Category: Good Stuff

Toolbelts Over Titles

Good Stuff

…the titles being useless shit like “PhD in Gender Studies”, “Vice-President of DEI”, etc.  Of course, Mike Rowe, bless his dirty, calloused hands, has noted this trend:

Kilmeade asked Rowe to comment on the data, which comes from the National Student Clearinghouse. It showed a 16% increase in overall enrollment for vocational-focused community colleges compared to 2022. The Journal also noted an increase of 23% for students pursuing construction jobs and a 7% rise in students enrolled in Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) and vehicle repair.

While the “Dirty Jobs” star said he wasn’t “ready for the victory lap” after seeing the data, he said that he believes Gen Z is more willing to consider trades, which he believes is positive.

“The color of collars is no longer the thing it used to be,” Rowe said, referencing the classification of blue-collar versus white-collar workers. “I just don’t think it matters.”

However, in his usual forthright fashion, Rowe noted also:

“The idea that the generation that has become the biggest target for entitlements and a lack of work ethic… I mean, these guys are an easy target. They’re snowflakes, essentially. But… we’re the clouds from which the snowflakes fell.”

Which is uncomfortably true.  (My own kids are Millennials, and despite my best efforts they’re only a shade away from having Gen Z values, alas, but that’s a story for another time.)

And let’s be honest:  there will come a time when “learn to code” will be as obsolete a piece of advice to future youngsters as “get a degree” advice has become to the current crop.  Why?

Because at some point, “coding” will be left to the sardonically-named “artificial intelligence” — in fact, unless I miss my guess, most technological work will be performed by A.I.

But there will always be a need for guys with toolbelts, because A.I. can’t build houses — design them, maybe, but not actually hammer nails and pour concrete — and believe me on this, the Baltimore bridge rebuild will never be accomplished by A.I.

And once again, from Rowe:

“They’re seeing all of the craziness… Brown and Dartmouth and Harvard. They’re seeing a $52 billion endowment at Harvard. They’re seeing all the craziness that’s constantly in the headlines. And they’re just saying, ‘Look, why do I want to start a career in a major I haven’t even declared yet and go that far into debt to pursue a job that probably doesn’t even exist, when we got 10,000 other jobs over here… that don’t require a four-year degree?’ “

Maybe, just maybe, a future generation will see the inherent value in and the pride engendered by those “dirty jobs” that Mike Rowe supports, and eschew the dubious values of what non-STEM university degrees have degenerated into.

My Favorite President

Good Stuff, Patriotism

Who else but Calvin Coolidge?  Watch this video, and realize two things:

Our current problems are neither new nor exclusive.  Immigration, taxation rates, federal spending, employment, whatever:  they existed in the 1920s, and Coolidge addressed them all, and properly.

Character matters.  Character, public character, matters.  Compare and contrast that of Coolidge with any modern president (i.e after Eisenhower), and realize how rare it is to find someone who can govern on principle — principle based on the Constitution and not on some other basis.

At the end of the above video, one of the commentators says, “He is exactly what we need at this point in time.”

I beg to differ.  We need such a man all the time, every time, to be our President.

I want all our future presidents to be more like Coolidge.  So does Amity Shlaes.

End of story.

Getting It Right

Crime, Good Stuff, Law and Order

It’s not often that I find anything worthwhile in my former home country, but this is sure as hell in the top 3:

A police tactical firearms team in South Africa shot dead nine members of a brutal gang suspected of raping a young girl in front of her screaming mother.  But when shocking details emerged from the mother of the sexually tortured girl who was repeatedly raped during a house robbery, officials ordered a crackdown on the criminal group.

Swift justice was handed out when the elite unit was ordered by top brass to find the eleven men who had put their victim through such a sickening ordeal.

The ruthless gang based near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, is believed to be behind a series of serious crimes including murder and armed robbery.  

In this case, Africa certainly won, probably for the first time in ages.  None of that “fair trial” bullshit for animals like these.

Anyone think that when it comes to Murka and, say, MS-13 or Crips gang members, we should do the same?

I had no idea.

And About Time

Good Stuff, Gypsies Tramps & Thieves, Legal Stuff

One of the most pernicious insults to the concept of property rights is that so-called “squatters” (trespassers) are accorded “rights” to occupy a vacant building, simply because… well, I can’t actually think of any reason why this should be tolerated.

Which makes FuturePOTUS Ron DeSantis’s action even more praiseworthy:

DeSantis signed into law a unanimously-passed bill designed to combat so-called “squatters’ rights” and which puts the power back into the hands of law-abiding property owners and local law enforcement.

Compare and contrast this with the attitude of Commie states like California, New York and, for that matter, Britishland, where not only are squatters tolerated, but the actual property owners can get into deep legal doo-doo if they attempt to forcibly evict these trespassers — or worse:

Two squatters are being sought over the gruesome murder of a 52-year-old woman whose body was found stuffed in a duffel bag inside her late mother’s upscale Manhattan apartment last week, police said Thursday.

The victim, Nadia Vitel, was savagely beaten by the two perps when she discovered them holed up inside the 19th-floor apartment on East 31st Street last week.

Update:  two “teenagers” have been arrested after they fled NYFC for Pennsylvania.

Fucking animals.  And no prizes for guessing that various scumbag New York lawyers will be getting into fistfights over who can defend them in court.