The bright spots in some pictures are reflections of the camera flash in the glass of our front porch.
You can almost see our mountain winds in the pictures below.

I just received a pleasant message from Professor Richard Fleischman, Editor of the Accounting Historians Journal. In April 2008 a paper that I co-authored with Jean Heck was chosen by Editorial Board Members as the second-best paper published by the Accounting Historians Journal in 2007. This additionally comes with a monetary award that I will split with my co-author. This paper critical of academic accounting research, that The Accounting Review did not want published, is as follows:

“An Analysis of the Evolution of Research Contributions by The Accounting Review: 1926-2005,” by Jean Heck and Robert E. Jensen, Accounting Historians Journal, Volume 34, No. 2, December 2007, pp. 109-142

Tidbits on April 7, 2008
Bob Jensen

For earlier editions of Tidbits go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/TidbitsDirectory.htm
For earlier editions of New Bookmarks go to http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/bookurl.htm 

Click here to search Bob Jensen's web site if you have key words to enter --- Search Site.
For example if you want to know what Jensen documents have the term "Enron" enter the phrase Jensen AND Enron. Another search engine that covers Trinity and other universities is at http://www.searchedu.com/.

Bob Jensen's past presentations and lectures --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/resume.htm#Presentations   

Bob Jensen's Threads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/threads.htm

Bob Jensen's Home Page is at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/

CPA Examination --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cpa_examination

On May 14, 2006 I retired from Trinity University after a long and wonderful career as an accounting professor in four universities. I was generously granted "Emeritus" status by the Trustees of Trinity University. My wife and I now live in a cottage in the White Mountains of New Hampshire --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/NHcottage/NHcottage.htm

Google Maps Street View --- http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/

Online Video, Slide Shows, and Audio
In the past I've provided links to various types of music and video available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Forwarded by Paula
Dog Message Slide Show (this will warm your heart and give you smiles) --- Click Here

Hillary Rodham Clinton made fun of herself Thursday, telling "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno she almost didn't make it to his studio. "It is so great to be here, I was so worried I wasn't going to make it. I was pinned down by sniper fire," Clinton said after joining him onstage, referring to her claims—since disputed—that she dodged sniper bullets while arriving in Bosnia as first lady. Clinton later said she had "misspoke."
Beth Fouhy, Breitbart, April 4, 2008 --- http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VQQMVO0&show_article=1
Watch the Video --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAjb-siwx9E

IRS turns to YouTube to explain rebates --- http://accounting.smartpros.com/x61286.xml

Thanks to Our Military (slide show) --- Click Here
No Thanks to Our Military (video) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl32Y7wDVDs  

UC Berkeley Library's Congressional Research Tutorials --- http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/wikis/congresearch/

National Register Travel Itineraries (historical and possible) --- http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/

Kosovo: Guardian Special Report --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/kosovo

The Other Boleyn Girl Trailer --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axCxSAohKlA
The movie's reviews are not so hot --- http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i30/30b00102.htm?utm_source=cr&utm_medium=en

A Weak Prognosis for Vytorin and Zetia (with video)
Schering-Plough and Merck will likely see plunging sales after Dr. Harlan Krumholtz advises cardiologists not to prescribe the cholesterol drugs. 
Schering sells a blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug called Zetia, which it also combines with a generic Merck cholesterol medicine into a drug called Vytorin, which is marketed with Merck. Together, Zetia and Vytorin raked in more than $5 billion in sales last year. But on Mar. 30, Yale University cardiologist Harlan Krumholtz told thousands of doctors at the meeting of the American College of Cardiology, or ACC, in Chicago that the two drugs should not be used as a first- or even second-line treatment. Other doctors agreed. That probably translates into a dramatic drop in sales for the two drugs, analysts and doctors said. "When you get a panel of cardiologists saying don't use this drug, and if you do you are using it at own risk, it's a powerful message," says Dr. John LaRosa, president of the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and a cholesterol expert.
John Carey, Business Week, March 31, 2008 --- Click Here

World's oldest sound recording played in US
It's magic!" exclaimed David Giovannoni when he heard a shaky and distant voice fill a spacious auditorium at Stanford University. This 10-second excerpt from the French folksong "Au Clair de la Lune" made before the American Civil War was nothing less than the world's earliest sound recording. The excerpt was played at this prestigious university where the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), an international, non-profit organization dedicated to research, study, and information exchange surrounding all aspects of recordings and recorded sound, was holding Friday its annual conference. The recording was discovered in February at the archives of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris by First Sounds, an informal association of audio historians, recording engineers, sound archivists, scientists and others who aim to make mankind's earliest sound recordings available to all people for all time.
PhysOrg, March 29, 2008 --- http://physorg.com/news126017185.html

Teaching Materials (especially video) from PBS

Teacher Source:  Arts and Literature --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/arts_lit.htm

Teacher Source:  Health & Fitness --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/health.htm

Teacher Source: Math --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/math.htm

Teacher Source:  Science --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/sci_tech.htm

Teacher Source:  PreK2 --- http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/prek2.htm

Teacher Source:  Library Media ---  http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/library.htm

The WGBH Public Television Station (videos and other tutorials) --- http://openvault.wgbh.org/

 

Free music downloads --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/music.htm

Tom T. Hall's Recipe for Happiness --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGPDlTvx0PQ

Seasons of Life --- http://www.biblesociety.ca/free_scriptures/escriptures/ecclesiastes3/ecclesiastes3.html

Meet Me at the (9/11) Stairwell --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gzg1qL6b4uk 

The Cactus Cuties sing The National Anthem --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKCVS57j284

OperaGlass (guide to arias) --- http://opera.stanford.edu/

Harmonica Legend Toots Thielemans on Piano Jazz (Parts 1 and 2) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89179488

John Adams' early work Christian Zeal and Activity serves as the center of a musical triptych called American Standard. Its hymn-like composition is employed by a string orchestra that moves with a grace and slowness that reflects the importance of the original song form. In a concert from the Wordless Music Series, recorded by WNYC, the piece was performed live by the Wordless Music Orchestra on Jan. 16, 2008, at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City. Conductor Brad Lubman led the ensemble (full concert) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89145711

For 30 years, English singer-songwriter Joe Jackson has helped define and redefine pop, rock, alternative, and new-wave music, when he's not delving extensively into classical composition. Hear Jackson perform a brisk mix of new songs and old favorites from WXPN and World Café Live in Philadelphia (full concert) --- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89339315

March 31, 2008 message from rock musician larry@mightymoonmen.com

I just found your Enron links and stories from 2002...brings up bad memories
I wrote a song based loosely on Jeff skilling ... "Medicine Man"
You can listen to the song and read the lyrics --- www.mightymoonmen.com 
thanx

Bob Jensen listens to music free online (and no commercials) --- http://www.slacker.com/ 

Photographs and Art

Online Books, Poems, References, and Other Literature
In the past I've provided links to various types electronic literature available free on the Web. 
I created a page that summarizes those various links --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ElectronicLiterature.htm

List of Online Archives for Free Unabridged Books Online --- http://diplomaguide.com/articles/List_of_Online_Archives_for_Free_Unabridged_Books_Online.html

Gothic Texts --- http://www.litgothic.com/index_fl.html

Free Online Rhyming Dictionary --- http://www.rhymer.com/

Alsop Rreview --- http://alsopreview.com/cgi-bin/gazebo/discus.cgi

Lord Byron:  Selected Poetry --- http://englishhistory.net/byron/poetry.html

Oscar Wilde Collection --- http://www.oscarwildecollection.com/

Citizen (John) Milton --- http://www.cems.ox.ac.uk/citizenmilton/

From Dartmouth College
Poems 1645 --- http://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/contents/

The Treasury Department Wednesday rejected the application of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to receive $1 billion pledged by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Farrakhan had sought a waiver of U.S. law forbidding the transfer of such funds from Libya. Gadhafi's regime is one of seven on Washington's list of nations that sponsor terrorism.
"Treasury rejects Farrakhan's bid to get Libyan money," CNN, August 26, 1996 --- http://www.cnn.com/US/9608/28/farrakhan.libya/index.html

Martin Luther King Jr. died at age 39; today, the 40th anniversary of his death, is the first time he has been gone longer than he lived. Figures such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have tried to claim his place on the American stage. But at most they have achieved fame and wealth. What separated King from any would-be successor was his moral authority. He towered above the high walls of racial suspicion by speaking truth to all sides . . .But when Barack Obama, arguably the best of this generation of black or white leaders, finds it easy to sit in Rev. Wright's pews and nod along with wacky and bitterly divisive racial rhetoric, it does call his judgment into question. And it reveals a continuing crisis in racial leadership.
Juan Williams, "Obama and King," The Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2008; Page A13 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120726732176388295.html?mod=djemEditorialPage 
Jensen Comment
What's bitterly disappointing to me is that billionaire Oprah Winfrey sat in those same Trinity Church pews nodding her head for decades to Rev. Wright's sermons of despair and hate for whites and Jews. Has America been so hateful to Oprah and her American net worth in excess of $2.5 billion?

