1984 Consumer Protection

So, curious why the banking colusses, the Fed and the Party Lines all pushed the 'Consumer Protection' legislation this week?

CNS News: "The bill, if it becomes law, would create the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection and empower it to “gather information and activities of persons operating in consumer financial markets,” including the names and addresses of account holders, ATM and other transaction records, and the amount of money kept in each customer’s account.

The new bureaucracy is then allowed to “use the data on branches and [individual and personal] deposit accounts … for any purpose” and may keep all records on file for at least three years and these can be made publicly available upon request."

Ah. In staggering Orwellian fashion, Newspeak and the eyes of Big Brother rear their ugly heads yet again.

So long Privacy, hello IRS audits to pay for Obamacare.

In Case You Needed Confirmation

The United States of America is in financial trouble.

Rueters: "The United States posted an $82.69 billion deficit in April, nearly four times the $20.91 billion shortfall registered in April 2009 and the largest on record for that month, the Treasury Department said on Wednesday.

It was more than twice the $40-billion deficit that Wall Street economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast and was striking since April marks the filing deadline for individual income taxes that are the main source of government revenue.

Department officials said that in prior years, there was a surplus during April in 43 out of the past 56 years.

The government has now posted 19 consecutive monthly budget deficits, the longest string of shortfalls on record."

Here's what this really means:
To operate an increasingly hostile Federal Government, the nation is borrowing approximately $80,00,000,000.

This is more money every month then the entire Annual Nominal Gross Domestic Product of Iraq.

Unsustainable:
–adjective
not sustainable; not to be supported, maintained, upheld, or corroborated.

Solar Power: A Bright Idea. Later.

Graph of the Day for May 8, 2010

Personally, I believe solar power will be the power source for the generations to follow mine. Sunlight is nearly unlimited, free, and world wide, and the only thing required for its commercial success is making it an efficient producer of electricity.

That day will come, but only in the years to come. History shows an accelerating pace of development. Some guys like Ray Kurzweil are predicting solar dominance of the market within 20 years, and that seems reasonable for a few reasons. More people then ever before are entering the world market place, and more minds working on more problems with the aim of creating a profit can only mean good things for the consumers.

Even better, those minds will not be working solely on energy developments, but a vast array of advancements in the all encompassing marketplace, each with spin off benefits to industries and inventions along side it.

So if/when solar power becomes efficient enough to compete with the traditional sources of energy production, there will be a revolution nearly unfathomable throughout the world. Automobiles, telecommunication nodes, household production, aviation, and basketball manufacturing, all radically changed.

I don't say it enough, but the future is awesome.
But today, can we stop shoveling my heisted tax dollars into this?

Times Square: Questions that Need Answers

J.C. Arenes has a great column on the Times Square bomber in New York City, giving his top 10 questions on the current story line.

Seeing as he puts it far better then I can in my limited time, here's a preview and the link:

American Thinker: "...Now that we have established the timeline of these events, let's ask some questions that the media should have.

Question #1: How did he get back to Connecticut after leaving the Isuzu he used to get into the city on the 30^th?

Questions #2, #3, and #4 : Where did he leave the car? It couldn't have just been abandoned on the street for more than 24 hours, it would have been towed. Was it parked at a lot? If so, where is the lot's record of the car being parked there? ..."

Cameras Destroy Property

Steve Chapman at Reason: "Which raises the question: What good are cameras? The debate over them is often framed as hardheaded law enforcement types versus wimpy civil libertarians. Whether the cameras actually work in practice to help solve and prevent crime generally gets ignored.

It shouldn't. Leave aside those airy privacy concerns for the moment. Installing, maintaining, and monitoring thousands of these devices, as in New York and Chicago, costs millions of dollars. Absent cameras, that money could be spent on beat cops, patrol cars, forensic equipment, jail cells, you name it.
...
But if cameras generally don't do much to prevent crime, surely they help collar the criminals they fail to deter? Not very often. A review by the London police department calculated, "For every 1,000 cameras in London, less than one crime is solved per year." Average cost for cracking a case: $30,000.

