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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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End Taxpayer-Funded Competition Between the States
Read more: End Taxpayer-Funded Competition Between the StatesA Wichita Eagle story (Development speaker touts power of cash) reports on an economic incentive expert’s evaluation of our state’s effort. (It’s revealing to learn that an accounting firm has someone with the title “regional leader of credits and incentives,” whose duty, evidently, it is to help companies figure out which state’s incentives are most…
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Pragmatism must recognize reality
Read more: Pragmatism must recognize realityAny editorial that starts with “Karl Marx was right about at least one thing …” deserves close examination, especially when it appears in Kansas’ largest newspaper and is written by that newspaper’s former editor. The thrust of Davis Merritt’s article is that the theory of free markets hasn’t worked: “We’re painfully experiencing right now the…
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Sedgwick County Republicans, Not All United
Read more: Sedgwick County Republicans, Not All UnitedI received this from a Republican activist who isn’t pleased with the process that took place last Thursday, when the Sedgwick County Republican Party met to select new officers. As a committeeman, I was there and took part in the process. As a new committeeman, attending my first of these meetings, I mostly kept my…
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Joe Scarborough: Please Stop Saying Laissez-faire
Read more: Joe Scarborough: Please Stop Saying Laissez-faireI’m listening to Joe Scarborough on MSNBC, and he says: “Laissez-faire capitalism is a wonderful thing except in this case …” I’ve heard stuff like this over and over the past few months: A politician says “I’m a big free-market guy, but …” What’s sad to realize is that these people think that what we…
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The Fallacy of “Green Jobs”
Read more: The Fallacy of “Green Jobs”Does climate change offer an opportunity to spend ourselves out of a possible recession? John Stossel doesn’t think so, and in his piece The Fallacy of “Green Jobs” he lays out the case. Key points: “The fallacy is the same in every case: Even if the program creates jobs building bridges or windmills, it necessarily…