To me the most disturbing rants that Rev. Wright delivered to his Trinity Church congregation were the claims, without a shred of evidence, that whites invented and planted the AIDs virus to commit genocide on the black race. Didn't the families of Barack Obama and Oprah Winfrey find these rants disturbing while they listened over the years? Oprah certainly had the billions to fund an investigation into such divisive claims. What's even more disturbing is the possibility that this was truly wishful thinking among much of the congregation of the church.

When I'm out fighting for the little guy and I need quick cash, I find comfort in knowing that LoanMax is here for me.
Reverend Al Sharpton in an advertisement for a predatory lending company that takes advantage of poor people --- http://www.alternet.org/story/30407/

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's (new) four-bedroom home in Tinley Park will feature an elevator, a large family room with a fireplace and bar, a butler's pantry, a rubberized exercise room, a circular driveway, a four-car garage, a spare room for a future theater or swimming pool and a master bedroom with a whirlpool and custom shower as well as a fireplace and under-counter fridge, building plans show. He would add to the mix of townhomes and multimillion dollar single-family homes that make up Odyssey Club, which backs up to Odyssey Country Club and golf course.
Kristen Schorsch, "Church builds (tax-free) mansion for Obama's former pastor," Showtown Star, March 29, 2008 --- http://www.southtownstar.com/news/867089,032908wright.article

The nonprofit organization drew $18.3 million in revenue in 2001, the most recent year the organization submitted a return to the IRS. That year, Hagee's total compensation package amounted to more than $1.25 million.
Analisa Nazareno, "Critics say Reverend John Hagee's compensation is too high,"San Antonio Express-News, June 20, 2003 --- http://www.rickross.com/reference/tv_preachers/tv_preachers7.html

Jensen Comment
America's really tough on its allegedly multi-millionaire racist preachers.

There was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the black community, I am obligated to this community and will utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit the black community first and foremost.
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson (now better known as Michelle Obama), 1985 Senior Thesis, Princeton University, March 27, 2008 ---
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/i-guess-thats-w.html
Also see http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/thesis.asp
Jensen Comment
In 1985 she most certainly did not envision herself as a highly probable First Lady of the United States. Michelle Obama's (senior) thesis became a matter of controversy (outside of its subject matter) in early 2008, especially after Princeton University announced that it was no longer making this thesis available until after the November 2008 election if her husband became the winning Democratic Party candidate for President of the United States. That of course was an obvious political mistake. The Obama campaign eventually posted her thesis on the Internet --- http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8642.html
None of us would like to be held accountable for every single thing we said and wrote twenty or more years ago as college students. She was high school and college student in the 1970s when the Black Power Movement was still very active and visible in the media. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 when she was four years old.

That before we can work on the problems, we have to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation.
Michelle Obama, February 15, 2008 --- http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/g/a8b77fb9-4dd6-4045-9b43-3c656cba2f38

For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country, because it feels like hope is making a comeback.
Michelle Obama, February 18, 2008 --- Click Here

A Euro-army is fantasy land.: We need our American ally Nato today is very much a solution in search of a problem. It needs to be reformed and refined - but not to be replaced
Martin Kettle, The Guardian (in the United Kingdom), March 29, 2008 --- http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/29/eu.nato 

Mr. Obama needs to inoculate himself against the claim that he's a liberal. For the past quarter-century it has been consistently the most effective charge made by Republicans against Democrats. America is a center-right country and in modern times has not elected a thoroughgoing liberal as president (Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton ran as moderate Democrats). The problem is that, by any reasonable standard, Mr. Obama is an orthodox liberal. National Journal rated him as the most liberal person in the Senate in 2007, and for good reason. On economic policy, Mr. Obama favors higher income, Social Security and corporate taxes. He supports massive increases in domestic spending and greater government regulation of the economy. He favors a significantly larger role for the federal government in health care. He opposes the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Peter Wehner, "Obama and the 'L'," The Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2008; Page A14 ---
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120709783253682035.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
Jensen Comment
Senator Obama's expensive liberal agenda and past record will both damage him badly in the November 2008 general election. He will need to become much more specific about how he stands on taxes and spending and where his budgetary priorities will be before November of 2008.
Most certainly this video reveals his plan to strip the military --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl32Y7wDVDs

A key adviser to Senator Obama’s campaign is recommending in a confidential paper that America keep between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in Iraq as of late 2010, a plan at odds with the public pledge of the Illinois senator to withdraw combat forces from Iraq within 16 months of taking office.
Eli Lake, New York Sun, April 4, 2008 --- http://www.nysun.com/news/national/obama-adviser-calls-60000-80000-us-troops-stay-iraq-through-2010

I am not in favor of concealed weapons,? Obama told the Pittsburgh Tribune. ?I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations.? These remarks break from Obama?s previous moderate rhetoric on gun control.
Amanda Carpenter, Townhall, April 3, 2008 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
This definitely puts Obama at odds with the powerful NRA where he probably won't draw many votes anyway in November. It also puts him at odds with Hillary Clintons stand on this issue. There were 29 states added since 1989. Actually there are 47 states that allow Right to Carry (RTC) handguns but only 40 now qualify to be designated a RTC state.
See http://www.nraila.org//Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=1861

Wisconsin is one of only four states that prohibit citizens from carrying concealed firearms. The other three states are Nebraska, Kansas and Illinois. The Kansas Legislature overwhelmingly passed a Right to Carry Law in 1997 and 2003 but, like Wisconsin’s Legislature, it could not override the Governor’s veto. (Since then Nebraska became a RTC state.)

RTC does not mean that handguns can be carried anywhere within a state. Generally court houses, bars, public transportation, K-12 schools, and college campuses are off limits. Details of RTC vary from state to state. RTC does not mean that any adult may carry a handgun. To my knowledge there's no state that does not require licensing and issuing of permits to carry hand guns.

Barack Obama's stands on issues are at http://obama.senate.gov/issues/
No mention is made of the Second Amendment or guns here, but he has repeatedly claimed he favors the right to own handguns kept in residences. His stand on not allowing concealed weapons in RTC states seems to be a new and possibly costly position for him.

John McCain's stands on issues are at http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/
In particular his statements on the Second Amendment are at http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/77636553-6337-4ecd-b170-49e1c07d2fbd.htm

Bali Hi May Call Kill You --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VFQTcrXpqE
Abu Bakar Bashir – a radical cleric who was convicted of conspiracy over the Bali bombings but later cleared on appeal and released from prison – has posted on an al-Qaida website a copy of his speech to the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist organization in Indonesia urging its followers to attack Western tourists, "who deserve to die for their immorality on Bali." These infidel tourists are naked. They are worms, snakes and maggots that disrespect Islamic customs who should be lynched," he ranted to the organization in his speech. He asks young Indonesians to "aspire to a martyrdom death. The young must be in the front line. Do not hide at the back. Die as martyrs and all your sins will be forgiven." MI6 analysts said Bashir's rant is aimed at hitting Bali's tourist trade. More than 70,000 Britons visited the island last year along with even more Australians and Americans. Already Australia's department of Foreign Affairs has posted Bali "as a very high threat area from a terrorist attack."
Joseph Farah, WorldNetDaily, March 29,2008 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60141