Chicago police say the cameras have produced 4,000 arrests since 2006. That sounds like a lot, but it works out to only about 1 in 200 arrests. And for 10,000 cameras, 4,000 arrests is not really a spectacular haul.

In San Francisco, the results have been even less impressive. In the first three years after the city installed cameras, they helped police charge suspects in a grand total of six cases."

A quick review:
Funding for cameras come from taxes.
Taxes are the price citizens pay for living in a governed society.
When the government wastes money, it squanders property.

Therefore, public cameras used by police departments are the following:
A. Largely useless in solving crimes.
B. Largely useless in preventing crimes.
C. Squandering tax dollars

D. Hampering real crime prevention by sidelining limited resources.

Podcast Smörgåsbord 2: NFL Rants and Raves

After presenting This Week in Tech as the first item on the menu, I've got another one to offer.

NFL Rants & Raves: Bringing American Football to the World. Crafted with love by two brother-in-laws in Pasadena California, its the NFL from a fans perspective.

Steven is a die hard cowboys fan, Jeff picks a team at the start of every season, and that usually seals their fate for the year.

While most of their work goes entirely unpaid, this duo routinely picks over 70% correct over the course of the season, besting most paid analysts.If you're a British reader, you may have seen them in a guest spot on Sky Sports from time to time, or waltzing around the NFL games in London.

During the off-season, Steven and Jeff will put together about a show every week. The Draft, the training camps, division previews and the preseason are all covered, in anticipation of the season. But once the regular season is under way, it is without fail two shows a week, and almost without exception over two hours a show. It is entertaining while informing, rife logical and emotional opinions, bursting with a passion and a dash of sound effects.

As Jeff says, 'This is Edutainment people!'

If this isn't a word in the English language, perhaps it should be, because this show is routinely a highlight of my week. If you have even a sliver of interest in the NFL, this is well worth some time to try. It's free, after all.

Timing

April 22, Earth day!

The story I heard most on the radio today?

Oil rig exploding offshore Louisiana on Tuesday, and the Federal response to the 11 missing crew, and the 'potential environmental hazard' posed by it.

The timing is curious, because its a good story to run when trying to push an environmental agenda through a news cycle.

The blast also has interesting timing, because I would not be at all surprised if the causation of this blast was man made, and not a accident of neglect.

Coincidence's this good are always suspicious in my book.

National Sales Tax Looms Large

AP: 'After Obama adviser Paul Volcker recently raised the prospect of a value-added tax, or VAT, the Senate voted 85-13 last week for a nonbinding "sense of the Senate" resolution that calls the such a tax "a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America's economic recovery."
For days, White House spokesmen have said the president has not proposed and is not considering a VAT.
"I think I directly answered this the other day by saying that it wasn't something that the president had under consideration," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs"

Yep. It'll happen.

For the record, a Value Added Tax is nothing more then a tax on the individual, as the added cost and overhead of producing, transporting and retailing end-user products are only passed on to customers.

EU Flight Ban Results from Flawed Computer Models

FT.com: "The acknowledgement that the computer models were flawed is likely to provide ammunition for critics who believe that authorities have shown excessive caution. The closure of much of the airspace over Europe over the past five days is estimated to have cost airlines a total of $200m a day in lost revenue.
...
“It is a black box in certain areas,” Matthias Ruete, the EU’s director-general for mobility and transport, said on Monday, noting that many of the assumptions in the computer models were not backed by scientific evidence.
...
The acknowledgement that the computer models were flawed is likely to provide ammunition for critics who believe that authorities have shown excessive caution. The closure of much of the airspace over Europe over the past five days is estimated to have cost airlines a total of $200m a day in lost revenue."

To quote a man from the past, "Government is not a solution to the problem, Government is the problem". This would be comparable to my neighbors slashing my back tire every week day morning 5 minutes before I go to work, to keep my from getting in a car wreck on the way to work.
Am I safe from a wreck? Yes, yes I am.
Am I benefiting and happy due to this unasked for salvation offered by my neighbor?
NO! I cannot reach work!

