The Incomplete Cynic

Now Chuck Schumer wants to ban fees on carry-on bags. Basically any time a company tries to make money off of its business, the Democrat leadership will move to make it illegal.

Fees for carry on bags are a “slap in the face to anyone who travels.” Fees for bags are just a way of shifting costs. They aren’t secret. It’s a negative incentive to pack light. If you don’t like it, drive. Otherwise it’s just the cause of doing business.

Why don’t we ban airlines from any fees at all? Remove all baggage limits, last minute booking fees, or transfer fees. While we’re at it, why not set fares? Why should these companies get to set prices for flights however they please? This is a public service!

This is where we’re headed…

The kids know all of that, too, but they still say it’s a numbers game. And for a brief moment, about a century ago, it was. Fearful that its classes were filled with mediocre young men from prep schools, Harvard College adopted the College Entrance Examination Board as the major basis for admission in 1905.

Other leading universities quickly followed suit. So for a few years anyone with a high enough score – and a big enough bank account – could get in. But the result, to the chagrin of America’s WASP gentry, was a steep spike in Jewish students.

By 1908, the fraction of Jewish students in Harvard’s freshman class had jumped from almost nil to 7 percent; a decade later, it rose to 20 percent. At Yale, meanwhile, an admissions officer complained that the roster of new students “might easily be mistaken for a recent roll call at the Wailing Wall.”

Jonathan Zimmerman in College admissions: What matters most — SAT scores, grades, or just luck?

At one point, Texas Republican Rep. Randy Neugebauer shouted out “baby killer” during a floor speech by Stupak. [link]

Neugebauer was elected in 2002, after Texas gerrymandering put Abilene and Lubbock in the same congressional district. Charlie Stenholm (D) had been the rep. in that district for more than 20 years, someone that the conservative residents liked. But Lubbock is much larger, and the Republican voters there essentially overpowered the voters in and around Abilene.

Not that I would rather have another seat for the current majority, but if you’re willing to shout something so classless on the floor of the house as a sitting congressman you should get run out of office immediately.

Listening to ESPN radio yesterday while stuck in local traffic,Tony Kornheiser argued that he was tired of local politicians announcing their broader domestic policy agenda, let alone their foreign policy position. Who cares what the mayor thinks about those issues? All we should be concerned about are the 3 S’s: Schools, Safety, Services. We want quality schools, we want to walk our streets without worry, and we want our garbage picked up. Other than that, Kornheiser reasoned, and government need not be meddling in our lives.

Peter Boettke at Coordination Problem (Formerly known as The Austrian Economists)

Charles Blow referred to a Quinnipiac poll in a recent column that he says shows that the Tea Party movement is “not the future”. He quotes the poll in saying the movement is “less educated … than the average Joe and Jane Six-Pack.” I’m not sure who Joe and Jane are, but based on the last question in the poll, the membership is just as educated as the Democrats (both less educated than Republicans) while those who are favorable to the Tea Party are more educated than Democrats.

But the real problem with the Quinnipiac article announcing the poll results is the opening line: Only 13 percent of American voters say they are part of the Tea Party movement.

“Only” thirteen percent? Thirteen percent is not a small group. This is a poll of registered voters, who in 2008 numbered just over 231 million. That means there are 30 million members, based on this data. By comparison the ever-important MoveOn organization has 5 million.  When was the last time it was implied that they were irrelevant because they had so few members?

Sounds like someone’s trying to move the target.