It is certainly newsworthy that about 13 percent of men between 30 and 55 reportedly aren’t working, compared to 5 percent in the late 1960s. And that federal disability insurance is the fastest-growing entitlement program, and that 25 percent of its recipients are men in this age group. But I’m not convinced that a big driver of these stats is that lazy men are deciding they would rather not work than take a job that they think is beneath them, as a New York Times article portrayed.
Sure, there is some of this. But our economy has changed dramatically from the 1960s, and it is much more difficult for men (and women) who have been laid off — especially from outsourced manufacturing jobs — to find other work that pays more than a Wal-Mart greeter makes.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been accused by Democrats of protecting the White House by delaying his committee’s long-promised report on pre-war intelligence in Iraq. And with good reason.
So it’s good to hear that the committee is finally on the verge of releasing at least part of the report, and that Roberts is challenging the Bush administration’s refusal to declassify some of the report’s harsh findings.
See our opinion pages today for an op-ed piece from Roberts on the investigation and for our editorial urging Roberts to keep pushing for a full release of the findings.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Reports of the abuse of two Wichita girls keep getting worse, as news last week revealed more sickening details. Doctors who examined the 6- and 7-year-olds found bruises across their bodies, and the girls were in a “chronic, extended state of malnutrition,” according to a court affidavit. And what the Wichita school district reported in September was that the girls foraged for food in school trash cans, looked unkempt and smelled of urine.
It was good to learn last week that the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services did respond to the school report, and ordered intervention services for the family. But it is still difficult to comprehend how the situation got so inhumane before the girls were finally rescued.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
GOP moderates did very well in the big races in last Tuesday’s primary, while conservatives did not. But did that reflect an ideology swing toward the middle, or were the results more about competence?
For example, it was the more wacky conservatives — such as State Board of Education member Connie Morris (see photo) and, to a much lesser degree, secretary of state candidate Kay O’Connor — who lost badly, while the more reasonable seeming ones — such as State BOE member Ken Willard — who tended to advance.
The GOP governor’s race wasn’t much of a measuring stick, as the three top candidates were all pretty conservative. Ken Canfield was the favorite of many religious conservatives but was beat handily by Jim Barnett, who has much more experience in state government.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
“We’d be inclined to rejoice in this evidence that Kansas may be rejoining the modern world were it not for the state’s disturbing habit of backtracking from teaching evolution whenever the anti-science ideological faction gains the upper hand.” — A New York Times editorial about our State Board of Education election results, wisely recalling the seesaw history of the State BOE.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
