– Lets keep up the marriage equality momentum from last year.
– Random Thoughts on Spreading the Blame for a Cop Killing
– The Northgate pedestrian bridge is in danger.
– Law enforcement people claiming that they’re going to half ass their job need to not be there.
– I had not wondered before now how Santa poops. Probably because he’s magic.
– FYI, I probably won’t have an Open Thread on Friday.
Their whole Hands Up Don’t Shoot movement in tatters after the events of this weekend, liberals have a new plan.
They’re going Westboro:
According to a CNN reporter who was on the scene in Brooklyn on Monday at a memorial honoring the fallen officers, a group of protesters stormed the commemorative service and began screaming at the attending officers (h/t The Blaze).
While reporting on this episode, Sara Ganim made an effort to insist that the vast majority of those who attended this memorial were supportive of the NYPD. Her efforts could not have been more thoroughly undermined, however, by the sounds of angry protesters whom she had to speak over in order to be heard.
“I do, just in full disclosure, want to say that in the last couple of minutes, for the first time today, we’ve seen protesters come out here and start yelling at groups of police who are mourning their slain police officers,” Ganim ultimately conceded.
http://hotair.com/archives/201.....-officers/
Not a good look.
Paul Constant @paulconstant
Just got word that Columbia City’s wonderful @ArkLodgeCinemas is showing The Interview on Christmas. http://slog.thestranger.com/sl.....451849549e …
Retweeted by Goldy
Or, you can reduce your carbon footprint by staying home with your loved ones and support free speech by sending some dollars Google’s way:
‘The Interview’ Will Reportedly Be Available On VOD Via YouTube
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....77116.html
Although this whole thing is an evil Rethuglican plot:
GOP to back ‘The Interview’ if it gets to theaters
Dec 20th 2014 9:25PM
http://www.aol.com/article/201...../21119417/
Because freedom.
– Law enforcement people claiming that they’re going to half ass their job need to not be there.
How do you feel about pilots?
The nation’s third-largest airline contends that pilots have stopped requesting voluntary overtime to pressure the company in ongoing contract talks. Delta calls the move an “illegal job action” that has forced it to cancel hundreds of flights since last month.
The union denies initiating a work slowdown.
The airline said it canceled 386 flights between Friday and Sunday, affecting 43,000 travelers. The union said crew unavailability caused only 274 flights to be canceled during that period.
http://abcnews.go.com/Travel/d.....?id=118599
Teachers?
If a teacher’s union gives moral support to “sickout” protests, and elected union representatives send out organizing emails, can the union honestly claim they’re not involved? If all these elements are present, does the union still possess plausible deniability?
Those are the questions raised after CompleteColorado.com has obtained emails from a school’s elected union rep of the Jefferson County Education Association (JCEA) urging teachers to participate in sickouts to protest the new school board leadership elected last November.
http://completecolorado.com/pa.....sick-outs/
The common thread? Unions.
From your link:
But this just sounds like blackmail to me
Indeed.
“Their whole Hands Up Don’t Shoot movement in tatters after the events of this weekend, liberals have a new plan.”
LMFAO! Dream on, Bob.
The mere thought of a black James Bond has Rush and Bob freaking out.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014.....idris-elba
Here’s something that really is in tatters, Bob.
“GOP Quietly Admits There’s No IRS Scandal Involving The White House”
http://crooksandliars.com/2014.....rs-scandal
Benghazi!
@1 Since when weren’t you a fan of the WBC? You seem to denounce them protesting a soldier’s funeral or the likes, but what about their anti-gay message? That seems perfectly fine freedom of speech with you.
False equivalency. The police “protesters” at least have something to protest about. How do you equate that to what the WBC protests against. You can’t. You have no argument.
@2 marriage equality – that isn’t freedom? Nice that the Republicans can cherry pick freedom and spit in the face of freedom when they want.
Sony said in a statement that it will become available at around 1 p.m. ET on Christmas Eve.
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/2.....l-release/
$5.99 to rent.
On a related note, Obama has issued an executive order to the IRS that this rental expense will be reimbursed as a tax credit on your 2014 1040, including the ES version, to all federal employees enjoying December 26th as a paid holiday, provided they check the box verifying that they did, in fact, watch the movie as part of their holiday.
@3 a fight for better working conditions. That really bothers you? Do you want some cheese with that whine?
“Obamacare exchanges and subsidies get overwhelming public support”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/.....sp-support
And that’s with all the right-wing lies they keep telling about their very own Heritage Foundation/Mitt Romney health care plan – the only health care plan you wingnuts have ever come up with and ever will. The only “plan” you have left is to take away insurance coverage from millions of Americans. I’m sure that’ll play out well for you.
Suck much being triangulated by the socialist Kenyan usurper?
Workers fighting for better working conditions and salary – bad.
Wall street workers getting thousands in bonuses – good.
@ 10
Did you even read your own link or just the stuff dKos highlighted, Steve?
However, as the employer requirement takes effect in January for firms with 100 or more workers, Americans’ initial opinions of the provision are malleable, particularly if they hear it may cause some employers to move workers from full time to part time. Similarly, opinions on the individual mandate can change when more information is provided.
Despite the individual provisions receiving high marks, opinion of the law overall remains stable with 46 percent reporting an unfavorable view and 41 percent reporting a favorable view.
