Newsweek and the Washington Post (no members of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, they) both have polls that put schools in Red states at the head of the class.

When it come to excellence in education, red states rule — at least according to a panel of experts assembled by Tina Brown’s Newsweek.  Using a set of indicators ranging from graduation rate to college admissions and SAT scores, the panel reviewed data from high schools all over the country to find the best public schools in the country.

The results make depressing reading for the teacher unions: the very best public high schools in the country are heavily concentrated in red states.

Three of the nation’s ten best public high schools are in Texas — the no-income tax, right-to-work state that blue model defenders like to characterize as America at its worst.  Florida, another no-income tax, right-to-work state long misgoverned by the evil and rapacious Bush dynasty, has two of the top ten schools.

Newsweek isn’t alone with these shocking results.  Another top public school list, compiled by the Washington Post, was issued in May.  Texas and Florida rank number one and number two on that list’s top ten as well.

There’s something else interesting about the two lists: on both lists only one of the top ten public schools was located in a blue state.  (Definition alert: on this blog, a blue state is one that voted for John Kerry in 2004; red states cast their electoral votes for Bush.)

There were no top ten schools on either list from blue New England states like Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut.  Nor were there any in the top 25.  By contrast, Alabama made both the Newsweek and the Washington Post top ten.  Only two public schools from these states made the Washpost top fifty list; zero made it into Newsweek‘s elite.  150 years after the Civil War, South Carolina is kicking New England’s rear end when it comes to producing great public schools.

More interesting details at the link. So what are the implications of these list?

Defenders of the high tax, high regulation, highly unionized model of state governance that characterizes the blue states like to point to their higher quality of government services as justification for the taxes they pay and the regulations they accept.

Let those crackers and hillbillies in the red states wallow in their filth and their ignorance, say proud upholders of the blue state model.  We blue staters believe in things like quality education — and that costs money.

In theory, perhaps, but in practice the extraordinary achievement of so many red state schools strongly supports the idea that blue state governance is no friend to excellence in education.  Having low taxes and governors descended from George H. W. Bush seems to offer students more hope than having high taxes and strong teacher unions. At the very least, the rankings suggest that blue state taxes and management philosophies aren’t knocking the stuffing out of their allegedly underfunded and poorly run red state competitors.

Indeed, taxes are the payment for living in a free society, but, as with many things, it can be overdone, or not done well. Cutting taxes, or shifting revenue, to put dollars (perhaps fewer dollars) into better programs is not cutting the budget on the backs of the poor.

That’s where Greece is.

ATHENS/LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) – Prime Minister George Papandreou asked Greeks on Sunday to support austerity steps and avoid a "catastrophic" default, as European finance ministers discussed extending tens of billions of euros of aid to Athens.

Addressing the Greek parliament, Papandreou appealed for the nation to accept deeply unpopular tax hikes, spending cuts and privatisation plans which international donors have demanded as a condition for the aid.

"The consequences of a violent bankruptcy or exit from the euro would be immediately catastrophic for households, the banks and the country’s credibility," Papandreou said at the start of a confidence debate on his new crisis cabinet.

Greek officials have said the country will face default in mid-July if the European Union and the International Monetary Fund do not hand over a 12 billion euro tranche of emergency loans by then.

But when that happens, the passengers insist that the train keep moving anyway.

Athenians used to stop off at Syntagma Square for the shopping, the shiny rows of upmarket boutiques. Now they arrive in their tens of thousands to protest. Swarming out of the metro station, they emerge into a village of tents, pamphleteers and a booming public address system.

Since 25 May, when demonstrators first converged here, this has become an open-air concert – only one where bands have been supplanted by speakers and music swapped for an angry politics. On this square just below the Greek parliament and ringed by flashy hotels, thousands sit through speech after speech. Old-time socialists, American economists just passing through, members of the crowd: they each get three minutes with the mic, and most of them use the time alternatively to slag off the politicians and to egg on their fellow protesters.

