Where do college athlete’s scholarships come from?

by David Safier Here's another question born of ignorance. When college athletes are given scholarships, where does the money come from? A column by John Harris in the Pittsburgh Trib-Review questions the free education given to college athletes. Harris comments: A basketball player attending Pitt is eligible for an education worth more than $100,000. Except … Read more

A query born of complete ignorance

by David Safier This could be viewed as a cry for help — scientific help, that is. Advertisers as well as health food advocates the world round sing the praises of sea salt over . . . not sea salt,wherever that comes from. One of the problems with desalination of sea water (also called "desalinization" … Read more

Bobby Jo versus the volcano

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Remember how, during his big prime-time speech last month, Lousiana's Republican governor Bobby Jindal, in addition to making stuff up about what he did during Hurricane Katrina, also found time to mock the Obama administration for "wasteful spending" in the stimulus bill, including … $140 million for something called “volcano monitoring.” Instead … Read more

Wall Street, schools and merit pay

by David Safier A Seattle Times columnist has an interesting thought piece on teacher merit pay, comparing it to bonuses paid to Wall Street execs. If pay for performance is such a good idea, how did Wall Street's bonus babies get us into such a mess? It's a good question, and part of a larger … Read more

G.I. hearts G.N.

by David Safier Where does the Goldwater Institute go for inspiration on the issues of taxation and the cutting government spending? Grover Norquist. That's right. The same Grover Norquist who gave us this bit of wisdom: My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where … Read more