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Sunday, June 19, 2011

More Michael Jungbauer, capability, and credential honesty.

P.Z. Myers, here, with comments - many on a tractor pull theme.

Myers is not saying those lacking a degree are ipso facto second rate and to be scorned.

He and others ARE saying kiting the resume is to be scorned. They are separate things.

Of those on Ramsey's council, past and present, I think neither Hendriksen nor Elvig hold university degrees. Hendriksen is one of the smartest people in the city and has been in the computer industry as a career and for about two decades has owned and run Enterprise Communications, Inc., surviving the 2000 high-tech crash, while Elvig for years ran a custom wookworking firm which did not survive the more recent housing and commercial real estate crash, where high-end furnishings suffered as much or more than other contracted real estate related goods-services.

Neither Hendriksen nor Elvig has ever misrepresented themselves as more schooled than they were. I think each is satisfied with personal accomplishment aside from formal education being an issue. It appears neither ever felt a need to misstate things that way, and presumably each avoided any temptation that way as a matter of basic honesty. I say that with Hendriksen being a friend and Elvig not so. I know Hendriksen's details and am presuming Elvig's.

I ran against Elvig in Ward 1 in 2006, based on policy differences and differing belief systems. In 2010 Elvig bested by 47 votes Republican insider and Jungbauer acolyte Harry Niska, who is fully credentialed as a capable lawyer in what appears to be an outstanding quality small firm. So, do you go for credentials, or feel that closeness to Jungbauer is a stain that will stick on Niska for years?

Others made decisions based on personal criteria, but in this household there were three solid unwavering votes for Elvig, as less doctrinaire and more distanced from Jungbauer. Not that a three-vote swing would have defeated the Elvig majority, but it evidenced a criterion that others might have also weighed in David's favor.

I would characterize Jungbauer not as unintelligent, but as willfully divisive, e.g., his co-sponsorship with Bachmann, in 2004 if I correctly recall - when the Intelligent Design craze was big in GOP circles, a monstrous and unforgivable bill to force a cramdown of Intelligent Design mischief into the State's science curriculum, "Notwithstanding any rule or law to the contrary, when science academic standards are taught that may generate controversy, including biological evolution, ... [Santorum language - see here, here]."

So, the gentleman is an evolution denier, as much as a global warming denier. That was pure divisiveness for its own sake with no good whatsoever to come of it. It appeared to be aimed to be troublesome because you can -- and perhaps somehow with some lamebrains, generate political capital of some kind; the exercise nationally and in Minnesota putting Jungbauer into the same category of person in which I place former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, per the image.



___________UPDATE_____________
I realize that going from the current MinnPost initiated review of Jungbauer credentials to his embrace of wanting to impose Intelligent Design is a step. It shows a creationist bent along with global warming denial. Evolution denial. Most would view this creationism affection as unscientific. And as obstructionist to the advancement of true knowledge.

As to the Jungbauer resume, ties to the U.Minn Twin City campus and the Humphrey Institute, online, are here and here, and there might be more but that would be for the Senator to identify. A fellowship there is not insubstatial. However, it is not at all the equivalent of permanant faculty, most of whom presumably hold doctorates, after writing original research theses, reviewed and approved by a peer panel - a thesis board. Jungbauer is not credentialed that way. It appears that Jungbauer was recognized as having a public voice, a policy voice, and that would attach to his being elected to the state senate and how he has used the position. I have seen no evidence, for example, of the Institute ever having Michele Bachmann as a fellow having anything worthwhile to say about anything. Jungbauer has gone a step further that way.

Bottom line for me, in that direction, you can put a thousand graduated-did not graduate from Moody Bible Institute investigations against once being appointed a fellow by the U's Humphrey Institute, and the latter holds more weight. I could care about Moody, what it is and what, if any, value it might have as proof of any capability. Again, bottom line, were he not to have been elected by SD 48, I seriously doubt Jungbauer would have been accorded Humphrey Institute recognition of any kind, but that is a speculative hypothetical. He is a State Senator, he was accorded a fellowship. That's the record, and might have been, could have been, is largely moot.

Regarding Heartland Institute, and Jungbauer's ties there, slides from a presentation are online, see fn. 24, this link. Jungbauer might have other materials online posted by persons beyond himself, but this is what I found. I admit making sense of the intent of the slides, without the audio, is difficult. But standing alone, they say what they say. It appears, whether you agree or disagree, that Jungbauer has put some thought into fashioning an argument. How much of that is original and how much is derived from other sources I cannot say. I am not expert in climate science, nor do I pretend to be. I expect those who are might be able to discuss such a question of originality vs. restatement. And that is not to say restatement of other resources into a fresh argument is not a creative thing.

Regarding Heartland Institute itself and its ultra right-wing existence and financing, much of which is deliberately kept a mystery, see: here, here, here, here (linking to the Jungbauer slides), here, here, here (Jungbauer not listed as among the "Global Warming Experts, "Policy Advisors," or "Senior Fellows," and given my disdain for that operation and its ultra right-wing bunk, not being listed in my view cuts in Jungbauer's favor), here, and here. They have money, they have a brand to sell, and I see the brand as counterproductive to the US being all it can be, for all its people. Witness Strib reporting, here, this blurb:

Americans are working the most in the industrialized world. According to the International Labor Organization, "Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers."

To make things worse, Americans have little to show for their hard work and high productivity.

The United States has the largest income inequality of rich nations, which means that ordinary people are struggling more just to make ends meet and keep their heads above water. No wonder that job-induced stress is on the rise.

Read the item. It is worth your time, (if you have the time from your being stressfully overworked by those among whom funding for Heartland Institute arises, defining the brand via a pay the piper - call the tune reality). Jungbauer's having anything whatsoever to do with operations such as Heartland Institute, and it's somewhat disguised but actual policy of evils against working Americans, in my mind cuts against him.

In my mind this closes the books on what I have to say about the Jungbauer-credentials situation.

My worse criticism is not about his global warming stance, or stretching resume fact, but about his wanting to demean science by insinuating creationism, in the now discredited Intelligent Design flavor, into Minnesota schools where future generations are being trained to be effective in an ever more technological world where creationism is a boat anchor anachronism some cherish, but something that gets in the way of science just as embryonic stem cell research opposition is a counterproductive activity. Things standing in the way of progress and making a better world, advancing medical science and treatment possibility, are things to be disdained by rational people.

Two Googles which I only explored in part, here and here.