Snark of the Day: Karl Rove

Democrats are in the midst of the painful realization: Mr. Obama’s words cannot save them from the power of bad ideas.

Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10446503-38.html

[Keith] Olbermann? He’s less popular than syphilis.

Robert Stacy McCain, Other McCain.

Is Secretary of Transportation acting as representative of the People,  and making  a good faith effort to protect the safety of the public; or is LaHood acting as a shill for General Government Motors, and trying to drive down the value of a competitor?    Read the  story:

(CNN) — Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood caused a stir Wednesday when he told owners of recalled Toyotas to stop driving their cars, took back that wording, and said he meant to tell worried owners to take their cars to the dealer for a fix.

Owners already are concerned and confused about their cars’ safety since Toyota recalled millions of vehicles — eight of its models — because of problems with sticking gas pedals.

See the video:

Hat tip and more: Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit.

Toyota’s stock dropped sharply immediately after LaHood gave his advice.

A couple hours later Lahood said he misspoke and retracted his previous statements.

Oops.

It looks like stock manipulation to me.   Do we need to appoint a special prosecutor to insure the integrity of our government?    Can you trust the Obama administration to tell the truth?   As long as the federal government is both in the business of selling cars and overseeing car manufacturers we have an inherent conflict of interest.

If you work for Toyota, or any non Detroit auto company, can you trust the Obama administration to try and protect your job?

I were emperor I just might ban colleges from selling bachelor of art degrees, as they may be more useless than tits on a boar hog    There is this liberal myth that students can attend college for four years (study option), get a degree in any subject they so choose, get pile of college, and step into a well paying professional job.  Or that is what the diploma mills and libtarded politicians say.

There is but one guarantee from four years of attending college.    It is not a degree but rather a mountain of college debt.

For example, the number of chemical engineers Kodak hires is not a function of how many chemical engineers the Rochester Institute of Technology graduates, but rather how many chemical engineers Kodak needs, which is to say not many.    Further Kodak will hire job applicants based not on the applicant’s credentials, but rather on Kodak’s perception of the ability of the candidate to perform chemical engineering.   Credentials gets you an interview.  Your interview gets you the job.   Your job performance is what allows you to keep the job.

Job seekers are commodities.   Employers are looking to purchase, to wit hire, such commodities which will solve their particular needs.

I am not opposed to college education.   College educations need to be looked at in terms of an investment of time, effort and money.     Make the right decisions, and apply the right effort, you can become a prized commodity in the job market.   Make the  wrong decisions, or not apply the necessary effort, you just end with a mountain of college debt.

M0re, Mary Pilon, Wall Street Journal:

A college education may not be worth as much as you think.

For years, higher education was touted as a safe path to professional and financial success. Easy money, in the form of student loans, flowed to help parents and students finance degrees, with the implication that in the long run, a bachelor’s degree was a good bet. Graduates, it has long been argued, would be able to build solid careers that would earn them far more than their high-school educated counterparts.

And Andrew J. Coulson, Cato@Liberty:

For a college earnings premium figure to be of any value to policymakers or prospective college students, it would be necessary to break it down by field and by student characteristics. What’s the premium difference, for instance, between workers who majored in engineering, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, economics, etc., compared to those who majored in communications, art history, social work, multicultural studies, etc.? A similar breakdown of interest would be by SAT score.

Look at like this.   Something like twenty-two percent of positions require a college education, broken down into particular specialties.   Increasing the number of college graduates,  will not increase of the number of college level positions.   For all sakes,  if y9u have the ability to perform in the twenty-two percent level, make the investment.    Otherwise don’t waste your time and money.

Question of the Day:

The charge against O’Keefe is entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony. What felony does the government say they intended to commit?

From Ann Althouse.

Fork tongued liar, video:

Hat tip: Nice Deb.

More forked tongue, video:

Hat tip: Fausta.

Everything is stupid in Kansas City, Denise LaVoie, Kansas City Star.

The U.S. Tax Court has ruled that a Massachusetts woman should be allowed to deduct the costs of her sex-change operation in a decision that could have wide-ranging consequences.

