Blue Mass Group

I'm a big fan. (0 Replies)

“Fit as a fiddle, ready for love …”

charley-on-the-mta   @   May 24, 2013 at 20:41 EST

It's a car's world (0 Replies)

I once got ticketed in Cambridge for running a red light. I deserved it; wasn’t being a flat-out reckless douche, but still.

That being said, part of the evolving culture of road-sharing between cara and bikes needs to be better resources for bikes (lanes, etc), and a modicum of common sense. For instance, there are many t Intersections (NW on Mass Ave at Rindge, eg) where it makes little sense for a bike to stop except to let pedestrians cross. Road rules that have been adapted for the speed and size of cars need to be adapted for the co-existence of bikes.

Bike advocates should stress safety, and that means driver awareness, more amenities, and indeed, wearing helmets.

charley-on-the-mta   @   May 16, 2013 at 11:52 EST

SCALE is difference between symbolic and practical (1 Reply)

If one state refuses to take part in the collective suicide of fossil fuel dependence, then not much changes — we’re all screwed. If many states do it, then the calculus may well change. Of course this has to happen on a variety of fronts — efficiency, clean fuels, public transportation, etc.

It’s simply inaccurate to claim that is an act in isolation. It’s one more front in the war. The kind of thinking that says, “Well, X measure doesn’t cure everything, therefore it’s not worth doing” is manifestly wrong. It means you need 1000x, not 0x.

And I have every confidence that Sen. Downing understands this full well. Onward.

charley-on-the-mta   @   May 13, 2013 at 09:04 EST

some responses (7 Replies)

I should tell you that I take all the charter arguments, pro- and con, with a huge grain of salt. I feel like it’s just hard to have decent research one way or the other, for some of the reasons you cite: What’s your control group? And is it really a legitimate comparison? I don’t trust Lehigh or Stergios because they’re just a bit too eager.

1. Hating Walmart: This is an ad hominem argument. The funding source raises an eyebrow, but isn’t definitive.

2. % of ESL learners: This is your strongest point. Brings up the question: Why not have ESL be a particular “track” within schools? Do ESL students drag down the rest of the class? Does trying to keep up with native speakers lead to other classroom problems? How does mixing them up benefit either group?

3. Last resort: Again, should the otherwise-destined-for-success kids be held back by the needs of ESL and special needs kids? Again, might they be better off in different tracks, at least temporarily w/r/t ESL? I think that’s a genuinely difficult moral question, not one easily dispatched with snark.

3a. MIghtn’t it be better for ESL kids to go to a charter??

4. TFA recruits don’t vote, future lawyers: Whatever. That’s just lame ad hominem, at best tangential and largely irrelevant to the question of what’s best for kids. Try another argument – this one is ugly.

5. White board members, etc. Well, depends on what the folks in that community want, doesn’t it? Are charters popular in non-white areas? Again, an ad hominem argument.

charley-on-the-mta   @   May 10, 2013 at 22:22 EST

DON EFFING BERWICK (0 Replies)

Only one of our greatest health care heroes. Harvard Med School Prof and Creator (I believe) of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Great innovator in medical cost/quality. Went on to be recess-appointed to head of Medicare (CMS) but could only stay a year because the GOP filibustered his ass.

This is because they don’t actually care about efficiency and effectiveness in health care; they only care about using Medicare’s inefficiency against it to try to kill it. Or to scare old people. Or something. But they sure as hell don’t want it to work better.

But Don Berwick does. He’s a real thinker. A real politician? I have no idea. But he’s a good citizen-candidate type … like someone else you might know.

charley-on-the-mta   @   May 2, 2013 at 21:20 EST

Gomez cleaning up??? (1 Reply)

That is WOW.

charley-on-the-mta   @   Apr 30, 2013 at 20:44 EST

As Poo-Bah in KC Opera's Mikado (0 Replies)

charley-on-the-mta   @   Apr 30, 2013 at 14:46 EST

Careful w Twitter et al (0 Replies)

Bos police: 23 hurt, 2 killed

charley-on-the-mta   @   Apr 15, 2013 at 16:17 EST

Agree that we don't need Steyer (1 Reply)

But gosh David, as stomv said, you don’t have to parrot the wingers when they’re on Gore’s case for flying in a damn plane. Fun for you, but they’re serious.

Steyer’s a goof. I can’t imagine why he chose this race, of all races, to jump in and make his presence known. He would do much better to use his money in places like Ohio or Pennsylvania to drum up global warming awareness and will to take action. This is just dumb, unfocused, and unnecessary.

charley-on-the-mta   @   Apr 8, 2013 at 21:37 EST

Well, a couple of things. (2 Replies)

Pioneer sometimes does good, empirical work; I’ve seen it on housing, and as Jim points out, infrastructure. I find their work on education/charters to be unconvincing (like most discussion around that issue), and their work opposing health care payment reform was an unfocused, tendentious joke. All depends on the staff, I suppose.

Here’s Jim’s problem, in his own words:

supporting scholarship that tests marked solutions against the conventional wisdom of more governmental involvement

I see. They support the scholarship *as long as it opposes the “conventional wisdom of more governmental involvement”*. I mean, that’s kind of a major condition, isn’t it — a prejudice to coming up with the best solution, which might be private or public? A substitution of right-wing “conventional wisdom” for the other kind, which they oppose, natch.

And that’s why they sound like jokers so much of the time. Pity.

Also notice he didn’t mention the Koch $. Jim, they’re anti-intellectual and dishonest, and you should drop them like the bad habit they are. Based on their misanthropic work on climate, they should be pariahs, not VIPs in your org.

charley-on-the-mta   @   Apr 3, 2013 at 10:07 EST