The Top Five

One of the things I thought about over the long Thanksgiving weekend was about my topic selection. I admit that sometimes I have difficulty staying on topic some days and I can be all over teh place in my thinking and writing. The consequence is that not all of my daily writing is particularly effective. There are so many things that are happening that interest me, but really I don't have time to comment on, but do want to draw attention to in my meager way.

To that end, I am going to institute what I, not to imaginatively will call, my Daily Top Five. These will be five posts of some length that I have read that day that I think are worthy of reading, whether because they are well written or deal with a topic that interests me, but I don't have a great deal of insight to offer.

So here is today's Daily Top Five

1. Tammy Bruce points out that the argument that illegals take jobs Americans won't do is a spurious argument at best. As evidence she points to a Georgia poulty plant that is hiring homeless people or those who have been out of work after it stopped hiriing illegals. So apparently if you open jobs up to Americans, they will take the work.

2. Robert Gates, the next Secretary of Defense has a long history of involvment in foreign policy. Michael Barone reviews Gates' memoir and asks the question, will Gates bring his understanding of the rapidly changing definition of American enemies to the Pentagon and can he be an effective SecDef for a lame duck President?

3. What is the link between the very quiet hurricane season and the rash of on-time flights over teh Thanksgiving weekend? Mary Katherine Ham will tell you: Climate change!!

4. In 1907 Congress passed the Tillman act, the first real campaign finance law, which prohibited corporate contributions to candidates for office. Bob Bauer asks three questions:

(1) How does this law measure up against its stated purpose—or any other purpose, unstated but worthy?
(2) Did it have other effects, untended, and how serious were they?
(3) If things did not go well, is there an alternative to salvaging what seems sensible and to discard the rest?

Bauer suggests and I agree that allowing corporations to make contributions, within limits and subject to disclosure, makes sense.

5. Edspresso points us to an op-ed by Cato's Andrew Coulson who argues that at least in Arizona, private schools are better managed financially, have a higher percentage of teachers on staff relative to the total staff and generally pay market rates for employees compared to public schools, which tend to distort the finances of education. While the better financial management is not surprising, Edspresso makes sure to keep the point of Coulson's op-ed in mind and not be distracted by the argument that private schools shortchange teachers:

However, I would point out that there are a number of intangibles to working in private schools that teachers may appreciate, such as being able to teach in a school of one's own faith or sidestep the public school bureaucracy. Besides, any hastiness to criticize private school pay rates could lead to a rather glaring oversight: that Arizona public schoolteachers are actually rather handsomely compensated relative to the overall labor market. (No, I won't go so far as to say teachers are overpaid, but Coulson's findings reflect rather badly on the perception that teachers are paid peanuts.)

I hope you find today's, the first top five, informative and interesting.

Let me know what you think.