Issues
The Top 10 Liberal Superstitions
– Kate Bachelder, The Wall Street Journal
In each of the last 10 issues of Lane Solutions we’ve shared with you one of these “Liberal Superstitions.” The topics have ranged from women’s pay equity to government stimulus spending. From which party spends more money to voter ID laws.
Every one of these brief articles has been interesting. So if you missed any of them – or even if you didn’t – join us in clicking on http://www.wsj.com/articles/kate-bachelder-the-top-10-liberal-superstitions-1414713015. As our British cousins would say, “It’s jolly good fun!”
First It Was Bunny Massages and Now – Doggy Pictures!
That’s right – those brainiacs at the National Institutes of Institutes of Health (“NIH”), who scorched $387,000 of your dollars giving Swedish massages to rabbits, have now blown another $371,026 to discover that mothers have the same reaction to pictures of their dogs as they have to pictures of their own kids!
Having nothing better to do, NIH geniuses hooked mothers up to MRI brain scanners, showed them photos of their dogs and kids and got the same reaction to each. A giant leap for mankind’s knowledge, wouldn’t you say?
And for this they receive yet another well deserved Golden Fleece Award.
We know who really needs the brain scans, don’t we?
Good News For the Not so New Year
According to economist Edward Lazear, in 1981 50% of those living in the developing world earned less than $1.25 a day. By 2011 it had dropped to just 17%.
The Top 10 Liberal Superstitions – #10
– Kate Bachelder, The Wall Street Journal
10. Women are paid 77 cents on the dollar compared with men.The mother of all liberal superstitions, this figure comes from shoddy math that divides the average earnings of all women working full-time by the average earnings of all full-time men, without considering career field, education or personal choices. When those factors are included, the wage gap disappears…
When Global Warming gets the Cold Shoulder!
Oregon State University chemistry professor Nicholas Drapela was fired without warning three weeks ago and has still been given no reason for the university’s decision to “not renew his contract.”
Drapela, an outspoken critic of man-made climate change, worked at the university for 10 years…
Drapela told the Daily Caller he was “blindsided” when the department chair called Drapela into his office to fire him on May 29.
“He read a prepared statement and took my key,” Drapela said, adding that he was given no reason in this meeting as to why he was being let go…
Since he found out he was being let go, Drapela has pressed the university to give a reason for their decision. He has been transferred from person to person and office to office in the university. When he was able to make an appointment with human resources, HR cancelled an hour before the appointment…
… Speculation has abounded that Drapela was fired for being a global warming critic…
We Respond & Your Comments
You’ve just read one side of this sad story. Because there may be another side we encourage you to suspend judgement until all facts are known.
Our point here is to alert you to this issue and encourage you to keep up with it.
Knowing that universities fall far short of encouraging divergent viewpoints on subjects they hold dear (and anthropogenic climate change is dearest of all in “The hallowed Halls of Ivy”) we believe that this firing requires careful monitoring.
The Top 10 Liberal Superstitions – #8
– Kate Bachelder, The Wall Street Journal
- ObamaCare is gaining popularity.President Obama said in a speech…that fewer Republicans were running against ObamaCare because “it’s working pretty well in the real world.” Yet the law’s approval rating hovers around 40%, and 27% of people told Gallup…that the law was hurting them, up from 19% in January [2013], while only 16% reported it was helpful.
Don’t even ask doctors about it: 46% of physicians gave the Affordable Care Act a “D” or “F”…
The Top 10 Liberal Superstitions – #7
– Kate Bachelder, The Wall Street Journal
- Voter ID laws suppress minority turnout.More than 30 states have voter-ID laws, which the left decries as an attempt to disenfranchise minorities who don’t have identification and can’t pay for it. Yet of the 17 states with the strictest requirements, 16 offer free IDs. The Government Accountability Office this month released an analysis of 10 voter-ID studies: Five showed the laws had no statistically significant effect on turnout, four suggested a decrease in turnout (generally among all ethnic groups, though percentages varied), and one found an increasein turnout with voter ID laws in place…
You Gotta Read This – Issue 84
“Tax the rich, tax the rich, we can solve the deficit.” Remember that chant from the “Occupiers”? Find out exactly why you can’t “Tax the rich” to solve America’s financial problems…
The Top 10 Liberal Superstitions – #6
– Kate Bachelder, The Wall Street Journal
- Genetically modified food is dangerous. Farmers have been breeding crop seeds for 10,000 years, but the agricultural innovation known as genetic modification makes liberals shudder. Not a single documented illness has resulted from the trillions of meals containing “genetically modified organisms,” or GMOs, that humans have consumed since the mid-1990s. The technology has been declared safe by every regulatory agency from the Food and Drug Administration to the European Commission…
The Top 10 Liberal Superstitions – #5
– Kate Bachelder, The Wall Street Journal
- Global warming is causing increasingly violent weather.Tell that to Floridians, who are enjoying the ninth consecutive season without a hurricane landfall. The Atlantic hurricane season in 2013 was the least active in 30 years. Oh, and global temperatures have not increased for 15 years.
Still, something must be done!…