If not Bali Then Starvation:  Ymmm Mum!
The year 2040 will find the world's crops dead, most of the people in a similar state of decay, and those few left alive will be cannibals, according to a prediction from Ted Turner, founder of Turner Broadcasting and CNN. His comments came in an hour-long interview with Charlie Rose on PBS, and some remarks about the environment, the U.S. war on terror and the U.S. military were compiled by "Civilization will have broken down. The few people left will be living in a failed state like Somalia or the Sudan," said Turner, calling future living conditions intolerable.
WorldNetDaily, April 3, 2008 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60581
Jensen Comment
And we thought things were gloomy based on the predictions of Malthus.
You can read more about Ted Turner at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Turner

To Prevent Starvation:  Nuke 'em
Often contrarian, Turner called it a "joke" that Bush demanded that Iran abandon any ambitions for nuclear weapons while at the same time hoping to ban all such bombs. "They're a sovereign state," Turner said of Iran. "We have 28,000. Why can't they have 10? We don't say anything about Israel -- they've got 100 of them approximately -- or India or Pakistan or Russia. And really, nobody should have them.
"Ted Turner says Iraq war among history's "dumbest," Reuters, September 20, 2006 --- Click Here
Jensen Comment
Maybe if we nuke half the world there will be enough food and global cooling to sustain life on earth for survivors. Nations having nukes will not willingly destroy all of them unilaterally. Fortunately, those nations that have nukes are not knowingly plotting complete annihilation of another country (like Israel). Secondly, those nations that have them, aside from North Korea, are not threatening to sell them to a rogue regime or to really dangerous sociopaths unless the rest of the world pays enormous extortion fees. Since we cannot see a way to take nukes away once a nation has weapons of mass destruction, should we adopt a policy of spreading them around to every dangerous nations bent on invasion of other nations and/or extortion criminality? Nice going Ted! Perhaps  Hugo Chavez should have at least 10 nukes as well since he's much more within missile range for an attack on the largest cities in the U.S., including your prized Atlanta Ted.
 

Beijing is believed to have decided to assist the inspectors after documents seized from Iranian officials included blueprints for "shaping" uranium metal into warheads, the testing of high explosives used to detonate radioactive material and the procurement of dual-use technology. Much of the new material was presented to the governors of the Vienna-based IAEA in February. That meeting is said to have triggered China's change of heart. Ahmadinejad on National Nuclear Day Diplomats described Beijing's decision to provide material related to Iran to the IAEA as a potentially significant breakthrough.
Damien McElroy, "China reveals Iran's nuclear secrets to UN," London Telegraph, April 4, 2008 --- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/02/wiran102.xml

First, we both agree that America's intelligence efforts must adapt to evolving threats. Asymmetric threats, such as terrorism, cannot be defeated using conventional means. Stopping an adversary that hides its activities, blends into the local population, and moves easily across borders requires more than just overhearing what our adversaries are saying. It requires monitoring them, pursuant to a legal framework, understanding their appeal, and predicting and preventing their actions. Second, the modern American intelligence community, born after World War II, was designed to counter Cold War threats. Today, data flows know no boundaries. Some global communications run through the United States, even if they are between Pakistan and Europe. Emails fly across the world at a rapid speed. If we are going to ask our intelligence agencies to help defend our country, we need to carefully construct policies that give them access to this information when necessary, and protect the rights of Americans.
Anna G. Eshoo and Mike McConnell, "The Intelligence Consensus," The Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2008; Page A15 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120709850850382121.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

A young Saudi Arabian woman was murdered by her father for chatting on the social network site Facebook, it has emerged. The unnamed woman from Riyadh was beaten and shot after she was discovered in the middle of an online conversation with a man, the al-Arabiya website reported. The case was reported on a Saudi Arabian news site as an example of the "strife" the social networking site is causing in the Islamic nation.
Damien McElroy, London Telegraph, March 31, 2008 --- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/31/wsaudi131.xml

Yesterday's attempted attack came just hours after Israel began removing a series of anti-terror roadblocks throughout the West Bank in line with Israeli gestures toward Abbas upheld this weekend during a visit here by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Uri Ariel, chairman of the National Union-National Religious Party, told reporters, "Hours after the IDF began removing roadblocks and began easing restrictions on the movement of Palestinians, a terrorist tried to murder Israelis only a few kilometers west of a roadblock that had been removed from Shiloh Junction."
Aaron Klein, "'Peace partner' attempts to kidnap Jews Hours after Israel removed anti-terror roadblocks as goodwill gesture," WorldNetDaily, April 1, 2008 --- http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60450

When our children learn the history of post-colonial Africa, they will be confronted with a case history: Zimbabwe. They will learn how the bread basket of Africa descended into chaos, with the highest inflation rate in the world. They will learn that about four million Zimbabweans fled hunger and political persecution. They will learn about a kleptocracy that lined its pockets while the poor died. This will not be a history lesson. It will be a dissection of a massacre.
London Times, March 31, 2008 ---  http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=736745

Hillary Rodham Clinton made fun of herself Thursday, telling "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno she almost didn't make it to his studio. "It is so great to be here, I was so worried I wasn't going to make it. I was pinned down by sniper fire," Clinton said after joining him onstage, referring to her claims—since disputed—that she dodged sniper bullets while arriving in Bosnia as first lady. Clinton later said she had "misspoke."
Beth Fouhy, Breitbart, April 4, 2008 --- http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8VQQMVO0&show_article=1
Watch the Video --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAjb-siwx9E

The national elections are more than seven months off, but Democrats are so confident of victory they're already scheming to raise your taxes in a big way. The latest House budget resolution would let the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=60450 lapse in 2010 and boost spending by hundreds of billions. "This budget charts a new direction for America," said Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., who unlike his nursery-rhyme namesake seems to have a voracious appetite for fat. The Senate version isn't quite as punitive, but Democrats made it clear they are prepared to raise taxes by at least $300 billion come 2011 and exacerbate the coming Medicare meltdown. And with the near-unanimous support of "moderate Republicans," Democrats also will continue the unbridled porkfest known as earmarks.
"Democrats plot tax increases," Rep-Am, March 31, 2008 --- http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2008/03/31/opinion/327782.txt

Our (California) budget expenses have outpaced inflation by an astronomical ratio of 3.5 to one in the past 4 years.  This crisis was forecast about 5 years ago from everyone from the Legislative Analyst to fiscal watchdogs like Sen. Tom McClintock.  The problem is the warnings fell on deaf ears.    Democrats have boosted general spending 32% in just four years to $103 billion. That's 8% a year.   Inflation for the same period was only 3% a year.  We now face a budget deficit of $14.5 billion, thank you, Dems.   The Governator has tried to bring fiscal discipline to Sacramento. But this superhero has found his nemesis: the Democratic legislature, which has an overwhelming majority in the legislature, has successfully blocked every reform. These politicians saw the present deficit crisis mounting for years. It was no surprise. But they thought they’d wait - until it was too late. Why? Easier to pass tax hikes than to trim fat. And unfortunately for Californians, the Dems are in bed with the labor unions. The California Teacher’s Union and the SEIU write their talking points. They are among the largest campaign spending labor unions (yes they outspend business groups).
Adam Sparks, "California’s Death and Taxes," California Republic, April 1, 2008 --- http://www.californiarepublic.org/archives/Columns/Sparks/20080401SparksTaxes.html

Seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland, according to a report released Tuesday. The report, issued by America's Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation's largest cities receive diplomas. Students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high schools, the researchers said. Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma and about 1.2 million students drop out annually.
Ken Thomas, AOL News, April 1, 2008 --- http://news.aol.com/story/_a/graduation-rates-a-catastrophe-in-cities/20080401064409990001

Moving to sweep away the tangle of inaccurate state data that has obscured the severity of the nation’s high school dropout crisis, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will require all states to use one federal formula to calculate graduation and dropout rates, Bush administration officials said on Monday . . . Many states still use dozens of other graduation rate formulas that vary in reliability. New Mexico, for example, has defined its graduation rate as the percentage of enrolled 12th graders who receive a diploma, a method that grossly undercounts dropouts by ignoring all students who leave school before 12th grade. North Carolina until last year used another formula that so exaggerated graduates that when the state adopted a more accurate method last year, its rate plummeted to 68 from 95 percent.
Sam Dillon, The New York Times, April 1, 2008 --- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/education/01child.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 

