Quote of the Day
Anarchism is founded on the observation thatsince few men are wise enough to rule themselves,
even fewer are wise enough to rule others.
Edward Abbey
Image of the Day
Integrity and the Violation of Trust
My mom sometimes reads my blog, so she may be dismayed at reading this. In the middle of explaining my objectivity in evaluating students (e.g., to ensure consistency in grading, I often rank-ordered the responses to an open-ended question at the same time), I would sometimes say if my mom didn't perform well in my class, I would have no problems failing her. (In reality, I rarely flunked students. A lot of that had to do with weaker students having dropped the class.) I once asked my students how they felt about that, and one said, "Scared..." In hindsight, that's pretty funny. In fact, I know my mom would have done well. Ironically, she was worried that her first-born son, a valedictorian who started college at 16 and graduated summa cum laude with a double-major in math and philosophy at 19, later adding 3 graduate degrees, winning a variety of academic excellence awards, competitive grants and fellowships, wouldn't be able to teach less-gifted kids. It's true that I never had mini-me's as students, but I did not have unrealistic expectations. I had due diligence standards, higher than my colleagues but pragmatic in terms of evaluations. Politically, it would have been much easier to sustain an academic career if I was much more low-profile, had pandered to students and senior faculty, etc. In a computer-relevant discipline, I had majors within a year of graduation who had never written a program on their own. It would have been a lot easier to minimize course preps, not change textbooks, limit the number of tests and computer assignments, etc. I got into political trouble at UWM because I used a textbook which came with a limited version COBOL compiler that emphasized new standard structured programming constructs; the business school was pissed because they had paid for licenses for MS Cobol, and Microsoft had not rolled out a compiler which was new standard compliant. For me, it was more important for my students to work with structured programming constructs. I felt I had a professional responsibility to the longer-term interests of my students, and I loathed colleagues who gave trivial computer assignments little more than typing exercises, who didn't cover the basics of prerequisite courses (e.g., data structures), etc.
To give a more contemporary example, I have an issue with Snowden, not because he leaked facts of government snooping on citizens, but because he violated the terms of his government clearance. For libertarians, honoring one's voluntary commitments is a moral imperative. Now if I felt the government was doing something I felt was unconscionable, I would resign my position as a matter of conscience.
Professional ethics is very important to me, and that includes positions where there were negative experiences. I think I probably explained one of my last programming jobs before becoming a full-time doctoral student. My colleague and I had worked at different times for a different APL timesharer. (I had been one of the first layoffs during an energy recession; I wasn't happy about being laid off, but my colleague had an ax to grind.) I had written a program to take a program code string and repackage the stream of bytes into a usable program on our system. My colleague had brought a former client to our new company. The client agreed to pay for enough computer time charges on the old system to get her data and programs on our system. He had estimated maybe about $100--like an hour. In any event, he called me over one day to show my new program in use. He basically used his access to burn up around $800 in time, most involving programs from the old employer. The client was told he had misjudged the amount of time required. But he had basically stolen from the client. And I wasn't happy he was using my program to facilitate the process.
I recently heard that someone who I highly respected and who had given me a big professional break had been caught trying to hack into his former employer's computer system. The issue could result in criminal charges and end his professional career. He has lost my friendship and respect. A word of advice to young professionals: Move on if and when you leave a former employer on less than favorable terms. Why would you try to stay at a place where you are no longer welcome?
Campus Politics
Facebook Corner
(IPI). The Wall Street Journal: "The U.S. and other wealthy nations have spent trillions of dollars over the past half-century trying to lift the world’s poorest people out of penury, with largely disappointing results. In 1966, shortly after President Lyndon B. Johnson declared war on poverty, 14.7% of Americans were poor, under the official definition of the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2013, 14.5% of Americans were poor."
How many more would have been in poverty if there had been no war on poverty? How about we address the real problem, and that is more and more employers want to pay as little as possible for people's labor as they can get by with, and many fewer jobs with benefits. Start talking about greed at the top and you will be at the root of the problem.
Crackpot fascist OP bullshit! The fact of the matter is that the high-tax, high-spend, high-regulate fascist government cripples economic growth. Under this crackpot conspiracy of a vicious circle of wage exploitation, there is no satisfying theoretical reason why this spiral would start or stop. The fact of the matter is that lower prices stimulate demand, and if anything, wage policies are counterproductive to the market bottoming out. One thing is clear: government is the problem, not part of the solution.
(second comment)
Let me respond more directly to the economically illiterate OP troll. The fact of the matter is that poverty was already declining for years before the fascist LBJ's "War" on Poverty. Poverty continued to decline on trend until 1977, with no evidence that the Democratic policies went over and beyond the existing private market decline. If anything, morally hazardous, ineffectual trillions have done NOTHING beyond help create an underclass of government dependents. On the other hand, during the same 4 or 5 decade span, India and China have raised hundreds of millions out of poverty with liberalized economic measures (unlike the fascist-trending US),
(IPI). While the rest of Illinois is suffering, the film industry is enjoying sales- and income-tax breaks, but they aren't alone in receiving special treatment from the state.
Since 2001, Illinois has given out more than $1 billion to the biggest businesses in the state through the EDGE tax-credit program, which is meant to spur economic growth.
Not sure how that's going to help bring jobs into Illinois. How about stop giving benefits, tax dollars, away for noncitizens first and start deporting them to California and cracking down hard on those that are submitting frudulant tax returns?Like all those corporations with their headquarters listed as a mail drop in the Cayman Islands for tax purposes. Or Bruce Rauner who has 12 different accounts there.
The economic illiterate troll is up to his usual ignorant corporation-bashing Statist propaganda talking points, ignoring as usual double taxation. Let's agree to eliminate income taxes on businesses, period. The "real" tax evaders? Various levels of government. Private railroads paid taxes; think the interstate system ever has, troll?
Just as bad as the fascist trolls are the anti-immigrants types like the OP. Stop blaming immigrants for the corrupt, ineffectual social welfare programs of the fascists. In fact, younger, healthier immigrants have been net-subsidizing our senior entitlement programs. So how about you morally corrupt jerks start paying them back the quarter-trillion dollars you owe them before you try scapegoating them for the excesses of Democrat political whores?
(IPI). Chicago Tribune: Mayor Rahm Emanuel's cash-strapped City Hall is preparing to borrow $1.1 billion to complete his debt restructuring plan, pay off a major court judgment and cover police back pay, among other costs.
The "kiss-your-money-goodbye-when-you-buy-our-bonds" man. Why would a bondholder believe that Chicago could ever grow itself back to solvency? The problem is that every special interest or constituent will come after the Dead Fish if he ever cuts more than the garnish off his plate. Just look how the teacher unions went after him for at best tepid reforms...
The Dead Fish, if he truly wants a legacy, is going to have to go after politically unpopular spending cuts. And don't even think about asking the people for more money until every budget is cut, including compensation for city workers and retirees. Make the right, hard decisions, like Gov. Coolidge during the Boston police strike, the Dead Fish might have a political future.
Marriage and Family
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Eric Allie via IPI |
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| Courtesy of Steve Breen via Townhall |
Dionne Warwick, "Don't Make Me Over"
