February 2006

I Just Hope I Haven’t Caused the Driver Any Stress

When I was around 13 I was cycling down the street, turned around to check behind me and when I turned back around found a car had pulled out in front of me. I put a large dent in the hood and used my face to nicely pattern the safety glass of the windshield. I spent about 2 hours having safety glass picked out of my face at the hospital (which is a great example of government regulation at work–if it hadn’t been safety glass, I would have lost my left eye).

I just want to make sure that the driver knows I hope she didn’t go through too much that day.

It’s Good

Rod’s new commercial. Very good. One of the better parts is an admission of having problems and then quickly transitioning into having a new daughter. Yeah, politicos think it’s lame, but that sort of transition hits a lot of voters as important–it’s a values thing.

On the flip side, I don’t even know what to say about this. I’ve complained so much about this administration over the last three years and it’s ties to wankers I’m being worn down in not wanting to repeat myself over and over and over again.

If Judy is the nominee, this sort of crap will be what gives her the advantage and that puts All Kids at risk as well as universal Pre-K.

If Oberweis is the nominee, only the Governor can elect him.

No Uses for Algebra?

Richard Cohen really is a fricken moron in advising a student to not worry about doing algebra.

What is the Value of Algebra?

PZ slaps him around fairly decently, but not enough.

Let’s start with math is good. If teaches basic logic and analytical skills and provides a background for a wide variety of skills. Cohen poo-poos it apparently because he doesn’t understand the connection between formal logic and algebra. That’s just hysterical in it’s own right that a man who is hired to write logical opinions doesn’t even understand the importance of the relationship between basic logic and basic math. I remember skipping all, but the tests in College Logic and getting a B+ because it was essentially basic mathematics. One guy I knew was taking it for the third time and essentially barely passed only after a couple of us pointed out that the first half of the class was based on variations of algebra.

Suggesting a computer can do math is cute, but also a fundamental misunderstanding of what computers actually do–they perform calculations that we tell them to do. I may use Stata to perform regression instead of doing it by hand, but if I don’t understand what is going on, I could not ask the program to do anything of use. The program provides me results that I can only understand with a strong understanding of matrix algebra and a decent understanding of calculus.

This is especially true of algebra since it requires one to understand the relationship of equations to actual real world situations where, unfortunately, the data available aren’t necessarily the data that allow one to do a simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division.

Any sort of job requiring inventory management automatically rests upon one’s ability to perform algebra and determine patterns for discrepancies.

Musicians often utilize it, I’m told for a variety of purposes. Anyone who uses a computer for more than simple windows and word processing tend to use algebra and certainly those programming use algebra as a base.

Geometry is essential to anyone who wants to be a carpenter, let alone an architect. Any sort of designer needs geometry.

My father often tells the use of high school geometry when he was discussing with a young engineer how to tell if two pipes were parallel. The engineer couldn’t figure out how to tell if they were. My dad took out a tape measure, measured the distance between two pipes at both ends and declared, they are parallel (for the pedantic, there could be a problem with this if the pipe was horizontally slanted, but this wasn’t a problem in the case). The engineer was baffled.

But most importantly, there is no possible way to understand complex policy issues if one can’t get through basic algebra. Richard Cohen is a pundit at one of the major national papers. One can’t balance a checkbook well without algebra let alone understand the basics of an economic argument about the relationship between unemployment and inflation. How does one even explain stagflation without understanding the algebra behind the traditional view of the two economic factors involved and how it broke down in the 1970s? You can’t.

Policy analysis is often full of competing claims, most of which include some sort of statistical analysis or even basic math like a word problem. For one to determine which one finds more compelling you need to be able to have a sense of what is being claimed. Here is a guy who does policy analysis and writing for a living.

PZ suggests that those who can’t do algebra are stuck stocking shelves often–but it’s worse than that. If you think about the average Walmart employee, most need algebra to do their job well. Cashiers need to be able to follow the math to count money. Stockers need to figure out how many items to bring to the shelves. Managers need many levels of math to compare sales, manage inventory, and layout the floor. Even with modern retail businesses working from detailed plans to promote homogeneity across stores, one needs to often fix those plans that are often not as accurate as thought.

This threw me for a loop

In truth, I don’t know what to tell Gabriela. The L.A. school district now requires all students to pass a year of algebra and a year of geometry in order to graduate. This is something new for Los Angeles (although 17 states require it) and it is the sort of vaunted education reform that is supposed to close the science and math gap and make the U.S. more competitive. All it seems to do, though, is ruin the lives of countless kids. In L.A., more kids drop out of school on account of algebra than any other subject. I can hardly blame them.

As I remember, even back in the 1980s we had to take 2 years of math to graduate in Illinois as a state requirement–am I wrong? I know that my District pretty much required 3 for everyone since they, stupidly, assumed all students should be in college prep tracts (not stupid to require 3 years, stupid to assume that sort of tract is good for all students). Of course, most colleges require at least Algebra and Geometry at the high school level for admittance, some require the second Algebra level as well.

Cheney Finally Gets it Right, Hume not so much

Cheney on Fox via the Hotline Blog

“Ultimately, I’m the guy who pulled the trigger who fired the round that hit Harry… That’s the bottom the line. It was not Harry’s fault. You can’t blame anybody else. I’m the guy who pulled the trigger and shot my friend. It’s a day I’ll never forget.

More: “The image of his falling is something I’ll never get out of my mind. I fired and there’s Harry falling. I’d have to say, it was … the worst day of my life.

Hume:

Hume to Cheney: “So I take it you missed the bird?”

