Ain't That America...

Bonus! Compare this amazing acoustic rendition of the best American anthem from the 1980s. Mellencamp performed this song in his Cougar days on The New Show, a Lorne Michaels stab at Friday night variety programming. I saw it when I was... what, 13? I still remember that broadcast.

SD Mines Beats SDSU for Return on Investment; Black Hills State Last

Bloomberg Businessweek has released an analysis of the financial return on investment at over 500 American colleges and universities. Their major finding: overall, estimates of how much more you'll make with a college degree than without are vastly overestimated:

But new research suggests that the monetary value of a college degree may be vastly overblown. According to a study conducted by PayScale for Bloomberg Businessweek, the value of a college degree may be a lot closer to $400,000 over 30 years and varies wildly from school to school. According to the PayScale study, the number of schools that actually make good on the estimates of the earlier research is vanishingly small. There are only 17 schools in the study whose graduates can expect to recoup the cost of their education and out-earn a high school graduate by $1.2 million, including four where they can do so to the tune of $1.6 million. At more than 500 other schools, the return on investment, or ROI, is less—sometimes far less. College, says Al Lee, director of quantitative analysis at PayScale, "is not the million-dollar slam dunk people talk about" [Francesca Di Meglio, "College: Big Investment, Paltry Return," Bloomberg Businessweek, 2010.06.28].

The study analyzes ROI for in-state and out-of-state students separately, so public schools get two rankings. It measures ROI at three South Dakota schools: South Dakota State University, School of Mines and Technology, and Black Hills State (alas! no comparisons with DSU or Augie).



School of Mines comes out on top in South Dakota and pretty good nationwide. the ROI resident students get ranks 288th out of 852 rankings in the analysis. Non-resident ROI ranks 294th.

South Dakota State University ranks 580th by resident rates and 598th by non-resident rates. SDSU's ranking is helped by its 51% graduation rate, compared to a 37% graduation rate at Mines. But interestingly, SDSU graduates make little more than Mines students who don't graduate. Among non-residents, Mines non-grads actually edge SDSU grads in ROI. Sometimes, winning is just a matter of showing up.

The worst way to invest your educational dollar is to come from another state and attend BHSU. The ROI for non-residents at Spearfish ranks 852nd out of 852. South Dakotans attending BHSU do only marginally better, producing an ROI that ranks 850. In other words, if you're concerned strictly about earning potential and you're thinking about attending Black Hills State, you might do just as well to skip college, go straight to work, and make up the earning difference by putting in extra hours for a couple summers at Zesto's.

The best investment in the region is private Carleton College over in Northfield, Minnesota. And alas, even with lower tuition, SDSU lags behind the flagship public universities of Minnesota, Nebraska, and North Dakota.

Now a couple notes on methodology:

1. This analysis examined 1.4 million graduates, but the data is self-reported, allowing for all sorts of inaccuracy.
2. The return on investment includes assumes earning power is delayed, figuring that if you don't go to college, you spend those first four years out of high school working your tail off.
3. The overall ROI is more a measure of the institution's performance, not specific graduates. Having lots of students who don't graduate counts against a school's ranking, but it doesn't change the fact that if you get that degree, you will earn more.

Oh yeah, best return on investment: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MHS grad Mike Stunes will be rolling in dough in a few years!

Happy 4th of July, Babylon!

I love the Fourth of July. Even as I criticize the various injustices and foibles of our polticial and economic system, I can celebrate the constitutional guarantees of my right to criticize my country. As an atheist, I can also embrace this wholly secular holiday more whole-heartedly than any of the church holidays that dominate our Western calendar.

If I were a Christian, I might have to change my fife-and-drum tune. Pastor Shel Boese warns his fellow believers to watch what the worship this Sunday. Pastor Shel refers us to Pastor Bob Wyatt of Oregon, who questions the compatibility of national patriotism and Christianity:

Tony Campolo puts it this way: “America may be the best Babylon the world has, but it is still Babylon nonetheless.”

We are exiles living in Babylon, folks. Our corner may be called “America,” or “Canada,” or “France,” but it’s still all a part of the same thing: a world system that transcends borders, is dominated by materialistic consumerism and exploitation, and is fundamentally opposed to the Kingdom of God. And while love and affection for the people living in that system is entirely necessary, and while we should certainly pray for the peace and well-being of the place where God has set us, we need to avoid the mistake we see over and over in Scripture: becoming so enamored with our temporary dwelling—whether that’s called Egypt, Babylon, or even America—that we lose sight of what Hebrews calls “a better place” [Pastor Bob Wyatt, "Be Careful What You Worship on July 4," Out of Ur, 2010.07.01]

Lest you revert to conflating piety and patriotism, take a couple more swigs of that Campolo quote:

1. "America is the best Babylon in the world. But Babylon is a whore. Whores seduce. Babylon consumes all the resources on the earth, and eats up the souls of men (Rev 18)."
2. “As the system was collapsing, as Babylon was going down the tubes, this other group of people was saying, 'hallelujah, Babylon is no more! The great whore is dying'.... Don’t get me wrong, I love the United States of America. It’s the best Babylon on the face of the earth, but it’s still Babylon and it’s not the kingdom of God.”

