teachers, and abysmal administrators...
(Illinois Policy Institute). Anyone with a heart of a brain would have found it hard to want to stifle ridesharing after hearing testimony at last week's Chicago City Council meeting.
Once you know how good these services are from personal experience and from hearing the experiences of others, it’s easy to see that this is something that should be encouraged, not eliminated.
That’s why the taxi industry, which feels threatened by ridesharing, has started focusing more of its lobbying efforts on the Illinois General Assembly, where legislators and their constituents are less likely to be familiar with ridesharing, which so far only exists in Chicago.
No background checks for drivers. No stanard testing they even know the city and how to get from one place to another. Its all fine until something goes wrong and everyone starts screaming about why standards werent put in place. Didnt that happen recently in the banking industry. How did that work out for all of us.
Spoken like a true fascist crony. Yeah, I'm sure the reason that the service has grown in popularity and why cabbies feel so threatened they are lobbying their political whores is because of all this baseless fear-mongering.
One more thing, "progressive" troll. The banking industry is the most regulated ever going into 2008, and all your incompetent regulators couldn't stop it. And yet you want us to spend even more on expensive incompetents? Maybe, just maybe, government makes things worse...
(Cato Institute). The failure to use incentives is one reason why public schools are a bad way to subsidize education.
I'll never forget this one screen as I was scrambling to salvage my career as an untenured junior professor in a bad job market. I had a temporary visiting professor gig. I had built up a decent publication record to the point few interviewers questioned my research performance.
I went to this one screen from a so-called "teaching-oriented" school. The professor sniffed as he reviewed my vita, finally saying, "You know, I could have a decent publication record, too, if it wouldn't have taken away from the time I spent on my teaching and my students." Under these circumstances, it's best to hold your tongue. He had no way of knowing that I had no social life (not a date in years), spent literally over 70 hours a week on campus, I rarely used the same textbook twice (in a computer-related discipline), and I never went into a lecture without typed (word-processed) notes. I required my students to do more assignments than my colleagues and personally debugged dozens, if not hundreds of student computer programs.
The ironic thing is my career ended at a "teaching-oriented" school in central lllinois, and my assessment is they were more interested in university politics than teaching and research. I'll never forget this one student's comments on my teaching evaluations; he wrote something to the effect, "I've been here for 4 years, and this is the first class I've had where the professor is talking about concepts that employers are interested in."
We all have different incentives; I was probably in the lower half of salaries for my area. That didn't bother me as much as the year I had a bumper year in publications and got a below-average increase as doled out by senior faculty.
Good teachers don't need incentives. We need student and parent accountability.
Excuses, excuses for incompetent teachers and clueless administrators--blame the customer. This is like a doctor trying to blame his patient for a wrong diagnosis. Meet reality: why would you bust your ass when your tenured mediocre colleague down the hall gets paid the same as you and he's just punching his timecard? We need to get rid of inflated subjective rating schemes and start insisting on objective teacher/student measurements.
How about taking the unions out of the public school system,duh!
Yes, exploited workers makes everything better...
More like exploitative mediocre workers whom enjoy job security, despite failing results, beyond those in the private sector and a better retirement system (in theory) than most taxpayers.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Bob Gorrell and Townhall |
Journey, "When a Man Loves a Woman". I wish I had Steve Perry's pipes. I can't think of a better power ballad.
