On the news of the death of Osama Bin Laden, the Commandant of the Naval Academy has something to say to the Mids.
Snippets of conversations during budget negotiations:
Board Member: Let’s get started. After an absolutely disastrous year, financially, we’re now five months into our fiscal year and you still have not presented us with a budget for this year. Why?
CEO Obama: My staff was waiting until their employment contracts were renewed before we presented a budget.
Board Member: Excuse me?
Could it happen in the US as governments face revenue shortfalls?
I’m sure somewhere Chuck Schumer is taking credit for this.
From: http://ping.fm/3DGlI
Money response, re: what Hitchens and Totten see as the coming conflict with Iran:
The existence of theocratic regimes that have illegally acquired weapons of mass destruction, that are war with their own people, that are exporting their violence to neighboring countries, sending death squads as far away as Argentina to kill other people as well as dissident members of their own nationality—the existence of such regimes is incompatible with us. If there is going to be a confrontation, we should pick the time, not them.
People who don’t think twice about brutalizing their fellow countrymen aren’t about to stop what they’re doing because we ask them nicely.
More wisdom from the irascible Christopher Hitchens, interviewed by Michael Totten:
“The essence of totalitarianism is that it’s systematic, thorough, and absolute, but it’s also unpredictable and capricious.”
Hannah Arend couldn’t have said it better. Read the whole thing.
Matt Welch ponders the recent news that Federal employees have surpassed their private sector counterparts in salary and benefits. From the comments: ” …a government manager’s only motivation is to increase the size of his organization.”
This is why I have a problem increasing the size of government for any reason. They have guns and prisons and are incented to increase their power above all. In addition, ambitious public employees drape themselves in the mantle of selflessness and public service which is rarely the truth. I seldom find ambitious private sector employees with such duplicitous motivations.
Calculated Risk estimates the US economy has to grow by 6% in order to reduce unemployment by a mere 2%. Not likely.
“we find a robust negative correlation between
unemployment and attacks against government and allied forces and no
significant relationship between unemployment and the rate of insurgent
attacks that kill civilians”
From: http://ping.fm/6XNvm
