Oh, my.
Not a good thing. And it can't be fun walking into work everyday, knowing the boss hates you for breathing, is looking for any hint of a reason to not only fire you but make you unemployable in perpetuity. Hang in there, Ms. Katharine.
After all, today marks the day the Washington, D.C. teacher's union managed to obtain the resignation of Michelle Rhee, the superintendent who insisted that success is the only option. The D.C. schools are amongst the best-funded and worst-performing in the nation. Obviously, they are happy for that state of affairs to continue a while longer.
Boris Johnson weighs in on the larger debate via an article in the Telegraph.
And along the way, he offers words of support to the young lady:
That is why the most important voice in the great university debate belongs this week not to Lord Browne or any of the politicians – but to Katharine Birbalsingh, the deputy head of a south London school. She has now become the latest great martyr to what I can only call political correctness. She was sent home from her school after having the effrontery to suggest that Lefty thinking in education was inhibiting discipline, standards and competition. But isn't she right?
Isn't she right to point to the central importance of discipline and the authority of teachers in driving up educational standards? She strikes me as being a principled person who has reached the end of her tether, and I welcome the move to reinstate her.
His essay is well worth a read, anywhere in the world, because OS thinks we all face the same challenges at bottom. Teaching kids is really hard work, and success is not guaranteed.
Here's hoping she is not just tolerated, but embraced, if not at this rather obviously failing school, then at another where the leadership believes success is more desirable than failure.
Here's hoping...but in the meantime, let's not allow her to be quietly isolated and eviscerated later, when ThePeopleInChargeOfSuchThings believe no one is looking.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
A Great Week For South America: The San Jose Mine Rescues And The Nobel Prize
As OS types away, the rescue operation is rounding the far turn and heading for the wire--but no one should rest easy until EVERYBODY is out.
But, what inspiration. These events show us, in the most positive manner, what we are capable of, and how we get these great things accomplished. OS hopes there will be a sober and detailed analysis of the whole story, as there has been a lot of valuable knowledge gained--in engineering, medicine, psychology, medicine, etc.
Also, within the week, the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Mario Vargas Llosa is most notable.
An English-language Swedish blogger weighs in on the reaction from the Swedish left, which was, shall we say, not amused. After all, if you ain't no socialist, you don't deserve you nooooo prizes, ya heah'?
People who never voiced any concerns about the politics of other Nobel Prize winners – like Wisława Szymborska, who wrote poetic celebrations of Lenin and Stalin; Günter Grass, who praised Cuba’s dictatorship; Harold Pinter, who supported Slobodan Milošević; José Saramago, who purged anti-Stalinists from the revolutionary newspaper he edited – thought that the Swedish Academy had finally crossed a line. Mario Vargas Llosa’s politics apparently should have disqualified him from any prize considerations. He is after all a classical liberal in the tradition of John Locke and Adam Smith.
O.M.G.! Just totally inexcusable!
But before you get carried away and conclude that Vargas Llosa deserves the prize: did I forget to tell you that he is not a socialist? Well, he was. He was a convinced Communist who supported the Cuban revolution. He moved on not because he was no longer able to sympathise with the poor and oppressed, but because he still did when others began to identify more with the revolutionaries than with the people in whose name they made the revolution. He saw that Castro persecuted homosexuals and imprisoned dissenters. While other socialists kept quiet and thought that the dream justified the means, Vargas Llosa began to ask himself the difficult questions about why his ideals looked more like prison camps than socialist utopias when realised.
That is when the author began to think that the centralisation of power and wealth to the government led to authoritarianism, and that trade barriers, regulations and the absence of property rights protected the powerful and made it impossible for the poor to start businesses and build a life of their own. He became a classical liberal, forever fighting against the corrupt and the authoritarian, no matter how they disguised themselves – whether as military juntas, mercantilist right-wingers or socialist dictators – and he took up the fight for the rule of law and property rights for the poor and oppressed.
It's a great article, ya'll. And thanks to the good buddy, who escaped from the clutches of academia in the nick of time, for sharing it with OS.
