We had a brief discussion of the possible bailout/forgiveness of student loans several days ago, and here we are. Congressman Hanson Clarke (D-MI) has proposed H.R. 4170, the Student Loan Forgiveness Act of 2012. You can see from the chart above that the student loan delinquency rate spiked to a record 11% during the presidential campaign on speculation that Obama would be reelected. Inasmuch as that nightmare has occurred and an actual bailout bill has been proposed, it’s a pretty safe bet that the delinquency rate will will continue straight up.
America’s now-nationalized student loan industry just reached a value of $1 trillion, according to Citigroup, growing at a 20 percent-per-year pace. Since President Obama nationalized the industry (a tacked-on provision of the Obamacare bill), tuition has gone up 25 percent and the three-year default rate is at a record 13.4 percent.
With many young people unable to pay their loans (average graduating debt is about $29,000), Citigroup and others are speculating that this industry might be ripe for a bailout.
To pay off all the current defaults, Citigroup says it would cost taxpayers $74 billion. However, this number doesn’t include those who will default in the coming years, and, when the government rewards the defaulters, it will encourage more borrowers not to pay their debts.
And liberals in Congress have proposed forgiving all student loans via “The Student Loan Forgiveness Act 2012,” costing taxpayers $1 trillion.
Adding another $1 trillion dollars to the national debt isn’t exactly “forgiveness” for young people—it’s prolonging the payoff. In fact, student loan bailouts are a catch-22 for young people because they’re going to be held accountable for paying off the national debt and interest payments.
A student loan bailout will also be rewarding higher education bureaucrats for a diminished product. A college degree used to mean that a person would add on average $1 million to their income over their lifetime. Today a college degree only guarantees an average $300,000 in added income over a lifetime.
Continue reading here. HT – Breitbart
burn
Debt that can not be paid back will not be paid back. It’s just a mater of time.
I propose new and strenuous guidelines to federal college loans…
-a person can count to ten without using toes
-a person can point to Florida on a map of Floruda
H.R. 4170 doesn’t actually propose to forgive all outstanding student loans:
@ heysoos:
Maybe what we need is a college-level version of the GED so that folks can teach themselves and avoid all this.
Just a idea folks. It can be stomped on and not hurt my feelings.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
Yep.
Welcome to sunny Zimbabwe.
1389AD wrote:
I guess my point is that regardless of the percentage being forgiven, this is one more bailout that we simply can’t afford. Anyone with a student loan debt will simply look at the parameters provided for in the bill and decide when they can default. A lot of knuckleheads will just read “loan forgiveness bill” and default immediately. At any rate, the delinquency line on the above chart is about to go straight up.
So if Student Loans have been essentially nationalized, what is to prevent the grabbermint from ignoring defaulters like they ignore illegal immigrants?
Especially if looking the other way suites the demoncraps political designs.
@ 1389AD:
We aren’t Zimbabwe yet. Heavens to Betsy.
@ citizen_q:
Nothing I suppose.
citizen_q wrote:
Lobo had a good explanation of this when we talked about it earlier in the week. I think his point was that individual banks actually hold the paper on the loans and the feds are the guarantors of the loans. I’m not really up to speed on big banking and the various relationships between the guarantors and the institutions that hold the paper but my question was essentially the same as yours.
Lily wrote:
Not yet. But we’re speeding headlong toward that death spiral.
This sort of spending DOES trigger first inflation and then hyperinflation. It gets out of control.
Here is an article explaining how this happens.
@ huckfunn:
I wonder if the paper held by the banks is attributable to individual students, or if the paper is a bundle of many loans. and how the loans are serviced. If students pay the bank holding the paper, or some agency that acts a an intermediary?
@ citizen_q:
I just don’t know. I got my degree via the G.I. Bill and never had to get a student loan.
@ huckfunn:
I had a student loan, over 20 years ago. After I got out of the Army. They totaled $4K. I was working and contributing to my family financially, and that was just enough for me to barely scrape by. I paid it off early.
Sad to say, I don’t remember the details more than the amount, and I paid it off early. I did not and still don’t like being in debt.
citizen_q wrote:
Same here. I’ll be just about debt free next year… other than my share of those unfunded trillions run up by Teh Owe.
@ huckfunn:
New loans, since the government took over the program, are issued by the Department of Education, rather than banks. If those loans are defauled on, the government can do whatever it likes, including simply forgiving them.
