Higher Ed Failure in India

I spent a lifetime in higher education, as a student and then as faculty. That said, I found this Wall Street Journal article about the failures of higher education in India very interesting, but not surprising. It says, for instance, that:

75% of technical graduates and more than 85% of general graduates are unemployable by India's high-growth global industries, including information technology and call centers. (snip) Many lack a grasp of educational basics such as reading comprehension.

I've taught business graduate students whose undergraduate degrees were from India, a few were excellent. As the article suggests, so many had a tendency to cheat that my then-department head felt he had to circulate a memo warning us to be on guard about it.

Adams on Entrepreneurship

Read, in the Wall Street Journal, the entrepreneurial life story of cartoonist Scott Adams. In college he was one of those guys who always had a couple of deals going.

You know him as the creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip. Here he is selling entrepreneurship, and doing a good job of it. Pay attention to his seven pieces of advice for a successful life.

Quote of the Day

Bill Maher, being quoted in Big Hollywood:

There is one religion in the world that kills you when you disagree with them. And they say, ‘Look, we are a religion of peace, and if you disagree, we’ll cut your effing head off.’”

Here at COTTonLINE we rarely agree with Bill Maher about anything more substantive than the time of day. This is an exception.

The Kennedys on TV, A Review

The other DrC and I have been watching The Kennedys on TV the last few nights, and thanking our lucky stars we have a DVR so we can fast forward through the many commercials. In a word, we think it is good.

I am old enough to remember much of what is portrayed, and I believe it to be largely accurate, at least in terms of political history. Joe, Sr. was somewhat enthused about the Third Reich. The Bay of Pigs fiasco and the Cuban missile crisis went down about the way they are shown. The speeches JFK gave on TV are history.

There are other things about which less is known definitively, like what was said in cabinet meetings leading up to those crises. Various members of the inner circle have written memoirs reporting their recollections of who said what. I doubt they've always agreed.

One thing that isn't portrayed in a manner believable to me is the bluster of the chairman of the joint chiefs. Military leaders are not often anxious to go to war, as they know better than most how nasty war is. The general's dialog sounds like it was written by an anti-war liberal and represents what such a person believes a general sounds like.

On the other side of the ledger are the interpersonal interactions of the family and their retainers and friends. Was Joe Sr. as much of a bully as portrayed? Probably. Were he and Jack the womanizers they are shown to be? Likely. Did their women agonize over it? Also likely. Did the Kennedy men love the wives they cheated on? I suspect they did. Was Bobby as tough as he is shown? I believe so.

Much is known about the semi-private lives of these highly visible people. Surrounded by aides, political functionaries, accountants, nannies, chauffeurs, secretaries, gardeners, cooks, and the like, it was hard to keep secrets. It will be interesting to see the concluding episodes of this mini-series.

USA Today: Budget Winners, Losers

This USA Today article does a nice job of summarizing the winners and losers in the last minute budget process just concluded in Washington. Bottom line: most winners were Republicans, most losers were Democrats.

The exception: USAT finds President Obama a winner, although to these eyes he seemed oddly uninvolved. Perhaps that was how he "won," by mostly staying out of the ugly process.

The usual fate of third party movements in this country is to push a point of view which, if popular, gets subsumed into one of the two major parties. After which the third party fades into obscurity. It appears the Tea Party will follow this trajectory as the Republican Party absorbs their fiscal restraint meme.

Government Won't Close

At the very last second (almost) Democrats and Republicans found a compromise with which both could live, and the government will not be closed down after all. After all that ink was spilled talking about the effects of a shut-down, what a shame.

I don't know if I'm surprised or not, most likely not. I had the sense both sides wanted to avoid a shut-down while being able to go to their partisans and claim, more or less honestly, that they did everything possible to attain their more extreme goals. It is claimed they cut about $37 billion from the budget for the balance of the year. I hope it is true; I fear it is insufficient.

