The unemployment rate today is 4.1 percent for people with four years of college,6.6 percent for those with two years,8.8 percent for high school graduates,and 12.0 percent for dropouts. [personal communication]
Friedman introduced that with the suggestion that "if we ever get another stimulus it has to focus, in part, on getting more people more education." This reminds me of what Jonathan Price said in Wednesday's interview about the importance of higher education as an election issue. [personal communication]
You asked me why I thought your four-month-old post, "Tree of trite," continued to be the most popular post over the preceding seven days. Well, I think I've solved the Tree of Trite mystery!
There was a family whose surname was Trite who appear to be a genealogy case study. Their members have proliferated like a rash, assuming all sorts of names and settling around the globe. And there are still many who bear the source name Trite. On ancestry.com, there's a 20-page list of family trees that are investigating connections to the Trites. [personal communication]
This article on MSNBC says that once the roughly $700 million 9/11 memorial project is complete, it will cost $60 million a year to operate. What is this with memorials?
The authorities should have just put up a plaque with everyone's name who died. What are we supposed to be remembering about 9/11, anyway? [conversation]
I just finished reading some excerpts from Romney's stump speech in Virginia today. It's the most vile piece of political pandering that I can recall. As I read, I couldn't stop thinking of the old phrase "enough to gag a maggot." [personal communication; excerpts from "In Romney's Hands, Pledge of Allegiance Is Framework for Criticism," New York Times, September 8]:
Virginia Beach [home of Pat Robertson].Rush Limbaugh (99.6% correct, he tells us every broadcast) blamed Obama for the hurricane near the GOP Convention in Tampa.
...Mr. Romney did not just recite the Pledge of Allegiance; he metaphorically wrapped his stump speech in it, using each line of the pledge to attack President Obama.
"The promises that were made in that pledge are promises I plan on keeping if I am president, and I've kept them so far in my life...That pledge says 'under God.' I will not take 'God' out of the name of our platform. I will not take 'God' off our coins....
"I will not divide this nation," he said....
He said that for the nation to have liberty, "We must have a military second to none, so strong no one would ever think of testing it."....
Mr. Romney's ramped-up stump speech came as Pat Robertson, the televangelist whom Senator John McCain of Arizona once called an "agent of intolerance," was sitting in the front row behind the stage. The men met and chatted briefly before the event....
My thought: You can do what you want, but as for me, I will definitely vote for the guy who can control the weather. [personal communication]
Did you see what Romney said the other day in Jacksonville, Florida? I read it in the AP story, "US poverty rate unchanged; record numbers persist." It's revealing:
We're the party of those who want a brighter, prosperous future for themselves and for their kids. We're not the party of the rich. We're the party of the people who want to get rich. [emphases mine]Is the man too unconscious to realize what he's saying?
There's something deeply disturbing about the idea of "I want to be rich!" as an organizing principle for a political party. Why not drop the name "Republican" and let people know who you really are—the "Fuck Everyone Else" Party? [personal communication]
Limerick of the week:
You could find Ann at all the protests,
MAKE LOVE was tattooed on her breasts;
She would lie in a doorway,
Say, "Fine, have it your way!"
And she never resisted arrests.
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