What’s interesting in the news today?
UPDATE
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First, an update on the continuing backlog of veterans claims. I would say this is ridiculous, but of course it is, this is our govt at work.
From FoxNews
“A new study released ahead of the Fourth of July holiday sheds more light on the tangle of paperwork facing America’s veterans — showing they’re up against as many as 613 forms across 18 agencies as they seek services.
The study by the American Action Forum also found the paperwork — in part the result of roughly 31 million Veterans Affairs claims alone each year — takes federal employees roughly 43.3 million hours to process.
“Navigating 18 agencies and more than 600 forms has produced absurd results and unnecessary delays,” the self-described “center-right” leaning nonprofit said.”
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And don’t think for a minute that ObamaCare will be any more efficient. The problems are already beginning in fact. So of course Democrats are trying to hide it, because they own it.
From WaPo
“I don’t know if Members of Congress will be hearing about it in town hall gatherings and other meetings back home over the Fourth of July recess, but the rolling thunder of the approaching ObamaCare train can be heard in the distance. Smart Democrats are beginning to get frantic about the need to suppress the confusion and hide the cost of ObamaCare between now and the 2014 midterm elections. We are just three months away from the October 1st enrollment start date and so far, nothing about the ObamaCare implementation process should be politically encouraging for Democrats. In fact, the more people learn about ObamaCare, the more frightened they become.
Right now, small businesses across America are making the final determinations on how to reduce the working hours of their employees so fewer employees qualify for the mandated, employer-provided health insurance. Employers are also deciding whether it makes more economic sense to pay a fine to the government or pay for healthcare benefits for their employees. What this means is that hundreds of thousands – and perhaps even millions – of Americans will learn that they are being dismissed from their employer’s healthcare coverage.
The healthcare pink slips will start raining down in late summer and early fall. This will push people into the healthcare exchanges, where, in some cases, people will be writing health insurance checks for the first time. And in many cases, people will be facing increased health insurance costs, particularly if they are young and healthy. The negative effects on personal income and the overall economy will be undeniable. Sometime next year, before the elections, the penalties associated with not having or providing health insurance will begin to pour in. Will the fines come in the mail? Will you be able to appeal? What happens if someone doesn’t pay? No one knows. Or, no one who knows is talking. The consequences of ObamaCare are being hidden.”
They’re so frightened by it that they’ll now delay the employers mandate until after the 2014 mid-terms. Can’t have people finding out how bad it will be before the elections. Cowards.
From Bloomberg
“Businesses won’t be penalized next year if they fail to provide workers health insurance after the Obama administration decided to delay a key requirement under its signature 2010 health-care law.
The government will postpone enforcement of the so-called employer mandate until 2015, the administration said today. Under the provision, companies with 50 or more workers face a fine of as much as $3,000 per employee if they don’t offer affordable insurance.
The move addresses complaints from employer groups to President Barack Obama’s administration about the burden of the law’s reporting requirements. The decision pushes the issue past the 2014 midterm congressional elections, as Republicans have sought to make the health law a symbol of government overreach.”
More here from TheDailyMail
“But the Treasury source said the extra year will give the White House an extra year to persuade health insurers to participate in the exchanges that make up the backbone of the Affordable Care Act.
The revised timetable, the source added, will also push back the final implementation of Obamacare’s penalties past the 2014 midterm elections, providing Republicans fewer chances to highlight the law’s potentially harmful effects on businesses’ bottom lines.”
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Next up, another “Green Scam” is exposed.
From UPI.com
“Electric cars, despite their supposed green credentials, are among the environmentally dirtiest transportation options, a U.S. researcher suggests.
Writing in the journal IEEE Spectrum, researcher Ozzie Zehner says electric cars lead to hidden environmental and health damages and are likely more harmful than gasoline cars and other transportation options.”
Shocked? 😯
No. 🙄
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Things are escalating in Egypt.
From Reuters
“Egypt’s high command said on Wednesday the army was ready to die to defend Egypt’s people against terrorists and fools, in a response to Islamist President Mohamed Mursi that was headlined “The Final Hours”.”
This piece is more specific on what the military leaders have in mind.
Also from Reuters/EI
“Egypt’s armed forces would suspend the constitution and dissolve an Islamist-dominated parliament under a draft political roadmap to be pursued if Islamist President Mohamed Morsy and the liberal opposition fail to agree by Wednesday, military sources said.
The sources told Reuters the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) was still discussing details and the plan, intended to resolve a political crisis that has brought millions of protesters into the streets, could be changed based on political developments and consultations.”
Islamists are rallying to Morsi.
