Apr 3, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
Friday the New York Sun gave me the opportunity to say "I told you so" before 40,000 New Yorkers.
A recent lawsuit by the "Campaign for Fiscal Equity" demanded that New York state guarantee a "sound basic education" to all public school students. The courts agreed, and now the argument is over how much money the state will have to spend to achieve this goal. The initial estimate--an additional $6 billion--would have required one of the largest state tax increases in history. But then the CFE issued a study that put the figure at $9.6 billion, prompting a letter from me, which wasn't published.
Last week, however, the Sun reported on a new study from Syracuse University that would put the cost even higher. I recycled and amplified my letter, and the Sun printed it with minor changes:
Syracuse University now says we need to spend $26,000 per pupil to ensure an "adequate" education ["$10B May Not Be Enough To Fix Schools," William F. Hammond Jr., New York, March 26, 2004]. This would mean an extra $16.5 billion or so for New York City's 1.1 million pupils.
Back on March 2, 2004, we were told it would cost us only an extra $9.6 billion, and before that, merely an extra $6 billion. But as Assemblyman Steven Sanders said, "It's not a matter of what the state can afford...it's a matter of finding how much money is required to achieve a level of adequacy."
If we entitle people to something no matter the cost, we shouldn't be surprised when costs increase without limit. As I wrote to you then, if we have the option of arbitrarily proposing ends with total disregard for means, why stop at $9.6 billion? Why not $20 billion? $200 billion?
Why not just wish adequate education into existence and save the trouble and expense of having schools? The bankrupt idea that a need creates a right always leads to failure, for it places wishes above facts. And isn't that the very essence of dishonesty?
And then there's Eva Moskowitz. She is a somewhat left-leaning New York city council member, so you can see how bad our schools must be if they leave her saying something like this:
Public schools, Ms. Moskowitz says, cannot expect to receive a large cash infusion if state legislators and the public do not trust the city to spend the money wisely. She says that when [Joel] Klein came aboard as schools chancellor, she told him: "You need to think of yourself as having inherited the former Soviet Union. No matter how good you are, and no matter how smart and committed, it's not capitalism."
Apr 2, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
The New York Sun has compiled a collection of quotes from Dr. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the new head of Hamas, among which are:
From his hospital bed on June 10, 2003, after suffering light shrapnel wounds following an Israeli missile strike on his car in
Gaza City: "By God, we will not leave one Jew in Palestine. We will fight them with all the strength we have. This is our land, not the Jews."
On suicide bombers:
"I congratulate them. They will teach the Jewish mothers in Haifa, Tel Aviv, and everywhere that our blood is not cheap."
On the borders of Palestine:
"There is no difference between Akko, Haifa, Gaza, Jaffa, or Nablus. The Palestinian Intifada will continue until the last Zionist is banished."
According to the AP, the Hamas website recently posted a letter from the deceased Sheik Yassin in which he wrote:
The land of Palestine is an Arab, Islamic land which was occupied with the force of weapons by the Jewish Zionists and we will not get it back except with the force of weapons.
And here's the Sun's David Twersky on the bogus distinction between Hamas' political and military sides:
Much rests on the assertion that Yassin was on the spiritual, not military or operational-side of Hamas. Perhaps [New York] Times editors should read their own copy.
In the April 4, 2002 issue, the paper ran a front-page interview in which Hamas "political" leaders argued, in their own words, that they ran the "military" side of the operation.
In "Mideast Turmoil: Gaza; Arabs' Grief in Bethlehem,Bombers' Gloating in Gaza," by Joel Brinkley, Hamas political leaders boasted that they decide "when their followers should attack and when they should back off."
One "political" leader,Dr.Abdel Aziz Rantisi--yesterday named as the new Hamas leader in Gaza--told the Times that he generates attacks by making public statements that are followed by the group's military wing, "because we are the political leaders."
According to the Times, "analysts here suggest that the leaders' roles are actually more direct. During the 45-minute interview in Sheik Yassin's compound, for example, aides twice brought him urgent news about developments in Ramallah, and he issued clear, direct orders."
The false distinction implied by designating Yassin a "spiritual" leader was not lost on the European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, who denounced the Israeli action as contravening international law. The EU foreign ministers said the assassination was an "extrajudicial killing," a charge that is based on the assumption that Yassin was a noncombatant and therefore entitled to a trial rather than a summary execution.
Apr 2, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
Writes Jay Nordlinger in National Review:
A friend of mine from Arkansas writes the following: "Thought you'd appreciate this little anecdote. A co-worker of mine has a daughter in public elementary school, here in Pine Bluff. They're still doing Black History Month stuff, apparently, because the kids were told to come to class dressed as a famous (and presumably accomplished) African-American. My co-worker's kid was told to come as Tina Turner. My co-worker informed the teacher that her child would come as Condoleezza Rice instead. The teacher refused to allow it, on grounds that Rice 'is for white people.' Nice, huh?"
Apparently, in Arkansas, so is an education.Apr 1, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses, Dollars & Crosses 2
Here's Madeleine Albright joining the chorus of those who, apparently, think it's better for us just to roll over and die:The Bush administration's decision to detain hundreds of people in Guantanamo, Cuba, may be helping the al-Qaeda network recruit terrorists, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said today. "It is possible and perhaps probable that anger over these detentions has helped (Osama) bin Laden succeed in recruiting more new operatives," Albright, secretary of state in the Clinton administration, said in prepared testimony.
James Taranto comments: "Just about any antiterror measure can be expected to make terrorists or terrorist wannabes angry. Albright's appeasement approach would lead to complete paralysis and, no doubt, to more terrorist attacks."Here's Hillel Halkin on the same argument, applied to Palestinian terrorists:The fear that Israel is now in for a worse wave of terrorist attacks than ever rests on the assumption that Hamas and other Palestinian terror organizations have so far been showing restraint and will henceforth begin to get serious. This assumption is highly dubious, both because these organizations have already given every indication of doing their utmost to kill Israelis, and because it is unclear what possible motive they might have had for holding back until now.
Mar 31, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses, Dollars & Crosses 2
James Taranto notices a double-standard, though he doesn't go so far as to explain the reason for it:
How come no one ever points out that the terrorists are fueling our hate by attacking us...? How often did we hear last week that Israel had merely "fueled the hate" of Palestinians by killing Ahmed Yassin, who had already directed the murders of hundreds of Israelis...? How come no one ever points out that such belligerence--and the barbarity it incites--only prolongs the cycle of violence and leads to more dead Arabs?
James Taranto also found this one:
The Seattle Times has a Sunday section for kids called "Next," and the current edition features an online poll that asks "Who do you blame for 9/11?" Three choices are offered: "Bush," "Clinton" and "CIA." There isn't even a write-in category for those who blame the actual culprits, Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda. And people say it's crazy to think Saddam Hussein might have been involved?
The following day, Taranto noted:
The Seattle Times has canceled its online poll.... A notice on the page now says: "Because too few options were presented, this week's pulse question has been changed." The new question is completely unrelated.
Mar 31, 2004 | Dollars & Crosses
From Cox and Forkum:
CNN reported yesterday: Rice to testify in public, under oath.After days of intense pressure, the White House on Tuesday agreed to allow national security adviser Condoleezza Rice to testify publicly and under oath before the commission investigating the September 11, 2001, attacks.
