NFL Should Buy Vikings a Stadium
With $9.3 billion in annual revenue, the NFL could afford to buy the Minnesota Vikings a stadium. When Sports Illustrated crunched the numbers in March 2011, it estimated that the NFL is a $9.3 billion-a-year enterprise. That’s almost as much money as flows to Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NHL combined. About half of the NFL’s money comes from media rights (broadcast, cable, etc.). One […]
Expanding Gambling for the Wrong Reason
Gambling has been a political “hot potato” in Minnesota. What’s the right path forward? Should gambling be legal, given the costs it incurs? Humans have gambled for thousands of years, so it’s in our social if not actual DNA. Like many activities, gambling can be an enjoyable diversion. Go to the casino with a limit that’s reasonable for your financial situation and stick with it. […]
Did Jesus really say: “Go ye and support the American welfare state and ye shall be saved?”
Most of the political left in this country is secularist, and sometimes militantly so. But there is a remnant of religious lefties, and a Detroit News reader who goes by the pseudonym “RepubTeach” has been preaching the Social Gospel of late. Recently I mentioned a Democratic Party politician who decried entitlement reform as “un-Christian.” I then repeated the comments of a reader on another site: “I’m […]
The curse of the food police
I am writing this while my child runs around inside a McDonalds Playplace. I opted to not get fries with my cheeseburger, thinking I would eat a portion of the fries that came with the kiddo’s Happy Meal. Win-win, I thought. We both get enough fries to be satisfied, but we don’t overload on the deep-fried goodness. Silly me, to make my own decisions. I […]
Frederik Meijer: Viva the 1 Percenter
The honorable 1 percent get that way by providing something that the 99 percent value. Such is the case with one West Michigan man who made a positive impact not only on his small town, but on Michigan and the nation. There should be no begrudging this billionaire. Last week, Fred Meijer died at the age of 91. He was the long-time leader of Meijer, […]
Is that PhD selling you BS?
Do you ever hear reports of some new research finding about how people behave and then say to yourself: “That’s a bunch of BS”? Well, you may be right. The Chronicle of Higher Education says that the field of social psychology has been shaken by accusations of fraud and sensationalism. One professor quoted in the story, an expert in research methods, says there’s a temptation to write […]
Minnesota is a Leader in Digital Learning, With More to Do
Minnesota may be a leader in one new development in education, but there’s a long ways to go. The news comes from Digital Learning Now (DLN), which describes itself as “a national campaign to advance policies that will create a high quality digital learning environment to better prepare students.” (For a very quick introduction of digital learning, see this FAQ.) DLN has issued a report card for each state, […]