April 2, 2020

Why are so many journalists clamoring for a police state?

fromSpiked: The media pressure for a total lockdown has become overwhelming.
Police State America

Tear up your census form for a better America

fromReason: The government is perfectly capable of counting heads in a less-intrusive and more-hygienic way.
Regulation Nation

The virus is not invincible, but it’s exposing who’s irreplaceable

fromAmericanGreatness: When your refrigerator goes out under quarantine, do you really need another rant from Maxine Waters—or rather Home Depot to wheel up and connect a new one?
The Pursuit of Happiness

Walter E Williams: Managing a disaster

fromCreators: If consumers pay a higher price, it is because they see themselves as being better off acquiring the good than keeping their money in their pocket.
Regulation Nation

Checkpoints, arrests: These states are enforcing stay-at-home orders

fromKomoNews: While many states have statutes to enforce quarantines, the potential response to COVID-19 has raised concerns among civil libertarians.
Police State America

VIDEO: The nitwittery of Common Core for all to see

fromAllen.Tesla/YouTube: Common core is ridiculous and holds students back and confuses them by making math unnecessarily complex. A politically driven approach by the Obama administration.
Political Correctness and Other Nitwittery

Walter E Williams: Education Disaster

It is not for too little money.      The 2015 National Assessment of Educational Progress report, also known as The Nation's Report Card, shows that U.S. educational achievement, to put it nicely, leaves much to be desired. When it comes to reading and math skills, just 34 percent and 33 percent, respectively, of U.S. eighth-grade students tested     ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Education Revolution

Ann Marie Banfield: Federalism & Common Core Standards

Will children save the Tenth Amendment?     Will federalism get its due in the next generation? Given what's been happening in New Hampshire, one might think so. The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution expresses the principle of federalism: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor      ... MORE

The Academic Mob Silences Free Speech, Again

A Washington Times editorial. Inconvenient truths not welcomed. Arithmetic continues to be a puzzle in certain precincts of academia. Scripps College, an all-female school in Claremont, Calif., founded on the principle that “the paramount obligation of a college is to develop in its students the ability to think clearly and independently,”    ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Common Core

Cynthia Walker: Common Core Is Un-Common & Not Core

Making math hard.    I became a math teacher by a circuitous route.  My degree is in engineering.  I spent five and a half years refurbishing nuclear submarines, and then I quit work to bear, rear, and eventually homeschool our three children. As a homeschool mom, I participated in co-ops, taking turns teaching groups of homeschooled children   ... MORE

6 Shocking Studies That Prove Science Is Totally Broken

by Andrew Marinus, Alan Boyle and Jon Pearl.     Even if you're not all that into science, it's still a big part of the news that reaches you on a day-to-day basis -- you'll see interesting headlines about how studies show marijuana cures loneliness or how other studies say pot ruins your memory, and you kind of just assume they're true. If scientists   ... MORE

Climate Bullies, The Surrealists Of Science

Science geeks stand up against global bullies.           Popular perceptions about climate appear surrealistic to me. I'm a seasoned science geek who has been involved in big-time climate modeling, serious mathematics, theory, and more. Popular discussions of this subject have come to look like a Salvador Dali painting, as once noted by     ... MORE

Lee Cary: The Black Swan In The Perfect Storm.

The Black Swan is Arithmetic.       She is coming and she is already here. In Detroit, you see her in the debris of a once great American city. The Perfect Storm is the confluence of events that will wreak economic havoc on America. It need not have anything to do with the current debt ceiling controversy. Most don't see it coming. For them, it will   ... MORE

AP: U.S. Adults Are Dumber Than The Average Human

Obama's reelection finally explained.     It’s long been known that America’s school kids haven’t measured well compared with international peers. Now, there’s a new twist: Adults don’t either. In math, reading and problem-solving using technology – all skills considered critical for global competitiveness and economic strength – American adults scored ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Personal Austerity

NY Parents Demand Schools Dumb Down

Boycott planned against new math and English tests.   New York state education officials have been sounding the alarm for months: English and math tests that students will take this week and next will be harder than before and scores will drop. A video from the state Education Department warns, "We expect them to be lower." Statewide,    ... MORE

Half The Facts You Know Are Probably Wrong

by Ronald Bailey.     Dinosaurs were cold-blooded. Increased K-12 spending and lower pupil/teacher ratios boost public school student outcomes. Most of the DNA in the human genome is junk. Saccharin causes cancer and a high fiber diet prevents it. Stars cannot be bigger than 150 solar masses. In the past half-century, all of the foregoing facts     ... MORE

Douglas French: Down And Out In California

Golden State is fast losing its luster.     Gas in Vegas is a dollar cheaper a gallon than in the Golden State, or so a friend and recent LA transplant tells me. He went on to say the top tax rate in California is over 13%, while, of course, Nevada has no state income tax. Over dinner at Del Frisco’s, he explained how industries are being ruined by         ... MORE

NY Post: Reading, 'Riting And Race

Is arithmetic racist?   Are English and science and art? These might seem like stupid questions, but — speaking of stupid — a federal judge says the answer is yes, they are, and slapped New York City with a judgment that could cost the school system hundreds of millions. The case involves a 16-year-old lawsuit, a handful of unqualified teachers who tried  ... MORE

"The New Economic Patriotism" Is Not A Jobs Plan

by David Harsanyi. Fear not; Barack Obama has an economic plan for America, and it's all in a glossy brochure, called "The New Economic Patriotism: A Plan for Jobs & Middle-Class Security"—an antidote, we're told, to the vagueness of Mitt Romney's agenda. This is what the president, according to a campaign official, believes will ensure ... MORE

Eyder Peralta: 2012 SAT Reading Scores Lowest In 40 Years

Based on 1.7 million test scores. NPR's Claudio Sanchez brings us this bit of bad academic news: The class of 2012 scored the lowest average SAT reading score since 1972. A bit of good news is that math scores were up. Claudio filed this report for our Newscast unit: "Writing, too, is down nine points since the SAT introduced a writing section in 2006.  ... MORE

VIDEO: John Stossel - Better Ideas In Education

Walter E Williams: Math Mattters

Hard work and discipline pay dividends.   If one manages to graduate from high school without the rudiments of algebra, geometry and trigonometry, there are certain relatively high-paying careers probably off-limits for life -- such as careers in architecture, chemistry, medicine computer programming, engineering and certain technical fields.    ... MORE