But, what inspiration. These events show us, in the most positive manner, what we are capable of, and how we get these great things accomplished. OS hopes there will be a sober and detailed analysis of the whole story, as there has been a lot of valuable knowledge gained--in engineering, medicine, psychology, medicine, etc.
Also, within the week, the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Mario Vargas Llosa is most notable.
An English-language Swedish blogger weighs in on the reaction from the Swedish left, which was, shall we say, not amused. After all, if you ain't no socialist, you don't deserve you nooooo prizes, ya heah'?
People who never voiced any concerns about the politics of other Nobel Prize winners – like Wisława Szymborska, who wrote poetic celebrations of Lenin and Stalin; Günter Grass, who praised Cuba’s dictatorship; Harold Pinter, who supported Slobodan Milošević; José Saramago, who purged anti-Stalinists from the revolutionary newspaper he edited – thought that the Swedish Academy had finally crossed a line. Mario Vargas Llosa’s politics apparently should have disqualified him from any prize considerations. He is after all a classical liberal in the tradition of John Locke and Adam Smith.
O.M.G.! Just totally inexcusable!
But before you get carried away and conclude that Vargas Llosa deserves the prize: did I forget to tell you that he is not a socialist? Well, he was. He was a convinced Communist who supported the Cuban revolution. He moved on not because he was no longer able to sympathise with the poor and oppressed, but because he still did when others began to identify more with the revolutionaries than with the people in whose name they made the revolution. He saw that Castro persecuted homosexuals and imprisoned dissenters. While other socialists kept quiet and thought that the dream justified the means, Vargas Llosa began to ask himself the difficult questions about why his ideals looked more like prison camps than socialist utopias when realised.
That is when the author began to think that the centralisation of power and wealth to the government led to authoritarianism, and that trade barriers, regulations and the absence of property rights protected the powerful and made it impossible for the poor to start businesses and build a life of their own. He became a classical liberal, forever fighting against the corrupt and the authoritarian, no matter how they disguised themselves – whether as military juntas, mercantilist right-wingers or socialist dictators – and he took up the fight for the rule of law and property rights for the poor and oppressed.
It's a great article, ya'll. And thanks to the good buddy, who escaped from the clutches of academia in the nick of time, for sharing it with OS.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Harvard Business Review And The Chilean Miners: Happiness Is Overrated
OS tripped across this a few days back, and ran it past some friends, who all applauded it. So, here 'tis.
Tony Schwartz, writing for Harvard Business Review, muses that 'happiness', or what we may call happiness--a state of unmolested contentment and well-being--may well be over-rated.
Some years ago, I spent time with a guy who I typically greeted in the most ordinary way: "How are you?" I'd ask.
"I'm WON-DER-FUL," he'd respond, rapturously, and every time I asked. Talk about a conversation stopper. What do you say back to that?
Suffice to say this wasn't a guy with whom I was eager to share a long meal. Here's the paradox: "Happy" people are some of the dullest people I know. And yet happiness is the state to which so many of us doggedly aspire.
Schwartz continues further:
Paradoxically, when we seek happiness as the ultimate state, we're destined to be disappointed. Absent unhappiness, how would we even recognize it? If we're fortunate, happiness is a place we visit from time to time rather than inhabit permanently. As a steady state, it has the limits of any steady state: it's not especially interesting or dynamic.
To seek happiness as a permanent state derives from two primitive evolutionary impulses: avoiding pain (which we associate with danger and the risk of death) and seeking gratification (which helps ensure that our genes get passed on).
But it also turns out that pain and discomfort are critical to growth, and that achieving excellence depends on the capacity to delay gratification.
When we're living fully, what we feel is engaged and immersed, challenged and focused, curious and passionate. Happiness — or more specifically, satisfaction — is something we mostly feel retrospectively, as a payoff on our investment. And then, before very long, we move on to the next challenge.
Engaged and immersed, challenged and focused, curious and passionate. Now that's a definition of happiness, of well-being.
