Podcast for 4-25-2011

Started by MrBogosity, April 24, 2011, 03:18:17 PM

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News of the Bogus:


Biggest Bogon Emitter: DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mexican-drug-cartels-targeting-and-killing-children/2011/04/07/AFwkFb9C_story.html

Idiot Extraordinare: TN Rep. Frank Nicely http://climateprogress.org/2011/04/15/einstein-teach-creationism/

This Week's Quote: "Politicians are like diapers: they should be changed often, and for the same reason." --Anonymous

It's like Lord T Hawkeye said: college is a racket.
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

Nice of you to mention Mr. Nicely's idiocy. Glad you could call it out so nicely.

Yes, had to make that bad pun.

Also, the DEA Administrator is a sickening human being if she truly thinks 1000 dead children is worth it to stop some random joe from smoking a joint.

April 24, 2011, 03:54:48 PM #3 Last Edit: April 24, 2011, 04:06:16 PM by surhotchaperchlorome
Also, thank you for bringing up college education. :)
I would still argue that colleges are still pretty lame, if not just because of expenses, but also because of how bloated and bureaucratic they are.
To give you an idea, I still recall Peter Schiff (or possibly Stefan Molyneux) pointing out that, when we had a free market in education, a year at Yale would have cost you about $1,200--in TODAY'S money.  Today, even just for Tuition (according to Collegeboard.com) it's over $40,000 for a year.
That's not to say pre-college schools aren't shit:  I'm sure they are.  Especially given the twisted incentive structure of government giving more money to schools that fail on the grounds that they're just short of funds, which of course, gives them an incentive to do worse!  I still recall Stefan pointing out that before government involvement in schools (which started in the mid to late 1800s), a year of school would have only cost about $45 in 1999's USD!

Despite the baby step reforms you mentioned though, can you imagine if we had a 100% free market?  Especially in all education?

I recall when we were closest to that, we had the best education in the world.  I can only imagine, what with the possibility of video lectures, and e-books, and online help, and the increase in real IQ over the past two centuries, the potential for students today.
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

11:00 - So much for the war on drugs protecting the children, or being for the children, eh?
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

Quote from: surhotchaperchlorome on April 24, 2011, 03:54:48 PM
Also, thank you for bringing up college education. :)
I would still argue that colleges are still pretty lame, if not just because of expenses, but also because of how bloated and bureaucratic they are.
To give you an idea, I still recall Peter Schiff (or possibly Stefan Molyneux) pointing out that, when we had a free market in education, a year at Yale would have cost you about $1,200--in TODAY'S money.  Today, even just for Tuition (according to Collegeboard.com) it's over $40,000 for a year.

I believe that was Molyneux. I think Jacob Spinney also did a video on it.

But what do colleges have that government schools don't? The answer is CHOICE. If you look to a college to pick up the slack from your lame high school, you have lots of choices, so colleges have an incentive to deliver. And if none of them deliver on their promise, then none of them will get your business.

Here's a bit I would have inserted into the Idiot Extraordinaire segment if I'd had a chance:

Of course, Bacon also said, "Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue...but superstition dismounts all these and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men...and we see the times inclined to atheism...were civil times; but superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new 'primum mobile' that ravisheth all the spheres of government." Is this really the guy you want to be quoting, Nicely?

Quote from: MrBogosity on April 24, 2011, 04:28:31 PM
But what do colleges have that government schools don't? The answer is CHOICE. If you look to a college to pick up the slack from your lame high school, you have lots of choices, so colleges have an incentive to deliver. And if none of them deliver on their promise, then none of them will get your business.

Indeed.  And of course, because people have to pay at the point of delivery for colleges, it means that the colleges also have more incentive for success than than, say, a public high school.  So in a way, it's a lesser of two evils (for lack of better phrases) really.
And as you said, if high schools did their jobs, this wouldn't be as big a deal too.
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

April 24, 2011, 04:32:34 PM #8 Last Edit: April 24, 2011, 07:01:23 PM by surhotchaperchlorome
Quote from: MrBogosity on April 24, 2011, 04:31:09 PM
Here's a bit I would have inserted into the Idiot Extraordinaire segment if I'd had a chance:

Of course, Bacon also said, "Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation: all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue...but superstition dismounts all these and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the minds of men...and we see the times inclined to atheism...were civil times; but superstition hath been the confusion of many states, and bringeth in a new 'primum mobile' that ravisheth all the spheres of government." Is this really the guy you want to be quoting, Nicely?
Well the guy doing the quoting IS a YEC AND a politician who believes that forcing people to pay for creationism in schools is a moral thing.  Can we really be so surprised?
"When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world—'No. You move.'"
-Captain America, Amazing Spider-Man 537

As far as colleges and choice

Public colleges are still at the whim of government bureaucrats and bureaucracy many times sadly. BS politics kept Florida State from starting a law school for over a decade despite FSU already having all the money it needed.

Don't get me started on the BS bureaucracy. Best example I know is that FSU sent me a letter saying I couldn't register for a classes because I didn't take all of the required math classes. Instead of telling me this the semester before when I could've just added the class, they sent it to me halfway into the next semester.