-
I’m Glad I Won’t Be Reading This Book
Read more: I’m Glad I Won’t Be Reading This BookAt Reason Magazine, Jesse Walker contributes an excellent review of Thomas Frank’s latest book The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule. I say it’s an excellent review, but since I haven’t read the subject book, I’m not really qualified to make that judgment independently. But having suffered through some of Frank’s recent columns in the Wall…
-
Some Wichita Teachers Can’t Win Gracefully
Read more: Some Wichita Teachers Can’t Win GracefullyHelen Cochran, who was the spokesperson for a group that opposed the recent Wichita school bond, received a few email and telephone messages as part of the campaign that were a little over the top. In one set of messages, a Wichita High School East English teacher (we’ll call him “Kurt”) carried on the legacy…
-
The danger of auto industry nationalization
Read more: The danger of auto industry nationalizationIn consideration for a bailout, Congress and the incoming Obama administration insist that the auto industry present a plan for survival of their companies. That sounds reasonable — until you consider that the auto companies must already be operating on a plan, and that plan isn’t working. How can they be expected to come up…
-
Bryan Derreberry and the Chamber’s goals for Wichita
Read more: Bryan Derreberry and the Chamber’s goals for WichitaWhen the head of a chamber of commerce speaks or writes, it pays to listen or read carefully. While chambers are nominally pro-business, that’s a long way from saying they’re pro-liberty. Instead, they increasingly exist to serve a narrow interest. Using words and language like “pride,” “community,” “investment,” and “economic development” — all words that…
-
Wichita Chamber of Commerce values
Read more: Wichita Chamber of Commerce valuesHere’s a message that Bryan Derreberry, president of the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce, sent to Chamber members. Note that this message doesn’t mention the role its political action committee played in the third Sedgwick County Commission district. In that race, the PAC spent some $19,000 of its $48,000 in an effort to elect Goddard…
-
Temperature Errors and Response Raise Doubts
Read more: Temperature Errors and Response Raise DoubtsMore coverage of errors in global climate data appears in The Telegraph. The errors were in Russian data, where apparently the September temperature figures were used again for October. A GISS spokesman lamely explained that the reason for the error in the Russian figures was that they were obtained from another body, and that GISS…
-
Obama’s Education Transformation
Read more: Obama’s Education TransformationAt one time it seemed like Barack Obama might be an education reformer. He was actually booed when speaking before the National Education Association for his support of merit pay for teachers. But after observing Obama’s recent actions, Liam Julian, writing in the National Review Online piece Hoping for Change in Education? comes to this…
-
It’s colder in Russia in October than in September
Read more: It’s colder in Russia in October than in SeptemberOr at least it should be, unless you’re a global warming alarmist. Then it’s okay to use September temperatures for missing October observations. That’s what the Investor’s Business Daily editorial Cold, Hard Facts reports happened. Really. The editorial is based on Steve McIntyre’s research, reported on his site Climate Audit in the post Did Napoleon…
-
News Media Coverage of Presidential Campaign
Read more: News Media Coverage of Presidential CampaignARRA News Service reports on a Zogby poll and links to a video that illustrate the poor job the national news media did covering the recent presidential campaign. The video is interesting although a little repetitive. The poll results are something else, though. Zogby found that 86.9% thought that Sarah Palin said that she could…
-
No Kansas subsidy to Northern Flyer
Read more: No Kansas subsidy to Northern FlyerWhen it comes to government money, there’s no shortage of people who have ideas on how to spend it. One group that has grand ideas of how government should spend your money is the Northern Flyer Alliance. This group promotes passenger train service in our area. Currently they’re promoting extension of rail service from Oklahoma…
-
Newspapers are Dying; Journalism We Hope Is Not
Read more: Newspapers are Dying; Journalism We Hope Is NotLast night I attended the weekly meeting of the Sedgwick County Pachyderm Club to hear guest speaker Davis “Buzz” Merritt, former editor of the Wichita Eagle. I’d read and reviewed his book Knightfall: Knight Ridder and How the Erosion of Newspaper Journalism Is Putting Democracy At Risk (my review is here). His talk was based…
-
Johnson County Republicans Enforce Party Discipline
Read more: Johnson County Republicans Enforce Party DisciplineKansas Liberty, in the post JoCo GOP battle exposes party weaknesses reports on the recent Johnson County Republican Party leadership position elections. Unlike the same event in Sedgwick County, where dissent was discouraged (see Sedgwick County Republicans, Not All United), there was choice available to Republicans Kansas’ most populous county. What also happened is that…