Women earn less than men, especially when the salary goes over $100,000.
Two education links: On the need for better teacher education. A really amazing discussion about education reform on Meet the Press. Video clip of Gingrich, Duncan, and Sharpton. Coming back to this one.
Charts of the congressional districts in New York State. They would make great powerpoint slides for an American government class on gerrymandering.
Who has the best commentariat in the blogosphere? I do. Evidence.
Running off to a meeting at Ian’s school.
Apt. 11d 
I just read all the comments on the STL fiasco and you’re right, you have a fabulous commentariat.
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Who has the best commentariat? Obviously, it depends on what you are looking for.
Certainly, if you want intelligent discussion of the personal dilemmas of middle to upper middle class adult life, this is a good site. It’s sort of like an ideal dinner conversation.
I think if you want discussion of legal and political issues, the Volokh Conspiracy is the best place. There are enough people on the left to keep it interesting, but the discussion generally remains civil. (Although I believe that a fair amount of comment moderation is deployed to keep it that way.) I wonder if anyone knows of a site where the comments lean left (as those at Volokh lean right), but with enough diversity and civility to be worth reading?
Or if there are sites that people recommend based on some other criterion?
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Did anyone else see the Megan McArdle article on trying the Dave Ramsey plan (I know Amy P often talks about Ramsey)? Looks interesting.
I sometimes almost find Megan’s comments readable — sometimes they have real info. But, she doesn’t moderate heavily enough to make it a comfortable read.
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Y81, I have frequently found the threads at Crooked Timber both smart and diverse. As for civility…well, I’ve always found it a sharp but still basically congenial place. Other’s mileage my vary, though.
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bj,
I finally got over there and read the MM post, thread, and Atlantic article. DR is completely out of MM’s cultural circle, but she really understands the program and I think it’s absolutely fantastic that she and her fiance are doing this before they get married. I’d love a thread on the MM piece and post here, actually.
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There should be some way to scientifically study civility and intelligence on comment threads.
Maybe if every blog agreed to post a blog on the same issue regarding the Israelis and Palestinians at the same time on the same day . . .
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There have some attempts to get at that question by measuring linkage patterns. Presumably a blogger who’s more open minded will link to bloggers of a different ideological stripe than his/her own. But cross ideological linkage doesn’t really get to the question of civility and intelligence.
I liked the Ramsey article, and will try to do a post on it. Still gathering information.
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I’m pretty convinced that civility depends on significant monitoring by the blog owner, that it’s easy to see a comment thread “hi-jacked” or spoiled by a single bad apple (as, the business theory is going now, can a workplace). But, I’m presuming data there that I don’t have access too — how often does Laura have to delete a comment/ban a commenter? If not often, I guess I have to attribute the civility to something else. I guess though that even removing 2 bad apples in the course of 5+ year blog history might have a preventative effect.
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Dave Ramsey is particularly good on money and relationships and I think that his treatment of marriage and money is one of the best things to come out of American Evangelicalism. I took the 13-week Financial Peace University class last spring and one of these days, I’d really like to facilitate the course at our college Catholic center.
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Just to add to others’ ideas… I find that the best comments come out of the blogs which, like this one, are thoughtful and current and professional in tone & execution without going for sort of cheap traffic, but also well known and decently visited. But I also think it’s a gift to write posts that are inviting and open, personal without being exclusively journal-like, and Laura has that in spades.
I also think there’s some (small) protection in not flying under a banner like the NYT or The Atlantic in that on those sites you do have people who are just going to come in and comment as a part of their relationship to the overall brand, which can be very fiesty or cynical or politically motivated.
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“But I also think it’s a gift to write posts that are inviting and open, personal without being exclusively journal-like, and Laura has that in spades. ”
Yup. There’s an openness to Laura’s initial posts that leaves space for expressing an opinion of one’s own. And, I suspect that this is a talent she uses while teaching, too.
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Oh I get Doug’s post now. It is kind of odd to have it over there under the Wire.
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“I also think there’s some (small) protection in not flying under a banner like the NYT or The Atlantic in that on those sites you do have people who are just going to come in and comment as a part of their relationship to the overall brand, which can be very fiesty or cynical or politically motivated.”
Megan McArdle gets a fair number of commentors who just want to say how wrong it is that she gets paid for her blog at the Atlantic. I sympathize with that point of view to some degree, but what greater waste of time is there than reading blogs you don’t like?
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