Anyone else feel this way about poetry?
It's not political, but this cartoon had me cracking up this morning.
I think Pearls Before Swine is one of the funniest comic strips out there today. Check out the Pearls Before Swine archives here.
Read moreNevada is not a finalist for Race to the Top funds
After peaking at Nevada's lengthy application I can tell you I'm not really all that surprised, but, Nevada is not a finalist for the remaining $3.4 billion in the Race to the Top grant. Nevada acted like NCLB required policies were amazing reforms to help turn around struggling schools and didn't provide much else in the way of reform. It also didn't help that Nevada has a dismal education history.
Now the real question is whether or not the state legislature will be motivated to push through education reform, despite not being able to win the money.
Yes, Nevada should grade public school teachers using value-added assessment. Yes we should expand charter and empowerment schools. However, we probably shouldn't adopt the common core standards, on principle, but we should look toward strengthening our education standards.
Correction: fixed spelling mistake that resulted in a pun...
Pat, I'd like to buy a solution for global warming
A great column by Pat Sajak (yes, that Pat Sajak) offers an innovative and attainable solution to global warming.
Let's assume that a third of the world's population really believes mankind has the power to adjust the Earth's thermostat through lifestyle decisions ...Of course - whether it's with global warming or taxes or union labor - it's much more convenient for liberal hypocrites just to mandate that everyone else do it.
Now, if those True Believers would give up their cars and big homes and truly change the way they live, I can't imagine that there wouldn't be some measurable impact on the Earth in just a few short years. I'm not talking about recycling Evian bottles, but truly simplifying their lives. Even if you were, say, a former Vice President, you would give up extra homes and jets and limos. I see communes with organic farms and lives freed from polluting technology.
Then, when the rest of us saw the results of their actions-you know, the earth cooling, oceans lowering, polar bears frolicking and glaciers growing-we would see the error of our ways and join the crusade voluntarily and enthusiastically.
Read Sajak's whole article.
(h/t Hotair.com)
Obamanomics
From Reason Magazine.
Scaring you with junk science
Nevada Free Trade Zone
The Brookings Institution has an idea to save Las Vegas: increase exports. OK, but how? This is kind of like telling retailers that the secret to making money is to sell more stuff. Thanks, Captain Obvious.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal article mentions that the Brookings Institution and the University of Nevada, Reno are offering a business course (for 600 dollars) to help people improve their ability to export goods globally. International trade is rife with tariffs, quotas and other protectionist measures that stifle trade, destroy wealth and harm consumers. So a course on how to navigate the pitfalls of international trade is helpful, but not the best solution to rebuilding Nevada's economy.
Here's a better idea: free trade zones. The United States has hundreds of free trade zones which range in size from hot dog stands to a few city blocks. These, however, only benefit a handful of people. Embarrassingly, China - a communist dictatorship - has 15 free trade zones and a dozen special economic zones each inhabited by millions of Chinese people. These economic zones feature lower taxes and fewer regulations and are driven by the invisible hand of market forces (rather than the very visible backhand of big government). They make up just a fraction of the land mass and population of China, but the bulk of the nation's economic growth.
So how would it work? All goods imported into the free trade zone would enter duty free. Everything. Zero percent tariffs. Nada.
Not only would this provide a major tax cut to consumers and visitors to Nevada, but industry in the Silver State would be able to produce goods and ship them abroad (or even to the rest of the U.S.) at a lower cost and thus a more competitive price. In Nevada, consumers and producers would win - unlike under most government policies, where a handful of powerful and well-connected special interests win at the expense of consumers and taxpayers alike.
So that's what's in it
Remember when Speaker Nancy Pelosi said we needed to pass the Obamacare bill to find out what was in it?
As gold coin dealers are finding out, she was right on the money with that assessment.
Those already outraged by the president's health care legislation now have a new bone of contention -- a scarcely noticed tack-on provision to the law that puts gold coin buyers and sellers under closer government scrutiny. ...Health care "reform" that institutes a new tax on gold buyers ... I wonder what we'll discover next in Obamacare?
Section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will amend the Internal Revenue Code to expand the scope of Form 1099. Currently, 1099 forms are used to track and report the miscellaneous income associated with services rendered by independent contractors or self-employed individuals.
Starting Jan. 1, 2012, Form 1099s will become a means of reporting to the Internal Revenue Service the purchases of all goods and services by small businesses and self-employed people that exceed $600 during a calendar year. Precious metals such as coins and bullion fall into this category and coin dealers have been among those most rankled by the change.
This provision, intended to mine what the IRS deems a vast reservoir of uncollected income tax, was included in the health care legislation ostensibly as a way to pay for it. The tax code tweak is expected to raise $17 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Breaking: LCB sends Moody's a notice of default
Wow. Maybe I was wrong about the tax study going into hiding. It could be just going away
Sean Whaley of the Nevada News Bureau has the breaking news.
A firm hired by the Nevada Legislature to produce a report on the state's revenue structure has been sent a notice of default for failing to turn in the document by a July 1 deadline.Wow. Only note of caution is this line.
Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, said the notice was sent Wednesday to Moody's Analytics, the contractor hired to perform the study. The company has 10 days to respond by producing the final report or the contract will be terminated, he said.
Malkiewich said an effort was made to negotiate an extension with the West Chester, Penn., based firm without success.
Malkiewich said an arrangement may still be worked out with Moody's.Assuming this isn't just a power play by the LCB to get Moody's to delay the report until after the election for no additional compensation, this is big news.
Sad news
Former Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn has died. RIP.
Porker of the Month
Rep. Marcy Kapture gives away millions for balls of steel, or some sort of alloy. Yup, you just can't make this stuff up.
