Another Two Cents Worth

 

Time for more random observations and comments.

 

_Recent elections in Europe point toward a shift to the right.  Some might say this is dangerous while others say it’s about time.  Europe is facing some real challenges: declining population vs. keeping the gates open for more immigrants, energy cost and reliability vs climate change activism; and the growing threat from Russian expansionism at a time when the U.S. is struggling to remain the free world’s bodyguard. 

 

_The whole Caitlin Clark/WNBA/Olympic team snub mess has become one more battleground in the Culture War.  Wholesome white, Midwestern woman who hit the jackpot faces resentment from WNBA veterans who are mostly black.  But even some of the white WNBA veterans are critical of the attention and money going Clark’s way.  Leaving Clark off the Olympic team only adds fuel to the fire. But, make no mistake, if she had been selected for the Olympic team there would have been just as much, if not more, fuel added to the fire.  That’s how culture wars work.

 

_School choice. I am conflicted on this issue. Certainly, there are places where the public schools are so bad that parents would do well to send their kids to private schools or just home school them.  But there are still many places where the public schools do a good job.  And all things being (almost) equal, public school education is a plus in my opinion.  However, this is a tough one.  Long-term we need to upgrade our public schools.  But in the here and now, there are parents who have rightly concluded that their kids would be better off NOT attending public schools.  Should they get a break financially to offset the cost of NOT using the public school system?  We all pay taxes for things we don’t use or things that are unusable… thanks to the government.  Where’s my voucher?

 

_You know you are getting old when every few days some celebrity or sports legend you remember from “back in the day” passes away.  Jerry West, Bill Walton, Larry Allen, Toby Keith, Duane Eddy, Carl Weathers are just a few of those we’ve lost this year.  Some of them are a bit “before my time” but I certainly remember them.  Others are from my generation.   And many are younger, so much so that I don’t even know who they are or why they are famous.  And some of those you remember, you’d just as soon forget (O.J. Simpson).