Monday Miscellany
Twitter Monday
Some weekends get away. That was mine. Between two evening baseball games, a high school graduation, and a wicked hangover Saturday morning (brought on by a mere two beers--is there no justice?), I entered Sunday evening with nothing in mind for Monday's post. I scoured the Internet, and nothing jolted me into blogging action. Nonetheless, I found a handful of interesting things, so I'm going to rattle them off, Twitter style.
I'm aware, incidentally, that a true "twitter" post allows only 140 characters (including spaces), so these aren't really "twitters." By comparison, these posts are practically Tolstoyan. But the term "Twitter" is in vogue, so I'm using it.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in April to Denver students: "I think schools should be open six, seven days a week, eleven, twelve months a year." Link. What's driving this lust to kill summer vacation for children? The need to keep up with international students? Yes, in part, but it might be more of a leveling thing (the type favored by the Left for centuries, and excoriated repeatedly--and properly--by Russell Kirk):
One issue that doesn't come up enough in discussions of extending the school year is that doing so is also, fundamentally, an issue of economic fairness. If you believe in equality of opportunity, then one of the most important things the state can do is provide some baseline level of education that seeks to alleviate vast differences of class. But, small though it may seem, one of the most profound ways in which class differences express themselves is over the summer vacation.
This is because wealthy parents can afford to given their children all sorts of edifying summer experiences that downscale parents cannot. And this, as researchers at Johns Hopkins have found, leads to backsliding: Educational advancement across classes tends to be fairly even during the school year. But downscale students actually decline in educational achievement over the course of the summer, while upscale students remain relatively stable.
Bizarre Book of the Month: Absinthe & Flamethrowers: Projects and Ruminations on the Art of Living Dangerously. Perfect for that recent high school graduate in your life!
Funny Conan: "Yesterday President Barack Obama met the King of Saudi Arabia, who kissed Obama twice. Obama says he hasn't got this kind of treatment since he met Keith Olbermann." I'm shocked, shocked to find that sexploitation of models is going on in the modeling industry! "She tells the story of a 16-year-old model who complained when a 45-year-old photographer made a pass at her. 'Her agency said she should have slept with him.'" R-Rated Link. Favorite quote from the weekend's reading: "[Y]our authors have no position on foreign policy. We only notice that the people who do have them are idiots." Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin, Empire of Debt. Favorite headline from the weekend's surfing: "Galilee communities: We're not racist, we just don't want Arabs." From The Economist: Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, praised “Comrade Obama” for nationalising General Motors and expressed worries that he and Cuba's Fidel Castro could end up to the right of the president of the United States.
A former senior economist at General Motors and an analyst at Amtrak asks a pertinent question: Is GM the New Amtrak? "Taxpayers are still sinking billions of dollars into Amtrak–almost 40 years after buying it. Economist James Langenfeld says the bailout of GM could be an even bigger disaster."
Where do I send my check? "[T]he hedge fund advised by best-selling author Nassim Nicholas Taleb is launching a fund that seeks to profit from the return of hyper-inflation. Taleb's 2007 book The Black Swan warned of the impact of highly improbable events on world markets. US hedge fund Universa, with which he is associated, is now launching the Black Swan Protection Protocol-Inflation fund. It will invest in commodities such as oil, copper and corn and will also “short” government bonds – a bet that makes money when prices fall – in case inflation takes off as it did in the 1970s." Link. Ah, dang it: But investing with Universa isn't easy, or cheap: The firm has a $25 million minimum investment requirement, the Journal reports, and rarely accepts investments of less than $100 million. Oh well. I was kinda questioning the whole enterprise, anyway. Kinda struck me as a "strike while the iron is hot" thing.
Modern-day Johnny Appleseeds. I like it: By dead of night, a group of 'guerilla gardeners' in the UK are reclaiming urban wastelands, from a 'huge shrubbery/urinal behind the bus stops on London Road' to a North London plot 'filled with weeds, beer cans, and a pool of vomit,' by clandestinely planting bulbs, bushes, and herbs. As it turns out, the London duo aren't pioneers, but part of a growing movement.
The critic and erstwhile blogger Lee Siegel, in Against the Machine, a polemic against online habits, makes a list of "five open supersecrets" about bloggers:
1. Not everyone has something valuable to say.
2. Few people have anything original to say.
3. Only a handful of people know how to write well.
4. Most people will do almost anything to be liked.
5. "Customers" are always right, but "people" aren't. Link.
1: Agree, except to the extent modified presently. 2: Disagree. Every person has a unique take on something, which is why economics and governance from the bottom-up is better than the top-down approach we're currently saddled with. This is an Hayekian line of thinking, incidentally. 3. Agreed. 4. Disagree. Most people graduated from high school years ago. There's a difference between courting popularity and showing civility. 5. Not sure how to respond: the first part is a fiction devised by anxious retailers, the second is so obvious it doesn't warrant discussion.
I'm enjoying my new find, Alan Abelson. Heck, I may even have to re-subscribe to Barron's (received it years and years ago). On housing, terrorism, and Geitner's inability to unload his house. Excerpt: "When we look back at the end of 2009, anyone that made positive predictions this year will not believe how far off they were."
Our family eschews cute names for the human anatomy. I think it's a good policy, but sometimes, it backfires. Overheard family conversation: Alex (16) and Max (5):
Alex: I can spell everything.
Max: Spell Earth.
Alex: E-a-r-t-h.
Max: Talking.
Alex: T-a-l-k-i-n-g.
Max: China [pause]. Don't worry. I'm not talking about the ones girls have.