Who votes this style of government into office?

Voters. Us.

Fortunately, the US side of the aviation system is a bit more free then the EU, for now anyways.

"“If you take the situation across the Atlantic, there the advice would probably be: don’t fly over the volcano. Otherwise, it is up to you to take the precautions necessary,” Mr Ruete said.

While the US system leaves air carriers with the responsibility to determine whether or not it is safe to fly “the American model is not a model of less safety”, he said. “You just need to look at the statistics to see that.”"

Side note: Wasn't it the computer models based on flawed data that were pointing us to make solutions to global warming?

Relentless Incompetence Scattered Across EU

FT.com: "Lufthansa, which says it is losing €25m ($34m, £22m) a day from the crisis, said it was “scandalous” for authorities to have imposed the ban on what appeared to be limited data from computer images, rather than flights testing safety.

Dubai’s Emirates airline said it was losing $10m a day, in part because of the accommodation and meals it is providing for about 6,000 stranded passengers.

“If this continues, then there won’t be any airliners left in Europe apart from Aeroflot,” said Vladimir Putin, the prime minister of Russia, which is less affected by the disruption.

Only 4,000 of the 24,000 flights that would normally operate on a Sunday across Europe were made, said Eurocontrol, the air-safety agency, which estimated that by Sunday night, more than 63,000 flights would have been cancelled.

“With 313 airports paralysed at the moment, the impact is already worse than 9/11,” said Olivier Jankovec, director-general of the airport group, ACI Europe. “More than 6.8m passengers have been affected so far and European airports have lost close to €136m."

And from Reuters:
"The International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimates airlines are losing $200 million a day from the shutdown, which has caused chaos well beyond the immediate European airspace closed. Most airlines will be uninsured for this loss, although insurer Munich Re said on Friday it would consider offering cancellation insurance in future should the crisis produce demand."

This humble blogger asks; Why is this ban in place?

Here's how this scenario should work:
Let them fly.

If the skies are to dangerous and clogged with the Ash of Eyjafjallajokull, then the Airlines will not fly. The risk of loosing a plane in a cloud of smoke far outweighs the benefits of making just another flight.
However, if the skies are clear enough to fly in, then there is business to do and money to make, and the flights will take place when and where they are needed.

This is not an overly complicated situation, until the government muddles in. After the government takes command of the situation, there is suddenly an expectation of safety at the hands of an agency, and the bureaucracy begins to play a game of C.Y.A. as the days grind on.

With no loss of revenue, and the only risk to the agency being flights leaving too early, with an unreasonable expectation of safety, Because the airlines liability has been removed, with the responsibility for safety falling upon the shoulders of an agency, the delay for returning to flights will be longer then necessary. As a result, millions lost.

But this money is not lost by the hands of the EU, it is losses born by the airlines themselves, wallowing in the mandates of a government that has no monetary liability at stake.

With such a set up, nothing but bureaucratic inefficient incompetence can be expected.

There is no end in sight for this kind of unmitigated inefficiency and market intervention, and only further economic harm can result. Don't be fooled by believing this is limited only to Europe, such actions as this harm the developing nations the most. Agriculture is the most time sensitive product shipped globally, As the bountiful harvest of Africa, Asia and South America rots upon the loading ramps, the fascist of Europe dither onward into statism.

I take no pleasure in saying this, but the incompetence of man governing each other is a universal feature of society, and limited to no single society.

Tax Day

Our Government, Pushing Grants

Hat Tip to an excellent post at Grumpy Old Men by W. B. Picklesworth for an excellent post.

A preview:

"Just like with credit card companies, the federal government is trying to create dependency. Actually, there is another group of people that operates like this,... drug dealers. "Here, try this. You'll like it. It's free." The thing is, it isn't free. It's very, very expensive. Notice the pretty people pictures? 'Going to the government for a handout is sexy!' This is troubling."

