Archive for September, 2010

ELITE COLLEGES? OR COLLEGES FOR THE ELITE? There’ll still be both after the higher education bubble bursts, but the overlap won’t be as complete.

UPDATE: Reader Marc Bacon writes:

A note from a recent grad (2.5 yrs ago) concerning the higher education bubble: I think that combining higher education into one category misses an important point. I have two degrees, one in accounting and one in information systems. Both are in “the sciences” and are technical. I appear to be unaffected by the bubble.

All high schoolers should know: for the most part, anything without math, science, or logic will not significantly add value to you.

True only to a first approximation, but worth considering.

HEY, IF YOU’RE GOING TO CHECK OUT THE SIEU RALLY IN DC ON SATURDAY, please try to get me an overhead photo so we can measure the crowd.

UPDATE: A reader emails that the SEIU folks will be parking buses in the Pentagon’s North Lot for this rally, and asks if that’s legal. I have no idea. Anyone know anything about this?

ANOTHER UPDATE: Donald Sensing writes: “Yes, it’s legal to park those buses in the Pentagon’s parking lot. It would never happen on a weekday, of course. When I was stationed in the Pentagon from 90-93, not just ralliers’ buses but ordinary tour buses parked in the lot on weekends. In fact, tourists in their cars did, too, then took the Metro into town. Of course, this was before 9/11 and car bombs and all that. I would presume that nowadays bus companies have to get DOD’s permission (or perhaps just that of the Military District of Washington), but it’s not a legal matter, just administrative.”

DA TECH GUY: Hey, GOP! Fortune Favors The Bold! There’s a fine line between Toujours, L’Audace! and “Don’t Get Cocky!” The difference is whether you’re still giving 100%. As Da Tech Guy says, “You only get one shot. Don’t blow it.”

JOHN PODHORETZ: The Meltdown Accelerates — At The Very Top. “Here are some things Barack Obama said this evening to Democratic donors.”

UPDATE: BYRON YORK: Obama: ‘I’d appreciate a little break.’ “It’s often remarked that President Obama has enjoyed a number of getaways, vacations, and mini-vacations during his 20 months in office. But at a Democratic fundraiser Thursday night, the president said, ‘I’d appreciate a little break.'”

THE WINDMILLS of his mind.

FASTER, PLEASE: A new approach to alleviating osteoarthritis pain. “A new class of pain relievers that targets musculoskeletal pain receptors, instead of more general pain pathways, could alleviate osteoarthritis pain better than any drug now on the market, but hurdles remain before the FDA approves it. . . . Tanezumab works by preventing a protein called nerve growth factor from attaching to sensory neurons, thereby stopping the neurons from transmitting pain signals to the brain. It’s a pathway specifically related to muscle and bone pain, and therefore provides an opportunity for targeted pain relief.”

RADLEY BALKO: More Adventures In Police Professionalism.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson recently awarded Barron Bowling $830,000 for the beating he suffered at the hands of DEA Agent Timothy McCue. McCue and Bowling got into an accident in Kansas City, Kansas, after which McCue emerged from his car, gun drawn, and beat the leaving hell out of Bowling. McCue, the DEA, and officers at the Kansas City police department then conspired to cover up the beating, leaving Bowling to face charges of leaving the scene of an accident (understandable, given that he was getting beaten at the time), and assaulting Agent McCue with his car. Witness statements incriminating McCue for both the accident and the beating were lost or destroyed, as were photos of the damage McCue did to Bowling’s face.

The good news: At least one of the Kansas City police officers has since been disciplined. He was investigated by Internal Affairs, forced into early retirement, lost his retirement health insurance, and lost part of his pension.

The bad news: Only one of them was disciplined. Oh, and he happens to be the cop who exposed the coverup.

We need more accountability.

IRELAND’S PROBLEMS get worse.

HMM: Birth control pills appear to remodel brain structure. “It seems that weekly we hear about some professional athlete who sullies himself and his sport through abuse of steroids. The melodrama unfolds, careers and statistics are brought low and asterisked, and everyone bemoans another fallen competitor. Yet there are millions of cases of steroid use that occur daily with barely a second thought: Millions of women take birth control pills, blithely unaware that their effects may be subtly seeping into and modulating brain structure and activity. . . . The possibility that an accepted form of chemical contraception has the ability to alter the gross structure of the human brain is a cause for concern, even if the changes seem benign — for the moment.”

STUDY: Men dig long, shapely . . . arms? Well, yeah.