None of those loans are in default, though, because people who got them are probably still in school.
The bulk of the exisiting loans were issued by banks, and are guaranteed by the feds. If those go into default, the taxpayers have to repay the banks.
One other thing about that chart: It doesn’t actually show defaults, it shows delinquencies, which are just loans where the borrower is behind by 30 days. Not all delinquencies become defaults.
@ 1389AD:
I under economic’s…thank you though.
@ Lily:
Darn it…PIMF I UNDERSTAND.
/darn keyboard
citizen_q wrote:
Is that you Mr. Lily????
LOL! He doesn’t get in debt…and when he has debt he pays it off quickly. Rather tight with his money … I think I saw a moth fly out of his wallet once on the rare occasion he opened it.
@ Lily:
I’ll be one of those people making student loan payments out of my Social Security check (assuming that I actually get a check).
@ lobo91:
So will my oldest son.
@ lobo91:
I Leia is all festive for the Holiday’s!
Pimf
I See
/oh I’m really messing up today.
Lily wrote:
She was for the 10 seconds it took me to take that picture, anyway…
@ lobo91:
Well that’s ten seconds of Holiday cheer!
/I don’t have any cheer yet…Cardio doc Monday. Not. Looking. Forward. To. It. At. All.
@ Lily:
LOL! No, I am not tight. I just try to live within my means.
@ citizen_q:
I was teasing…really I always tease hubby about it..but really he isn’t that tight.
@ Lily:
That’s pretty much the extent of my holiday cheer, too. I don’t plan to put up any decorations this year. Just runs up my utility bill.
I’m sure everything will turn out fine with your appointment. Just stock up on peanut butter
lobo91 wrote:
Thanks for the explanation. I made the mistake of using “default” and delinquent” as the same thing. If I remember correctly, a delinquent loan is not in default until the lender declares it so.
@ lobo91:
Thanks lobo…but it is scary really for me. At least I have the week-end and pray I don’t have another spell. I have had two in less than a month..right when I get up in the morning. They aren’t fun and now they are telling me it’s my heart. Dang.
@ huckfunn:
Right. If you miss a payment, you’re delinquent. Default means you’re not going to pay.
@ lobo91:
Peanut butter huh???
Lily wrote:
Leia says that it’s the key
@ lobo91:
@ Lily:
No worries! It’s nice you feel comfortable enough with me to tease. I don’t mind a little light hearted teasing.
I tease my wife too.
lobo91 wrote:
I still think the delinquency rate will continue to climb and a substantial number of them will ultimately default now that the cat’s out of the bag.
@ lobo91:
Bailey has figured out how to suck the peanut butter off of the pill and then spit it out.
@ huckfunn:
Very possibly. These are the same people who thought Obama was going to pay their mortgages, after all.
Bumr50 wrote:
I wrap my hound’s pill in a little ball of bread and she wolfs it right down. Occasionally the pill will fall out on the floor but she goes right after it. Pills, poop… whatever. It’s all protein to her.
@ citizen_q:
Bumr50 wrote:
Leia knows that she has to swallow the pill. She just thinks the peanut butter is a payment for doing it.
She knocked the pill out of the peanut butter one time. I figured that I was going to have to get more peanut butter after she finished, but I didn’t. She picked the pill up off the floor after she finished the peanut butter.
@ huckfunn:
My Siberian loves McDonald’s hamburgers -- eats everything except the pickles.
They are left like two lonely little rejected blobs on the kitchen floor that I gotta toss.
@ Calo:
Now there is an imagine. Two lonely pickles on the floor.
Lily wrote:
One can never have to much money, ammo, or peanut butter.
Calo wrote:
I don’t like pickles, so when I get a burger from anyplace other than McDonalds, I order it without, but doing that at McDonalds will cause a rupture in the space-time continuum.
I just give the pickles to Leia. She loves them.
@ Da_Beerfreak:
@ Lily:
Good luck on the test, Miss Lily. Whatever the problem is, they can probably deal with it. And by the way, I’m no anti-smoking zealot,
. I quit going on two years ago and I really loved smoking. If I can do it, so can you.