National Attention for G-Rod and Illinois Dems

With his proposal for universal pre-k (something all states should be moving towards), Blagojevich is getting good press for a very progressive agenda over the last few years. Newman lists some of the most important issues that the Democratic Legislature and Governor have passed for those who agree with them, though I’d add Blagojevich’s Pharmacy rule as a critical progressive initiative as are Patti’s efforts to expand access and education surrounding contraceptives. Important environmental initiatives are his move to reduce mercury emissions and incentives for fuel efficiency.

Ezra Klein added to that in praise of the Pre-K plan as does Sam Rosenfeld who suggests the progressive agenda should trump concerns over corruption and references the complaints over the Blagojevich Administration

I’ll give this to the administration is that so far, the scandal hasn’t reached as high as scandals in Jim Edgar’s administration and it’s hard to make the case that it’s any worse than business as usual. It may well turn out that there are actual quid pro quos for donations, but as of right now, the best evidence is that there are the typical convenient arrangements between donors and donees in an all too comfortable arrangement.

All that said, there are several issues where I think Rosenfeld completely misses the mark on why so many Democrats and progressives are upset with the Blagojevich administration. First and foremost, he promised to run the state differently than it has been run in the past and he hasn’t. It’s a broken promise and that counts. Of course, on that issue there is no serious Republican who can argue they’ll be much better without being so repugnant on policy as to be not a consideration.

More importantly, the corruption does affect social justice. Tony Rezco, who the Governor refuses to throw under the bus so far, has been identified as the real proprietor of Crucial Inc which has received state and Chicago business as a minority contractor. Rezko does not qualify as a minority and appears to have put the company together to skirt those rules.

This is simply unacceptable for those that share values of equal opportunity.

Further, his refusal to even consider increases in the sales or income tax means that these gains may be temporary. Without a fiscal base to pay for these programs, it is not certain they can continue. The Early Child Care initiative will be expensive and the state budget is not in good shape. We still have K-12, Higher Ed, and transportation infrastructure to work on while adding two new programs. If correct about managed care, the All Kids initiative won’t be too burdensome, but there is no cheap way to do universal pre-k.

At the same time, he is continuing practices that look an awful like Pay to Play or Pay to Lay as Birkett recently called it in a great line, and that saps the budget of money as favored interests get money that should be utilized for those initiatives that are progressive. Tony Rezco and Panda Pavillion aren’t in need of help, poor kids with substandard education are–and he has no significant plan to reform the state funding formula which is killing poor rural school districts even with the extra funds that have gone into K-12 education.

Being progressive is more than simply spending money–its creating sustainable conditions for such programs so that while they will continue exist in the future, they won’t be well funded. There are structural problems in the Illinois budget that put several of these initiatives at risk over the long term.

I can’t say I didn’t expect it from Blagojevich because in 2002, I predicted pretty much what has happened. If the legacy of strong policy initiatives is to continue beyond Rod’s Administration whether that be in one year or 5 or perhaps more, the budget has to be put on solid footing. Balanced budgets are critical to social justice in the long term.

I will give the Blagojevich Administration that reality is tough right now given the federal government is spending like there is no tomorrow and decreasing money to state governments. That certainly exacerbates the problems, but it is not the only problem that exists with the Illinois budget.

Crossposted at Illinoize

Commenting

Since I’m having some problems–first, anonymous commenters should only be using one handle in comments. The particular person currently using at least two will have their comments deleted if more than one handle is used again.

Some folks use their real name and an anonymous handle–that is okay, but only one anonymous handle.

Second, I’ll be doing open threads through the primary at least–please don’t put off-topic comments in substantive posts–you’ll be able to rant all you want in the open thread.

Third, one particular person should carefully consider if their ranting is doing their cause more harm than good. I won’t stop the person from posting (other than if they use two handles), but really, check yourself.

Consider this a general open thread.

Let’s Make Ciro Rodriguez the John Sullivan of Texas

Leo’s got a post up at several sites singing the praises of John Sullivan who is challenging Lipper the Lessoer AKA Skeletor in IL-03’s primary. More fun is Jeff Berkowitz talking to both of them this week on the Illinois Channel–even I get that down here on cable access.

What someone needs to ask the guy is who did he support in the 2000 Presidential Election. I’m sure he’ll make it up given he appears to be making it up where he voted in the last several elections. My understanding was he was quite fond of Pat Buchanan in 2000.

Jeff’s interview is incredibly damning. It’s just brutal. Let me make a point here–while someone could claim to be a resident of their home state while in grad school I changed my registration in 1995 after moving to Missouri in the fall of 1995 to attend Washington University for my PhD in political science. I damn sure know when I’ve voted and when I haven’t and I can tell you the special elections I’ve missed–in fact I missed the August Primary in Missouri last year because I was in the field all day (yeah, should have voted early–I know). Why can I do that? Because I talk about politics nearly every day and when I was teaching, I talked about it to students nearly every day meaning I was constantly using real world examples to illustrate theoretical points.

The man is a Congressional Scholar–he’d remember who he voted for in a Congressional Race and where he did it. In fact, his book is on Congressional Communication so he’d be paying attention to the contact he’d have with his Representatives through franking and other means.

I do know some political scientists who don’t vote–more than you might think, but that’s not typical. The whole not knowing where you are registered is nonsense. The way to check this all out is to check out Durham County, North Carolina and Knox County, Tennessee. If he ever registered in either place and then voted in Illinois again after that without reregistering in Illinois, we have voter fraud.

This is an important one–if you can help, go here.