Quote of the Day

The Week, writing about a second GOP long-term budget plan, going beyond Rep. Ryan's plan:

The GOP now has "multiple budget plans to build upon." Just what is the Democratic solution to this fiscal crisis?

For some years now it has been clear Americans want more government than they are willing to pay for. Balancing the budget means we stop living on borrowed money. It leads to one of two painful things - less government or more taxes.

Quote of the Day

Jay Nordlinger, writing for National Review Online, about President Obama having entertained the leaders of China:

The Chinese government holds in prison the current Nobel peace laureate, Liu Xiaobo, and who cares about this? Not long ago, the 2009 Nobel peace laureate — Barack Obama — fêted in the White House the jailers and persecutors of the 2010 peace laureate.

Obama shows a lot of class.

Illegals Are Expensive

Here is data which substantiates what many of us have suspected: illegal immigrants are expensive, draw more government support than do people here from birth. This article from Florida's Sunshine State News makes that point forcefully.

They report the results of a study by a Washington think-tank, the Center for Immigration Studies, which found:

While conventional wisdom contends that immigrants cross the border to work, 57 percent of households headed by immigrants collect at least one welfare check, compared to 39 percent for native households.

Honest Differences

I just read an article in Salon, written by a liberal about her friendship with a conservative. It is good to be reminded that intelligent people of good will can and do hold very different political opinions.

The Truth Hurts Most

It appears that Ecuador has declared the U.S. ambassador persona non grata, has asked for her to be replaced. The issue, according to this article in CNN World, is a Wikileaks document in which the ambassador alleges that Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa knew of the corruption of the head of the national police before appointing him.

Imagine that! A corrupt policeman in Latin America. Who would believe it? In the mocking words of the film Casablanca's police chief, "I'm shocked, shocked."

Apparently the local newspaper thought it was awful that a U.S. ambassador would actually say such a thing, even though it is likely everyone knew it was true.

Barone on Demographics 2.0

The conventional wisdom is that, as the U.S. population becomes less white and more Hispanic and Asian, the GOP is disadvantaged. Writing for RealClearPolitics, Michael Barone looks at the numbers and says this "wisdom" may be exaggerated.

He begins by observing that substantial minorities of both Hispanics and Asians already vote Republican. Going a step further, he demonstrates that both terms are overly generic. Immigrants from India vote differently than those from the Philippines, though both are classed as Asian. Hispanics from Cuba vote differently than those from Mexico.

The history of two party politics in the United States is such that their so-called "big tents" encompass highly diverse groups. FDR's Democrats, for example, included both northern African-Americans and southern segregationist whites. The two party system has proven remarkably stable, and will likely remain so.

One Size Doesn't Fit All

Glenn Harlan Reynolds, writing here for the Washington Examiner and better known as the ur-blogger Instapundit, weighs in on the topic of "just in time." This is a management concept widely copied from the Japanese, during the storied period when we all believed (wrongly) that Japan, Inc. would soon own the world.

"Just in time" means holding very little raw material and parts inventory. Instead you schedule deliveries from suppliers literally just in time to utilize those materials in your production process. Ideally this means the materials arrive on your receiving dock this morning and get incorporated into whatever you manufacture this afternoon.

Reynolds writes about the disadvantages of "just in time." He suggests maybe we live in a world with sufficient unpredictability and chaos to require inventories of important stuff, items without which we cannot comfortably operate.

I'd add the following: just in time came from Japan which is geographically small, has an intensive rail network, and relatively clement weather. We've tried to transplant it to the U.S. which is huge, has very difficult weather and where much of our transport is done by plane and truck, both of which are more susceptible to interference by bad weather than is rail.

The Birther Non-Issue

People like Donald Trump are raising the issue of where Barack Obama was born, whether he was born in Hawaii as claimed or perhaps in Kenya. I have to say I don't know where Obama was born, but I also don't much care.

