Category: Snips

Depends who you ask. Catalyst Chicago’s interview with Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan: “Our goal is to become the best school system in America . . . not 10 years from now, but literally in the next two years, we have a chance to do that.” Catalyst interview with a Carver Military Academy English […]

From the people who brought you the BP lake pollution fiasco. “A $1 million study intended to help figure out how to lower the level of mercury in the Grand Calumet River is still not complete, at least three years after the state’s original deadline,” reports Gitte Laasby of northwest Indiana’s Post-Tribune. “Because of staff […]

God needs a new lesson plan. “Our great American satirist, Ambrose Bierce, once joshed that war is God’s way of teaching Americans geography,” said William R. Polk, former history professor at the University of Chicago, in recent congressional testimony. But “after four years of the Iraq war, six out of ten Americans between 18 and […]

Not green enough. Chicago has more bicycle racks than Seattle, San Francisco, and New York combined, according to the “Urban Transportation Report Card” coauthored by the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. But “the city’s zoning codes do not adequately address transit oriented development. . . . There continues to be a strong priority of moving cars efficiently […]

[snip] News conservatives won’t tell you. Economists Mariacristina De Nardi (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago) and Marco Cagetti (Federal Reserve System) report in a May 2007 working paper that if the estate tax were abolished and the revenue replaced by income taxes, the result would be to “redistribute from the young to the old and […]

Read Harold Henderson’s blog, Daily Harold, at chicagoreader.com [snip] One way to get right-wingers to love energy conservation. A poster at illinipundit.com suggests a grand compromise involving alternative energy, nukes, CAFE standards, and drilling for domestic oil: “Personally, conservation mandates offend my sensibilities, but in the name of draining the Iranian bank accounts I could […]

Read Harold Henderson’s blog, Daily Harold, at chicagoreader.com [snip] Thanks for nothing. John Nichols summarizes University of Wisconsin findings from the month before last month’s election (the nation.com/blogs): “Local newscasts in seven Midwest markets aired 4 minutes, 24 seconds of paid political ads during the typical 30-minute broadcast while dedicating an average of 1 minute, […]

Read Harold Henderson’s blog, Daily Harold, at chicagoreader.com [snip] Michael Moore’s postcampaign promise to disgruntled conservatives: “Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water…. When women are finally paid what men […]

Read Harold Henderson’s blog, Daily Harold, at chicagoreader.com [snip] Michael Moore’s postcampaign promise to disgruntled conservatives: “Even though you have opposed environmental regulation, when we clean up our air and water, we, the Democratic majority, will let you, too, breathe the cleaner air and drink the purer water…. When women are finally paid what men […]

Read Harold Henderson’s blog, Daily Harold, at chicagoreader.com [snip] Eminent domain for thee but not for me. Northwestern law professor David Dana points out in the Northwestern University Law Review Colloquy (law.northwestern.edu/ journals/lawreview/) that most of the state laws passed in response to the Supreme Court’s 2005 Kelo decision leave in place local governments’ ability […]

Read Harold Henderson’s blog, Daily Harold, at chicagoreader.com [snip] Freedom. At Salon economist Brad DeLong remembers Milton Friedman’s response when General William Westmoreland denounced the idea of phasing out the draft in the 70s, saying he didn’t want to command “an army of mercenaries.” The late Friedman asked, “Would you rather command an army of […]

Read Harold Henderson’s blog, Daily Harold, at chicagoreader.com [snip] Can any politico be this honest and get elected president? Jacob Weisberg at slate.com: “At a magazine conference this week in Phoenix, I watched David Remnick of The New Yorker interview Obama on a stage. Obama declined to deeply regret his much-publicized youthful indiscretions with drugs. […]

Read Harold Henderson’s blog, Daily Harold, at chicagoreader.com [snip] “One of the most important victories of the Republican Party was to convince people in the suburbs to vote their fears and their wild fantasies rather than their interests,” writes Stirling Newberry at tpmcafe.com. “Reagan won everywhere because there were suburbanites everywhere. . . . The […]

[snip] “I have never seen so much misinformation as in the debate on Mexican immigration,” writes Douglas Massey, a former University of Chicago sociologist now at Princeton, at cato-unbound.org. As he points out, “The rate of undocumented migration has not increased in over two decades. . . . Most migrants are not fleeing poverty so […]

[snip] The perfect question. Sam Smith, writing in his newsletter “Undernews,” suggests that any congressional candidate who’s against gay marriage be asked, Would you accept a compromise in which we outlawed not only gay marriages but cheating on your spouse? If not, why not?