Gee, ya think?
The chairman of the Business Roundtable, an association of top corporate executives that has been President Obama's closest ally in the business community, accused the president and Democratic lawmakers Tuesday of creating an "increasingly hostile environment for investment and job creation."
An interesting look at the work of five-member Government Efficiency Group within the Indiana Office of Management and Budget, charged with finding ways to save the state money:
Inside a big state agency is a small group of people whose job it is to pinch pennies to save taxpayer dollars.
Hear, hear: Under an ordinance proposed by City Councilman Mitch Harper, R-4th, city government would have to post online a monthly report on its spending for goods and services.
If enacted, the measure would continue a tack toward compelling greater disclosure this council has pursued.
The latest from Chicago, the city that disarms its law-abiding citizens:
Eight people were killed in at least 44 others were shot across the city Friday night into early Monday, including a baby girl who suffered a graze wound to the neck when gunfire erupted at a Near West Side barbecue.
Complicated trade issues made simple in Seymour, Ind., home of the last remaining American factory making the basic ironing board. Facing devastating competition from China, the company improved efficiency, automated what it could and got to the point where it could produce the basic unit for $7. But China could do them for $5. So the company sought and received tariffs that kept the Chinese boards off the market. But the basic question: Is this really good policy?
When it isn't trying to bring Arizona to its knees with an economic boycott over its law on illegal aliens, Bloomington spends a lot of time worrying about its own downtrodden. A task force wants to do a better job of providing year-round shelter for the city's homeless, and the definition of that condition is quite expansive:
I get a kick out of seeing all the "human signs" out in front of various businesses, like the guy with the "$5 pizza" sign at Clinton and Rudisill. The ones who dress up are especially interesting -- the tax place on Broadway sends out a Statue of Liberty or Uncle Sam to entice us in March and April, and there's a barbecue place on State that has even trotted out a pig now and then. These walking advertisements add a touch of eccentric whimsy to the otherwise boring urban landscape.
It is a common practice in editorials to overstate one's case and ignore any evidence to the contrary. Heaven knows I've engaged in this "preaching to the choir" thundering from time to time. But leave it to The New York Times to push the tactic as far as it can go:
Poor Nero. His name is now synonymous with people who occupy themselves with amusements while ignoring the crisis around them. But he allegedly "fiddled while Rome burned" in AD 64, and there was no such instrument as the fiddle until at least the 16th century:
It was that great philosopher Shirley MacLaine, I believe, who said, "It's useless to hold a person to anything he says while he's in love with himself, drunk or running for office." This should shock absolutely no one:
In order to protect the new national health care law from legal challenges, the Obama administration has been forced to argue that the individual mandate represents a tax -- even though Obama himself argued the exact opposite while campaigning to pass the legislation.
