A Stitch in Haste

Time to clean out the aggregator —

ITEM: Another bigoted theocrat (or is it theocratic bigot?) has taken up the petty “pray for rain” campaign abandoned by Focus on the Family member Stuart Shepard. FoF purged all record of the immature and offensive video, hoping for torrential rain on the day of Barack Obama’s acceptance speech, after it was mocked by commentator Keith Olbermann. (Via Right Wing Watch.)

ITEM: Speaking of bigoted theocrats, the ones running the Mormon church have, after instructing local leaders to read a letter asking congregants to actively support the California bigot amendment, found themselves the target of some pushback from rank-and-file Mormons who have concluded that maybe, just maybe, bigotry isn’t very nice and political dictates are not exactly what they expect to receive in Temple on Sunday.

ITEM: The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has announced, to the dismay of the Government Accountability Office, that it is increasing the risk profile of its investment portfolio in an attempt to grow its way out of a $14 billion shortfall in its balance sheet. The alternative will be an eventual taxpayer bailout. Most recent post (admittedly not all that recent) here.

ITEM: A controversial plan to reward New York City students with cash prizes for passing Advanced Placement tests has flunked. Shouldn’t high grades be their own reward? Fortunately no taxpayer money was at stake. I referenced the program here; see also here.

ITEM: Meanwhile, the District of Columbia is introducing a similar program. Because proven failure is never a reason to stop trying, right?

Beginning in October, 3,000 students at 14 middle schools will be eligible to earn up to 50 points per month and be paid $2 per point for attending class regularly and on time, turning in homework, displaying manners and earning high marks. A maximum of $2.7 million has been set aside for the program, and the money students earn will be deposited every two weeks into bank accounts the system plans to open for them.

One thing is different about the D.C. program: This time taxpayer money is at stake.

ITEM: FCC chairman Kevin Martin (usually in the news for wanting to federalize cable television rates and to censor broadcast television) has found a new bureaucratic quest. He is seeking to redeploy the Universal Service Fee (a/k/a “the Spanish-American War tax”) and federally controlled broadcast spectrum to underwrite “free” Internet access. As I have argued repeatedly (one good example here): since Internet access is perfectly excludable, it is by definition not a public good and therefore government at any level has no business providing it.

ITEM: Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has seized yet another industry — cement. This time, however, one of the foreign companies, Mexico’s Cemex, is fighting back by filing a grievance with the World Bank. One wonders what Chavez intends to do after there are no more victims to loot. Various Chavez posts here.

ITEM: Yet another “gay gene” theory, this time possibly explaining male bisexuality. Most recent post here.

ITEM: A 16-year old Saudi girl attempted to commit suicide by drinking bleach upon learning that her father had “swapped” her for the 13-year old daughter of a 75-year old man. The men were to marry each other’s underage daughters. Previous post here; see also here.