As IF Times

link Obama: $900 million to turn around the dropout crisis – The Oval: Tracking the Obama presidency.

It’s unclear in this story how throwing money at this issue is going to help the dropout “crisis”.  There is the vague implication  that principals and administrators will  be reprimanded through school closures if dropout rates don’t decline.  Notice again how the same tonic is used for every “crisis”, that is, throw a pile of dough at it.  When people read these headlines, the knee jerk reaction is to get all warm and fuzzy inside, which is the intent.  The idea is that if money is being spent on the ‘crisis’, then it’s well on the way to being fixed.

Such a mentality is the Novocaine that has been applied to the masses by governments since the beginning of governments.  If they are seen to be doing something, it’s the same thing as actually doing something.  Politicians can then point to the ‘fix’ they effected and the monies dedicated to such fix.  You’ll seldom hear of efficacy, because that’s not material.  Only the intentions are enough to bring on laudatory praise.

While the details of exactly how the $900 million is going to address the dropout problem are not known, I can certainly point to a few things that may be at the root of this ‘crisis’.  Firstly, a flawed ingrained cultural mentality has to be addressed and changed, something that will take at least a generation.  Society must stop glorifying the stupid.  Through popular music and movies, stupidity is showcased and celebrated.  Anti-heroes are depicted as the desirable characters while positive characters are portrayed as losers.  The winter Olympics,  just recently held in Vancouver were able to show almost across the board,  people who were positive in their life and life messages, a refreshing change from the thugs and miscreants idolized in much of pro sports. 

The environment for kids has to be safe.  Kids won’t go to school if they are at risk of being shot, knifed or beat up by other kids.  Those that prey on kids should be dealt with and harshly, not spend two weeks in the shrink’s office.  Civil libertarians must keep their noses out of teaching methods;  in the classroom, the teacher must hold ultimate authority.  On the other  hand, teachers’ abilities should be assessed without partisan shielding by unions. 

Without the benefit of any statistics to back me up, I’d hazard a guess that lack of stable family structure is  probably the main cause of the high dropout rates cited in this story.  Single parents, which generally means single mothers,  are at a disadvantage when it comes to maintaining family stability.  Kids don’t drop out of school because they’re dumb, they drop out because it’s easy.  If there’s not someone there twisting their ears to attend, hanging with the bros’ seems like a fun thing to do.  There has to be more effective social pressure to keep families together.  Unfortunately it’s hard to make adults behave responsibly.

Finally, the backstop solution.  They can join the army.  Kids that are unwilling to complete high school should be compelled to join the army.  At younger ages of 15 to 17, they can be given menial jobs such as kitchen help or maintenance while they absorb basic discipline and social routines, things they were probably lacking in their home lives.  Their education can be completed under the auspices of army discipline rather than the havoc of inner city schools.   If $900 million were spent on such a program, school dropout rates would plunge.  Civil libertarians can go suck lemons on their criticism of this idea.  Better to have the kid in the safety of the army than in jail or in a morgue.

Finally, not everything is a “crisis”.  A crisis is a specific, unexpected, non routine event.  A heart attack is a crisis.  An earthquake is a crisis.  The circumstance of children not finishing school is a systematic social problem which can be resolved.  Schooling is available.  No available schooling may be a crisis.  No food is a crisis.  This is not a problems of shortages, these are problems of resource allocation and inadequate policy applications.  Money alone isn’t the fix.

link Op-Ed Contributor – We Can’t Wish Away Climate Change – NYTimes.com.

Our hero Albert Gore, rather than re consider his opinions based on the recent revelations surrounding erroneous and unproven data which were the foundations of  the Global Warming scam, instead is employing the time tested techniques of liberals: attack the detractors, not argue the facts.

“…  Some news media organizations now present showmen masquerading as political thinkers who package hatred and divisiveness as entertainment…”

A thinly veiled reference to Fox News, the only organization  not buying into Gore’s crackpot notions.  Naturally, those that don’t agree are divisive and hateful.  I”ll remember that line when anyone ever questions Canada’s hockey supremacy.  With the combination of record cold weather experienced by most of the world, in particular the U.S. northeast as well as scandalous revelations by IPCC scientists, one would think Al would be afraid to leave his 10,000 sq. ft. mansion to face the public.  How did he get past the torches and pitchforks?

As many may know, Gore is a lawyer by training, from Harvard no less and until recently, a politician by profession.  Now he’s making a name for himself in the Oracle business.  By any measure, he’s done well for himself, parlaying a political career and inventing the internet into riding the surf atop the big wave of environmentalism.  Being an ex VP of the U.S. makes him a valuable board member for corporations.  Hedge fund Kleinwort Perkins and tech companies Apple and Google thought so, thus, his name is on their roster.

Lawyers though, are trained for one thing in their professions; they are taught to win.  Facts and circumstances are inconvenient annoyances and merely obstacles to legal victory.  Think O.J. Simpson trial.  Scientists usually work the other way.  Once something is postulated, validation of empirical data is welcomed as a means of verifying a result.  Not only that, but the theories and models are continuously tested in real life. With the questionable practices that have come to light in the Global Warming business, an honest and rational person would at least stop and consider the new developments.  It’s as if despite the rocks brought back by the lunar astronauts, Gore still insists that the moon is made of cheese. A couple of bad samples don’t destroy his conviction.  Good if you’re a lawyer.  Not so good if you are in position of causing billions of dollars of wrong headed policies.  Never one to miss a chance to spice his rhetoric with dramatic hyperbole, he states that;

“…(we) face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it…”

Really?  Human civilization as we know it?  Someone’s been watching too much Lost In Space.  He goes on;

“…What is important is that the overwhelming consensus on global warming remains unchanged. It is also worth noting that the panel’s scientists — acting in good faith on the best information then available to them — probably underestimated the range of sea-level rise in this century, the speed with which the Arctic ice cap is disappearing and the speed with which some of the large glacial flows in Antarctica and Greenland are melting and racing to the sea…” 

Consensus by whom?  What does consensus have to do with fact?  Not that long ago, the consensus of medical practitioners was that bleeding a sick patient was the sure cure for maladies.  And remember, global cooling was all the rage 30 years ago.  You can’t blame Al for refuting the facts, his carefully crafted empire is melting like the ice floes that he claims.  Unfortunately the jig is not up.  The hot air racket is big business.  With the massive dollars spent to build machinery  to benefit from cap and trade nonsense, the nascent industry won’t just roll over.  However, if Al can show me some mooncheese, I’ll eat that and my divisive words with humble humility and give  money to liberal causes.  Shiver.