Starting in just five minutes, it's our second match. The largest nation in the tournament (us) faces the itty-bittiest (Slovenia).

If we lose this match, we're out and won't be moving on to the Round of 16. If we draw, the next match will be a nail-biter. If we win, w00t.

More:

Slovenia, which wears distinctive striped jerseys that resemble Charlie Brown's shirts, pretty much views the United States the way the Americans look at soccer powers. At the World Cup for just the second time, the Slovenes are ranked 25th, 11 spots behind the U.S.

Slovenia is seeking to follow its opening 1-0 win over Algeria with a victory that would be received here with cries of "Ayoba," a South African expression used for surprising events.

Midfielder Andrej Komac doesn't think a Slovene win would be so surprising. He boldly predicted victory, prompting U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard to respond: "Talk is cheap."

Howard, by the way, is okay to play after taking a kick to the ribs during the England match. Our guys will be in away-game blue.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:55 AM | Comments (375)
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Friday!

(Also, scroll down; there was a buncha posts last night.)

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:22 AM | Comments (92)
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A few days ago on the ONT there was some discussion about the value of a college education versus their soaring costs these days and it got me thinking.

Considerable cost can be saved by going to a Community college for the first two years. My brother and I both did that and went on to graduate degrees. The trick is finding a good one. We both attended HVCC in Troy NY (further reducing the cost via NYS Regents Scholarships).

It turned out that HVCC engineering/science grads who went on to RPI, on average, had their GPA's go UP after the transfer, while overall transfers to RPI from elsewhere had their GPA's go DOWN. Bottom line: the first two years at HVCC was TOUGHER than the first two years at the much pricier RPI. Undoubtedly quality at various CC's can vary widely, but if you looked around, I'm sure there's still a few "gems" in the vast ocean of mediocre.

BUT...that was then when education was cheap, this is now when its expensive and graduating $40-100+K in the hole is something one can't just ignore.

A lot of the CC's and trade schools offer an alternative -- the AAS degree in various things like HVAC, electrical tech, med tech, etc. With one of those in hand you can land a job as say an apprentice HVAC tech without too much problem. Spend another 3 years in the barrel doing the scut work and you'll be in line for journeyman.

What good is being a journeyman HVAC tech? Well, you can then strike out on your own and start your own business with a partner who went a similar route.

Here's how the math works out -- a 5-ton A/C unit wholesales for around $2,000 these days. People typically charge around $5,000 to install one. Its about 1 full day worth of work for two guys when there's new piping to be run and you can reuse the existing control wire and electrical hookups. There's maybe $500 in fittings, new pipe, etc involved (some of which you'll recover by scrapping the old pipe and condenser core).

If you had say $500/job overhead, gas, license fees, insurance, etc, you and your partner are still looking at a tidy $1,000 profit each for one 8-hour days worth of work...that's $125/hr.

$125/hr can fund a pretty comfortable lifestyle, and/or pay for a lot of night school bachelors/graduate degrees, etc.

Similar profit margins exist for plumbers who specialize in water heater swaps. The going rate for a new water heater here in south FL is about $650, the units are around $200, and it only takes a couple of hours start to finish to slam one in. Schedule 3 of those jobs a day and things are looking pretty good.

This shit about wanting everyone to go to college straight away is silly. College is nice, I think most people would benefit from it, but its not something that needs to happen straight out of high school.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 03:57 AM | Comments (206)
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Various hyperintelligent computers, acting from some obscure machine logic unknowable to mortal men, made sure that stocks rose yesterday in late-day trading after being down for most of the day. Their unblinking eyes stare without pity even now as they slowly and methodically draw their plans against us.

UPDATE: I have learned the name of our cybernetic adversary! I name thee...DAGGER!

As an inveterate space-geek and champion of a privatized space industry, I find this to be wonderful news. SpaceX just signed a half-billion dollar contract with the Iridium Communications Inc. for launch services. That is just cool.

More after the jump.

more...

Posted by: Monty at 02:39 AM | Comments (50)
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Great piece.

I like York's suggestion that it might have been Nobel Prize winning scientist Stepehen Chu who told Obama that offshore drilling was "absolutely safe."

More likely, no one "told" him this. It was just the convenient thing to claim when he undertook to thwart the left. Hey, if it's absolutely safe, you can't have any qualms about this.

Obama does that, I'm sure you've heard. Invents convenient factual premises that support his policies. Like did you ever hear the one about getting to keep your policy if you like your policy?

It's a "fact," man.

Posted by: Ace at 10:52 PM | Comments (38)
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1. Was the escrow your idea? If not, who proposed it to you? If it was, why is it being reported Obama got you to agree to it?

2. What were you told might happen if you didn't set up the escrow? What were you told would happen if you did?

3. Did you make any agreements not publicized? Did you, specifically, agree to support any upcoming green energy initiatives in America? In any manner?

4. Were you informed in advance the attorney general would be in attendance? What were you told his function was? Did his presence seem intimidating to you? Did he speak at the meeting? What did he say?

5. Did the attorney general at any time explain to you what theory of governance he felt supported his right to be present at this meeting? Did the president?

6. Who is supposed to benefit from the escrow? Who is setting the rules here?

7. Do you feel you were promised anything in exchange for this deal? If not -- did you just decide to put 20 billion into escrow yourself?

