Jim

Unions paid independent scholars to do a study which is far cry from "scholars" working for a think tank entirely financed by corporations. AEI is a propaganda outfit and one of the worse. Nothing more. Oh, now I see. Academics paid by AEI - bias. Academics paid by Union - no bias. There is clarity.

That said: Raises for all public school primary and secondary teachers. I don't see how they do it. I would be drunk or in prison for drowning a couple in the science lab sink.

As long as all "political" speech was limited I guess it would be ok to ban all - though that starts getting into gray area of what is "political" speech and do students have an inherent right. The bong one strikes me as insensitive to some religious belief and the Bush one is just crass. But these seem like great conversation pieces for students.

Well, simlarly the one academic study you did post was paid for by a federal govenment union - so clearly there is some bias there. And I've pointed out the inherent bias of each study in my post. And yes. I'm willing to admit that my opinion also is affected by my direct experience. Having worked in government - where we had a saying - the 20/80 rule - 80% of the work was done by 20% of the staff - I am definately convinced that folks hustle more and are paid less for comparable positions and experience in the private sector. I'm also aware of deadwood in the private sectors and can point to a few current examples of that as well. Large entities - coporations or government - have a number of good places to hide. Government just allows it more. Rather than look an any of the papers on their merit and dismiss them out of hand because of the source - then there is no room for conversation or reasonable debate. Another recent example: On the phone with two federal resource agecies - one has a severe dealing on some science studies - the other is supposed to be a cooperating agency. Agency 1 sends info to Agency 2 two weeks ago so they will be prepared for conversation. Agency 2 (3 staff) get on phone and ask us to walk through the study plans because they have not looked at it (would take an hour) - and then they want us to have ANOTHER call in a week to go over it. Meanwhile the clock is ticking for seasonal time limits on studies. Agency 1 points this out - Agency 2 says "we don't care about an artifical timeline" !!!!! Arrogant to say the least. We went forward without their cooperation thank-you. Behavior like this, in my experience, is not tolerated in the private sector. Unless of course you are a car rental agency.

I'm not sure you want to use the Seattle Times as a primary source. Similarly I wouldn't use the USA article that came the exact opposite conclusion as a source. Rather, I'd depend more on the academics for this one. Similarly the Bureau of Labor Statistics and some think-tank (Cato comes to mind) studies are too simplistic. The ones worth discussion, IMO are the Rutgers study (union paid) and the American Enterprise Institute (private slant). The AEI makes a transparent attempt to factor "equal job" issues. One I'd have to agree with (yes - personal bias from experience) is that folks in government are put into postions at a higher level than private sector employees given comparable skill and experience sets. In general their conclusions are that lower level staff are paid substantially more in government postions, while higher level staff are paid slightly more in government positions. This does, of course include wage and benefits, unlike some of the other studies. In my experience in federal, state, and the private sector; I'd say it's a fair assessment based on my, yes, personal experience. I've found that private sector folks also work longer hours in general and hustle more. One recent anecedote: I was out a relatively remote field site with some government biologists. We had only gotten to the site an hour ago, and in my opinion we had a lot to go over but still had 4 hours of daylight, so we were good. I thought. Then the feds starting looking at their watches. Both are single, so there's no kid issues - but were worried about not getting back to the office by 5:00. OK then - so we had to come back out the next day and do it all over again. Extremely efficient!

I'll repeat my answer, and that is yes. But similarly, other than you, I haven't heard any suggestions for dealing with the current state budget realities and timeframe. Apparantly it's below some academic threshold, I suppose.

A mellow tour is down the road from the Paradise parking lot, up to Mazama Ridge from the curve in the road, down the ridge to Reflection Lake, and follow the road/trail back to the parking lot. The route back is wanded. You can always go further up Mazama Ridge before heading down for a few more turns. Or if you want something shorter you can just head to Edith Creek basin for some laps or up to Panorama Point for laps. The snow from Pan Point and lower looks good - wind-blown up higher. Good luck, be safe.

holy shit, they also are drinking coffee and reading the paper in the back of the room while the 1960's era film-strip is rolling? Seriously - a colleague of my wife, guy who recently retired from teaching after 40 years, was still using film strips, drinking coffee, and reading the paper! Holy cow - after 40 years I give him credit if he's still standing and not mixing in Jameson.

I think that's one of the points. It's not a political strategy. I'll leave it with this. I see a need for the long, drawn out work needed for a more equitable and progressive system. But I'm enough of a realist to see the current fiscal problem of the state, for instance, is in need of change in employee benefits that are supplied by the taxpayers, most of which have taken far more cuts than the public sector. Seriously - in this economic climate we should be paying 100% match, with no limits, on UW employee contributions to their retirement package? Equitity for all. Unless it's taxpayer funded of course.

