Today is Cost of Government Day for 2008:
Working people must toil on average 197 days out of the year just to meet all costs imposed by government. In other words, the cost of government consumes 53.9 percent of national income.
Cost of Government Day falls four days later in 2008 than last year's revised date of July 12. In 2008, the average American will have to work an additional 17 days out of the year to pay off his or her cost of government compared to 2000, when the COGD was June 29.
You probably haven't been losing any sleep wondering about this, but in the digital age, a snooze alarm could be any length of time. It's nine minutes because of the limitations of tehcnology when the alarm was invented:
A new study suggests that the simple act of keeping a food diary -- just writing down what you eat and when -- can help you with your diet, even doubling the number of pounds you lose. The reason given for fort the technique's effectiveness rings true with me:
Representatives of Indiana Michigan Power visited with the editorial board yesterday to argue for their proposed rate hike, and I've gone into a mini obsessive state over what electricity costs:
1,000 watt-hours is a kilowatt-hour (kWh). For example.
- One 100-watt light bulb on for an hour, is 0.1 kWh (100/1000)
- One 100-watt light bulb on for ten hours is 1 kWh (1 bulbs x 100W x 10h= 1000Wh = 1 kWh)
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court's repeal of the ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., may be a boon for a segment of the firearms industry whose last major windfall might have been in the heyday of the Dirty Harry movies: those who make and sell revolvers.
This is an abomination:
Sometimes a glass of white wine is not enough. Nor is a beer, an iced tea or a lemonade, though heaven knows few things are better than a tart lemonade in a beaded glass on a hot summer's day. ...
we want red wine. And how are we going to drink this red wine?
Everything old is new again:
Many claim that food prices are causing people to dust off their green thumbs, but whatever the reason, gardening is in.
The impact has been felt at seed companies nationwide and at area garden centers.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported in early June that W. Atlee Burpee & Co. had doubled its seed sales this year. The seed company, which started in 1876, has struggled in recent years as modern families moved away from growing their own food.
Be careful that when you go to the polls you don't end up voting for a third Bush term. That would happen if you elect -- no, not John McCain:
We're beginning to understand why Barack Obama keeps protesting so vigorously against the prospect of "George Bush's third term." Maybe he's worried that someone will notice that he's the candidate who's running for it.
The best answer to Harry Reid's energy idiocy:
As pressure builds to develop America's domestic energy resources, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid now says it's a health issue. Coal and oil, he says, make us sick. So why does he oppose nuclear power?
[. . .]
Let's face it: Harry Reid and the Democrats want no new domestic coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power. It's their energy policy that makes us sick.
Wait just a second. Isn't this country going to hell in a handbasket? Hasn't our own Associated Press told us that Americans are in a mood of dour helplessness because everything seems to be spinning out of control? Then how can this be?
