Arkansas Blog

I don't know about the big shots, but Lyon College (Arkansas College when me 'n mama attended) has never been a "conservative" school as far as the rank 'n file were considered. I'd also go on to say that Batesville, itself, is prob'ly more blue than red. Those kids won't get much grief from the townsfolk.

I have no idea of how the intricacies of church affiliation works but Lyons was (or is) a Presbyterian sponsored school. Only in the South are Presbyterians Republicans and likely
with the strong fundamentalist association of Republicans that won't last much longer
due to the loss of young professionals the church needs to attract for future growth.

Gitz is a bankrupt political science professor...certainly not representative of Presbyterians
and not of Lyons. He's like Palin, a loudmouth of Republican fundamentalism.

I suppose his ignorance of economics shows up in his bankrupt status.
.
But he gets an A+ for history rewriting.
.

Conservatives being 'progressive' because they are open to other candidates? No, that is the nature of conservatives. What I would be more surprised would be a liberal college allowing a conservative to speak. We have a plethora of examples where conservative speakers were run off from 'progressive' campuses.

One doesn't need to be prominent and know economics. Look at Barney 'cupcake' Frank. He knows nothing about finance or economics. That is why he was appointed chairman of the House Banking Committee. He speaks often as if he were an expert on finance but no 'progressives' challenge his expertise.

"What I would be more surprised would be a liberal college allowing a conservative to speak. We have a plethora of examples where conservative speakers were run off from 'progressive' campuses."
Posted by: strangelove October 14, 2008 06:56 PM

"Give me a break with the anecdotal comments."
Posted by: strangelove September 26, 2008 10:20 PM

strange is not on the main round of meds yet RingDing. Just give him an hour or two for the really crazy stuff to kick in.

Norma, I know this was a travel day but, you will open your laptop later tonight.......

I asked this last night and you didn't answer.........

Who will design Michelle's gowns for Jan.20???? Sean John, Fushia, Tracey Reese or some

other?????

Look, one of your very own made comments about those who resort to disparaging remarks and name calling as being a dodge of dealing with issues. Calling me or anyone else names is an obvious dodge of the issues brought up. I'm used to this on this blog. Obviously, none of you have had to deal with opposition just a plethora of monotone thought as it appears on this blog. Get used to it because there is no more free lunch. Put up or shut up.

"Give me a break with the anecdotal comments."
Posted by: strangelove September 26, 2008 10:20 PM

Hank Williams, Jr wails out Praise for McCain-Palin.

Incredibly cornpone...likely to get him another 10K votes across the South.

bluename for the worst country song ever recorded. A disgrace to his father.

From today's Wall Street Journal re: the success of charter schools in L.A.:

"The demand for more educational choice in predominantly minority South Los Angeles is pronounced. The waitlist for existing (charter) schools has at times exceeded 6,000 kids."
"ICEF (Inner City Educational Foundation) has been operating since 1994 and its flagship school has now graduated two classes, with 100 percent of the students accepted to college."
"Despite this success, powerful unions like the California Teachers Association and its political backers continue to oppose school choice for disadvantaged families."
"Last year Democratic state lawmakers...tried to force Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign a bill that would have made opening a new charter school in the state next to impossible. (Lawmakers) backed down after loud protests from parents in poorer neighborhoods."
"Texas is currently bumping up against an arbitrary cap on the number of charters that can open in the state. Unless the cap is lifted...thousands of low-income Texas children will remain stuck in ineffective schools."

Little Rock school board members need to start representing the bset interests of the people who elect them, not the people who fund their election. Voting to limit competition is a losing strategy, especially for kids with no choice.

I'll point out that Wallie Roettger, the much respected president of Lyon, has donated to Berry's campaign over the past few years, so I'd say that Lyon is politically balanced. Gitz is pretty much a joke, and I think even he knows it.

We watched Bill Moyers last week and at the end he mentioned "Torturing Democracy" would be airing on PBS this week, but I can not find it on AETN's schedule. I wonder when they plan to air it, if at all.
It looks like PBS would not pick it up until Bush is out of office so local affiliates are picking it up on their own.
I've sent an email to AETN to see if they plan on showing it in the near future.

The school board and its president have made it perfectly clear that they don't care if white's stay in the system or not so what is the question relative to a commitment to quality education? Whites may sometime appear to be stupid but I don't think that they are dumb enough to not know that the deck is stacked and any chance of quality is limited. If quality occurs in the LRSD it will be strictly by accident. Private schools and home schooling are really the ONLY viable alternative if the objective is quality education. This issue really isn't even arguable considering the actions of the LRSD Board of Education.

Anti-Democratic Nature of US Capitalism is Being Exposed
Bretton Woods was the system of global financial management set up at the end of the second World War to ensure the interests of capital did not smother wider social concerns in post-war democracies. It was hated by the US neoliberals - the very people who created the banking crisis writes Noam Chomsky

by Noam Chomsky

THE SIMULTANEOUS unfolding of the US presidential campaign and unraveling of the financial markets presents one of those occasions where the political and economic systems starkly reveal their nature.

Passion about the campaign may not be universally shared but almost everybody can feel the anxiety from the foreclosure of a million homes, and concerns about jobs, savings and healthcare at risk.

