A Little Perspective

Mark Steyn hit it this morning when he remarked upon the list of 500,000 on the watch list, and that it is not easy to check that list instantly.
Steyn remarked that if you buy a book on Amazon.com, and access that site 8 years later, the site will instantly remind you of that previous book [...]

There is a Tsunami Coming!

“Dec. 24 (Bloomberg) — California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, anticipating a $21 billion state budget deficit, plans to ask President Barack Obama to ease mandates and minimums on social programs to save as much as $8 billion.
The Republican governor plans to seek the relief, according to a California official who asked not to be identified because [...]

We Are Relearning How To Fight

It is amazing to me to compare and contrast the Revolutionary War (since I wrote about the Delaware Crossing) with the fights we now endure.
In the Revolutionary War, the two British commanders were brothers – the Howe brothers. One commanded the fleet, the other the British Army – both had tried to talk King George [...]

Reform The Public Pension Program?

 

All negotiations regarding pay and pension for public employees to be done in PUBLIC. (It’s OUR Money!)

 

Pensions to be figured ONLY on “base pay” — ignoring “spiking” final pensions by including overtime, and extra pay and benefits.

 

All disabilities to be figured and determined after retirement, stopping “Chief’s illness” where police and firepeople get disability in [...]

So What Do We Do About Global Whatever?

There is a vast difference between scientific consensus and political consensus.
We are much like a patient who has been diagnosed with a serious illness by a doctor.
What is our confidence in the doctor? What is our confidence in the test results? If the prognosis is dire, do we even want to afford the proposed solution [...]

The Public Pension Scam

Before we look for a solution to the “Pension Plans that Ate America” perhaps we should look to the cause.
Those public employees have representatives on both sides of the negotiating table!
On their side they have a union negotiator.
“Opposing” them is a negotiator representing politicians who have won their public office with union support, and who [...]

The Cops ARE The Robbers!

 
Four retiring Parsippany cops share $900K in sick, vacation pay
By Eugene Paik/For The Star-Ledger
December 23, 2009, 5:31AM
PARSIPPANY — Four township police officers, each with more than 24 years of experience, will retire by the end of the month.
They’ll also receive nearly $900,000 during the next several years for unspent time off.
Like other retired Parsippany officers [...]

Gosh! You’re Kidding, Right?

U.S. local government pension costs exceeds $530 billion: govern
Wed Dec 23, 5:43 pm ET
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. state and local governments face more than $530 billion in unfunded public pension liabilities and most do not have funds set aside to pay for them, a government report showed on Wednesday.
As of June, state governments were on the hook for [...]

Redistributionists

I don’t think that liberals deny that they want redistributionist policies — although they may dislike the word.
It is a bit harsh, because it is blunt. They probably prefer something like “helping the less fortunate,” which certainly sounds nice until you realize that it is not they who they want to “help the less fortunate” [...]

The Market Speaks

 
Carbon prices fall in wake of Copenhagen
By Chris Flood and Fiona Harvey
Published: December 22 2009 02:00 | Last updated: December 22 2009 02:00
“Carbon prices plunged yesterday in the aftermath of the Copenhagen conference on climate change, dealing a blow to the credibility of the European Union’s carbon-trading scheme.
Prices for carbon permits for December 2010 delivery, [...]