And Don Surber does some digging and notes that Nobel-Prize-winning, former Enron advisor Paul Krugman was all behind the taxing and spending in Europe because deficits didn’t matter. But all of a sudden, for Greece, now, they do, according to that same Krugman. But since the solution is to do precisely the opposite of what he’s told us in the past, he won’t supply his answer to the crisis. This time. He’ll just lecture the US to do the same things that Greece did that got them into this mess.

Sometimes it seems he deserved that prize in Economics as much as Obama deserved his prize in Peace.

The Dalai Lama calls himself a Marxist.

An "unexpectedly" we could do with down here. "Canada Jobless Rate Unexpectedly Declines in May to Its Lowest Since 2009" It’s down to 7.4 percent. We’re adding government jobs and they’re adding private sector jobs. Our dollar is getting weaker while theirs gets stronger. “Our economy has one of the best records in the area of job creation in comparison with other industrialized countries and this is why we will continue to keep our taxes low,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told lawmakers on June 8. Lessons to be learned  here.

Obama finally figures out, "Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected." Which is one big reason why the stimulus didn’t stimulate.

Civility Watch: “Good afternoon brothers and sisters. Welcome to Nazi Germany….Brothers and sisters, this is not going to be an easy fight,” he shrieked. “It took World War II to get rid of the last Adolf Hitler. It is going to take World War III to get rid of Adolf Christie. Are you ready for World War III?” Union leaders are setting the example in New Jersey.

Soaking the rich won’t work the way the Left intends. Historical tax rates vs actual receipts put the lie to the idea that raising rates will necessarily bring in more revenue.

When even actor Aston Kutcher comes to the aid of Sarah Palin, you know the media has gone way too far.

And speaking of which (click for a larger version):

With fervor and scrutiny they’ve not shown for anything related to Obama (his personal communications, the health care bill, budget spending, etc.), the media has pounced on the e-mails of a vice presidential candidate from 3 years ago who is, so far, not running for any political office. Yeah, and it’s a Republican they’ve saved their diligence for. Surprised? Yeah, me neither.

James Taranto, who’s column should be required reading, had a great take on the whole thing. It’s a non-issue, and the media just hates that.

The Left’s ‘Birth Certificate’
Lots of journalists spent lots of hours poring over Sarah Palin’s gubernatorial emails. What did they find? The best part of the Los Angeles Times’s ,1,300-word story is the list of contributors at the bottom:

[Matea] Gold reported from Washington and [Robin] Abcarian from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Maloy Moore and Ken Schwencke in Juneau, Ben Welsh in Los Angeles, Kim Murphy in Seattle and Tom Hamburger, Kathleen Hennessey, Kim Geiger, Christine Mai-Duc and Melanie Mason in the Washington bureau also contributed to this report.

What shocking revelation did these 11 reporters find? "Palin Closely Guarded Her Public Image, Emails Show."

Other headlines:

• "Sarah Palin Emails Provide No Big Bombshells"–Politico
• "Palin’s E-Mails Undercut Simplistic Views of Her, Both Positive and Negative"–New York Times
• "Palin Emails Don’t Contain Any Bombshell, ‘Gotcha’ Moments"–Anchorage Daily News
• "Search Shows Few Michigan References in Palin Emails"–Detroit News

London’s Daily Telegraph reports that Palin "received a barrage of abusive emails including death threats in the run up to the 2008 presidential race." Don’t expect to read that in the New York Times, which is heavily invested in the lie that political "incivility" is the exclusive province of the right.

The Times did, however, publish this hilariously oblivious observation:

Another near certainty whenever Ms. Palin is involved: a media spectacle.

In terms of the zeal with which they were demanded and the anticlimax of their release, the Palin emails are the left’s equivalent of President Obama’s long-form birth certificate. Except, of course, that sensible conservatives never took birtherism seriously. What we’ve learned here is that major news organizations are populated with the left-wing equivalent of Donald Trump and Jerome Corsi.