Y'all elected Obama and, as far as I'm concerned, that means we are stuck with him until at least January of 2013. I hope our next president exhibits a different set of shortcomings.

President Obama has inadvertently accomplished one thing. He has greatly improved our evaluation of his predecessor.

What's Next?

The Daily Caller reports that female soldiers in Afghanistan are being "encouraged" to wear the hijab or headscarf with their uniforms. Do you suppose a headscarf will convince Muslim tribesmen that an American woman in cammo BDUs and boots is culturally appropriate? Be serious.

I wonder what is next? Do you suppose the military will encourage GIs to sexually molest young boys? That's another widespread Afghani cultural practice.

No Mystery

I just reread Monday's post from an article by Michael Barone about states with no income tax growing faster than states with the tax, and states without union-friendly laws growing faster than states with them. This is very powerful stuff. If you didn't read it then, go back and do so now.

The recipe for prosperity is not a mystery, it is known. Economist Arthur Laffer was right, lower tax rates can actually bring in greater total tax revenues by encouraging economic activity. Tipping the balance in favor of management, as opposed to labor, also encourages economic activity. Ceteris paribus, encouraging economic activity is what governmental policies should do.

The Horserace

This article from The Hill tries hard to be about NJ Gov. Christie, until you read down and see that it should be about former Govs. Huckabee and Romney. It reports on a PublicMind poll done by Fairleigh Dickinson University, showing how President Obama might run in 2012 against several Republicans who have (or have not) expressed an interest in running.

Gov. Huckabee runs neck and neck with the President, Gov. Romney is nearly that close, and Gov. Christie runs somewhat close, about 6 points back. The article's author, Shane D'Aprile, is excited about the fact that Christie runs ahead of former Govs. Palin and Pawlenty and former Speaker Gingrich.

Of those three, probably the only serious candidate is Gov. Pawlenty whose name recognition isn't yet in the same league with the others. Gov. Christie keeps saying he is not a candidate, so his popularity may be more relevant to 2016.

Just Dumb

Nobody I know thinks New Jersey is a little piece of heaven. That said, wouldn't you suppose a person with substantial resources (aka, "rich") could find another state in which to live? Maybe even one that was nicer? Perhaps Connecticut, if being near New York City is important, or North Carolina or Florida if staying on the right coast matters?

My choice would be farther west, but then I'm a westerner, I grew up on the left coast. Why do I raise this issue at all? Because of this article, cited in Lucianne.com, written by a columnist for the (NJ) Star-Ledger. It's the old "let's soak the rich" ploy, popping up again in New Jersey.

Can we agree that stupid people rarely get rich? And also agree that the wealthy are less likely to be committed to living in a particular community than people with less means? In a country like the United States, raising taxes in one state simply causes most people with substantial taxable income to move to another state.

It sounds like the taxation version of Whack-A-Mole where states try to tax the rich who just pop up somewhere else, in another state.

More Friedman

Tom Friedman of the New York Times weighs in again on the various situations in the Middle East, with particular emphasis on Libya and Syria, and less on Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Since the NYT is about to drop behind the paywall, and out of sight, it is good to have a last look at Friedman's comments on his particular area of expertise.

Friedman ends up praying for our president to have good luck in our endeavors there. I cringe to think how rare good luck is in that part of the world, both for outsiders and for its sad residents. We will need more than luck if our actions there are to turn out to be anything other than a slow-motion train wreck.

A Recipe for Divorce

The Dutch speakers and the French speakers in Belgium cannot form a government, they've been at it for 289 days. There are more of the Dutch, and they are, as you might expect, richer too. Go here to see a CBS News article about the governmental stalemate.

I see this as a situation ripe for a split-up. Logically they should divide the country into two sections. Then each section can either (a) become an independent nation or (b) join the adjacent nation where their language is spoken, namely the Netherlands or France.

On the other hand, when did anybody do politics logically?