OS hopes his readers don't get bored with him returning to the subject, but he thinks everyone everywhere should view the BBC series 'The Choir'. It isn't about people making great music, although sometimes that occurs. It's about people discovering that they can be engaged and immersed, challenged and focused, curious and passionate about something as wonderful as music, and their lives are thereby transformed. That 'happiness' they may have longed for arrives, because they weren't seeking it per se; they were seeking to tune that chord, memorize that alto line, remember that bit of movement.
The Chilean miners, with much help from their rescuers, kept themselves on a routine, kept their surroundings as neat as they could, kept their minds and hearts engaged, kept about the work of co-operating with their rescuers--they kept themselves engaged with life in horrible circumstances. OS was surprised to see Mr. Sepulveda arrive last night with his bag of souvenirs, and leading the gallery in football cheers.
In retrospect, it should not have been such a surprise. Mr. Sepulveda wasn't a victim per se: he was a miner, a pro, and he stayed engaged with life during his entrapment. He was ready to give out hugs and gifts and lead cheers when he got to the surface. He was one happy guy, not just because he had been rescued, but because he had something to share with everybody on the surface, even if it was just a bag of rocks and a round of hugs and cheers.
Engaged and immersed, challenged and focused, curious and passionate.
Happy.
Tony Schwartz, writing for Harvard Business Review, muses that 'happiness', or what we may call happiness--a state of unmolested contentment and well-being--may well be over-rated.
Some years ago, I spent time with a guy who I typically greeted in the most ordinary way: "How are you?" I'd ask.
"I'm WON-DER-FUL," he'd respond, rapturously, and every time I asked. Talk about a conversation stopper. What do you say back to that?
Suffice to say this wasn't a guy with whom I was eager to share a long meal. Here's the paradox: "Happy" people are some of the dullest people I know. And yet happiness is the state to which so many of us doggedly aspire.
Schwartz continues further:
Paradoxically, when we seek happiness as the ultimate state, we're destined to be disappointed. Absent unhappiness, how would we even recognize it? If we're fortunate, happiness is a place we visit from time to time rather than inhabit permanently. As a steady state, it has the limits of any steady state: it's not especially interesting or dynamic.
To seek happiness as a permanent state derives from two primitive evolutionary impulses: avoiding pain (which we associate with danger and the risk of death) and seeking gratification (which helps ensure that our genes get passed on).
But it also turns out that pain and discomfort are critical to growth, and that achieving excellence depends on the capacity to delay gratification.
When we're living fully, what we feel is engaged and immersed, challenged and focused, curious and passionate. Happiness — or more specifically, satisfaction — is something we mostly feel retrospectively, as a payoff on our investment. And then, before very long, we move on to the next challenge.
Engaged and immersed, challenged and focused, curious and passionate. Now that's a definition of happiness, of well-being.
OS hopes his readers don't get bored with him returning to the subject, but he thinks everyone everywhere should view the BBC series 'The Choir'. It isn't about people making great music, although sometimes that occurs. It's about people discovering that they can be engaged and immersed, challenged and focused, curious and passionate about something as wonderful as music, and their lives are thereby transformed. That 'happiness' they may have longed for arrives, because they weren't seeking it per se; they were seeking to tune that chord, memorize that alto line, remember that bit of movement.
The Chilean miners, with much help from their rescuers, kept themselves on a routine, kept their surroundings as neat as they could, kept their minds and hearts engaged, kept about the work of co-operating with their rescuers--they kept themselves engaged with life in horrible circumstances. OS was surprised to see Mr. Sepulveda arrive last night with his bag of souvenirs, and leading the gallery in football cheers.
In retrospect, it should not have been such a surprise. Mr. Sepulveda wasn't a victim per se: he was a miner, a pro, and he stayed engaged with life during his entrapment. He was ready to give out hugs and gifts and lead cheers when he got to the surface. He was one happy guy, not just because he had been rescued, but because he had something to share with everybody on the surface, even if it was just a bag of rocks and a round of hugs and cheers.
Engaged and immersed, challenged and focused, curious and passionate.
Happy.