Our favorite Palin email bit is a hysterical–and hysterically funny–screed by Patricia Williams, a Columbia professor, in London’s Guardian, titled "Sarah Palin Emails: Banal, Hypocritical and Smug . . . We Already Knew That." Among other things, Williams is outraged to learn that Gov. Palin employed speechwriters and prayed for guidance:

One wonders if she isn’t going to come out ahead at the end because her correspondence is boring. This is playing against the backdrop of revelations that New York Congressman Andrew [sic] Weiner sent hundreds of salacious texts and photos to women who were not his wife. By contrast, Palin’s correspondence seems a paragon of virtue, as she is revealed fussing about her hair, wondering about dinner, and hiding the hootch from the kids. You could almost forget she’s an idiot.

Williams writes that she spent at least two hours "trolling" the Palin emails. There is no reason to think Palin would spend two minutes reading any of Williams’s writing. Who’s the idiot?

The Democratic National Committee has someone new at the helm, and she’s off to a great start.

In the four weeks since she succeeded Tim Kaine, Wasserman Schultz has been called out by four nonpartisan fact-checkers for mischaracterizing the GOP’s Medicare plan.

She’s accused Republicans of wanting to reinstate segregation and of waging a “war on women.” She has asserted, somewhat nonsensically, that the GOP wants to make illegal immigration — by definition against the law — “a crime.” She’s also been mocked for driving a foreign car after pounding Republicans for not supporting the American auto industry.

A rank-and-file member of Congress typically wouldn’t get noticed for inflammatory language and rhetorical slip-ups. But Wasserman Schultz has a higher profile now — and was hired precisely because of her skills as a communicator.

On the bright side, she has nowhere to go but up.

Medical

UK cancer survival rates are the worst in the Western world. And yet another example of Sarah Palin’s death panels, "And the elderly are routinely denied surgery or drugs to remove tumours because doctors think it is not worthwhile."

Politics

President Obama brings bi-partisanship to Washington. "Crossing party lines to deliver a stunning rebuke to the commander in chief, the vast majority of the House voted Friday for resolutions telling President Obama he has broken the constitutional chain of authority by committing U.S. troops to the international military mission in Libya.

Obama wouldn’t defend federal law in court (DOMA), wouldn’t abide by the War Powers Act, and is now ignoring a law intended to protect Medicare.

Medical & Politics

You can keep your current insurance under ObamaCare…unless your employer is one of the 30% that say they’d drop it.

Under a Republican administration, this would be considered a church/state entanglement. For a Democrat, free pass.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asked black pastors and clergy members to help the administration fight what she called “mistruths” about the health care reform law President Barack Obama signed into law last year

Middle East

When 90% of folks in the Middle East hold an unfavorable opinion of Jews (Jordan 97%, Palestinians 97%, Egypt 95%, Lebanon 98%), you gotta’ wonder how possible peace is between them. You also gotta’ wonder how much is prejudice. Once you get to know those Jews, attitudes turn around. "By contrast, only 35% of Israeli Arabs expressed a negative opinion of Jews, while 56% voiced a favorable opinion."

Iran suggests that the day after their first nuclear test would be no big deal. They are floating the trial balloon. Will the world notice?

And finally, some sacrifice is shared rather unequally. (Click for a larger version.)

…but unexpectedly again.

The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid unexpectedly edged higher last week, stoking fears of a stalled economic recovery even as a separate report showed record U.S. exports in April.

Initial claims for state jobless benefits increased 1,000 to 427,000, the Labor Department said. However, economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims dropping to 415,000 from a previously reported count of 422,000.

The rise kept first-time claims perched above the 400,000 mark for the ninth week in a row. Analysts normally associate a level below that with steady job growth.

"It’s the same dismal trend continuing. It’s not getting worse, but it’s not getting better either," said Keith Hembre, chief economist at Nuveen Asset Management in Minneapolis.