Steve, HA already has a YLB. There’s really no need for a second cheerleader. You disappoint me.
“On a related note, Obama has issued an…”
Geez, I see someone is reduced making shit up again. Just like the altered Fox “Kill a cop” audio. Just like the IRS “scandal”. Just like Benghazi! Death panels, anybody?
It appears you guys really do have plan, Bob. When you’ve got nothing, you make shit up!
“You disappoint me.”
OMG! I have a sad! Good thing your snide racist bullshit never disappoints.
Kaiser Foundation poll favorables:
Employer mandate – 60%
Exchanges – 78%
Subsidy assistance to individuals – 76%
Medicaid expansion – 75%
“However, as the employer requirement…”
Geez, Bob, it’s not like a plan dreamed up by the Heritage Foundation in a fit of Hillary-hate isn’t going to have a few flaws.
Patience, Bob. Hillary will soon enough be president and then we’ll see single-payer put in place by dictatorial decree. You people think Obama is a tyrannical dictator? Just wait until you a load of Hillary! LMFAO!
Speaking @ 1 of not a good look:
CUNY newspaper editorial calls for violent protests
“The problem with the protesters’ violence in Ferguson is that it is unorganized. If the violence was to be organized, and the protesters armed — more so than the few that sparingly are — then the brunt of social pressures would not be laid onto middling proprietors [of looted small businesses], but unto those deserving the most virulent response of an enraged populace,” Barnes writes in the CUNY Grad Center’s publication.
http://nypost.com/2014/12/24/c.....-protests/
And then there’s that whole English professor arrest for assaulting police assault, rioting, weapon possession, etc. thing.
Keep it up. 2016 is just around the corner.
Go Marco, Go! Bob has your back!
Another reason why Gun Lovers think background checks are not effective.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/dog-shoots-man
Bob is this the freedom that you speak of so fondly?
http://www.queerty.com/indiana.....e-20141224
Ho, Ho, Ho.
Uber emailed New York City users of its taxi-hailing app, UberT, Wednesday to notify them that it would begin charging a $2 fee for the previously free service.
…
But Uber’s email suggested that the real goal of the new fee is to push more users towards the company’s low-cost ride-sharing service, UberX (emphasis Uber’s):
We want to take this opportunity to introduce uberX, the low-cost Uber. Cars on uberX are hybrids or mid-range vehicles in a variety of colors, and with rates cheaper than an NYC taxi, there’s no better way to get around!
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/l.....ailing-fee
I hear you can get a screamingly good deal on a taxi medallion these days. Makes a perfect holiday gift. And the best thing is, since they’re produced in limited quantity, they will hold their value forever!
Bob, here is more freedom for you.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/l.....ay-men-nfl
Poor Bob. The klownservative paradise we’d have if only the money of R-Money’s supporters had the intended effect.
Did R-Money put any of his own money into the game? Pffftt.. Naah that skinflint was only a billionaire in a offshore bank account sort of way. Getting filthy rich using OPM was a second religion to the guy. Attaining power the same way was a gimme.
@ 22
Did R-Money put any of his own money into the game? Pffftt.. Naah that skinflint was only a billionaire in a offshore bank account sort of way.
Romney is a millionaire, some 350 times over, YLB.
Billionaire is the guy who employs Goldy.
Yeah right Bob. Sure. My point being with his offshore activity, we’ll probably never know.
Given the public information of his holdings in various companies and the lucre from the deals made – WE KNOW a lot more about Hannauer.
You’re pretty thick there old Bob. Too much egg nog?
In other news, a right wing ASS remains an ASS:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....75652.html
Uhh no.. Stupid Sheriff Joe. Beneficiaries of Obama’s policy must show they’ve been in this country for 5 years, paid taxes and kept their nose clean. New border jumpers need not apply.
Tied with Issa for the biggest klown on the right.
An opinion from the deep south:
http://www.al.com/opinion/inde.....it_yo.html
Too damn funny… Wow ODS has been soooooo.. good for the man on the street in the South.
But someone one like Bob or the village idiot troll admit they were WRONG??? Oh noes. It’ll never happen.
Crickets from the GOP:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-ma.....al-silence
Maybe I wouldn’t go that far. Things were good in 2000 and we got Bush.. Things weren’t that great in 2012 and Obama handily defeated the hapless R-Money.
Won’t stop us from hitting this over head of our trolls. HAHAHAHA!
@ 27
I’d be worried about some current trends continuing if I were you, YLB:
CoOportunity Health, a fledgling Iowa health-insurance company set up under the Affordable Care Act, has been taken over by by state regulators and could soon go under, officials said Wednesday.
CoOportunity Health is an insurance cooperative set up to give consumers and small businesses an alternative in a market with few choices. The company relied on tens of millions of dollars in federal loan guarantees provided under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. It began selling policies in 2013.
Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart said Wednesday morning that CoOportunity Health has about 120,000 members in Iowa and Nebraska, and only has about $17 million in cash and assets. Gerhart said the company had expected more federal money but didn’t receive it. “It’s a difficult situation,” he said.
…
The court papers say that CoOportunity’s net cash and investments had dropped from $121.5 million on Oct. 31 to $17 million on Dec. 12.
