4/10/2016

Thoughts On A Sunday

Cooler than normal temps have arrived and will be sticking around for a few days, necessitating restarting the Official Weekend Pundit Woodstove.

I had hoped we wouldn't really need it again until this coming November, but Mother Nature had other ideas. While it is sunny here in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, the daytime temps are below normal and the nighttime temps are near or below freezing.

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This is a perfect example of just how unprepared a good portion of our high school graduates are for the rigors of college.

Poor critical thinking skills, poor writing skills, and the inability to take justified criticism for their poor work seems to be the trademark of too many college freshmen these days.

It's grade-grubbing season again.  With it come nervous, angry, and very rude students.

Low IQ levels, total indifference to learning,  no curiosity, specious logic, no in-depth training in critical thinking and writing – these are the real-life factors that face college instructors.  Low grades are frustrating for many students, because they truly don't know what they don't know. 

Too many instructors are reluctant to do their job because (a) the errors are so numerous that the work involved in correcting them is monumental, (b) they fear student retaliation, (c) often the chair of a department will not back up an instructor's decision, and (d) the status of teachers is so poor that we are viewed as mere facilitators rather than purveyors of knowledge.

It all goes down hill from there as many of the pathetic scribblings Professor Toplansky uses as examples become less coherent, off-topic, or both.

These are the kids that will be running our country in the future? If so, our Republic is doomed. It's Idiocracy come to life.

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I've seen a similar story before, but this one is present day.

McDonald's response to the outrageous minimum wage hikes: testing a self-serve McCafe coffee station/kiosk out in downtown Chicago.

If this works out well, it will merely be an addition to this action taken earlier.

As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for.

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As more than one state has learned to its dismay, state income taxes are overly sensitive to changes in taxpayer's income. What makes it even worse is if one of the biggest single taxpayers in the state decides to pull the plug and move to a state with less onerous taxes. The latest victim of just such a move?

New Jersey.

One billionaire has pulled up stakes and relocated to Florida. His move has thrown the state budget into turmoil because he's no long contributing millions of dollars to the state tax coffers.

Billionaire David Tepper is moving from New Jersey to Florida this year — and so is his tax contribution to New Jersey, which is so large the move threatens his former home's state budget. 

The outsize dent one change of address can make sheds light not only on how much money America's wealthiest citizens can move, but also on how much the "1 percent" contributes to a functioning government.

Other states have learned this lesson in the past, and a nearby state – Connecticut – is already seeing an exodus of wealthy residents relocating to more tax friendly states and taking their money with them, along with one of their larger corporate taxpayers, in this case General Electric.

State politicians are learning an oft taught and forgotten lesson: residents and business are more than willing to vote with their feet when the burden becomes high enough.

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Free speech has been imperiled again, this time by what can only be called 'The Climate Inquisition'.

Anyone who disagrees with the AGW narrative can find themselves subject to a subpoena from a state Attorney General. The latest round of this inquisition has been the Competitive Enterprise Institute, target of yet another witch hunt to stifle anyone who disagrees with the Climate-Change-Is-All-The-Fault-Of-The-Evil-Humans narrative. No dissent can be allowed. Only the One True Path shall reign supreme...even if it is nothing more than a 21st century version of Lysenkoism rolled into McCarthyism.

Once politics becomes the dominating factor in science, science ceases to exist and there is only dogma.

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Skip shows us that the administration at Ohio State University has the right response to the demands of the Special Snowflakes infesting our college campuses after a number of protesters tried to occupy the space outside the University president's office: arrest and expulsion.

The administration is showing these idiots that actions have consequences, a long overdue lesson.

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And that's the abbreviated news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where we're waiting for warmer weather to return, preparing for the upcoming summer season, and bracing ourselves for yet another Monday.