When you find a man who knows his job
and is willing to take responsibility,
keep out of his way
and don't bother him with unnecessary supervision.
What you may think is co-operation
is nothing but interference.
Thomas Dreier
Caption of the Day
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| Photo courtesy of Reuters My Caption Suggestion: "Santa, you take care of the kids; I'll take care of the voters: I have the billions to give things away 365 days a year And a present for you, Santa: an Obama-Biden 2012 bumper sticker for your sleigh" |
Official Unemployment Down to 8.6%; 120,000 Jobs Added
This is one of those cases where the numbers are misleading. The fact that the Obama Administration put lipstick on a pig is to be expected: they pointed out that the private sector has grown jobs for almost 21 straight months. The fact is that when you're generating just over 100,000 jobs a month, you are just talking about accommodating new entries into the workforce. So how do we explain a sudden drop to 8.6% in the official unemployment rate? Because if long-term unemployed have given up trying to find work, they are no longer counted in official statistics: in this case, about 315,000 left the workforce: nearly 3 times as many as new jobs. With some 14 million unemployed and several million more underemployed, Obama has little to celebrate just 11 months before the general election.
Rand Paul Is Rapidly Becoming My Favorite Senator
I have to admit that I had my misgivings when Rand Paul (R-KY) started out his Senate campaign last year by reexamining the Civil Rights Act from the 1960's. It's not so much the substance of his remarks as his pragmatic wisdom of reopening a settled issue. (Let me be clear here: we libertarian conservatives oppose barriers to assimilation, including any local, state or federal law that would discriminate against people for characteristics beyond their control, including race or ethnic heritage.)
Rand Paul last night led a fight that fought off cloture (41-59: Thumbs UP!) on an amendment that effectively would have created dual justice systems for US citizens: if a citizen was considered by the powers that be as a "terrorist", he could, in theory, be detained indefinitely, regardless of the final determinations of the military tribunal system, for as long as the War on Terror continued.
I've become increasingly alarmed by what seems to be an emerging groupthink in a much-hyped War on Terror and statist scope creep that literally conjures up the possibility of US soldiers patrolling the streets of American cities.
Rand Paul has already established a leadership position on liberty issues, including support for auditing the Fed, a balanced budget amendment, the penny plan (Congressman Mack's attempt to cut budgets on a real (vs. nominal) basis by at least 1% a year for 6 years), and competing currencies. I support all these efforts, although I am skeptical of a balanced budget amendment: not by its goals but its implementation which could be counterproductive, and I'm concerned about inevitable constitutional issues. I could easily see the federal budget dispute being settled in the court system.
Musical Interlude: Nostalgic/Instrumental Christmas
Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops, "Sleigh Ride". My favorite song from my high school choir's Christmas concert. The first version is the classic instrumental. I didn't care for a number of the vocal versions I heard on Youtube; to be frank, my inner producer doesn't care for most of the vocal performances or the arrangements. I prefer to hear crisp delivery commensurate with the snapping of the whip, an ebullient, anticipatory tone, a sense of joie de vivre inspired by the Christmas spirit. I finally settled on embedding Amy Grant's version which is clear and gimmick-free (although I don't care for the initial arrangement, would have paced some of the verses differently, and would have liked to hear "lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you" delivered in a coy, flirty manner).
