The Housing Bubble

Palmy, right now I work for the county of Piny Point. I have worked in all kids of weird, quasi-private/public/fed setups. I started in a title one computer lab that was stationed in a diocesan school (we weren’t allowed to post religious artificats in the lab itself). I also worked for an annual contract, performance-based public/private school that served the whole state of Florida. I’ve worked in ESE centers, known in NY as BOCES, universities, public k/12 and so on. You name it, I’ve been on their payroll at one time or another.

IMHO, Fisher’s post below basically nails it.

“IMHO, Fisher’s post below basically nails it.”

I couldn’t agree more. A while back I posted about schools with rows of brand new computers, each one with a smiling anchor baby sitting in front of it and having no clue how to operate it.

Before we give kids computers to operate, how about teaching them to read and write and do basic math? In one language.

And fer cryin’ out loud, puh-leeeze give these kids a decent schedule. I went to school from 9-3, Monday through Friday. Plenty of time for transportation to and from, sleep, homework, after school hobbies or even a part time job. We got off for summer a couple of weeks after Memorial Day and came back after Labor Day. This going back to school at the beginning of August is the height of mental illness.

Problem is, families now have to rely on schools to feed and babysit their kids. That’s just plain wrong. It masks deeper problems in the society that could be addressed if the schools didn’t play nanny.

Before we give kids computers to operate, how about teaching them to read and write and do basic math? In one language.

But how else are we going to close the achievement gap? Technology will save us!!1!

Say, Bill, do you have any idea what the actual commute time between Greenville and Asheville is? Some of the posters on City Data forums advise living smack between the two cities to have the best of both worlds. I guess that would be Hendersonville?

OK, I’ll connect the dots for you since I learned how to do that in public school:

The perceived failure of the public schools to educate the masses of american idiots out there is actually a parenting failure. It’s not the job of the public schools to *make* children learn, it just provides them an opportunity at the taxpayers expense since an educated electorate is vital to the survival of a democracy, and vital to our external national security as well as we must compete with other nations.

If the kids don’t give a damn because that’s the way they were raised, it’s not the fault of public education. Do you really think a 6 year old twerp bringing a 9mm to class and shooting himself in the foot is some kind of public school fail? Nuh uh.

And while I’m on my high horse about this I’d also like to point out it is not just the liberatarian no-more-taxes contingent that are trying to destroy public education. A lot liberal types are just as guilty when they run around moaning for more money because the schools are failing the “at risk” kids. That failure is still going to occur for most of those kids no matter what the schools try and do for them because their own parents have already failed them. The schools can’t do everything and they shouldn’t try. Public schools need to focus on their core mission of education and leave daycare, ESL for illegals, and social engineering to other organizations. Teachers will be happier, the students will probably be happier, and the tax payers sure as hell will be happier that way.

“The schools can’t do everything and they shouldn’t try. Public schools need to focus on their core mission of education and leave daycare, ESL for illegals, and social engineering to other organizations. Teachers will be happier, the students will probably be happier, and the tax payers sure as hell will be happier that way.”

I can agree with that, and if the public school system hadn’t been twisted so far out of the original mission, I doubt anyone would be complaining or calling for its demise. But I think we’ve gone way too far beyond the original purpose. People just can’t get it up anymore to beat a horse that’s already dead.

Institutions depend as much on the goodwill of the public they serve as the money. In fact, I would argue that money follows goodwill. The public school system has lost too much goodwill. I live in a state that has a large number of retirees. You could actually convince retirees to fund public education if you could bring it home to them that it is in their best interests to have a younger population that can read and do basic math, since this is very important in health care support jobs. But if what they see are obese, fatooed and pierced medical support personnel in scrubs chattering loudly in a foreign language, why bother? Keep more of your own money and pray to God you go peacefully in your sleep.

since I learned how to do that in public school:

Daffy (recently emerging from Plato’s cave): “Hey Hwy hows comes all the sunflower seeds yous plant don’t sprout? Is it on accounts of the seed itself, the soil, the place you planted ‘em or are some of ‘em just plain genetically too stubborn to know when to start reachin’ for more “sunlight” falling “freely” from the high heaven’s?