Obama said that voting is the best revenge, as usual he was wrong. Getting old is the best revenge. Here’s to you getting a lot older!
lobo91 wrote:
Isn’t that the truth…about Mickey D’s……you would think the universe has come to a stop with a special order there.
Calo wrote:
Years ago my son would slip his brussel sprouts to the hound and she in turn rejected them after sucking off the butter sauce.
Boy, I really screwed THAT one up, didn’t I?
Lily wrote:
Ouch!!
How could I forget chocolate. 
@ MacDuff:
Thanks MacDuff …yeah I know I’m going to have to lose the smokes. Just not looking forward to the whole thing here. Fiddle-sticks!
lobo91 wrote:
Awww, cute!
huckfunn wrote:
Yup.
huckfunn wrote:
Some less-than-scrupulous banks and financial companies have lied to investors and the government by refusing to acknowledge that loans are in default when it’s obvious that they aren’t likely to be paid back. That makes their books look a lot more sound than they actually are.
Lily wrote:
Some lurkers on the blog and random visitors might not necessarily understand economics. We are all in a truly perilous situation and I want to underline the dangers of proceeding any further with these cockamamie harebrained schemes.
huckfunn wrote:
HA! Good for her! For me, brussels sprouts are an un-acquired acquired taste.
@ MacDuff:
Chantix, Lily.
It works for quitting for most people.
Later, peeps.
@ MacDuff:
Na…it came through loud and clear ….
@ 1389AD:
Fortunately, the glucosamine supplements I give Leia are beef-flavored (or at least that’s what the label says…I’m not checking) and chewable. She thinks they’re treats.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
A lady always remembers the chocolate.
Calo wrote:
That’s what I used! I had very cool dreams….kinda miss those.
@ 1389AD:
But cockamamie harebrained schemes are the most fun.
Calo wrote:
After this episode I may not need that incentive…
MacDuff wrote:
I’d probably have nightmares….and guess what I am wrong most the time except when I really want to be wrong.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
My youngest son comes up with a lot of those.
@ MacDuff:
Don’t ask about the Chantix dreams.
My hubby was a very happy man when I was on those pills.
He keeps trying to refill my prescription.
@ Calo:
Oh my!!!!!
more ‘gifts’ from baracka claus!
@ coldwarrior:
Ah well he’s making a list and checking twice for all the naughty people he doesn’t like!
@ Lily:
Deciding to quit and really meaning it is the hard step. Once you really make the decision to quit it’s not as hard as folks say it is.
I quit 10 years ago, after smoking for 30 years.
@ Da_Beerfreak:
I’ve been seeing coming..just didn’t want this to force me to. Darn it. Oh well it is what it is.
Lily wrote:
I’m surprised I survived some of those myself back when I was young and stupid…
@ Da_Beerfreak:
He’s 26 now and living on his own..so I don’t get to see his cockamamie harebarebrained schemes un-fold like I use too.. But there is the calls for help from his dad when everything goes side-ways..like you know he is going to something to his house and oops he doesn’t know what he’s doing…DAD CAN YOU COME OVER…I NEED A LITTLE..( in the background…DON’T TOUCH THAT!!!….) SORRY DAD I NEED SOME HELP!!! We still get a few of those calls. LOL!
@ coldwarrior:
A couple of good ballgames on. UCLA-Stanford tied at 7. NIU leading Kent 17-10. I’d love to see UCLA beat Stanford. It would bump my Aggies up at least 1 notch.
@ unclassifiable:
unclassifiable wrote:
Not stomping, just saying. Prior to World War II, and especially prior to the Great Depression, college degrees were rare. During the New Deal, “shovel ready” jobs were made available and the higher ups were the guys with college degrees. WW II comes and the guys with college degrees were instant officers. Suddenly, everyone “needed” a college degree.
What a boon for the left-leaning colleges! GI bill sends guys to college and parents want to send their kids to finish college. Those leftist institutions of higher learning get more money and grow. Of course, more young people are exposed to their left-wing propaganda.
Do you realize that your college GED would break the back of this whole system?
But, you knew that!
@ Lily:
A lot of times there is also the cavaet…DAD THERE’S WATER EVERYWHERE!!!
@ CzechRebel:
All colleges or Universities aren’t left-wing. Too many are but not all.
Well I have no excuse I did kill this thread.
Well it is settled…damn the facts and all…but Sandy showed us it’s REAL!!!!!!!!!!!! Hurricanes have never happened like they do now ..in the past there weren’t hurricanes apparently.