For those of you who don’t know, according to Wikipedia “Jessica’s Law was named after Jessica Lunsford, a young Florida girl who was raped and murdered in February 2005 by John Covey, a previously convicted sex offender. Public outrage over this case spurred Florida officials to introduce this legislation. Among the key provisions of the law are a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison and lifetime electronic monitoring of adults convicted of lewd or lascivious acts against a victim less than 12 years old. In Florida, sexual battery or rape of a child less than twelve years old is a capital felony, punishable only by death or life imprisonment with no chance of parole.” . . . The gay lobby in Massachusetts is extremely powerful and feared by state politicians. Almost every prominent Democrat in the Commonwealth has been supported and/or had his or her election contributed to by them. To cross the gay lobby is a bad thing. So it’s no wonder that Massachusetts’s liberals have denied the people of the state the opportunity to vote on gay marriage, a vote that polls repeatedly show would result in upholding the ban.
Bob Parks, "Why Massachusetts Will NEVER Pass Jessica’s Law," OutSideTheWire, April 1, 2008 ---  http://intelradionetwork.com/OutsideTheWire/default.aspx

An outside spokeswoman for Teachers College of Columbia University on Monday confirmed that a Manhattan grand jury has issued a subpoena for records related in part to Madonna Constantine, a professor there. Teachers College in February found Constantine had repeatedly used the work of others without attribution — a conclusion she disputes and calls a “witch hunt” against her.
Inside Higher Ed, April 1, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/21/constantine
Jensen Comment
When a university conducts a special investigation and discovers that a professor has plagiarized parts or all of some of his/her published papers and books, it puts the university between a rock and a hard place regarding disclosures to the publishers themselves and the authors whose works were stolen about the plagiarism. For example, should a prestigious academic journal be notified that Author X published the term paper of a student in that journal without attribution? Or should a book publisher be notified that it has been sending royalties to the wrong author? A university is thus ethically torn between protecting the privacy of an employee who cheated versus respecting the rights of the victims of this cheating and fraud. In this case it appears that the courts will have to intervene to get Columbia University to respect the rights of the victims.

This case is particularly egregious since in at least one instance the professor said a student’s paper was poorly researched and then proceeded to publish it in a journal without attribution to the student. The professor then had the audacity to claim the student’s complaints to the university were racially motivated when in fact the student is the same race as the professor

The comments from both Constantine and Fuhrman may be read differently now. For the reality is that some of Constantine’s students in fact had filed complaints against her a year before the noose incident, charging her with publishing their work as her own. A professor (who has since left Teachers College, in part because the situation) filed a similar complaint. This week, Teachers College announced that an investigation had backed up the complaints and found “numerous instances in which she used others’ work without attribution in papers she published in academic journals over the last five years.” An outside spokeswoman handling questions about the case said that there were 24 such instances documented in a report prepared for Teachers College by a law firm, and reviewed and approved by four current and former faculty members. The spokeswoman said that when Fuhrman spoke of “accolades,” she meant only what she heard about Constantine’s classroom performance . . . Teachers College confirmed that it “sanctioned” Constantine but would not describe the form of that punishment, which she has the right to appeal. Both the college and Constantine’s lawyer confirmed that the tenured professor remains a professor there. The spokeswoman said that to her knowledge, Columbia had not informed publishers of the situation, and that no articles or books by Constantine had been withdrawn or amended. The spokeswoman also declined to name the journal articles that the college believes contain the work of others. Brent Mallinckrodt, editor of the Journal of Counseling Psychology, where Constantine has published at least seven articles and serves as an associate editor, said he knew nothing of the charges against her. Asked if he was concerned about having as an associate editor someone found by her college to have repeatedly used the work of others, he said he would consult with the American Psychological Association, the journal’s publisher, to find out its procedures for such a case.
Scott Jaschik, InsideHigherEd, April 1, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/02/21/constantine
Jensen Comment
As I've said previously, colleges through bricks at students who plagiarize and powder puffs at professors who plagiarize --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm#ProfessorsWhoPlagiarize

Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive – a sure sign the world's richest country faces economic crisis.
David Usborne, "USA 2008: The Great Depression," The Independent, April 1, 2008 ---
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/usa-2008-the-great-depression-803095.html
Jensen Comment
This has to go down as one of the worst researched articles in 2008.

But neither the Dispatch nor the Independent notes that the Farm Bill of 2002 substantially expanded the food-stamp program. As the U.S. Department of Agriculture Web site notes, that legislation made legal immigrants eligible for food stamps, increased benefits for larger households, and expanded food-stamp eligibility for people leaving the TANF (welfare) rolls. In other words, the government has made a conscious effort to expand the number of people on food stamps. Accordingly, the number of people on food stamps has expanded. And journalists are misconstruing government largesse as a sign of economic distress.
Newsletter by the Editors of The Wall Street Journal, April 1, 2008

Surprise Survey of the Week from the Conservative Press
Most U.S. doctors now support the idea of national health insurance, a shift from a half-decade ago, when less than half favored a national system, a new survey has found. According to a study published in the Mar. 31 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, 59% of the nation's physicians support federal legislation to establish national health insurance, often referred to as a single-payer system. These plans usually involve a single, federally administered fund that guarantees health-care coverage for everyone, much like Medicare currently does for seniors, and eliminates or substantially lessens the role of private insurers. In a similar survey five years ago, only 49% favored it. Thirty-two percent of doctors oppose universal coverage, down eight points from the previous survey, while 9% are neutral.
Catherine Arnst, Business Week, March 31, 2008 --- Click Here

Powerful Congressman Barney Frank wants "certified" belief in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy
Mr. Frank's idea is that, for mortgages originated between the start of 2005 and mid-2007, a lender and borrower would be able to agree on a federal refinancing plan. Lenders would have to write down their loan to no more than 85% of the current appraised value of the property – which means the banks will use this opportunity to unload the biggest stinkers in their loan portfolios. For the borrower, the deal is even sweeter: a low fixed monthly payment and a reduction in the principal to market value. The Federal Housing Administration would then guarantee the loan, up to a total of $300 billion in total Frank Refis. The deal is so sweet that even Mr. Frank is concerned that otherwise reliable borrowers may "purposely default" to be eligible for assistance. His solution is to require borrowers to "certify" that they really, truly aren't doing this simply to get on the taxpayer gravy train.
"Uncle Subprime," The Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2008; Page A14 --- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120718217009085001.html?mod=todays_us_opinion
Also see http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_15/b4079030852449.htm?link_position=link1
Jensen Comment
The sad news is that homeowners who bought homes for way more than they can afford probably cannot both pay the property taxes and even the reduced loan payments on their homes. Property taxes to fund schools and community services are pegged to home values, but if property values shrink in the entire community the tax rates go up so that schools and communities get as much or more for each home in the community. In some ways this is an expensive taxpayer hit proposed by Uncle Subprime that won't really solve the problem of allowing people to keep expensive homes they could not afford in the first place. Why prolong their agony at taxpayer expense. Didn't we learn anything from a dysfunctional welfare system?

How accurate are those highly publicized presidential election polls in the United States? ---
http://stolenthunder.blogspot.com/2004/09/poll-accuracy-national.html

OK, here’s how they stack up, for length of record and aggregate accuracy:

1. Zogby: 2 elections, 1.00% error average.
2. IBD/CSM/Tipp: 1 election, 2.00% error average.
3. ABC News: 7 elections, 3.29% error average.
4. Harris: 10 elections, average 3.70% error average.
5. Gallup: 17 elections, average 4.82% error average.
6. USA Today: 5 elections, 5.00% error average.
7. ICR: 2 elections, 5.50% error average.
8. NBC News/Wall Street Journal: 4 elections, 6.25% error average.
9. CBS News/New York Times: 7 elections, 7.00% error average.
10. Battleground: 2 elections, 7.00% error average.
11. Rasmussen: 1 election, 9.00% error average.
 

Surprising Quotation of the Week from the Arab Press
"Iraqi Liberal Khudayr Taher: Cooperating with the CIA Is a Moral and Religious Obligation; The War on Terror Is the Best Jihad for the Sake of Allah" 
In an article published on April 1, 2008, in the Arab liberal e-journal Elaph, Iraqi liberal Khudayr Taher, who now lives in the U.S., wrote that American intelligence has done a great service to humanity in helping to defeat Nazism, communism, the Taliban, and Saddam Hussein, and that cooperating with the CIA is a moral and religious obligation --- http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD188508

Iraqi Liberal Khudayr Taher: Cooperating with the CIA Is a Moral and Religious Obligation; The War on Terror Is the Best Jihad for the Sake of Allah

In an article published on April 1, 2008, in the Arab liberal e-journal Elaph, Iraqi liberal Khudayr Taher, who now lives in the U.S., wrote that American intelligence has done a great service to humanity in helping to defeat Nazism, communism, the Taliban, and Saddam Hussein, and that cooperating with the CIA is a moral and religious obligation.

