Archive for July, 2011

Is College Worthless? (July 25, 2011)

Posted in Economics, Education, Pogo Plight, Schooling, Society on July 25, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

_          “Kinda.  In the past, a college graduate acquired more money and flashed a brighter smile.  For most kids today, it is four years of fun and play.  A sheep skin really only signals that the bearer attended a summer sleep-away camp during the fall, winter and spring seasons for a few seasons.”

_          “Employing a generous standard, perhaps ten percent of the kids actually acquire something tantamount to a “college education” in college.”

_          “The economy has upped the bar.  Ninety percent of the college graduates are not employed in college-level jobs because they are college graduates but not college-level employees.  Viewed with some perspective, everything is in balance except our unreasonable expectations.”

_          “When you think about it, wouldn’t you party all night if you had no tomorrow?”

. . .

_          “When the federal government began making college loans freely available, the cost of college schooling exploded.  A college may aspire to liberate one’s mind, but it enslaves one’s body and spirit.  The lucky graduates leave as indentured servants, the unlucky ones as debt serfs and slaves.  The only out is to enlist in the military.  Is that the plan?  Think about it.”

_          “And by statute, a student loan obligation is not a dischargeable debt when one files bankruptcy.  But doesn’t a constitutional provision trump a conflicting statute?”

_          “That’s what they say.”

_          “What about the 13th Amendment prohibition on slavery?”

. . .

_          “The greatest constitutional challenge in academia today is dealing with the cohort of male applicants who are significantly less prepared and talented than the cohort of female applicants.  Can a university elect to maintain an equal number of boys and girls and accept a marked disparity in abilities and possibilities within a class?”

_          “The most talented and most desired female applicants may elect to matriculate at a university that maintains a balanced portfolio of males and females.  To attract the elite women, a university may be compelled to admit even more less qualified males to maintain a balance in the entering class.”

_          “Remember in the old days when there were single gender schools and an opposite single gender school situated down the road.”

. .  .

_          “Why not award every citizen a Ph.D. in any field upon reaching the age of 18.  And of course award everyone a Selective Service card.”

_          “The Adult Entitlement Act of 2012 will save billions.  In the legislation, the Department of Education can be renamed the Department of Schooling or the Department of Credentialing.”

_          “We need a little something for everyone.  Academia is more interested in credentials than ideas.  Double the number of degrees currently sported by each professor by fiat.” 

. . .

_          “Society does not have the resources to indulge the current college extravaganza.  No one should be admitted to college until the age of 20.  Everyone should work at something for two years as an intern, in the civilian conservation corps, even in the military or at some other endeavor.  At that time in their lives, kids need a more productive emancipation from home and a swifter introduction to the real world at less social cost.  By the age of 20, both males and females have much more perspective and maturity.  They can use their earnings or learning chits for education or for some other endeavor.”

_          “Kids must learn how to get out of bed on time before they can learn.”

_          “And learn to cease texting while at the morning staff meeting.  Traditional college attendance would decline.  The dorms could be used to house a mix of college students and kids pursuing their Big Transition and senior citizens and others in need of housing.”

_          “And perhaps the number of qualified males will balance the number of qualified females.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Go College

Phil O. Sophistry, B.A., B.A., M.A., M.A., Ph.D, Ph.D., B.M.F., B.M.F.

Bringing Balance To The Balanced Budget Amendment Debate (July 18, 2011)

Posted in Balanced Budget Amendment, Congress, Debt/Deficits, Economics on July 18, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “Why pass an amendment demanding that you pass a balanced budget when it is far easier simply to pass a balanced budget.  If you want to pass a balanced budget, then pass a balanced budget.”

B          “There is a simpler and more concrete solution.  No balanced budget amendment bill shall be even scheduled for a subcommittee hearing until the budget is first balanced.”

C          “If it can’t be done, why pass a law decreeing that it shall be done.  It really is as easy as ABC.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Which came first, the rattlesnake or the egg?

The Japanese women won (in soccer), but Japan is lost

(M)End The Fed (July 11, 2011)

Posted in Antitrust, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Crime/Punishment, Federal Reserve, Language, Law, Monopoly, O'Bama, Politics on July 11, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The vocal critics of the Fed are missing the point.  Stated simply, every nation needs a central bank, but the Big Banks own and operate the Federal Reserve.  Stated another way, the country tolerates a misunderstood institution – the Federal Reserve – that is an unrestrained cancer and at the same time lacks an institution it desperately needs – a central bank independent of excessive political and any private interference.”

L          “A transparent central bank?”

K          “Call it whatever you want.”

L          “A responsive central bank?”

K          “Responsive to something other than Big Banks.  Bernanke* should have the intellect to understand the problem and the integrity to compel change, yet even he may take his marching orders from others.”

L          “He, Geithner and the others either assisted in creating the problem or allowed it to fester and permutate.  Now O’Bama is serving the interests of the financial industry at a time when his Department of Justice should be serving members of the financial industry with sub poenas and criminal indictments.  What incentive it there for him to reform the financial industry or the Fed.  Simply look at who he is soliciting for campaign contributions.”

K          “He was caught.  He simply could not get elected and cannot get reelected without the money.  No one is able to identify one industry in America that is not completely monopolized today.  Banks are among the biggest offenders.  Without a market, there is not a market and are not market forces.  Change likely will not come until there is a complete economic collapse.  That situation may generate enough sustained interest and desperation among those who can change affairs to reform the system.”

L          “Or the catastrophe may not leave any choice.” 

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Antitrust Chief Flees; Monopolies Reign Freely

Because you don’t have to do the time, do the crime

Big sticker; small font sans serifs; big bumper:

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BEFORE THE

BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM

WASHINGTON, D.C.

___________________________________

Written Agreement by and between

BIG BANK,

New York, New York

And

FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK,

New York, New York

___________________________________

.          WHEREAS, in recognition of their common goal to maintain the financial soundness of Big Bank (the “Big Bank”), a nationally chartered bank that is a member of the Federal Reserve System, the Big Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (the “Reserve Bank”) have mutually agreed to enter into this Written Agreement (the “Agreement”).

.          NOW, THEREFORE, the Bank and the Reserve Bank agree as follows:

  1. Within ninety (90) days of this Agreement, the board of directors of the Big Bank shall submit to the Reserve Bank a written plan to divest itself of any and all deposits and assets in excess of one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000.00) . . . .

July 4 (July 4, 2011)

Posted in Society on July 4, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L          “They had endured enough and wrote the King of England a poem proclaiming ‘Enough.’” 

M         “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.  Took mankind some time to make that declaration for humanity.”

L          “Reasonable men, they enumerated some very reasonable reasons for their decision to go it alone as a people.”

M         “Reason enough to hold a bar-b-que and shoot fireworks, but we should be mindful of the rare miracles of human progress.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

Civilization began when the first man who took umbrage at some comment or action decided to cuss at the person rather than to kill him.