"Looting is the Transition to Freedom"

"U.S. forces should not be blamed for the lawlessness and looting ... is a natural consequence of the transition from a dictatorship to a free country," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Friday at the Pentagon.

Oh.

That was about Baghdad?

Last year?

Nevermind.

Shifting Rants to Education

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=999991

If one defines "success" of a school system as the percentage of students who get a BA or BS within 6 years of their class's graduation from high school, then how do different states do? Well, here are a few of the top schools...

New Jersey's college success rate is: .35

MA is: .34

CT is: .30

NY is: .23

Down towards the bottom -

TX is: .18

FL is: .17

Hmmm... Edit - what this means is that a high school student in Florida or Texas is half as likely to get a college degree.

Education Rant II - Economics

Percent Attaining Bachelor's Degree
by Age 24 by Family Income, 2003

1st quartile 8.6%
2nd quartile 13.2%
3rd quartile 27.7%
4th quartile 74.9%

(1st quartile = poorest 25%, 4th quartile = wealthiest 25%)

Nothing we didn't already know or suspect.