Land O Links

"Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom" --Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 19th century English poet.

* We in Michigan all know that Gov. Rick Snyder is ga-ga over "dashboards" -- sets of figures that show progress, or lack thereof, on economic or government service matters. Snyder wants to use state money to "persuade" local governments to be just as dashboard-rific. The good folks down at the University of Michigan, however, found lukewarm support for the idea among local government officials they surveyed. "Only 10 percent of all local leaders think a dashboard would be very effective at improving their jurisdiction’s accountability and transparency, the poll said. The survey also found that only 8 percent think a dashboard would be very effective at improving their local government’s overall performance. Local officials expressed a number of common concerns about dashboards, including that they sometimes measure factors beyond the control of local government, and that measures can be ambiguous, resulting in flawed understanding and inappropriate comparisons between jurisdictions."
http://closup.umich.edu/michigan-public-policy-survey/14/local-officials-react-to-state-policy-innovation-tying-revenue-sharing-to-dashboards-and-incentive-funding/

* Americans are not growing more polarized in their political views, states a new study of behavior built on data collected through the University of Michigan's American National Election Studies. "'American polarization is largely exaggerated,' says Leaf Van Boven of the University of Colorado, Boulder, especially by people who adopt strong political stances. And when people perceive a large gap between political parties, they may be more motivated to vote." Hmm. So, the believe in polarization is strongest at the political extremes -- and said belief may actually be a motivator to vote. Most interesting:
http://www.sciencenewsline.com/psychology/2012012723090021.html

* Jennifer Granholm's new TV show on Current, a channel with which we are not familiar, gets some national attention from Talking Points Memo:
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/jennifer-granholms-new-current-tv-show-will-be-fair-but-not-balanced.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

* For every $1 the state invests in arts and culture, we get back $51 in economic activity, says the advocacy group ArtServeMichigan:
http://creativestatemi.artservemichigan.org/

* Hospital care in Michigan -- and everywhere else in the U.S. of A -- is, gasp!, "socialized." And, yes, this predates Obamacare. And, yes, the driver of this trend is Medicare -- the government-run program certain people don't want the "government to get its hands on." Please read this:
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2012/01/american_health_care_is_already_socialized_.html