From Reuters/EI
“Islamist demonstrators in Rabea al-Adaweya Square have increased on Tuesday in support of the legitimacy of President Mohamed Morsy, as several marches arrived to the square from various parts of Cairo and other governorates.”
Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamists are warning the Christian population to stay out of it or face the consequences for joining in the demonstrations.
From RaymondIbrahim
“Hours before the June 30 protests against Egyptian president Muhammad Morsi and his party, the Muslim Brotherhood, began, the nation’s Christians were, once again, singled out for behaving like citizens who have the right to participate in the protests.
In Minya, Upper Egypt, where millions of Christians live, letters addressed to the Copts threatened them not to join the protests, otherwise their “businesses, cars, homes, schools, and churches” might “catch fire.” The message concluded by saying “If you are not worried about any of these, then worry about your children and your homes. This message is being delivered with tact. But when the moment of truth comes, there will be no tact.” It’s signed by “People zealous for the nation.”
Such threats are hardly limited to anonymous letters. During a recent TV interview, Sheikh Essam Abdulamek, a member of parliament’s Shura Council, warned Egypt’s Christians against participating in the June 30 protests, threatening them by saying “Do not sacrifice your children” since “general Muslim opinion will not be silent about the ousting of the president [Morsi].”
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In other news, the FBI has yet to contact the victims of the IRS scandal, despite claims that they are “investigating” it.
From CNSNews
“More than a month and a half after it was announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would launch an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) targeting of conservative groups, the groups and their legal representatives are still waiting to hear from the FBI.
Cleta Mitchell, an attorney representing nine tea party groups who were targeted by the IRS, told CNSNews.com that she has not heard from the FBI regarding the case and questions whether an investigation is actually underway.”
And in other Obama admin scandal news, the National Intelligence Director would like you to know he’s sorry for lying to Congress.
From USNews
“The director of National Intelligence apologized in June to the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee for lying during a hearing, according to a letter published on the DNI website on Tuesday.
Director James Clapper appeared before the committee in March, where Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked him specifically if NSA spies on millions of Americans. Clapper answered, “No.”
Since then, Edward Snowden reportedly leaked government documents that unveiled a secretive government program that did precisely what Wyden suggested in collecting meta data for cell phone and internet records of hundreds of millions of Americans.”
But Roger Clemens was tried for a far less important instance of lying. Why does this guy get a pass?
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This last one is encouraging. The more people know, and technology advances, the more who join the pro-life side. 20 years, and a 20 point swing in America’s opinion.
From TheWeeklyStandard
“Gallup’s most recent polling on the issue, taken this spring, indicates that more Americans actually regard themselves as “pro-life” than “pro-choice.” According to the poll, 48 percent of Americans say they are “pro-life,” while 45 percent say they are “pro-choice.” What’s more, opposition to abortion is rather plainly on the rise, as those numbers were effectively flipped ten years ago — and as, in the mid-1990s, the number of people who considered themselves “pro-choice” outpaced the number who considered themselves “pro-life” by about 20 percentage points.
Another finding from Gallup’s polling, however, is perhaps even more illuminating. Those who work in America’s newsrooms are overwhelmingly in favor of abortion’s legality, and they tend to report the issue as if anyone who opposes abortion is a fringe religious fanatic. (Moreover, they rarely miss an opportunity to subtly editorialize by describing opponents of abortion as being against “abortion rights.”) It’s telling, therefore, that while Gallup’s polling indicates that a plurality of Americans are pro-life, Gallup’s respondents guessed that only about a third of their fellow Americans share those pro-life sentiments.”
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Wandering Views 
Your VA story reminds me of my private auto insurance after an accident or even worse a software license agreement — never let lawyers get a hold of a form.
Not surprised about the pro-life sentiment but wonder how that translates to an actual position on abortion or better yet public health care.
an addendum to yesterday, instead of mocking the lady from Massachusetts perhaps we should discuss the question … why do the banks get a better rate than students, why not the same. And don’t tell me the banks are a better risk …. I think we know better than that.
Michelle is right, it is indentured servitude and in moments of paranoia some on the left think its purposefully created in order to keep the masses quiet and subservient. I think the North American masses don’t need student loans to be quiet and subservient, they just need cable tv. However, student loans are bad for the economy because the debt carried by ex students prevents them from participating in the economy and thus the economy continues to sputter …. they don’t buy cars or houses two items which move the economy.
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The recent activity in Austin has made abortion a big issue in Texas. I posted the vulgar but hilarious sign held by a pro-abortion young woman yesterday. However, I have been pleased at how bold young pro-lifers I know have been on social media. They took some hits from liberal friends, but did not back down.
