Africa's Rise

Africa's Amazing Rise and What it Can Teach the World - G. Pascal Zachary - International - The Atlantic

Let's hope this continues and continues to expand. Having rapid growth when you're starting near zero doesn't mean much. It will take decades to pull Africa out. The key is to keep despotic governments at bay and to move from strength to strength. Right now, the greatest chance of sabotaging this growth lies with Africans themselves. All continents have faced the same pressures. The countries that move up and out of poverty are the ones that keep despots out of government. That was true in Europe (Spain, Greece offered as counter examples), Asia (almost everyone for decades), and Central and South America.

Education "reform"

Solyndra is their el Guapo

Instapundit

DOCUMENTS: Lightsquared Shaping Up As The FCC’s Solyndra. I think we’re going to find that every federal department has its own Solyndra.

Why does this remind me of...

...In a way, all of us have an el Guapo to face some day. For some, shyness might be their el Guapo. For others, a lack of education might be their el Guapo. For us, el Guapo is a big dangerous guy who wants to kill us.

Inspiring

I’m OK–You’re OK | Scott Johnson | Power Line

"Mitt is an inspirational candidate. The problem is that what he inspires is intense apathy..."

Lovely quote.

Duck Duck Go

I don't know why exactly, but I really like their logo:

Interesting privacy points here.

The site itself of course is here.

From Lindstrom MN

Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It - NYTimes.com

You don't see a Lindstrom byline very often!

Unfortunately, the article's a piece of &^%$

And here's Powerline's take on the same piece.

Fauna of Madison

I took this picture while driving down Highway 14 outside of Madison. Why?

A blow-up explains it:

As they say in the bird books, "unmistakable"