Cutting off Colleges

The big student loan crisis is schools which provide no real useful education, but still suck off government and student money. When students graduate to find no job it is too late. They can easily have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans but no real employment prospects.

Fortunately I am seeing signs that the government is cutting these schools off. A few days ago some of the worst offenders got cut off from Cal Grants. Hopefully that pushes a few out of business.

New Nuclear

For the first time in my lifetime someone is actually building new nuclear reactors in America. Southern Company finally got their license for the Westinghouse reactors they have been trying to build.

Unfortunately, with natural gas so cheap I don't see many reactors following them for a few years. Still, if they make money off this deal I expect this to be the start of something big.

Student Debt Mills

The real problem with student debt comes not from those who went to expensive universities with a national reputation. Most of these students are bright enough that they will dig their way out of debt. The real problem is the for profit schools like culinary schools which put students into almost as much debt as those universities but do not teach them any skills likely to lead to a job which can pay the loans.

I was glad to see California finally is taking this seriously, revoking cal grants to some of these schools which hopefully will put some of them out of business.

Solar Storms

I occasionally hear apparent nut cases talk about solar storms and how they could shut down our economy. After reading this article, I think they might have a point. We have not had a really intense solar storm since our electric economy was developed. If enough high voltage transformers were destroyed during a big one we would have a heck of a time putting back together the pieces.

Paving over the desert

Someone pointed out that it is a bit over-dramatic to say that we need to pave over the desert to run this country off of solar. We probably only need to pave over an area a bit larger than Connecticut. Still, I expect that as solar becomes big business we will see a whole lot more articles like this one.

I for one would much prefer filling a mountain with radioactive waste to paving over that much desert. Whether many environmentalists will come to the same conclusion I couldn't say though.

Teenagers are boring

What do you know, video games and television have turned this generation of kids boring.

Ron does it again

The ability of Ron Paul to call Republicans on their silly ideas never ceases to amaze me. Now he is admitting that illegal aliens are scapegoats. This is obviously true. Even if illegal immigrants were such a threat, the problem has taken care of itself. Birth rates in Mexico are a third of what they were fifty years ago so there is no population boom pushing its young people across the border. At the same time there are few jobs for the immigrants here so they just aren't coming in the numbers they used to.

Also, anyone who wants to be an American so bad that they are doing something illegal to get here is exactly the sort of person I want as an American! This is a country founded on personal freedom, not adherence to silly rules.