Damn these people are dumb.
http://weaselzippers.us/2012/11/30/barbara-boxer-hurricane-sandy-has-shown-us-global-warming-is-real/
It’s lonely here.
@ Lily:
You Lily’ed the thread again, didn’t you?
@ Calo:
Yes.
*hangs head in abject shame*
@ Lily:
I’m sorry, I haven’t abandoned you.
Just trying to find my way around a new computer and Windows 8.
I’m lost.
@ Lily:
@ Calo:
I am multi-tasking…. Watching TV with the wife, knapping in my easy chair, surfing on my laptop.
Life is good.
@ Calo:
You finally did it didn’t you??? You got a new one! Yeah..too bad oldest son can’t be there to help you..I just hand my computer to him and say *Make it Work!*…presto job is done. Of course there might be a bit of bitchin’ going while he mumbling how I’m so “computer challenged”…I don’t care though..
huckfunn wrote:
nah…i root for stanford. better econ department.
@ citizen_q:
LOL!!!!!
@ citizen_q:
We’re watching Happiness is a Warm Blanket Charlie Brown.
Real high brow here.
@ citizen_q:
LOL, what is it with you Peanuts fans?
Gotta love it.
Calo wrote:
All American…LOL! Is there life on Mars???????
citizen_q wrote:
heh, mrs coldwarrior and i are eating left over chinese, in pj’s, and drinking some cheap red wine to go with he stanford-ucla game here.
uber-high brow
@ citizen_q:
@ coldwarrior:
@ coldwarrior:
left over Chinese food and pj’s are on my radar too.
Darn, here I was thinking I was unique tonight and then a yinzer showed up.
Put the universities on the hook. Burn.
@ Calo:
Can’t say, but it is a good break from the police dramas that my wife likes to watch.
Right now we are debating which of my sisters in-law are most like Lucy.
My vote is for her sister that converted to islam and is probably putting a fatwa out on me for daring disagree with her yesterday when she tried to say life is just hunky dory for Jews living in islamic lands.
My wife said her sisters used to say she was most like Lucy. I told her I just did not see it that way and won a smile.
@ Calo:
Very high-brow here. I’m in my homeless clothes with my socks and glasses on.
Not eating anything though.
Calo wrote:
those yinzers can really wreck the joint.
@ Zimriel:
It would be nice to see that bubble burst rather quickly.
Of course, I have rather selfish reasons to hope it will.
@ citizen_q:
Oh crime shows…yep I wait till hubby goes to bed to watch those…I don’t want to torture the poor man.
@ Lily:
@ citizen_q:
Yes, you win. She is most like Lucy.
May I offer you a roll of Peanuts Christmas Gift Wrap as your prize?
@ Lily:
It’s ok. Some of them I can get into. I like to kibitz on their weapons choices and tactics. Though I must be getting old, I can often do without the gore.
Don’t know what the big deal is..but have been wondering what was inked on his arms…
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/san-francisco-49ers-qb-colin-kaepernick-tattoos-writer-column-paints-as-a-bad-guy-113012
Well, you have a problem with delinquent and defaulted student loans, because you have a problem with too damn many kids going to college to take courses that don’t have a hope in Hell of landing them in a job that pays enough to enable them to service the loan. I really doubt there are too many M.D.’s or (employed)lawyers defaulting on their student loans. But the precious flowers with their PhD.’s in sociology or Transgendered Eskimo Poetry are buried face down in their loans, and their part-time barista job at Starbucks ain’t going to help.
As a practical matter, these loans are going to default, whether you want them to or not.
My suggestion: forgive the loans in cases where no rational enterprise can be expected to hire the graduate, but with the proviso that the graduate surrender the sheepskin, and be prohibited from claiming ownership of a degree. And any college credit for courses completed would similarly be void. And if the student wants to start college over and take something worthwhile, they have to do it on their nickel. No further loans. Ever.
And the government should consider a class-action suit against universities for having run a racket, peddling worthless degrees for top dollar to vulnerable children. It really is a con game.
Now I certainly don’t expect the Dems to step up to the plate on this one.
@ citizen_q:
Oh I don’t like the gore at all…but I do like the true crime shows. Interesting from a psychology point of view but a lot of the times you aren’t getting the whole story concerning the crime on TV.