Podcast Smorgasbord 1: This Week in Tech

The thought occurred to me while I was listening to a podcast on my recent overland journey through the heart of Texas, that the shows I listen to can have a profound affect on what I produce for this blog. The ideas, concepts, discussions, news and chatter that I crave in podcasts all carry into my every day life. As such, I'm going to start a run linking to and showcasing the podcasts I enjoy.

To built a framework of understanding for ya'll, here's what podcasts do for me. I listen to about 10-14 hours of podcasts a week, along with 3 to 4 hours a week of whatever audible.com audiobook I'm churning though.

Driving, working out at the gym, mowing the yard, relaxing, playing a video games and cooking are all actions that use my hands, but largely leave my mind open and able to think, and I like to take advantage of that by listening to audio programming. Its both relaxing and stimulating, and largely commercial free, and is a wonderful medium.

I'm starting with TWiT, This Week in Tech. It is the longest running podcast on my computer, and has had staying power over the years. TWiT is a once weekly panel show hosted by Leo Laporte, a computer guy with personality and an unyielding excitement for the next stage in technology. Joining him for about 2 hours to discuss the tech news of the week is a rotating cast of technology journalists, columnists, and technology pioneers.

The show is focused primarily on developments on the Internet, but subjects range far and wide from cars to cell phones, batteries to Jupiter, HD Video to Intel processors. Its an eccentric and entertaining ensemble, and keeps me coming back week after week. I may not listen to every show in a year, but TWiT is the show I eagerly reach for to stay current with the big news in the tech world.

While its political leanings are generally left leaning, it remains remarkably a-poltical, and I recommend it without hesitation.

The Brilliance of Georgia's 4th

If you haven't seen this clip of Congressman Hank Johnson's stellar performance in a House hearing on stationing an additional 8,000 US military personal in Guam, let this piece of action thrill your hair follicles.



Ladies and Gentlemen, Hank Johnson of Georgia's 4th District.
This year, the American people will pay $169,300 to Mr. Johnson for his upstanding efforts at upholding the constitution.

If this stellar district sounds familiar, it should. The voters there are responsible for electing one particular Congresswoman of note, not for her unrivaled legislative prowess, nor for her supreme acts of statesmanship, but for vastly different reasons.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Cynthia McKinney.
2008 Green Party Presidential Nominee, US Congresswoman for 8 years, and one noted moment of assault on a police officer while serving in office.

People of Georgia's 4th District, what's wrong with you?

Petraeus for President?

There's a column in the Telegraph, a newspaper hailing from across the pond calling for US General David Petraeus to run for President.

It's actually a pretty thoughtful piece, and made me start to ponder, could Petraeus be a new Ike?

Then do a quick image search for the two, and the results made me cringe.

Whats going on with all the brass on Petraeus? It looks like a bad movie prop for a banana republic dictator.

David, while I believe you have no ambition to run, please, change the way you're wearing the uniform.

Side Note: Palin/Petraeus could be a disaster waiting in the wings for the right.

This is Only the Beginning

Investor Business Daily has a marvelously excoriating piece of commentary and research on the soon-to-be impact of the FacistCare passed into law on 3/21.

A few of the nuggets of gold here, but the whole article is well worth reading and sharing.