The following are excerpts: [1]

"I Have the Pleasure of Being the First Arab to Write About the Bright Side of the CIA"

"When we in the Arab world look at others we are accustomed to projecting our own faults onto them. We pull out rash and gratuitous ready-made judgments that are without basis in reality. In so doing, we do wrong to ourselves and to others.

"When the subject of the CIA comes up, [we] fling out a handful of descriptions and accusations that have nothing to do with reality. The CIA is a national [security] apparatus whose mission is different than that of the intelligence apparatuses in Arab states. It is an apparatus that defends the national interest, and not the ruling regime.

"The CIA has a bright side to it, and… it has done [a great service to] humanity and civilization. However, the counter-propaganda of the Communists, the pan-Arabists, and the Islamists obscures this accomplishment. It is difficult for the Arab mind to see this bright side of the CIA, laden as it is with demagoguery, superstition, and slogans hostile to Western civilization, and to America in particular.

"I have the pleasure of being the first Arab in the history of the Arab press to write about the bright and civilized side of the CIA. I alone bear the moral and political responsibility for the contents of this article, in which I wanted to show to what extent ideological propaganda distorts [one's perception of] the rival. I also wanted to spur the reader to engage in informed and realistic political analysis, far from the frenzy of the rabble and their ideological slogans."

"A Great Part of the Defeat of Communism Was Due to the Monumental Efforts of the CIA"

"The Agency inaugurated its activities under another name [i.e. the Office of Strategic Services] with its entry into the fierce war against Hitler's criminal Nazi regime. The defeat of Nazism and the liberation of humanity from its evil are considered the first of the CIA's noble achievements. It did a service to humanity and saved millions… from Hitler's evil.

"Then, together with the emergence of the evils of the communist danger to civilization and freedom, the CIA was founded under its current name. It began its noble battle against the danger of communism, [both] as an ideology and as repressive and dictatorial political regimes that herded their peoples into prisons and to the gallows. These regimes extinguished human dignity under a pretext [provided by] insane slogans that were far from any logic and the self-evident truths of [human] life.

"This ended with a great victory for Western civilization, its humanist philosophy, and its social laws, which protect the rights of man and offer him the greatest respect and the greatest measure of justice, rights, and social solidarity ever known to humanity. A great part of the defeat of communism was due to the monumental and noble efforts of the CIA throughout the Cold War."

"The War on Terror Is the Best Jihad for the Sake of Allah"

"Then came the age of the war on terror, and the Agency played a large role in crushing and deposing the Taliban regime and the Saddam regime, in liberating their peoples, and granting them liberty. And the Agency continues to brave the hazards of the fierce battle against the virus of the terrorism perpetrated by the parties of political Islam with the support of Iran and Syria.

"If we examine the efforts and achievements of the CIA rationally and in [good] conscience, we will find them to be noble and honorable activities that were always to the benefit of all the world's peoples and to the benefit of civilization, security, and stability. Putting an end to Nazism, communism, the Taliban, and Saddam, and the persistence in the war on terror - all of these are courageous and honorable activities that do a service to all peoples, without exception…

"It saddens me to say that I do not personally have any connection or ties to the CIA. [I say it saddens me] since I consider cooperating with American intelligence - or with the intelligence agencies of Britain, France, Germany, and other Western countries - to be a moral and religious imperative incumbent on all honorable people, in order to combat the crimes of terrorism, and in order to protect human lives, the achievements of civilization, public liberties, security, and stability.

"The war on terror is the best jihad for the sake of Allah, so as to protect the lives of humans [and] their beautiful civilization."

The Medicare Disaster Before We Add Another 50 Million People to the Plan

"Drugs and the Cost of Medicare," by Nobel Laureate Gary Becker, The Becker-Posner Blog, March 30, 2008 --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

If past growth in Medicare is a reasonable guide to future growth, and assuming that real GDP grows at an annual rate of two and one half percent, Medicare spending as a share of GDP will double by 2020, and increase some 3-4 times by 2050 to 10 percent or more of GDP. Dollar spending on Medicare patients would increase to over a trillion dollars by 2020. Less than half of the projected increase would be due to the further aging of the population, while the majority is the result of the expected continuing growth in spending on hospitalizations, surgeries, and drugs for the elderly of given ages.

Much of the increased spending would occur even with the most efficient health delivery system since senior citizens along with younger adults put a high value on living longer in reasonably good health. The value placed on longer life and good health generally rises as incomes grow; indeed, economic analysis and past experience indicates that the willingness to pay for better health will increase in the future at least as rapidly as incomes do.

. . .

This advantage of drugs in inefficient health delivery systems does not argue against the need for major reforms of Medicare to make it more efficient. It recognizes, however, the value of second-best solutions in a political environment where reforms of health care are likely to come slowly because they run up against many powerful vested interests.

Continued in article

"Drugs and the Cost of Medicare," by Richard Posner, The Becker-Posner Blog, March 30, 2008 --- http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/

Becker makes the ingenious suggestion that the effect of adding drug coverage to the Medicare program is to prevent spending on drugs from growing as rapidly as the number of persons covered by Medicare. The reason is that because the marginal cost of drugs tends to be very low; most of the costs of drugs are fixed costs of research and development. Hence the larger the number of persons eligible for Medicare drug benefits, the lower the average cost of drugs.

Nevertheless the net effect of the addition to drug coverage on total Medicare spending is likely to be a substantial expansion in the total cost of Medicare. As of January of this year, 25 million persons had enrolled in Medicare Part D (the drug part), and the total annual expense to Medicare is estimated to reach $36 billion this year. As the program is only two years old, further increases in enrollment and usage can be expected, irrespective of increases in the eligible population, since more than 40 million persons receive Medicare benefits.

The net addition to Medicare costs will be less than the cost of Medicare drug coverage if drugs are a net substitute for other covered treatments. But they may not be, because there is also a complementary relation between drugs and other forms of treatment, such as surgery; to the extent that drugs reduce the pain, discomfort, or disability of surgery, they may increase the demand for surgery by reducing its nonpecuniary costs, a cost reduction that though real will not be reflected in the Medicare cost figures.

In addition, by increasing the demand for drugs, Part D will increase the net expected profits from new drugs, and thus increase the incentive to create such drugs, with the heavy fixed costs that, as Becker points out, are entailed by the development of new drugs.

Still another problem with Medicare drug coverage is that people have less aversion to popping a pill than to being operated on or otherwise confined in a hospital. The cost of surgery, as it appears to most people, includes a significant nonpecuniary element that of course is not reimbursed by public or private health insurance. Taking drugs does not impose such costs unless a drug has serious side effects. Hence the Medicare drug subsidy should cause a greater percentage increase in demand than the traditional Medicare subsidies did.

Drugs also provide an attractive but costly substitute for life-style changes designed to improve one's health. If the choice is between giving up rich food and taking a pill paid for by Medicare, the latter may be preferred though the social cost may be higher; the subsidy confronts the consumer with false alternatives from an overall social perspective, just like monopoly pricing.

Continued in article

Bob Jensen's gloomy threads on entitlements are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Entitlements.htm

Question
Have you considered asking your students to turn in two term papers simultaneously, one of which is mostly plagiarized and one that is pledged to be not plagiarized in any way with proper citations?

"Winning Hearts and Minds in War on Plagiarism," by Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, April 7, 2008 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/07/plagiarism

That’s what Kate Hagopian, an instructor in the first-year writing program at North Carolina State University, does. For one assignment, she gives her students a short writing passage and then a prompt for a standard student short essay. She asks her students to turn in two versions. In one they are told that they must plagiarize. In the second, they are told not to. The prior night, the students were given an online tutorial on plagiarism and Hagopian said she has become skeptical that having the students “parrot back what we’ve told them” accomplishes anything. Her hope is that this unusual assignment might change that.