@ Calo:
Sounds good! My wife and father in-law would both like that!
citizen_q wrote:
My son is one (deputy) and he hates those shows. About the only crime show he watches is Disappeared.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
I really can’t disagree with anything you have written here. We are going to have a problem with jobs concerning the Trades.
@ citizen_q:
Do not ask me why I know this stuff.
@ Lily:
My wife is the same way. Though she likes Bones, that is big on gore, and Criminal Minds which can be quite graphic.
We’ve finished the Charlie Brown show, and am watching Elementary. Crime for her and an older Lucy Liu for me……. I am baaad!
@ Lily:
I can imagine why, on a least a couple of levels. The first probably being the utter disconnect with reality how things actually work.
@ citizen_q:
Oh for shame!!!! My, my, my!
citizen_q wrote:
Yep and he says he sees enough at work.
@ Calo:
@ Calo:
Neat!
Can’t let the wife see the snoopy figurines. She collects them. We have a veritable army of them.
citizen_q wrote:
Plus he can really go on a rant about those shows too….dear heavens.
@ Lily:
That was my second thought.
My wife likes medical shows. I have to draw the line there. Having been involved in a horrific car accident when I was 13 caused by drunk driver where I lost my father and spent several months in the hospital myself. I just don’t want to watch ER style shows. Thank heaven for DVRs.
@ citizen_q:
I don’t like medical shows…at all.
/am so sorry to hear that about the accident. That’s terrible.
@ citizen_q:
Most of the ER shows are crap too. There is not too much that is realistic about the drama on there. I just end up yelling at a TV screen while watching them, so now I don’t.
*I am not the crazy woman in your neighborhood*
Calo wrote:
@ citizen_q:
A really, really good crime show that has tons of surprises and was loosely based on a group of cops in Los Angeles….
The Shield
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286486/
Calo wrote:
/I think I have that title.
@ huckfunn:
Do not make me hit you with a roll of Peanuts wrapping paper, Huck.
Calo wrote:
The sooner any bubble bursts, the LESS harm it ends up doing, and the likelier the recovery.
citizen_q wrote:
My husband watches Criminal Minds and Cold Case. Sometimes I tell him I don’t want to watch bloody stuff when I am trying to sleep. It does not give me good dreams.
@ Lily:
Yes, you might just have that title, dressing up like a homeless woman, posting Southern secession screed and claiming your heart is acting all up.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
Makes sense to me.
There are also a lot of people who take loans, start school, can’t hack it (or maybe just don’t have enough smarts to get any benefit out of it), drop out, and owe money they can’t pay back.
I remember when it was pretty tough to get into college. It still should be that way. It’s just cruel to admit people who don’t have a hope in Hell of getting through the classes.
@ Calo:
@ 1389AD:
I don’t watch those…but the crime shows I do watch don’t bother my dreams.. I must be immune to it; from having dreams about it.
I did have a really really bad dream about one of my renters woke me up cold and sweaty in the middle of the night…then wrote a short story about it.
@ Lily:
Thank you
It is there, but I do try to not fixate upon it, otherwise I am at a loss for words.
Calo wrote:
LOL LOL LOL…. why Bless your heart Calo your on to me! LOL!
@ citizen_q:
Understand completely.
Lily wrote:
One problem w/ those is that they will NOT hire anybody over 55, particularly women, even when said person is eminently qualified. I tried to get a job installing network hardware. It involved crawling under buildings (no problem for me because I am not a big person) and climbing ladders (carrying some tools & networking hardware, no big deal). I could have done it without much effort. But the head honcho had some phobia himself of going under bldgs and climbing ladders, and he couldn’t picture a hard-working woman over 55 being willing and able to do the same. So I didn’t get the job.
@ huckfunn:
I’ll be in Houston on Tuesday at around 1230 if you need another scout for the NRA meetup.
Or, Monday late afternoon too.
@ Calo:I fail to understand the how shall I say, artistic license taken in many shows.
@ 1389AD:
LOL! I nap in my easy chair all the same, more or less, but I am with you I’d rather not watch heavy violence just before bed.
@ 1389AD:
Sorry to hear that.
Lily wrote:
LOL…good way to deal with that!
Hope your medical issues can be resolved easily.
