"College is a SCAM!" -- Bill Maher

I don't know if I gave up on my students. If anything I gave them affirmation without placing my values on them.

I am an advocate for the trades and higher education but most importantly, and like most teachers, I'd like to think I advocate for the students. And I dont need a medal, thank you.

So, effectively, you did not use the prereqs to prepare for your MCAT and barely needed UG for it.

So, effectively, you did not use the prereqs to prepare for your MCAT and barely needed UG for it.

College does help some skills, except I think people would do better with a shorter alternative considering the opportunity cost.

Paying for anything outside top 10 does not make sense besides direct prep programs.

I do not know why people feign ignorance so much in these discussions. Should you say, "MBAs earn Y% more" or "JDs earn Z"?

The details make a difference. A graduate degree for a government pay scale increases salary. A Ph.D. in cinema probably does the opposite. Only a few programs are really worth it, and the rest still count as "college" or "Master's" regardless if they're valuable.

Radio Rahim wrote:

The Unkle wrote:

[quote]Rainy Day wrote:

It’s Maher, and he’s anti-religion. He’s bashed Christians as much as he’s bashed Muslims. He’s not a Jew, he’s an Atheist.

Watch his movie on religion.

It turns into an anti Muslim screed in the 2nd half.

He bashes Xianity but nothing like he goes after Islam.

What's wrong with bashing Islam? It's a lunatic religion, with lunatic beliefs.

And Judaism and Xianity are not?

Time to grow up

The average IQ of college graduates (I mean four-year degrees) is around 115. (Or it used to be. Standards may have slipped some.) That's one standard deviation above the mean, so about two-thirds of the population are below it.

That's an average, so of course someone with a 130 IQ "offsets" three people with 110s; there are even some people with two-digit IQs (I've met one or two) who, by dint of hard work and dedication have secured college degrees. (By the same token, some people with much higher IQs, including one of my children, have no business in college.)

But the fact remains that a solid majority of the American population is not well served by four years of college and should not undertake it. That's four years when they could be working or traveling or, shoot, even just screwing around--without accumulating six figures (in many--most?--cases) in debt.

I disagree with Maher's polemics frequently, but he's correct here: The people who don't go to college should not be required to subsidize the people who do.

What does it say about me if I agree with probably 90% of what he says?

Ive always seen myself being right of center. I've generally thought of Maher being pretty far to the left, but the left seems to have moved so far away that even he is considered a pariah by them.

These days getting a college degree is a participation trophy. Before the internet it used to require a bit more dedication as you had to actually go to class and no one was forcing you. Now you can do everything online and get a 4 yr degree from a big name school all online.

Alan

If you have talked to lumberjacks, you have not talked to enough lumberjacks. Your firearm statement is ridiculous. Do you believe lumberjacks are escorted into the woods be a platoon of soldiers? I met a now former lumberjack now on 100% disability. Broke his back fleeing a bear.

I know there are jobs in every society that do not require BA or BS.

On Maher's original show, Politically Incorrect, Maher called U.S. military pilots cowards. ABC took his show from him. Posters like you are defending what Maher says as if Maher believes what he says. Maher wants white U.S. viewers to like him and it appears as if his tactic is working out for him. All of you defending what Maher says as if you are drinking buddies of Maher are behaving like lemmings.

X-Runner wrote:

You got a degree on engineering and say we need more people in trades and manufacturing.

People will choose their own path.

Somehow it works out that people choose different paths and that’s what makes the economy work.

Discouraging people from choosing their own path is not a good idea.

Well we sure as hell shouldn't be letting someone take on a $100k in student loans which Uncle Sam will now forgive to get these majors that do not add value. I have no problem with you getting a worthless major. But I do not want it on the faith of the US government which means it will likely be forgiven in the future if you can't pay it, which means everyone else has paid for your crappy education. If everyone had to get their degree on their dime or convince a bank to loan them the money to pay these low quality degrees would be reduced real quick.

They're ca)led loggers not lumberjacks

Ah, you made me chuckle again! Loggerjacks know how to protect themselves in the woods.

They don't need a platoon of soldiers. lol

Just because some posters agree with some of the things Bill Maher says doesn't mean they're defending him.

I agreed with some things Trump said. Disagreed with most though.

