Michael Bell
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MCPS Juniors and Seniors: Ditch the SAT, the colleges need you more than you need them.
Read more: MCPS Juniors and Seniors: Ditch the SAT, the colleges need you more than you need them.I was talking with a general contractor a few weeks ago. He was dismayed at the bills he gets from plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, and disaster remediation specialists. “It costs me $250 just to get a plumber to walk through the door,” he wailed. “In 10 years they’ll be asking for a whole lot more.”…
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Jawando, Mink, and Sayles throw cannabis prisoners under the CASA bus
Read more: Jawando, Mink, and Sayles throw cannabis prisoners under the CASA busUnder the Revenue Act of 1862, the Union seized land from Southern landowners, and eventually auctioned those lands to freed slaves. In 1865, General Sherman issued Special Field Orders 15, allowing the confiscation of 400,000 acres of land in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, dividing it into parcels of 40 acres to be settled by…
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Positive News on Licensing
Read more: Positive News on LicensingYou probably know the maxim “even a broken clock is right twice a day.” The earliest instance we have of that maxim is from London’s The Spectator, a daily publication during the years 1711–1712. Just as today’s coffee shops provide free WiFi to bring in customers, so London’s coffee shops shared copies of The Spectator…
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Forcing MoCo’s Poor to Pay for Our Renewable Sensibilities
Read more: Forcing MoCo’s Poor to Pay for Our Renewable SensibilitiesHere at Clean Slate MoCo we are very cautious about discussing issues at the national level. I’m begging an exception for this post, because we have a confluence of policies at the national and local level that can only be considered a war against the poor. In May 2024 President Biden increased the tariff on…
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Child Investment Fund: bigotry now, prosperity never
Read more: Child Investment Fund: bigotry now, prosperity neverOne of the most amazing books I ever read is Poverty and Prosperity by the economist Deepak Lal. In that book, Professor Lal outlines how freeing the economic markets in India and China raised fully one-fourth of the entire world’s population out of crushing poverty and wealth inequality within 40 years. This book is so…
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GWCF’s Reparations: Too Little and Too Late
Read more: GWCF’s Reparations: Too Little and Too LateRarely do I get cranky when writing a post for Clean Slate MoCo. Folks, there is a limit to how emotionally invested you can get about zoning and the liquor monopoly. Reading White Oak School First to Pilot Brilliant Futures Savings Program for Kindergartners, though, made me extremely upset. The article describes the inauguration of…
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Are Our Teachers as Emotionally Stunted as Their Union Reps?
Read more: Are Our Teachers as Emotionally Stunted as Their Union Reps?My wife recently overheard another woman talking into a cell phone in a restroom. “If your mother gives us $50, and if we don’t put our little Cyrus in day care this week, then we’ll be able to pay the phone and electric bills.” This is heartbreaking. While some DC power couples grossing $500,000/year also…
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Reason #9 for School Vouchers: Empathy
Read more: Reason #9 for School Vouchers: EmpathyI had a co-worker who over time became a good friend. During our many lunches together, he often expressed a strong pro-life stance: abortion is wrong, he could never do such a thing. At one point this great-looking, successful guy met an equally great-looking, successful girl. They got married, got pregnant, found their first starter…
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My Dream Job
Read more: My Dream JobEvan Glass was in a Pride Parade on Rockville Pike that got lost and was stranded in Urbana. Will Jawando fled to Wyoming because no MCPD officer had an extension cord long enough for a defunded motorized scooter to respond to his emergency calls. Kristin Mink was trapped in a never-ending drum circle with her…
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Alternatives to the MCPS Model of Educational Resource Allocation
Read more: Alternatives to the MCPS Model of Educational Resource AllocationGiven the results of last month’s Board of Education primaries, in which incumbents or union endorsees (and also Brenda Diaz!) won the top spots, some in the opposition have come to the conclusion that getting the best education for our students is no longer possible through MCPS. People are already talking about “school choice” or…