Patterico's Pontifications

9/9/2011

Obama Jobs Speech, or, My Proposal to Buy Me a Shiny New Car

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 6:58 am



I just presented my wife with a proposal that I buy me a shiny new car I can’t afford. I asked her if she is going to put family first and approve my proposal now.

It is a bipartisan proposal, even though she doesn’t agree with it, because the word bipartisan sounds good.

And it won’t cost us a cent, because my proposal pays for the car, through unspecified cuts in the “out years.”

One of my bipartisan proposals to pay for my shiny new car includes my wife taking on a second job and not spending any money on new clothes.

She’s not buying my proposal. In fact, there is no such proposal. I made it up for rhetorical purposes. Not that I’m that enamored of my 11-year-old car with 130,000 miles. Here’s the problem. I’m not going to do something we can’t afford and justify it with phony arguments and lies.

Read that last sentence out loud three times, Mr. President.

Sounded nice, huh?

That would have been a better speech.

148 Responses to “Obama Jobs Speech, or, My Proposal to Buy Me a Shiny New Car”

  1. psh. 130,000 miles is weak sauce. I’m from a 280,000-miles-on-two-different-cars type of family.

    Boo-Yah!

    Leviticus (624ba1)

  2. Even the AP fact checkers agree with you, Patterico.

    JD (318f81)

  3. Growing government means that car is expensive to operate. Think of a Rolls Royce or Porsche going in for a tune up. Think of the gas mileage of a Hummer.

    AZ Bob (aa856e)

  4. Not only should Mrs Patterico approve, she should do so now! 🙂

    And, since the shiny new car will spend much of its time parked in Compton, you will be helping a depressed area by supplying tires and a radio to the citizens.

    The snarky Dana (3e4784)

  5. BUY THAT CAR NOW!!!!!!

    JD (318f81)

  6. It would be unpatriotic NOT to buy that new car. OF course, to be most patriotic, it should be a Chrysler or GM car, not one of those foreign or scab-labor cars.

    Did you know that the UAW is considering striking Ford? Out of patriotism, of course.

    Kevin M (563f77)

  7. BUY that 2011 chevrolet corvette or else.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  8. You evil people who favor smaller government are really just ANARCHISTS. No wonder the Democrats accuse you of wanting to kill old people and starve children. The President has you pegged. Obviously, if the government is smaller, then that means that there are no rules anymore, no laws, and we all just pack heat.

    “In fact, this larger notion that the only thing we can do to restore prosperity is just dismantle government, refund everyone’s money, let everyone write their own rules, and tell everyone they’re on their own – that’s not who we are. That’s not the story of America.”

    Pow! That was my head exploding. I turned off the speech after that.

    Gesundheit (d7ea47)

  9. Geshundeit – when he said they would be paying down the debt was where I checked out.

    JD (318f81)

  10. Patterico – You have the title wrong. It was not Obama’s jobs speech, it was Obama’s Save My Job Speech.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  11. Another question Patterico – Does your dog house have carpeting and heating?

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  12. It may sound like the little old lady from Pasadena, but my car is 10 years old with 97K miles. At over $3.50 a gallon for gas, I don’t go much. Michelle Obama has more than used my gas and carbon credits in all her world travels.

    I didn’t listen last night and don’t think I missed anything. Watched the Dbacks win again.

    PatAZ (4864c2)

  13. There are a lot of very harsh comments about our president out on the internets this morning I have noticed. Some of them border on the disrespectful.

    Carry on.

    elissa (cfc61e)

  14. If you were a patriot and non-racist, it would serve you and the country well to but a Chevy Volt or at least something made by United Auto Workers. Detroit is our shining beacon of hope and American ingenuity and union solidarity. We need to emulate Motown’s employment and murder stats in rest of USA. Some say half of Detroit is employed and homicide rate a mere 50 per 100,000 so far this year.

    Driving a 23 year old Honda here with nearly 107k on clock and 13 year old Porsche. Best to avoid dealers at all cost but imo Japanese cars MADE in Japan from the late-eighties are very reliable. Don’t know about the American-made versions.

    I never watch O’Reilly but last night he claimed US Treasury is ok with illegals getting 4 billion in refunds. Pay no tax and use worker number to get $1000 for each child? Ain’t America great?

    Calypso Louie Farrakhan (2cc74c)

  15. “We need to emulate Motown’s employment and murder stats in rest of USA.”

    Mr. Farrakhan – I am very encouraged by some of the happenings in Detroit, like ploughing half the city under and starting over. Win win.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  16. Well, of course it’s bipartisan because she obviously agreed to buy a car in the past at some point!