The initial Bush proposals to deal with the crisis so reeked of totalitarianism that they were quickly modified. Under intense lobbyist pressure, they were reshaped as "a clear win for the largest institutions in the system . . . a way of dumping assets without having to fail or close", as described by James Rickards, who negotiated the federal bailout for the hedge fund Long Term Capital Management in 1998, reminding us that we are treading familiar turf. The immediate origins of the current meltdown lie in the collapse of the housing bubble supervised by Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, which sustained the struggling economy through the Bush years by debt-based consumer spending along with borrowing from abroad. But the roots are deeper. In part they lie in the triumph of financial liberalisation in the past 30 years - that is, freeing the markets as much as possible from government regulation
...........
Oct 10, Irish Times on bluename.
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Roettger is a nice guy but I wouldn´t go so far as to say that he is well-respected--certainly not on the Lyon campus. Sad to say but the school is on life support financially.

"But he [Getz] gets an A+ for history rewriting."

Ah, eLwood, sheath your claws, friend. Are you sure it's A+?

"Stonewall Fall Wine Tasting Benefit" on Thursday, October 30 at 6:00pm.

Please help us spread the word about our fall winetasting benefit for Stonewall Democratic Caucus. A portion of the proceeds to benefit Arkansas Families First to help defeat Act 1.".

Event: Stonewall Fall Wine Tasting Benefit
"Honored Guest Robbie Thomas-Knight PhD"
What: Benefit
Host: Stonewall Democratic Caucus of Arkansas
Start Time: Thursday, October 30 at 6:00pm
End Time: Thursday, October 30 at 8:00pm
Where: 2200 South Broadway

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=44792771704

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

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"Stonewall Fall Wine Tasting Benefit" on Thursday, October 30 at 6:00pm.

Please help us spread the word about our fall winetasting benefit for Stonewall Democratic Caucus. A portion of the proceeds to benefit Arkansas Families First to help defeat Act 1.".

Event: Stonewall Fall Wine Tasting Benefit
"Honored Guest Robbie Thomas-Knight PhD"
What: Benefit
Host: Stonewall Democratic Caucus of Arkansas
Start Time: Thursday, October 30 at 6:00pm
End Time: Thursday, October 30 at 8:00pm
Where: 2200 South Broadway

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=44792771704

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

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Freshman enrollment at Lyon this year is significantly DOWN?? Then they are probably holding freshman class meetings in a classroom. Do you realize how tiny that college is? Less than half the size of Hendrix, last time I checked.

Pretty little campus, though.

Any*Mouse, Yes, more at my name.

Did PBS bury controversial torture documentary under pressure from Bush administration?

Buckley of the National Review has resigned due to the hellfire engender by his column endorsing Obama in the Daily Beast.

donkey..............Lyon College has millions of dollars in the bank. If you have proof that Lyon is lying about this, show us now.
Thank you.

eLwood must concede he was wrong.

I posted over the weekend than McBush wouldn't be worth dime by this week
(Iowa Electronic Markets)

In fact McBush's market price has risen from 0.155 per share to a new high of 0.169 per share.

Meanwhile BHO went from a high of 0.849 per share and dropped to 0.848

So you true believers here's your opportunity
to make big bucks. Invest $200 in McCain today and win big.
Recall each share pays $1 if the candidate wins the popular vote. Losers get notta.

200/.169 = 1183.49 x $1= $1183.50 !

.

"The Internet has disrupted the newspaper business" --- Walter Hussman

DUH!

FREE FOR ALL!

Watch it...[CLICK]

Sure, kizzy. Lyon is spends more than 10% of their endowment annually to pay the bills--this is more than twice the recommended spend rate. As a result, it has one of the few endowments that actually goes DOWN. In the late 1990s it was around $60 million. According to Peterson's in 2005, it was $41.6 million: http://books.google.com/books?id=gUOLgwyEUKAC&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=lyon+college+endowment&source=web&ots=1LUjOOgXUy&sig=xCSo3yVkX6YA3W2R8BvIsU5_tyY&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result

It is now back up to $48.9 million due to the ongoing $30 million capital campaign that only seeks to return it to where it was a decade ago.

Don, I tried that link, maybe I missed a letter or something, can you provide a better one that's not a amile long?
Thanks, appreciate it.
P.S. Fifty million dollars seems OK for a small private college.

kizzy,
$50 million would be fine if the college did not need to tap $5+ million of it per year to make payroll, give out scholarships (i.e. discount tuition), and keep the lights on. The issue is the spend rate. A college endowment is just like a retirement account except that an endowment should never run out of money so you need to spend less than it returns. If you spend 10% and have sharply negative returns (like right now!), you can pillage the college's financial future. Look at the trends, 15 years ago Hendrix and Lyon had almost identical endowments. Today, the Hendrix endowment is $162 million versus the $49 million for Lyon. Even with its larger enrollment, Hendrix has more endowment per student and spends a smaller percentage of its resources.

here's the link again:
http://books.google.com/books?id=gUOLgwyEUKAC&pg=PA111&lpg=PA111&dq=lyon+college+endowment&source=web&ots=1LUjOVeTPw&sig=cbCxC41oMccMRPPVLp3CtN7aPms&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result

If it doesn't work, just google "Lyon college endowment" and go to the Peterson's guide link.