I graduated from a technical college that was a School of Mines. There used to be several schools of mines in the United States. Now there are only three left, Colorado School of Mines, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
If I ever have enough money to go back to school and get another degree, I am going go to New Mexico Tech and get a Masters in Explosives Engineering in association with the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center.
I cannot imagine anything cooler than saying “I have an advanced degree in slowing shit up.”
But I digress…
Schools of Mines, clearly indicated by their name, are schools of science and engineering focused on extracting and refining natural resources for human use. The larger programs at these schools are Mining Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Metallurgy and Material Science, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, etc.
I knew quite a few geologists at my time at Mines.
The thing about people who study Geology at a School of Mines is that they have a career in mind. They want to work for a mine or a oil company. The scout areas looking for resources. They map the terrain and plan with the engineers, the best places to dig or drill. They are an invaluable part of natural resource development.
And they get paid handsomely for it. Starting salary for a geologist in mining or petroleum is $104,000, and it can go up from there to a solid $250,000.
It’s a good job. Besides the good pay, you are rarely behind a desk. The mine geologists I know love their jobs. They spend most of it out in the field with a 4×4 pickup full of equipment, enjoying the fresh air and the sunshine.
So…
South by South West, which goes by SXSW, is a film, music, and media festival that goes for a week in Austin, Texas. Somehow, it has also become the “in” place for liberal politicians to go to let their stupid all hang out.
One of the Democrats there was Presidential Candidate and former Governor of Colorado, John Hickenlooper.
From this take, I gather that Hickenlooper has seen the writing on the wall that capitalists are not allowed in the modern Democrat party and that he as to disavow it to have any room to move up in national politics.
But that is not the worst part. This is:
I want to make sure I got this correctly?
A geologist who works for a petroleum company, a guy (or maybe a woman) making in excess of $100,000 per year contributing positively to the economy and America’s energy sector is immoral and needs to find a new job.
However, growing and selling recreation marijuana which ends up in the hands of children is not immoral.
Moreover, Hickenlooper wants to legalize brothels, or at least rub-and-tug centers, and that is totally moral too.
Remember not quite two weeks ago, I wrote a post about the importance of moral guidance in society?
I said this:
A career counselor will tell a high school girl that giving handjobs and blowjobs is just as good a job as waiting tables while working through college and that there is no shame in being a sex worker…
Well shit if it didn’t take 11 days for the Democrats to pivot to the position “it’s immoral to earn a STEM degree that is critical to maintaining America’s technical infrastructure, do the right thing and become a drug dealer or give handjobs instead.”
Just as a technical matter, lets say that the Democrats manage to completely ban the use of petroleum in power generation and transportation, we would still need huge volumes of it for paint, plastics, industrial heating, etc.
Most of the asphalt in the US is refined from petroleum. Without the oil industry, how are we going to pave roads or cover roofs? Or is the plan to eliminate those too?
So much of the modern world, including green technology is made possible because of plastics, which are derived from petroleum. There are some bio-plastics, but right now that technology is limited. The super tall wind turbines that are most effective in generating power are possible because of light weight aramid and carbon fiber composites, which are all… you guessed it… derived from petroleum.
But forget all that, that’s immoral.
What you need to do is get a career in dick sucking, and when that leaves you dead on the inside, miserable and without self respect, there is always some legal marijuana to anesthetize the pain.
Once again, we have a Democrat who read Brave New World and thought it was a “How To” manual.
Never ceases to amaze me the stupid shit these morons say and even stupider morons believe it.
Morons, the lot of them!
Drugs and sex are ways to control the masses.
I cannot imagine anything cooler than saying “I have an advanced degree in slowing shit up.”
Okay, I like a challenge. How about…
Hmm. I’d actually best not post what we do around here.
But do come to New Mexico. Home of the “earth-shattering kaboom!” people.
IDK man moralizing about it certainly hasn’t stopped it or made it safer.
Weird it’s like prohibitions don’t work or something….
I also find the claim dubious that career counselors will be advising girls that blowing dudes in a rub n tug is a good supplementary income stream or career.
Matt: True enough. I suspect that the objection to “legalizing” prostitution is in the normalizing of socially damaging behavior. True, “un-normalizing” it has not stopped it, but, just as with The Wall, such a thing does raise the barriers to participation in such activities, and THAT is helpful, even if not “curative”.
Just as I never used to encounter patients in clinic who reeked- yes, reeked- of marijuana fumes, since “medical marijuana card”, and, more recently, legalization, I encounter it more and more. And the reek-ers, act surprised when I tell them that smoking is bad, no matter what you are smoking.
Reltney, you get my point. There will always be people who do bad things.
The difference is will that remain a small minority of the population or will it become mainstreamed. If you want an example of this, thing single motherhood.
Once it was looked down upon and shamed, now it is not. Today, more boys are raised by single mothers than not, and look at what has happened to boys because of it.
I’m not saying we should jail single mothers, but we shouldn’t normalize things like prostitution and drugs.
I’d say drugs and prostitution are normalized already. They exist in our society, anyone can easily figure out where to find either, and probably knows someone who has partaken of one or either. You probably know addicts and as you got older realized which of your friends parents were addicts functional or otherwise. You probably know plenty of recreation users of either whether you actually know it or not. Drugs and prostitution are in the news every day for one reason or another. Politicians, those who “lead” us, are caught up in drug or prostitution scandals frequently. Prostitution is “the oldest profession” and even monkeys trade food or other items of value for sex. Man has been experimenting with substances since before we were man. So yea I’d say both are a normal part of society and in our very DNA in many regards.
But you are right, neither are accepted or acceptable to society and they are IMO talked about and acknowledged in that same kind of 1950’s way of oh we don’t talk about that (what happens in private) and pretend it doesn’t exist to keep up that wholesome public image or whatever when the reality ever so slightly behind the scenes is something entirely different. It is almost delusional to me.
To me it is simply bringing it into the light of day, not normalizing or encouraging it. In the light of day at least you know what is happening and can do something meaningful about it since everyone no longer needs to take the precautions to keep it hidden. Will people take advantage and manipulate, use, and victimize people even if either were legal? Of course, it happens every day with everything, that is human nature, but now someone who is victimized doesn’t have to fear seeking recourse because of legal retribution to themselves.
What do you make of countries that have legalized drug use and are diverting drug fighting monies to support programs and have seen drops in addiction and use? I’m sure there can be found similar stories/data with regards to prostitution. I bet similar programs in the US, if not half assed (which I’m not even sure is possible), would cost half of what we spend drug warring every year.
Regarding single mothers, it isn’t that it is just accepted and mainstreamed, it is incentivized and institutional structures are built around and upon it. Divorce can also offer significant incentives to a woman to split up. Then you have other tangentially related benefits systems that encourage people to stay single such as military, social security, or divorce benefits. I’m sure we all know of or heard of that person who has effectively been married for years to another person but hasn’t officially tied the knot because they would loose whatever benefit they became entitled to because their spouse died or was booted out.
Priceless comment: Dems read “Brave New World” and mistake it for a how-to manual.
With your permission I will use that.
Thank you
CPT Taggart