"6. You must buy a policy that covers ambulatory patient services, emergency services, hospitalization, maternity and newborn care, mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment; prescription drugs; rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices; laboratory services; preventive and wellness services; chronic disease management; and pediatric services, including oral and vision care.
You're a single guy without children? Tough, your policy must cover pediatric services. You're a woman who can't have children? Tough, your policy must cover maternity services. You're a teetotaler? Tough, your policy must cover substance abuse treatment. (Add your own violation of personal freedom here.) (Section 1302).
...
13. If you are a physician owner and you want to expand your hospital? Well, you can't (Section 6001 (i) (1) (B). Unless, it is located in a country where, over the last five years, population growth has been 150% of what it has been in the state (Section 6601 (i) (3) ( E)). And then you cannot increase your capacity by more than 200% (Section 6001 (i) (3) (C)).
...
15. The government will extract a fee of $2.3 billion annually from the pharmaceutical industry. If you are a pharmaceutical company what you will pay depends on the ratio of the number of brand-name drugs you sell to the total number of brand-name drugs sold in the U.S. So, if you sell 10% of the brand-name drugs in the U.S., what you pay will be 10% multiplied by $2.3 billion, or $230,000,000. (Under reconciliation, it starts at $2.55 billion, jumps to $3 billion in 2012, then to $3.5 billion in 2017 and $4.2 billion in 2018, before settling at $2.8 billion in 2019 (Section 1404)). Think you, as a pharmaceutical executive, know how to better use that money, say for research and development? Tough. (Section 9008 (b))"

The best part?

When taxes are raised on the industries we pay for health care, who is that passed on to?

Consumers, the little guy, us, ect.

So the price goes up for the insurance companies making the payments on such taxes across the board, as does the price the government has to pay out for its medical welfare system.

Where does that money for the government come from?

Taxpayers, the little guy, us, ect.

So the price goes up for Americans on both ends, and the government has yet another civilization decaying arm to tattoo with the destroyed wealth of Americans.

1x1100, New Look

Well, its been a long voyage, but this fair blog has reached 1,100 posts.

Thats a lot of me pecking a keyboard, and a lot of ya'll reading these said pecks. I really appreciate your comments, they make it worth the time to run a blog of this sort.

In the words of Joel of Seventh Sola,

"Yikes, what happened to your blog template?"

Well, after 4 years of the same color scheme, and one that was starting to hurt my eyes, I decided it was time for a change.
Since Apple and Google seem to have great luck with White backgrounds, I'm trying that out. Orange is a pretty accent color, so thats the other one.
Any thoughts and critiques or complaints on it would be most welcome!

If you're interested in the further blogging adventures and a laugh, check out Grumpy Old Men, a co-oporative blog of Ect run by some crazy old timers and one youngin'.

Old man Dingell Comes Down From the Mt. With Wisdom

"The Honorable John D. Dingell" of Michigan, the longest serving congressman in the US house and the 3rd longest serving in US history.

Since 1955, he has taken his life to DC to represent western Detroit, crusading for nationalized health care as his calling card. At the beginning of every session, he has produced a bill that would lead to such a result, and this must be one blisteringly wonderful payoff for his years of slavish dedication to the facist ideal.

"It takes a long time to administer the necessary steps...to control the people"

Atlas Shrugs Once Again, Congress Harms America

AP: "Summoned to success by President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled Congress approved historic legislation Sunday night extending health care to tens of millions of uninsured Americans and cracking down on insurance company abuses, a climactic chapter in the century-long quest for near universal coverage.

Widely viewed as dead two months ago, the Senate-passed bill cleared the House on a 219-212 vote. Republicans were unanimous in opposition, joined by 34 dissident Democrats.

Obama watched the vote in the White House's Roosevelt Room with Vice President Joe Biden and about 40 staff aides. When the long sought 216th vote came in — the magic number needed for passage — the room burst into applause and hugs. An exultant president exchanged a high-five with his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel."

The fallout from this will be catastrophic in every sense imaginable. A balanced budget can go to hell. The constitution be damned. Every citizen of the United States can die in line at a government institution that has only yet begun to wallow in the mire of government bureaucracy. The kids we birth today will be raised in an nation where the rights of man are those granted solely at the discretion of society, a world where the government serves not the people, but its own ends.

A society where men and women are elected to govern the theft of labor and wealth to encourage and subsidize the parasites of nations. Those who prey upon the productive to survive in futility.

This is what we have once again come to, Fascism at the hands of a legislature. Fascism paid for by naught but borrowed and printed money in manner that is empirically and entirely untenable.

Mr. President, you have once again demonstrated your supreme, constant and overriding desire to ruin my country, and scar its face to a point where it is an insult to the United States to call this America any longer.