After the students turn in their two responses to the essay prompt, Hagopian shares some with the class. Not surprisingly, the students do know how to plagiarize — but were uncomfortable admitting as much. Hagopian said that the assignment is always greeted with “uncomfortable laughter” as the students must pretend that they never would have thought of plagiarizing on their own. Given the right to do so, they turn in essays with many direct quotes without attribution. Of course in their essays that are supposed to be done without plagiarism, she still finds problems — not so much with passages repeated verbatim, but with paraphrasing or using syntax in ways that were so similar to the original that they required attribution.

When she started giving the assignment, she sort of hoped, Hagopian said, to see students turn in “nuanced tricky demonstrations” of plagiarism, but she mostly gets garden variety copying. But what she is doing is having detailed conversations with her students about what is and isn’t plagiarism — and by turning everyone into a plagiarist (at least temporarily), she makes the conversation something that can take place openly.

“Students know I am listening,” she said. And by having the conversation in this way — as opposed to reading the riot act — she said she is demonstrating that all plagiarism is not the same, whether in technique, motivation or level of sophistication. There is a difference between “deliberate fraud” and “failed apprenticeship,” she said.

Hagopian’s approach was among many described at various sessions last week at the annual meeting of the Conference of College Composition and Communication, in New Orleans. Writing instructors — especially those tasked with teaching freshmen — are very much on the front lines of the war against plagiarism. As much as other faculty members, they resent plagiarism by their students — and in fact several of the talks featured frank discussion of how betrayed writing instructors feel when someone turns in plagiarized work.

That anger does motivate some to use the software that detects plagiarism as part of an effort to scare students and weed out plagiarists, and there was some discussion along those lines. But by and large, the instructors at the meeting said that they didn’t have any confidence that these services were attacking the roots of the problem or finding all of the plagiarism. Several people quipped that if the software really detected all plagiarism, plenty of campuses would be unable to hold classes, what with all of the sessions needed for academic integrity boards.

While there was a group therapy element to some of the discussions, there was also a strong focus on trying new solutions. Freshmen writing instructors after all don’t have the option available to other faculty members of just blaming the problem on the failures of those who teach first-year comp.

What to do? New books being displayed in the exhibit hall included several trying to shift the plagiarism debate beyond a matter of pure enforcement. Among them were Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age, just published by the University of Michigan (and profiled on Inside Higher Ed), and Pluralizing Plagiarism: Identities, Contexts, Pedagogies, released in February by Boynton/Cook.

Like Hagopian, many of those at the meeting said that they are focused on trying to better understand their students, what makes them plagiarize, and what might make them better understand academic integrity. There wasn’t much talk of magic bullets, but lots of ideas about ways to better see the issue from a student perspective — and to find ways to use that perspective to promote integrity.

Continued in article

A Clever Way to Punish and Prevent Plagiarism
"Traffic School for Essay Thieves," by Paul D. Thacker, Inside Higher Ed, November 29, 2006 --- http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/11/29/plagiarism

Bob Jensen's threads on plagiarism are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Plagiarism.htm

The Controversial Family Watchdog Site for Locating How Close Registered Sex Offenders Live Near You

Forwarded by Auntie Bev

For those that might like to know where the registered criminals near you are...

 

www.FamilyWatchDog.us
 
When you visit this site you can enter your address and a map will pop up with your house as a small icon of a house. There will be red, blue and green dots surrounding your entire neighborhood. When you click on these dots a picture of a criminal will appear with his or her home address and the description of the crime he or she has committed.
The best thing is that you can show your children these pictures and see how close these people live to your home or school.

This site was developed by John Walsh from America's Most Wanted. This is another tool we can use to help us keep our kids safe.
 

Jensen Comment
I tried it for my address and there were no hits here in the boondocks. I've got a woodchuck I'd like to register.

But then I tried it for my old address in San Antonio. Hundreds of little red boxes popped up like freckles on a redhead. When I clicked on a few red boxes I got the pictures and data for some pretty unsavory looking characters.

April 6, 2008 reply from David Fordham, James Madison University [fordhadr@JMU.EDU]

The question is, what does "registered criminals" mean?

Apparently, it is means only those appearing on the sex crimes registry, based on the search of my town.

The well-known felon (convicted on several occasions of multiple felonies) who lives a few doors up from me on my road is not shown. The well-known local felon out on probation (and who must wear the RF ankle bracelet) across the main highway is not shown. In fact, the only ones who are shown within several miles of my house are a couple of teenage-indiscretion guys convicted of "indecent liberties with a minor aged 14-17" over 12 years ago, and our local community club president (yep, he's an upstanding citizen in spite of his record, as everyone around here is convinced it was a malicious set-up by his ex-wife during their messy divorce 10 years ago). Apparently rather than a true criminal list, this is only those on some kind of state sex registry.

To be honest, I'm more afraid of the hell-raiser felon who lived across the county and who gained national fame week before last by taking potshots at cars on I-64 with his rifle than I am of our local community club president. I guess that's the vagaries of the law, eh?

I'm all for expanding the list. Let's include all felons, and even the misdemeanors, too. I'm all for keeping a weather eye out for a petty thief or repeated breaking-and-entering burglar who might move in next door. Let's make the list useful, waddayasay? Let's strive for true transparency and completeness in reporting. Let's call for full disclosure. ;-)

David Fordham

April 6, 2008 reply from J. S. Gangolly [gangolly@CSC.ALBANY.EDU]

David,

No where do they say it is a register of criminals. They specifically state that they are a "family watchdog site". I guess they are a sort of national database of Megan's law sites.

At least California Office of Attorney General's website also has such info (for California), but this site is tied to digital maps.

If this site did have info on all criminals, they could be accused of violating "truth in advertising".

What you suggest might be a good idea, but this site is not it.

I sympathize with your implicit argument that criminals should be afforded an opportunity to reform and contribute to the society.

Jagdish S. Gangolly,
Associate Professor ( j.gangolly@albany.edu) 
Department of Accounting & Law, School of Business
PhD Program in Information Science,
Department of Informatics College of Computing & Information
State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222.
Phone: (518) 442-4949
URL: http://www.albany.edu/acc/gangolly

April 7, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Jagdish,

A link from the Family Watchdog site leads to the following "State Sexual Assault Coalitions" who might be providing the tracking data --- http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/statesexual.htm  I don't think all of these have passed Megan's Law --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megan%27s_Law 

I suspect that the data actually comes from the Sex Offender Registration Program --- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_offender_registration 

Opinions for an against such a registration program are heated. There is an interesting Wikipedia site that illustrates a module requiring registration to edit the Wiki Module at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sex_offender_registration&action=edit
In particular click on the Discussion tab.

A close friend of mine is a retired finance professor from the University of Florida. I read in his address into Family Watchdog and came up with quite a few sex offender hits, some of whom are probably enrolled at the University of Florida. None seem to have addresses in campus dormitories. This seems to imply that universities use sex offender registry lists to probably block registered sex offenders from living in dormitories. However, I do not know this for a fact.

This seems to also link to the wave of mixed gender dorm room assignments --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/HigherEdControversies.htm#DatingRoommates

Once again, the Family Watchdog site is at www.FamilyWatchDog.us
Perhaps instead of red boxes for each registered offender they should use little scarlet letters.

A sex offender registry does help some with the following, although I doubt that it helps much with "phony name" subscribers:
"Britain hopes to ban pedophiles from Facebook, MySpace," MIT's Technology Review, April 4, 2008 ---
http://www.technologyreview.com/Wire/20521/?nlid=988

Bob Jensen

April 7, 2008 reply from Paul Williams [Paul_Williams@NCSU.EDU]

We're all suspects now. Registering "criminals" is problematic because once you are registered it is quite likely you will never be unregistered. And "criminal" is, after all, a category subject to "social construction." Not that many years ago, Bob would have been a "criminal" for enjoying his single malt. The absurdity of what might be "criminal" behavior can be appreciated by a quick perusal of the NCAA rule-book.

The other main thread over recent days, i.e., same-sex dorms, harkens to how national mores can easily translate into the criminalization of natural behaviors that other cultures (Jagdish excellent example from his own culture) deal with in much less heavy-handed ways than we appear to use in the U.S. (the billions and billions of dollars we have spent on the "war on drugs" comes readily to mind - criminalizing use creates a culture of violence and even more pernicious crimes.