Barney Frank May Have Reason To Worry: Greg Mankiw's Newest Blog Post Tells It All
For the record, for when the White House decides to defame Dr. Mankiw as a Tea-Baggin-Astro-Turfin-Racist-Nutter:
I am a professor of economics at Harvard University, where I teach introductory economics (ec 10) among other courses. I use this blog to keep in touch with my current and former students. Teachers and students at other schools, as well as others interested in economic issues, are welcome to use this resource.
OK, that's out of the way.
Dr. Mankiw's latest post simply points to the public record, showing that the Bush Administration in 2003 had urged Congress to help them reign in Fannie and Freddie, lest a crisis occur. Barney Frank vociferously opposed the idea.
Skip forward to this week. He's campaigning to keep his seat, opposed by Republican Sean Bielat, and claims:
Frank, a leading liberal who has represented the state’s Fourth Congressional District for nearly 30 years and became chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in 2007, said he and other Democrats fought to curb predatory lending practices before the recession but were thwarted by Republicans. He said he had supported efforts to help low-income families rent homes, rather than buy them.
“Low-income home ownership has been a mistake, and I have been a consistent critic of it,’’ said Frank, 70. Republicans, he said, were principally responsible for failing to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants the government seized in September 2008.
Time to put us all out of his misery. Here is Mr. Bielat's campaign donation page. Let's all throw a few shekels his direction, and see if we can't retire Barney for good.
Bye, bye, Barney!
Thanks, Dr. Mankiw, you radical nutter, you.
I am a professor of economics at Harvard University, where I teach introductory economics (ec 10) among other courses. I use this blog to keep in touch with my current and former students. Teachers and students at other schools, as well as others interested in economic issues, are welcome to use this resource.
OK, that's out of the way.
Dr. Mankiw's latest post simply points to the public record, showing that the Bush Administration in 2003 had urged Congress to help them reign in Fannie and Freddie, lest a crisis occur. Barney Frank vociferously opposed the idea.
Skip forward to this week. He's campaigning to keep his seat, opposed by Republican Sean Bielat, and claims:
Frank, a leading liberal who has represented the state’s Fourth Congressional District for nearly 30 years and became chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in 2007, said he and other Democrats fought to curb predatory lending practices before the recession but were thwarted by Republicans. He said he had supported efforts to help low-income families rent homes, rather than buy them.
“Low-income home ownership has been a mistake, and I have been a consistent critic of it,’’ said Frank, 70. Republicans, he said, were principally responsible for failing to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants the government seized in September 2008.
Time to put us all out of his misery. Here is Mr. Bielat's campaign donation page. Let's all throw a few shekels his direction, and see if we can't retire Barney for good.
Bye, bye, Barney!
Thanks, Dr. Mankiw, you radical nutter, you.
Chi-Chi-Chi! Le-Le-Le! Mario Sepulveda Emerges From The San Jose Copoiapo Mine, With Souvenirs And Cheers
Endless streams of words will be written about the events of this evening and morning, so OldSouth will be brief.
If you're looking in from some other part of the world at this late hour in the Western Hemisphere, the live feed is here.
So far, things have gone well. Let's keep a prayer going until everyone is safely out.
This is an inspiring moment for everyone, everywhere. Expertise, resources, cooperation, thought, and no small amount of love were applied to this situation. If everyone emerges, what could have been a terrible tragedy will have a happy ending.
Mr. Sepulveda emerged in high spirits, with a small bag of rocks from the mine floor to hand out as souvenirs, hugged one and all, and then went to the gallery and and began leading cheers: Chi, Chi, Chi-Le,Le,Le. Here's hoping everyone else emerges as healthy and happy.
Conratulations in order to the nation of Chile, who pulled together, and are in the process of pulling off a miracle.
N.B. The third miner just emerged in good spirits. They're going a pace of about one per hour, it appears. Keep a good thought, 'cuz it ain't over til it's over.
If you're looking in from some other part of the world at this late hour in the Western Hemisphere, the live feed is here.
So far, things have gone well. Let's keep a prayer going until everyone is safely out.