The insurance division said the company is no longer taking applications, and anyone who signed up with it after Dec. 16 will need to switch carriers.
http://www.desmoinesregister.c...../20856151/
Really, I don’t think you HA libbies understand how gawdawful ACA is in so many areas of the country, because it happens to be going well here – Goldy was certainly happy earlier this year. Give this two more years, the effects of numerous additional waivers by the White House kicking the problem cans further down the road, and a possible very adverse decision by SCOTUS, and your high hopes for 2016 are more like high fantasy.
Maryland. Oregon. Vermont. Iowa.
You can continue, as Steve @ 10 has done, to point out popular support for various concepts addressed in some ways by ACA. No argument from me that they are popular. Seemingly free stuff usually is. But the application of the law is a perversion of many of those concepts.
It’s going to get worse.
I think you know that. So does Hillary Clinton.
“Really, I don’t think you HA libbies understand how gawdawful ACA is in so many areas of the country”
Because you have one example of co-op with a bad business plan based handouts they’re not going to get. Must run by Republicans.
Yeah, health care is tanking. Investors are fleeing, and it’s the Kenyan usurper’s gawdawful ACA’s fault!
http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$DJUSHP
Huh! How about that! Stocks soaring in all health care industry sectors. Maybe you should send them all an email, Bob, and let them know that they’re all fucking stupid and doomed by that gawdawful ACA. Point them to the Co-op stupes with the bad business plan and let them know that this is their fate if they don’t listen to you.
From link @1: “Part of the reason for the major public rift between New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and the police forces he commands has been the freedom that anti-police protesters have enjoyed over the past several weeks.”
Uh-huh. So the NYC police, and Blowhard Bob along with them, are against citizens exercising their constitutional rights? No surprise there.
We’ve now had multiple tragedies — several killings of unarmed civilians by deranged cops, and several killings of cops by deranged civilians — and the right predictably is politicizing these episodes and using them to divide the country. Fuck you unpatriotic assholes.
@3 “How do you feel about pilots? Teachers?”
Exactly the same way I feel about all other workers: Since December 18, 1865, following adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, no one in this country is required to work against his or her free will.
Just as offering someone employment is optional under our system, showing up for work, and working, also are optional under our system.
@5 “GOP Quietly Admits There’s No IRS Scandal Involving The White House”
Right on the heels of “GOP Quietly Admits There’s No Benghazi Scandal Involving The White House”
Of course, I’ve opted out of working, because the pickings are better on the capitalist side of the capitalist-worker equation.
“So does Hillary Clinton.”
Yeah, single payer, here we come. And about time.
Obama only went this route because it was a Republican plan, it would at least help some people, and he would surely see some Republicans on-board and it’d pass through Congress with bipartisan support. My God, Bob, it was birthed at the Heritage Foundation! It was nurtured by Mitt Romney! It is the Republican plan. In fact, aside from tax cuts for the rich, senseless war and shooting unarmed black people on sight, it is the only plan you’ve came up with in over half a century.
Obama apparently didn’t know you shits as well as we do. He should have know better and shoved single-payer down your throats.
@16 Did you click through and read the actual student editorial, Bob? It starts out,
“Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Ezell Ford, Ramarley Graham, Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Stephon Watts, Manuel Loggins Jr., Johnnie Kamahi Warren, Raymond Allen, Justin Sipp, Melvin Lawhorn, Bo Morrison, Nehemiah Dillard, Wendell Allen, Kendrec Lavelle McDade, Patrick Dorismond, Orlando Barlow, Ousmane Zongo, Akai Gurley, Malcolm Ferguson, Timothy Stansbury, Ronald Madison, James Brissette, Aaron Campbell, Steve Eugene Washington, Timothy Russell, Larry Jackson Jr., Jonathan Ferrell, Jordan Baker, and Michael Brown. These are just some of the names of, mostly young, black men (and boys) killed by law enforcement since the dawn of the new millennium. They were all unarmed. The above list does not include the names of black men assaulted and maimed by police, and is simply just scratching the surface of the human toll that state violence has wrought.”
Really, Bob, you can hardly blame the editorial writer for feeling pissed off, can you now? And, approaching the issue logically, why should cops have a monopoly on gratuitous violence? It’s a question worth asking. But I’m not endorsing the editorial’s recommendations. I think everyone on all sides should take a deep breath and stop torturing and murdering each other.
Btw, Bob, why weren’t you up in arms when the anti-government nutzos at the Bundy Ranch threatened the laws of law enforcement officers? Your outrage seems to be conveniently selective.
@23 “Romney is a millionaire, some 350 times over, YLB.”
Assuming he’s telling the truth about his assets, but we don’t really know whether he is, because he won’t let anyone see his 2009 tax return — the one that would reveal whether he’s one of the tax dodgers who received an IRS amnesty for using Swiss banks to hide assets and evade taxes.
@25 Here’s my post on that subject, if anyone is interested.
http://handbill.us/?p=40271
@29 ““Really, I don’t think you HA libbies understand how gawdawful ACA is in so many areas of the country”
And by a strange coincidence, what existed before ACA in those very same areas of the country was even gawdawfuler, which is why they have ACA now.