The reason we have an FBI is because of "criminals" like Bob who enjoyed a single malt). Categories may be quite pernicious things (the means of providing for the needs of a family are categorized by us accountants as an "expense", which connote something "not good', thus to be minimized). Those self-righteous among us who proclaim their self- righteousness by saying upstanding citizens have nothing to fear lose sight of the possibility that even more self-righteous folk may turn them into criminals on a whim.

Paul Williams paul_williams@ncsu.edu
(919)515-4436

 

"Colleges Are Targets of E-Mail Scam," by Jeffrey R. Young, Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2008 ---
http://chronicle.com/free/2008/04/2366n.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

An e-mail scam has hit thousands of users at dozens of colleges over the past few weeks, leaving network administrators scrambling to respond before campus computer accounts are taken over by spammers.

Students, professors, and staff members at the affected colleges received e-mail messages that purport to come from the colleges' help desks, asking users to reply with their log-in and password, and in some cases other personal information including birth date.

But the messages actually come from malicious hackers who use the information to send spam messages from the accounts. And administrators worry that the compromised accounts could be used to do further damage to the university networks.

The attacks are "pretty broad" across higher education, says Douglas Pearson, technical director of the Research and Education Networking Information Sharing and Analysis Center at Indiana University at Bloomington. "And it seems to be growing."

At Indiana University, thousands of the scam messages recently started hitting the campus network each day, says Nate Johnson, lead security engineer for the university.

"We had one incident in the past week where within four minutes of the user disclosing their password, the attacker had managed to launch off 10,000 spam messages," says Mr. Johnson. "We contacted the users, they changed their pass phrases, and the hackers no longer had access to the accounts."

Phishing New Waters

The type of attack is known as phishing. In the past, most phishing e-mail messages pretended to come from banks, from eBay, or from the online payment service PayPal. Some college officials say that this year is the first time they have seen phishing schemes that pretend to be sent from college IT departments.

At North Carolina State University, some 2,600 users received the targeted phishing messages in January. What's worse, the bogus messages started appearing just as the university's technology staff was switching to a new campuswide e-mail system.

"This couldn't have come at a worse time," says Tim S. Gurganus, an IT-security officer at the university, noting that some users might have expected a note from administrators regarding the e-mail changeover.

The messages were not riddled with grammatical errors, as some earlier phishing messages were. One of the messages read: "We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account center ... Warning!!! Account owner that refuses to update his or her account within Seven days of receiving this warning will lose his or her account permanently."

In the first days of the attack at North Carolina State, about 40 users responded, presumably falling for the scam, says Mr. Gurganus. At least three of those accounts were quickly used by the attackers to send hundreds of spam messages, including more copies of the phishing message. The sudden burst of e-mail coming from the three e-mail accounts set off scanning programs used to monitor the campus network for suspicious activity, and within about an hour, campus administrators disabled the accounts and told the users to change their passwords, he says.

The university then sent a warning message to all campus users alerting them not to give their username and password to anyone via e-mail.

Mr. Gurganus also sent a message to an e-mail list for campus-security administrators asking whether others had encountered the problem, and he learned that North Carolina State was not alone.

"I got responses from 20 different universities saying they'd seen similar stuff," he says. "I think they started with bigger ones, like the state universities, and now they're going after the smaller schools," including community colleges, he adds.

Spreading the Word

Campus officials have been trading advice with colleagues on several campus-security e-mail lists as they work to try to stop the messages from coming in. But that can be tricky because the messages do not contain suspicious key words—like "Viagra" or "mortgages"—that are common in spam messages that colleges routinely block.

So colleges have also been renewing their efforts to educate campus users that if you get an urgent e-mail message asking for your password, just delete it.

Aware that it can be hard to get the attention of students, administrators at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge have tried to use humor to get that message across. In a public-awareness campaign that recently won a national award, the university has published a poster featuring a cartoon character named Tad who replies to a phishing e-mail.

Pictures of fish are shown falling on Tad as he crouches under a table. "Tad may as well have shouted his personal information to the world," the poster says. The campaign's motto: "Don't be a Tad."

Also read about another vicious worry at http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/mailserver.asp

Bob Jensen's threads on phishing are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ecommerce/000start.htm#Phishing

A growing number of professors are becoming bloggers

Media studies as a discipline has been quick to embrace the potentials of new-media platforms as channels for sharing our research and scholarship. A growing number of junior and senior faculty members in our field are becoming bloggers. At the same time, media scholars are pooling their efforts to contribute to larger projects, such as the biweekly webzine Flow, which runs pieces on many aspects of contemporary television and digital culture, and In Media Res, which each day offers a short video clip and commentary by a leading media scholar. These same strategies can be and are being adopted across a range of academic disciplines, as scholars make a greater commitment to circulate their findings more broadly and to respond to contemporary issues in a thoughtful and timely manner.
Henry Jenkins, "Public Intellectuals in the New-Media Landscape," Chronicle of Higher Education, April 4, 2008 --- http://chronicle.com/weekly/v54/i30/30b01801.htm

Bob Jensen's threads on blogging are at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/ListservRoles.htm

The American Accounting Association (AAA) has a new research report on the future supply and demand for accounting faculty. There's a whole lot of depressing colored graphics and white-knuckle handwringing about anticipated shortages of new doctoral graduates and faculty aging, but there's no solution offered --- http://aaahq.org/temp/phd/AccountingFacultyUSCollegesUniv.pdf 

April 2, 2008 message from David Fordham, James Madison University [fordhadr@JMU.EDU]

I've been reading the AAA study on accounting faculty status and trends:

http://aaahq.org/temp/phd/AccountingFacultyUSCollegesUniv.pdf and I have to wonder, will anything be done -- other than the continued hand wringing?

My guess: probably not. I've concluded no one is listening.

It seems to me that the long-term answer (more Ph.D. students and expanded Ph.D. programs) will of necessity exacerbate the short term crisis: shortage of experienced faculty teaching accounting majors. If more of the experienced professors teach Ph.D. students, that means even fewer teaching the undergrad accounting majors.

Of course, deans will point out that having more Ph.D. students means more grad students will be available to teach accounting majors. So more and more accounting classes will be taught by grad students rather than experienced professors. Is this a good thing? My guess: probably not.

And to be more cynical, does it really MATTER whether or not it's a good thing? My guess: ... probably not.

Having raised four children during the era of Winnie-the-Pooh, I can't help but see a parallel here with a character named Eeyore. Poor ol' Eeyore.

I guess you could say we are living in interesting times. *sigh*

The study is worth perusing. (Are our hands sore yet?)

David Fordham
James Madison University

April 3, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi David,

I suspect that the most popular solution in the future to meet the shortage of doctoral accounting faculty will be an explosion in the use of adjunct accounting faculty at highly varying ranges of compensation. This will bring us full circle back to the late 1950s when the scathing Pierson Carnegie Report [1959] and the Gordon and Howell Ford Foundation Report [1959] reports dramatically changed accounting doctoral education in the United States --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm

There are several remedies to relieve future shortages of accounting faculty to meet expected continued growth of accounting majors in undergraduate and masters programs (most states virtually require a fifth year of advanced study to sit for the CPA examination):

1. Make it more attractive for aging accounting faculty who are doing a great job with students to continued beyond retirement age. This is not a ideal solution in that it possibly blocks the flow of "fresh blood" and revitalization into accounting departments, but it is more affordable than paying over $200,000 in salary and fringe benefits for a new accounting doctoral graduate. Even at higher salaries there are just not enough new doctoral graduates (less than a hundred per year) to spread around among a thousand or more colleges. One way to make it more attractive is to assign aging faculty who want to live elsewhere (on the beach?)  and teach some distance education courses an opportunity to do so.
    
2. Make increasing use of good accounting teachers without doctorates to teach full time. Most will be assigned adjunct status, but some colleges may even let them be on a tenure track depending on the uniqueness of their credentials. This is generally a mixed bag for students, because adjunct professors are often poorly paid and forced to moonlight for sometimes more than they are paid from the colleges. Students generally benefit more from full-time teachers. It is also a poor solution in that adjunct faculty are generally second-class employees on a college campus.
    
