Divemedic

Here is a story about a philanthropist paying off the student loans of an entire graduating class. While that is nice, it isn’t the point of this post. What really stunned me was this quote:

In the weeks before graduating from Morehouse on Sunday, 22-year-old finance major Aaron Mitchum drew up a spreadsheet to calculate how long it would take him to pay back his $200,000 in student loans – 25 years at half his monthly salary, per his calculations.

Why would you go to college and select a major where your career would cost you half of your salary for the next 25 years? This proves to me that this college doesn’t teach its finance majors very well. There are a few ways that this quote can be taken, but each of them shows a lack of financial knowledge on the part of Mr. Mitchum.

A simple calculation on a student loan of $200,000 yields a payment of $1400 a month. That means his salary is expected to be about $48,000 a year. If he was hired to work at WalMart for their minimum wage of $15 an hour and started work the day that he would have started college, he would be 55 years old before the college degree put him ahead.

Instead of demanding free college, perhaps graduating high school seniors should be looking at trade school.

Officials said they received a tip that a device at Darrin Williams’ Mount Dora home was accessing suspected child pornography. 

I wonder if this tip came from the NSA?

Assange is being charged with espionage for publishing information that the government deems sensitive. The government responds by insisting Assange is “not a journalist.” I disagree. The government does not get to decide who is and who is not a journalist. For the government to have such power would render the First Amendment meaningless. Imagine a President who can simply declare that some news organization or another is not the press that is entitled to First Amendment protections, and simply shuts them down. 

Kim has posted on his blog about a scandal involving Navy sailors’ ranking female sailors on their sexual desirability. During my six years in the US yacht club, there were quite a few incidents along these lines. We referred to women as “split tails” and nothing would ruin a career faster than having a woman report you for harassment.

There was a scandal in 1988, I think it was on the USS Yellowstone, where more than 30 female crewmembers were engaged in lesbian relationships with other members of the crew.

We had a reserve unit onboard my ship once, and that unit had females aboard. We avoided them as much as possible, because they were nothing but courts marshal bait. For example, we had to post a sentry outside of the berthing space that had been assigned to them, whose job was to prevent any males from entering the space unless they were on official business. One of these sailors was standing his watch when a buddy walked by and asked him what he was doing standing in the passageway. The sailor replied, “I am on the pussy watch.” A female overheard him through the door, and reported him.

When he went to his Article 15, the Captain asked him why he said that. The sailor replied: “When I am guarding the brow, I am the brow watch. When I am watching the ship’s generator,  I am the ship’s generator watch. I was guarding the pussy, so I was on pussy watch.” The man’s naval career was ruined when the Captain threw the book at him.

On 1988, there was the famous “Tailhook” scandal where a bunch of pilots were accused of debauchery that some women found offensive. I spoke with a couple of people who were there. The women who were there were not blameless. In one case, several women were competing in a “bikini line shaving contest” where the judges would run their tongues down the bikini lines of the competitors to see who had the smoothest, closest shave.

This is what happens when you pile thousands of healthy young adults in close proximity to each other. It isn’t unique to the military.

This past weekend, my wife and I were in Orlando for a bit of a staycation. We were staying at a hotel in the tourist district. We were about to cross a busy street and pushed the button for the crosswalk. The button causes lights embedded in the street and on roadside signs to begin flashing. There is a sign right there that says that all cars must stop while lights are flashing. The cars that were approaching stopped, but as we got halfway across the street, a car started to jet by and almost hit us, except that he jammed on the brakes at the last second. My wife pointed at the sign.

The man leaned out of his window and yelled “I stopped to be nice. You don’t have to give me attitude.”
I replied, “No, you HAVE to stop, it’s the law.”
Driver: “Fucking asshole tourist. Come over here and I will kick your ass, you fat fuck. You and your fat assed fucking wife.”

There are those who claim that every traffic disagreement will result in a shooting. They claim that “Stand your ground” is a license to kill. I proved them wrong. I replied, “I am not going over there, and I am not going to fight you.” The guy may have been armed, but I definitely was. My pride at being called names is not worth someone getting shot. The wife and I both walked away.

Nearly all concealed weapons permit holders feel the same way.

Brazil has a homicide rate that is 6 times higher than the USA. When guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns. This is why gun laws don’t work.

When a nuisance gator is caught, they always say that it was relocated. The truth is that they are killed. The trappers are not actually employees of the state. They are contracted to serve a certain area, and their pay is that they can legally sell the meat and hide any nuisance gator they catch. If the relocate the animal, then they have just given away their fee.

Another popular legend is that the average teacher makes $48K a year in Florida. It amazes me that there are so many gun owners who claim that the press lies, but then take this pile of garbage as gospel. Let me show you why this is wrong:

Here is Lake county’s teacher payscale. Note that a teacher needs 18 years on the job in order to get to $48k. I doubt that the average teacher has been teaching for 18 years. The same story is in Polk county, where a teacher needs 15 years on the job to hit $48K.

I initially thought that this $48K number was caused by the counties down south making more. However, looking at the page, they claim that the average pay for Lake and Polk counties are $44,600 and $45,200, respectively. Classroom teachers don’t come close to that.