    And if she doesn’t approve your plan, she favors mercury poisoning.

    Susan (e1c262)

  17. Your forgot that car you want to buy isn’t a Honda but a Bugatti Veyron Super Sports, because if you do all the kids will think you’re “bitchin'”

    Hawkins (1fc204)

  18. now I’m not no economist but seems to me that if you cut the pay and pensions of piggy piggy union whore first responders and teachers you might could afford to hire yourself quite a few more of them

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  19. There are a lot of very harsh comments about our president out on the internets this morning I have noticed. Some of them border on the disrespectful.
    Comment by elissa — 9/9/2011 @ 8:16 am

    Am very shocked pleased to hear it.

    Patterico, your wife needs to know she is being very greedy, not wanting to take two jobs to pay for your new car. How can she be so selfish?

    no one you know (325a59)

  20. That’s ok. Obama will see to it that madatory ethanol content in gasoline is raised to the point your car dissolves within 6 mos. They you’ll HAVE to buy a new one, cause all the other used cars will dissolve too.

    sarahW (fd5a41)

  21. Typical that he repeatedly insisted Congress pass this bill, but he won’t explain how to pay for it for 2 weeks. We waited all August for this? ANd of course all kinds of complicatiosn that pols love-credits for this, but not for that. There were some limited good ideas, like allowing people on unemployment to waork part-time. But instead of passing simple smaller ideas by themselves we have to do a Big Bill, or nothing.

    The continued federal intervention in education is an outrageous expensive fraud.In fact by every measure since the founding of the Department of ed, student perofrmance has declined. It operates no schools, nor should it. The current Secretary has never been a teacher, merely a bureaucrat who plays basketball with The One. If ever a bureaucracy was primed to be cut, this is it. Instead Obama wants more.

    Bugg (9e308e)

  22. Obama is going to give this little speech across the way this morning. He took his plane to ride 100 miles and will part traffic like Moses and be driven to the Robbins Center, bringing local traffic to a standstill.

    sarahW (fd5a41)

  23. You have to pass the bill before you find out how to pay for it!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  24. Just asking…
    Do ADA’s get preferred rates from Divorce Lawyers?

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (7d0394)

  25. You must buy the car now in order to see what’s in the glove compartment.

    Pious Agnostic (7c3d5b)

  26. the obama times thinks Tea Partiers are fiscally incompetent………..Well that is irony raised to the 10666th power.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  27. 19. Comment by happyfeet — 9/9/2011 @ 8:34 am

    if you cut the pay and pensions of…first responders and teachers you..could afford to hire yourself quite a few more of them

    President Obama won’t go there. No questions will be asked about why something has to cost what it costs.

    In general, the attitude seems to be that markets are inefficient, except when the government is spending the mmoney.

    What really gets me is this echoing of what lobbyists say about the physical conditions of schools. This is NOT NOT the problem with education. It’s one of the most idiotic thinsg ever said about education.

    How can we expect our kids to do their best in places that are literally falling apart? is a really great non sequitor, not to mention that not too many places are falling apart and the money would be spent for more than improving places falling apart. And also science labs and Internet.

    You could also pay less if you eliminated unnecessary qualifications to teach.

    Oh, another thing: Do we really need 12 years of elementary and secondary education? Finland does better with 10. Do we really need 6 hours of school a day? Some schools do better with less.

    And is there a need for as much homework as there is? I think astudies have shown that is not true.

    Instead of increasing productivity in education, there is less and less of it. Teachers and children spend more and more time teaching and learning less and less.

    And what we need are better school buildings?? And would the buildings actually be better? How many of them?

    This is one of the still bad things in the President’s speech. But I really liked the vigor with which he spoke, and some of the arguments were good. Only about a third of his speech, though.

    Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb)

  28. Will the renewal of the school infrastructure give FEMA a place to put all of those trailers left over from Katrina?

    AD (7d0394)

  29. As long as a Republican, at some point in time, made a suggestion, then Barcky’s proposal was bipartisan. Except, there is no proposal. They could not vote on it now, because it hasn’t even been written. You have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it. And, it isn’t paid for, not by any rational meaning of that phrase. It calls for a group of congresscritters to agree to future cuts in the rate of growth of government. Like with the debt ceiling, he is giving speeches, not leading. You have to think that even he is a little embarrassed by all this.

    JD (af7a3a)

  30. 29. Comment by AD — 9/9/2011 @ 9:42 am

    Will the renewal of the school infrastructure give FEMA a place to put all of those trailers left over from Katrina?

    Jokes, or attempted jokes, belong in the Mel Gibson thread. This is a bad, very poor quality, un-joke.

    Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb)

  31. And is there a need for as much homework as there is? I think studies have shown that is not true.

    Actually, there are some new schools that have the kids study the lesson on Khan Academy at home and then do the homework in class. It’s supposed to work well with subjects like math.

    The whole question for 2012 is going to be how many suckers are left after all these empty speeches.

    Mike K (8f3f19)

  32. You have to pass the bill before you start screaming about starvation.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  33. Here’s something.

    I know some people are complaininbg taht President Obama made an error,m when, in a clause he ad libbed into his spoeech, he cakleld Abraham Lincoln the founder of the Republican Party

    The point isn’t that bad a point – that Republicans can support government spending to improve life in the United States – although anyway that was a different republican party. It’s close but not exactly true. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President but he was not teh founder of the Republican Party, although he was a fairly early member, although nto at the very beginning. Obama after all is no student of histiry and eh didn’t live through this since this hapepned in 1854.

    But he said soemthinbg much worse:

    Who can explain THIS in his speech?

    The agreement we passed in July will cut government spending by about $1 trillion over the next ten years. It also charges this Congress to come up with an additional $1.5 trillion in savings by Christmas. Tonight, I’m asking you to increase that amount so that it covers the full cost of the American Jobs Act

    ERROR!! The aagreement was passed in August not July. Doesn’t President Obama remember the August 3rd deadline and the fact that the bill was passed at the last minute?

    This error wass DELIBERATELY put into the bill. I am wonderinbg about teh motive? To make Congress look more reasonable, and bipartisan?

    Did it occur to someone that sayinbg August contradicts the theme of that paragraph?

    Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb)

  34. Sorry for typos

    Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb)

  35. Here’s another argument you can try on her:

    The federal government believes that they have the right to fine you if you do not buy the car.

    jim2 (2328fe)

  36. Rick Perry wants to abolish SS?

    Did he say that quit lying libtards.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  37. More hate speech from Patterico! Heavens!

    Dustin (b2fb78)

  38. Rick Perry didn’t say he wants to abolish SS.

    Quit scaring the old folks and the disabled liberals.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  39. I think Sammy missed the bigger lie in that passage he highlighted.

    JD (b82ba3)

  40. Btw when the economy collapses leftys SS and welfare will be done away with.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  41. Part of me wants to give Obama what he wants, to take away his “Bush was to blame last time and now Congress is to blame” campaign theme. Why? Because his plan won’t work to revive the economy — in fact, it would probably make things worse — and then he’d have nothing but “everyone is racist” to run on.

    I know it’s not going to happen since, unfortunately, we’re in the position where even $500 billion in spending is asking too much.

    In the GOP debate, Rick Perry said Obama has proved that Keynesian economics doesn’t work. (I actually thought it was his best line, but no one seemed to notice it.) Most of us here know that but I’m not sure most Americans know it. If another $500B would prove it once and for all, it would be money well spent.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  42. If another $500B would prove it once and for all

    Of course, all Obama has to do is ask for yet another stimulus/’reform’, until the GOP does say no, and then he’s got the story line he wanted anyway.

    That’s hoping the voters are well informed. And if they are, they already know the stimulus concept is not working.

    If I ask the next person I see who Brian A. Terry is… er was, they almost certainly will never have heard of him. Because the liberal media is the ultimate trump card in politics.

    Dustin (b2fb78)

  43. Dustin,

    You’re probably right, but this stimulus would eat up most of the time between now and the election before they could ask for more money.

    Also, your comments at Althouse are excellent.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  44. This is a bad, very poor quality, un-joke.

    Yes, I agree.
    The President’s speech was pathetic, deserving of mock and derision.

    AD (7d0394)

  45. Steyn is filling in for Rush again today and is on fire:

    Pass this bill now and you may have already won.

    Don’t wait for it to be typed up, don’t wait for the money to be found to pay the bill.

    Pass this bill now and we’ll throw in, at no cost to you, a ChamWow, absolutely free.

    Like the shovel ready project the DHS identified at the border of Maine and New Brunswick, replacing a tired customs hut with a $16 Million entry point. All for traffic of 6 cars a day.

    gary gulrud (790d43)

  46. Thanks, DRJ!

    this stimulus would eat up most of the time between now and the election

    Yeah. There’s light at the end of the tunnel at least. It just continues to amaze me that even now, there are a lot of people who didn’t learn the lesson you keep hoping they will learn about jumpstarting the economy with reckless spending.