Even though I agreed on occasion I'm not defending him for January 6 for example.

The push for everyone to go to college started after manufacturing left the US for Mx and other cheaper areas of the world. There used to be jobs where someone could get a job, and move up to foreman, or middle manager w/o a degree, those jobs are scares now.

Another factor is that pre-employment screening tests were deemed "racist" so now instead of testing to see if someone has the potential to do a fairly basic job, employers just require a degree . Even if you have the most basic of college degrees you should be able to read, do basic math, and budget your time.

Finally we have dumbed down the HS diploma to a certificate that means "You are 18 and breathing." Since a diploma is a useless tool for employers, they come up with other requirements.

had enough wrote:

Every person I know who didn't go to college is not well rounded and lack critical thinking skills. They aren't bad people but you can always tell someone who isn't educated.

What a complete A hole you must be.

The truth is that anyone who belongs in college can go to school for free, or at least very cheap, if they want to. They probably can't go to their #1 choice school for free, but they can go somewhere without going into massive debt.

The kid who gets accepted to MIT will get a great deal at a Big Ten school. The kid who gets accepted to a Big Ten school will get a great deal at some small lesser known college.

Going to college isn't expensive. Going to your dream school is likely to be bigly expensive. I don't fault anyone for choosing to go to the best school they can get into, but don't complain about the price tag later. You had the option in front of you and you decided that going to a school you liked better was more important to you than graduating without debt.

This is an old and tired debate. Maher is also old and tired. He's no Jon Stewart.

X-Runner wrote:

He has an English and History degree from Cornell and he has no kids.

He’s saying he doesn’t want his taxes paying for your kids education and he’s saying arts degrees are useless.

Meanwhile he lives in LA and makes millions off of the arts. Certainty didn’t use any math or science to make money.

I have kids and want them to go college to have more advantages in life than those who don’t go.

Anyone here steering their kids away from college?

^^^^

This.

Full of sh!t and hypocrisy.

He just sold the Mets. He's doing fine.

momo toad roe wackjobtopia

Rainy Day wrote:

It’s Maher, and he’s anti-religion. He’s bashed Christians as much as he’s bashed Muslims. He’s not a Jew, he’s an Atheist.

This makes me like him even more. Reason ftw, superstition to the ash heap of history.

June 08, 2021

Now let me get this straight. A nation bullies and harasses a much smaller neighbor which eventually leads that neighbor to strike back with largely home-made weapons. The larger and more powerful country, armed with state of the art killing machines, attacks its basically unarmed opponent and kills hundreds of civilians, including a large number of children. It also destroys billions of dollars of infrastructure in the poorer and weaker neighbor. Almost immediately after the fighting stops, senior legislators from a third nation that had nothing to do with the war apart from supplying the larger nation with weapons appeared on the scene and promoted the lie that the larger nation had actually been the victim of an unprovoked attack by the “terrorists” running the small nation. They did so publicly while meeting with and endorsing the actions of the government officials from the large nation, which, it would seem, is about to be investigated by an international body for war crimes. They were joined by an ex-officio former foreign minister of the third nation who likewise echoed the propaganda being put out by the large nation. Several of them also promised to provide military assistance worth $1 billion so the large nation could rearm itself.

Of course, I am writing about how Republican Senators Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Bill Hagerty traveled to Israel over the Memorial Day weekend and bowed and scraped before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and company. During his meeting with Bibi, Graham even held up a sign reading “More for Israel.” They were joined in Jerusalem by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who was in town visiting with his old friend Yossi Cohen, head of the Israeli Intelligence service Mossad, who is retiring soon.

I sometimes wonder what the Founding Fathers would think about senior legislators ignoring their constituent duties so they could instead travel overseas to pander to the corrupt rulers of a foreign nation that exhibits none of the civic virtues that the Constitution of the United States once embraced in establishing a new republic?

Cruz, for example, is a particularly ambitious slimeball who clearly sees his future in the tight embrace of the Israel Lobby. He was recently on the receiving end of some bad press when he abandoned his home in Houston, at the time suffering from a prolonged electricity crisis due to storm damage, to take his family to Cancun.

Cruz is a senator whose main job is promoting himself.