Hwy50: “Well Daffy iffin’s you move your web feet from atop their heads, some of ‘em might do better. By the way, I saw you out in the “wild-flower” meadow with that weed whacker you have in your hands, you didn’t seem at all “selective” about what you was whack’in…

Bugs: “en listen Hwy, that’s his new Acme Annihilator 2000, it’s about speed & destruction, I don’t think the “Whacks-Everything-all-at-once” designer’s “envisioned” someone with Daffy’s “abilities” to actually be “in-control” of it’s total “capabilities”.

Foghorn Leghorn (starting the Acme Annihilator 2000) : “Whoa, I say whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa thereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Bugs: “eh Daffy, looks like there’s a “loose-nut-behind-the-wheel”"

Daffy: “That’s desssspiiicaaable!!! Obviously I’m dealing with inferior mentalities.”

Palmetto, public education in the US had a “Sputnik Moment” in the past that prompted massive reforms in curriculum and focus. I don’t see why we can’t do it again.

A lot liberal types are just as guilty when they run around moaning for more money because the schools are failing the “at risk” kids. That failure is still going to occur for most of those kids no matter what the schools try and do for them because their own parents have already failed them.

Correct. We should focus on the kids who are willing to learn.

At our company we prefer to hire people with a bachelor’s degree as the first preference. Educated people are easy to deal with while the blue collar types we need to hire we prefer them from small neighboring country towns. The kids that grow up in the country usually are less problematic and more respectful. Most of the 18 to 26 year old kids from the city of Syracuse are lazy, disrespectful, scam artists. They don’t want to come to work from Monday thru Thursday but expect a pay check on Fridays. They view suing a company equivalent to winning a lottery ticket as the only hope in life to get wealthy. Some of them will spend countless years especially the girls to get SSD. I have no idea how society will ever deal with these types. These are mostly the product of the Syracuse School district.

I agree the Govt can not do anything about the breakdown of the family. We might have to give up on this type of population.

“I have no idea how society will ever deal with these types.”

The old fashioned way: they don’t get to eat. It’s really the only way. There are some people who, when honestly give a chance, will take it and rise. But for those who wish to succumb, I say they should be allowed to do exactly what they want, without taking others with them.

SUguy, I too, spent several years working with exactly there types. As much as I like to defend J6P, when they act like that, even I can’t find something good to say. They do deserve to live in the ghetto and be disrespected.

However, the biggest problem is the ones who DO want to improve themselves really aren’t getting the opportunities that used to exist.

Promotion from within? Dead. Company paid for education? Dead. Affordable community college? Dead. Credit for OJT? dead. Experience? You’re too old. Honesty and respect, promotion and raises from the company? You’re joking, right?

There are of course, exceptions to the above. But there is no doubt that the trend of availability has been ever downwards for decades.

Fisher, I agree with you. The problem with public schools is that they CAN’T kick out those who have no desire to learn so they make things near-impossible for the teachers and for those who ARE there to learn. Also, public schools use a one-size-fits-all approach to education in terms of timing.

Abolish the public schools. The govt would still collect the taxes, but give the money they collect to parents in the form of vouchers to spend on whatever type of schooling they choose for their kids. Will there be abuses? Sure. But I believe the end result will be more kids getting an education that’s tailored to their needs than what we’re getting for those dollars now.

I respectfully disagree, Bill. If we can agree that the problem is the large number of unfit parents and their offspring in the public system, I can’t see how your solution would improve anything. It would actually make it *worse*, if that is even possible. Just hand out money to all those idiots to spend as they see fit? Not with *my* tax dollars!

Heckuva lot easier to reform the public system. The troublemakers can be expelled. Let’s have some friendly incentives for parents to keep their kids under control, such as a nice visit from ICE (where appropriate) when the kids are causing problems at school…

We reformed the public system back in the 1950’s (due to the Sputnik Moment I alluded to earlier) and we can damn well fix it again without dismantling the entire system.

I will if you say so of course. But why Ben? Look at 90% of Bill’s comments the past two days. Do they deviate from my description above? If they do not, why can’t one be called on it? Why is it uncalled for?

Is my description of Ayn Rand different than many in the main-stream media have described? I can post articles proving no.

Bill has called people commies, socialists, retards, lazy, moochers and more. I called him nothing. I asked a question.