    Dustin (b2fb78)

  47. SUCK IT OBAMA!!!!!!!!

    Sorry for yelling.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  48. Tobacco and Alcohol taxes won’t do much for the deficit.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  49. DRJ–I sort of see where you are coming from, but almost everybody, including Obama, knows the new “jobs plan” will do nothing to revive the economy. What it is is a way to funnel another half billion of taxpayer dollars into the union coffers before election day –to be used against Republican candidates. This is why the proposed legislation funds the kinds of jobs and projects it does.

    elissa (cfc61e)

  50. Patterico –

    But would the car be shovel ready?

    Robin Munn (347954)

  51. Robin:
    Its “shovel-readiness” would be enhanced by being a convertible – easier to fill up that way.

    AD (7d0394)

  52. I like the way DRJ thinks. Were this not one huge multi-billion transfer of campaign loot to his union buddies, I would whole-heartedly endorse the concept.

    JD (ac417f)

  53. I guess they figured that the money they spent in the run-up to ’10 was insufficient, or spent in the wrong places, leading to the upheaval in the House.
    If they spend a half-trillion more, how many GOP Senate seats will that translate to?
    Will Mitch end up with a veto proof Senate?

    AD (7d0394)

  54. If the citizens of Detroit could be persuaded to only murder the unemployed, eventually the unemployment rate would plummet to zero. The murder rate would be high, until the unemployed disappeared, at which point it would, miraculously, drop to zero as well.
    I am applying next week to be one of Obama’s economic advisers. Wish me luck.

    orcadrvr (5daf3f)

  55. Meanwhile, another taste of what is to come, courtesy of our Chicago Pol inspired White House:

    http://dailycaller.com/2011/09/09/longshoreman-assaults-media-%E2%80%98get-the-fuck-out-of-this-parking-lot-right-now%E2%80%99/

    I think it is really great that only those darned teabaggin’ teatards use such violent and repressive language. Don’t you?

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  56. A major difference between your situation, Patterico, and that of the President, is there is no “Patterico Family Times” newspaper linked to TV, radio, and blog sites telling your kids (the rest of the Patterico Public) that she is a “hater” for not recognizing your near-divineness and begging for the opportunity to let your policies go into effect.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  57. Well, a lot of the proposal is “shovel-ready”, if you mean cleaning out the stables and barn…

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  58. But would the car be shovel ready?

    Well, if he buys the car, he will be.

    A shame he married the wife of NO.

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  59. Who knew that Keynesia was a small community on Hawai’i ?

    Alasdair (b9112c)

  60. Palin is not perfect but i will vote for her for anyone but obama in 2012.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  61. “In fact, this larger notion that the only thing we can do to restore prosperity is just dismantle government, refund everyone’s money, let everyone write their own rules, and tell everyone they’re on their own – that’s not who we are. That’s not the story of America.”

    — Did the Big Zero really say this? OMG! Hang on while I peruse a transcript . . .

    Geez! Well, at least he was honest enough to say “refund EVERYONE’S money”.

    Teh One-And-Done

    Icy Texan (0ebe78)

  62. Not buying a new Canadian-built car is unamerican!

    malclave (4f3ec1)

  63. Weak sauce indeed–my 10 year Tahoe has 161,000 miles on it–and while it’ll get 17 mpg on the road (with a tailwind and going straight downhill) it’s more like 12 mpg around town. And at $3.99 a gallon gas I don’t do much driving. But then Obama already told me to buy a more fuel efficient car–and have fewer kids etc. Heh heh heh! [Obama was to clueless to say, “that’s a joke son”–except the joke’s on us.]

    Comanche Voter (0e06a9)

  64. or*

    If Palin opposed E-Verify the usual suspects would demand she run for president of Mexico it doesn’t matter if you use the same excuses they do.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  65. With respect to the false assertions of school infrastructure problems, our cities and towns are full of empty retail space. Need a new school? Convert the empty Albertson’s to class room space. Or the empty CompUSA … or the empty Borders.

    The lack of imagination in education is abyssmal.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  66. President false choices will not win in 2012.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  67. Hey, I’m planning to do some work on the house. Are there any new subsidies in this bill?

    Kevin M (4eb9c8)

  68. With liberalized charter regulations, and/or vouchers, there would be a rush to utilize those empty facilities, putting money into the pockets of landlords, contractors for remodeling and their employees, suppliers of desks/partitions/computers/office equipment/etc, and newly employed teachers and support staff.

    But, they probably wouldn’t be members of the AFT/NEA, so it will never happen.

    Uncle Joe (7d0394)

  69. Having been entrapped by the sockpuppit gremlins, I confess that “Uncle Joe” is I, and I was responding to SPQR.

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (7d0394)

  70. First Lady false choice was busy pimping her anti-obesity campaign at ground zero………….first of all you classless dousche take a look in the mirror.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  71. What we have here….is failure….to communicate.

