What’s interesting in the news today?
Lot’s out there today.
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Since it’s President’s Day, let’s start there.
From RealClearPolitics
“Obama’s Gangster Government Operates Above the Law”
“Presidents’ State of the Union addresses are delivered in the chamber of the House of Representatives in the Capitol. The classical majesty of this building where laws are made symbolizes the idea that we live under the rule of law.
Unfortunately, the 44th president is running an administration that too often seems to ignore the rule of law.”
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Typical liberal response. Throw more money at obvious failures. Just like with public education.
From NationalReview
“It is a little-appreciated irony of history that the big-bang theory was at first welcomed by Christian thinkers such as Pope Pius XII, and rejected by such scientific icons as Albert Einstein, for the same reason: It suggests a creation event, or at least leaves room for one, which, to the mind of Einstein, a devotee of the steady-state theory of the universe, was intellectually unacceptable, even though the evidence supported it. Such is the well-earned prestige of the scientific calling that Barack Obama, not known to be a man of science, famously promised to “restore science to its rightful place” in political life, unlike those flat-earthers in the Bush administration. We all adore science — right up until the moment it tells us something we do not wish to hear.
During his State of the Union address, President Obama demanded a massive expansion of federal spending on pre-kindergarten education, just a few weeks after having attempted to bury a report from the Department of Health and Human Services finding that the largest program in the field, Head Start, produces negligible results, and sometimes produces negative results. The study, released on the Friday before Christmas so as to minimize public attention to it, was hardly the first of its kind. The best scientific research we have — going back decades now — finds that Head Start does not provide the promised benefits, and indeed provides few if any benefits at all despite its extravagant annual cost of $23,000 per student, well more than double the cost of many highly regarded private schools and full-day kindergartens. Studies of early-childhood-education programs many orders of magnitude more intensive than Head Start come to similar conclusions.”
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It seems the story from the other day on a gun maker snubbing NY has an update. Others have joined the cause and more are still deciding whether to join. 🙂
From Breitbart
“Six gun companies have announced plans to stop selling any of their products to any government agency in states that severely limit the rights of private gun ownership.
Disappointed with New York State lawmakers and other jurisdictions around the country who have passed strict gun control legislation, the companies—composed of firearm manufacturers, gunsmiths, and sporting goods retailers—have announced these policies in the past week.
Their various statements emphasize that such laws create a class of government employees with rights and a class of citizens without rights. Thus, they refuse to aid the enforcement of such inequality.”
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I’m not a big fan of Nascar, but this is noteworthy. History has been made.
From YahooSports
“A year after making her Sprint Cup Series debut in the same race, Danica Patrick will lead the field to the green flag for the Daytona 500 after qualifying on the pole during Sunday’s front row qualifying session at Daytona International Speedway.
It wasn’t necessarily a surprise. Patrick posted the fastest speed of Saturday’s two qualifying practices and ran slightly faster during her second qualifying lap on Sunday, knocking owner and teammate Tony Stewart from the provisional pole. She’s the first woman to win a pole position in Sprint Cup Series history.”
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In other news, now you know what Occupy is up to these days.
From TheLATimes
“Dozens of protesters gathered outside the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters downtown Saturday afternoon, holding signs of support for Christopher Dorner, the fired police officer suspected of killing four people.
Those gathered said they were protesting police corruption and the way the massive manhunt for Dorner was conducted. Authorities said Dorner appears to have died from a self-inflected gunshot wound after a shootout with police in Big Bear on Tuesday, ending a deadly rampage that stretched across Southern California.”
More on his “supporters” here at Breitbart
“Occupy Los Angeles has chosen to honor Chris Dorner in the wake of his death, despite the body count he apparently amassed.”
“The statement of support and solidarity was posted on the Occupy Los Angeles’ official Facebook page Wednesday. The statement came in the form of a posted picture captioned with the phrases “Rest In Power Chris Dorner” and “Assassinated By The Police for Trying To Expose LAPD Corruption.”
The Occupy Los Angeles page has nearly 56,000 likes and supporters. At the time of this article’s posting, nearly 900 Occupy Supporters “Liked” the expression of support for the cop-killer, and nearly 400 users reposted the image to their own Facebook accounts.
Many of the nearly 400 comments left by Occupy Los Angeles followers expressed support, with some going as far as saying “Kill Kill Kill the White man,” and “LAPD got their Karma.””
Just a reminder on what the guy they support did, from WeaselZippers.
“For those on the left that talk of some greater mission of Dorner’s, let’s look at how he went about supposedly executing that mission. Yes, executing, because he allegedly killed four people who had nothing to with any conceivable LAPD corruption.
He allegedly killed Monica Quan because she was the daughter of his former counsel, and he wanted revenge for what he perceived as Randall Quan’s failing him.
Keith Lawrence was killed because he happened to be the fiancée of Monica. They had just become engaged. They were about to start their life together. Dorner took that away, for revenge.
Michael Crain, was shot and killed in an ambush before dawn Feb. 7 as he and an officer he was training stopped their marked patrol car at a traffic light at Magnolia and Arlington avenues in Riverside, police said. The other officer, who has not been identified, was injured. Their crime? Being police officers who unfortunately crossed the path of Dorner’s mad revenge. Michael had two children that will grow up without a father and a wife that adored him.