This is an inspiring moment for everyone, everywhere. Expertise, resources, cooperation, thought, and no small amount of love were applied to this situation. If everyone emerges, what could have been a terrible tragedy will have a happy ending.
Mr. Sepulveda emerged in high spirits, with a small bag of rocks from the mine floor to hand out as souvenirs, hugged one and all, and then went to the gallery and and began leading cheers: Chi, Chi, Chi-Le,Le,Le. Here's hoping everyone else emerges as healthy and happy.
Conratulations in order to the nation of Chile, who pulled together, and are in the process of pulling off a miracle.
N.B. The third miner just emerged in good spirits. They're going a pace of about one per hour, it appears. Keep a good thought, 'cuz it ain't over til it's over.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Sometimes, Only Laughter Will Do: Three Beers Later
OS has stacks of work to attack, so a parting shot for today, from 'Three Beers Later', who has discovered the world makes progressively more sense as one ingests progressively greater quantities of alcohol.
He may have stumbled onto something there, ya'll.
In any case, enjoy.
He may have stumbled onto something there, ya'll.
In any case, enjoy.
Let's Remember, Ya'll: Himself Really ADMIRES Chavez
This from a English-language Venezuelan blog OS has been following of late, The Devil's Excrement.
Last May, Hugo Chavez ordered the expropriation of a dairy farm, Hacienda las Carolinas, stating that the 'land was unproductive, and its owner, Diego Arria, used it solely to invite his friends over to drink whiskey'.
(OS reads a bit of Spanish, and was stunned to read that line in the announcement, so he's including the quote below, just to be certain his old eyes weren't deceiving him.
El primer mandatario aseguró que las tierras estaban improductivas y que su dueño, Diego Arria, las utilizaba “sólo para invitar a sus amigos a tomar whisky.)
The first link is one to click, fer sure, fer sure. It's the 'before and after' pictures of the hacienda: before, when Mr. Arrias was inviting his mates over for whiskey, and after, six months after the great socialist hero Chavez heroically confiscated it on behalf of the proletariat.
Hmmmm.....
A couple of points immediately come to mind.
(1) If, indeed, Mr. Arias were using the farm as a gentleman farmer operation where he could invite his mates to visit, drink, hunt, play cards, etc.--all of them legal activies--then that's his own business, and not the business of any arm of the government, anywhere, anytime. If Mr. Arrias wished to abandon it and let it go fallow, well, that's his business as well. That's how a culture operates under a sane rule of law that deliberately limits the power of the state.
(2) Obama, and a lot of the folk around him, really admire Chavez, and Castro, and Mao, and Stalin--all of whom engage(d) in wholesale expropriation of property from private hands in order to 'redistribute' it to their own favored constituencies. In every case, poverty resulted. Along with a lot of starvation, prison camps, etc. Remember Stalin and the kulaks? Millions died, and a great nation that once exported grain to the world became a massive importer, just to keep the population fed.
The pictures of this farm are illustrative, and powerful, because they can easily be understood. ThePeopleInCharge, having already expropriated some big chunks of the economy, will be very tempted by our houses and lands, our savings accounts, our pension savings, our small businesses, if the crunch really comes. And OS, hoping he is wrong, suspects we are in for one.
OS hopes ever'body keeps them in mind as November approaches, 'cuz that's future we face unless we all stand up and say Hell, No!. We need to do this now, while we still have a ballot box, and the ability to make use of it.
Last May, Hugo Chavez ordered the expropriation of a dairy farm, Hacienda las Carolinas, stating that the 'land was unproductive, and its owner, Diego Arria, used it solely to invite his friends over to drink whiskey'.
(OS reads a bit of Spanish, and was stunned to read that line in the announcement, so he's including the quote below, just to be certain his old eyes weren't deceiving him.
El primer mandatario aseguró que las tierras estaban improductivas y que su dueño, Diego Arria, las utilizaba “sólo para invitar a sus amigos a tomar whisky.)
The first link is one to click, fer sure, fer sure. It's the 'before and after' pictures of the hacienda: before, when Mr. Arrias was inviting his mates over for whiskey, and after, six months after the great socialist hero Chavez heroically confiscated it on behalf of the proletariat.