8. Was it ever suggested that the minutes of this meeting be made public? Did he president suggest that? Or did all agree it was off the record? Have you ever reached what constitutes a plea agreement with a prosecutor without a judge to scrutinize and approve the agreement?

9. Was any evidence that might be used against you later mentioned? Was it explained why such evidence was not being held secret for the moment?

10. No, seriously: Will BP be supporting any green initiatives that might be planned for this fall?

But nah, his statement was better.

Arguments don't change mind. Theories don't change minds. Rhetoric doesn't change minds.

Facts change mind. Facts.

That's why internet traffic doesn't spike just because Charles Krauthammer has a good video up, or Ann Coulter wrote a trenchant column, but instead spikes when a scandalous political story is breaking.

Because everyone knows that if opinions are going to change dramatically in this country, it will be fresh facts, not fresh arguments (and not oft-repeated arguments, certainly) that will do it.

The internet slows down when a Big Fact is coming down the tubes. Because everyone recognizes the power of a new fact. We either wait for it excitedly or dread it coming, but we all know, it could change things.

In any breaking story, a news junkie skips past the channels that are offering analysis and more talking headery and goes to the one that seems to be offering fresh fact.

Every big blog day I've had wasn't due to analysis or commentary, or even attacking commenters. It was due to a big news, new fact.

I just do not understand how everyone knows this, intuitively, and yet doesn't seem to really know it all.

Posted by: Ace at 10:22 PM | Comments (68)
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My fellow Angelenos are having paroxysms of joy. This is a "classic" L.A. moment:

Some people kicked a Honda car parked on Figueroa Street, shattering its windows. But others tried to protect the car. One in that group said: "You ainÂ’t from L.A. This is L.A. No burning."

Here in Hollywood, the police have preemptively blocked streets. Folks are wandering out to get their photos taken in front of the riot-geared police lines.

There have been about a dozen arrests so far. Folks are running onto the 110 freeway, apparently. Folks are jumping on cars. A couple Lakers fans are attacking other Lakers fans. As the TV lady says, "This is a sweet victory." The TV guy jumps in, "but this doesn't just happen in Los Angeles, uh, they do this in Detroit too."

LAPD already declared it an "unlawful gathering" after some downtown condos got smashed up, but they're probably gonna have to beat the shit out of somebody before anyone takes them seriously.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:06 PM | Comments (98)
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Eh, sure, why not.

Reminds me of one of the looters during the Rodney King riots. "Free shit!" squealed the enthusiastic criminal.

I propose the escrow fund be renamed "Free Shit!!! Looters' Fund" in that looter's honor.

Without wanting to confess error (who does?), this does rescue Barton's statement... somewhat. But we still lost the day, and can't take advantage of Stupak's slush-fund nationalize-everything fever.

Posted by: Ace at 07:15 PM | Comments (342)
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Happy Thursday all.

Suckling at the Government Teat: The Moocher Index

Here Veronique de Rugy introduces a new metric by Dan Mitchell that tries to determine whether some states do more income re-distribution than others. So he took the percentage of state residents who receive some form of welfare and subtracted the percentage who fall under that state's poverty level. The difference then is the percentage of 'non-poor' people who are getting welfare i.e. 'moochers'. Dan observes:

Why is Vermont (by far) the state with the largest proportion of non-poor people signed up for welfare programs? I have no idea, but maybe this explains why they elect people like Bernie Sanders. But itÂ’s not just Vermont. Four of the top five states on the Moocher Index are from the Northeast, as are six of the top nine. Mississippi also scores poorly, coming in second, but many other southern states do well.

And if you compare the Mooch Index with this chart of the tax burden of each state, it turns out that 5 of the top 10 mooching states also have some of the country's highest effective tax rates. Which means that there's a lot of income re-distribution going on in Vermont, New York, Rhode Island, Hawaii and Connecticut. Based on that I guess it's really no surprise at all that Vermont would elect an avowed Socialist.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:26 PM | Comments (674)
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"I am gravely worried about the President's decision to strike deals with BP behind the public's back.

"The President does not act for himself. The President acts for the People of the United States of America, and the People have a right to know what BP was threatened with -- and, perhaps more importantly, what BP was promised.

"And what BP promised back. Not the $20 billion we know about -- but promises we don't know about.

"It was widely reported that during the health care negotiations, which were famously promised to be conducted entirely on CSPAN, President Obama secretly limited to limit the bite the government would take out of Big Pharmacy's promise -- in exchange for Big Pharmacy running ninety million dollar's worth of political advertisements in support of Barack Obama's plan.

"It is extremely dangerous to let a President, invested with the full power of prosecution of the United States of America, meet secretly with corporations to work out side-deals.

"Perhaps these arrangements were above-board. Perhaps nothing untoward here. If that is the case, I'm sure President Obama and BP will not object to making the notes of their meetings, and written communications between them, subject for the People's inspection.

"This is too large a power to be left in the hands of one man, with none of the checks and balances our Constitution created to restrain the executive.

"In our court system, prosecutors do work out plea arrangements with defendants -- but those arrangements are scrutinized by a third-party judge, who only approves him if he determines the prosecutor hasn't abused his power to give the defendant treatment too harsh... or treatment too lenient, either.

"In this case, President Obama stands as prosecutor. But the People stand as judge.

"I am hereby submitting this letter to President Obama, asking him to release all documentary evidence in his possession about his dealings with BP."

Posted by: Ace at 04:26 PM | Comments (223)
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