How illegal immigration perpetuates the student debt trap

    One of the complaints of many of the "Occupy Wall Street" protesters is that they have mounds of student debt that they can't possibly repay.
    As a society we now encourage everyone to go to college. Not only that, we send a message that the more education, the better. So after college, why not grad school?
    Not very bright? No worry there; there are plenty of colleges for the not so bright. And whatever college one wants to go to, the federal government stands ready to pay with a guaranteed loan. After all, no one should be shut out from attending an expensive private school. So lots of marginal students are attending very expensive colleges, with loans that can never be discharged in bankruptcy.
    There are a couple of reasons we are encouraging everyone to go to college. One big reason is that policy makers confuse correlation with causation. For example, in jr. high smart children have started taking algebra in seventh or eighth grade. Studies show that children who take algebra in seventh or eighth grade all go on to do well in college. Therefore, educators (in California, for example) decide that all children should take algebra in eighth grade, on the assumption it will cause them all to do well in college.
    Of course, it doesn't work that way, because correlation isn't causation. When only a few children take algebra in eighth grade it means they are taking it because they are really smart. Their later success in college has only a little to do with having taken algebra early and a lot to do with the fact that they are just plain smart. Meanwhile, forcing a bunch of average and below-average kids to take eighth-grade algebra actually harms them -- they just aren't ready for it.
    The same is true for college. Having a college degree is associated with having a higher income. But much of this is because smart people earn more, and smart people have tended to go to college. As part of trying to send everyone to college, most schools now offer "remedial" classes. Nobody bothers to tell these marginal students that their chance of earning a degree is roughly one in six -- that might discourage them. All most of them will earn is a mountain of debt.
    This is where the illegal aliens come in. One of the reasons people are so desperate to go to college is because the elites have adopted policies that have encouraged millions upon millions of illegal aliens to enter the country and work at low-skill jobs for low wages. This has depressed wages for low-skilled Americans, which has led many people to think their only option is to go to college. The problem is that many can't make it; others get their degree and still aren't all that hireable -- except that they now have to try to pay off tons of educational debt with a low wage job.
    Get rid of the illegal aliens and wage levels would have to rise dramatically. All the jobs that "Americans won't do" would have to offer wages high enough to make Americans want to do them. Marginal students would be able to take a job doing manual labor and make a decent living.
    Make no mistake, for many people college is a great choice. But it's not for everyone, and by pretending it is we perpetuate a cruel hoax on millions of Americans who end up facing a life of debt peonage while receiving few benefits from their expensive college sojourn.

Too much regulation cause of current banking, economic mess

    It's accepted as an absolute article of faith among most Americans that the current banking crisis -- and it certainly is not over -- is the result of too few regulations. More regulations, the liberals tell us, we prevent this type of thing from ever happening again.
    Here's a news flash for you: It wasn't too little regulation that has caused this mess, but too much. And more regulation is just going to make the problem worse.
    Now make no mistake, I support breaking up the really big banks. These banks are a threat to our economy. They should be forced to pay substantially more in deposit insurance than smaller banks. This alone will break them up into smaller pieces in pretty short order.
    But the constant pressure on banks to make minority housing loans, regardless of the quality of these loans, is what has led to our current quagmire. The federal government and groups like ACORN were constantly bringing court actions to force banks to increase their number of bad minority loans. And of course any bank wanting to merge had to be able to show a portfolio of risky minority loans or their merger simply wouldn't be approved.
    And then came George Bush and Karl Rove, who wanted to court the Hispanic vote by easing loan requirements to make it easy for minorities, i.e. poor peope, to purchase homes. Lenders were encouraged, and sometimes ordered, to make loans to people with marginal credit, with little or no money down. To facilitate this, Fannie Mae stood ready to guarantee this pile of fecal matter.
    Now it should be noted that the overwhelming majority of these bad loans didn't go to minorities. When the government lowered or eliminated down payments, these programs applied to everyone, not just minorities. The rest is history.
    In hindsight, how in the world did anyone think it was a favor to minorities to encourage banks to make relatively high-interest loans to then that they couldn't repay? How does this help anyone?
    With this as a backdrop, it is a bit more understandable why many of the banks feel they are entitled to a "bailout." They did what the government forced them to do and then everything turned to crap.
    What's important to understand is that the only banking regulation we need is to try to force big banks to get smaller, so no bank will be too big to fail. Aside from that, banks need fewer regulations, not more.
    Unfortunately, we're still going in the other direction. In June of this year the Obama administration forced a St. Louis bank to open a branch in a slum in order to make loans to people who don't have the income to repay them.
    As long as banks are being forced to make bone-headed decisions like that, it's a sign that we have too much banking regulation, not too little.