    Ed from SFV (7d7851)

  72. Hey leftys raising the retirement age is a bad thing?

    DohBiden (d54602)

  73. Gotta 2000 Honda Civic with 208,000, man I am a piker in this crowd. But unlike each of you and especially the evil JD, I worship the very ground that our beloved President trods. Did I say that I was dropped on my head as a child?

    Ipso Fatso (74cbec)

  74. Comment by Ipso Fatso — 9/9/2011 @ 1:56 pm

    and evidently every year on your birthday, too.

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (7d0394)

  75. I hope the car has Made in America stamped all over it.

    rochf (f3fbb0)

  76. You were dropped on your head…………………figures.

    I hope the card had an I love being teabagged by Michelle False Choice sticker on it.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  77. I was kidding guys. About Obama, I mean.

    Ipso Fatso (74cbec)

  78. 2000 Honda Civic with 208,000,

    That’s a great little car. Probably more reliable than a new Volt.

    My wife’s former Honda is still in the family, still quite reliable, with similar mileage. Made in Ohio.

    Dustin (b2fb78)

  79. So will the obamaphiles stop lying about Rick Perry wanting to completely abolish SS when he said if your over 55 your SS will remain.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  80. UR right Dustin, it has been a good car. Although I did have to re-build the engine but I drive it very hard in the city. I was told by a Honda mechanic that the newer models are not as good as the older ones. Don’t know how true that is.

    Ipso Fatso (74cbec)

  81. My newer Honda (which is no longer new, but five years old) is bullet-proof, mechanically.

    Though I think most cars these days are very reliable so long as you change the fluids and it’s not union made.

    Dustin (b2fb78)

  82. One of my fixes for SS is to get rid of the retire at 62 option and just keep the age at 65 for everybody. Also I think there should be a cap on benefits, if you put on $100,000 that is what you should get back. I know several people who are getting 7 or 8 hundred per month who put in diddly. That is just wrong.

    Ipso Fatso (74cbec)

  83. President false choices…

    Comment by DohBiden — 9/9/2011 @ 1:27 pm

    I like it.

    no one you know (325a59)

  84. Ipso Fatso, the retire at 62 option is almost gone. Persons born in 1960 and later don’t have it. So your fix only changes the numbers between now and 2022 a little bit.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  85. Raising the retirement age is evil according to leftys.

    Corporations are like hitler too.

    Gotta love the leftoids.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  86. But, Hitler had such Kool Uni’s….
    Surely the Lefties appreciate Fashion Statements?

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (7d0394)

  87. Jonah Goldberg noticed another problem:

    Pass this jobs bill, and starting tomorrow, small businesses will get a tax cut if they hire new workers or raise workers’ wages.

    What? Is it retroactive to September 9?

    The rest of the paragraph was not so problematic:

    “Pass this jobs bill, and all small business owners will also see their payroll taxes cut in half next year.”

    Is his proposal really to cut the employer’s portion of the payroll tax in half?

    “If you have 50 employees making an average salary, that’s an $80,000 tax cut.”

    I guess that’s a way of saying an employer would save enough money to hire a 51st (and kick in the family medical leave act?)

    “And all businesses will be able to continue writing off the investments they make in 2012.”

    Extension of current law.

    Pass this jobs bill, and all small business owners will also see their payroll taxes cut in half next year. If you have 50 employees making an average salary, that’s an $80,000 tax cut. And all businesses will be able to continue writing off the investments they make in 2012.

    Sammy Finkelman (d3daeb)

  88. New lefty scandal-Bob Turner is a warlock sent by Rush Limbaugh to dominate the world.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  89. Bob Turner sent a spy to spy against Weprin?

    DohBiden (d54602)

  90. SPQR, I had no idea that the 62 option was eliminated. Thanks for the info. That means we are more screwed than I thought.

    Ipso Fatso (74cbec)

  91. 88.Ipso Fatso, the retire at 62 option is almost gone. Persons born in 1960 and later don’t have it.

    Made the cut-off by one month. Not that I will retire, I plan to work until my heart explodes….

    Chuck Bartowski (4c6c0c)

  92. Took the 62 option. So you get a lesser amount for four years but have the use of it also. I think once you reach 78 taking it at 66 would mean you are starting to get ahead $$-wise. BUT life expectancy is something like 75 for a65 year old in America. If you croak earlier, then all you get extra is the burial help, which I think is $255. You can pay into SS for years and once you croak at any age, that is it. I’m sure it is likely that hyperinflation will make fixed incomes very problematic. No COLAs past few years and the way they finagle those numbers is BS since food and energy not included because volatile?? And they also figure you can get things like Ipads cheaper now or substitute chicken for beef and so on. Buck Farack and the horse he rode in on and so on.

