Car Companies

The magnitude of hysteria over the "Big 3" car companies going broke is so silly.

Detroit's car makers employ nearly a quarter-million workers, and more than 730,000 other workers produce materials and parts that go into cars. If just one of the automakers declared bankruptcy, some estimates put U.S. job losses next year as high as 2.5 million.

So, your point is that if GM goes under Americans will stop buying cars? Anything else doesn't make sense. "Import" companies make their cars in the U.S. now. It's too expensive to ship many of them from overseas.

Looks like Toyota has plants in 12 states, as does Honda. What will happen to their workers if the government decides to subsidize the others?

I got 94%

There is a test about civic literacy posted at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Apparently, a lot of elected officials have problems with basic concepts (44% correct answers). On a positive note, the population as a whole gets slightly higher scores (49%).

I got 94%. Darn Lincoln-Douglas Debates!

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday.

Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI).

"It is disturbing enough that the general public failed ISI's civic literacy test, but when you consider the even more dismal scores of elected officials, you have to be concerned," said Josiah Bunting, chairman of the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI.

Those who can, do. Those who can't, govern.

Mines is in a Bowl Game - Again?

Gosh, they made it to the this game last year too. In 2004 they were in the NCAA Division II Playoffs.

When I was there we thought it was a stellar season if we broke .500.

(ST. GEORGE, Utah – November 10, 2008) The Colorado School of Mines Orediggers and the Western Washington University Vikings have accepted invitations to play in the 23rd-Annual Dixie Rotary Bowl Game, as announced by bowl director Gary Benson announced Monday afternoon in a press conference held during the St. George Rotary Club’s weekly luncheon held at the Holiday Inn. The game will be played Saturday, Dec. 6, 2008, at 12 noon (MST), at Hansen Stadium in St. George.

The 2008 Dixie Rotary Bowl match-up will mark the first-ever meeting between the Orediggers and Vikings on the gridiron. For WWU, the 2008 Dixie Rotary Bowl will be the Vikings’ first postseason bowl game in school history, while CSM will be making its second-straight Dixie Rotary Bowl appearance. In the 2007 Dixie Rotary Bowl, the Orediggers faced Western Oregon and came up on the short end of a 26-12 loss to the Wolves (12/01/07).

This looks like fun.

A cool year

I've seen a lot of newspaper stories about how this has been such a cool year. I was willing to nod knowingly and agree, while sweating. Then I saw this image.

Wouldn't you know it would turn out that I live in the one major area in the entire country that has seen significantly higher temperatures this year.