Hmmmm.....
A couple of points immediately come to mind.
(1) If, indeed, Mr. Arias were using the farm as a gentleman farmer operation where he could invite his mates to visit, drink, hunt, play cards, etc.--all of them legal activies--then that's his own business, and not the business of any arm of the government, anywhere, anytime. If Mr. Arrias wished to abandon it and let it go fallow, well, that's his business as well. That's how a culture operates under a sane rule of law that deliberately limits the power of the state.
(2) Obama, and a lot of the folk around him, really admire Chavez, and Castro, and Mao, and Stalin--all of whom engage(d) in wholesale expropriation of property from private hands in order to 'redistribute' it to their own favored constituencies. In every case, poverty resulted. Along with a lot of starvation, prison camps, etc. Remember Stalin and the kulaks? Millions died, and a great nation that once exported grain to the world became a massive importer, just to keep the population fed.
The pictures of this farm are illustrative, and powerful, because they can easily be understood. ThePeopleInCharge, having already expropriated some big chunks of the economy, will be very tempted by our houses and lands, our savings accounts, our pension savings, our small businesses, if the crunch really comes. And OS, hoping he is wrong, suspects we are in for one.
OS hopes ever'body keeps them in mind as November approaches, 'cuz that's future we face unless we all stand up and say Hell, No!. We need to do this now, while we still have a ballot box, and the ability to make use of it.
And The Spin Will Be...'We're Not Worried!'
It's becoming obvious, even overseas, that Himself is in deep doo-doo. The One, having declared The Summer of Recovery, arrives to the fall with nothing of the sort, outside of a DOW average that feels eerily pumped up.
The November 2 election is now three weeks away.
We can now expect the spin to begin, well ahead of time. It will go like this:
Well, the opposition always picks up seats in the mid-term. We're not worried.
Well, the public has been seduced by Fox News (or Rush, or Savage, or foreign influences on the Chamber of Commerce), but we're not worried. We'll forge ahead with our vision of a new America in the lame-duck session. The public really believes in us, and will come to love us by January. We're not worried.
Well, the stimulus was too small, and that's the fault of all those Republicans. We're not worried.
Well, the Great Recovery Program just hasn't had time to take hold, and all those out-of-work and impoverished voters just don't understand what a good thing we've done for them. We're not worried.
Things really aren't that bad, people are just hysterical. We're not worried.
People aren't expressing their unhappiness with Obama, but rather about the economy, which of course is Bush's fault. They love the President, so we're not worried.
It's really George Bush's fault. All of it, except for any good news. That's our doing. We're not worried.
It's the fault of the racists. Anyone who disagrees with Himself has a white-sheet outfit hung in the closet. We're not worried.
The Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize knows best. He's the most brilliant man to ever occupy the office. Just ask Oprah. She's not worried.
Besides, John Boehner actually smokes cigarettes! What sort of idiot is that? We're not worried.
What's that you say? Obama smokes? Well, maybe, but he only smokes organically-grown fair trade tobacco. So that's OK. We're not worried, and you are a paranoid racist for even bringing the subject up. You are the one who should worry, since we know who you are.
It's Joe Biden's fault, and we'll throw him under the bus November 3. Human sacrifice does appease the gods, we understand. We're not worried.
On and on it will go. It's begun already.
Chin-straps on, ya'll.
The November 2 election is now three weeks away.
We can now expect the spin to begin, well ahead of time. It will go like this:
Well, the opposition always picks up seats in the mid-term. We're not worried.
Well, the public has been seduced by Fox News (or Rush, or Savage, or foreign influences on the Chamber of Commerce), but we're not worried. We'll forge ahead with our vision of a new America in the lame-duck session. The public really believes in us, and will come to love us by January. We're not worried.
Well, the stimulus was too small, and that's the fault of all those Republicans. We're not worried.
Well, the Great Recovery Program just hasn't had time to take hold, and all those out-of-work and impoverished voters just don't understand what a good thing we've done for them. We're not worried.
Things really aren't that bad, people are just hysterical. We're not worried.