The Sword of Arrogance

Looking at the data from a recent Gallup Poll, the Obama administration is now surrounded by a nation rife with disapproval and steadily reducing approval rates, even to the unusual point of having more disapproval then approval.

For an elected official, this is untenable. To what end does the Democrat party and Barrak Obama persist in pushing this health care take over?

Unions? Campaign donations from the Medical establishment? The will of the voters? Personal vendetta? The animal spirits? Its baffling, but I am more sure now naught good will pass the legislature then before.

But in the long run? This may be the rock upon which the Democrat party shatters itself for the coming decade.

Pharmaceuticals to push Obama-Care

Politico: "The drug industry, which has held off running ads until officials sign off on the final reconciliation bill, is growing more comfortable with the emerging legislation and is preparing a substantial pro-reform ad buy in 43 Democratic districts, according to a senior industry source. The amount and timing of the buy have not yet been set and hinge largely on action in the House. Still, the development is a substantial step forward from Monday morning, when industry officials, coming off a tough weekend of negotiating with Democratic staffers, said there were no ads in the works. The movement should also help appease the White House, which has been leaning on the industry to provide Democrats air cover, according to industry sources."

History has witnessed this before, and it appears my generation will see this again.

When government muscles in on the private sector to improve things, only the biggest players in the market benefit. The Railroads and Airlines are beacons of warning in this regard.

Why would the drug companies be in favor of this kind of legislation?

A. They can set prices without competition. In the market place where a motley assortment of customers demand medication, there is at least a modicum of price competition. Reduced though it may be because of patent legislation, it is by far superior to a single payer government system. What this boils down to, do we want to pay through the ears in taxes for medication, or have some competition in drug prices?

B. With a government take over comes stalled innovation. Why spend money on Research and Development when a single payer does not demand it? Even if there is demand, there is no incentive to improve upon medication, because the wheels of federal bureaucracy move slowly, and the contracts are not fluid.

In essence, legislation like Obama-care is a gold mine for Pharmaceuticals. They can charge more for existing medications, and avoid the expensive and risky proposition of further research.

IRS Pursues Tax Evaders. The Really Big Ones.

Sacramento Bee: "Arriving at Harv's Metro Car Wash in midtown Wednesday afternoon were two dark-suited IRS agents demanding payment of delinquent taxes. "They were deadly serious, very aggressive, very condescending," says Harv's owner, Aaron Zeff.

The really odd part of this: The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff's on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was ... 4 cents.

Inexplicably, penalties and taxes accruing on the debt – stemming from the 2006 tax year – were listed as $202.31, leaving Harv's with an obligation of $202.35."

Government priorities, obviously in the right order.

And to borrow a thought from a commenter,

'Why did they send 2 agents? So they could get their two cents worth!"

Still, I would like to see this man, our Secretary of the Treasury, visited by the IRS agents he controls:

WSJ.com:
"According to Mr. Geithner, he initially failed to pay payroll taxes on income he received from the International Monetary Fund in 2001, and then repeated the error in the three subsequent years, despite the help of an accountant. Apologizing to the committee, he took responsibility for what he called "careless" and "avoidable" mistakes while insisting they were unintentional. He acknowledged signing an IMF statement at the time that he understood he had been reimbursed to pay those self-employment taxes, adding that he should have read the statement more carefully."

1 Pixel = $1Mil

(Click to Embiggen)

(H/T to www.dvorak.org/blog)

"All of the sudden 100 billion doesn't seem like much, and Bernie Madoff looks like an angel compared to the people who approved this waste of taxpayer money"

Paper knows no bounds

AP: "President Barack Obama scolded Virgina Republican Rep. Eric Cantor for the stack of paper he brought with him to the health summit, calling it the type of political stunt that gets in the way of lawmakers having a serious conversation.

Cantor said he brought a copy of the 2,400-page Senate bill and the 11-page proposal Obama posted online earlier in the week."

What a leader!