Emphasis mine. The Obama administration chart of what would happen in unemployment without their plan vs what would happen with their plan vs reality continues to show how wrong they have been all along.

The initial questions and observations of the judges don’t sound good for the prospect of ObamaCare, but that’s by no means an indicator of how they’ll vote. One analyst I heard said that this ruling, whatever it is, may wind up being the law of the land. If the case goes to the Supreme Court, Justice Kagan will, or should, recuse herself, as she was instrumental in crafting the legal defense of ObamaCare itself. If that happens, the court could very possibly wind up in a 4-4 tie, leaving the 11th Circuit Court ruling to stand. Stay tuned.

C. Michael Patton, writing at Parchment & Pen (highly recommended), takes on the idea of what is essential in Christianity and what is non-essential. Further, what is essential for salvation vs what is essential for historic Christianity or vs a particular denomination. It’s said to be "in a nutshell", and though it is still rather long, it’s probably condensing something even larger. But it is a fantastic starting point for understanding what’s worth dying for and what’s pure speculation. Different groups put different things in different levels, but Patton does a great job of being fair regarding where certain ideas generally fall. His point is not to argue for certain doctrines, only to give a good starting point for discussion. To this point, he says:

But (as the criticism goes) it is not that easy to distinguish between essentials and non-essentials. More importantly for now, many Evangelicals have simply never been exposed to this and therefore practice their theology in a much more legalistic way, believing every conviction that they have to be representative of a hill upon which they should die.

A good read, and a good bookmark to keep.

Megan McArdle  notes one of the badly blown predictions of ObamaCare.

There were supposed to be millions of people who were uninsurable because of pre-existing conditions.  We heard lengthy testimony about their terrible plight.  I don’t think it’s too strong to say that this fear–that you could get sick and no one would insure you, that’s right, you, Mr. & Mrs. Middle-Class Voter–was one of the main reasons offered for the health care overhaul.  It was estimated by Medicare’s Chief Actuary that around 400,000 would sign up (the CBO estimated 200,000, but only because they assumed that HHS would use its authority to limit enrollment in order to stay within the $5 billion budgeted for the program).

So how many have signed up for this badly needed program? 18,000, less than of the lower CBO estimate. So, in true government fashion, they’ve decided, not to save money, but spend it anyway, which is what governments do best.

The administration is now loosening the requirements (you just need a note from a doctor or nurse saying you’ve been sick in the last year) and lowering premiums.  But this doesn’t mean that they’re finally covering more "uninsurables"; it just means they’ve decided to use the money allocated for those people to cover someone else.  They’re changing the "high-risk pools" to something that looks a lot more like simply subsidizing insurance.  But the goal wasn’t to spend the $5 billion that HHS got in its budget; the goal was to provide insurance for people who want to buy insurance, but can’t find a company willing to write it. 

If anyone tries to argue that some government program, this one especially, will stay within its legislative boundaries, they really have no idea how governments are addicted to your money.

When you politicize health care, you get government-style efficiency. "NHS budget squeeze to blame for longer waiting times, say doctors."  And for those already in hospitals, doctors are having to prescribe water to make sure the elderly stay hydrated.

If the liberals are to be believed, poverty causes crime. And yet, in this tough economic time, the FBI reports a 5.5% drop in violent crime.

In economic news, Democrats are dead set against voting for any 2011 budget. There’s been a lot of hoopla surrounding the "repayment" of the General Motors loan from the auto bailout, except that it’s just a lot of smoke and mirrors. Indeed, GM has a sweetheart tax deal that is saving it $14 billion, not to mention another $14 billion is being lost in general on those bailouts.

The Obama economic "recovery" turned 2 years old in May. Upwards of a trillion dollars spent, for what? The number of people with jobs hasn’t changed, unemployment is far worse than they said it would be if we did nothing, median incomes are down, housing prices are down 10%, and I don’t need to tell you about gas prices. If George W. Bush were President, you just know he’d be personally blamed for this, but Obama gets a pass.