Mammaw Moore's Chicken and Rice Casserole

    Here's another handwritten recipe, this one from my grandmother, Lessye Moore. It's for Chicken and Rice Casserole and has, among other things cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, cream of celery soup, and a stick and a half of butter. Makes my heart skip a beat just thinking about it!
    Rather than retype the recipe I'll just publish the handwritten version. Just click on it, and maybe click on it a second time to enlarge it.
    I'll cook this in the next few days and will report back on how it turns out!

ADDENDUM 10-18: I cooked this last night. Talk about SALTY! I do not recommend seasoning with the Lawry's or Season All. Use a seasoning for the chicken that has NO salt. Also, for your cans of soup, consider using one can of low-sodium soup.

I used almost a full soup can of water, and strongly suggest doing so. I also only used one stick of butter to pour over the top instead of a stick and a half. Also, it does need the full 1.5 hours cooking time, maybe a bit longer for the rice to get fully done. Next time I may cook it covered for the first 45 minutes to let the rice get steamed a bit more. Placing the chicken on top does let it get nice and brown, so I wouldn't want to have it covered for the whole cooking time.

Sara Hurdle's dirty rice recipe

    We're having grilled chicken and dirty rice for supper.
    I'm using my mother's recipe for dirty rice, which doesn't include sausage, as some recipes do. It's easy to make and was always a favorite of mine. With that said, I don't believe I've had it in 10 or 15 years. I pulled out mother's cookbook, there it was, and I decided to have a taste of the past.
    It's really easy to make -- the only work is chopping an onion and some celery and then sauteing them in some butter. It doesn't take long. Here's the recipe, followed by a scan of mother's handwritten copy. There's a certain electricity about the handwriting of loved ones who have passed on, don't you think?

Dirty Rice Casserole

1 large onion, chopped
Some celery, chopped fine
1 stick oleo or butter
1 cup raw rice
1 can beef consomme (to this add enough water to make 2 cups of liquid)
1 small can mushrooms -- stems and pieces

Saute onion and celery in butter and add to remaining ingredients in a casserole dish. Cook at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour.

Dinner is in the oven even as I type, but my guess is that you could get by just fine with three-fourths of a stick of butter and a couple of extra tablespoons of water. Consult your cardiologist on this.

    Oh, and I'm labeling this "Sara Hurdle's" recipe. I'm sure she got it from somewhere else, but I remember it as hers and that's all that matters.

Oxford Middle School band coming along just fine

    The Oxford Middle School band does a pretty good job, particularly since it is made up of some young kids who have just started playing.
    Shown in this video are the 7th and 8th grade members of the band at the Oxford-Greenwood Jr. High game on Oct. 11, playing Louie, Louie. Oh, and the Oxford 7th graders defeated the Greenwood 8th grade second string team 26-6, as I recall.
    Ash was in the band last year and was doing pretty well with the French horn, but decided to go for football this year.
    I shot this with my iPhone, so don't expect great quality; but it's good enough for you to see they are doing a good job!

Drudge report draws all aces

    I love the Drudge Report! You've gotta love this photo of three world despots, all sharing the same pose. Hit this on a slot machine and who knows what the payout would be. Hit this in real life, and just face of lot of misery!

Conservative blogger Taggart calls it quits at Clarion-Ledger

    Republican political operative Andy Taggart has quit writing for the Clarion-Ledger's "Red-Blue" blog with a final, "I've-had-it" posting criticizing that liberal newspaper.
    The blog, which featured posts by Taggart and liberal Democratic insider Jere Nash, has been active for several years.
    Taggart said he was fed up with the Ledger's liberal bias, and cited a recent headline in which the paper claimed that 46 Senate Republicans somehow magically transformed themselves into a group of more than 50 and killed President Obama's job bill. Said Taggart:

Tonight's headline on the C-L wire story is, "Republicans kill Obama jobs bill."

Horse harnesses.

Once upon a time, Sid Salter provided at least some balance. Now you people have gone over the edge.

Forty six, count them, 46, Republicans voted against Barack Obama's tax hiking bill. That's a minority of the United States Senate.

That means that Democrats -- members of the President's party -- also opposed what he was trying to do to Americans and the American economy.

The left wing crowd at the Clarion-Ledger blamed a minority of Republicans for the failure of Barack Obama's bill.

I'm done with them.

Here's the link: My Last Post