ABOUT TIME: DOJ Inspector General will investigate Obama voting rights record. I credit Pajamas Media for supporting - and publicizing - former Justice Department lawyer J. Christian Adams’ assertions of DOJ skullduggery.

PARTICIPATION OF RELIGIOUS, MIDDLE-CLASS AMERICANS in the public discourse is “dangerous for America.”

LET THE PRIVATE SECTOR fund stem-cell research. Jeff Jacoby asks the fundamental question: Why should the federal government be funding controversial medical research in the first place?

But the question he asks is too limited: in more general terms, is there a real need for government sponsorship of any research? Much is just plain silly, and that which isn’t can almost certainly find private sector funding.

MATH ERROR: Improper use of statistics is widespread, and the error is valid. That said, it follows that there are at least two common assumptions about school and teacher performance that should be reconsidered: (1) smaller class sizes are better, and (2) teachers should be evaluated annually based on student test performance. The statistical properties upon which these assumptions are based are exactly the same.

THE MORE THE PLANS FAIL, the more the planners plan.

STATE FARM SIGN - in Mandeville , LA.


An insurance company I could learn to love.

PAJAMAS MEDIA CONTRIBUTOR ZOMBIE has a fascinating series of posts on American education. The first four (Ideological Warfare; What’s the Matter with Texas?; Indoctrination Nation; and In Pursuit of Cultural Hegemony) describe the state of American education. Read them all.

Part V (Proposals for an Educational Renaissance) contain his proposals for reform. In a nutshell, they are:

STRUCTURE

• Introduce competition into the educational marketplace
• Encourage homeschooling
• Break the monopoly of public education, but keep it as a safety net

CURRICULUM

• Get back to basics
• End the practice of mass-adoption of a few major textbooks
• Form centrist national pressure groups to make textbooks indoctrination-free
• Get politics and religion out of science classes
• Introduce and popularize “skills survey” courses

PEDAGOGY

• Group students by ability, not age or ethnicity; bring back “tracking”
• Have “small schools” or “departments” within large high schools
• Allow teachers with creative ideas to be idiosyncratic

TRANSPARENCY/INDEPENDENCE

• Parental notification
• Break the teachers’ unions
• Bring back competition and individuality

Some I agree with; others not. But all are worthy of consideration and discussion.

ARE VOTERS really “going to turn the reins of the Congress over to these [Republicans] people who are more and more dominated by the wacko right?"

Uh, yes. Of the three stages of grief (denial, anger, depression), Democrats are still in denial. Anger and depression will follow November 2nd.

IT’S MOOT TO ME: John Galt can vote any day of the week.

IN “THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW”, the New York Times’ op-ed columnist David Brooks continues to burnish his Goofus MacDuff credentials.

Republicans are right to oppose the current concentration of power in Washington. But once that is halted, America faces a series of problems that can’t be addressed simply by getting government out of the way.

So far, so good. But here’s where Brooks jumps to the wrong conclusion.

The social fabric is fraying. Human capital is being squandered. Society is segmenting. The labor markets are ill. Wages are lagging. Inequality is increasing. The nation is overconsuming and underinnovating. China and India are surging. Not all of these challenges can be addressed by the spontaneous healing powers of the market.

No conservative I know argues that “all challenges can be addressed by the spontaneous healing powers of the market”; rather we argue that most - if not all - these challenges have been created by an energetic - and unlimited - government.