Do the work

Instapundit...

I was just discussing this very thing with the 11-year-old today:

Almost everyone I know started with crappy jobs like hauling shingles up a ladder, but if you’re not willing to do the crap work chances are you won’t make it that far. There are lots of jobs advertised but there are lots more that aren’t.

She mentioned that she and a friend were naming jobs they wouldn't want when they get older; she mentioned working in a fast-food restaurant. I pointed out that they were actually okay jobs; that they were good for an entry level; that often if you work hard at one, you can get promoted relatively quickly; that they often have reasonably good benefits; and that people want to know you can do the awful jobs before you can get a better one.

I also pointed out that it was a good second job when you were just starting out. I told her that you often have to take a job that doesn't pay enough when you begin. It might be in your dream line of work at your dream company, but you are still getting paid bupkis. You take it, hoping that you will get promoted and move towards the job you really want. In that case, you often need to work two jobs. So, don that polyester uniform and pay the rent!

Herman Cain

Good bye and good riddance.

Did he really think he could run for President while keeping his 13-year extra-marital affair secret? 

What an egotistical horse's ass.

What a colossal waste of everyone's time.  Not to mention those poor saps who worked on his campaign or donated money.

Again, good riddance!

Jetman

Jetman's latest



Awesome!

Choo'n Gum

This one's for mom

Dropping a bomb

Last night at 1AM, this appeared on Watts Up With That:


The link is to a second Climategate data dump. A whole new batch of about 5,000 e-mails (with about 200,000 more behind firewall protected by an unreleased password) from climate researchers are now out in the open. Lots of good stuff about helping "the cause" is coming out already.

I love the data dump. A subtle little, unexplained link simply appears in the middle of the night and all hell breaks loose. Well done, FOIA!

OWS farewell song

As OWS tries to find what to do with itself now that Zuccotti park has been cleared out, I offer this:

Quote of the Day

Quote of the Day, by Lubos Motl:

This sequence of sentences sounds just like this: "If an elephant is a bird, then a cactus must need water at least sometimes to survive. Let's try a thought experiment. Using a cactus, we can create a baby that is a boy exactly when it is not a boy. Therefore, an elephant is a dinosaur. It follows that Obama was born in Kenya."

Old FM Band

Who knew? Prior to WWII, the FM band was from about 41.2 to 50.4 MHz:



After the war, the FCC moved the band to the now familiar 88-108 or so. Broadcasters and the 400,000 or so people who had FM receivers at the old band were just out of luck! Wow, I would have been pretty ticked off if I had sunk money in one of those sets.

Anyway, you learn something new every day. See some really nice old radios here, where I got the pic above.

Stupid headline of the day

Former Eden Prairie schools chief hired part-time by private company | StarTribune.com

In other words: "This gal got a job!"

Selling out Taiwan

I'm still trying to get my chin off the floor after having read "To Save Our Economy, Ditch Taiwan" in today's NYTimes

He [Obama] should enter into closed-door negotiations with Chinese leaders to write off the $1.14 trillion of American debt currently held by China in exchange for a deal to end American military assistance and arms sales to Taiwan and terminate the current United States-Taiwan defense arrangement by 2015.


I really don't have much to say... I am just shocked that anyone would suggest such a thing, especially in a national newspaper. Shouldn't our foreign policy have the tiniest bit of morality worked into it? Yeesh.

What determines which articles in the NYTimes allow comments and which don't? I would like to see the reaction of others.

Ann says:

NRO's Mark Krikorian picks up the story on the Corner.

As does Ed Morrisey at Hot Air.

We deserve this

In the last year or so, I must have seen and heard a couple hundred variations on this theme:
Yet Europe's problem isn't the euro. If it were, Hungary, Iceland and Latvia—none of which use the euro—would have been spared their painful days of reckoning. The same applies for Britain. Europe is in a debt spiral brought about by spendthrift, overweening and inefficient governments.
Bull!

The problem is not the various governments of the euro-zone, the US, Ohio, California, Detroit, or pretty much every other place on the map, because whenever they are talking about this fundamental problem of debt control, they are talking about democracies. The problem is not the governments that people elect, the problem is with the people who believe lunch should always be free.

When the people's representatives dole out favors, tax breaks, subsidies, social welfare programs, etc. they buy votes. But is it the fault of the politicians who throw around tax money like beads during Mardi Gras, or is it the fault of the electorate that greedily feast on the dole and happily reelect the people who give them free stuff!

Democracies get the governments they deserve. Stop blaming the elected politicians for accurately reflecting the desires of the people they represent.

How bad is the problem? Surveys of Tea Partiers--that part of the electorate most vocal about deficit control--show that even they don't actually want to make the kind of cuts that are increasingly necessary. If even the Tea Party is deluded about our financial condition, and if even they always want it to be Fat Tuesday and never Ash Wednesday, what hope do we have? Do you really expect politicians to make serious cuts when there is almost no segment of the population that will support them?

So, hold on to your hats and invest in gold. Europe's fall is inevitable...and so is ours.

Cain

I don't know what to make of the sexual harassment charges against Cain. But some of these allegations are pretty lame. That's putting it mildly.

A former employee of the United States Agency for International Development says Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain asked her to help arrange a dinner date for him with a female audience member following a speech he delivered nine years ago.


Is this a joke? Asking someone to help set you up with a date is now suspicious behavior? Isn't this among the most common ways to get together with someone? Friend of a friend? Someone who knows someone?

Or this one:

“Cain said, ‘Darling, do you mind doctoring my tea for me?’” Deace said.


Right, because asking someone to put lemon and sugar in your tea is really some sexual innuendo... or something. Or is it the word "darling" that's offensive? Or the word "doctor"? Wow, that's some serious stuff.

There may be more out there, but these examples are not even news-worthy.

On an interesting cultural note, I've noticed that ladies in the South, especially if they are older than I am, and especially if they are black, will refer to me as "hon'" or "sug'." I am yet to be offended.

China's blackmail

Lovely.

China Threatens Massive Venting of Super Greenhouse Gases in Attempt to Extort Billions as UNFCCC Meeting Approaches - MarketWatch
In the run-up to the international climate negotiations in Durban later this month, China has responded to efforts to ban the trading of widely discredited HFC-23 offsets by threatening to release huge amounts of the potent industrial chemical into the atmosphere unless other nations pay what amounts to a climate ransom.
Keep in mind that the money they are extorting would come from their pocket, since we are deficit spending on their dime. They would certainly gain on the interest payments, though.