Cleaning out the backlog

Kay Henderson is doing a better job liveblogging the legislature's special session, so if you're looking for news on that today, go read her blog.

In the meantime, while we're waiting for the Senate to vote, I decided to page through the stuff I had saved and meant to post on over the last few days:

Nicolai Brown wants you to break a law today. I drove 26 in a 25 zone. I feel so liberated.

Teh Debewke Telagraf Harold thinx blogin wil rewin my grammer.

Also, the Telegraph Herald criticizes the "old, stale arguments" for increasing the minimum wage, and suggests an alternative: argue that raising the minimum wage will raise everyone's wages. The problem: if you make that argument, aren't you also saying you're going to drive the cost of labor for small businesses through the roof? Thanks for thinking that through, TH.

Here's a simple argument for raising the minimum wage. If you work 40 hours every week, you don't deserve to live in poverty.

Beth Cody of the Iowa City Press Citizen wants to eliminate public schools.

The most ridiculous lines from this one:

Many in Iowa City believe that we have good schools. And if by "good" they mean relatively safe, they are right. However, the high test scores are evidence of good students (with highly educated parents).

I love it when people lampoon teachers who aren't succeeding, then credit their successes to other factors.

Instead of "reading, writing and 'rithmetic," the new "3 Rs" are "rain forest, racism and recycling."

I attended five years of Catholic school and eight years of public school. In Catholic school, I spent much of third and fourth grade teaching the "slow" kid phonics because my teachers couldn't. Yeah, I heard about the rain forest and learned the recycle song in public school, but at least my teachers didn't refuse to teach their students.

Would poor children end up attending less expensive schools? Undoubtedly, but cheaper doesn't necessarily mean less effective.

No, under this system, cheaper would mean poorly funded. And poorly funded would translate to "unable to hire and retain quality teachers." Right now none of the schools in Iowa can afford to hire and retain quality teachers, so at least they've got the same problems. But when the newly privatized Valley can afford to pay $20k/year more than the newly privatized Roosevelt, the gap between rich and poor won't just grow, it will skyrocket.

Moving on.

I hate slanted headlines. From the Muscatine Journal: Woman quibbles over her neighbor’s parking: She says the issue is getting personal but neighbor says she didn’t know there was a problem

Along the same thread, this AP piece was "Breaking news" in Tuesday's WCF Courier: Ethanol use growing but far from cure-all for energy problems. That isn't breaking news, that's broken reporting.

I also hate panic-based reporting. A sex offender in Sioux Falls, SD is missing, and based on no current evidence, the Ottumwa Courier gives us: Sex offender may be in area

Someone asked me the other day if I'd like to run for City Council. I didn't hesitate before saying no. Discussions like the comments section on this letter in the QC Times are the reason why. The City Council is often powerless, completely thankless and the first to take the blame for every issue.

Less and less college students are graduating with degrees that promise a career sticking their hand up a cow's ass. Who'd have guessed?

KL