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HRW, Any white woman who claims to be an Indian so she can get a teaching job at Harvard and then runs for office deserves to be mocked for as long as she is trying to communize us.
Concerning the question of why the government shouldn’t loan money to students at the discount rate, let me ask a question. Why stop there? Why shouldn’t the government directly loan money to home builders, car buyers and business people at the discount rate? Let’s just do away with the banking system and socialize all lending.
Senator Roaring Sparrow Warren is very good at focusing on a tree (one tiny aspect of the economy). She has no clue how distorting that one aspect affects the whole economy (the forest). In that regard she is a perfect Democrat. Maybe she can run for President against Weiner in the primaries after Hillary’s eight years are up.
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Hubby and I both worked our way through college. Has the tuition gotten so high that it can’t be paid for with a summer job. Also Dave Ramsey points out that staying in the dorm or at home the whole time can save about the same amount of debt most students leave school with. Anyway I have just 8 years to figure this out.
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Private lenders are generally better at assessing risk. However, there’s no risk in lending to banks or students. The former is too big to fail and the latter is not covered by bankruptcy … they must pay until their dying breath no matter the circumstance. Thus when no risk is involved the public sector can and should be a lender; not only that the interest rate should be prime as there is no risk. Warren’s idea has merit.
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When the Oboma DOJ investigates the Oboma IRS, what do you expect the outcome to be?
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HRW, Do you honestly think these outrageous loans to students with no collateral have no risk? Believe me, just because there is no discharge in bankruptcy doesn’t mean they will be paid. Remember that this is the same government that processes veteran’s claims, that sent Katrina volunteer first responders to a course on homophobia instead of New Orleans. This is the government that created the housing bubble and the higher education bubble. How has it fared recently as a lender? There was Solyndra and a hundred other “green” flops. Yes, Let’s make Yellow Hair Warren the Education Loan Czar. It would get her out of the Senate, but then Barney Frank could make a comeback.
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Chas, This is like the trenches in front of Richmond from 1864-1865. There is no hope of victory. All the conservatives can do is raise various delaying issues to postpone the time of our eventual demise.
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From the WaPo article: The consequences of ObamaCare are being hidden.
From Nancy Pelosi: We have to pass it to know what’s in it. She actually got something right! However, they passed it and we still don’t know all that is in it. Way to go, Ms Pelosi and the Democrats who voted this ObamaCare into law.
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Bottom Line?
Elections have consequences.
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Warren is a fraud and a liar. You may consider what she has to say and give it weight, I won’t. She is the perfect example of what’s wrong in politics, and with affirmative action.
The student loan bubble burst has been coming for awhile now. This didn’t sneak up on anyone. But really, what did you expect to happen. The idea that everyone is college material and will be productive and able to repay loans was silly in the first place. It was never gonna happen. But Democrats didn’t care, they love educators who push their messages and feed their coffers. College got expensive because they grew to meet the perceived need. They pay educators more than they’re worth, and the administration as well. Just like public ed.
Much of what they teach is useless. If you spent a hundred grand to get a degree in Art History, Gender Studies, or any number of useless in the job market degrees, don’t blame anyone but yourself. Guess you weren’t all that smart huh? Did you really think a worthless degree would automatically get you a good paying job in this economy? If you did, you probably weren’t all that smart, or college material in the first place.
Get a job, and pay as you go. Or don’t go. You racked it up, you should pay it off.
Here’s a piece I’ve posted before worth reading.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/28/pricking-the-college-loan-bubble/
And here’s some more worth reading.
http://reason.com/archives/2013/06/21/easy-credit-is-inflating-a-massive-stude
http://redalertpolitics.com/2013/05/30/the-student-loan-bubble-mountains-of-debt-for-worthless-degrees/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/05/11/college-debt-bubble-looks-like-housing-bubble/2151555/
And lastly this one. This is from 2010, and it’s just as true, if not more so, today.
http://www.businessinsider.com/facts-about-student-loan-debt-2010-12?op=1
“16 Shocking Facts About Student Debt And The Great College Education Scam”
This has been a long time coming. Dems of course would just like to go the welfare route and forgive it, but the effects on the financial market would be devastating since we’re talking about more money than all of America’s credit card debt combined.
And HRW,
Why is the solution from the left always to take it out on the banks? Just like the housing bubble, the govt forced creditors to give loans, and then when they default they blame the bank, instead of themselves for forcing it on everyone. Same thing here.
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Shrewd move postponing the business mandate for Obamacare. It may help us where we work, although our premiums will likely jump yet again this coming year as they have for the past several years (last year being especially painful).