Whew—I'm glad I don't have to reconcile that on Sunday morning. And hey, what is that flag doing up on the Christian altar, anyway?

As some of my more enlightened Christian friends would say, God Bless America... and the rest of the world, too!

Gurgle Gurgle: TransCanada Opens Keystone Pipeline

Keep your duct tape handy: TransCanada's Keystone pipeline, which may contain defective steel, is now fully operational. Outgoing CEO Hal Kvisle opened the taps in Wood River, Illinois, this week, sending 435,000 barrels of tar sands oil coursing beneath the South Dakota prairie every day. Incoming CEO Russ Girling says don't worry, be happy:

“This project is entirely logical. … We're moving the world’s largest and most secure source of crude oil to a nation that needs that crude oil, and what we’re backing out is crude oil from places like Venezuela.... Is there risk in this? There always is. But I think the facts would dictate that those environmental concerns are unfounded. That they’re not based on truth” [Russ Girling, quoted by Nathan Vanderklippe, "TransCanada's Keystone Opens U.S. Taps," CTV.ca, 2010.07.01].

Sure, Russ. There's no truth to Syncrude's conviction last month for killing three times as many ducks with its tar sands tailings ponds as it originally admitted. There's no truth to John Podesta's assessment that the tar sands you're shipping are "polluting, destructive, expensive, and energy intensive." There's no truth to claims that a leak from your pipeline could seriously damage the Ogallala aquifer. There is no truth to news that your environmentally unfriendly project is over budget and losing partners. And there's no truth to reports that 47% of the steel you used in the pipeline you opened this week came from Welspun, an Indian steel company being sued by three other pipeline companies for delivering steel containing hundreds of defects verified by the PHMSA. It's all just lies, damned lies, fabricated by one hippie blogger who thinks he can get along riding his bike in South Dakota in December. (Actually....)

When oil company CEOs use the word truth, respond with snickers.

Herseth Sandlin Checks Pelosi Power; Noem Running out of Talking Points

Badlands Blue notes that a Roll Call article throws a wrench in the Kristi Noem propaganda machine. The D.C. press spotlights our own Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin as a counterweight to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's power and a real force in focusing Congress's attention on fighting the deficit (you know, that big ugly thing caused by President Bush):

The first female Speaker’s famous iron grip on her Caucus has been shaken lately by another woman.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has made passing a jobs agenda her top priority this year, but an anti-deficit insurgency led by Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.), the administrative co-chairwoman of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, has forced Pelosi to scale back her ambitions [Steven T. Dennis, "Herseth Sandlin Goes to War as New Blue Dog Voice," Roll Call, 2010.07.01].

Fellow Dems view SHS as a woman of steel in her own right... and not just planless sloganeering obstructionist as her Republican challenger would likely be in Washington:

“Stephanie is a star,” Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) said. “She’s come into her own. She’s got much greater confidence and a steelier backbone.”

"That’s what a good legislator does — she speaks truth to power and she doesn’t shy away from that,” said Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.), who represents Blue Dogs in leadership meetings. “It’s never easy to stand up to the Speaker and the Majority Leader,” he said. “You have to learn to get your sea legs, and she has learned that role.”

Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson praised Herseth Sandlin as “a breath of fresh air” and said that although they sometimes disagree, she’s still looking for ways to get something done.

“She’s not a ‘just say no’ person. She’s looking for a third way,” the Connecticut lawmaker said. “That’s been her M.O. since she got here” [Dennis, 2010]

Of course, the Honorable Congresswoman from South Dakota does vote with Speaker Pelosi and the Democratic majority 92% of the time, as she did Wednesday evening on the financial sector reform reconciliation bill. Sure, Kristi, go after that one. Tell South Dakotans that reforming Wall Street is a terrible idea. Tell South Dakotans, "Wall Street got us into this recession; Wall Street can get us out!"

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On voting with the party: OpenCongress.org says that when Speaker Pelosi votes, SHS votes with her 84% of the time, significantly below the average of 94% for voting similarity among all House Dems. SHS votes with Republican Majority leader John Boehner 50% of the time. She votes with my man and model Democrat Dennis Kucinich 86% of the time.