I have my own issues w/ unreliable heart rate. Cardiologist says I need a stress test. Internist wants me to get a 24 hour heart monitor. I don’t have insurance to afford either one, and if I stay in the US, it doesn’t look as though I ever will.
Whenever I get a heart flutter I make myself cough and that seems to reset it. It doesn’t happen all that often, but it’s worrisome when it does. Happened earlier today.
Before the Obamaconomy I could have gotten a job or even a consulting project w/ benefits & I could have gotten this taken care of. Now, not so much.
The whole point of “Obamacare” is to kill off older white people.
@ citizen_q:
Meh! It makes for a good story line.
I’m not trying to change the culture of TV -- we have just got to figure out a way to get Right’s message out on Prime Time.
citizen_q wrote:
Sometimes I wonder why they don’t go with the real deal. Because really truth is stranger than fiction.
But then again when you are writing something you do take some truth and then blow it out of the water to make it more interesting. Say you see a bug crawling on the window. Dull. Now said bug is an odd color overly large and is eating through your screen and looks like it can and will break through your window..your frozen. You don’t know what to do..then you go to the front door and then you see the real picture everywhere there these huge bugs..you slam the door. The lights go out. Dear God …they’ve eaten through the utility lines…
See that’s how you blow it up!
When in reality all you saw was a June bug …
@ 1389AD:
Thanks I hope my heart issue goes okay. I’m just praying I don’t have another spell. More than a heart flutter it’s like an earth-quake in my chest that last for a couple of hours.
@ Calo:
I wonder if what Glen Beck did with The Blaze is the wave of the future for TV.
If I were Romney / GOP, I would have created something similar for the election.
@ 1389AD:
Yes, there is a name for this -- I am drawing a blank here tonight.
But, you are correct, the cough resets the electrical system of the heart when it goes awry in certain cases.
CW??? A little help.
Lily wrote:
Same here.
Calo wrote:
Cardiac Arrhythmia
@ brookly red:
LBBB vs RBBB? SVT vs 2nd degree type II?
Calo wrote:
more likely the result of reading a trashy novel.
brookly red wrote:
no but seriously, I know what it is I have no idea how it’s treated…
Good night all!
Calo wrote:
Unfortunately, I found out yesterday afternoon that the deal is off. It was supposed to be a fairly good-sized acquisition of a group of wells up in the Panhandle and I was going to be on the due diligence team. The buyer balked and the deal is dead. I was really looking forward to it… and the paychecks.
@ brookly red:
I know, I keep going back to Vasovagal Response in my mind , but I know that is not what I am looking for.
@ huckfunn:
@ huckfunn:
I just need a few weeks and maybe you could hook me and Dolphin up to look around? I don’t have her addy.
@ Lily:
@ Calo:
I am by no means a doctor but I do know that holding ones hands above ones head can relieve the symptom in some people
@ Calo:
You got mail.
@ huckfunn:
Thanks Huck.
I need a few weeks… I gotta earn a living right now.
Calo wrote:
I understand. I probably won’t put the NRA thread up until after Christmas.
Well, dangit. Stanford held on and beat UCLA by a FG. And that’s all for me.
G’nite.
Time to turn this into a gun thread
Double-barrel 1911 lands ATF approval, importation to begin next year
Santa if you’re reading this I’ve kind of been good this year. Really.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
What a waste of perfectly good metal…
Movie/TV prop.
@ Mike C.:
So what?? It’s covered under the Law of Cool.
@ Da_Beerfreak:
No, a semi-automatic revolver is cool. This is just a paperweight.
Mike C. wrote:
I’m just having some fun with it. What’s really interesting about is that it some how got ATF approval for import and sale in the US. That makes one wonder…
@ Da_Beerfreak:
I rather imagine the BATFE figured sales would be miniscule… After all, you could remove a left and a right grip and duct-tape two 1911s together and get pretty much the same thing. But I’m sure we’ll see some super-hero, flying through the air with one of these things in each hand (held sideways, of course) taking out a company of bad guys. Bet he doesn’t have to reload them, either.
And actually, the BATFE ruling isn’t surprising, either. Contrary to the assertion in that article, this thing fires only one round per trigger pull. It just has two triggers in close proximity, no different from an old-fashioned double trigger double-barreled shotgun. One great “feature” is that if you manage to only pull one trigger, it will not only eject the empty case from the side that fired, but also a perfectly good unfired round from the other side. A great addition to your collection, assuming your collection is of “stupid ideas” firearms.
