Steve Beshear’s first State of the Commonwealth address lacked substance. Quite a yawner. Surprisingly, he made no mention of expanding gambling in the speech. Read the whole thing for yourself here.
Libertarian blogger and Worldnetdaily columnist Vox Day points out this disturbing stance taken by the Bush administration:
Since “unrestricted’ private ownership of guns clearly threatens the public safety, the 2nd Amendment can be interpreted to allow a variety of gun restrictions, according to the Bush administration.
The argument was delivered by U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the ongoing arguments over the legality of a District of Columbia ban on handguns in homes, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. Clement suggested that gun rights are limited and subject to “reasonable regulation” and said all federal limits on guns should be upheld.
“Given the unquestionable threat to public safety that unrestricted private firearm possession would entail, various categories of firearm-related regulation are permitted by the 2nd Amendment,” he wrote in the brief, the Times reported.
STATE OF THE COMMONWEALTH
House Chambers
January 14, 2008
7 p.m.
Governor Steve Beshear
I got “taken to task” in an educator-run blog a couple of days ago for not listing all of the new scores in “Quality Counts 2008” in my January 9th blog item, “Kentucky’s K to 12 Education Achievement Grade – D+.”
The educator missed my point completely, which was simply to offer an example that not all research mirrors the glowing reports we get from Kentucky educators and their cheer leaders.
Now, the Kentucky Enquirer has also looked more extensively at the Quality Counts report and has formed very similar conclusions to mine.
The Enquirer says, “…the Commonwealth has made less consistent educational gains (compared to Ohio).” Also cited as problems are, “…widespread disparity in student performance,” and the fact that “…course offerings and course rigor in one part of the state don’t equate with those in another part.” Finally, the Enquirer knows that Kentucky education has, “…a disconnect between high school preparation and college expectations.”
In other words, intelligent people outside the Bluegrass Institute are also beginning to understand that things are not nearly as rosy as our somewhat self-deluded education crowd would have us believe.
As the Enquirer says, “In the end, both Ohio and Kentucky have much work to do to continue improving education.”
So long as our educators concentrate more on self congratulations than admitting we haven’t made “substantial” improvements, that work won’t happen fast enough, if at all.
