The Martin Luther King Jr. memorial on the National Mall was set to be dedicated this coming Sunday, but that dedication has been postponed due to Hurricane Irene. While I do not have any strong feelings one way or another about the monument itself, the way in which it was set to be dedicated has… Continue reading Hurricane Irene spares the nation from corporate MLK dedication
Conservative claims about stimulus are wrong
The debate about the stimulus was fairly vacuous from the very start. Pundits with apparently little understanding — or worse an agenda to misrepresent things — would chime in on whether it worked. Of course, posing the question in terms of working or not working is already massively confused. Any serious discussion on the stimulus… Continue reading Conservative claims about stimulus are wrong
Income tax claims are confused
The claim that half of Americans do not pay income taxes has been bandied about by Republican presidential candidates lately. The three front runners — Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Mitt Romney — have all thrown out the statistic in stump speeches in the past few weeks. It seems odd that Republicans would complain about… Continue reading Income tax claims are confused
Study provides more evidence against the bad school hypothesis
A new study was released in the last week by MIT and Duke researchers about the efficacy of exclusive, magnet schools. In the working paper, the researchers compared the achievements of students who narrowly qualified for magnet schools in New York and Boston against those who narrowly failed to qualify for the same schools. The… Continue reading Study provides more evidence against the bad school hypothesis
The myth of Social Security insolvency
The right wing in the United States has been executing a surprisingly successful public relations campaign to convince individuals that the Social Security system is somehow in dire straits. Paul Ryan — who for some reason continues to be taken seriously — has narrowly focused on Social Security along with Medicare and Medicaid as the… Continue reading The myth of Social Security insolvency