The Outstater
The Mamdani Effect “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” — Thomas Sowell HAVING WORKED with words all my career, I have admired the economists’ turn of phrase. Shakespearean almost, they pack a Read the full article…
McGowan: AI Flunks the Baseball Test
by Richard McGowan, Ph.D. This year’s world series and all the attention paid to Shohei Ohtani reminded me of the way students used to get by when writing papers. They used CliffsNotes instead of doing research. Can AI be far behind? I had a bright student who wrote a paper on Plato’s “Crito” as explained by every Read the full article…
The Outstater
Grades: All Rhinestones Now “Personally, I liked working for the university. They gave us money and facilities. We didn’t have to produce anything. You’ve never been out of college. You don’t know what it’s like out there. I’ve worked in the private sector — they expect results.” — Dr. Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) in the 1984 Read the full article…
Franke: Civic Bargain Book Review
by Mark Franke One hears the word democracy so often these days — and in so many contexts — that it has lost its meaning. There is the tiresome charge that anything Donald Trump does is a threat to democracy on one hand and on the other hand a rather pedantic academic argument that we are Read the full article…
Snow: Legislative Failure
by Nathanael Snow, Ph.D. People respond to incentives. Governor Mike Braun has called a special session of Indiana’s legislature for the purpose of redrawing Congressional District lines. Indiana voters ask Braun why he cares so much. What’s in it for him? And then let the legislators ask the same question. A legislature is supposed to be Read the full article…
The Outstater
The Municipally Privileged “All government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt HAS YOUR CITY worked out its new budget with the cuts and adjustments made necessary by property-tax reform? Mine has done so, and in a long, torturous process inscrutable Read the full article…
