How About Fixing the Problem?

I saw a meme the other day that come pretty close to addressing some of the actual problems with our higher education system, and the need for student loans. "These are compounding interest loans: borrowers are struggling because they pay many times OVER what the borrowed and still owe." I agree that the entire system of student loans and the fact that the interest rates and terms seem outrageous. Yet, I still would say that people make the free choice to take these loans out. In many cases to pursue a degree in something where there is little or no chance of actually getting a job that will pay enough to pay the loans. In all other cases of loans being given the lender looks at the ability of the borrower to reasonably repay the loans before they choose to lend. Yet not so in the case of student loans. For example, someone who had excellent grades in HS, is planning to major in a STEM discipline, would seem to be a better risk than someone who was average in HS and is planning to major in Feminist Poetry of the 20th century. That's how people originate loans, it's all about risk/reward, the higher the risk the higher the reward. Except in the case of student loans, the lenders are incentivized to make risky loans, knowing that they are protected from those loans being discharged in bankruptcy, and that the federal government is likely to do more "forgiveness". In all of this, no one on the left is aiming this vitriol at the lenders (or the federal govt), or the institutions who keep raising prices at multiples of the rate of inflation because they know that the lenders will lend regardless of how nuts the prices are. It's a screwed up system, and the notion that a one time "forgiveness" of 10k doesn't even begin to address. This "forgiveness" is simply a cowardly way to pretend to be solving a huge problem while actually doing nothing. It's also a way to buy votes in '22 and '24. If this moves the needle on the midterms, you can bet we'll see another one of these in '24. If you want some ideas, here are a few. 1. Pass a "higher education" tax, and use that to pay for higher education. Tax university endowments, as a part of this tax. 2. Tie the ability to borrow for college to the utility/income potential for the jobs that a given major would lead to. 3. Incentivize students to pursue non college higher education. 4. Have the institutions of higher learning lend only to students that attend that particular institution. 5. Make student loans dischargable in bankruptcy. 6. Regulate the amount and types of interest that can be charged. 7. Tighten entrance requirements for colleges, potentially have tiers that are dependent on different levels of qualifications. 8. Do something like some European countries do where that have a two track secondary system. 9.  Rate degrees based on their future value in the marketplace and use that as a basis for choosing who to lend to.  I do keep seeing people using various European countries as examples of "free college", but I'd suspect that you don't have thousands of people going to free college and majoring in subjects that have little or no value in the marketplace. I suspect that the European countries that offer "free college", probably have quotas that would completely disrupt how higher ed is looked at here, as well as higher taxes. I'm not suggesting that I'm necessarily for any of the above, and would be open to other options. I think that this simplistic "loan forgiveness", vote buying scheme is a really bad idea, and one that is surrounded by lies.

Racism and the NFL

There has been a puch for quite some time to force NFL owners to hire more black head coaches, and front office people. So let's look at some numbers. Blacks represent between 13-14% of the US population. Therefore if things were equitable, black representation on the NFL would be roughly that of their representation on the population at large. All numbers from 2020. Total % of NFL players that are black, 70. Total % of assistant coaches that are black, 29.6. Total % of head coaches that are black, 9.4. Total number of off field staff that are black, 7.4 average of several categories. Total number of kickers and punters who are black, 0.00. Eventually the 29.6% of assistant coaches will likely grow, and lead to the number of black head coaches growing. But the total silence on the kicker/punter situation is outrageous.

I Guess it's Too Much

I guess it's just too much to ask for one instance where Jesus, His Disciples, or the Early Church actually lived out a prosperity gospel. A gospel in which the primary aim was to take matreially poor people, and make them not materially poor during their time on earth. A goapel in which the primary focus was eliminating earthly, mateiral, poverty, and minimizing the life beyond our fleeting time on earth. How does one reconcile that this gospel that was supposed to free the marginalized, oppressed, and poor actually ended up leading it's followers to increasing levels of marginilization, oppression, and poverty. Paul literally went from well to do, powerful, and a menber of one of the powerful sects of Jewish leaders, to an impoverished criminal slated for execution. John the apostle went from a fisherman, to an exiled prisoner. We know the stories, Peter crucified upside down, James killed, Stephen killed, and on and on. Read 1 and 2 Peter and tell me if Peter was writing to followers of a gpspel that had them in materially better shape than they started. Where is the gospel that predictaes salvation on improving one's financial position? What did Paul say about anyone who comes preaching a different gospel?

