I suppose it is time to write about Common Core again, in light of the recent withdrawal of a former Bush administration pro-Common Core staffer, Hanna Skandera, from consideration as an assistant secretary for the Department of Education. This blog is not about her specifically, though she is a member of one of the Common […]
Archives
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The Core Problem of Common Core.
26 Mar 2017
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I have discovered a very good way to learn about a topic is to read about something related – the topic serves as a foundation or is always in the background. For example, a good way to learn about the rise of the Nazis in the inter-war period in Germany is to read about something […]
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The Deep State: How Deep Is It?
10 Mar 2017
“The Deep State”–what is it? Is it real? Is it fiction? If it is real, is it dangerous? To what extent is it harmful? This is a fascinating subject, perhaps partly because we all love a conspiracy theory, true or not. I will suggest that this one has a basis in reality. But I also […]
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An Exile in Trumplandia and The Road to Serfdom
08 Feb 2017
Illiberal. That one word, expresses my primary fear about President Donald J Trump. Yesterday I posted An Exile in Trumplandia Discovers Twitter which I hope partially illustrates our president’s response to some of the institutional pushback he is seeing. When I use the word “liberal”, I am not using the word to mean government control, as “liberal” has […]
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An Exile in Trumplandia Discovers Twitter
07 Feb 2017
I have been fairly adept avoiding social media so far. Over a decade ago I experimented with Facebook for a very short while, soon deciding that Facebook simply took up too much time. When we joined a house church in the early part of this decade I revived my Facebook account in order to read […]
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A Real-Life Story of Bureaucratic Dysfunction
21 Dec 2016
If you want to read a classic insider narrative of the degeneration and dysfunction of a large and powerful (and unlimited) federal bureaucracy, read here: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/443227/consumer-financial-protection-bureau-tragic-failures. The article chronicles the work of one highly placed lawyer in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before it was slapped hard by the Federal courts. I have frequently written about […]
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Fake News: Hint, this blog is not fake news
07 Dec 2016
Well, it appears that at least some people have now found a new pet peeve, so-called “fake news,” to be useful in attacking news stories they don’t like. The term of course is new, but the fact is not new at all. Various media throughout the centuries have engaged in propagandistic writing in various forms, […]
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A Really Bad Legacy, and How to Reverse It
17 Nov 2016
President Obama and his executive agencies set a new record for the number of pages of new regulations in one day: 527 pages (in a single day!). For the year the number of pages so far is also a record, at 81,640 pages. It is also worth noting that seven of the the top eight […]
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Talking Trade – I, Woollen Coat
16 Nov 2016
During the campaign, president-elect Trump was occasionally Narcissistic, evidenced political Inexperience, was sometimes Thin-skinned, and often Short tempered (NITS). However, his acceptance speech sought “… to bind the wounds of division”. Since the election he has had a long meeting with President Obama and has been conferring with members of the Republican Party. Donald J. Trump has […]
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“God save the…Country”: The Courts and Brexit
04 Nov 2016
I just felt the need to make a quick comment on the recent ruling by a Court holding that the Brexit vote was not valid without a vote by Parliament. This was a very odd ruling for several reasons, the most interesting being that the British government is not at all structured like ours. Despite […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach