Reason Morning Links: Ted Kennedy on Immigration, SAT Scores Fall, Regulating Carry-Ons

- NY Times: New CIA reports indicate "enhanced interrogation techniques" weren't result of rogue field agents but of tightly controlled methods dictated by Washington.

- Ted Kennedy's immigration legacy.

- Congressman wants federal legislation to regulate the size of carry-on bags.

- SAT scores fall. Children apparently still being "left behind."

- Most lenders eligible for government's new foreclosure prevention program specialized in subprime loans. 

Comments

[Rich]

"It's clear if anything is going to be done, it's going to take an act of Congress to do it," says Lipinski

Nope -- just need a Carry-On Czar.

[Rich]

We obviously need a Federal investigation into why the SAT is biased toward Asian-Americans.

[Ska]

SAT scores fall, minorities hit hardest...

[hmm]

I can't stand standardized tests.

[Tomcat1066]

"The airlines are not enforcing their own restrictions that they have on the books right now ? and that causes problems."

Then...um...don't fly that airline anymore. It's ain't rocket science here.

[sage]

I like how the dems are going to use Kennedy's death to push harder on health care "reform." So now it's him and Obama's grandmama.

Let me guess: Now if someone opposes Obamacare are they not only a racist but also pissing on the grave of a Kennedy?

[robc]

Arent SAT scores always falling?

Isnt that why they got rescaled in the 90s?

[J sub D]

Congressman wants federal legislation to regulate the size of carry-on bags.

After this pressing issue is addressed, Dan Lipinski, wil be proposing federal legislation regulating the size of hats people are allowed to wear at the movies, sporting events and concerts.

OMG, a fly! Quick Dan, break out the RPG launcher.

[printer cartridge supplies]

If anything needs to be done, they must do it in the right way, the clean way..

[Nick]

"TSA has one responsibility: to make sure weapons do not get on planes."

Or hair gel.
Or baby formula.
Or water.
Or sewing needles.
Or drugs (any kind).
Or...

[SugarFree]

Fuck SATs. Just grant admission based on IQ.

Of course they'd still always be falling...

[SugarFree]

Lipinski's proposal calls for a maximum of 50 linear inches, or 22 inches by 18 inches by 10 inches.

But think of the stimulus to the luggage industry!

[Nick]

I have an IQ of 137 according to the internet. Is that good?

[Barack Obama]

Under the $75 billion program, called Making Home Affordable, lenders are eligible for taxpayer subsidies to lower the mortgage payments of distressed borrowers. Of the top 25 participants in the program, at least 21 specialized in servicing or originating subprime loans, according to the center, a nonprofit investigative reporting group funded largely by charitable foundations.

To those who were saving until they could afford a substantial down-payment, waited until you were sure that you'd be able to make mortgage payments and those who have chosen to rent -

SUCKERS!

[FrBunny]

I have an IQ of 137 according to the internet. Is that good?

Did you get that from FreeCreditReport.com? 'Cause I've got some bad news for you.

[J sub D]

"TSA has one responsibility: to make sure weapons do not get on planes."

Or hair gel.
Or baby formula.
Or water.
Or sewing needles.
Or drugs (any kind).
Or...

You forgot a few of other TSA responsibilities -

Pasdsenger groping
Baggage pillaging.
Passengfer inconveniencing.

[Art-P.O.G.]

If anything needs to be done, they must do it in the right way, the clean way..

Creepiest spam ever. I feel threatened.

[Xeones]

If anything needs to be done, they must do it in the right way, the clean way..

Is this in reference to Ted Kennedy? I don't get it.

[John Thacker]

New CIA reports indicate "enhanced interrogation techniques" weren't result of rogue field agents but of tightly controlled methods dictated by Washington.

Yes and no. There were tightly controlled methods, but, unsurprisingly, there were also incidents in the field that went beyond those methods. And the "tightly controlled methods" all seem to be the "enhanced interrogation techniques" we've learned about in previous memos, but with an enormous amount of detail about how far to push them.

Considering what actually goes on in American prisons, the proposition that without "tightly controlled methods" the actual treatment would have been worse is quite plausible. I think in general most of us prefer "tightly controlled methods dictated from Washington," disagreeing mostly in what those methods would be.

[chet lemon]

SATs are falling because of the demographic changes in this country. As the proportion of white people in the U.S. population shrinks, we become a dumber country (though importing smart Asians helps a bit).

[Jozef]

Here in Georgia the SAT scores of the blacks were above national average, while the whites were below. Does it mean we're less racist than the nation as a whole?

[Warren]

Ted Kennedy was a lecherous lush with blood on his hands. His career as a Senator is marked by his support and leadership on the most corrupt and damaging pieces of legislation passed into law.

Good riddance you fat self-serving demagogue.

[Art-P.O.G.]

WTF? How do Asians do better at writing but not critical reading?

Anyway, I took the ACT and my score was very average for H.S. seniors entering the college.

[Mr. Chartreuse]

Fuck SATs. Just grant admission based on IQ.

Of course they'd still always be falling...

"When I grow up, I'm going to Bovine University!"

[Art-P.O.G.]

How'd Mississippi do compared to the national average?

Also, reading, writing and comprehension tasks obviously begin in t3h home, so...

[SugarFree]

How do Asians do better at writing but not critical reading?

Writing on that level is about following the rules well and critical reading is about creative bullshitting. I exhibited the exact opposite strengths in high school.

[Will work for beer]

SATs are falling because of the demographic changes in this country.

Once again, thank Teddy Kennedy.

I'd go to his funeral if they served free beer and let people piss in the casket.

[SugarFree]

I also took the ACT. Did OK on grammar, flamed out on the math and got perfect scores in science and social studies. (I took it in 1987.)

[SugarFree]

I'd go to his funeral if they served free beer and let people piss in the casket.

You mean they aren't having a traditional Irish funeral?

[dbcooper]

It's starting.

The senator's last battle

If Ted Kennedy had been well enough for the healthcare fight, he might have pushed Republicans toward sanity

By Joan Walsh

[Tomcat1066]

Gee thanks db...now I'm gonna be sick.

[Johnny Longtorso]

Being pushed toward sanity by a Kennedy? Leaving aside the rest of the BS, since when did the GOP listen to Ted? He was one of their boogymen.

[sage]

I'd go to his funeral if they served free beer and let people piss in the casket.

Casket? They should just stick a bone up his ass and let the dogs drag him off.

[Xeones]

Shut the fuck up, Joan Walsh.

[Rich]

lenders are eligible for taxpayer subsidies to lower the mortgage payments of distressed borrowers

Webster: distressed = experiencing economic decline.

So, isn't every borrower "distressed"? What about the subsidizing taxpayer?

[Art-P.O.G.]

"As a country, we must do better providing students of every background access to the best education," Mr. Caperton said.

Argh, so PC. I think just about all Americans have access to good educational materials, but like I say, education begins at home so, if a kid's parents barely try or don't do a good job, it seems unlikely the kid'll do well. I guess I should be glad my mom had me reading a lot (my mom was an avid reader herself and I suppose my dad was no slouch).

[Rich]

education begins at home so, if a kid's parents barely try or don't do a good job, it seems unlikely the kid'll do well.

Let the state-run pseudo-orphanages begin;
at least, until we can "fix" the water. 8-(

[Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!]

What amazes me most is that even while on his deathbed, he was able to write letters asking for political favors. What a great man.

[Pro Libertate]

With all due respect to Kennedy's surviving family and their grief, it's total bullshit to try to make this a "Win it for the Gipper" moment. This isn't a question of what to name some bridge; it's a fundamental dismantling of the free market in medical services. Or what's left of it, anyway. It should be decided on the merits.

Besides, Kennedy is a poor poster child if his tumor is going to be used. If we had socialized medicine and wealthy politicians actually had to rely on it, too (ha!), then he'd have died a while back.

[Ding Dong the Witch is Dead!]

"Now if someone opposes Obamacare are they not only a racist but also pissing on the grave of a Kennedy?"

Where does the line start?

[EJM]

Or hair gel.
Or baby formula.
Or water.
Or sewing needles.
Or drugs (any kind).
Or...

...snow globes (seriously).

[Art-P.O.G.]

Out of curiosity (this relates to education), how many people knew a child of parents who seemed to have really bad life skills?

[Art-P.O.G.]

Fuckin' TSA wouldn't let me take my golem on the flight.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Anyway, to me, that's why life's not fair. Some people deserve better parents than they have. All hail anyone that can rise above bad circumstances.

Anyway, I agree that the hagiographism and politicization (am I just making up words?) of Kennedy's death are a bit hard to take.

[SugarFree]

Thoughts on the First Day of Classes

-Dude, I hate to break it to you, but your girlfriend is gay. And not "Hehe, my roommate and got drunk and kissed! Naughty!" gay either, but "break up with you by late September for girl named Al in her welding tutorial and the next time you see her she's shaved her head" gay.

-Conditioner. Read about it on the Internet if you have to.

-I've had to stop playing "Spot the high school couple that won't be together in a month because she is way hotter than him and will figure it out soon." Just too easy.

-The early-90's Chinese adoption craze is starting to really pay off.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Oh, you're teaching now? I've thought about teaching a lot. This liberal arts degree is brutal.

[P Brooks]

-The early-90's Chinese adoption craze is starting to really pay off.

Sweet.

[MNN]

honestly why should we care about SAT scores?
Stuffs a scam man, don't buy into it.

[Spartacus]

Sugarfree, I got one more for you:

-Hey freshman, if you want to make sure everyone can see you skateboarding, please do it out on the plaza and not down a crowded walkway.

[Where\'s that Canadian Observe]

Thousands of (UK) women are having to give birth outside maternity wards because of a lack of midwives and hospital beds.

The lives of mothers and babies are being put at risk as births in locations ranging from lifts to toilets - even a caravan - went up 15 per cent last year to almost 4,000.

Health chiefs admit a lack of maternity beds is partly to blame for the crisis, with hundreds of women in labour being turned away from hospitals because they are full.
Latest figures show that over the past two years there were at least:

63 births in ambulances and 608 in transit to hospitals;

117 births in A&E departments, four in minor injury units and two in medical assessment areas;

115 births on other hospital wards and 36 in other unspecified areas including corridors;

399 in parts of maternity units other than labour beds, including postnatal and antenatal wards and reception areas.

Additionally, overstretched maternity units shut their doors to any more women in labour on 553 occasions last year.

Babies were born in offices, lifts, toilets and a caravan, according to the Freedom of Information data for 2007 and 2008 from 117 out of 147 trusts which provide maternity services.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209034/The-babies-born-hospital-corridors-Bed-shortage-forces-4-000-mothers-birth-lifts-offices-hospital-toilets.html#ixzz0PIex1vUG

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1209034/The-babies-born-hospital-corridors-Bed-shortage-forces-4-000-mothers-birth-lifts-offices-hospital-toilets.html

[P Brooks]

I am going to drive seventeen hundred miles (each way) next week just so I don't have to deal with the TSA and their ilk.

[Where\'s that Canadian Observe]

Man collapses with ruptured appendix... three weeks after NHS doctors 'took it out'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208970/Man-collapses-ruptured-appendix--weeks-NHS-doctors-took-out.html

[SugarFree]

Oh, you're teaching now? I've thought about teaching a lot. This liberal arts degree is brutal.

No, I am a photographic archivist at a university. I don't have the patience or the linear organization skills to teach.

[SugarFree]

Whoops. Class change. I'll be right back.

[???]

Where does the line start?

You can't hold it that long. Fuggetaboutit

[brotherben]

This is a half-assed serious question.(it has a dollop of snark) Does Dr. Hawking get the typical UK govt healthcare?

[hmm]

This is a half-assed serious question.(it has a dollop of snark) Does Dr. Hawking get the typical UK govt healthcare?

Some is and some isn't. I believe a lot of it is from other sources to keep one smart motherfucker alive. None the less do you think Hawking has to wait in line for any national health service?

[brotherben]

I brought it up becuse of a Rand paul interview on the teevee a few days ago. Dr. Paul said basically do you think Stephen Hawking would still be alive in a country with socialised medicine? I don't remember if it's verbatim, but it's close. It got me thinking about it.

[PantsFan]

Question>
Does anyone recall the pseudo-documentary in which Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr are not assassinated, but win the Democratic Party nomination and win the presidency?

[Nick]

Does anyone recall the pseudo-documentary in which Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr are not assassinated, but win the Democratic Party nomination and win the presidency?

I don't know, but what would the media do without being able to put -gate at the end of every political scandal?

[Dagny T.]

Sug, school starts before Labor Day? You Kentuckians are a backwards lot.

Fill us in on the freshman fashion, 'k? I'm betting there are a lot of plaid tunics and leggings, regardless of weight or thigh circumference.

[Urkobold?]

THE URKOBOLD IS PLOTTING TO CREATE A SCANDAL AROUND AN APPOINTEE NAMED MASTER, JUST SO THE MEDIA WILL BE FORCED TO USE THE TERM, MASTERGATE.

[Nick]

From the Brickbats:

Jack Tagg, 88, has an aggressive but treatable form of macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in Great Britain. But the National Health Service (NHS) is refusing to pay for the treatments that could save Tagg's sight. The NHS will fund the treatment only after he has gone blind in one eye.

Combined with everything posted above from the dailymail, I'm starting to think the UK is trying to get us to kill the socialized medicine proposals in the US. If all countries has shitty care, where will rich and powerful people go to save themselves?

[The Old Lyin\' of the Senate]

Heart patients missing out on life-saving care after surgery:

Two thirds of heart-attack survivors are not getting promised follow-up advice and treatment that could help them to live longer, a charity's report says today.

A national audit commissioned by the British Heart Foundation found that only 34 per cent of 83,500 heart attack victims took part in a cardiac rehabilitation programme after coming out of hospital.

The Government pledged to offer it to 85 per cent of heart patients by 2002 but seven years on, the audit for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, found that overall only 38 per cent of heart patients attended cardiac rehabilitation. The figure was only 30 per cent of those who underwent an angioplasty and 68 per cent for those who had heart bypass surgery.

A shortage of cardiac nurses and other therapists means that those who do receive the care get only one third of the recommended hours of physiotherapy. Women were found to be significantly underrepresented in the programme, accounting for only 28 per cent of those who received follow-up treatment.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6807016.ece

[The Old Lyin\' of the Senate]

NHS project on critical list:

Back in 2002, the idea of a full patient record, available anywhere in an emergency, was the principal political selling point for what was billed as "the biggest civilian computer project in the world": the drive to give all 50m or so patients in England (the rest of the UK has its own arrangements) an all-singing, all-dancing electronic record. Roll-out was meant to start in 2005 and be completed by 2010.

"Looking back, it was the wrong thing to do. It was right to centralise standards for communication and for what should be in the record. It was right to use centralised purchasing power. But the next step, that the whole programme had to be centralised, did not have to flow from that. It proved to be a mistake."

With a staggeringly ambitious goal to get the first electronic records running just three years down the line - when what was to be in them had yet to be fully defined - Richard Granger, the then director, decided that the fragmented and small providers of IT still in the NHS hospital market did not have the scale or industrial muscle to deliver.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6b74e4c8-8cdd-11de-a540-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

[SugarFree]

Fill us in on the freshman fashion, 'k?

Really too hot here for the plaid tunic and leggings.

The dreaded broomstick skirt seems to be back with a vengeance. And the figure obliterating maxi dress. But other than that, the traditional T-shirt and jeans combo rules the day. And I have seen troubling evidence of a resurgence of elf boots.

And I did see one guy that looked like Ted Bundy, but wearing Tucker Carlson's clothes. No kidding. It was chilling.

[Dagny T.]

Really too hot here for the plaid tunic and leggings.

Once it gets cooler, I predict you will be subject to as many lumpy, barely-concealed bottoms as we are.

And I have seen troubling evidence of a resurgence of elf boots.

Wow. I was watching Footloose the other day, and, in spite of myself, remarked that some of the boots in the opening credits were kinda cute. But elf boots are a boot too far, sir.

[robc]

This isn't a question of what to name some bridge

Speaking of which, I suggest we rename the Big Dig the "Ted Kennedy Memorial Highway".

[Milena Del Valle]

robc FTW!

[SugarFree]

Dag! Gah! Just saw gold lame elf boots. I tried to get a picture but it's hard to take pictures of student's shoes and keep my job.

[Meta4]

" I tried to get a picture but it's hard to take pictures of student's shoes and keep my job."

Can't you just say its for "the archives"?

[Dagny T.]

Awesome! I suggest an elf boot drinking game with some of that famous bourbon.

[robc]

SF,

Do I need to hop over to Lex and take some pics for you?

[SugarFree]

Can't you just say its for "the archives"?

You are a genius.

(We actually do have a librarian who has a very strong shoe fetish. I, personally, find nothing erotic about the foot.)

[Art-P.O.G.]

And I did see one guy that looked like Ted Bundy, but wearing Tucker Carlson's clothes. No kidding. It was chilling.

A Bret Easton Ellis story made corporeal?

Dag! Gah! Just saw gold lame elf boots.

Now I see why you took the job.

[SugarFree]

A Bret Easton Ellis story made corporeal?

I didn't get close enough to see if he was wearing Oliver Peoples glasses frames.

[Art-P.O.G.]

I, personally, find nothing erotic about the foot

I also find the foot to be the most pedestrian part of the anatomy.

[SugarFree]

If you weren't deployed, I'd never forgive you for that pun. But war changes a man...

[Space Fiend]

Here on my first day of college classes - much better than summer, at least I know the girls I ogle aren't 15.

I give it another hour or two before the Republican fringe starts deciding Teddy's death is a conspiracy to pass health care.

[Art-P.O.G.]

It totally does...my reluctance to dish out lame jokes seems to have eroded completely...I don't think I'll ever be the same...

[Pro Libertate]

Art-P.O.G.,

Is that lame or. . .lam

[Art-P.O.G.]

Pro Lib,

Damn...the latter really improves my sentence, doesn't it?

[Pro Libertate]

It's yours, man.

[Art-P.O.G.]

Appreciate it.

[Where\'s that Canadian Observe]

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) had previously said that all four kidney cancer drugs would not be made available on the health service because they were too expensive and did not extend life beyond a few months in most cases.

There was a public outcry and patients said they were being condemned to an early death.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6087834/Sutent-for-kidney-cancer-approved-on-NHS-but-other-drugs-turned-down.html

[Where\'s that Canadian Observe]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8217677.stm

Up to 1,000 adults and children with muscular dystrophy in Northern Ireland are being failed by the NHS, a group of MPs and peers have said.

Care for patients with muscle-wasting disorders is often "inadequate and not acceptable", an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Muscular Dystrophy found.

Services are often so below standard that patients' well being and survival are compromised, the report said.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan said current policy meant people were dying earlier.

"People are going without therapy that has been tried elsewhere," he said.

"The report shows that some of the treatments are helping to extend lives. If people are going without those in Northern Ireland then people are dying earlier than their counterparts in other parts of the country."