Justice

Definition of justice 1a : the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments meting out justice social justice b : judge especially : a judge of an appellate court or court of last resort (as a supreme court) a supreme court justice —used as a title Justice Marshall c : the administration of law a fugitive from justice especially : the establishment or determination of rights according to the rules of law or equity a system of justice 2a : the quality of being just, impartial, or fair questioned the justice of their decision b(1) : the principle or ideal of just dealing or right action (2) : conformity to this principle or ideal : righteousness the justice of their cause c : the quality of conforming to law Above is the definition of justice, I think that it's not unreasonable to summarize justice as dealing with people according to what they deserve as a result of their actions. What I don't understand is under what definition of justice is it reasonable to make one person or group of people responsible for the actions of another. For example, Would justice have been served if instead of Chauvin being charged, tried, and convicted for the death of George Floyd, the court would have simply announced that some random MPD officer or officers were responsible and would serve Chauvin's sentence? If justice is served by taking the privately incurred financial obligations of a select group of people, and transferring those obligation to the entire US citizenry, then where does this stop? Are car loans, mortgages, and credit card balances going to be transferred to the national debt? Finally, is choosing to incur tens of thousands of debt to pursue a college degree that has virtually zero value a wise financial decision? Better yet, when are we going to have a serious discussion about how screwed up the higher education system is in the US and why we encourage kids to get worthless degrees?

Black Voices Matter, Listen To Them

https://slowtowrite.com/why-christians-shouldnt-support-student-loan-forgiveness/

Inflation

OK, they forced through a bill called the "Inflation Reduction Act", that has little to do with reducing inflation and everything to do with re packaging some provisions of the Green New Deal, and the "Infrastructure" bill under a misleading name. Then Biden proposes anouther 320+ billion dollar bill to lower student loan debt. Which means adding 320+ billion to the deficit/national debt. Then Biden wants to send another 3 billion in aid to Ukraine, raising the total US aid under Biden to around 20 billion. Most people agree that government spending causes inflation to increase. Some people claim that pacifism is a vitally important, non negotiable, tenet of progressivism. Yet our progressive president is combining increasing government spending, with supporting a war. I realize that much of the 20 billion in aid to Ukraine is in military hardward and other goods. The problem is that everything shipped to Ukraine is likely going to have to be replaced and replacement is going to cost more due to the historically high inflation. So this latest 3 billion, probably significantly understates the actual cost to US taxpayers.