South Dakota Picks Profit over People on Health Coverage

South Dakota is suing to nullify the federal health insurance law passed this year. However, as Bob Mercer points out, South Dakota is still willing to participate in this supposed unconstitutional monstrosity by administering the high-risk pool.

Check this line from Mercer:

South Dakota already operates a risk-pool program for people who had insurance but lost it through no fault of their own. Rounds, who runs an insurance business, started the state risk pool to reduce financial responsibility of insurance companies which were pulling out of the health-coverage market in South Dakota [Bob Mercer, "State Picks and Choose on Federal Health Coverage Law," Pure Pierre Politics, 2010.07.01].

Mercer doesn't reach this conclusion, but I do: Governor Rounds and fellow defenders of the free market don't want the free market to handle all of health coverage... only the really profitable portions. They thus are happy to saddle the government with the elderly, the poor, and the sick folks who need health insurance the most. The insurance companies thus limit themselves to the young, rich, and healthy whose minimal use of health services guarantee that the house always wins in the private insurance casino.

The high-risk pool is really a safety valve for private profit. Until the ban on exclusions for pre-existing conditions kicks in in 2014, private insurers can continue to kick sick people off their plans without any prick to their conscience: "Those people won't suffer. They can just join the government high-risk pool! Besides, we're here to serve our shareholders, not the common good."

I wonder how long we'll watch this patchwork system hobble along, bankrupting and killing Americans all for the sake of protecting profit and a failing worldview, before we realize it would be a whole lot simpler for us to create one big risk pool.

Madville Times "Lake to Shining Lake" Bicycle Ride Saturday 8 A.M.!

This time we thought we'd plan ahead....

Blog and bike enthusiasts alike, up for a bike ride tomorrow morning? Regular commenter, avid cyclist, and MHS debate alum Tony Amert is in town for America's birthday and suggested we ride our mountain bikes from Lake Herman to Lake Madison and back, as we both did most separately a couple July 4ths ago. Then we thought, heck, why not invite everyone else?

The plan:

• Meet at the public access boat ramp on the west side of Lake Herman at 8 a.m. Saturday, July 3, 2010. That's on Cottonwood Cove Trail, within view of my green house.
  
• Recommended gear: fat tires (we're riding lots of gravel) and water
• Estimated distance: about 22 miles from lake to lake (longer if we get lured by detours)
• Planned route: see map! We'll go south around Lake Herman first, through the boonies to Lake Madison, and up to the new public access area. From there, we'll wend out way back toward Madison and Lake Herman.
• Possible detours: east on the paved bike path to Johnson's point; charge through downtown; loop through Lake Herman State Park and Dirks Resort.

Come climb some gravel hills (slight bumps, my Black Hills friends will call them) and anoint yourselves in the cooling waters of Lake County's crystal blue-green gems. Come ride!

Alert: Boater Missing on Lake Herman

Lake County Search and Rescue just drove up in my yard looking for a missing boater. I didn't catch all the details, but evidently a couple folks from Camp Lakodia in a canoe or kayak got in trouble on the choppy water and capsized. Search and Rescue got a call that one had reached a dock, but the status of the second person is uncertain.

Search and Rescue has a boat and its jetski on the water searching right now. The team ran through my yard and headed south down the shore to check the docks at Schafers' and Walkers'. Lake Herman neighbors, keep your eyes peeled.

I think one of the Search and Rescue folks said on the walkie talkies that the missing boater may be deaf, so you may not be able to call out and get a response.

Health Care Losing Steam as GOP Voting Point

Republican candidates, the health care ship is leaving without you. Apparently unfazed by the "total destruction of our Constitutional republic," more Americans are saying the new health insurance reform law is o.k. by them. A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds 48% of Americans have a "generally favorable" view of the legislation, versus 41% who hold a "generally unfavorable" view. That's a flip and then some of Kaiser's May numbers, which found the yea-nay split at 41%–44%.

Really important for political types:

Roughly a third (35%) of registered voters say that a candidate who voted for the health reform law will be more likely to get their vote, a third (32%) say such a candidate would be less likely to get their vote, and a third (31%) say the candidate’s vote for the law would not matter either way. The results vary greatly by party identification [Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, Publication Number 8082, June 2010].

Essentially, in Republican South Dakota, GOP House candidate Kristi Noem might be able to buffalo her friends and neighbors with "Repeal Health Care!" rhetoric (though she has to cherry-pick her Blue Dog opponent's votes, since Stephanie Herseth Sandlin voted against the bill in March—dang it!—but then against repeal last month). But nationwide, the voters swayed against candidates by health insurance reform will be cancelled out—and if the trend continues, outweighed—by the folks swayed for candidates who did the right thing and made health insurance more just and accessible this spring.

The Kaiser poll supports the thesis floated by Public Policy Polling back in May: health care nullification is not a winning issue for the GOP in November. Americans are ready to move on and solve problems, not refight the battle Republicans lost.