    Calypso Louie Farrakhan (2cc74c)

  93. _______________________________________________

    How can we expect our kids to do their best in places that are literally falling apart?

    What irritates me is that a large percentage of Americans, from liberal to conservative, fall for the idea that education and the government are a match made in heaven. So God forbid — and how selfish and mean of us — that we should ever cut funding for public schools.

    “We should spend, spend, spend for education!! Because it’s for the kids! It’s for the children!,” proclaim Mr & Mrs John Doe and their neighbors, Mr & Mrs. John Q Public, etc.

    Yep, we all know that the big problem with education in today’s era is the HARDWARE (ie, the buildings, employees, including the bureaucracy in general, and the classroom material), and not the SOFTWARE (ie, the culture and new-age politics). And that hardware requires big bucks!

    USnews.com, March 2007:

    In a country known for rigid hierarchy, the sight of the school principal on hands and knees might seem strange. But in Japan, it’s just souji time – the period of about 15 minutes each day when students, teachers, and administrators all drop whatever they are doing, pull out the buckets and mops, and give everything a good scrub.

    Most Japanese schools don’t employ janitors, but the point is not to cut costs. Rather, the practice is rooted in Buddhist traditions that associate cleaning with morality – a concept that contrasts sharply with the Greco-Roman notion of cleaning as a menial task best left to the lower classes.

    “Education is not only teaching subjects but also cooperation with others, ethics, a sense of responsibility, and public morality. Doing chores contributes to this,” says Katsko Takahashi, a member of the Board of Education in Nanae, a suburban town in Hokkaido. “Besides, if students make a mess, they know they will have to clean it up. So naturally, they try to keep things clean.”

    At lunchtime, the students even don hairnets and help serve and clear away dishes from the midday meal. “Cleaning is just one part of a web of activities that signal to children that they are valued members of a community,” says Christopher Bjork, an educational anthropologist at Vassar College.

    ^ Try something like that in this society, and teachers would go out on strike, parents would sue in the name of child abuse, Democrats/liberals would complain about overly low taxes and hard-hearted indoctrination, and even conservatives would be worried that a “small is beautiful” ethos had gone too far.

    Mark (411533)

  94. Yeppers, I was born in 1962 and they’ve raised the retirement age for my group to 67yoa. Probably the only hope that I have of seeing one single dime of my SS money would be if I went ahead and retired on disability. But, I can’t take the paycut, or the loss of insurance.

    Working two jobs, and for the last 4 wks was putting in 80 hours a week. That with diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, crippling rheumatoid arthritis, heart stint two years ago, two discs removed from my neck in 2000, 5 discs in my back that are either bulging or ruptered (sp?) which the Dr. doesn’t want to remove until I can’t stand the pain anymore, and asthma plus a few other more minor problems. Then I look around and see some of these forry suckers collecting welfare, SSI, or SS disability and it chaps my ass.

    peedoffamerican (ee1de0)

  95. Progressive 1 thinks your wife’s earnings should be taxed at a level that wouldn’t allow for a new car purchase.
    Progressive 2 thinks it is fine if you buy a new car… as long as they get to drive it and you pay for the gas.
    Progressive Obama wants the best of both worlds

    SteveG (e27d71)

  96. I meant to add after: some of these forry suckers collecting welfare, SSI, or SS disability and it chaps my ass. And there is not a damn thing wrong with them.

    peedoffamerican (ee1de0)

  97. test

    peedoffamerican (ee1de0)

  98. I don’t think I like the tone of this post. Didn’t you hear BO? YOU HAVE TO PASS IT YESTERDAY OR OMG!?! Call his super serial bluff, wingnuts, and he’s going to tell……everyone. Matt Damon.

    East Bay Jay (19f566)

  99. If you don’t buy that car, you’re a RACIST.

    AT (6e8fa4)

  100. Would not additional stimulus do better if those of us with old cars were given vouchers exchangeable for that 550 HP Caddy? It is a win-win. Patterico gets new wheels for free and Motown and the UAW get jobs. Better than sending big bucks for bonuses at overseas banks or corrupt solar panel businesses.

    I had three GM cars long ago, but no way would I even consider anything from GM or Chrysler now. Detroit is a cesspool due to liberal policies. Boy those Volts are sure cool cars. Piece of feces from what I’ve read. And so now the UAW wants to strike Ford, which took no bailout monies?

