The daily view 3/21/2018

The news cycle has been glacial as of late. A year ago, the left was certain Muller/FBI had a bombshell against Trump and by 2018 Trump would be packing his bags, but now 14 months into his presidency, the left is not an inch closer to getting Trump impeached than they were a year ago. And yet another example of this blog being correct in that I predicted nothing would happen, and I still stand by that.

Bitcoin is above $8,900 after falling as low as $7,400 a few day ago. My take is, it goes lower, especially because Tom Lee refuses to shut up. Here he is again. He’s now been on on CNBC over six times since December to hype Bitcoin, and every time it has gone lower. More evidence the financial media is useless by hyping bad investments. I still have 20% of my original Bitcoin position.

This story is going viral Penn Law professor who said black students are ‘rarely’ in top half of class loses teaching duties.

A University of Pennsylvania law school professor will no longer teach required courses following outcry over a video in which she suggested — falsely, according to the school — that black students seldom graduated high in their class.

“It is imperative for me as dean to state that these claims are false,” he said, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper.

“Black students have graduated in the top of the class at Penn Law,” Ruger said. “And contrary to any suggestion otherwise, black students at Penn Law are extremely successful, both inside and outside the classroom, in the job market, and in their careers.”

Amy Wax said seldom, which means some do graduate at the top of the class, compared to never or none. Given Ruger does not understand this distinction suggests he is either intellectually dishonest or is dense (probably both).

Excellent article by Freddie deBoer, who despite being a liberal I find commentary insightful, The SAT Can Level the Playing Field in Education, which is similar to my earlier article on the SAT, but his is better. He raises some good points about how the SAT can combat grade inflation.

This passage stood out:

The student who is captain of the sailing team, president of the robotics club, and who spent a summer building houses in the Global South will likely look more “holistically” valuable than a poorer student who has not had the resources to do similar activities. Who is more likely to be a star violin player or to have completed a summer internship at a fancy magazine: a poor student or an affluent one? College essays are more easily improved through coaching than test scores, and teachers at expensive private schools likely feel more pressure to write effusive letters of recommendation than their peers in public schools.

Hmm, one of the reasons the left opposes the SAT is because supposedly it’s biased in favor of the affluent, yet the left’s push for ‘holistic’ admissions standards benefits the wealthy, who can afford expensive extracurricular activities. For the left, it’s not about helping the talented poor, but about promoting leveling and opposing the meritocracy.