I mean, it’s not like ACA just sprang out of the woodword or something. It came into being as a response to a healthcare crisis that Republicans had ignored for 30 years and gave every sign of intending to continue ignoring for the rest of eternity.
“Uh-huh. So the NYC police, and Blowhard Bob along with them, are against citizens exercising their constitutional rights? No surprise there.”
Special rule for black people. Protest? Bad. Shopping for a BB gun? You might die. A 12 year-old playing at a playground? You might be shot two seconds after the police pull up. Walk down the street? Sell cigarettes on a sidewalk? Death! And once dead, Bob will gladly show up and tell us they had coming to them.
When it’s a bunch of white right-wing whackos at the Bundy ranch aiming their weapons at government authorities and threatening to shoot to kill, it’s good. Hannity chums with them. They’re right-wing fucking heroes. A couple of them assassinate two cops, and nothing is said by Bob. We read no condemnation by Bob of the ideology that led to that tragedy. But when a certifiably crazy black man murders a couple of cops, Bob shows up right on time with his altered audio tapes, courtesy of Fox News, ready to throw some his snide down on blacks for exercising their freedom to protest.
@ 39
Apparently you haven’t learned much from your ‘fleeing felon’ idiocy with respect to Michael Brown.
We’ve now had multiple tragedies — several killings of unarmed civilians by cops, and several cops murdered by deranged civilians — and the left predictably is politicizing these episodes and using them to divide the country. Fuck you unpatriotic assholes.
“We’ve now had multiple tragedies — several killings of unarmed civilians by cops, and several cops murdered by deranged civilians — and the left predictably is politicizing these episodes and using them to divide the country. Fuck you unpatriotic assholes.”
Fuck you asswipe. When the two cops in Nevada were murdered, that was inspired by your hate-filled right-wing extremist politics, Divide the country? That’s rich, coming from of piece of shit who would give a foreign corporation a swath of land from border to border, literally dividing this nation, sacrificing yet another long-held conservative principle, and for fewer than 50 permanent fucking jobs.
Fuck you and goat you rode in on. Oh, and a Merry Fucking Christmas to you.
‘fleeing felon’
Fuck you, too. Thanks to the prosecutor, you haven’t the slightest fucking clue what happened that day, who started it, and neither does anybody else except for one person. And since he’s a young black and you’re a fucking racist with fantasies of the black horde coming for you, you wouldn’t believe a fucking word he said anyway.
@42 What’s that got to do with the topic of @39?
@43 I’m sorry I have to write your material for you because you’re too stupid and illiterate to string together a coherent sentence of your own!
@1 Our friend, Bloviating Bob, has his panties in a twist about a handful of protesters chanting slogans at a makeshift street memorial for the two slain NYC police officers. I agree it’s in poor taste. But I disagree it descends to the level of Westboro demonstrations at soldiers’ funerals, or this:
“A makeshift memorial for Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, was crushed by police vehicles and a dog controlled by an officer urinated on the memorial site, hours after the black teen was shot dead by a white police officer, Mother Jones magazine reported, citing sources on Wednesday.”
http://www.ibtimes.com/mike-br.....rt-1671898
As I’ve noted before, Blowhole Bob’s outrage is very selective.
http://tinyurl.com/naxm6ho
Sigh 100 years ago for a short time on the killing field of France common soldiers of opposing sides wished each other Merry Christmas, exchanged presents, sang each other carols, and even played real football (you know it as soccer). The leaders didn’t listen to the common man and the killing went on for another five years, and celebrations with the common man on the other side of the no mans land were highly frowned upon by the higher ups. A little more good will maybe a truce…maybe peace…lot of maybes.
Whether one believes or not it’s true that violence begat violence. Yet it is so beguiling.
Here is to good will toward men. Merry Christmas! Marvelous Pagan Yule Tide!!! Happy Holidays!!1 Lucky New Year!!! Happy Hanukah!!! Or any other holiday salutations as horses asses need some cheer!!!
“False narrative that somehow NYPD cops are the threat” Only in your mind Lupica. Very few protesters, if any, are saying that NYPD cops are the threat. You see if you can get people to think that that is what is going on, then they’ll conveniently forget, ignore, sweep under the rug, that their could be a problem with policing in the United States with regard to race. Hands Up don’t Shoot doesn’t mean You NYPD Cop suck.
I have respect for the police, probably more than some have voiced their opinion here, but making this a war on NYPD cops is a false accusation, made to bury under the rug what is happening.
In CT, after the Governor and democratic legislature passed stricter gun laws after Newton, the biggest cry from the right was that it wasn’t the right time to talk about gun laws. Yeah, come up with some reason, however stupid that it may be, to not take up the conversation.
So Lupica falsely makes accusation that this is a warn on NYPD cops. Why does he stop with NYPD, just because he is a reporter to that local? Why not discuss how this is a war on all cops? He tries to make it more personal. And he doesn’t want anyone to discuss the possibility of bad policing in this country.
MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone! Including you misguided trolls.
@49 One of Faulkner’s later works, “A Fable,” uses this theme to expound about war. Some critics have panned it, but it won a Pulitzer Prize, and Faulkner (who spent over 10 years writing it) considered it his best work. It was the first book I read in Vietnam, when I was assigned to the ammo dump, and spent my spare time sitting on boxes of high-explosive artillery shells, book in hand.
