Thinking Right: Finance, roads, votes

Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:

> Charles Murray is the W.H. Brady Scholar at American Enterprise Institute. Here’s his assessment of the traditional college route to adulthood:

“College is not all it is cracked up to be. Dumbed-down courses, flaky majors and grade inflation have conspired to make the term B.A. close to meaningless. Another problem with today’s colleges is more insidious: They are no longer good places for young people to make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Today’s colleges are structured to prolong adolescence, not to midwife maturity.” Hope this assessment doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings who’s, you know, on campus or anything.

> Wall Street Journal headline after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. fell to bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch & Co. fell to Bank of America: “Old-School Banks Emerge Atop New World of Finance.” Lesson: Save. Don’t get strung out on debt. There’s no new way to make debt an asset. In a financial crisis, those with cash can buy good stuff cheap. Landing Merrill Lynch “was the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Bank of America Chairman and CEO Ken Lewis. “This … creates the company instantly that would have taken decades to build.”

> Thirty-four years after he viciously murdered his wife for her modest insurance, justice came to Jack Alderman. On the day before his execution Fulton Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland ordered a stay until the state parole board held a “meaningful” clemency hearing. A last-minute stay after 34 years. The board met meaningfully and again denied clemency.

> Cheers for DeKalb Solicitor Robert James, who hauled parents to court for their children’s unexcused absences from school.

> Tolls on interstate HOV lanes, already built with tax dollars? Not legitimate. It’s a second tax on highways to fund other spending. And what do those who pay the second highway tax get? Not another square inch of road capacity.

> Everybody who expects problems at the polls on election day should vote early. Problem solved.

> Volunteers needed to hunt for lost vice presidential candidate. Anybody seen Joe Biden?

> Horror of horrors, the DOT has prematurely bought some land in the path of future road construction. Shocking. But if the state had an extra billion dollars, buying future transportation corridors in Metro Atlanta —- or all of North Georgia —- would be a smart investment. As the Northern Arc debacle revealed, you can’t move once people put down tap roots.

> The Brian Nichols jury is selected. Take a couple of days to decide his guilt or innocence and then another 90 trying to convince all 12 jurors to impose capital punishment. I’m thinking the defense got a 10-2 or 11-1 jury on that.

> Give it your best shot, I say to my friends on the left. Sarah Palin does too. “If you want specifics and specific policy or countries, go ahead, you can play stump-the-candidate if you want,” she said to a questioner Wednesday. That is the game, as everybody knows. Palin won’t be cowed. The guys —- Barack Obama, Biden and John McCain —- all have that inside-the-Beltway feel —- McCain the maverick less than the others. Palin’s the genuine outsider. “I think because I’m a Washington outsider, opponents are going to be looking for a whole lot of things that they can criticize” but on Inauguration Day “I’ll be ready.”

> Russia vows to mark its Arctic territory so it can claim a large share of its mineral riches. Russia, the U.S., Canada and other countries all are trying to assert jurisdiction in the Arctic because of oil, gas and minerals. One more reminder: The future requires a strong leader in the White House, a decision-maker. It’s no time for a facilitator. False signals could be consequential. We’re dealing with thugs.

> If I had $100,000 available, I’d pour it into financial stocks and others battered by the panic. What we have to fear is panic. Have faith in America.

> Jim Wooten is associate editorial page editor.

jwooten@ajc.com

Blog with Jim Wooten six days a week at ajc.com/opinion.