Medary.com

While the spoiled children in Wisconsin and their union/Democrat enablers continue their temper tantrum over actually being asked to pay for a portion of their retirement and medical care (horrors!), putting up to 12 thousand Wisconsin state employees' jobs at risk, you may have missed a few other happenings:

Iran is sending ships through the Suez Canal to further menace Israel.

Meanwhile, high speed rail will SOLVE ALL OUR PROBLEMS!! (Oops, sorry, no, it won't. It's a silly-ass idea. Works in Japan. Won't work in the USA.)

(Economic) bubbles are bursting around the world . . . has our golden age ended? Only if we do not change-- and I'm not referring to the Soros/Obama-cling-bitterly-to-Nineteenth-century-"progressive"-collectivist/statist-public-policy-solutions kind of "change."

And yes, unions ARE thuggish organizations. They really can't help it. It's what they are. Their primary weapon is intimidation. When that fails, they start the violence.

Fire ‘em all and institute vouchers. Sounds like an excellent plan to me.

Wisconsin doctors sacrificing their careers to keep spoiled children spoiled.

On a rare cheery note, Nathan Fillion wants to buy Firefly.

The price of oil is going up. The price of everything is going up. Have you noticed?

A good question: After Wisconsin, how do Democrats argue against a GOP government shutdown? Glenn Reynolds replies: ""shamelessly" would be my guess." Yeah. That word should be a part of the official name of the Democratic Party--er--the Shameless Democratic Party.

Depressed yet? No? Then you don't understand what's going on. Sigh.

Seen on Craigslist:

Here's another phrasing of my basic philosophy:

Don't make life harder than it already is for people, and maybe just maybe do something to make it easier for people every once in a while.

-Me, in an e-mail conversation earlier this week with a friend.

IN WALKS THE VILLAGE IDIOT, AND HIS FACE IS ALL AGLOW. He’s been up all night listening to Mohammed’s radio.
I HEARD THE GENERAL, WHISPERING TO HIS AIDE DE CAMP: “Be watchful for Mohammed’s lamp.”
EVERYBODY’S DESPERATE, TRYING TO MAKE ENDS MEET. Work all day, still can’t pay the price of gasoline and meat.
YOU’VE BEEN UP ALL NIGHT, JUST LISTENING FOR HIS DRUM: Hoping that the righteous might just, might just, might just, might just come.

The way things are going, the Sage of Knoxville will have more of this . . .

Things that can't go on forever, won't.

Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds

Is it your responsibility to pay for the irresponsibility of someone else?

"The Constitution is a written instrument. As such, its meaning does not alter. That which it meant when it was adopted, it means now" ~ South Carolina v. United States, 199 U.S. 437, 448 (1905).

Trust, but verify.

-- Ronald Reagan

. . . before people can mobilize for collective action, they have to develop a proud and angry identity and a set of claims that go with that identity. They have to go from being hurt and ashamed to being angry and indignant. . . . protesters need targets, preferably local and accessible ones capable of making some kind of response to angry demands.

-- Frances Fox Piven, harmless, well-intentioned academic and renowned pacifist

Political tags–such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth–are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.

-- Robert A. Heinlein

Via PJ Tatler