A comedian was attacked with a glass bottle while dressed as Colonel Gaddafi to promote his act at the Edinburgh Fringe. Jeff Mirza,from East London and of Pakistani descent, parodies the Libyan tyrant in his show "Jihad! Heresy or Hearsay".
He told police a man asked for a cigarette as he handed out flyers off the Royal Mile. The comedian shook his head and the man began to walk away, but when Mirza turned he was struck on the head with a bottle.
The attacker is described as white, slender, of average height, wearing a stone-washed grey T-shirt. He was in his early 30s and has a tattoo on the back of his neck.
And so it begins... Journolist is getting its ducks in a row...
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has leapfrogged to the top tier of Republican presidential candidates largely on the strength of one compelling fact: During more than a decade as governor, his state created more than 1 million jobs, while the nation as a whole lost 1.4 million jobs.
Perry says the "Texas miracle" rests on conservative pillars that he would bring to the White House: minimal regulation and government, low taxes and a determination to limit the reach of Uncle Sam. What he does not say is that much of that job growth has come because of government, not in spite of it.
For example ...
The Texas economy also has benefited from the huge sums spent by the federal government. The state is home to several large military installations as well as NASA, which helped Texas reap more than $227 billion in federal spending in 2009 -- more than double its 2001 total, according to the Census Bureau. Texas is the nation's second-most-populous state, behind California, where the federal government spent almost $346 billion in 2009. California, you say? California had almost 50% more government spending? So how does California compare to Texas, pray tell?
However....
Analysts call the growth in government employment in Texas a natural consequence of the surging population, which has grown by more than 20 percent in the past decade to 25.1 million. The increase has caused local governments and school systems to hire more teachers, budget analysts, compliance officers and police officers.
Company executives and economic development officials credit Texas's economic successes to what they call a pro-business culture. Texas is a right-to-work state, has relatively low business taxes and has no state income tax. They also applaud Perry for pushing through a series of tort reform measures, which limit medical malpractice lawsuits, impose fees on unsuccessful plaintiffs and make it easier to dismiss cases deemed to lack merit. Oh sure, but no other state had/has those problems! Do they?
Texas also has abundant land for development and limited land-use restrictions, making development cheaper and easier than in many places.
Fluor, a global firm that designs and builds complex industrial plants, moved its corporate headquarters to the Dallas area from Orange County, Calif., five years ago. Fluor's chief executive said the corporation was eager to take advantage of what Texas had to offer. "Most of the reasons fall into the category of corporate efficiency," he said. "We had very little in the way of clientele and business issues in California. Also, it was very difficult to recruit people to California because the cost of living scared them away." Ahhh, but it's not all milk and honey ...
Many educators and others say that trade-off is evident in many social indicators. More than a quarter of the state's population lacks health-care coverage. Texas is last in the country when it comes to the number of adults with high school diplomas. It is 44th in the country in school spending per pupil, and its rate of income inequality is the ninth- highest in the country. I was there when Governor Ann Richards (D) solved that problem with the "Robin Hood" plan. School income redistribution.
The Census Bureau says 9.5 percent of the Texas workforce is paid at or below the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, tying it with Mississippi for the largest share of minimum-wage workers in the country. Many restaurant workers are among those who earn less than the minimum wage. Cost of living, WaPo. What about the cost of living in Abilene? San Marcos? Lubbock? Longview? All college towns. Sweetwater? Comfort? Texline?
"In Texas, as anywhere else in the nation and in all capitalist societies, you earn what you learn," Fisher, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, wrote in a June op-ed piece in the Dallas Morning News, calling for educational improvements. "Income is directly correlated to educational attainment." Except for a few PhD cab-drivers.
In Longview, in the oil- and gas-producing heart of East Texas, as opposed to Midland-Odessa, in West Texas, the economy is growing swiftly, and employers are struggling to find qualified workers.
"We can't get enough production welders," said Aaron Lowe, a welding engineer at Trinity Rail, a railroad car manufacturer that has been expanding briskly in recent months after shrinking during the downturn. Don't need a master's degree for that. Unless you want the job to move to China.
The same is true at other employers. Eastman Chemical, which manufactures coatings, adhesives and other products, has seen a huge boom in sales with the drop in natural-gas prices. The two local medical centers also are hiring. Prices down, sales up? Why didn't somebody tell us that?
Still, education officials worry about the future of a city where only half of the high school graduates go on to higher education. "Every independent school district in Texas is underfunded," compared to some standard, said James Wilcox, superintendent of schools in Longview. And that, he said, will hurt in the short run. Wilcox said he recently had to cut 20 of the school system's 1,100 jobs to accommodate state budget cuts. I'm pretty sure he laid off the top 2% of teachers.
He also said it will hurt in the long run by leaving many of his students unprepared for the evolving job market. "If kids go right to work from high school, they are only going to get pretty much minimum-wage jobs," Wilcox said. "They have to be able to get some training that would make it so they don't have to start at the bottom." Choices, brother - choices. Some don't want to 'waste' four years in college, some are happy to be welders, and some need to start at the bottom - like me oldest, who was too bored to go to college. Ten years later, he's doing fine, in the computer business.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/21/2011 08:26 ||
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Link ||
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#1
"and its rate of income inequality is the ninth- highest in the country."
This line alone tells you everything you need to know about the author.
For some serious stats on Texas job growth, try this.
#3
you earn what you learn Some of the world's greatest robbers have learned how to steal billions. I don't call their gains 'earned', even if they think they are doing the Lord's work.
#4
We can't get enough production welders Employer-speak for the consequences of requiring too much and paying too little. Offer a sufficient inducement and the employer will have qualified employees pounding on his door. If the thought of providing better inducements makes the employer faint, that's his problem. Something about this economic reporters just never understand.
