Linkage

So...let's see...in the last two days I've caught a bad viral infection (sort of getitng better, not fast enough), put the car in the shop with an expensive-sounding grinding noise, and had a charley horse last nite that hurt..well, not terribly, but enough.  Oi.  I was fairly productive at work -- despite all sorts of things that popped up -- and now have a whole host of other issues to deal with.  Alas.

http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2014/03/17/the-rise-of-secular-religion/
I agree with a lot of thing, but I am not sure what is happening is actually religion...at least in some way that anyone else will actually realize...

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2014/03/should_lawmaker_who_wants_gove.html#incart_river_default

If I was the governor...well, we'd have a lot MORE executions, and I would sign this in a heartbeat (ha!).  For one thing, less of Buckwheat Bob in the Statehouse is probably good, and it's not like he would actually go to any of them, and then of course you could engage in all sorts of mockery.  But that is just me...

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2014/03/ohio_lawmaker_americas_public.html#incart_river_default

I think there is a bit more to this than meets the eye; for one thing, parents should be making decisions about the education of their children; two, I suspect more and more people are believing that there needs to be more flexibility in the educational system...at all levels.  A system of vouchers and money following the students would sort of work, mainly because it wouldn't be that much different from what we have now; there are many private (Catholic and otherwise) schools that are highly selective; you would simply have a lot more of them.  Public schools would survive, but in places where they don't work (urban areas with lots of dues-paying teachers, a fact we cannot discount), there would be a lot fewer kids in the system.  In places like the BBH schools -- like the communities -- voucher kids would be kept out, and, of course, that would be ok too (I mean, we all know why they would kick them out, but that is another story).  To be sure, the system has too much invested in it now to be really blown up, but....