Shut 'er down!

Who is for a government shutdown anyway?

Arkansas government shutdown

Here in Arkansas we have our own impending government shutdown. Republicans are a minority in the House but they can block appropriation bills that require something like 75 votes to pass. This is a dispute over the state Insurance Department's appropriation which has been defeated by the House twice. At the heart of the conflict is the desire to derail $1 million that is intended for use in setting up health-care exchanges under Obamacare.

See the Tolbert Report.

Judge Judy rushed to hospital

Judge Judy (Sheindlin) has a health scare on her set and says "I need to stop, I'm not feeling well." This is big news. See the Drudge headline below.

Amazon's Cloud Drive

Amazon has a new Cloud Drive service. I've tried this and like it.

New Rules Would Label Millions of American Workers as Disabled

Are you disabled? The number of people who are disabled under the American Disability Act may increase dramatically because of new regulations from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. For example, diabetics may be covered.

Detroit's Requiem

The WSJ has an article on the decline and fall of Detroit, which has been obvious for a long time but the new census figures have caught attention. Once a city that drew people like a magnet, Detroit now repels them, at least those who can get out.

The failure of the blue social model

Walter Russell Mead on the failure of the blue social model in northern cities like Chicago and New York. Blacks are leaving these areas with the multicultural lifestyle is supposed to favor them. But in a new Great Migration they are heading for the suburbs and moving South. Here are a few good quotes:

One would think that the Blacks who choose to stay in the cold, unwelcoming North would cluster in the cities where more liberal and humane governance models mandate such generous policies as “living wage” laws and where all the beautiful features of the blue social model can be experienced at full strength.

But one would be wrong.  Blacks across the North are fleeing the urban paradises of liberal legislation and high public union membership for the benighted suburbs.  The Times interviewed a professor to get the straight scoop:

“The notion of the North and its cities as the promised land has been a powerful part of African-American life, culture and history, and now it all seems to be passing by,” said Clement Price, a professor of history at Rutgers-Newark. “The black urban experience has essentially lost its appeal with blacks in America.” [bold italics added] . . .

The Census tells us that in the eyes of those who know best, these well intentioned efforts failed.  Instead of heaven, we have hell across America’s inner cities.  Blue economic policy has cut the creation of new private sector jobs to a trickle in our great cities, while the high costs of public union urban services (and policies that favor government employees over the citizenry at large) impose crippling taxes and contribute to the ruinously high costs that blight opportunity.  All the social welfare bureaucracies, diversity counselors and minority set-asides can’t make up for the colossal failure of blue social policy to create sustainable lower middle class prosperity in our cities.

Internet pioneer Paul Baran dies

Paul Baran, described as an Internet pioneer, has died at age 84. In a 1966 paper he foresaw how by the year 2000 "people would be using online networks for shopping and news.... It was an absolute lunatic fringe idea."

Triangle Shirtwaist fire

Ron Radosh looks at how the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York is being used today.

Arkansas' newspaper war

In today's paper, the ADG celebrates the 25th anniversary of a critical anti-trust lawsuit in Arkansas' newspaper war between the old Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Democrat. Reporter Jake Sandlin does a fine job in recounting the mail events (subscription required). See Wikipedia. And again.

Both papers had storied histories, but the Gazette was the oldest, going back to 1819. It claimed the Democrat was trying to put it out of business by cutting prices and giving away want-ads, but the Gazette had not lost any money and was still financially sound.

The story raises questions about the whole value of the anti-trust idea, which everyone has studied in college courses. The theory behind anti-trust charges, as one commented in the article said, makes sense to economists, but not to consumers. Everyone likes low prices. So it is a hard idea to sell. When I was in college, I recall hearing about railroad rebates and kick backs. They were supposedly bad. Well, I like rebates, discounts, and kickbacks of all types, LOL. Nobody ever pointed out how consumers felt about paying lower prices. 

The Gazette was sold to the Gannett Co., which owns USA Today. Five years later Gannett sold the Gazette to the Democrat, forming the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I highly recommend this article. Most of what you find to read about this story is based on the memories of old, worn out Gazette reporters.

Despite the decline of newspapers across the country, the ADG is one of the most financially successful newspapers. How could that be true when you consider that Arkansas has one of the lowest percentages of adults with college degrees? (See March 23 post.) Consider too that the Arkansas Gazette started way back in 1819 when this was a rough, frontier state. Somebody needs to explain this discrepancy.