Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

The Hybrids Come Crashing Down

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I’ve spoken before of my dislike for public/private hybrid organizations, including public universities, and my laissiez-faire attitudes toward government involvement with business. The fact is that when government involves itself with private business—whether by endorsing public/private hybrids or bailing out private businesses—it rarely ends well for anybody, least of all the taxpaying public.

Well, like Amtrak and the Postal Service before them, two of the largest ‘government sponsored enterprises’—the Federal National Mortgage Association (‘Fannie Mae’) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (‘Freddie Mac’)—have come upon hard times. These two monstrosities were created in the 1970s to increase the money available for home-buyers, which is a fine goal, but it is a goal that should be met by private industry not by government sponsorship. Now, feeling the pinch of the so-called mortgage ‘crisis’ they (and poorly educated home-buyers) helped create, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are the happy recipients of government aid to shore up confidence in their solvency.

Like past bailouts, the government won’t be able to do anything but delay the inevitable without these companies changing from within. That’s why the government shouldn’t bail companies out, nor should the provide funding to failing hybrid public/private organizations. Bailouts/investments simply allow these companies to continue operating in a flawed, unprofitable way (e.g., Amtrak). The government should let Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac succeed or fail on their own merits. If they fail the market will pick up the pieces on its own and move on. But, more likely, teetering on the brink of bankruptcy without a taxpayer-funded safety net will be a big incentive for Fannie and Freddie to get their acts together on their own.

Weird . . . Al Yankovic!

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Had a fun day yesterday. My sister Kristen, Melissa and I, and two of Kristen’s cool friends all headed down to the Warner Theater in Washington, DC, to see one of the most unique singer/songwriter/performers in the world: Weird Al Yankovic.

For some reason, like many performances, photography was prohibited (why do they do that?) so you’ll just see the outside marquee and ticket stub here. Oh well. It was a great, hilarious show that had us all rolling in the aisles laughing most of the way through. Weird Al, believe it or not, is an amazingly entertaining performer. His stage presence equals the quality of his musicality and wit.

Of note, Weird Al’s most recent ‘hit’—White and Nerdy—is not only funny, but it is technically accurate. Further, the images displayed on the screen during his performance of the song were equally accurate and relevant (even including the ‘smiley face’ image of the Acid 2 browser compliance test). I guess, since I know that, it would make me ‘White and Nerdy’ too.

D.C. Students See Big Academic Gains

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If you read my non-endorsements for the 2007 Fairfax County School Board election, you probably got the distinct impression that I don’t like the over-democratization of our schools. Educational decisions should be made by educational professionals with the limited oversight of elected city councils or county boards of supervisors or mayors. This allows for democratic input on the management of our schools without it degrading into the political BS you see in our school boards every month.

So you might guess that I was pretty happy when Washington, DC, Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) was elected with a strong mandate to sack the entire city school board and schools superintendent and replace them with a chancellor that answers directly to him. I was. I’m even more happy to learn that DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee—a former teacher who has been heavily criticized locally for her supposed ‘inexperience’, for firing hundreds of under-performing teachers and administrators, and for closing under-enrolled schools—has successfully led students in the DC school system to significantly improved test scores after only one year in office.

Critics have already begun claiming that the scores are a fluke, or that reforms from the preceding school leaders (what reforms were those, again?) had as much impact as the Fenty/Rhee reforms. It’s probably too early to tell. That said, I strongly suspect that DC schools will continue to thrive and improve under Rhee’s culture of professionalism and accountability, and DC’s schools will (against all odds) become a model for reform nationwide. Step 1: Depoliticize by dissolving elected school boards.

Setting Concrete Goals

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I’m learning that it’s best to set concrete, rather than nebulous, goals. For example, I’ve said many times before that I meant to write ‘more’ content for this web site. It wasn’t until I committed myself to an average of at least five entries per week that things finally changed. For some reason, a goal of five entries per week was easier to reach than a goal of ‘more’ entries.

When I bought my bike last year, I said I was going to get back into riding. Well, I sorta did. I did a few rides of 10 miles or longer before the weather turned too cold (having bought the bike at the end of the season) but then failed to pick it back up when the weather turned nice again. My bad. Well I finally went back out last week, and I apparently haven’t lost my ability (thank God). I did a 10-mile ride on Thursday evening, then a 20-mile ride on Saturday. It didn’t take a lot out of me, so now I’m setting a personal, concrete goal of riding at least 30-miles per week.

I figure that’s only a three-hour commitment (roughly) in the week, which can be met with three 10-mile rides or one 30-mile ride or any other combination. That gives me flexibility, but it is a concrete target. Let’s see how it works out.

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Plain Ol’ Discourtesy

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I wrote five years ago now about the ‘wrong way to protest‘, positing that while people are free to protest against the war in Iraq (or anything else, for that matter) they should be aware that there are limitations to that right, and that—even when protesting in a legal way—being rude or discourteous is unlikely to win anybody to your side. In 2003, I gave the example of protests in the D.C. area that block roads and turn our commutes into an even bigger nightmare than they already are. Those protests failed on both the legal and the courteous scales, simultaneously resulting in the arrest of the protesters and angering (i.e., not convincing) the very audience they were trying to send a message to. People, for the most part, simply tune-out rudeness.

An article in the Washington Post yesterday reminded me of just how rude and discourteous protesters can be when voicing opposition to the war in Iraq. This time, protesters interrupted the annual July 4 naturalization ceremony held at Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s home) in Charlottesville, VA—which was presided over by President George W. Bush (R)—with anti-war catch phrases and a refrain of “impeach Bush”.

Personally, I find these kinds of protests a little meaningless to begin with. I still see no legal basis for an impeachment (once again, even if I were to accept that Bush lied in the lead-up to the war in Iraq, lying to the people might be immoral but it is not illegal and is, thus, not impeachable). Further, I continue to support both the war in Iraq and support many of the President’s initiatives to protect our national security. Having said that, I strongly support the freedom of speech and peoples’ right to protest these things if they disagree with them. I’d simply prefer that they show a modicum of courtesy and intelligence when doing so.

Interrupting a naturalization ceremony, where [legal] immigrants become U.S. citizens, is downright tacky no matter what you’re interrupting it with. Yeah, congrats, you got your zingers in against the president. You also interfered with a solemn ceremony welcoming new citizens from around the world and made yourselves look like whiny children. That may well be legal, but you didn’t accomplish anything—except possibly to discredit yourselves in the eyes of impartial viewers.

Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.