College students held demonstrations in several U.S. cities on Wednesday to mark the day total U.S. student loan debt was expected to reach $1 trillion, with some burning student loan documents and others demanding a right to “debt-free degrees.”
Oh, what the hell. Just give it to them.
In a gross generalization, I’ve found the people who tend towards being supportive of on-line voting are the people most likely to be up in arms over the unlikely possibility someone lost their vote because of a robo-call.
In my limited world view, the most against? Computer professionals. Yes, hipsters, that is a clue stick. But, hey, if there isn’t an app for that, it isn’t worth doing…or something.
Washington, D.C found out after two years of research and hardening that missing a few very complicated configurations elminates all layers of security. Better to read is the paper (PDF, 18pp) that describes how the University of Michigan team did it.
The paper is valuable for the rest of us…it’s also something you won’t see from the NDP fail because they used a proprietary system…which is another story altogether.
Money quote?
Our successful penetration supports the widely held view among security researchers that web-based electronic voting faces high risks of vulnerability, and it cautions against the position of many vendors and election officials who claim that the technology can readily be made safe.
Paper ballots with ID work, they’ve always worked and they will always work.
….don’t “fix” it.
h/t peterj
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
“My name is Paige Kezima…”
“The Voice of Students” is comprised of intelligent and eager students committed to advocating for the needs and wants of our students. Our platform is as follows:
– Lobby for a tuition freeze
– Increase funding to student groups and societies
– Review the locker tax
– Make more money available to student groups and societies
What is at least partly driving Al Sharpton’s call for civil disobedience if the city of Sanford doesn’t arrest George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin? What is at the heart of Keith Olbermann’s dispute with Al Gore? Why are Rosie O’Donnell and Oprah Winfrey no longer best friends? What has made the Huffington Post bloggers sue Ariana Huffington?
Oh yeah, Olbermann.
And that’s why I’m training in Bartitsu.
It used to be that families first signed up for education loans when their child enrolled in college, but a growing number of parents are seeking tuition assistance as soon as kindergarten.
Guy defending welfare for arts community cites long list of government subsidized failures to support argument. @JohnGormleyLive #genius
— katewerk (@katewerk) March 26, 2012
OMG who would ever imagine that a government would have the audacity to provide job training for welfare recipients?!?
The B.C. government is considering a plan to help people get off welfare by flying them north to cash in on high-paying jobs in areas such as the oil and gas industry.
Minister of Social Development Stephanie Cadieux, whose ministry is involved in planning the project, said she anticipates the program will be attractive to only a “modest number of people.” She said the government will not force people into the program, or remove benefits from those who refuse to participate.
Shauna Butterwick, an associate professor at the University of B.C. and a researcher for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, has penned two reports on creating meaningful training programs for welfare recipients in B.C. She said the proposed plan appears to have a “limited view” and does not factor in the reasons why many people are on welfare in the first place. “One thing that welfare studies have found to be really crucial is that the social networks [welfare recipients] create are the one thing that helps them survive,” she said. “You would be taking them from that. Those kinds of social networks you don’t just recreate overnight. I would expect a level of isolation and alienation.”
Charles Adler & David Menzies discuss this “outrageous” idea.
Excuse me, sir. Would you like your grass mowed? (h/t Ian)
Occupying Media: 24 Hour Protest People Panel
Hyatt Regency Austin
Texas Ballroom 1-3
5:00PM – 6:00PM
The Occupy Wall Street Movement began in September, 2011 with the goal of holding a 24/7 public protest at the nerve center of American finance. Uniquely among American mass protest movements, the “occupation” …
Via Tabatha Hale
Last Fall a business professor in Bangalore, India published a detailed column that explained why America and Europe are on a permanent decline into oblivion. He cited several reasons why, but Nationalization of the Family and Entitlement Mentality were two prime ones.
Here’s a snippet:
The crisis faced by the West is primarily because it has forgotten a six-letter word called ‘saving’ which, again, is the result of forgetting another six letter word called “family”. The West has nationalised families over the last 60 years. Old age, ill health, single motherhood – everything is the responsibility of the state.
When family is a “burden” and children an “encumbrance,” society goes for a toss. Household savings have been negative in the US for long. The total debt to GDP ratio is as high as 400 percent in many countries, including UK. Not only that, the West is facing a severe demographic crisis. The population of Europe during the First World War was nearly 25 percent and today it is around 11 percent and expected to become 3 percent in another 20 years. Europe will disappear from the world map unless migrants from Africa and Asia take it over.
The demographic crisis impacts the West in other ways. Social security goes for a toss since people are living longer and not many from below contribute to their pensions through taxes. So the nationalisation of families becomes a burden on the state.
I was just informed that using the word “slut” to describe a girl who uses so much birth control that she went broke is frowned upon.
— Ron Swanson (@ronswanson2012) March 9, 2012
York University professor Thomas Klassen has written an interesting column that outlines what is certain to be a growing problem in the years ahead.
One wonders though, whether Klassen fully understands the basic math problem at hand: Can the young workers of Canada support an ever larger group of older folks who are no longer working?
Randy Hillier has a suggestion to help the McGuinty lead province turn around their almost certain trajectory towards bankruptcy.
In Denmark, the Welfare State and Freedom seem to be more & more incompatible. Jacob Mchangama explains why.
