Some cause happiness wherever they go,
others whenever they go.
Oscar Wilde
Earlier One-Off Post: Man of the Year 2014
Tweet of the Day
Merry Cromnibus! Who was on your crazy old Uncle Sam's gift list, spending your grandkids' hard-earned tax money? https://t.co/KjfM4q1FYU
— Ronald Guillemette (@raguillem) December 18, 2014
Image of the Day
Rant of the Day: Justin Amash on Cuba
The power of free expression, free movement, and free markets is much more likely to advance Cuba toward freedom than the failed policy of isolation. An isolationist foreign policy that blocks trade and restricts travel between our country and Cuba hasn't made our neighbor free or democratic. And the United States' half-century embargo hasn't brought down the Castro regime.
Deregulation: How Does Santa Get Past the FAA?I support the announced shift from isolationism to a more pragmatic engagement with Cuba. The Cuban people have the right to govern themselves and deserve to live in a country that is ruled by law, not the whim of a dictator. We can more readily help Cubans establish liberty through policies that open dialogue, travel, and trade.
We're From the Government, and We're Here to Help
Merry Cromnibus!
Vermont Drops Infeasible Single-Payer Healthcare: The Taxes Are Too Damn High!
It is stunning how the hubris of "progressives" springs anew on the topic of unsustainable single-payer (government monopoly) healthcare. You can point out how we've seen huge unfunded liabilities, price controls that create surpluses (e.g., unnecessary surgeries) and shortages, tax policies that led gold-plated healthcare plans including ordinary expenses, rampant government healthcare fraud, occupational cartels, veterans dying on waiting lists, out-of-control malpractice insurance, chronic budget deficits, and persistent sector inflation since the Great Society--yes, all these "progressives" who couldn't operate a lemonade stand profitably will insist that the government can control sector costs. In this case, Vermont thought it could do something California had abandoned years earlier on grounds of feasibility--and discovered it would require economy-killing tax hikes.
Facebook Corner
(IPI). There’s a reason Bruce Rauner topped Institutional Investor’s Pension 40 list – he has the potential to fix the nation’s worst pension crisis.
(one response to self-serving trolls)
"Should have invested more wisely"? IDIOT! There is no way even Jesus could multiply employee/employer contributions to afford million dollar plus retirements. As for the self-serving firefighter--it goes without saying if older firefighters aren't up to the job, they shouldn't be on the job. But don't expect any pension at an age most people are still working for a living. Find a second career, like most people leaving the military.
(a separate comment wonders if a pension-related attachment to cromnibus is relevant, e.g., authorized distribution cuts in the PBGC reform)
No way the Congress is going to bail out state pensions--PERIOD.
But NO, this is not a Supremacy Clause issue. PBGC is a federal program insuring pensions for certain multiple employer industries in the private sector. PBGC, like most federal retirement programs, has huge unfunded liabilities. Let's put the blame where it rests--the plan premiums weren't enough to finance the pensions. The "poor" truck driver benefited from lower contributions: cry me a river if he wasn't saving for his own retirement. $40K is more than he'll get in social security. So shoring up the pension plan will require sacrifices by workers/companies and retirees--not the taxpayer without a pension.
(Reason). Cf. above video: what did Uncle Sam leave you for Christmas?
Under the fascist regime, Santa Claus can't even leave a lump of coal in my stocking...
(National Review). A University of Michigan department chair wrote a piece explaining that she "hates Republicans" because research PROVES that they're bad people and everyone SHOULD hate them. How would you feel being a conservative student in one of her classes?
She's the chair of the communications department: why am I not surprised? As a former closet conservative professor, I knew better than to express my political opinions as a junior nontenured faculty member in the midst of "progressive" groupthink. Ms. Douglas lacks the discipline and integrity to maintain a tone of civility and professionalism; her political views are poorly stated, pedestrian and predictable, but what's unique is her hypocritical defense of intolerance towards the same people she expects to be tolerant of her propagation of climate alarmist propaganda, economic fascism, and political correctness.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Lisa Benson via Townhall |
Mannheim Steamroller, "Do You Hear What I Hear?"