Rhiannon O’Donnabhain (oh-DON’-oh-vin), who was born a man, sued the Internal Revenue Service in 2007. The agency had disallowed a $5,000 deduction for $25,000 in medical expenses associated with the sex-change surgery.

Earth to Denise, come in please.   If, as you report, Rhiannon O’Donnabhain was born a man, he still is a man.  Sex is immutable.   Having to squat to pee, can not make O’Donnabhain into a woman.

Well as you know I made it in @ HO Wolding in Wisc last night.

I’m really glad they didn’t figure on my doing anything but falling over because I did exactly that.

Woke up at about 4:30 local.  My internal clock seems to be working…. I usually wake up at 5 anyway. That gave me about 7 hrs sleep. It’s all good.

Physical and drug test this morning which I passed of course.. Dunno about this afternoon yet. Likely more paperwork.

As I walked up the carpeted flight of stairs and choked the white enameled handrails, I wondered what in the hell I was putting myself through. Once I was at the top of the stairs, I fiddled with my rings, turning them round and round.

There I was at the officer’s club, searching for my place card on the name tag tree. My slightly clammy hand pinched the folded card which read, “Mrs. Karen Jones,” off the tree. On the back, it stated, “You are seated at Table 5,”—perfect military protocol form.

I wanted to turn right back around, run down the stairs, bolt out of the doors, and sprint back to my hotel room. But I was following orders, as usual, and my body went straight to Table 5, like it was on auto-pilot.

It was my time to shine or be dull. I had been in class for two days already. The course’s purpose was to teach me how to be a proper and successful squadron commander’s wife. This particular event was the pinnacle of my studies on protocol, only one of the many facets covered during the course.

Remembering what I was told in the class, I turned on my brightest smile. The instructions had said, “First and foremost, smile a lot and be your own warm, friendly, helpful, and compassionate self. Be the best supporter of your spouse’s squadron and everyone in it.”

There I was at Table 5 representing not only myself, but my husband, and the future of his squadron that he was going to command. Oh, the pressure!

Looking at Table 5, it was beautifully clothed and skirted—just like me. It had all the accouterments signaling a formal luncheon: multiple forks, a napkin forming an artistic “poof,” numerous plates, a large collection of fresh flowers in the middle, and some intimidating women occupying chairs.

This was a luncheon designed to practice creating conversations out of thin air. I needed to perform well, not be inappropriate, and remember to be reverent toward the “senior spouses.” In other words, not piss them off or have them wrinkle their noses at me, like they caught a whiff of a bad odor.

As one of the major command centers for the Air Force, the base’s population consisted of loads of the top brass and their spouses. Some of the spouses were at my practice luncheon to help with my exercise in manners. At Table 5, I had a Brigadier General’s wife.

I watched her every move; for that was my plan to pass the muster. I figured that what she did, which fork she used, and how she passed the bread bowl were the most correct. Surely, she had been doing this antiquated song and dance enough times to be the master.

After it was over, my face was fatigued from the excessive smiling. I suppose this practice in the finer things was the spouse’s version of simulating a battle scene, but with fluffier surroundings.

Amherst WI- Well, I got here anyway. I pulled in at 7:30 local time last night… 22 hours after I got on the bus and about 35 hours since I slept last. 

The place itself doesn’t look bad. It’s not home, but what could be? I’ll see about passing along some pictures when the sun gets up.

More global warming fraud exposed, Times(UK)

A STARTLING report by the United Nations climate watchdog that global warming might wipe out 40% of the Amazon rainforest was based on an unsubstantiated claim by green campaigners who had little scientific expertise.

Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, seems to thinks our MSM yokels should be embarrassed.   Well maybe they should,  but the nice thing about being a yokel is to below embarrassment.

Juan Williams defends Obama on terror, or at least tries, video:

Hat tip and mpre: Nice Deb:

Juan Williams Struggles To Defend Obama Administration’s Interrogation Policies

His explanation as to why the FBI considered Abdulmutalib a lone wolf even after being told he was from Yemen, fails to convince

A report which the Klu Klux Klan would lovc, from the Violence Advocacy Policy Center (PDF):

Blacks in the United States are disproportionately affected by homicide. For the year 2007, blacks represented 13 percent of the nation’s population, yet accounted for 49 percent of all homicide victims.