Random Political Stuff

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-farmers-usda-loan-relief-inflation-reduction-act-ira-john-boyd/ https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/most-black-voters-support-eliminating-student-loan-debt-new-survey-n1258030 As we head into the '22 midterm, and the '24 presidential elections, I wonder what it would do to the DFL candidates if up to 40% of black voters chose to stay home? I sympathize with the black farmers who were specifically told that their loans would be forgiven, and now find out that they most likely will not be. I also think it's a bit ironic that the federal government continues to subsidize tobacco farmers to grow a product that is a significant healath hazard. As far as the student loan debt thing, it's simply one more legal "bribe" to convince people to vote DFL. Much like the Walz chacks that our DFL governor promised us last yer after the state took billions of dollars more than it needed from taxpayers. Walz, promised us a token check, while the legislature argues abut how much or our money to spend. Mean while DFL Candidate Nina Turner has this pearl of bullshit. "Also—your tax dollars won’t be spent canceling the debt.". It's refreshing when DFL candidates don;t know how government is funded. https://www.newsweek.com/student-loan-forgiveness-left-wing-trickle-down-economics-opinion-1734963 Then there's this. What's obvious is that Biden is waiting until the last possible minute to address the student loan issue because he wants it to be fresh when it's time to vote. Obviously Biden had to announce something today, and it's looking like many on the left aren't particularly happy with his attempt to thread the needle. Especually the black activists. https://notthebee.com/article/report-biden-admin-is-canceling-student-loan-debt-up-to-10k-for-people-who-make-less-than-125000-a-year/ I'm not generally a fan of "stories" where they simply aggregate a bunch of social media posts, but it's easier and cleaner to simply post the link to the aggregation which has screenshots, and Twitter handles for verification of what was actually said. Meanwhile, this $320+ billion dollar attempt to buy votes will likely increase inflation, and wipe out any theoretical deficit reduction that Biden might have claimed in his term so far. I'm not going to address the multitued of other siiues around this, those are well covered. I might try to find the video of Pocahontas laughing at someone at one of her events who asked some reasonable questions about this topic. Is laughing at voters a good campaign strategy? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62i2feu9fxk Meanwhile, Biden simply lies about things. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/18/bidens-bogus-1-million-construction-jobs-boast/ This bullshit claim will likely get repeated until the election as well. https://morningconsult.com/2022/08/18/america-ideology-less-liberal-but-not-necessarily-more-conservative/ Finally, the number of blacks who identify as liberal has dropped from 49% to 34% since 2017. Obviously we don't know how this will specifically transer into voting patterns, but if 15% of black voters stop voting DFL across the board, woudn't that mean significant losses for the DFL? If 5% of those folks actually voted for the GOP, that seems like a significant swing to me. At some point I can't believe that the DFL practice of assuming that 95% of blacks are automatically going to vote for then, no matter what, aren't going to end badly for the DFL.

Because Scientific Studies are Really Important

https://winteryknight.com/2022/08/20/new-survey-of-20-studies-about-breast-cancer-abortion-link-3/

This Is An Excellent Piece

https://bridgetphetasy.substack.com/p/slut-regret We keep seeing more and more of these kinds of pieces from women who finally realize (and many who don't) the consequences of being a "slut". I wonder how long it'll take for more people to pay attention.

Random Stuff

https://winteryknight.com/2022/08/17/uk-gender-clinic-to-be-sued-by-1000-families-who-regret-transforming/ Presumably the people are run this clinic, and provide these medical procedures are "medical experts", how could this go so horribly wrong? https://thepostmillennial.com/california-gender-clinic-treats-patients-as-young-as-2-years-old No, absolutely no one is starting young children down the road to transitioning genders. It's simply not happening. There are "experts", and "best practices", and "guidelines", and all sorts of things... https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(22)01487-8/fulltext Because Monnkey Pox is a threat to everyone. Why exactly hasn't the CDC or other medical experts called for people to limit the activities that seem to be the most realated to it's spread? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-passports-fbi-search-mar-a-lago/ With a legal system predicated on the concept of innocent until proven guilty, where the court might ask someone who's been charged with a crime to surrender their passport as a condition of recieving bail, how is federal LE justified in simply taking someone's passport? Especially since the warrant didn't specify passports as something they were looking for. TULSI GABBARD: (D HI) "When you look at permanent Washington, you look at all the different hands that are involved. And as we're seeing this whole situation play out over the last couple of weeks, we see very prominently placed is the national security state and the mainstream media. And you've outlined some of these changing narratives and new information when they see the old piece of information wasn't quite having the impact that they wanted. It's hard not to be skeptical when you look at their tactics and their timing to really question what their motives are. To leverage their power and their influence. To have an impact on these midterm elections that voters will be going to vote at in just a few weeks. And to do what they have already stated publicly is their objective, which is to prevent Donald Trump from running for president in 2024. This is not something new." https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/sex-men-not-skin-contact-fueling-monkeypox-new-research-suggests-rcna43484 "Now, however, an expanding cadre of experts has come to believe that sex between men itself — both anal as well as oral intercourse — is likely the main driver of global monkeypox transmission." So I guess the guy I posted about who was looking for sympathy after he got Monkey Pox as a result of multiple orgies, at least one 4 way, and drinking piss, really did bring it on himself. "The Inflation Reduction Act will cut the deficit and fight inflation," Biden tweeted. "And we'll do it without raising taxes a single penny on families earning less than $400,000 a year." Is Joe delusional? Or just lying?

