I pledge allegiance ... not

This is something that has puzzled me since grade school days: can there be anything less appropriate in the land of the free than to press children to engage in ritual toadying to the state every day?

Shame on you, Rick Snyder. This was a missed opportunity for some leadership and a very teachable moment.

Suppressing competition in education

If two grocery store chains were planning to merge and rented a couple of state legislators to introduce a bill that would prevent the opening of new grocery stores in their areas while they completed their merger, people would either laugh or scream or both.

Why isn't the reaction the same when it is two public school districts?

The secret lives of Maine politicians

The Daily Mail (of course) has the shocking story of the blue team state senate candidate in Maine who spends her free time as a "level 85 orc assassin rogue" on World of Warcraft.

Maybe I'm different (okay, for sure I am) but to me this means 10,000 bonus points for Ms. Lachowicz.

Hat tip - it almost goes without saying - Charlie Brown

SNL: Shimmer

Can you imagine my shock and dismay at making a clever reference to the (justly) famous SNL Shimmer commercial parody yesterday during a seminar and having it turn out that I was the only one who knew about it?

To remedy this sad state of cultural ignorance, here is Shimmer on hulu:

Economics Moment of Zen #6

"At Michigan we have a tradition of caring about the truth, even if the truth is boring."

-Miles Kimball

MacArthur Fellows

Congratulations to Harvard public finance economist Raj Chetty, winner of one of the 2012 MacArthur Foundation fellowships.

Hat tip: Joel Slemrod

A most excellent pun