3. Lure increasing numbers of accounting faculty with doctorates who are now teaching in foreign countries. One problem is that in these countries their doctoral degrees often are not in accountancy (many foreign countries do not even have accounting doctoral programs). In addition there are problems with luring families to leave their home countries. Plus there are the same problems as those noted below for many foreign student graduates of U.S. accounting doctoral programs.
    
4. Shorten North American accounting doctoral programs by making them something other than accountics (econometrics, psychometrics, and advanced mathematics) wolves in sheep clothing. Virtually all accounting doctoral programs now take nearly five years beyond a masters degree in large part because candidates with accounting backgrounds must take years of accountics courses or candidates with mathematics, econometrics, and psychometrics backgrounds must take years of undergraduate accounting equivalents.
   
   The essential problem is social science research methodology is now the only acceptable research methodology in North American accounting doctoral programs. This is an increasingly negative incentive for younger practicing accountants to consider entering accounting doctoral programs. Increasingly the applicants to these programs, especially at our most prestigious universities, are foreign mathematicians who know virtually nothing about accountancy but are seeking the salary, prestige, and citizenship of accounting professors in North America.
   
   The problem here is that our undergraduate and graduate students often benefit more from taking accounting courses from instructors who have rich backgrounds in five years of accounting courses and some years of accounting practice. Foreign graduates of accounting doctoral programs are often assigned AIS and doctoral research courses to teach since they have such limited backgrounds in financial, tax, auditing, and managerial accounting. There are of course noted exceptions and some of these immigrant professors have become great accounting educators and friends in the United States. But finding tax and auditing accounting doctoral graduates is particularly problematic.

   To meet the demand of thousands of colleges seeking accounting faculty, the supply situation is revealed by Plumlee et al (2006) as quoted at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm

   There were only 29 doctoral students in auditing and 23 in tax out of the 2004 total of 391 accounting doctoral students enrolled in years 1-5 in the United States.

I suspect that the most popular solution in the future to meet the shortage of doctoral accounting faculty will be an explosion in the use of adjunct accounting faculty at highly varying ranges of compensation. This will bring us full circle back to the late 1950s when the scathing Pierson Carnegie Report [1959] and the Gordon and Howell Ford Foundation Report [1959] reports dramatically changed accounting doctoral education in the United States --- http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/395wpTAR/Web/TAR395wp.htm
 

You can find out more about the problems with accounting doctoral programs at http://www.trinity.edu/rjensen/Theory01.htm#DoctoralPrograms

Bob Jensen

April 4, 2005 reply from Linda A Kidwell [lkidwell@UWYO.EDU]

One of Bob's suggestions is shortening the doctoral program, but I think the solution lies in the related critique of accountics. We have been considering beginning a doctoral program different from those currently available, with a behavioral emphasis. We would still have a seminar on capital markets studies, but we would not intend (or be able) to direct dissertations in that stream. We've spent a fair amount of time determining what such a program would look like, and we think it would appeal to the professional accountants who want to change careers but do not recognize accountics research as being related to what they did professionally. It' still in the strategic planning phase and may never be implemented, but who knows? As the only university in Wyoming, we have an obligation to keep undergraduates, as well as stakeholders in the profession, high on our priority list. One of our other main concerns has been the change for the worse in departmental culture that a doctoral program can bring. Some may say, "Well you're preparing people who will never publish in the top tier," to which I say, "Most of us have found professional success and satisfaction without doing so." Furthermore, it is only the most elite schools with doctoral programs that require that type of hit, and hundreds of schools are starving for people capable of publishing their research in a broader spectrum of outlets.

Linda Kidwell
University of Wyoming

April 4, 2008 reply from Bob Jensen

Hi Linda,

I'm all for having universities examine alternative non-traditional doctoral programs. Although it's not in accounting per se, there was a 1997 proposed non-traditional program at the University of Texas that might be extended into accountancy --- http://www.utexas.edu/provost/planning/itac/IT2000.pdf

I would also like to see some universities consider non-traditional accountancy programs such as philosophy of accountancy, history of accountancy, education technologies and learning theories for accountancy, virtual learning in accountancy, forensic accountancy, not-for-profit accountancy, cross-cultural accountancy, etc.

Since 1959, accounting doctoral programs in North American universities have had very little imagination beyond capital markets research and human decision behavior experiments.

The key to a first class doctoral program is the attraction of first class scholars into that program. Many top accounting graduates with high GMAT scores that have been in accounting practice for 5-10 years are turned off by having to become econometricians or psychometricians in order to become accounting professors. There's a tremendous untapped market at this point for innovative doctoral programs.

Bob Jensen

April 4, 2008 message from Paul Williams [Paul_Williams@NCSU.EDU]

Good for you folks. All doctoral programs shouldn't be the same. Be creative. In the past, many schools of business offered a DBA, which, in theory, differed from the PhD in that the course work and even the "dissertation" were more practically oriented to the details and specifics of "real" business settings.

A word of caution: even if you only offer a course in captial markets research presumably you will have to hire someone knowledgeable enough to teach it.

That will be a "capital markets person." The whole culture of producing "capital market persons" is one where the intellectual superiority of such pursuits becomes part of the fiber of their beings. If success is defined as publishing in the so-called "premier" journals and those "premier" journals favor mostly accountics research, your "capital market person" will, by definition, be superior to the rest of you because that person is doing the kind of research endorsed by the top journals. And it is the rare one of those I have met that didn't succumb to believing that about themselves. They can be like Kudzu for an accounting department; eventually they will choke everyone else to death because they are ruthless at blocking the intellectual sunlight. I know that from bitter experience at

my previous place of employment. If you can get away with it have your doctoral students get their "capital market" training in the finance department, where it belongs anyway.

Paul Williams
paul_williams@ncsu.edu
(919)515-4436

April 2, 2008 reply from Paul Williams [Paul_Williams@NCSU.EDU]

David,
Eeyore analogy was spot on. Oh woe, Oh woe. For many reasons, most of which have been touched upon or beaten to death on this listserv, we have brought this on ourselves. Frankly, I took the report to be wonderful news! As one of those folks over 41 (well over 41), I am becoming more valuable to NC State all of the time. I make less than a new hire and I have so (so, so, so) much more institutional knowledge and experience. I won't have to retire until I can't remember how to find my classroom and there will be no real incentive for the institution to want to get rid of me until then. I suspect that many of those Plumlee predicts will retire, won't. Some of the supply problem will be taken up by faculty working well past the retirement age.

Follow-up message from Paul on April 2, 2008

I was being somewhat facetious with my "delighted because they won't be in a hurry to rush me out the door" comment. I think your observations are correct. We must ask ourselves how it is that attracting students into PhD programs where the pay prospects are considerably lower is easier than in accounting. I am not surprised that bright, imaginative, bold people aren't attracted to doctoral work in accounting -- it is so mind-numbingly boring. It is all about technique, nothing about ideas. You and I are testimony to what was typical of the generation of accounting academics to which we belong. In my doctoral program, few of the students were undergraduate accounting majors. In my program we had people with degrees in engineering, forestry, sociology, education, and history. Now every candidate we interview from a U.S. doctoral program has the same profile: undergraduate accounting major, MAC, a few years of practice experience (perhaps to manager level), then the standardized, universal doctoral education in "applied" (whatever that could be is a mystery) economics. Based on my experience with undergraduate accounting curricula, a B.S. in accounting is about the worst preparation one could have for pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy degree. Supplication to authority seems to be the thread that runs through every accounting course. FASB (ooo!, GASBs (ooo!), SASs (ooo!), PCAOB (ooo!), SEC (ooo!) , BIG 4 (ooo!). I would like to teach a course (which I am not allowed to do) where we take the GAAP hierarchy and every acronym that students are taught to be reverential toward and teach them to be heretics -- a Dead Poets' Society for accounting students. There is nothing sacred about "official pronouncements" and even less sacred are the unexamined presumptions that underlay them. Even at the highest level of education, the PhD. level, accounting has become, in Bourdieu's term, a doxic society, which is anethema to scholarship.

April 2, 2008 reply from J. S. Gangolly [gangolly@CSC.ALBANY.EDU]

David and Paul,

I found the study very depressing.

First, it tells us that we are a geriatric profession. Lack of new blood will have disastrous consequences.

Second, the study keeps harping on the shortage of PhDs IN ACCOUNTING. This short