Monthly Archives: February 2012

Farmers, Rice, and Markets

Posted on February 27, 2012 by

American rice farmers are a little ticked off that Iraq’s Grain Board has decided to stop buying American rice. Seems the Iraqis owe it to “us.” “That’s just not right,” [Texas rice farmer Ray] Stoesser fumed. “If we’ve got some … Continue reading →

Posted in Economical Musings | 2 Comments

Semi-Open Thread: Obama’s Tax Plan

Posted on February 23, 2012 by

With midterms and whatnot, I can’t work myself up to writing a real post, but if I could, I’d write about Obama’s new tax proposal. So consider this a semi-open thread–what are your thoughts on it?

Posted in Politics in General | 17 Comments

Have Conservatives Found Their Anti-Mitt?

Posted on February 22, 2012 by

The 2012 Republican presidential nomination process has been a bizarre process of the party’s faithful fighting against their establishment; an on-going effort to find a successful counter-claimant to the nominee-apparent. And one-by-one all these Quixotic quitters have been felled by … Continue reading →

Posted in The Democratic Process | 9 Comments

Baby’s Got Blue Eyes

Posted on February 20, 2012 by

While taking care of some administrative details, I stumbled across a student’s senior research project from a couple of years ago that I thought was pretty fascinating. The student was an African-American female, who had brown eyes but often wore … Continue reading →

Posted in Research Blogging | 21 Comments

What’s My Job

Posted on February 14, 2012 by

Via my wife. It’s not too far-fetched to think my job is some combination of these. And after more than a decade in this business, you’d think my wife would actually know that I’m not always at the beach (this … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching | 7 Comments

Same Sex Marriage in Washington

Posted on February 13, 2012 by

Washington governor Chris Gregoire has signed a bill legalizing same-sex marriage in Washington. Hooray–the SSM juggernaut rolls on. When Gregoire signed Washington’s “everything but marriage” domestic partnerships bill into law in 2009, I predicted it was the prelude to full-blown … Continue reading →

Posted in The Democratic Process | 7 Comments

New San Francisco Bay Bridge

Posted on February 9, 2012 by

For the engineering-minded reader, here is an interesting article on the new San Francisco Bay Bridge that is being built (a new Eastern portion that is, between Yerba Buena Island and Oakland). You may remember that the last one had … Continue reading →

Posted in It's Just Business | 9 Comments

Santorum Wins–What Does It Mean?

Posted on February 8, 2012 by

Rick Santorum swept the primaries in Minnesota and Missouri and the Colorado caucus yesterday. So what does it mean? The big news, I suppose, is that Romnney didn’t win Colorado, despite getting 60% of the vote there in 2008. Note … Continue reading →

Posted in The Democratic Process | 15 Comments

On Academic Assessment

Posted on February 6, 2012 by

How’s that for a dry title? I just completed my department’s senior research assessment report, and it was a little bit eye-opening. Assessment is the big new thing in education–if your college wants to be re-accredited, you damn well better … Continue reading →

Posted in Teaching | 34 Comments

Funniest Line of the Week

Posted on February 1, 2012 by

Comes from Karl Rove: conservatives believe in accountability Who knew Karl Rove had such a good sense of humor?

Posted in The Democratic Process | 4 Comments