Why do you think that is, that she'll be lucky to get that through? From the looks of the way the larger frame of the debate has shifted in the last couple months (remember how you said even discussing the revenue side was impossible just a short while ago), perhaps the problem is that people haven't gotten shrill enough. Actually, if you read what she is proposing, is to put a half cent sales tax increase to a public vote - AND - it's not at all clear she has the votes for this regressive tax. Oh yea, a bold strike. My guess is that any MEANINGFUL revenue conversations will not occur until public unions earn the confidence of taxpayers. Which doesn't look like any time soon. Commence arm waving.

Catcalls aside, yes, a change to the revenue side is needed. But being shrill (not you) isn't going to change the grim politics. The governor will be lucky to squeak thru the modest sales tax proposal. So now what? Oh yea, think bigger Now awaiting a concise reply to the practical real world issue that must be tackled in this immediate session.

Yea. Thanks taxpayers!

If you suspect you have sustained a pulley injury, stop climbing. If you are unsure of what you are doing, go and see somebody that has experience of treating these injuries. Rest the finger, apply ice for up to 10 minutes at a time to reduce swelling. NSAIDs have minimal evidence base, and have been shown to slow healing in other bony and tendon/ligament injuries. Personally, I avoid them but there’s no good SCIENCE to support me. There’s no good evidence that taping improves strength, but it’s cheap and easy so I personally would use it initially in the return-to-climbing phase. I’d try to reduce use and stop by 6 months. Return to climbing is the area with no evidence. I personally would suggest rest of 2-3 weeks, then reassess. During this initial period I’d do gentle movement exercises- finger flexion mostly, within limits of pain, plus gentle extension to (but not past) neutral. Once a full range of movement is painless, I would suggest beginning active rehabilitation whilst using taping. Now the lack of evidence kicks in and guessing starts. Open handing has been shown to reduce pulley stress, so a return to gentle climbing (openhanded style) would seem reasonbable. After another 3 weeks (studies have shown that collagen tissues need this time to adjust) you could move on (assuming there’s no pain) to the crimp grip. Full strength is regained at 12 months, although no studies have looked to see if this occurs earlier. In my experience, ligamentous/tendon recovery is complete by 6 months. Hence, I’d (tentatively) suggest a return to normal climbing by then (if painfree). http://www.ukbouldering.com/wiki/index.php/Pulley_Injuries_:_The_Science#Taping

Sounds like the basic premise behind the concept of "redistribution of wealth" to me... I think it is less of wanting to drag folks down to a common level than shared sacrafice during hard times. Working folks see what happens in their business - folks taking pay cuts to keep a team together, for instance. And they expect something similar with taxpayers money

Meanwhile, for those of us burdened with the less esoteric questions and answers.

Pithy. But nonresponsive.

Nah. No reason to consider alternatives.

Great. Just wait until that software problem happens to a computer earwig that burrows into someone's brain!

Oh, I'm ok with entertaining those issues. But they do little to help with a strained state budget today. The lack of any practical advice in dealing with real world governance says plenty. Seems like you don't like getting your hands dirty with any reality based solutions to address current state issues. In Decemeber the state legislature is going to meet again. I'm all for the sales tax increase the govenor has put forward. But she doesn't have the two-thirds vote she needs. I think the Tim Eiman rule is stupid - but it was democratically voted on and we have to work with it. So - next up will be the usual suspects for cuts - DSHS for starts, whose budget has been decimated. Next - the state health program for the poor - looks like that will be just eliminated. So rather that making some changes to the benefits and pension program we'll hack away at important social programs. And yes - we would have directly more money for these programs immediately if we made some changes to state worker benefits. So yea - go with the big ideas, but they are not going to aid WA any time soon, and decision have to be made in about 3 weeks.

Excellent! Problem solved with the usual rhetorical flourish.

Everyone with a little time can confirm that the part cited at link 2 isn't peer-reviewed, whereas link 1 is a list of Easterbrook's publications that contain none of the affirmations made at link 2. Gotta go with the j_b on this one. Throwing a laundry list of articles that do not appear related to the subject is chaff. Should have stuck to the Science article, which appears to have something to say on the subject of models. But that's how science works. Peer-reviewed tweaking of generally accepted work.

So, what ? Your browser is set to the National Inquirer and you just want to share? This constant chatter is about as lowbrow as the behavior you attempt to chastise. GAL already.

Any other earth-shocking headlines?

Points for applicability and vision. Triple points for a direct and concise reply. Happy TG. Done cooking.

Unfortunately - reality has to be dealt with. Given I can't figure out anything remotely applicable in that last post I'll ask the question as directly as I can. What would you do as govenor to stem the coming $50B hole in the state budget? Particularly give our recent loss in services from pervious cuts. Or does that just derail the "vision" discussion?