INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: A White House “Gunrunner?”
Archive for 2011
September 8, 2011
AT AMAZON, it’s the Office Electronics outlet.
INSTAVISION: I talk with John Tierney about his new book, Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength. Interestingly, the military seems to have mastered many of the things Tierney talks about, but they seem big in general on preserving virtues that went out of style in the general society over the last century.
HOW THE GREAT DEPRESSION affected the labor force.
HIGHER EDUCATION: The early bird gets the “A.” Because they’re not out drinking all night.
SHOULD YOU DROP OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL? “School is stupid.”
WHAT TO DO IN COLLEGE RIGHT NOW: “It used to be controversial to say that college is a rip off. At this point, I think the arguments have reached the mainstream. The problem is that, while some kids win the intellectual lottery, it’s too risky for most kids to skip out on the credentials.”
Plus this: “Look, you can tell me you are at college for the love of learning. But if you really love to learn you can do it your whole life, every free hour you have. But not if you starve to death. Which is why recent grads say one of their biggest regrets about the time they were in college is that they didn’t get good internships.”
TECHNOLOGY: Study shows that vehicle-to-vehicle navigation systems really do work. “Traffic congestion is not only annoying, it’s expensive. In 2005, traffic congestion cost an estimated $78.2 billion in 437 urban areas in the US, according to the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2007 Urban Mobility Report. The cost is measured by the travel time index, which is the ratio of travel time in rush hours to travel time at quiet periods, and has increased from 1.09 in 1982 to 1.26 in 2005. In addition to the use of public transportation and bicycle commuting to address this problem, some researchers have been developing intelligent transportation systems in which vehicles use near-real-time traffic data to choose the fastest route and decrease congestion throughout the network.”
THE PUZZLE OF black women’s marriage patterns. “When the husband earns the bulk of the income, the spouses are equally likely to have final say about financial decisions. When the wife earns the bulk of the income, in contrast, the wife is twice as likely as the husband to have final say about financial decisions. This finding mirrors a pattern that I noticed among the couples whose stories I recount in the book: His earnings are joint, but her earnings are hers. This is but one aspect of the incomplete transformation of gender roles. . . . The prevalence of what I term marry down relationships thus contribute to striking racial disparities in divorce rates.”
THE NEXT WAVE OF BOTNETS COULD DESCEND FROM THE SKY: “Researchers are developing hacking drones that could build a wireless botnet or track someone via cell phone.”
FOLLOW THE MONEY: FBI Raids Solar Firm Solyndra. “Solyndra is a solar-panel manufacturer once touted by President Barack Obama as a beneficiary of his administration’s economic policies. It announced last week that it was laying off 1,100 workers and filing for bankruptcy. The company was held up as the model for government investment in green technology. In addition to the $535 million loan guarantee, it received visits from the president and other state and federal officials.”
More here. “Solargate?”
PRICING YOUR ROAD TRIP WITH THE Cost2Drive App.
AT THE DAILY CALLER, an interview with Austin Bay about his new book on Kemal Ataturk. I blurbed the book; it’s highly recommended.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Many BSU freshmen unclear why they are in college.
WHERE’S KEVORKIAN WHEN YOU NEED HIM? Copyright Troll Righthaven Goes On Life Support.
UNEXPECTEDLY: “NO ONE expects rising unemployment claims! Their two main weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency!” And an almost fanatical devotion to the narrative. Wait . . . .
WAR ON PHOTOGRAPHY UPDATE: ACLU settles case of man cited for taping friend’s arrest.
The American Civil Liberties Union has won a $48,500 settlement of a lawsuit stemming from a Hill District man’s arrest for videotaping police, it announced today.
Elijah Matheny was arrested in April 2009 when he used his cell phone to record the arrest of a friend by University of Pittsburgh police. The police said they got Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office approval to accuse him of wiretapping. All charges against Mr. Matheny later were dropped.
The settlement ends a case that the ACLU lost in U.S. District Court and then pursued to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 3rd Circuit ruled in an unrelated case that it is legal to record officers’ work.
Of course it is.
DIET TIPS FROM JUDGE ALEX KOZINSKI. Plus, a heartwarming story: “I left messages and went all over town begging to make an appointment with any judge for the simplest matter, and the only person I can get to do anything is the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit.”
OBAMA, GIBSON, AND JOB CREATION: “Juskiewicz is on the record as saying the DOJ told him that if they outsourced labor, there wouldn’t be any issue.” Message: Don’t hire Americans!
ON SALE, TODAY ONLY: Deadwood, The Complete Series, on Blu-Ray and DVD.
WELL, THIS’LL WIN FRIENDS: Obama’s Speech Will Tie Up Washington Traffic.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): New jobless claims rise to 414,000 last week. “New U.S. jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week, further evidence of a weak labor market just hours before President Barack Obama delivers a major address to Congress on the issue.” Unexpectedly!
I can’t find the link now, but somebody was criticizing this feature a while back as “juvenile.” Well, I am quite deliberately rubbing it in, as the ridiculously inflated expectations for Obama are regularly and repeatedly exposed as . . . ridiculously inflated. But what’s really juvenile is expecting that an inexperienced former community organizer could successfully execute the office of President of the United States. And if I’m peeing all over the wave of hope-and-change hype that got him into office despite his obvious unsuitability, it’s to help ensure that nothing this disastrous happens again in my lifetime. I realize that it’s painful for those who fell victim to the mass hysteria to constantly be reminded of their foolishness, but I hope it’ll be the kind of pain that results in learning. . . .
UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark emails:
Nicely said.
Many all too willingly wanted to follow the piper and now that it’s proven to have been a disastrous choice, would prefer that all that was forgotten. Well, no it shouldn’t be. Votes matter, and their gullibility, or pursuit of easy absolution, or confirmation of some imagined moral superiority in support of the President’s election has led to the disaster we now face. Many among these people, in particular those with a public voice, bear a large measure of responsibility for having brought us to this point. What is truly juvenile is that among many of these same people there exists a continued denial of the reality we face and of their role in helping to bringing it about.
Indeed. Which is why I continue to rub it in.