Finally, Jeremiah McKay, who was shot at the cabin in the woods. He had a wife and 3 children, one of whom was just four months old.”
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And last, a piece by Walter E. Williams.
“Our Real Problem Is Cultural Decay, Not Guns”
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Wandering Views 
Thanks for the Walter Williams article. He is a national treasure.
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Yes, I also read the Williams article. I am glad to hear someone speak the truth.
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Problem is, there is no way to deal with the problem.
Certainly government can’t do it.
A religious revival could.
But that’s not really up to us.
t
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As the mother of four, I was surprised that yet again, government programs are the solution to everything. My children went to one year of pre-school (it was very expensive) and then off to kindergarten where they all achieved stellar academic success.
They learned to read.
(Of course they did. They’d been prepared at home for years by a mother who read to them constantly, spoke to them in “elevated” language, took them to the library, taught them about shopping in the story, curbed their unruly behavior in public and encouraged them to spend hours outside running around.)
One kindergarten teacher explained she could tell almost immediately the children who had been home with their parents (let’s not just make it mothers) and those who had been in day care. Kids raised at home had a higher vocabulary, knew more information and were far more self-confident than children who had spent many hours in day care and other such programs.
You want a “workforce” better prepared for school and thus life in general? Make it easier for their parents to spend more time with them–not force ALL children into a program which has demonstrated negligable results for 30+ years.
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One of our children went to head start because he was a foster child at the time and his “wards” thought it best. While there, he learned to wet his pants, push other children down, cut his clothes with scissors, and he impressed the people with his appetite. We brought him home. He still has a good appetite.
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“While there, he learned to wet his pants, push other children down, cut his clothes with scissors, and he impressed the people with his appetite.”
Gee, my child figured out how to do all that on his own. Does that make him some sort of prodigy? 🙂
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Grateful for term limits. 🙂
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And once again, Twitter comes back to bite some twit.
Content warning for some language. Turns out the twit has a foul mouth too. And yes, you’ll roll your eyes and say
🙄 “Oh, him. Yeah, figures.”
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/alec_fast_slur_ious_tzxXtwrX49oGHN1VaG08hM
“Actor Alec Baldwin allegedly called a black Post photographer a racial epithet, a “crackhead” and a “drug dealer” during a confrontation on an East Village street yesterday morning, prompting police to intervene.”
“The “30 Rock’’ star grabbed the reporter, Tara Palmeri, by her arm and told her, “I want you to choke to death,” Palmeri told police, for whom she played an audiotape of the conversation.
He then called G.N. Miller — a decorated retired detective with the NYPD’s Organized Crime Control Bureau and a staff photographer for The Post — a “coon, a drug dealer,’’ Miller’s police statement said.”
“Minutes later, Baldwin ranted on Twitter.”
See. Told ya’.
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I know one teacher who told me all the teachers disliked it, if the children went to preschool, but liked the ones who attended Vacation Bible School. It seems the ones who went to the few preschools available never learned to sit still, obey, pay attention etc, but the ones who attended VBS did.
However, different preschools emphasize different things. My two older children attended a preschool a few days a week. Parents volunteered a certain number of times, too. They did fine there. My youngest didn’t attend any, because our circumstances had changed. She did fine, too.
I have to say, that it simply amazes me to read the cost of HeadStart. I know some women who ‘volunteered’ and were paid for traveling expenses. Must be a lot of Bureaucrats making a whole lot of money at some level. That program is like the Dare Program. It doesn’t matter how many studies show it doesn’t work, it just makes everyone feel too good to let it go, apparently.
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While I can agree that most pre-school programmes aren’t helpful, I also think they do no harm — both conclusions based on averaging results (ie it may help or hurt on an individual basis). Teachers can make anecdotal comments one way or another regarding the effectiveness of a pre-school approach but most teachers would agree the best indicator of success is the parents no matter what approach is taken. (the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree)
Given that parents are the best indicators and the best means to achieve success, we should advocate that gov’ts support parents not programmes. In that vein, support for paid paternity/maternity leave is far better than support for Headstart. The US is the only OECD country without paid leave (and one of the few worldwide). The article referred here suggest the first six months were the most important and elsewhere parental especially maternal support are mentioned in terms of infant health and development. Perhaps critics of headstart should advocate paid maternity leave as an alternative.
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Our real problem may be cultural decay but that’s a rather ambiguous diagnosis and one that doesn’t lend itself to a cure. A medical analogy may be apt — high fever may not be the real problem only a symptom but we still need to cure/control it.
I’m also a little befuddled by all those who would ignore a problem because its uncontrollable or not the underlying problem. One can suggest that drunk driving is a symptom of cultural problems and in any case unstoppable but that hasn’t prevented the police from attempting to stop it. In addition drunk driving may no longer be the number one cause of traffic fatalities but that doesn’t mean the police and legislature should ignore it yet Williams suggests that since more people are beaten to death than shot that perhaps focusing on gun deaths is wrong.
The concluding sentences of his article seem random. To state that punishment in America is lax is to ignore the reality of the American gulag — the world’s largest imprisoned population, many imprisoned with long sentences for non-violent offenses. Some the result of a meaningless drug war or three strikes law.
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HRW, You raise an interesting point. The drug war has filled our prisons so that violent offenders are often released early. Williams’ point on assault rifles is that they are used in very few murders, but make an attractive target for liberal politicians.
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