Crowding Out the Market

Critiques of our Academic Financing System

Mises.org: "But economic theory has yet another lesson to teach us. Because the supply of students who can afford college is artificially inflated due to the subsidized loans, colleges and universities have found that they can get away with raising their tuitions to stratospheric levels.

"Because the supply of students who can afford college is artificially inflated due to the subsidized loans, colleges and universities have found that they can get away with raising their tuitions to stratospheric levels."
Nevertheless, the students keep on coming, both because the loans are so cheap and easy to obtain, and because the education establishment has an arsenal of statistics and slogans at the ready to describe the huge financial gains to be had from earning a college degree. "The huge debt is worth it," they say. "You'll make it all back after a few years."

At one time this was probably true for most students; but now an increasing number of students are finding that the crushing debt required to attend most four-year universities simply isn't worth it, especially in light of the abysmal job market.

To make matters worse, the recession has prompted many universities to raise their tuitions even higher. According to a new study by the Project on Student Debt,

"Data show that for the past few years, around two-thirds of students graduating from four-year colleges had student-loan debt. The average amount these students owe has grown about six percent per year since 2003–04, reaching $23,200 for the class of 2008. For comparison, in 1996, only 58 percent of students graduated with debt, and they owed an average of $13,200."

Currently, only 70% of those under 20 who want to be employed have a job. This is not counting those who do not seek a job, and thus are not a part of the labor market.

Those recent graduates who can't work usually go to school, because that's what every has advised since grade school. They go to school to find out what they want to do, and bandy about the system for a few semesters on entirely borrowed money, and may or may not have a career yielding degree by the end.

The average graduate will have over $23,000 in debt. In the past, its been get a job, got to school, get done. Now, we have a situation where borrowing to pay for school has become the norm, and my generation will be paying student loans off for nearly the next 2 decades. It is not unlikely that many people going to class will finish paying off their student loans when their kids are about to start high school.

The other option, historically, has been to get a job, get to work and get things done but that option is far less prevalent, and far less available, because the entry level jobs that are available to high school grads are disappearing. Employers will not loose money hiring people, and if a job is only worth $6 an hour, the employer cannot pay $7 and make a profit with that employee.

Thus, we have those who are academically inept and unable to get a scholarship, unable to find any variety of gainful employment, borrowing up to their eyebrows in quicksand to pay for school because that is what they have been advised to do. Or they just list aimlessly for years before acquiring the same job they could have had, at the same skill level at Jr year in high school.

The end result of subsidized student loans, government academic grants and minimum wage?

A rationally lethargic, debt saturated, unthinking generation of adults, exorbitant prices for higher education whilst simultaneously removing the incentive and option to be a producing member of the labor force

Solutions?

Cease subsidized Federal Student Loans, University grants, government scholarships (GI bill notwithstanding) and educational tax shelters. They inflated the system to begin with.

Abolish the minimum wage law, it only narrows the market place down to those who are already employed.

Patton Says....

Cost of Obama Spending

Here is a unique perspective on the proposed increase in the US Federal Debt limit by $1.9 Trillion to $14.3 Trillion.

Thats a lot of money.

I mean, a LOT of money.

Like, money being sprayed out the nozzle of Old Faithful, albeit far more regular and more expensive.

This is just the debt, not any variety of spending within the federal revenue.

So, without further ado...

This debt expansion is equivalent to more then 20 Hurricane Katrina's.
This Debt ceiling is equivalent to more then 150 Hurricane Katrina's.


Thats a lot. of. debt.
May our children forgive us.

Hitler's Reaction to Brown

"Rush Limbaugh swore a pact with the Devil, so he knew Obama would fail. True story."

This is a video put together by a fellow right winger, subtitling a clip from the German film Downfall.
Hysterical work.

Beam Me Up Scotty

We have found intelligent life in this state.

"“I never thought I’d see the day when a Republican replaces Ted Kennedy,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino told the Herald last night. “I think Scott Brown caught the wave of anger that’s out there, and the wave of anti-Obama.”