@ Mike C.:
I sure wouldn’t trade my Browning for one. 
OK here’s my working plan for the foreseeable future. I work until I can’t which means I do a good job in my current position until the youngsters trump up some disagreement in procedure as me being senile
which is probably not too far off. Then they downsize me and I get free assistance for a few years whereby I drink gin all day long. By then menial unskilled labor will be unionized and entrenched and I get my low skill, low effort job at Walmart or Costco or whatever local fast food dump. My retirement money is merely catfood money since the 100′s of thousands I saved are worth little in the new economy and I spend my nights in front of the boob tube with a shotgun in my lap waiting for the local thugs who have noticed my apparent affluence and self sufficiency from the old white dude days and figure I’m a prime target. How sad our generation has gone from comfortable retirement to retirement is not an option to screw retirement, I’m taking as many out with me as possible. But that’s pretty much what’s happening.
Da_Beerfreak wrote:
Or my Beretta 92 FS…
citizen_q wrote:
I believe mine was around $2500. My folks cosigned and I recall them being rather astounded that I paid it all off. I think parental cosignage is rather common and that’s what happens to a lot of these loans. The parents become on the hook for repayment.
@ Alberta Oil Peon:
This seems relevant. Peter Schiff interviews NO bar district denezins on why a college degree is worthless: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXpwAOHJsxg&feature=player_embedded
@ dwells38:
College degrees aren’t worthless if you chose a field where there are actually jobs. A BSc in Petroleum Engineering from a good state school can earn you beacoup bucks, as one example.
@ dwells38:
Most of those paid the way for real students
dwells38 wrote:
That’s a pretty realistic, though dystopian thumbnail sketch of the future and yes, it’s sad as hell. I started a version of that story nearly ten years ago when I was 50, but It’ll likely get worse with time.
Mike C. wrote:
So, I guess you’re not high on the whole Masters in Gender Studies gig, eh?
v
NASA warns Mayan apocalypse stories pose threat to frightened children and suicidal teenagers
Speaking of downsizing, if NASA has time for this BS, perhaps we could do some trimming there…..right after we fire that whole group that’s doing the Muslim outreach.
@ MacDuff:
What the hell is NASA worrying about this for?
mfhorn wrote:
Hell if I know. These agencies inevitably lose focus on their actual responsibilities. Frankly, I can’t imagine why anyone authoritative in the field of either Mayan archeology or childhood/adolescent trauma is even working for NASA.
Study: American Households Hit 43-Year Low In Net Worth
Wow, does this mean Obama will stop blaming Bush and start blaming Nixon?
@ Da_Beerfreak:
I’ll stick with my old fashioned 1911, thankyouverymuch!
@ MacDuff:
Well see, students (and I use the term loosely) in such fields KNOW there are jobs in that field. After all, there’s one standing right in front of them in the classroom. What they don’t know is those are the ONLY jobs in such worthless fields, and their odds of landing one are vanishingly small.
Meanwhile, here’s a little F-35B video to cheer you up for the weekend…
Crap. Trust me, it’s there.
That’s better…
Mike C. wrote:
Very, very nice! I sat here grinning like an idiot!
@ MacDuff:
Darn that will look real nice with a Republic of Texas insignia on it:)
@ MacDuff:
@ dwells38:
I don’t know why (I thought it was just “bad thinking”) but about 15 years ago I got to thinking that the government proscribed retirement schemes somehow just weren’t going to be there when I get to that age. I still have them doing their paycheck confiscation but I pretty much determined it will be the traditional “work until I can’t” for me.
my feelings on student loans can be summed up this way six months after i left the nut house (real one not local psych ward) i answered a newspaper add this is two months after being awarded ssi and appointed a payee i signed on the line to go to a tech school my 1500 dollar loan is up to 7k and since obama has been in i have had my disability attached at almost 20 percent several times in other words i was talked into a student loan while not even competent to handle my own ssi however i took computer programming not wimins studies or art history but i in the spirit of kramer and ralph cramden i will get ahead with my latest deal and i can just pay these idiots off
@ jimmytheclaw:
I guess everybody thinks they are upper middle class because they have a bunch of credit cards. *shrug*