I will tone it down if you say so but I don’t believe I’ve written anything to warrant the warning and I think someone who writes as Bill does and puts down and disparages so many of our fellow Americans as “moochers” and worse should be man enough to defend his narrow-minded, Ayn Rand infused posts.

Now let’s all get along I always enjoy Bills point of view and he seems to be a nice guy.

Rio,

It just too harsh. And maybe everyone should tone it down a bit. The name calling doesn’t add anything to the discussion, seems unnecessary, and we could do without it. I value almost everyone’s viewpoints and input, including yours. But let’s keep it civil, please.

I agree with Rio. Bill hurls insults left and right and you never call him on them. All Rio did was call Ayn Rand a nutjob.

That’s not so:

’sociopath and killerRapist admiring’

That’s not so:
’sociopath and killerRapist admiring’

I believe those were directed at the late Ms. Rand, and not at Bill. As Rio said, these are facts regarding Ms. Rand, who is on record for admiring a killer rapist for being a maverick.

’sociopath and killerRapist admiring’

But to be very clear. That sentence was not calling Bill the above description. Of course not. It does not read that way at all. My sentence was calling Ayn Rand the above description as has many main-stream media sources. (such as the passage below.)

Yes. The word “rapist” is a very harsh word as it describes one who commits a horrible act. However I felt it was important to bring this up to Bill who so admires Ayn Rand and her philosophy, and to point out Bill’s last 2 day’s post’s were simply one-liner rehashing of Rand’s loony talking points.

To understand Ayn Rand’s warped philosophy it is important to point out Ayn Rand’s sick mind and where the end-game of her dangerous thinking could lead society. This lady was not totally sane and neither is her “philosophy”.

From: Slate dot com Nov. 2, 2009
How Ayn Rand Became an American Icon
The perverse allure of a damaged woman.

She announced that the world was divided between a small minority of Supermen who are productive and “the naked, twisted, mindless figure of the human Incompetent” who, like the Leninists, try to feed off them. He is “mud to be ground underfoot, fuel to be burned.” It is evil to show kindness to these “lice”: The “only virtue” is “selfishness.”

Rand wrote great stretches of praise for him, saying he represented “the amazing picture of a man with no regard whatsoever for all that a society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. A man who really stands alone, in action and in soul. … Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should.” She called him “a brilliant, unusual, exceptional boy,” shimmering with “immense, explicit egotism.” Rand had only one regret: “A strong man can eventually trample society under its feet. That boy [Hickman] was not strong enough.”

That sort of comment is uncalled for and unacceptable.

Thank you.

Everyone here has their own viewpoint. Each believes they’re right, including me, but I will always listen to intelligent discourse.

But never make it personal!

’sociopath and killerRapist admiring’……

I believe those were directed at the late Ms. Rand, and not at Bill.

Yes. Thank you. That is exactly so.

sociopath and killerRapist admiring was a description of Ayn Rand, NOT of Bill. I don’t think the sentence could even grammatically imply it was a description of Bill and there was no intention to do so.

I posted a longer post describing why I even brought this up regarding Ayn Rand.

That sort of comment is uncalled for and unacceptable.

Thank you.

Why do you think the comment was uncalled for and unacceptable Carl Morris? Did it lie? Did it twist the truth? Cuss?

Did you read my last 3 posts on the subject? Do you know that I was describing Ayn Rand as sociopath and killerRapist admiring and not Bill as that? Did you know Ayn Rand was as I described?

Is there any way my original sentence could grammatically imply the description was for Bill?

But never make it personal!

Now that depends. One can easily hide behind “never make it personal!” And this could stifle debate.

How? Let’s take the hypothetical situation that the fascist, racist thinking of the Nazi’s was gaining traction in the USA right now–that it was an important political movement.

Now let’s say that for the past few days the majority of my posts were spouting one line talking points from Mein Kampf. Let’s say I was insulting large groups of my countrymen.

Would someone NOT have the right to point out that I was repeatedly parroting views of Mein Kampf?? Or is that getting “too personal”? Would someone NOT have the right to point out that the author (Hitler) was a total nutball, jackass, evil madman? Or is that getting too “personal” with me? You see?

In this context there was not much “personal” at all in my original post.

