Jens 'n' Frens
Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political.
"A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." -- Daniel Webster
Thursday, March 03, 2011 :::
Iowahawk is usually more about parody and sarcasm than about numbers, but he has a good take-down of a recent meme implausibly suggesting that collective bargaining for teachers leads to academic success for students. I would like to add that I think self-selection is a bigger problem with comparing SAT scores among states than race -- not everyone takes the test -- but I think the numbers Iowahawk uses account for that as well.
John Hinderaker takes on the notion that Koch Enterprises thrives on "special deals". I think the pipeline using eminent domain could be a special deal, but it isn't necessarily; the other examples pretty much consist of Koch following the same rules that everyone else follows, even when the managing brothers oppose those rules. Cf the third bullet point and the comments here.