@50 In fine conservative tradition, the police war against citizens has somehow morphed into citizens waging war against the police in the rightwing sausagemaking machine.
Let me ask this question: Who’s dying more in this war, cops or citizens? From available statistics, the body count appears to be at least 4-to-1 in favor of the cops.
And let me ask another question: Who started the shooting in recent high-profile encounters between cops and (a) several unarmed black men, (b) a black man buying a toy gun in a WalMart, and (c) a black boy playing with a toy gun in a public park? The term “war” implies two armed combatants. When only one side is armed, and randomly blows away people on the other side, most folks consider that “murder” not “war.”
Cheap shot Bob’s concern trolling over an “unpopular president” might be getting a bit more difficult:
http://www.latimes.com/nation/.....story.html
A Holiday gift to all our trolls!
@54 New figures show GDP growth hitting 5% in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Five percent!!! We’re seeing that Democratic Keynesian-based economic policies work. We’ve known since the 1930s that Republican austerity-based policies don’t work, and in fact, make recessions worse. Just look at Europe, which is floundering in recessions (and, in some countries, depressions equal in severity to the 1930s). In Europe, people in the countries with the most austere policies are the worst off. That’s what Republicans would impose on the U.S. if they got the chance.
Of course, Republicans love depressions because high unemployment keeps wages low and widespread financial distress enables the super-rich to pick up companies, stocks, and other assets dirt cheap.
@54 “A Holiday gift to all our trolls!”
I gave myself a bottle of Jack Daniels, to be opened after I lose weight and I’m off my diet.
49) There was a version of that during the Battle of the Bulge.
http://ba-ez.org/educatn/LC/OralHist/vincken.htm
We now know what the GOP solution to education funding is:
(1) Split school funding off the budget and require full finding,
(2) Include a provision prohibiting tax increases.
http://seattletimes.com/html/l.....onxml.html
This, of course, means bleeding the rest of state government to pay for McClearly and the class-size initiative passed by voters this fall.
Of course, they won’t tell us what state budget items they’ll take this money from. There aren’t many places you can get that much money. Basically, you have to close prisons and release criminals, raid Medicaid by closing nursing homes and kicking frail elderly people to the curb, or shut down virtually all social services (child abuse prevention, etc.).
This is the game Republicans always play. They promise to cut “waste, fraud, and abuse” from government spending, but never specify what that is. And when they’re pushed to the wall (as Paul Ryan was), what you see is smoke and mirrors.
Just got the February 2015 kindle edition of TRAINS Magazine, and in the locomotive column, an interesting photo sidebar. Tacoma Rail has leased two EMD SD70ACe-P4 locomotives, and besides being possibly some of the first new locomotives for the Tacoma PUD owned short line(the GenSet switcher and the GP22-ECO’ s are rebuilds, I believe, on older frames), they could be the first in another category, the first diesels to haul a freight train up Tacoma Gulch, the 3.5 percent grade under I-705, by the Brown and Haley plant without having to break in two trains, and recouple on top of the grade. The PUD has not bragged about it, not even mentioned on the roster on the Tacoma Rail website, although it is only a five year lease.
The P4 is an interesting variant of the SD70ACe, with only 4 axles equipped with traction motors, in a B1-1B wheel arrangement. It’s EMD’ s late answer to the GE ES44C4 Evolution locomotive.
Failed Republican policies.
http://www.politico.com/story/.....ml?hp=t1_r
Goldy @GoldyHA
Is there free market argument against the right to sell oneself into indentured servitude? RE @jontalton: Auto Equity http://nyti.ms/1wnSECL
Rise in Loans Linked to Cars Is Hurting Poor
Actually, there’s free market pushback against it. The market has to have an interest in what you’ve got to sell.
What’s the worse move?
Taking out a $4,000 high-interest loan to repair a 6 year-old car?
Or taking out long-term loans totalling $80-100k to finance an education in Critical Dance Theory or the like?
Chicago (22%), Philadelphia (35%) Law Schools Suffer Large Enrollment Declines
http://taxprof.typepad.com/tax.....ools-.html
The market has to have an interest in what you’ve got to sell. Some people are smart enough to realize that sooner than others.
@62 You don’t know a damn thing about how the economy actually works. I recommend this book for you:
http://www.amazon.com/Collater.....collateral
@63 All right, I’ll bite. What if that man or woman with the Critical Dance Theory degree uses his/her cultural skills to help prevent a nuclear war that would cost the world 2 billion human lives and $100 trillion of damage? Would that make a $100,000 degree in dance theory worth it? Should Jerome A. Hines have aspired to be a welder or plumber instead of an opera singer? You are a fucking idiot, Bob.
You’re especially a fucking idiot because you’re merely parroting rightwing talking points. Not only are you clueless, you don’t have an original thought of your own in that empty space between your ears. How the hell does a moron like you get through med school?
Speaking at a World Economic Forum panel discussion, David M. Rubenstein, the co-founder of the Carlyle Group, emphasized that humanities teach students to think critically, the New York Times reported. He said that particular skill is lost on many young people in school today, especially many who chose a more technical major.
Rubenstein’s assertion challenges the popular notion that students graduating with degrees in math, science, engineering and business will help curb unemployment among young adults.