Why do you think the comment was uncalled for and unacceptable Carl Morris? Did it lie? Did it twist the truth?

To me any question that starts with “Are you intellectually capable” is an insult. And I’m tired of the insults.

I also think that you guys that like to call every point from the other side a “re-hashed talking point” are implying that the person is capable only of parroting the thoughts of other people and can’t possibly actually have good reason to believe something themselves. Another insult. Again…I’m tired of the insults.

From the Slate article (a great one!):

“…Rand taps into something deeper still. The founding myth of America is that the nation was built out of nothing, using only reason and willpower. Rand applies this myth to the individual American: You made yourself. You need nobody and nothing except your reason to rise and dominate. You can be America, in one body, in one mind.

She said the United States should be a “democracy of superiors only,” with superiority defined by being rich. Well, we got it. As the health care crisis has shown, today, the rich have the real power: The vote that matters is expressed with a checkbook and a lobbyist. We get to vote only for the candidates they have pre-funded and receive the legislation they have preapproved. It’s useful—if daunting—to know that there is a substantial slice of the American public who believe this is not a problem to be put right, but morally admirable.

We all live every day with the victory of this fifth-rate Nietzsche of the mini-malls. Alan Greenspan was one of her strongest cult followers and even invited her to the Oval Office to witness his swearing-in when he joined the Ford administration. You can see how he carried this philosophy into the 1990s: Why should the Supermen of Wall Street be regulated to protect the lice of Main Street? ”

—
Like I’ve been saying…

To me any question that starts with “Are you intellectually capable” is an insult.

To you maybe. It might be a mild insult. It might not be. It might be a needed chide or spur to motivate someone who obviously has some intellectual capacity to try to move beyond one dimensional talking-points of a twisted “philosopher” (Rand)

But unlike Bill, I did not call him a retard as he did to someone yesterday. I did not call him a “moocher” as he is apt to do every few post or so and I did not call him a fascist as he likes to call people commies.

I also think that you guys that like to call every point from the other side a “re-hashed talking point” are implying that the person is capable only of parroting the thoughts of other people and can’t possibly actually have good reason to believe something themselves. Another insult.

It is not an “insult” if that is what a poster has done for the past 2 days and consistently done for the past two years. Bill has done this. It’s fact. It’s written. Is it an insult to call him out on this fact? Maybe a little in some context but I don’t see how this is much of an insult at all compared to the fact that it is so.

It’s becoming clear that this whole thing about my post was mis-reading my post–thinking I was calling Bill something that I was actually calling killer/rapst loving Ayn Rand.

I’m tired of the insults.

I will look forward to your consistency on calling both “sides” on this and not just the side you disagree with.

She (Ayn Rand) announced that the world was divided between a small minority of Supermen who are productive and “the naked, twisted, mindless figure of the human Incompetent” slate dot com

Please read that above sentence people. Rand took the side of the “small minority of Supermen” and said the heck with the rest. She said the heck with 99.8% of our mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. Yes.

That philosophy is NOT what the Bible teaches and NOT congruent with the principles America was founded on and not in line with the meaning of our Declaration of Independence and U.S. constitution. Heck, its not even good economics!

Those of you who take Ayn Rand’s twisted side are taking sides against all of the above and against the vast majority of your fellow Americans. And the reason you are encouraged to take this side is to make the “small minority of Supermen” more money than you could possibly ever imagine.

This is why I point out Rand’s dangerous, nutball lunacy.

Rio can be a real abrasive douche. We all know this and accept the guys demeanor.

“…who is on record for admiring a killer rapist for being a maverick.”

Sarah Palin is also a maverick. Hmmmmm…

I will look forward to your consistency on calling both “sides” on this and not just the side you disagree with.

I’ll speak up on whatever I feel like speaking up on. It’s kind of pointless either way, which is why I try to ignore it as much as I can. All I said was “thank you”.

On a separate note, I do sincerely appreciate the things that I’ve learned from you and others even when I disagree. That’s why I’m here.

Rio can be a real abrasive douche. We all know this and accept the guys demeanor.

Abrasive douche? Well…. Douche? You can be needlessly crude as I will show below. Abrasive? Possible, but unlike you Liz Pendens I might be perceived “abrasive” by those I engage because I make valid points with facts, studies and logic that can cut to the chase and quite the less informed.

