bmags

it's like in the wire season 2 or 3 when dude was gonna snitch and then they brought his momma in to talk him out of it. Except it's the opposite.

a lot of money colleges make goes into "make-up" and recruitment, it's become abundantly clear that schools aren't necessarily interested in creating a better product, but are very much interested in finding a better student. Missouri had some of the best religious studies professors in the country, they all left, one by one. But we do have 43 flat screen tvs, because that's some of the s*** that US Weekly counts in "best colleges!" Also, when colleges raise the prices, they are seen as more prestigious, and quality of students actually rises. As for ss2k5's question, i think it was always seen as a sort of entitlement. primary schools are an entitlement. And we wouldn't have state schools if people only thought it was an investment. Education is needed for our economy, but it looks like another case where in 30 years education is 13% of our GDP!!! Just kidding, but tuition is absurd. I went to a cheap out of state school with a scholarship taking off a significant amt. of money, and it was thousands more than we thought after 4 years because of inconsistencies in state budgets.

QUOTE (vandy125 @ Feb 3, 2010 -> 06:24 PM) So, what other debts should we relieve them of? Mortgages? Car Loans? Credit Card payments? Anything else? After all, they do need money to take out a loan to start a small business. Should we relieve them of that cost too? Very righteous. My point was that these plans are coming out of ideas for stimulus. When people talk about relieving a burden on a business, bank or corporation (WHO ARE PEOPLE TOO/green) you will get the economic and the moral argument. And yet for this you only get the self-righteous I walked to school in the snow with 6 jobs and everyone else must be lazy i'm a hard worker crap. Who cares. In 5 years the people who graduate from college will be in thousands more debt than me. In just five years. The people who currently worked hard to graduate college and had to pay their way through, are in the worst job market in at least 30 years. With no signs of improving. But they should've realized that the banks were levereging 35:1 on a real estate market that was about to burst. Do you want to forever forgive people's debt? no. But when we are in a prolonged recession and people are thinking of ways to help, one thing that doesn't is immediately thinking of yourself as some 19th century rugged individualist because you have a damn car payment.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Feb 3, 2010 -> 03:40 PM) In case the need ever were to arise -- then we have them. That's why. It's pretty simple. In terms of defense, getting caught without something when the need arises makes you the one that lost. I know in your Utopian world where no war exists and butterfly wings create unlimited free power there is no need for them, but here, on Earth, in reality...having them in case the need arises is very important. The great part about this is we can just defer to military management and Robert Gates. What you are arguing for doesn't actually make the army better, it just keeps preparing them for the cold war, when we need an army smaller and more mobile for threats that are usually non-nation. And further what you are arguing for is really just welfare-like subsidies for southern states. The reason why it's so hard to cut the f-22s, aircraft carriers, etc is because it's money leaving someones district. But it has so much momentum now that if it doesn't change, it will never change, and we'll just be building things to keep congressman getting elected.

JD Hayworth is insane. Dude's just a pro-torture republican.

QUOTE (Leonard Zelig @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 01:45 PM) The last album didn't do much for me, but I wouldn't consider adding a guitar player like Nels Cline resting on their laurels. Nels Cline is the worst thing that could've ever happened to Wilco. Jay Bennett, a lesser "technical" guitar player, challenged the band and Tweedy, and the dysfunction clearly put out their best records. By contrast, with Cline they get a nice glossy 'can play a lot of notes' guitar player that makes the most disgusting, Kenny-G esque riffs and solos. And Wilco has decided that their albums are just to make some nice pleasant live songs. Pleasant/boring, whatever.

The fact that the not going to college v. going to college is even being considered lets you know how much the system is broken. I say this b/c while college degrees earn more, that is becoming increasingly bogged down and unclear. The bachelors degree system is probably not the most efficient system, certainly not the best use of most's money, and incompatible with a large number who go there. Which makes it more insane that those with the language and math skills to get through to a for year, to reach their full potential, are asked to go into mountains of debt in order to get into a good program It's insane. And it's funny how moral this argument is. The idea comes from the facts that we had to bail the banks out because then lending would freeze, the economy would come to a standstill, crippling depression. YOu can see where you benefit. For this, relieving thousands of the nations best educated from debt of a broken system, gets met as if they are dead beats and why should they get free. If these people were relieved of this student loan debt, these are the ones who could best use that money on capital for a small business, or let alone the fact that these are a whole bunch of single/18-34's who like to spend. But when this is suggested, everyone becomes defensive.

because we went into debt for a broken system EVERYONE MUST GO INTO GREATER DEBT

wellp, so the one thing that unites conservatives and liberals on this site is our hatred of texas...(politicians...)...(i guess)

QUOTE (vandy125 @ Feb 2, 2010 -> 08:10 PM) Exactly, I've heard of some of this and am pretty annoyed that I've been working hard and responsibly paying off my loans. Why should my taxes go to pay off someone else's loan who is not being responsible? what indication is showing that they are not being responsible?

balta and his science comics

Haha, great great thread. Wonderful story by Reuters, news industry at the top of their game. Also, the middle class doesn't benefit from medicare? Our military dominance? Social security? Highways? Your meat not being infested with diseases? Your medicine doing what it actually claims to do? Scholarship programs? News to me.

why would kreutz being gone be a bad thing?

i think the last two wilco albums are the epitomy of sitting on your laurels.

they signed the deal before knowing how much it was for?/green

plus the millions of very popular apps. Just email and video?

ah, so they are for the type that doesn't cover anyone new, doesn't control costs, and lets the insurance companies move to the state of lowest regulations and go wild? Brilliant. Also, have your taxes gone up 100% the last ten years? Are they projected to go up more than 100% in the next ten and twenty? Hmmm...no? Huh. Interesting. Guess you would be saving more money this way then.

What are you talking about with serfs.

serfs didn't get paychecks.

bahahaha

the friendship bracelet compilation volume 3 is here: http://www.mediafire.com/?nkmtayjytzy

just for continuity's sake, mbinaa

QUOTE (Pants Rowland @ Jan 31, 2010 -> 03:36 AM) Health of the pitching staff fell apart at the wrong time. That team could mash the ball, though. The last season of the old ballpark was a lot of fun but heartbreaking in its own right, especially now knowing that the A's were led by a couple of cheaters. I am just amazed at how many posters here are actually buying into the whole garbage notion that Cubs fans have suffered the most. If you look at all the franchises in baseball, you will see that out of 100+ world series, the Yankees have represented the AL about a third of the time and won about 25% of the total. The Cardinals are the Yankees of the NL, though a poor man's one at that. The Red Sox dominated early in the 1900s and then finally resurrected the franchise in the past decade or so. After that, not many teams have had any significant number of pennants of note. For the most part, it is stories like the White Sox, Phillies, Indians, Orioles, Reds, Pirates, etc. Periods of fielding very competitive teams, an occasional pennant or title, and some really bad stretches as well. Every one of these franchises can point to a whole host of heartbreaking times where they were so close to a pennant and a player got hurt or the team hit a bad stretch or the Yankees f***ed them like they did so many times to the Sox in the 50s and 60s (with the Indians and Tigers experiencing a lot of the same pain during that stretch). I scoff at the idea that any one of their fan bases has suffered more than the rest. God damn it you are wonderful.

bad as the mariners O is I think they get the weird year this year and take the west.

Hey, congrats florida, for once the f'd up news story didn't happen in your state!