The Wall Street Journal, as a sidebar to the sotry about Dave Camp's ambitious plan for reforming the tax code, laments the lack of "big legislation" these days:
The myth: If more people carry guns, the country will become a much more dangerous place. The reality: Could it be that concealed carry has actually made the country safer?
Of course if they're going to keep pouring trillions down the social-programs rathole, they have to get the money from somewhere. I mean, they can't just print and borrow all of it. So why not gut the nasty old military, starting with a plan to shrink the Army to pre-World II levels. Even some officials are worried about the implications, though:
Coconut oil. Coffee. Whole milk. Salt. Chocolate. Popcorn. Eggs. What do those seven foods have in common?
In the future, when we’re zipping around the biosphere on our jetpacks and eating our nutritionally complete food pellets, we won’t have to worry about what foods will kill us or which will make us live forever.
If you thought Wendy Davis, who seems to advocate abortion on demand pretty much all the way up to the actual birth, represented the pro-choice side at its most extreme, guess again:
Awww. How am I going to get through the day without a condescending British twit to lecture me on the evils of guns?
Charles Krauthammer on the myth of "settled science":
The FCC now says it will "amend" its plan to study how media organizations gather news:
Michelle Obama to Jimmy Fallon on "The Tonight Show."
Juxtaposition of the day. From the New York Times editorial page, Jan. 14, 1987:
The Federal minimum wage has been frozen at $3.35 an hour for six years. In some states, it now compares unfavorably even with welfare benefits available without working. It's no wonder then that Edward Kennedy, the new chairman of the Senate Labor Committee, is being pressed by organized labor to battle for an increase.
If you've moved beyond the '90s and have no wish to relive them, sorry. If Hillary Clinton runs for the presidency, we're gonna be wallowing in Bill Clinton's libido again:
I'm not sure this is a very meaningful statistic. Or, put another way, don't make too much of it:
Three in 10 students enrolled at an Indiana four-year college graduate on time, and only half finish within six years, according to a report released Tuesday by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.
President Obama has smothered the economy, wreaked havoc on the health care delivery system, all but destroyed American foreigh policy, used the IRS to harass his political enemies, and acted in general lawlessly and without regard for the Constitution.
Oh, dear. Girl Scout Cookies turn out to be not so good for us:
Those cute little girls selling cookies around your neighbor are delivering junk-food snacks that are astonishingly unhealthy. ( Just four Samoas have 50% of your recommended saturated fat intake for the day... )
[. . .]
President Obama’s proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would increase earnings for 16.5 million low-wage Americans but cost the nation about 500,000 jobs, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday.
The headline on this CBS News piece is "Food prices soar as incomes stand still," and, boy, ain't it the truth?
Writer Jen Singer, the mother of two teenage boys, wrestles with her grocery list every week to keep the household budget from getting away from her.
"I'd like the government to stop by my house, come food shopping with me and see where the real costs are," she said.
Oh, no, there's a looming clown shortage:
“What’s happening is attrition,” said Clowns of America International President Glen Kohlberger, who added that membership at the Florida-based organization has plummeted since 2006. “The older clowns are passing away.”
[. . .]
Why some people carry and some people don't:
In my experience, those individuals who carry do so because they very consciously do not want to belong to the class of citizens that is inherently helpless — totally reliant upon the state to protect not just themselves but their family, friends, and neighbors. If the choice is between protectors and protected, they choose to be protectors.
Just as we've always suspected:
These are hard times for economists. Their reputations are tarnished; their favorite doctrines are damaged. Among their most prominent thinkers, there is no consensus as to how — or whether — governments in advanced countries can improve lackluster recoveries. All in all, the situation recalls a cruel joke:
