Milestones and Memory

The Post today has a nice piece on a schoolteacher using a 9/11 curriculum package to teach the event. It's a reminder that 8 years means there are students who don't really remember 9/11.

It's also a reminder of something I thought of watching the commentary on Ted Kennedy's death. It's been 40+ years since he was elected Senator, so anyone under 55 probably doesn't remember that, despite all the glowing memories and statements about how "we all" remember (the RFK eulogy, probably). Anyone under 60 wasn't really impacted by JFK's death. Few personally recall HST (I claim to be precocious.)  We may live on the same earth but we remember distinctly different worlds.

Kevin Drum on the Blogosphere

If you're at all interested in adult commentary and the blogosphere, read this interview with Kevin Drum.

Organics = Liberal

That's why they can get away with such items for their committee to consider as "Personal Body Care Standards". I can just hear what some on the right wing might make of that.

Good News Day

Seems the child mortality rate in the Third World has dropped dramatically since 1990. Plaudits to the Gateses and all others involved. Not mentioned, but this is a prerequisite to trimming the world's population--if you can be sure your child will live and provide for you, you'll have fewer children, eventually.

Good Government: Conflicts Versus Transparency

The Project on Government voices concern over an Obama appointee with a conflict of interest. Obama raised the standards for appointments, but has also waived the standards in a few cases. (I've not seen an analysis of the net effect compared to prior administrations.) I'm ambivalent on the subject; I highly value knowledge and conflict rules tend to work against that. So why not a compromise: the more spotless the appointees background, the less transparency in office, and vice versa. Appoint someone from the industry and they have to put an Internet videocam in their office.

I Need a Name for Bright Ideas That Aren't

It's not NIH (not invented here) but it's the same sort of ego-centric thinking. Maybe it's:
only I am brilliant enough to think of this idea = OIABETTOTI or my bright idea is best BIIB. I think there's a recurrent pattern among smart people of thinking no one ever before has had this great idea when the fact is someone probably has had a similar idea.

I'm picking on my favorite President, who wants to set up a farmers market for DC by closing Vermont Avenue on Thursdays.

But there are eighteen farmers markets in DC. Have the people in the White House thought about this? You need both supply and demand for a successful market. There's not many people living near the White House, so the demand is going to be mostly office workers picking something up for the evening. Doesn't strike me as the best prospect.

Our Varied Agriculture

Once again I'm reminded the pictures in my mind (as Walter Lippman once put it) don't match the reality of agriculture in the U.S. Nor, I'd guess, do the pictures in your mind.

Which county in the US has the most farms, do you think? Some place in Illinois or Iowa?

How about San Diego? At least that's their claim on their publication here. 6,687 farms. The median size is less than 5 acres. But their acreage of field crops has about doubled in the last 10 years.

It's a big country with lots of variety, which we all tend to forget in favor of simple positions.

Dogwood

My area of Reston is probably the most diverse and the poorest part. I remember a saleswoman warning me against buying the house I did by citing the mantra: location, location, location. There's an argument housing is a proxy for investment in children--parents choose the best schools by choosing the right school district, which would explain why redistricting gets very heated. Anyhow, the local elementary school has had its problems, despite lots of efforts to improve it, including going to a year-round calendar. Fairfax County is proud of its schools, but my school is the runt of the litter.

Not having kids, I don't follow No Child Left Behind that closely. It seems though from this article that NCLB can get very picky, with the fate of a school coming down to 3 students. I'm ambivalent about that--it's possible for unique circumstances to screw up any bureaucratic rule.

Why Animal Farmers Should Be Afraid

Here's a Treehugger followup to their post on how male chicks are killed. The summary of comments gives some time to those, like me, who argue this is the way you feed the world. But they put the key point at the end: the observation the original post attracted a hell of a lot more comments and interest than did other green issues. Our diet, and how animals are treated, are a very sensitive issue, so there will be lots more attention devoted to it in the future, which will not be good for current animal rearing practices.

What's Up in MA?

TPM has a commenter provide an update on the results of Gov. Patrick's health care reform in Massachusetts.

Noting the second point, maybe we solve the problem by expanding the number of green cards available to doctors and nurses from other countries. Or maybe we should do as the Amish do, send some of our people to Mexico for treatment.