    Calypso Louie Farrakhan (2cc74c)

  101. Patterico I blame you for domestic discord. I told my wife aka “She Who Must Be Obeyed” that I was going to buy a new Corvette. I got a pop in the chops and a steak for a black eye.

    Comanche Voter (0e06a9)

  102. Clearly the window for cash for clunkers has expired… and putting the wife into the equation will be a loser regardless to the intent

    SteveG (e27d71)

  103. and again I am not an economist, but seems to me that if the economy gets better over the next year without his treasury-raping bill getting passed, then one Mr. Obama is gonna look mighty silly. So what I take from that is that our cowardly president is making a wager that the economy is going to get a good bit worse over the next year.

    I wouldn’t bet against him.

    Winter’s coming and I’m thinking it’s time to start putting away a few nuts and some CPK frozen pizza cause it looks to be a long and bitterly cold one.

    happyfeet (3c92a1)

  104. Patterico – Clearly your problem is not following Obama’s formula. Just tell Mrs. P you are buying a new car and that it is all paid for. Then tell her it is up to her to figure out how to pay for it as Obama did with Congress last night. Accept no responsibility.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  105. Mr. Feets – Just eat your peas.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  106. Daley @ 108 – actually, the funding mechanism would be for Mrs Patterico to demand that the steering committee of the local PTA decide how to fund the purchase, by reducing the rate of growth of future fundraising activities.

    JD (318f81)

  107. JD – My wife would buy stuff all the time and tell me to figure out how to pay for it. Fair is fair.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  108. JD – We’re talking micro versus macro here.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  109. happyfeet, Obama’s planning in early ’09 was that the economy would get better despite the faux stimulus all along. Because the graph of employment that the White House predicted, if their crap stimulus was adopted, just happened to match the average employment recovery from all previous recessions.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  110. Good points, all, Daley.

    JD (318f81)

  111. I blame Galt!

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (7d0394)

  112. I blame Halliburton!

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  113. How does Congress pass a bill that has not been written? Or, as someone else noted, the Constitution does not allow Congress to pass TOTUS.

    JD (318f81)

  114. The Constitution does not allow Congress to pass mime acts as legislation either.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  115. There is no bill, and there is no funding mechanism. Yet he is out giving speeches and lying about it.

    JD (318f81)

  116. Tifosa just erected a monument in his pants.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  117. JD – As we already know with Obama, the CBO cannot score a speech. It was like he was waiting for public reaction before deciding the form of bill to write next week. Just not buying his act.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  118. The left want to keep SS in its current form so they can raid it and use the money for its own nefarious purposes.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  119. Tifosa is a weprinbot for life.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  120. “Now, I realize that some of you have a different theory on how to grow the economy. Some of you sincerely believe that the only solution to our economic challenges is to simply cut most government spending and eliminate most government regulations.”–Obambi

    Gee, first time I ever heard the idiot-in-chief say something that actually makes sense.

    Didn’t think he had it in him.

    Yeah, Obambi, communism doesn’t work. That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you leftards for lo these many decades.

    Dave Surls (f00190)

  121. The left will be the first victims and I do not wanna here any whining you endorsed this guy.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  122. You younger folks can still retire at 62, but the percentage is much less than at 67. The part that has changed is when you can get full retirement. For most baby boomers, it is 66. As the full retirement age goes up, the amount you can collect at 62 goes down. If the government did drop the option of early retirement, it would save quite a bit. More people would then try for disability when they can’t get work – this is what is going on right now. Many of the people applying for early retirment or disability right now would have kept working if they could, but no jobs available. The number of applicants has gone WAY up past what it would have been in an even semi-normal economy. To make ends meet, these early retirees are then taking minimum wage jobs or part time jobs that would in the past have gone to teenagers and young adults. So the youth unemployment just keeps rising.
    Sorry my post isn’t witty or funny. I pray for my country every day.

    Karen Weigandt (e1aae4)

  123. I am with you Karen.

    Ipso Fatso (74cbec)

  124. The Prez made a stemwinder
    But will the voters be kinder
    Than in twenty-ten
    When they did send
    The Democrats into the grinder.

    The Limerick Avenger (f68855)

  125. Our esteemed President asked:

    How can we expect our kids to do their best in places that are literally falling apart?

    You’ve never had your children in a parochial school, have you?

    When my kids were in parochial schools, some were in decent shape, and others were overcrowded and needed repairs. But parents spend their hard-earned money to put their children in parochial schools because they get a better education there.