A coming train wreck is right.
Chas is correct, elections have consequences. I’m trying to be an optimist, really I am; but I’m afraid so much damage has been done overall in the past 5 years that we’re pretty much sunk.
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CONTENT WARNING!!!!!!!
Ricky,
That poster was pathetic, as was the women who had her about 10 yr old children holding signs with a coat hanger on them. Seriously low class. But for once we got to see some honesty from abortion supporters too. Like this. While pro-lifers sang Amazing Grace, leftists shouted them down with chants of their own. Nice to see them finally admitting who they serve. And yes, it was caught on video.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/02/watch-abortion-supporters-chant-hail-satan-while-pro-life-activists-sing-amazing-grace-outside-texas-capitol/
“The abortion battle in Texas was still raging Tuesday as both abortion supporters and pro-life activists flooded the State Capitol to make their voices heard. The Texas House and Senate reconvened briefly for a special session called by Gov. Rick Perry.
One of the more bizarre tactics used by pro-abortion activists involved chanting “Hail Satan!” to harass a pro-life crowd as they sang “Amazing Grace.”
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Other abortion supporters were also overcome by temporary moments of truthfulness and how they really feel. They showed their true face, and it was hideous.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/352583/pro-life-texas-legislators-receive-threats-betsy-woodruff
““My favorite one was probably this female who said that she couldn’t wait to see Representative Stickland so that she could pummel my face in,” he tells me.”
“State senator Donna Campbell, who issued the third point of order against Davis’s filibuster (which ended it), has also been the target of extensive verbal abuse from pro-choice protesters, according to her spokesman Jon Oliver.
They’ve received Facebook messages and e-mails saying, “I hope you’re raped” and “I hope your daughter’s raped,” Oliver tells me.
“Lots of language — ‘You’re an effin’ blank,’ ‘You are a traitor to women’ — those kind of things,” Oliver says. “I wouldn’t say anything’s necessarily a direct threat, but they’re the kind of e-mails that make you a little nervous, especially when you start talking about family members: ‘I hope your family members are raped.’””
Classless and disgusting.
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From Drudge. It’s a good thing I proofed this to clean it up. Check the link; it’s interesting.
“Our interventionist foreign policy is the gift that keeps on giving. Is there any Middle Eastern country that we haven’t screwed up yet? Oh yeah – Iran. Give Obama and McCain time. That will be the cluster…. that destroys the world.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-07-02/guest-post-egyptians-love-us-our-freedom
They seem to think it’s our fault. It may be.
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And it just gets worse. Here’s the Democrat Mommy of the Year nominee…
And because these people are so vile, again CONTENT WARNING!!!
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/352651/young-girls-sign-if-i-wanted-government-my-womb-i-would-f-senator-betsy-woodruff
And the child holding the sign looks to be about 6-8 yrs old. Just disgusting.
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There seems to be so much rapidly advancing darkness sweeping through our culture nowadays. 😦 😦 And this should be alarming to us, but it isn’t. Most of the nation seems to be sleeping through it, shrugging it off, silently or otherwise going along. The frog in the pot. Sometimes I fear we’ve finally collectively lost our way.
Barring people waking up and coming to their senses — and, ultimately, barring true spiritual revival — I mourn our nation’s future.
But God …
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Dave Ramsey also asks who, in their right mind, would give an unsecured loan of $100,000 to an 18-year-old who doesn’t even understand how interest is calculated? The answer: you and me – the tax payers.
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However, there’s no risk in lending to banks or students.
This is a notion that thinks one single step ahead, and no further at all, not even in the slightest.
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“‘Amazing Grace’ is a psycho-spiritual weapon. When it is deployed, people cannot be shocked at what weapons others will use in response.
“We are in for a very long, increasingly harsh battle. Keep your powder dry and don’t flip out at these first tactics.”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/theanchoress/2013/07/03/hail-satan-the-scud-missile-that-is-amazing-grace/
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One similarity I see in the student loan problem and the housing problem is that a lot of young people I’ve worked with assume that if they show up for the job, do the bare minimum it takes to avoid getting fired than they are entitled to constant and consistent raises and promotion. This will allow them to pay off the student loan in record time and pay their ever increasing house payment until their boss suddenly realizes their one in a million genesis and they get the Disney dream job just because they “really believed”. Most are not prepared for the dog eat dog world where it takes, hard work, sacrifice, respect for authority and often the humility ability to play office politics.
