Some worthwhile posts on policy issues/from policy blogs today:
Third Decade isn’t buying the justification for local utilities’ rate hikes. I’m not either.
Sterling Newbury rails against wind farm NIMBYism.
Eduwonk advises liberals against pressing the academic freedom too far in public lower ed: "While it might sound like a great idea to let people like this clown in Colorado rant and rave about the President, the reason he can’t do it and expect legal protection is the same reason school boards can prohibit things like Intelligent Design: Local school boards get a say in what gets taught. In fact, most of the ‘academic freedom’ cases at the elementary and secondary level deal with various kinds of religious proselytizing."
Johnathan Cohn add his two cents to the universal v. incremental health care debate. He brings up some problems with single payer, including the practical objection that it’s going to be a hard sell to move a larger number of people from private insurance to public. Conclusion: "The incremental solutions have so many more problems, with both the policy and politics, than single-payer. But single-payer has its inadequacies too and they’re worth thinking through, particularly for those who are bound to end up endorsing it."
I have to take issue with Healthy Policy’s rose-tinted glasses when it comes to Trader Joe’s. I like the store fine, and it is cheaper than Whole Foods. But let’s not pretend it’s all healthy. Its whole ethos is that of impulse shopping; I’d say two-fifths of the store is devoted to snack food. And while gourmet ready-to-heat meals may be a step up from their supermarket counterparts, I still think that cooking one’s one food is probably best of all. Trader Joe’s simply doesn’t function well as a general purpose grocery store.
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