I mailed a package of clothes overseas today. It cost $120. The same package cost $30-$40 to ship not long ago. So much for this administration’s highly advertised “non-existent” inflation. The service has not improved, nor did the sour demeanor and the speed of the government employees, but the cost went up at least three times. The pay is good and the benefits are stellar, but then, who wants to sort mail all day and deal with the stressed public?
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A friend has mentioned recently how insidious and malicious is the work of progressives in this country who have one goal in mind, to destroy our culture. They should be called regressives since they are fond of shaping society in their warped view of reality, not building it up.
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I was in a terminal at Reagan National Airport recently and an electronic ad drew my attention. It was the beautiful face of a middle aged gentleman creased by time, worries, and hard work. He introduced himself as Sid. “I’m proud of my Appalachian roots,” he said. “And I won’t give up on our mountains.” In smaller letters, at the bottom of the ad sponsored by Earth Justice, earthjustice.org/MyStory, was one sentence, “Tell us your story to help stop mountaintop removal coal mining.”
I became intrigued and decided to check this story out. After all, I want to keep mountain tops intact and our environment as clean as possible. I love nature and marvel at God’s magnificent creation. I also realize that nature can unleash so many disasters on our planet that land formations are forever destroyed and areas no longer look the same.
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“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.” – Thomas Sowell
Austerity has not worked well in the EU if you ask Keynesian economists and supporters; they will tell you that austerity does not work, citing the EU experience. Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and the U.K. governments claimed that austerity measures resulted in stratospheric unemployment rates and slow economic growth.
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“The last thing Detroit needs is a bailout. What it needs is to sweep away a city charter that protects only bureaucrats, civil-service rules that straightjacket municipal departments, and obsolete union contracts. A bailout would just keep the dysfunction in place. Time to start over.”
– Bill Nojay, Former COO of Detroit’s Department of Transportation
Detroit, the former “Paris of the West” is now oozing blight, rust, decay, garbage, and union corruption. It is now a pathetic example of its former greatness, the city of the auto industry, envied around the world, the city of a thriving middle class.
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Do we still teach in public schools our common culture, common identity, common true history, or values such as hard work, charity, morals, virtue, and the rule of law? With the exception of home schooling and a few private schools, the answer is no. We do teach secular education, “green” environmentalism, the new religion of Mother Earth, and now Common Core Education.
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A beautiful pair of sandals caught my eyes. The beading design on top in red, white, and black reminded me of an African motif I had seen on Nat Geo years ago. The flat shoe had an elegant zipper in the back, adding it a touch of modern and chic. I decided to try them on.
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Leave it to government to try to reduce the budget deficit on the backs of elderly taxpayers. Bureaucrats have decided that the cost of living adjustments (COLAs) have been too generous and must be scaled back. COLAs are made yearly to offset the loss of purchasing power of money due to inflation.
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For the past two years, the EU has struggled to keep its tenuous union intact, a union based on a common currency adopted by some of the members. As Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal economies downturned, it did not surprise many because their admission into the EU was questionable at the time – there is a reason why they were called the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain) – they never ran their socialist economies responsibly, spending on social welfare with abandon.
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In a January 24, 2013 breakfast speech, Gen. Raymond T. Odierno warned his audience that “Today, the greatest threat of our national security is fiscal uncertainty.” (www.army.mil/article/95007/Jan242013CSAremarkstoAUSAILWBreakfast/)
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