Forced Student Labor in China

"Working your way through school" takes on a whole different meaning.  Even worse, some of the students are underage.

Best Comment Yet On the Chicago Teachers Strike

This is even better than "Rahm Emanuel Likes Nickelback."  Check out this gloriously snarky tweet, baseball fans:

LOL: Hitting Below the Belt in the Chicago Teachers' Strike

Somebody brought a wicked sense of humor to the otherwise angry strike and focused a laser-like wit on mayor Rahm Emanuel, who's "the bad guy" in the scenario:

Ouch.

The Emanuel camp even responded that no, the mayor doesn't like that much-aligned bunch of musicians.  Then, not content with this, that teacher kicked Emanuel while he was down with this even uglier accusation.  Now that's one heck of a smear, even for Chicago.  

Awesome: Mike Rowe's Letter to Romney On Skilled Labor

Mike Rowe is even more awesome than previously thought.  (Marry me, Mike.)  Oh, be sure to read his open letter to the very end.  Zing!  Oh, and what this country needs is fewer bureaucrats and more Mike Rowes.  Here's more about the Dirty Jobs show and even more common-sensical, hard-working, pure awesomeness from Rowe's 2008 TED talk:

UPDATE:  Check this out!

Awesome: Mike Rowe Testifies to the Senate on Skilled Labor

Mike Rowe, the sunny host of the excellent Discovery Channel show "Dirty Jobs," has probably single-handedly raised national awareness about hard work, those who do it, and their value to society as a whole.  Check out his recent testimony to the Senate about skilled labor.  Random thought: Rowe just doesn't look like himself in that suit!  Oh, but do take a look at what he has to say.  Here's a nice blurb:

In high schools, the vocational arts have all but vanished. We've elevated the importance of "higher education" to such a lofty perch that all other forms of knowledge are now labeled "alternative." Millions of parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training opportunities as "vocational consolation prizes," best suited for those not cut out for a four-year degree. And still, we talk about millions of "shovel ready" jobs for a society that doesn't encourage people to pick up a shovel. 

In a hundred different ways, we have slowly marginalized an entire category of critical professions, reshaping our expectations of a "good job" into something that no longer looks like work. A few years from now, an hour with a good plumber -- if you can find one -- is going to cost more than an hour with a good psychiatrist. At which point we'll all be in need of both.

It's the flip side of the overselling of "higher ed."  I can tell you for a fact that we could do with more skilled plumbers, electricians, and other skilled laborers than another graduation season's worth of largely useless sociology/women's studies/religion/philosophy majors who come out of school with utterly crushing amounts of debt and very bad job prospects.  And that's the cold hard truth.

China: Labor Strikes as Chinese Economy Stumbles

Public unrest bubbling?  Keep an eye on China.  Its economy is not invincible, and as its weaknesses appear, I think we can expect more of this.

RELATED POST:  Economic troubles could shake the Chinese Communists' grip on power.