“You shouldn’t enter college worried about what you will do when you exit,” Rubenstein, who majored in political science, said on the panel.
He also noted that many top Wall Street executives majored in humanities and they learned job skills after graduating. He said the study of technical majors is fine, but should not replace the study of philosophy, literature and other humanities courses.
The simplest answer to your idiocy, of course, is the obvious one: To recount the legions of highly successful people with “useless” degrees. These include: Ted Turner (classics), Conan O’Brien (history and American literature), J. K. Rowling (classics and French), Jamie Dimon (psychology; he’s CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, in case you don’t know that), and Steven Spielberg (history, Cal State, Long Beach). Are you doing as well as any of them, Bob?
Now let’s dig into some of the reasons for getting a “useless” degree:
“Speaking at a World Economic Forum panel discussion, David M. Rubenstein, the co-founder of the Carlyle Group, [a lawyer whose undergraduate degree is in science] emphasized that humanities teach students to think critically, the New York Times reported. He said that particular skill is lost on many young people in school today, especially many who chose a more technical major.
“Rubenstein’s assertion challenges the popular notion that students graduating with degrees in math, science, engineering and business will help curb unemployment among young adults.
“‘You shouldn’t enter college worried about what you will do when you exit,’ Rubenstein, who majored in political science, said on the panel. He also noted that many top Wall Street executives majored in humanities and they learned job skills after graduating.
“He said the study of technical majors is fine, but should not replace the study of philosophy, literature and other humanities courses.
http://www.universityherald.co.....z3N1sRhQ6G
I see this crap all the time in the comments to investing blogs I read regularly. Whenever the issue of student debt comes up, there’s always some snarky comments from rightwingers who’ve been spoonfed propaganda about “useless” college degrees. Their position seems to be that colleges should be vocational schools. I say if you want to learn a trade then go to a fucking vocational school.
Like all rightwing shibboleths, this one is easy to demolish with a few simple facts and grade school reasoning. College is supposed to teach people HOW TO THINK, something they and you obviously never learned how to do, Bob. What was your pre-med major, auto repair? Grow a brain, for chrissakes.
@ 66
While you’re at it, RR, why don’t you tell those inner city children to stay on the courts and keep putting that ball through the hoop rather than take STEM classes, because Michael Jordan.
At least you are now referring to material written by named individuals rather than anonymously written spews on seekingalpha.com.
@64 Should we close all the law schools, Bob? Or just half of them? This country has vast unmet needs for legal services, and I could make a plausible case for more lawyers than we have now. The real problem is that many people who need legal services can’t afford them.
Traditionally, the legal profession was populated by the sons of patrician families who didn’t have to worry about making a living. My personal lawyer is a third-generation lawyer who inherited a law firm started by his grandfather.
Today, though, almost anyone with the brains, dedication, and work ethic to become a lawyer can go to law school. Of course, it’s expensive, and a law degree is not (and never was) a guaranteed ticket to riches. You have to look past the paycheck to see its value, kind of like a doctor doing volunteer work in the Ebole hot zone or in a war zone.
The expansion of law schools has opened the profession to many more people, and the democratization of law has been good for our country. We need more than just patrician lawyers serving corporate and business interests. Having lawyers to serve the middle class and poor is a good thing.
I’m not saying there isn’t a jobs issue, but let’s not overlook the fact that law has always been an entrepreneurial profession in which new entrants have to build practices. When you read articles in the media saying 80% or 90% of new law graduates can’t find salaried work after graduating, all I can say is it’s always been that way, nothing’s changed, and that’s the nature of the profession.
So the question of whether we have too many law schools is slippery and difficult to answer. If all these new lawyers find socially useful things to do, and make a living at it, then the answer clearly is no.
I think it’s true that the incentives for colleges to establish new law schools are misaligned with the legal job market. A law school brings in almost as much revenue as a medical school at a fraction of the cost, which makes law schools tremendous cash cows, so they’ve sprung up all over the country like weeds after a warm rain. They haven’t always been forthright with their prospective students about what the job market is like after graduation. They sweep that under the rug.
More responsible media outlets (such as New York Times) have been pointing out the terrible job market for new law graduates for years now (you’re way behind the curve, Bob). Maybe more undergrads are wising up to the fact that law school isn’t a guaranteed ticket to financial success (but then, it never was).
If law school applications are declining because of poor job prospects, a lot of those dropping out of the law school admissions lottery are likely people aren’t really cut out for a legal career anyway. It’s a hard way to make a living and isn’t for everyone, and for many new lawyers, it’s not going to be very lucrative, although you have to look past income considerations. I know some very good lawyers who don’t make a lot of money but they’re doing very good work on behalf of poor and marginalized people who badly need their help. We need, and should provide, opportunities for such people to get legal educations. Not everything is, or should be, driven by whatever the demand is at corporate law firms.
That demand has weakened. Big corporate firms obviously underwent reduced business because of the Great Recession. Some even folded. Other changes also are affecting hiring in this segment of the legal industry: Big lawsuits, which are handled by big firms, require labor-intensive document review; this tedious but essential (and skilled) work used to be performed by entry-level lawyers, but some of it has now been automated (by computers) or offshored (to places like India), reducing the need for young back-office worker drones with law degrees.