Some like you don’t like it maybe because you are unwilling or unable to defend your points with the same tools. Rather, like you, sometimes, they can just be what you described just by being one.

You might well accept this fact just as you “accept” my “demeanor”.

And unlike you, I have never insulted minorities, used the word “gay” as a pejorative term or told someone to perform a vulgar sex act on me. And I hope I’m not being an “abrasive douche” by advising you to quit now while you are behind as I will be happy to furnish examples of what I just claimed about your posts.

“Rio can be a real abrasive douche. We all know this and accept the guys demeanor.”

I guess it is really abrasive to have your prejudices and oligarchic brain-washing continually be countered by Rio’s logic, facts, and actual links.

But I guess that’s what a douche is for- to clear out fetid reasoning and rotten talking points. Too bad it has to be you.

short on jobs

Can’t live on misty mornings and mountain sunsets.

The current “jobs!-jobs!-jobs! magnet” is ND & WY

They provide beautiful sunrise, sunsets…(ignore mosquitoes & Kodak-moment panoramic blizzards) :-/

“The current “jobs!-jobs!-jobs! magnet” is ND & WY

They provide beautiful sunrise, sunsets…(ignore mosquitoes & Kodak-moment panoramic blizzards) :-/”

LOL, that is soooooooo true. What good is a high-paying job if you can’t even get out of your driveway to get there? Or if you’re shivering yer butt off 9 months of the year? Not to mention, the North Central jobs “bubble” has created a shortage of housing in those areas. In one article I read, it’s so bad, you have people living in motel rooms, if they can find one. A run down trailer is a “find”, and some of the enterprising locals with a bit of land have been dragging trailers onto the land and renting them out for a pretty penny. There’s no place to live and nothing to buy, even if you could.

I think you’re right that many illegals have moved on to greener pastures, so to speak.

Not here to Brazil. Brazilians are funny about that kind of stuff. They think they are a like a sovereign country and Brazilian jobs should be done by Brazilians.

Crazy!

“What good is a high-paying job if you can’t even get out of your driveway to get there?”

Trust me, there aren’t all that many “high paying jobs” in Wyoming.

And FWIW, the weather isn’t that bad (snow wise). It’s much worse in the Great Lakes states.

Trust me, there aren’t all that many “high paying jobs” in Wyoming.

And FWIW, the weather isn’t that bad (snow wise).

Both of those things are exactly what I was going to say.

Take an area in the middle of nowhere with 100 people in it and add another 50 hard-temporary-but-decent-paying jobs and it’ll be a localized “boom” for a little while. Doesn’t mean it makes sense to move there from somewhere else.

got a grandkid who’s going back to Sidney MT which is boom town again. DH gave him a line on a relative running some labor crew and the kid’s going to pitch a tent in another relative’s back yard. That’s what you do, that’s what guys did back in the GD, if they caught wind of any kind of paying job. I wish him well.

It is.

But I’ve been surprised all my life at how many people don’t think so.

And yet I have seen posters on this board that advocate that the unemployed should move to where the jobs are instead of collecting unemployment (up to 99 weeks) where they are.

or brawndo. It’s got what plants crave!

Green in the morning, iced oolong in the afternoon.

Here is just one example: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jteZtSjlFCCToX16gIiHZsCaf7Fw?docId%3DCNG.b31639fa6d87c5c3f1e98f48717cb3b9.481

BTW, you could just look at my previous posts. I predicted that Obama’s policies would just lead to a rise in Islamists and an much higher oil prices. It is not like I am trying to pin this on him after the fact. I said exactly what would happen and it is happening. Got to go, will try to post later in the day but just google Egypt and coptic christians and tell me if human rights have improved in Egypt. BTW, when the google executive that helped organise the revoulution tried to speak he was stoned. Useful idiots.

Celebrating Easter in China suspicious activity

“Here is just one example: ”

There’s no example there that even remotely proves what you’re saying. The link reports that Obama is encouraging Mubarek to ‘do the right thing’ and step down, but stopping well short of demanding it, lest America be seen as interfering. So what the heck does that prove?

And do you really think that Obama is behind, or somehow responsible for, the rise of the Arab world against its tyrants? How?

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