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Web Bonus: The Kaiser poll comes alongside the launch of Healthcare.gov, your tax dollars at work, offering information about your health insurance options and your rights under the new law. Strangely absent from Healthcare.gov: any mention of rationing, death panels, or how to deal with the collapse of civilization caused by socialism.

Welspun Faces Lawsuits, Has Strong 2009 Profits to Cover Costs

...and South Dakota money goes to Iran after all?

We wait for the mainstream media to pick up the story about the possibility that TransCanada built the Keystone pipeline with defective Indian steel. We also wait for someone to connect the dots and ask why a few sticky gas pedals provoke a recall of over five million Toyotas, but hundreds of faulty pipe joints don't trigger a recall of steel posing an ecological threat to South Dakota's farmland, wetlands, and drinking water.

Meanwhile, here are a few notes on Welspun, the maker of the faulty steel that might lie under the South Dakota prairie in the Keystone pipeline:

1. Indian pipe maker Welspun (I'm waiting for plays on that name) faces three lawsuits from U.S. pipeline companies accusing the company of supplying substandard steel. The litigants include Kinder Morgan, in whose pipelines federal safety regulators found defective Welspun steel, as documented by Plains Justice.
2. I'm not a professional finance reporter, so it'll take me a while to figure out which division is which, but Welspun Corp Ltd. is down 4.6% from its Monday close. Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren Ltd. is down 4.7%.
3. Ah! Welspun Corp Ltd. is Welspun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren. The company changed its name from the latter to the former this spring, taking three months of brainstorming and consultations to come up with the shorter name and a new logo. (Note: stahl rohren is German for "steel pipe".)
4. Shipping bad pipe didn't hurt Welspun's business in 2009: Welspun increased revenue 28% and more than doubled operating profit.
5. Welspun is acquiring majority stake in Saudi pipe maker Aziz. Dang: Even if we use Canadian oil, we're still depending on Saudi pipe.
6. Welspun does business in Iran. TransCanada bought 47% of the steel for the Keystone pipeline from Welspun. This year's South Dakota State Legislature protected a huge tax break for TransCanada. At the same time, the Legislature passed a law to oppose investing state funds in Iran. Connect the dots....

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Update 2010.07.02: The mainstream media speak! KJAM covers the concerns over Welspun steel pipe.

White Night in Madison Tonight!

This evening's forecast: south wind 20 mph, temp around 80°F, humid, but clear sky, no thunderstorms in sight. Be glad of that breeze: it'll keep the mosquitoes away at Madison's first White Night event tonight on South Egan at the Brickhouse!

The Madison Area Arts Council has lined up five musical acts to perform from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. There will be artists on the street creating art before your very eyes. (There is something magical about present at creation.) You can sit on the curb, walk by the railroad tracks (watch for trains!), and treat Main Street like your living room.

Come downtown tonight, enjoy a legal beverage, and watch midsummer twilight settle oh-so-slowly over our fair city.

Celebrate Canada Day: Stop Keystone XL

Happy ! Happy Canada Day!

We Marxists can't wait to create the North American Union, since it would achieve our ultimate goal of merging our national holidays into a huge midsummer four-day holiday. But contrary to the fears of some black-helicopter alarmists, we treasonous continentalizers do not want to unite Canada and the U.S. with more tar sands pipelines. In fact, on this Canada Day, we honor our northern neighbors [and someday compatriots!] by calling on the United States to block construction of Keystone XL, a tar sands pipeline that will only feed our fossil fuel addiction at the expense of Canada's environment (hat tip to Robert Pore):

Production of tar sand oils is already the largest contributor of greenhouse gases in Canada, and production is only slated to expand. The mining and processing of tar sands also produces land damage, heavy water use and pollution.

The world’s largest tar sand deposit, in Alberta, covers 54,000 square miles, an area the size of England. Strip mining is used extensively, leaving very large holes.

Another mining method — injecting steam and solvents such as caustic soda into shafts — uses up to four units of water for every unit of oil produced. And after being used, the water is mostly held in tailing ponds and is unfit for human or animal use [environmental historian Francis Moul, "TransCanada Pipeline Threatens the Sand Hills," guest editorial, Omaha World Herald, 2010.06.25].

Trusted White House advisor John Podesta has called tar sands oil "polluting, destructive, expensive, and energy intensive" resource that cannot be made environmentally safe. Tar sands only make Canada messier... and they won't do much for the U.S., either.

Celebrate Canada Day by doing our neighbors a favor: stop TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline.

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p.s.: Or at the very least, if we can't stop Keystone XL, send out some inspectors to make sure TransCanada doesn't build with defective Indian steel.