Thursday, August 25, 2011

FRUGALITY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE

Instapundit » Blog Archive » FRUGALITY IS FOR THE LITTLE PEOPLE
Expensive massages, top shelf vodka and five-star hotels: First Lady accused of spending $10m in public money on her vacations.

Plus this: “The Obamas’ summer break on Martha’s Vineyard has already been branded a PR disaster after the couple arrived four hours apart on separate government jets.”
And, yes, I don’t want to hear one more goddamned thing about my carbon footprint.
Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 5:53 pm

A Value-Added Tax Fuels Big Government

Ernest Christian and Gary Robbins: A Value-Added Tax Fuels Big Government - WSJ.com
The VAT is believed to be a magical device that can stuff government coffers with money without untoward economic political consequences.
It is no such thing.

The Five Most Catastrophic Hidden Costs of the Obama Presidency

Pajamas Media » The Five Most Catastrophic Hidden Costs of the Obama Presidency
The staggeringly high unemployment rate – 9.1%, not counting the Americans who have given up looking for work or who are underemployed.

The still-tumbling housing values, now worse than the Great Depression.

The inflation indicators, with uncounted sharp inflation in food and gasoline.

The debt and the deficit, now too big to even fathom without an advanced degree in mathematics.

The unfunded future liabilities –Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, public worker pensions, and the like.

When the S&P downgrade is thrown into this cliff-hanging mix, our fiscal situation goes from bad to worse.

It Really Was The Spending, Stupid

Editorial: It Really Was The Spending, Stupid - Investors.com
Faith in government to solve problems has diminished.
A new Rasmussen Reports poll, for instance, just found that 49% of Americans believe government programs actually increase poverty

Victims of Smoking Ban Cut Off Politicians

Victims of Smoking Ban Cut Off Politicians [Michigan Capitol Confidential]
Small bar owners angered over losing their butts to the statewide indoor smoking ban plan to give lawmakers the boot.
A newly formed group, Protect Private Property Rights in Michigan (PPPRM), has organized an effort to ban lawmakers from their establishments in protest against Michigan's smoking ban.

I love this!
I'm not a smoker but the second-hand-smoke junk science and the state interference is despicable.
You go guys!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Drugs for Erasing Memory?

Drugs for Erasing Memory?
"Soon, doctors may have just the 'sweet oblivious antidote' that Macbeth so desired: drugs that numb the emotional sting typically associated with our intensely bad memories."
The authors do not think this is necessarily a good thing.

Wow!
Memory erasing drugs.

HUNGER HURTS: Millions of American Kids Go Hungry

HUNGER HURTS: Millions of American Kids Go Hungry - ABC News
a shocking 49 percent of all babies born in the U.S. are born to families receiving food supplements from the WIC program

It's tough when your parents are out of work.
It's also tough when your president golfs instead of working.

Will Baby Boomers Sink the Stock Market?

Pension Pulse: Will Baby Boomers Sink the Stock Market?
The ongoing wave of retirees won’t crater the market, but they may well be “a factor holding down equity valuations over the next two decades,” Zheng Liu and Mark Spiegel write.

The coming pension earthquake

EDITORIAL: The coming pension earthquake - Washington Times
More bailouts are on the horizon. Even though taxpayers will shell out at least $250 billion to cover losses from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, there’s another, much less known federally chartered corporation that’s racking up the red ink - currently $23 billion worth.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC) could be the next to fall.

This east coast earthquake will really hurt!

BIGGEST COLLEGE REGRETS

Instapundit » Blog Archive » BIGGEST COLLEGE REGRETS
“The day that I signed on the dotted line of my promissory note, I didn’t even understand what it would mean to have to pay back more than $40,000 in student loans.
I’ll tell you what it means: living in a crappy apartment in Queens well into my 30s.
I vaguely remember my dad trying to get the message through to me, but I must have had cotton in my teenage ears.”
As stories like this spread, the higher education bubble will deflate.

KIDS COUNT

KIDS COUNT: 2011 KIDS COUNT Data Book
The 22nd annual KIDS COUNT Data Book profiles the status of children on a national and state-by-state basis and ranks states on 10 measures of well-being.
New features include an enhanced mobile site at http://mobile.kidscount.org/.

Interesting site.

US jobs on line as EPA moves

US jobs on line as EPA moves--Michael A. Walsh - NYPOST.com
Get ready for the sacrifice of tens of thousands more American jobs (at least) to feed the fantasy of “clean energy.”
Even as the “green jobs” promise proves to be a lie, the Obama administration is getting set to force the shutdown of countless power plants across half the nation.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s new Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, announced last month, will affect coal-fired electric plants in at least 27 midwestern and eastern states.
Set to take effect next year, the rule could shutter up to a fifth of the nation’s generating capacity.

With coal providing 45 percent of the nation’s energy, utility companies warn of an economic “train wreck” if the regulations -- based on Bush-era EPA proposals that the federal courts threw out in 2008 -- take effect.

One Wisconsin utility says its costs would jump $32.6 million next year, while the head of the Texas Public Utility Commission says the rules could lead to rolling blackouts -- especially given the short time the utilities have to comply with Washington’s iron fist.

This is not some minor tweak.

Obama's jihad against electric power will destroy companies, jobs and lives!