Just Curious

Is a black sociologist, college professor, who grew up in lower income, and who regularly cites peer reviewed studies regarding performance data of people of various races, an expert on the subject of "racism"? More properly, is this person an "expert" in the study of how race affects performance and whether or nont racism is a measurable factor in differences between racial groups on measurable performance metrics? Is "racism" and it's effects best measured by perfoemance differences between racial groups in the follwing areas? Graduation rates, proficiency on core academic requirements, socio economic status, literacy, etc. Are there other measurable metrics that should be added to that list, or any that should be removed from that list?

Trust the Experts and the MSM or not?

https://www.masterresource.org/inflation-reduction-act-of-2022/economists-letter-inflation-reduction-act-2022/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/inflation-reduction-act-may-not-lower-inflation-penn-wharton/

It's Not Necessarily the Same

I'm hearing some on the right call for dismantling the FBI, and I'll admit that I'm somewhat sympathetic to their position. The FBI has a history, back to Hoover, of engaging in some unsavory things. They also do some things incredibly well. The best example I've heard of what dismantling the FBI might look like is something like what WK outlines at his blog. It would inlcude spinning off the FBI crime lab, national fingerprint database, and the technical support aspects of the FBI. Turn other aspoects over to DNI, The Secret Service, etc. Then block grant money back to the states to take up some of the things that the FBI currently does. https://winteryknight.com/2022/08/12/heres-how-the-next-republican-administration-can-dismantle-the-fbi/ I'm seeing plenty of the APL who are trying to equate this "dismantle the FBI" with "defund the police". The problem with that equivalancy is that no one is suggesting that we get rid of the functions of the FBI, more that we dismantle the beuracracy of the FBI to allow the functions to be done more efficently and with less partisan influence. We've seen what happens to crime rates when people take "defund the police" seriously and when individual police officers react to this movement. I guess we'll never see a good false equivanancy go to waste.

Medical Experts

I just scheduled an appointment with my primary medical expert. One thing that I can guarantee that will be discussed at the appointment is that he's going to tell me that I'm "overweight", or something similar. He's going to point out how my losing weight will make several of my medical issues less severe. I'll (hopefully) be able to point out that I weigh less than my last appointment, and that my exercise and changes in diet are moving me in the right direction. Of course he's right, I know he's right, and I know what I should be doing more of or less of in order to achieve the desired results. In all honesty, it doesn't take a "medical expert" to figure out that (up to a point) carrying around less weight is healthier than carrying around more weight. That more exercise is better than less exercise. None of this requires an MD or even a PA, LPN, RN or other degree to figure out. Yet for some reason I frequently see links to stories about some woman who's a size 18, or 20 or whatever who's chosen to embrace her "curvyness" and there's no shortage of people who'll jump on the "body positivity" bandwagon and cheer her on. Look at someone like Lizzo. She's a reasonabley talented singer and entertainer who (if assessed by a medical expert) would be classified as obese or morbidly obese. I suspect her BMI is far beyond what medical professionals would consider healthy. Yet, she's held up as an example of "body positivity" and people act as if she's an example of a healthy female human being. I guess I'm curions about how far this on=bsession with "Science" and "medical experts" that we've seen over the last few years really goes. I'm wondering how "body positivity" has somehow managed to trump science and medical expertise. To be clear, I'm not suggesting that people who want to be "curvy" or obese, or morbidly obese be prevented from doing so. I'm merely suggesting that pretending that a lifestyle that appears to be the antithesis of healthy be normalized as healthy.

