One of the many wonderful things they teach you in a Master’s program such as MSST is policy analysis. Part of that analysis is looking at a politics versus policy matrix. Whether a certain course of action is good policy versus good politics is largely orthogonal, so you really have four different boxes that an… Continue reading Policy and politics
New photos up: University of Minnesota
About a week ago I spent the morning taking photos around the University of Minnesota. I don’t know what it is about the U, but I feel the need to excessively process the photos I take there. Hopefully, they aren’t too overdone. A few samples below the jump.
The travails of Cassandra
Never have the policies and politics of this country been more frustrating. Not only to myself, but to everybody: approval ratings for the president, Congress, and both political parties are cratering. Is it any surprise? Nothing is getting done. The American house is on fire, Republican leadership is arguing whether now is a good time… Continue reading The travails of Cassandra
Vive la différence
Perhaps this isn’t the great philosophical difference between people that I think it is, but I find it significant enough to believe that it may explain at least some of the difference in people’s worldviews… Working for the legislature, I get to hear a lot of comments and criticisms from people who are not always… Continue reading Vive la différence
Closed-source software I use
As I’ve said before, I like using open source software whenever I can. So what close-sourced software do I use? Here’s the list below the jump:
Thoughts on “Angler”
The previous two books I read were decent enough, but Angler is one that I can recommend heartily. All about the Cheney Vice-Presidency, it paints a picture of Dick Cheney as the evil genius: smart enough after decades in Washington to know how to use the levers of power to get what he wants, and… Continue reading Thoughts on “Angler”
Requiem for a Pawlenty
So Tim Pawlenty has dropped out of the race for President. I’m not sure if anybody is really surprised; certainly, nobody should have expected a different outcome (I certainly didn’t). Which makes you wonder exactly why nobody bothered to tell him, although as long as the paychecks were still being signed I’m sure his advisors… Continue reading Requiem for a Pawlenty
Life isn’t fair
The quickest explanation of why we are in such a huge economic contraction/retrenchment is this: the real estate bubble of the aughts gave more equity to consumers in the form of rising home prices. They turned this equity into cash to fuel their spending. Now the bubble has burst, consumers have more debt than their… Continue reading Life isn’t fair
The Republican debate
I didn’t watch last night’s Republican debate in Iowa since it sounded about as much fun as, well, listening to Rick Santorum and Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann wax political. The highlights were more than enough for me, and even those few minutes had me utterly confused and depressed.
Open source for school
I’ve said several times on this blog that I am a strong believer in open source software. I’ve found that it’s pretty easy to find open source replacements for most of the things you need to do on a computer on a daily basis. Then past year has shown that this applies just as much… Continue reading Open source for school