In the Scope, 6/21/08
June 22, 2008 Posted by Roger Overton
“The stage was set,
the lights went down and in a suburban Japanese primary school everyone
prepared to enjoy a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The
only snag was that the entire cast was playing the part of Snow White. For
the audience of menacing mothers and feisty fathers, though, the sight
of 25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs and no wicked witch was a triumph: a clear
victory for Japan's emerging new class of “Monster Parents.” For
they had taken on the system and won. After a relentless campaign of
bullying, hectoring and nuisance phone calls, the monster parents had
cowed the teachers into submission, forcing the school to admit to the
injustice of selecting just one girl to play the title role.” (Source: Times of London) The reminds of a post I wrote a few years ago about teachers changing the ink color they use for corrections from red to purple.
history’s most over-predicted recession. It was not the oil companies,
income inequality, or the excesses of cowboy capitalism. None of these
things caused the unemployment rate to jump a half a percentage point
in one month.” Get the truth here.
Ever worry about what your friends and family will do without you after you're raptured (assuming they're not saved)? Wish you could leave them a personal message or other important documents? Worry no more! For $40 a year “You've Been Left Behind” will store those documents for you, and in event of a rapture, will send them to email addresses you provide. Ain't that handy?
Eckhart Tolle has been selling New Age teaching for years, but recently it really took off when Oprah gave him a huge spotlight. Millions have been buying into his teaching and not enough Christians have been saying something about it. Thankfully, Marica Montenegro has written a great article online explaining what Tolle is teaching and where it goes wrong: A New Earth, Ancient deception: An evaluation of
Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. I'll be interviewing Richard Abanes regarding his new book on Tolle in the next month or so.
A few months ago I thought to myself, “I wonder if there's ever been a switch-pitcher?” Switch-hitting is a useful talent- just imagine how great switch pitching would be! From what I could find out, there's only been one switch-pitcher to pitch in the major leagues, and it was only one game (I'm not sure why since it sounded like he did well). But yesterday, MLB.com posted a video of a guy currently in the minors: What happens when a switch-pitcher faces a switch-hitter? It'll sure be fun to see him in the majors some day!
Related posts:
- In the Scope, 7/18/08
- In the Scope 7/28/07
- In the Scope 1/10/08
- In the Scope 12/18/07
- In the Scope, 9/27/08
- In the Scope, 5/22/08
Posted in Main Page, Miscellaneous, Roger's Posts
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June 22nd, 2008 at 8:06 am
For the REAL truth regarding the truth about unemployment mentioned here, check out the statistics… The simplistic answers at Townhall don't cut it yet again!
June 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am
What do you think that says EE?
June 22nd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
If Jerry Bowyer's conclusion that the unemployment spike is due to students entering the workforce, then you would expect to have similar results in previous years. But as the statistics show, the jump from April to May numbers is not reflective in previous years. Other than this year, the numbers “jumped” three times in the past ten years (2003, 2000, and 1998), but it also fell from April to May during three different years and was flat the other four years.
I don't pretend to know all the variables that caused the jump in unemployment but I find Bowyer's assessment simplistic and even manipulating. And his final conclusion that students are not finding jobs as a direct correlation of the Minimum Wage Act of 2007 is sophomoric.
The Labor Department in its report said, “With employers worried about a sharp slowdown and their own prospects, they clamped down on hiring in May.” Perhaps that's one reason… I'm sure there are many.
This blogger grabs some graphs to show the lack of correlation between minimum wage and young people's unemployment.
June 23rd, 2008 at 12:04 am
That's a good find. Earlier, I only saw the graph which showed January of each year, not the chart below it. It does look like you're right- even if there were more teenagers entering the work force this year for whatever reason, it wouldn't justify the massive .5% increase. I agree there are likely many reasons.