A Rasmussen Reports poll found one in five Democrats supported Brown, who benefited from high suburban turnout to beat Coakley by 52 to 47 percent."

Coupled with the New Jersey and Virgina elections in the recent past, the interim elections have become a surprising measurement of the discontent in the electorate.

So Kennedy dies while in the senate, after doing incalculable damage to my country over the years. His last dying wish is to pass the Bolshevik health care legislation. His seat is taken by an upstart republican, surging into the senate on the wave of a Boston Tea Party. There is a good chance the senate bill will stall, marking Kennedy's double defeat.

The Lord does work in mysterious ways.

A Fresh Take on Airport Security

NY Times: "“Meet Mikey Hicks,” said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. “It’s not a myth.”

Michael Winston Hicks’s mother initially sensed trouble when he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to Florida at an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name “was on the list,” she recalled.

The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried.

After years of long delays and waits for supervisors at every airport ticket counter, this year’s vacation to the Bahamas badly shook up the family. Mikey was frisked on the way there, then more aggressively on the way home.

"Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch, someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal," Mrs. Hicks recounted. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked.”
...
Before leaving for the Bahamas on Jan. 2, she reached out to Congressman Pascrell’s office, which then enlisted a T.S.A. agent to meet the family at the airport. Even this did not prevent Mikey from an extra pat-down.

On the way home last Friday, Mikey’s boarding pass showed four giant red S’s at the airport in Nassau. “Oh, random screening,” Mrs. Hicks said. ... Mrs. Hicks said she wanted to take pictures of her son being frisked but was told it was against the rules.""

In the words of Paine's Common Sense, "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. "

The TSA has become naught but a ponderous, intolerable, unsustainable blight upon the world.

To wit,

Mandatory removal of shoes

Inhospitable 4oz of liquid limit

Exclusion of all blades, tweezers, ect...

Now, coming to you from the main stage...

Terahertz Scanners that provide full color nude images of each Human passing though,

Terahertz Scanners that have the potential to rend your DNA into base proteins.

Under the guise of security, we are being adjusted to a posture of acceptance of draconian checkpoints, invasive regulation of inconsequential items, and a violation of all claims to physical space, even regarding children.

All of this misses the real point however, and it is a simple one. Why should the government me operating a Transportation Security Administration? The principle is that because the transportation in air is public space, then the government must maintain its security.

To follow this to its logical conclusion, we should be subject to screenings for the purposes of driving, biking, walking, riding a bus or train as well. These are in public and often on public roads, yet we would consider the suggestion foolhardy and wasteful.

Yet, air travel is regarded differently, for reasons I have yet to fathom.

Perhaps the numerous government bailouts of the failing industry has lashed them so tightly together that no other option is weighed beyond the onerous force of centralized governmental control.

If the airlines want pre-screened security, let them provide it themselves. I have no doubt they could do no worse then my government is doing now.

The Real Question

Some questions ring eternal, echoing down the chambers of history with no reserve.

My president, Mr. Obama, has asked just such a question.

"“How many times is Biden gonna say something stupid?”"

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Delaware, told Missouri State Senator Chuck Graham to stand up. Graham is confined to a wheelchair.

NFL Wild Card Weekend

Picks:

Bengals over Jets

Eagles over Cowboys

Ravens over Patriots

Packers over Cardinals

EDIT:

Well, saturday did not go well for me.

Numbers that Speak Good News

Among other sites, I enjoy reading The American Blog, run by the American Enterprise Institute. I found this today, and it is one of those cases where the numbers speak for themselves, and neat little colored bars only help with that.

Look at 4 of the more influential particles of legislation in American history.

Now, look at the astronomically large bills passed by this congress.

(Hat tip to Nick Schultz)

Also interesting to note is the congressional approval rate of this current congress, especially when compared with congresses of yore.

Here's a helpful chart for that too!

As the hope of the right is that Obama will repeat the days of Carter & Reagan, so to the hope burns that this congressional election will be similar to the 1994 collapse of a democrat majority in Congress.