More from the Census bureau

25 to 34 year olds – just over a quarter have college or advanced degrees, but almost two thirds have some college experience. In no way, shape, or form do we represent a cross section of the US.

The other interesting observation is that as the population ages, the percentage of folks with a college degree (I’m including advanced degrees here) holds constant, but the percentage of advanced degrees continues to rise pretty sharply. Showing that there is a pretty strong correlation between lifetime learning and getting the first college sheepskin.

This was so good, I thought it needed its own thread…

Cyn said (scroll down) > (Why don’t we help the poor) by throwing that $1.5 billion into the pot (to raise their incomes).

We’ve tried that. Actually, since LBJ’s famous “War on Poverty” started, we’ve spent between $4.5 trillion and $7 trillion on the “War.” Just as perspecitve, a Trillion dollars is a Million Millions. So if the feds just wanted to hand out large chunks of cash, they could have made between 4.5 and 7 million millionaires in the last 40 years.

My point (and there is one) is that we have tried just throwing money at poverty, and it’s done nothing in the long term to reduce poverty rates. Continuing to suggest “free money” as a panacea is kind of like being the bully punching the wimpy kid with his own hand and repeating “Stop hitting yourself…”

Dubbayah finished ninth in the Democratic primary as a write in, ahead of Carol Mosely Braun, and getting a third of the votes that Sharpton did. Interesting, as well, that W got twice as many write-in nods as HRC.

One BTW – 115 votes (What W got) – 0.1% of the registered democrats and independents in New Hampshire. One-one thousandth. So, figure there’s 120K registered Dems and Independents in the Granite State. Assuming about a 50/50 Jackass/Elephant split in the population of the US, the ski resort and park north of Boston represents about 0.1% of the Democrat base in the country. And they got to effectively give Lieberman the heave-ho.

A parrot in NYC speaks 950 words, shows signs of a sense of humour and has telepathy.

In an experiment, the bird and his owner were put in separate rooms and filmed as the artist opened random envelopes containing picture cards.

Analysis showed the parrot had used appropriate keywords three times more often than would be likely by chance.

This was despite the researchers discounting responses like “What ya doing on the phone?” when N’kisi saw a card of a man with a telephone, and “Can I give you a hug?” with one of a couple embracing.

From the London Independent

Claims that dozens of politicians, including some from prominent anti-war countries such as France, had taken bribes to support Saddam Hussein are to be investigated by the Iraqi authorities. The US-backed Iraqi Governing Council decided to check after an independent Baghdad newspaper, al-Mada, published a list which it said was based on oil ministry documents.

The 46 individuals, companies and organisations inside and outside Iraq were given millions of barrels of oil, the documents show.

The French? They deny it. The AJC has a very different take. on the story than the Independent (who looks to be reading the UPI feed).

BTW – I spotted the story in the Wash Times on the UPI wire, but didn’t want to drag up the Moonie connection. That their church in Wash DC really does kind of creep me out…

I was looking around for more Gramm-isms, and stumbled on Skeleton Closet a site dedicated to tearing down pretty much every candidate for president since 1996. Equal opportunity – no half-founded gaffe goes un-documented.

My favorite: Al Sharpton – …Known associate of Michael Jackson. Reckless demagogue.

From he-who-must-not-be-named’s mouth, courtesy of NRO.

Sick of spam? Dumb question, I realize. According to the Chairman, spam will be history — done, beaten, not a problem — in two years.

BTW – Gates rocks, IMO. He’s rich as sin, and still has his head in the game. Plus, he avoided buying the Blazers.

And the second item in the article is worth reading – good rundown on remarks by Pakistan’s prime minister.

Musharraf seems to be saying that the Islamic world needs freedom — freedom and democracy. He doesn’t put it that way, exactly, but that’s how it comes out. It doesn’t matter, he says, how many leaves you destroy — how many you pluck. It doesn’t even matter if you succeed in lopping off whole branches. What matters is that you seize the thing by the roots. But when he speaks of root causes, he doesn’t seem to be blaming the West. He says, in so many words, that the winds of freedom need to blow through the Islamic world, so that the people may raise themselves up and get with modern life.

Write your name

So I’m particularly proud of using LATLLWTT:AFABLATR to refer to Franken’s most recent book. Somehow it looks like a Welsh word…

Any other good examples?

I’m not an emotional guy. It takes a whole lot to move me; Big Fish had me tearing up at the end.

Whale explodes in Taiwan street.

Lying on the trailer-truck was the dead whale – underbelly exposed with a large elongated tear where the biological gaseous blowout took place. Besides the shocking red bloody mess, large piles of whale intestines and guts were strewn along the road, leaving an unpleasant and ghastly scene for startled residents.