Moe Lane

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Santa Claus Is Comin’ To Town, Bruce Springsteen

…Yeah, well, sorry, but it is the Christmas season.

(Via Instapundit) So, educators are worried about the higher education bubble.  OK, that’s not true.  What they’re worried about is that that the higher education bubble has reached the point where it’s beginning to affect the schools themselves: the available money supply is starting to dry up.  Still, that situation is making some schools so worried, in fact, that they’re talking about it amongst themselves and looking for answers.

Well.  Some answers.  Read the whole thing and what strikes you is what is not being discussed as possible solutions:

• There was no discussion – possibly not even an acknowledgement – that our current student loan system is currently designed to reward bad loans for both the universities and the lending agencies.  Or that said system is a major contributor to both higher education prices and onerous, immediate debt burdens on the young.
• There was also no analysis of what the universities are teaching; specifically, what they want to teach – and how that compares to what our society needs them to teach.  Put bluntly: right now we’re overstocked on liberal arts majors, could use more engineers – and really, really, really need more welders, electricians, and mechanics.  It is, however, considered at best impolite (and at worst, prejudiced/racist) to suggest that we place more people into “working class” career tracks.  But, heck, there’s nothing actually stopping a university letting a student major in English lit and minor in, say, auto repair – which is to say, having them get the equivalent of an AA or a certificate degree in the latter.
• Needless to say, there was even more of a lack of an analysis on how the universities are teaching. Specifically, whether they’re teaching the latest fashionable liberal shibboleth instead of, say, how to write a coherent sentence in English.  Which leads nicely to the last point…
• There was a lot of complaining about how state legislatures are turning off the fiscal spigots.  What was carefully not brought up was the hint of a whisper of a suggestion of a intimation that at least some of this may have been due to largely conservative/Republican legislatures deciding that it was impractical to continue to subsidize largely liberal/Democratic local universities.

So what are they thinking of doing?  Well, some possible solutions offered were to: try to yank more money out of alumni and other donors; automate everything that they can (translation: fire as many people who aren’t tenured professors as possible); raise tuition; and create a two-tier system where the more money your dad has, the more you pay in tuition.

Interestingly, that last sentence could actually be summed up in one word, but unfortunately said word is too coarse for public use.

They’re very useful in my line of work.

Then again, I didn’t ever actually buy a Volkswagen, so there you go.

Here’s the background: the current hot topic of conversation in domestic politics right now is whether or not to extend a temporary payroll tax cut.  It’s currently an object of some controversy on the GOP side, largely because it would involve effectively another 180 billion in spending; Democrats were in fact kind of gleeful about that, given that it promised to give Republicans a bit of a problem between specifically choosing between less spending and lower taxes (two things that have been long-term fiscal conservative goals).  Unfortunately for the Democrats, they aren’t the only ones that can give their opponents uncomfortable choices: Speaker John Boehner made a deal where the tax cuts would be bundled up with provisions towards hastening the development of the ethical oil Keystone Pipeline.  This reportedly will ensure that the tax cuts will pass the House.

The problem here is that the White House has decided that it would rather pander to homophobic, racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic, and anti-democratic conflict oil regimes abroad – and those regimes’ radical progressive allies at home – than to produce jobs for working class Americans (even the ones that work for private sector unions).  The White House has thus announced that it will veto the bill (via @davidhauptmann) if it passes the Keystone jobs program language.  Speaker Boehner has already made it clear that he’s aware of the threat, and is not allowing it to affect House business. (more…)

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers. I really do suggest that you check out Ben’s original post, by the way. It’s quite good.

It was done by my friend and RS colleague Ben Howe, and it’s from the video footage that Governor Perry sent to Ben when Ben did that Veterans Day tribute for Freedomworks’ Blogcon 11.  It’s eleven and a half minutes, and I’m going to tell you that you should watch it even if you don’t like Perry.  There’s nothing in there to offend even the most partisan primary partisan.

The Guardian reports that this was a murder-suicide: the attacker (reported by authorities as being one Nordine Amrani): threw grenades and fired an automatic rifle, murdering three people, then killed himself.  Prayers for the innocent victims and their families/loved ones, of course.

If you’re wondering about the name, it appears to be Mediterranean/North African in origin.  Not specifically Muslim, although the Guardian is falling all over itself to try to warn of “the risks of journalists rushing to speculate in incidents such as this.”  Which is actually not bad advice – this guy sounds like he might have been an apolitical druggie that went psychotic – but it makes you wonder what the Guardian knows that it isn’t telling.  Or whether it itself rushing to speculate, based on the last name.

So, Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D) writes an article for the Hill today called “Opinion: Obama would rather be university professor than president” in which he writes:

Let me be clear, I’m not trying to disparage professors.

My immediate response?

You failed.

Not much else to say there, except of course to note that while I recognize that Rep. Cardoza is perhaps justifiably bitter that redistricting has booted him out of Congress, why is he pausing from the laudable activity of yelling at Obama to take out  his bitterness on the GOP?  Seriously, ‘goat rodeo clowns’ is a great epithet, but shouldn’t he be reserving it for the California state legislature, which has been busily screwing up the state for almost as long as I have been alive?

Read this paragraph:

[Occupy DC press flack Kevin] Zeese* says the Tea Party lost momentum and power when it got into elections and pushing candidates. If one of their elected candidates sold out, they’re not strong enough to do much about it. He explained that the Occupy movement is years from engaging in electoral politics. “My guess is this is a multi-year movement to shift power,” he said. “That’s going to take a 10-year effort.”

Are you now pounding your head against the nearest wall?

If the answer is ‘no,’ then… just keep doing what you’re doing, boychik.  Thanks!

Moe Lane (more…)

“He’s A Pirate,” Pirates Of The Caribbean

You know, it’s rare that I pick a song because of a YouTube comment, but this is really perfect:

Life’s unanswered questions:
1. Is there life after death?
2. Why were we put on this earth?
3. Why is the rum gone?
ZeldaFreak1987 2 months ago

As God is my witness, I have no idea how I missed making The Right Stuff Movie of the Week.  I’m still not entirely certain that I did miss it; I didn’t see it, but that doesn’t mean anything.  Ach, well, even if I did it’s so good it should be on the list twice.

And so, farewell to Captain America: The First Avenger.  Which was also so good it should be on the list twice (ask me again in a year whether I still think so, of course).

…is a great photo.  It’s the kind of great photo that would serve as the anchor for a great book cover illustration.

Actually…

Interesting coincidence, there… and by that I mean “Interesting coincidence, there.”

Moe Lane