People aren't expressing their unhappiness with Obama, but rather about the economy, which of course is Bush's fault. They love the President, so we're not worried.
It's really George Bush's fault. All of it, except for any good news. That's our doing. We're not worried.
It's the fault of the racists. Anyone who disagrees with Himself has a white-sheet outfit hung in the closet. We're not worried.
The Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize knows best. He's the most brilliant man to ever occupy the office. Just ask Oprah. She's not worried.
Besides, John Boehner actually smokes cigarettes! What sort of idiot is that? We're not worried.
What's that you say? Obama smokes? Well, maybe, but he only smokes organically-grown fair trade tobacco. So that's OK. We're not worried, and you are a paranoid racist for even bringing the subject up. You are the one who should worry, since we know who you are.
It's Joe Biden's fault, and we'll throw him under the bus November 3. Human sacrifice does appease the gods, we understand. We're not worried.
On and on it will go. It's begun already.
Chin-straps on, ya'll.
Welcome To Illinois, Our Newest Third-World Country
Bloomberg weighed in with this little gem of a story that the State of Illinois is flogging its debt to other parts of the world, having run short on investors in this country foolhardy enough to part with their cash.
Illinois, The Great State of Illinois, is now paying higher interest rates than that paragon of political and economic stability, Mexico. OS understands El Salvador and Honduras are gaining on them.
(Unlike Mexico, Illinois does not have oil, gas and silver reserves in the ground to actually pay the money back. They've got coal, and agricultural output, and a crumbling city of Chicago that Rahm Emanuel wants to take over--that should work well! They've got Blago, a legislature that can't shoot straight, and Obama hung around their necks like a ripe road-kill 'possum. Sign me up for some-o'that-there Illinoize paper, Bubbah! What could go wrong?)
Shhh, don't tell anybody overseas...let them find out for themselves...remember all those sophisticates in Europe love our President, who after all did tout his deep experience in shaping Illinois.
Illinois, The Great State of Illinois, is now paying higher interest rates than that paragon of political and economic stability, Mexico. OS understands El Salvador and Honduras are gaining on them.
(Unlike Mexico, Illinois does not have oil, gas and silver reserves in the ground to actually pay the money back. They've got coal, and agricultural output, and a crumbling city of Chicago that Rahm Emanuel wants to take over--that should work well! They've got Blago, a legislature that can't shoot straight, and Obama hung around their necks like a ripe road-kill 'possum. Sign me up for some-o'that-there Illinoize paper, Bubbah! What could go wrong?)
Shhh, don't tell anybody overseas...let them find out for themselves...remember all those sophisticates in Europe love our President, who after all did tout his deep experience in shaping Illinois.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Archbishop Cranmer On The Warpath
His Grace took a summer hiatus, and has obviously come back refreshed and ready to wield the verbal sword.
His target is the leadership (specifically Irene Bishop) of St. Michael and All Angel's Academy in Camberwell(UK), and he mounts his steed in defense of faculty member Katherine Birbalsingh, who had the temerity to address the Conservative Party last week and tell the truth.
Her address is here, in case you haven't enjoyed it yet.
OS will have some thoughts later about her address, which merits a close review. The issue at hand is freedom of speech, and academic freedom.
You know, things Academia has always stood tall for, until the past forty years or so.
Got git 'em, yer Grace!
Whoo-whee, OS is sooooo glad he's not in Cranmer's sights, the object of his wrathful attentions.
His target is the leadership (specifically Irene Bishop) of St. Michael and All Angel's Academy in Camberwell(UK), and he mounts his steed in defense of faculty member Katherine Birbalsingh, who had the temerity to address the Conservative Party last week and tell the truth.
Her address is here, in case you haven't enjoyed it yet.
OS will have some thoughts later about her address, which merits a close review. The issue at hand is freedom of speech, and academic freedom.
You know, things Academia has always stood tall for, until the past forty years or so.
Got git 'em, yer Grace!
Whoo-whee, OS is sooooo glad he's not in Cranmer's sights, the object of his wrathful attentions.
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