#5
many of his students unprepared for the evolving job market The job market has evolved into one of high unemployment for many years into the future -- it sounds like Texas students are overqualified for that market.
That can also mean being unable to find 'workers' who are not a danger to themselves and others. Welding is a skill; can't just study the night before the test.
One of the current anti-Perry memes is that he is not really responsible for the Texas economy, given the limited powers of a Texas government. The missed point and bigger picture here is that Texas, unlike many other states, has not interfered with the economy, but left it alone to thrive. No doubt the downturn Texas went through in the mid-80s helped cure a lot of economic and legislative silliness.
#7
The missed point is that appropriately limited governments promote job growth, and that politicians who foster limited government can and should take credit for the good results.
#8
Texas is last in the country when it comes to the number of adults with high school diplomas.
My daughter teaches in the district with the highest drop-out rate in Texas--throwing money into education doesn't work when the real problem is social. Even though the majority are non-white poor immigrants, which are welcomed with open-arms in Houston, those with the aptitude and parental support can excel and go into an accelerated program at no cost. They can take college credit classes at taxpayer expense but trying to teach a 'rock', that is tossed around every 3 months when the lease needs renewed, the three 'R's', let alone rocket science???? Teachers are not the problem but they are the ones facing budget cuts--in is not income inequality but IQ disparity, and taking control of the idiot factor should be the focus, starting in DC.
#10
Where would one start except at the "bottom". Some folks do not understand that there are different kinds of genius. Some people like to work with their hands. I've seen welders and trim carpenters whose work was nothing short of artistic.
It seems to me that these kinds of jobs cannot be outsourced to China. It also seems to me that at the highest level they are very well paid.
#11
One of the lead-off articles for the MSM's inspirational new campaign, "OK, Obama sucks, but not as much as Perry would."
Posted by: Matt ||
08/21/2011 13:51 Comments ||
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#12
One of the reasons Texas has increasing govt job growth is because they have an increasing population of children of immigrants - this requires teachers --- who are govt employees.
It is because Texas has a good business climate that the local govts have funds to hire these teachers.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/21/2011 14:54 Comments ||
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#13
>The missed point is that appropriately limited governments promote job growth, and that politicians who foster limited government can and should take credit for the good results.
No the missed pint is that oversized Government with large parts of the economy run, not by citizens buy by bureaucrats have higher unemployment, under-employment, malemployement and lower wages and politicians who enact this should take the blame for this.
#14
I didn't mean for this to sound so anti-immigrant or racist. My real point is teachers can do little to influence the family. She tries to reach them where they are and strenghthen their skills, whatever they may be. Character counts, even if digging ditches or roofing a home in heat and humidity. Several of the cultures have strong family values and support systems, regardless of income or education, and their children thrive. Too many have a (as in 1) drugged out parent and gang-banging offers the best prospects in their eyes--don't need to read to peddle dope. She also volunteers, (FOR FREE)tutoring in the projects and for Montrose Street Ministry. Government spending is not the sole solution the libs would have us believe nor can we afford to not invest in people.
#15
You didn't,t sound racist to me, Lumpy Elmoluck5091. I saw the same thing on a much smaller scale as a PTA volunteer in the trailing daughters' elementary school. It really is about the parenting. I tutored several kindergartners, trying to bring them up to speed. Two were from the Section 8 apartment complex -- we worked on letters, numbers, colours, that they had birthdays, and how to make a peanut butter sandwich as a substitute for the breakfast Cheese-its. They were nice, open-hearted boys, but there was no support from the home front whatsoever. The third was watched by her Hindi-speaking grandparents while her physician-parents worked; I taught her the English words for all the things she knew in Hindi...it was fun conjugating verbs as we acted them out: I jump, you jump, he jumps, they jump, etc.
#16
Maybe by making parents pay for their own children you'll
a) discourage Illegals from having their lifestyle subsidised by Americans.
b) Make Parents a little more interested in what their little darlings are doing while they are there.
c) Enable a huge tax break for working Americans.
#3
If Mummar falls, it will give Obama a bump up on foreign policy. Also, unlike Jimmy (remember Ted Kennedy ran against Jimmy for the 1980 nomination), Obama does not seem to have any big name opponent.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/21/2011 8:01 Comments ||
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#4
"bends towards failure"? More like "utter catastrophe"?
#5
At the heart of Obamas foreign policy is the belief that Americas days as a dominant world power are over, and its a good thing at that. The president and his aides, after all, tend to view Americas role in the world as arrogant and imperialistic. It tells us something that every previous president was instinctively inclined to defend the United States, while Obama is far more inclined to apologize for her and place himself above her. He has undermined Americas moral self-confidence.
But not my confidence in this Country, and not the the Tea Party's confidence. Only the socialists Obamanauts have no confidence in the Country as it used to be. They only have confidence it what they think they can make it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/21/2011 8:24 Comments ||
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#6
Yeah, and look on the bright side: We have two women and Jesus in a Cowboy hat. OH, and some midgets. Don't underestimate the midgets.
All that against a monkey on a small red bicycle.
Bugler, sound the charge.
Posted by: de Medici ||
08/21/2011 9:31 Comments ||
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#7
Bugler if you sound that damn charge I'm going to have Johnson! stop the damn presses with you.
#9
Consider Obamas remarks in June on the Today Show when he said his family is not invested in a second term. He told the interviewer If I said, you know guys, I want to do something different, theyd be fine with that.
He's not been "invested" in the first term. Why should he expect his family to "invest" in a second.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A comedian was attacked with a glass bottle while dressed as Colonel Gaddafi to promote his act at the Edinburgh Fringe. Jeff Mirza,from East London and of Pakistani descent, parodies the Libyan tyrant in his show "Jihad! Heresy or Hearsay".