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Kbells, is there a typo in here – I’m not being critical, I just want to understand what you are trying to say: “until their boss suddenly realizes their one in a million genesis and they get the Disney dream job just because they “really believed”. “
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Wow, apparently we young people are worthless (literally).
I still have a student debt. I have told many times how I was inveigled into it: the community college offered a bursary, for which I was eligible – I applied, but they said I was a poor risk – but if I applied for a student loan, I would be a better risk and I wouldn’t even have to accept the loan – when I tried to refuse to sign the loan papers, they told me I had to – I ended up over $11,000 in debt for a two year program (Would a summer job earn that much?) I couldn’t work, because I was working 12 hours a week as part of my training and studied through the summer (Oh yea, except for that peer tutoring job I did in my second year). I took nursing. Do you know what program accumulates the highest debts? Physicians – the residents that see you at the hospital are acquiring a debt load that can reach a half-million dollars and they work long hours for it.
I have also talked about how, despite the fact I chose a highly needed profession, I could not find a job for three years. A small mercy, for my experience in training showed me that in order to survive workplace politics one needed to flatter one’s superiors (as long as I was nice to them they were nice to me, but the moment I questioned them, even respectfully, they worked against me), put up with verbal abuse (I witnessed a floor manager screaming at a young nurse for ten minutes because she applied for a day off), turn a blind eye to unsafe practices (like the night shifts where they took turns sleeping and told me not to say anything), engage in unethical practices (like the time I was told I would have to assist with abortions if I took the job) and, in short, completely sacrifice my integrity and dignity. Now, the job I have is temporary, out-of-country, and only paid for by sponsors – not the type of job any realist would have recommended for a financially struggling twenty-something.
Even God placed a limit on the amount of time a debt could be in repayment – seven years and then any remainder was forgiven (Deuteronomy 15:1,2). My original repayment schedule was nine years and I had a small debt in comparison to most! Lord willing, I won’t need to take those full nine years (thanks to His provision), but not every one has the support system I have.
It is a completely different world than twenty years ago and the critics might have made the same mistakes had they had to navigate it.
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Linda, I guess I’m trying to say that too many young people have been sold a bill of goods by the Media. Too many have been told that they are the center of the universe and can be a rock star or a artist over night. I may have seen more of it than normal since I worked in a dreamer occupation and wasted a lot of time being guilty of a some of the same attitudes. I was just lucky not to have had those temptations.
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Rosco, I said a lot of young people, not all. As I said, I probably saw more than my share working in television where every one there was either an unpublished writer, a part-time musician or an actor who;s been in one movie.
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Kbells, there are a couple of my peers working here with me. When I went for my training session to come here, most of the group were from my age bracket. My College and Career group back home is mostly composed of those either training for or working in skilled trades. The students worked any job they could find (baby sitting, house cleaning, yard work, snow shoveling, store clerk) just to pay for rent, never mind the tuition – they had take out loans for that. The workers put in long hours, often coming late to our 7:00 PM meetings, just having got off work. We sometimes went out for coffee afterwards and would encounter non-Christian peers who shared similar experiences with school and work – only they tended to party in order to deal with the stress. There are a lot of hard-working, realistic young people out there, but they get a bad rap because people just look at the media to form their opinions.
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I’ve been there. When I graduated the unemployment rate was about 8%. By the time I got out of college it had gone down to like 7.9. Twice I took a break from college to work full time for about a year, Even at minimum wage you can make about 13 or 14 thousand. I still had to go on work study. It took me longer. I went into the work force a little behind. My husband went through even more, working 28 hours a weekend as a DJ in a town a county away, than driving all night to get back to school. I’ve been where you are and on the other side. It can be done.
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Oh, it can be done. One of my siblings is doing it – taking a degree by distance learning while holding down two minimum wage jobs. The only question is whether she will be able to enjoy her success when it comes. Her health has been precarious for a while, due to the terrible strain she is under. And all for what? The economy is still tanking, the housing market bubbling dangerously, the fabric of society tearing away. What does it profit a person to gain education and employment and lose their health or (as in my case) their integrity?
The reason I choose my field was not to make money or be part of a prestigious profession. It was to help the kind of people who are here – the poor, and helpless, to serve as my God served, without thought or hope of reward. When I go home, I will have nothing in front of me. I may even have to go back to school if I want to keep my license. But if I can pay off my debt, I will be free, not to succeed financially, but to serve. How many others are prevented from serving because they must complete, as Michelle put it, their indentured servitude to student debt first?
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Seems my link from Drudge was indicative of what was happening in Egypt.
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The divide we all face:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/columns/political-connections/red-divided-and-blue-fly-this-independence-day-20130703
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