Cruz used the opportunity provided by his presence besides the exalted Netanyahu to denounce President Joe Biden for his Administration’s failure to help Israel while it was under attack by the terrorist hordes. Before he left for Israel he stated that he intended “to hear and see firsthand what our Israeli allies need to defend themselves, and to show the international community that we stand unequivocally with Israel. Far too many Democrats morally equivocated between Israel and the terrorists attacking them, and fringe progressive Democrats went even further with wild accusations and conspiracy theories.”

After a day spent touring Israel’s Iron Dome rocket-defense system before viewing damage in Ashkelon in Israel from the Gazan rockets, which he commemorated with a weepy self-video demonstrating his empathy for the Israeli dead, he said that Biden’s calls for Israel to seek a cease fire had “emboldened” the “Hamas terrorists.” He elaborated that “The longer Joe Biden shows weakness to Hamas or Hezbollah or Iran, the more you’re going to see terrorist attacks escalating.”

But it was Lindsey Graham who has to be awarded the prize for being completely oleaginous in the presence of Netanyahu, holding up a sign reading “More for Israel” while practically swooning in the presence of the great leader. He said, with a grin, "The eyes and ears of America is Israel. Nobody does more to protect America from radical Islam than our friends in Israel."

Flattery will apparently get you everywhere you want to be as Graham is surely aware that Israel is a strategic liability for the United States and its brutality is in fact a recruiting tool for radical groups. Holding up his sign, Graham then asked, "So what can you expect, my friends in Israel, in the next coming days and weeks from Washington? More." For the home audience he then elaborated on a tweet what “More” would mean. “Great meeting this morning in Jerusalem with Israeli PM Netanyahu. 'More for Israel' to help protect and defend from Hamas rocket attacks.”

Graham later reported to Fox News that Israel would be sending Defense Minister Benny Gantz to Washington to negotiate the request for the $1 billion increase in military aid to restore its “deterrent” after the savage bottle rocket attack by Hamas. He elaborated “It will be a good investment for the American people. I will make sure in the Senate that they get the money.”

Since the Senate Committee is packed full of Democratic Party Zionists, Graham knows for sure that his support for giving Israel the money will be approved in committee to go to the House for a final vote where it will be also be approved. And the White House is actually signaling that the Treasury check will be somewhat bigger, to the tune of $1.2 billion. A smiling Netanyahu demonstrated that he knows how to say thanks for the freebee, telling Graham “No one has done more for Israel than you, Senator Lindsey Graham, stalwart champion of our alliance and we have no better friend. You've been a tremendous friend and a tremendous ally."

The third Republican Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, a former Trump Ambassador to Japan, is a bit of a non-entity compared to his superstar traveling companions, though he, like Cruz, is unfortunately on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and has taken the lead on authorizing immediate resupply of Israel’s weapons. And he too got into the game of kissing Israel’s posterior, posting a media release on his Senate website saying “Cruz and Hagerty Land in Israel to Assess Damage from Hamas War: Americans watched in horror when Hamas and other Iran-backed terrorists in Gaza recently launched thousands of rockets at innocent men, women, and children in Israel. I’m joining Senator Cruz, my colleague on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to visit Israel and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our allies after they endured the worst terrorist attacks in recent years because I want to see firsthand what more the U.S. can do to strengthen our vital alliance with Israel at a time when terrorists like Hamas and Hezbollah and terror-sponsoring regimes in Iran and Syria are making the Middle East more dangerous…”

Pompeo also did his bit, enthusing over his attendance at the retirement party for Cohen. He tweeted how it was “Great to be with good friends in Tel Aviv!” He clearly has acquired the presidential pretensions disease and knows which button has to be pressed first.

One notices immediately the complete lack of any expression of sympathy for the hundreds of Palestinians who were killed by Israel in what was a war that was provoked by the home seizures, armed mobs of settlers in remaining Arab neighborhoods and attacks by soldiers and police on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. After that, one notes that these clowns pretending to be senators are people who were elected and generously paid by American citizens, not by Israel, yet they seem to believe it is completely appropriate to be spend time in that country meddling in someone else’s war on behalf of a rogue state. If anyone is worthy of impeachment, it is they, but never mind, neither the Zionist dominated US national media nor the Establishment will make any such demand, quite the contrary. Be that as it may, their behavior is despicable and is symptomatic of type of corruption that is preceding the decline and fall of what was once a great nation.