    The Catholic Dana (f68855)

  126. As for me, I went to high school in a 1937 WPA/CCC building, in the South, with no air conditioning, no special facilities, no computers — Al Gore hadn’t even thought of inventing the internet back then — where we had 30 kids in a classroom, the teachers fought over time to use the one mimeograph machine to run off tests, and we had exactly one teacher who had his master’s. We had one principal, no assistant principal’s two or three women who worked in the office, steam radiators for heat, and books that had been passed down through decades.

    Yet somehow, some way, those of us who were graduated could all read and write.

    The Dana who was graduated from high school in 1971 (f68855)

  127. Bush had a deficit of billions,
    Teh Won turned it into trillions
    But the Democrats say
    “So, what the hey?
    Be glad it isn’t quadrillions!”

    The Limerick Avenger (f68855)

  128. Comment by The Dana who was graduated from high school in 1971 — 9/10/2011 @ 7:19 am

    And you admirably demonstrate those capabilities here every day.

    His proposal for improvements to school infrastructure is just payback to 1- construction-trade unions, 2- teacher’s unions for the increased membership that will follow from additional classrooms.
    And, with further involvement of DofEd in local ed matters, student attainment will be further downgraded.
    They (the educrats) have a big problem on their hands right now with the increasing Hispanicazation of student bodies because no one has figured out how to combat the lack of concern for education that permeates the Hispanic community.
    If parents don’t care, and your peers deride attainment, who is going to attempt to excell?
    All the bright, shiny, new classrooms, and low student/teacher ratios, in the world cannot overcome a lack of desire to learn, and astronomical drop-out rates.

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (ff6763)

  129. Cars? I thought we were all getting unicorn farms.

    KateC (fe362c)

  130. “farms”?
    Are you sure you spelled that correctly?

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (ff6763)

  131. Don’t worry president false choices will be getting us that snickers pooping unicorn anyday now.

    DohBiden (d54602)

  132. ERROR!! The aagreement was passed in August not July. Doesn’t President Obama remember the August 3rd deadline and the fact that the bill was passed at the last minute?

    I think he has a problem with dates. He doesn’t know how old he is, how old his daughter is, what year it is, what year his parents met, it’s a general problem with him.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  133. Rick Perry said Obama has proved that Keynesian economics doesn’t work.

    For the last time, 0bama is not a Keynesian — he even published his birth certificate! And it’s not true that he masticates in public, or that his mother was a thespian.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  134. If I ask the next person I see who Brian A. Terry is… er was,

    Er, the person after whom “Terry stops” are named?

    PS: Yes, I do know who he was, and why his name would be a household word if the MSM were doing their job.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  135. The sleazy mofos at Time magazine are quoting Sarah Palin criticizing Obama’s jobs bill as “another black check”. The correct quote is “another blank check”. See it here http://thepage.time.com/2011/09/09/palin-aja-not-a-plan-at-all%E2%80%9D/.

    Alan (0b5048)

  136. Brian Terry was the border patrol agent murdered with BATF supplied weapons, one of which was removed from the scene to interfere with accountability.

    I think the Terry from the frisking case was named John or Joe or something like that.

    Dustin (b2fb78)

  137. And yeah, I caught the joke. I just lost my funny bone or something.

    Dustin (b2fb78)

  138. I reckon it’s time for a new acronym: POSOTUS.

    d. in c. (68ff46)

  139. #140: you hit on something.

    Friday night I saw Bill Maher on Jay Leno saying that Obama’s proposal it nothing but ideas that Republicans like. But that they are opposing it only because they don’t like the man who is offering it. He referred to Obama as the “waiter.”

    The jobs issue is being reduced down to race.

    Yesterday I saw a guy at a tail gate party who is very liberal. I said I was conservative. The first thing he said was “I don’t like people who don’t like black people.”

    This is there theme.

    AZ Bob (aa856e)

  140. The sleazy mofos at Time magazine are quoting Sarah Palin criticizing Obama’s jobs bill as “another black check”.

    Are you sure that wasn’t just an unintentional typo on the part of Time? The source they link to has it correctly as “blank”.

    Milhouse (ea66e3)

  141. My cat would like a path to citizenship. He has lived here, after all, 12 years and is an integral part of the city. His carbon footprintsre small. He works hard, rids the yard of mice, and has never been in trouble with the police. And he will never steal your rhetorical car, because he hates to ride in cars. It’s just part of his culture — so much better than ours!

    What have you got against his kind, anyway?

    Patricia (1832e5)

  142. Well, Patricia, there are “cat people”,
    and there are “dog people”;
    and then there are Leftists.

    Another Drew - Restore the Republic / Obama Sucks! (379fae)

  143. A piece of eridutoin unlike any other!

    Bert (2b082a)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.1885 secs.