Canada, by the way, has been leading the US out of this mire by reducing debt and spending, even with a socialized medicine albatross around its neck.

Immigrants are turning to that "racist" Tea Party.

When we elected Obama, that was when "the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal", right? So why does he not get slammed for not signing the updated Kyoto Protocol? Bush got criticized for it, even though it was Clinton who originally didn’t sign it. Nah, couldn’t be the double-standard, liberal media.

When you make entitlements untouchable, you risk hurting those you purport to be concerned about because economic collapse hurts us all, including and especially the poor. The idea that it couldn’t happen here is severely myopic.

And finally, "smart" diplomacy". (Click for a larger version.)

"Ku Klux Klan protests Westboro Baptist Church"

From the article:

WBC member Abigail Phelps said the KKK “have no moral authority on anything.”

“The Bible doesn’t say anywhere that it’s an abomination to be born of a certain gender or race,” she said.

And the WBC has…what moral authority, exactly?

It’s a bit of a cliché in the Christian world to suggest that God made us with a God-shaped hole in us that can only be truly filled with Him. But a new study suggests that it’s not just a cliché.

An exciting, new Oxford University study has found that faith and religion come to human beings naturally — possibly instinctively.  The initiative, entitled the “Cognition, Religion and Theology Project,” took three years to complete and involved more than 40 different studies in 20 countries around the globe.  According to CNN, the study has some intriguing findings:

Studies around the world came up with similar findings, including widespread belief in some kind of afterlife and an instinctive tendency to suggest that natural phenomena happen for a purpose.

While the results don’t speak to whether or not God (or gods) exists, Roger Trigg, the project’s co-director, believes that the findings are immensely important to religious freedom and human rights.  When considering the idea that some governments restrict religious activities, Trigg said:

“If you’ve got something so deep-rooted in human nature, thwarting it is in some sense not enabling humans to fulfill their basic interests.  There is quite a drive to think that religion is private.  It isn’t just a quirky interest of a few, it’s basic human nature.  This shows that it’s much more universal, prevalent, and deep-rooted. It’s got to be reckoned with. You can‘t just pretend it isn’t there.”

This is 4 minute of PM Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress today. If the Palestinians will acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, that would put so much on the table.

Harold Camping was "flabbergasted" when the world didn’t start to be destroyed with earthquakes on May 21st, when he had predicted that Christ’s second coming would happen. Many Christians, including those of us that write for Stones Cry Out, were, shall we say, less overwhelmed. Every generation has had its doomsday predictors, of differing specificity, all of them wrong, and Camping has added his name to the list.

You didn’t hear much about the whole kerfuffle here. For myself, this was because I don’t take much stock in "date-setters", as they’re sometimes called. Not that I don’t think there are end time coming. It’s just that:

• Not even Jesus would set a date (Matt. 24; Mark 13; Luke 17). What makes any of us think we can?
• One should be living like Jesus is coming soon (or that we’re going to die; same difference) any time now. That is to say, our love for God and our actions resulting from that should not change quite so much even if we knew the date. (We’re sinful, and thus these things do change, but they shouldn’t because of some date.)

And now, backpedaling, Camping is saying that Judgment actually did come last Saturday; we just didn’t see it. The earth’s been judged and no one else can come to Christ, and on October 21st, the actual end of the world will come.

Look, here’s the deal. Camping and his followers have received big media attention for preaching "The End". Yeah, the media loves those kinds of stories, and they’ll spend more time on an already-discredited preacher with a calendar and a billboard than they will the Christian on an inner city street ministering to prostitutes and drunks, or the missionary who’s given up everything to bring Jesus to an obscure group of people in Africa or Asia. But this whole over-emphasis on "The End" is not what we’re supposed to be about.

Preach Christ and Him crucified, as Paul said. And "The End" will take care of itself.