But the need for lawyers in general isn’t going away. Society is getting more complicated, with more rules, and more and more lawyers are becoming specialists in certain types of regulatory law, and the like. And, of course, there continues to be a market demand for general practitioners who write routine contracts, wills, represent clients in traffic court, and so on.
So, Bob, prattle all you want to about “too many lawyers.” For people like you, there’s always too many lawyers. People like you think any lawyers are too many. The more you stick your elbow in other people’s ribs, the more likely you are to have negative experiences with (other people’s) lawyers. People who rant the most against lawyers usually are the same people who most deserve to get sued. Good doctors don’t have problems with lawyers and aren’t against lawyers; bad doctors do, and are. That’s the nature of things.
@67 Assuming you’re a connoisseur of Seeking Alpha, you surely know that all of their articles have by-lines and most SA authors use their real identities.
@67 Are you against kids having role models they admire, or doing things they enjoy like playing basketball or shooting hoops? Do you believe childhood should be a sweatshop experience? If so, you’re an even bigger ass than I imagined.
My daughter trained in ballet, was a gymnast, and competed in ice skating. She’s not a professional dancer or skater. She has a degree in computer science, makes her living in IT, and does professional-quality nature photography on the side. She’s paying her own way in life, she’s paying taxes, she’s a contributing member of society and a burden to no one, and she’s probably better-rounded than you are. She’s probably a much nicer person, too.
As for me, I make myself socially useful by steering the reading public away from false prophets like Blathering Bob.
@ RR, variably and incoherently over the last several posts:
You seem to conflate the potential value of a humanities/liberal arts degree with justification for going deeply into debt to acquire one, based upon examples of some cherry-picked well-doers with same, which they acquired decades ago, when times were very, very different than they are now.
Your daughter’s after-school arts experiences aren’t irrelevant if she got a degree in a STEM discipline and did so without racking up huge debt. That wasn’t what we were discussing, was it, RR? We were discussing people with limited means going deeply into debt to fund a liberal arts degree.
Times have changed. For someone well off enough to afford a humanities degree, hey, go for it. For someone with limited means and hopes of finding a decent-paying job in today’s economy, however, a liberal arts degree that requires deep indebtedness is no longer worth it.
Going into indentured servitude for 10+ years due to a BA that might get you a barista job at Starbucks instead of a counter job at McD’s isn’t any smarter than taking out a high-interest loan to fix your car or to make the rent. Not if the result is being a slave to the monthly payment for the educational loans unless Obama has handed you a way out of it.
I hope your daughter inherited as little of your genetic makeup as possible, RR. I’m pretty sure she does, as well.
@72 “Going into indentured servitude for 10+ years due to a BA that might get you a barista job at Starbucks instead of a counter job at McD’s isn’t any smarter than taking out a high-interest loan to fix your car or to make the rent. Not if the result is being a slave to the monthly payment for the educational loans unless Obama has handed you a way out of it.”
I think we all see where you’re going with this, Bob. Stereotype much? We all know you’ll stoop to anything to score cheap political points, even if only in your own imagination.
@ 73
Aw, RR, don’t take it that way.
I was looking forward to your explanation of why your daughter’s paid-for STEM degree was relevant in a discussion of someone with limited means going into deep debt for a liberal arts degree. Did she take a pass-fail course in art appreciation as part of her BS?
Given cheapshot “I support Torture” bob’s logic, only the trust fund children should be allowed to get liberal arts degrees and everyone else better get an education in some paying profession or trade school.
I do agree that college at one time, was meant to both teach the student skills but also how to think critically and creatively. I learned a great deal in college, some came from books. But I won’t be encouraging my son to go to college until he’s ready, university s to expensive to waste on partying.
A person has to think about the future and not go into stupid debt for a degree that is not likely to pay off the loan. Just like voting for republicans that will do their best to gut the social contract and the economy to boost their patron’s profits, is not a good choice.
“Key benefits of a liberal arts degree:
Preparation for work in a variety of sectors: you will gain a strong foundation knowledge in a wider range of subjects than if you were to take a degree specializing in a single subject or vocation.
Stepping stone to other careers: the knowledge achieved during a liberal arts education can help you to better maneuver yourself out of your current career into another.”
However, the liberal arts spectrum is generally accepted as covering the following fields:
Humanities – includes art, literature, linguistics, philosophy, religion, ethics, modern foreign languages, music, theater, speech, classical languages (Latin/Greek) etc.
Social sciences – includes history, psychology, law, sociology, politics, gender studies, anthropology, economics, geography, business informatics, etc.
Natural sciences – includes astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, botany, archaeology, zoology, geology, Earth sciences, etc.
Formal sciences – includes mathematics, logic, statistics, etc.
—-
It seem from his comments cheapshot “I support Torture” bob just despises the first set, the humanities, the most. I wonder why that is?
How are all those loggers who went back to trade school to be VCR repairmen doing?
Why would Cheap Labor Conservatives not want a labor force that can adapt and change with the changes in the economy?
Only 1% of Fox News Viewers Are Black
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/onl.....are-black/
Blacks watching Fox News is like Gays attending the Westbro Church. What’s the point?