As noted at the beginning of this study, the devastation homicide inflicts on
black teens and adults is a national crisis, yet it is all too often ignored outside of affected communities.

For blacks, like all victims of homicide, guns—usually handguns—are far and
away the number one murder tool. Successful efforts to reduce America’s black homicide toll must put a focus on reducing access to firearms.

Hat tip and more, Moe Lane:

As a general rule, it is not a good idea to endorse a position and policy objective on minority handgun ownership that would be enthusiastically endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan.

Homocide is something like ninety percent intraracial.   Which to say that it blacks killing blacks.  Victim disarmament is hardly saving lives.   Bob Owens, Pajamas Media:

The VPC refuses to even touch on the cultural issues that are the most significant variable in the massive discrepancy between the rate of black homicide victims (20.86 per 100,000) and white homicide victims (3.11 per 100,000). The VPC also won’t acknowledge that the vast majority of African-American homicide victims are murdered by young African-American men. Identifying, targeting, and removing the cultural factors that most specifically contribute to this problem would seem to be the most responsible way to decrease the excessive violence rates, but the VPC’s goal clearly isn’t problem resolution

It is not the tool, the handgun, which kills.   It is the person behind the gun.

Glenn Beck destroys Chrissy Mathews, video:

Hat tip: Good Lt. Jawa Report.

Pacifism is a serious subject for sweet adolescence, or a way of life for certain eccentric sects who, it must be noted, survive because they live among non-eccentric people who reject pacifism and fight to keep those little sects alive and free.

Charles Krauthammer, Heritage Foundation.

http://www.youtube.com/user/cincinnatibbb#p/a/u/2/yIn2qqRxrSc

We won in Greater Cincinnati Business Bureau’s “Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics” in 2007 and were finalists in 2003 and 2004.

While we’ve now won several awards including the 2009 U.S. Chamber of Commerce Blue Ribbon Small Business Award, 2009 Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber Small Business of the Year and the 2008 Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Small Business “SUCCESS” Award, I am most proud of the Torch Award because we take ethics, honesty and transparency very seriously!

I’m still in the bus I picked up in Cleveland. a somewhat older rig and certainly less fully featured but the ride is OK.

We’ve made a number of stops as we made our way along…. Elkhart for example.

I’m quickly being reminded that I don’t sleep well in a moving vehicle.

Fact: People make weird noises when sleeping.

Fact: The noises that multiple people make while sleeping is multiplied in it’s werdness by the number of people involved. In this case the weirdness multiplication factor is 50, more or less.

Fact: Road food is designed and priced for what is essentially a captive audience. ($5 for a small tuna sandwich on a stale hard roll?)

Fact: While I have always beleived that it’s the trip npt the arrival that’s the best part and still think so…. in this particulr case I won’t deny I’ll be lots happier when I get where I’m going this time.

Cleveland Greyhound station @ 3:45 in the morning.  Clearly, the place is a vision of pre WWII style.  I’ll post some pics when I get the chance.

and you know, if it were 345 in the afternoon, instead of it’s AM counterpart I might actually care.

Addendum: (David L)

I noticed the Obama administration is  wasting billions on speed rail.   Locally we taxpayers are going to spend some one hundred fifty million dollars to construct a high speed rail corridor between Churchville and Byron.  I am so impressed.

In the the meantime, Greyhound keeps taking passengers to destinations no other mass transit providers serves, at prices no other service can match.   I’ve done the Greyhound thing.   It does wear at your patience, but it does get you there and does not leave you broke.

Oh Eric, is Cleveland still the Mistake by the Lake?

I’m sitting on a bus on I-90 westbound just coning into Buffalo as I write this.

I must say these Greyhound busses are amazing. 110volt power, Wi-Fi and the thing rides like my Buick.

I’ve run into the usual cross section of people so far…a number of nice people a few real rectal-cranial inversions and one dude trying to cough up a lung or two the whole trip

The weather tonight is cold and there’s some blowing snow, but for the 90 or so miles between here and Erie PA. the radar looks clear at the moment.

Our driver tonight is a 60ish lookung grandmotherly type. she sits and chats with me as we drive along like I was an old friend. a rare gift, that.