Followups

The Reverend Donald Sensing makes some good points about the Tennessee lottery, especially on the State preying on the stupidity of ignorant people. (Full disclosure: I was also opposed to the lottery, though for different reasons, but have bought a few tickets since it rolled out. Haven't even recouped my total outlay, either.)

State Senator Steve Cohen now wants to remove the requirement for a minimum ACT score in awarding HOPE grants, only demanding students make a certain minimum grade point average. Grade inflation anyone? Is fear of low test scores leading to racism charges by certain quarters driving this?

In a whole other world, I lauded James Lileks down below, but forgot to mention that he's also a Newhouse News writer. Go check out his archive of columns. I really marvel at his ability to pull cultural references from all over the spectrum, and across time, in service of his points. It's a lot like what Dennis Miller does in his best rants, but Lileks is never as pointed and definitely has a warm, gooey Upper Midwestern center.