Obama hopes to enlist GOP in push for trade pact, despite Democratic resistance
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....ml?hpid=z1
“It also will test his willingness to buck his own party in pursuit of a legacy-burnishing achievement. Already, fellow Democrats are accusing him of abandoning past promises on trade and potentially undermining his domestic priority of reducing income inequality.”
Oboma is great progressive liberal on social issues and laws, and too republican when it comes to pay check issues that screw the working class.
@74 “someone with limited means going into deep debt for a liberal arts degree”
You mean like me? The guy who, as a teenager, left home on a freight train and scraped and worked and starved and borrowed his way through college to get a liberal arts degree?
“Did she take a pass-fail course in art appreciation as part of her BS?”
I think art appreciation should be a required course. We might have fewer wars if everyone took art appreciation. I did, and it was one of the best courses I ever took. That class has a lot to do with why I’m so much smarter than you, Bob.
@75 Wingnuts want colleges to be trade schools so they have a chance to make it through. They understand screwdrivers. Art, history, and literature are way above their sloping foreheads.
Here’s what government “austerity” leads to:
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-25559089
And here’s what a less stingy government can make happen:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....plummeted/
But all we see klownservatives doing is stopping people from voting, state-mandated rape and putting guns everywhere they can..
Who in their right mind would vote for such people?
@82 I think it’s time for liberals to be as crazy as conservatives. You’ve gotta fight fire with fire! The thing to do is round up all the disaffected and unemployed youths and bus them to where Republicans live after the police have been laid off.
@ 82
So, the Chicago study participants got smarter – maybe – about the crimes they committed. Fewer violent crimes but more non-violent crimes.
Overall crime rate didn’t change, YLB. The participants committed more drug crimes and more property crimes than the control group.
Did you read, or just cut and paste, YLB?
82)I have been reading a couple books about the UK Conservatives privatizing British Rail and the Deregulation and Privatization of public transport.Both were by journalist Christian Wilmer, one was called”Down the Wrong Line”, and the other is about Stagecoach, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Thatcher era policies. He put the blame on both the Tories, and Tony Blair’s New Labour. If the Tories had privatized British Rail the same way that Japan broke up Japan National Railways, they probably would not have had the railtrack fiasco.
@84 – Non-violent crimes huh Bob? What work place is free of drug dealing on the side? This country is the biggest consumer market in the world for illicit drugs. It’s a nation on drugs because indifferent schmucks like you have made America a nasty place to live.
And what work place is free of petty theft? – it’s called “shrinkage” in the retail trade. Amazon almost KILLED workers in poorly ventilated warehouses because of their paranoia about theft.
Again it’s too clear where you stand Bob.. You’d rather the struggling poor kill each other or contemplate killing themselves like in the UK than support a government that actually cares about the well-being of ALL its people.
Thanks for playing.
Not sure if it is me being paranoid or if it is reality, but I am noticing less police presence outside of NYC. I am wondering if police, out of protest to the protests against them (or the system) and the recent killings of the two police in NYC, are deciding not to have a presence.
If true or given this as a hypothetical, I bet Bob would welcome this.
Seems like blackmale to me though. Police saying we aren’t going to serve and protect until people stop protests.
@ 87
Seems like blackmale to me though.
That’s Freudian on so many levels with you, dude.
It’s insightful that bob is upset that property crimes ticked up a notch despite black violence being way down! Wouldn’t you like Bob to explain his priorities
@ 89
Actually, all I did was point out that the study didn’t convincingly demonstrate much of anything, Better. I didn’t mention it but if you look at the 95% confidence intervals, there might not have been much of a benefit at all as far as violent crime arrests were concerned in that study. I’m not sure why those interval ranges were so wide if there were 1,634 initial participants, but the Science piece is pay-walled and I didn’t go to the actual source. Maybe the numbers dwindled over time so the ranges grew wider. Dunno.
As far as the property crime rate was concerned, they followed participants for 16 months to derive those stats, but participants only received money for three months. When you give poor kids a taste of earned money in their pockets but then take it away, might you create a desire on their parts to continue to acquire property, even if you don’t perpetuate the means for them do acquire it legally? Might that be a reason for the increase in property crime arrests in the participant groups?
There are all sorts of conclusions one might infer, Better. There isn’t much that one can infer with statistical support, and that’s really the only point I was trying to make.
OK, that, and one should always be careful about anything YLB posts.
@12 Sure. If the student athletes show up for a high school basketball tournament wearing “Bong Hits For Jesus” t-shirts, the principal can ban them, because student free speech doesn’t extend to promoting drug use. This is what SCOTUS decided in Morse v. Frederick (2007). The high court’s rules are different for political speech. For example, in 1969, SCOTUS ruled that public schools couldn’t ban students from wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam war. If you’d like to read a more detailed commentary about this issue written by me, see http://handbill.us/?p=40548
Another plane has gone missing in Asia. This one, an Air Asia A-320 carrying 162 crew and passengers, vanished on a flight from Indonesia to Singapore after the pilots requested an “unusual route,” suggesting possible foul play. The pieces of the bright red plane should be fairly easy to spot if they’re floating somewhere within a thousand miles of the plane’s last known location.
Dr. Bob should know much about doctors trading drugs for all kinds of favors, especially sexual.
Just google doctors trading drugs for sex and a ocean pours forth from your monitor.
But don’t use government funds to give jobs to at risk youth. No no no!