Classification

"The President, after all, is the "Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States." U.S. Const., Art. II, 2. His authority to classify and control access to information bearing on national security and to determine whether an individual is sufficiently trustworthy to occupy a position in the Executive Branch that will give that person access to such information flows primarily from this constitutional investment of power in the President and exists quite apart from any explicit congressional grant." Dept of the Navy v. Egan SCOTUS 1987 As a matter of law the President has the ultimate authority to classify and declassify documents. Given that, it seems like the question regarding the Trump raid is were the documents declassified by Trump specifically of by his actions. A secondary question is how many classified documents are in the posession of former presidents or their libraries, and are these documents stored in an appropriately secure manner. If I haven't been clear before, I expect all former presidents to be subject to the laws of the US, and see no reason why they should be exempt from any laws. In practice this would seem to mean holding all former POTUS to the same standards, and treating them all the same. My problem with the Trump raid is that is has the appearance of being motivated by politics. As I've said earlier, if there is something to this then the Biden DOJ needs to move quickly to bring charges, and hold a trial. If they don't, then they've likely handed Trump the keys to winning in '24 if he runs. IMO, I think that I'd be perfectly fine with each incoming POTUS giving his predecessor a limited pardon that covers any and all offical or quasi offical acts while in office. Taking partisan politics out of this, this sort of thing (especially if it's continued as a partisan tactic) lust demeans the entire FOG. The pardon concept is a very general idea that obviously would need more thought before becoming a thing. BTW, I've seen a really compelling case made that POTUS can declassify something by his/her actions. For example, if POTUS shares a clasified document or information with someone who may not be cleared but POTUS decides has the need to know, the action of sharing that document/information de facto declassifies the document. I'm not saying I 100% buy this, but it's an interesting theory.

Kamala the scientist person

"Equity as a concept says recognize that everyone has the same capacity, but in order for them to have equal opportunity to reach that capacity, well we must pay attention to the issue of equity." Kamala Harris Please provide one actual scientific study that proves conclusively that every single human on planet earth has exactly the "same capacity" as every other human. I guess this spells the end of diversity?

Because Inflation

The DFL controlled congress decided to magically eradicate inflation, appease "Mother Earth", and give the IRS a private army all at the same time. Apparantly Pelosi believes that "Mother Earth gets angry from time to time and this legislation will help us address that.". I wonder when they'll pass the "Mother Earth Appeasement Through Virgin Sacrifice Act"?

Is This a Problem?

If Bob goes to a Dr and gets a prescription for a specific condition, if Bob ends up with unused pills what is an appropriate way to deal with the excess? Is it Ok of Bob "advertises" that he has extras and gives or sells them to people who want them? If he does so across state lines, does that change the nature of the transaction, or how you would assess the appropriateness of the transaction?

This rings True to me.

"My biggest issue with Donald Trump is that Trump loves people who love trump. Trump doesn't necessarily love Truth, where I think Ron De Santis loves Truth." TJ Moe. This short quote encapsulates what I lot of us think about Trump. It's clear that Trump's relationship with the Truth is elastic at best, nonexistent at worst. Trump is, and has been, out for what's best for him for his entire public life. Even though some of what he did when POTUS benefitted America and Americans, I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that what's most important to Trump the politician is how he's percieved, and his legacy. On a related front. If anyone thinks that Biden wasn't in the decision making loop regarding the raid on Trump's home in FL, then they're hopelessly naive or partisan. If anybody thinks that the judge who signed the search warrant wasn't at least partially motivated by his well documented dislke of Trump, then they're hopelessly naive or partisan. The reality is that this could have been handled in a lower profile manner than it was, and it's not unrasonable to think that the entire thing was just about piling more negative press on Trump to keep him from running in '24. If this raid doesn't result in swift prosecution and conviction, then I'm confident that it will backfire badly and make Biden look even worse than he does.

I'd Seen This Story

https://winteryknight.com/2022/08/02/woman-regrets-transforming-after-only-2-hours-of-counseling/ I saw this story the other day and flagged it as something I wanted to check out, and possibly write about. Fortunately WK beat me to it. The fact that we're seeing more of these stories about parents and medical "experts" who are prematurely encouraging children to "transition", seems to indicate that we really don't know what's happening with these children. https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/fda-warns-puberty-blocker-may-cause-brain-swelling-vision-loss-in-children-rachel-levine Strangely enough, this news about the FDA warnings hasn't been widely reported either. I'm seeing reports that puberty blockers might affect brain development and function as well, although I haven't done all of the research yet. This rush to get children to transition, despite the incredibly high potentail risks involved strikes me as problematic. To be clear, I'm merely suggesting that when dealing with children that it's better to proceed slowly and with caution when making decisions that are irreversible and potentially damaging to the children.