What’s Wrong with the World

:)

Of course, Joe the Plumber does not legally need a license to practice residential plumbing in his hometown, so they are misrepresenting his relationship to the law, anyway, since he is a residential plumber.

Beth, would you care to cite the relevant law that would back up your assertions. All of the stories I have seen, including ones from the local papers clim that licenses are needed.

Dr. Beckwith, what evidence are you using when you claim that Jesus was unlicensed? What were the relevant laws at the time?

The problem isn't his unlicensed status, of course, it's the silly question he asked. The idea that someone who is earning around 40k would reject an income of 250+k because the marginal tax rate on earnings above 250k was increased a few points seems absurd on its face.

All Obama was pointing out was that increasing the incomes of those making 40k would make it more likely that they could one day qualify for that higher marginal rate.

"[I]t's the silly question he asked" followed this:

"Dr. Beckwith, what evidence are you using when you claim that Jesus was unlicensed? What were the relevant laws at the time?"

You simply cannot make this stuff up.

http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/4740

The license law applies to contractors, not residential plumbers. Mr. W., by the way, is studying for his commercial (contractor's) license.

Of course, I think a good deal of licensing -- not all -- is silly, anyway. In one state (forget which one, but I know it's true, and I know it was a year of training in KS not too many years ago), you need 1500 hours (no, that's not a typo) of training to get a license to braid hair. In Maryland, you have to have a license to tell fortunes. I don't care a whit if my plumber is licensed. Being in education, I know exactly how much a good many credentials are worth in telling me how qualified someone actually is to do a job. :)

And I think that whether Mr. W. is licensed or not, or even whether he needs a license or not is irrelevant. Mr. Obama's response to his not-at-all-silly question tells me the only relevant thing about the exchange, by confirming that Mr. Obama is far more comfortable spending my money than I care for him to be.

The license law applies to contractors, not residential plumbers.

So Jesus was probably a residential carpenter then... amazing.

Beth, there is no distinction in the law between a "residential plumber" and a "contractor". If you can cite Ohio law to the contrary, please do.

Dr. Beckwith, I fully understand that your claim about Jesus was silly but then just what was the point of comparing jesus and "Joe"?

I will assume that you agree that "Joe's" (and McCain's point)was bogus.

al,

Dr. Beckwith, I fully understand that your claim about Jesus was silly but then just what was the point of comparing jesus and "Joe"?

Please Re-read:

Senator Obama's supporters are making a big deal of the fact that Joe the Plumber is unlicensed. It's now time to play the Messiah card:

Jesus was an unlicensed carpenter, and Brutus was a senator.

In any event, you may want to brush up on your Aristotle.

Beth, there is no distinction in the law between a "residential plumber" and a "contractor". If you can cite Ohio law to the contrary, please do.

It's right there in her link:

(B) “Contractor” means any individual or business entity that satisfies both of the following:

(1) For compensation, directs, supervises, or has responsibility for the means, method, and manner of construction, improvement, renovation, repair, or maintenance on a construction project with respect to one or more trades and who offers, identifies, advertises, or otherwise holds out or represents that the individual or business entity is permitted or qualified to perform, direct, supervise, or have responsibility for the means, method, and manner of construction, improvement, renovation, repair, or maintenance with respect to one or more trades on a construction project;

(2) Performs or employs tradespersons who perform construction, improvement, renovation, repair, or maintenance on a construction project with respect to the contractor’s trades.

...

(E) “Construction project” means a construction project involving a building or structure subject to Chapter 3781. of the Revised Code and the rules adopted under that chapter, but not an industrialized unit or a residential building as defined in section 3781.06 of the Revised Code.

Contractors need licenses. Contractors are those who work on construction projects. Construction projects do not include working on residential buildings. Thus those who work only on residential buildings are not contractors, and thus they do not need licenses. QED.

Whatever. I trust my sources -- who have the time to do this research and do it very carefully, because that's their job -- who tell me this is the difference. (I am rather busy doing my own job -- grading senior thesis drafts during my fall break -- to keep looking up more laws. This is a blog, not a legal site.) It seems apparent to me that the guy who comes to fix the kitchen drain at my residence is not a contractor doing commercial work.

Of course, even if my sources are incorrect, that doesn't change the *point* that it's Senator Obama's response that is the only relevant part of this exchange. He initiated it, and he gave a socialist answer to the man's question. So Mr. W.'s licensure status has nothing to do with anything relevant.

Anyway, this is a pretty ridiculous sidetrack from Dr. Beckwith's great humor. Sorry, Frank! I especially like "Brutus was a senator" . . . :)

Thanks, Brendon!

Beth wrote:

Of course, even if my sources are incorrect, that doesn't change the *point* that it's Senator Obama's response that is the only relevant part of this exchange. He initiated it, and he gave a socialist answer to the man's question. So Mr. W.'s licensure status has nothing to do with anything relevant.

At least somebody got it.

Kick ass, Beth.

Joe the Plumber will be on Meet the Press Sunday.
Sarah Palin will play a naughty librarian in a skit on SNL tomorrow night. Anyone who isn't enjoying this election is probably the kind of crank who uses terms like "dumbed down" to disparage our rich cultural milieu. Vote the Party line and by all means, party!

Bill, that's gotta be a first for me! I'm not exactly known as the fighting type . . . :)

Brendon:

How ironic that we live in an age in which the state has definitive knowledge on what constitutes a plumber but is skeptical about what constitutes a marriage, despite the plumbing.

Frank

Mrs. Beckwith chimes in: "In America, we know when Joe the plumber becomes a plumber in Ohio, but we don't know when he becomes Joe in the womb." We can rest easy in Obama-land, for the cold counter top on which the born alive aborted child dies was built by a licensed contractor.

Dr. Beckwith,

The inability to understand that Joe does not need a license seems par for the course for Obama supporters. After all, if you can neither distinguish human life from non-human life, nor distinguish men from women, then the inability to distinguish between who needs a license and who doesn't seems to fittingly follow. Those who cannot be trusted in large tasks certainly cannot be trusted in small ones.

The part that is particularly sad in this is that such a lame diversion should be foisted on the public, and that to a degree it will work. You could almost imagine a number of voters,God help us, saying "how can you trust a man without a plumbers license?"

Joe's question exposed both Obama and the media midgets that drool at the thought of his election. We are not supposed to know, to see the lust for the power that can turn a society upside down, to put people at one another's throats, and cause no little pain in the process.

Where's Obama's "spreading the wealth" license?

I'm told that, in addition to lacking a plumber's license, Joe was also not licensed to ask Senator Obama questions. If he'd had professional training, he could have asked Obama a serious question, like whether McCain's decision not to concede the election to him outright was evidence of racism, or just senility.

How ironic that we live in an age in which the state has definitive knowledge on what constitutes a plumber but is skeptical about what constitutes a marriage, despite the plumbing.

Gold! Worthy of Chesterton.

carpenters.....what grand sky scraper did jesus build.of course he did not have a license they wernt invented yet ....handyman in texas are hooking up gas water heaters wrong....they are blowing up and killing people...licensed plumbers have to take tests prove there compitent...i think i would choose a licensed plumber over a handy man for my mothers gas water heater dont you?