Your Kids Aren't Yours

At least so says Melissa Harris-Perry in an MSNBC ad. No, they belong to the collective (read "The State") and ve vill deal mit dem! This is scary stuff. The "Progressive" mask is coming off in the afterglow of Obama's election victory and the true arrogance and authoritarianism is being unveiled. This is why they are so enamored of leftist dictators - it is how they would like to do it themselves and they appreciate the unfettered iron hand. Be sure and watch the video. Harris-Perry may be dressed in pretty pastels but scratch the surface and all you will see is red. Ignore the packaging - look at the product.

realclearpolitics.com/video/2013/04/08/msnbc_ad_kids_dont_belong_to_their_parents_its_collective_responsibility.html

Housing Market Explodes/Collateral Damage

Perhaps you have been reading of the new optimism in new home construction which will propel the U.S. back to prosperity. Don't you believe it. If home construction was really starting to cook, employment should be up in that sector. Well, not so much. Fritz Pfister in Townhall in reviewing job numbers from the weekly ADP reports says that:

"The stand out number from the ADP report for everyone told of the great housing recovery by the Columbia regurgitators, is the number of construction jobs added in March; 0. That’s right, the great housing recovery added a whopping zero construction jobs in March."

finance.townhall.com/columnists/fritzpfister/2013/04/05/cautiously-pessimistic-n1558633

Hmm. Perhaps that is also why, as he points out, we are mired in the 46th month of the worst recovery of any of the 11 recoveries from recessions since the Great Depression. I am starting to see a second round of small businesses throw in the towel. They rode out the first four years of the recession but just cannot stay with it any longer. The President's Rx: more stimulus! Yessir, get them shovel-ready jobs out there. Let's keep doing what we have been doing, that's the ticket! Insanity.

Maher Encore Performance

What is Bill Maher putting in his coffee? Check the latest pronouncement on the Jimmy Kimmel show:

"I don't know what Mayor Bloomberg has in mind, but there's something wrong about the seventh richest man in the world sitting in bed at night thinking, “You know what people shouldn't do? Drink too much Sprite. Let's make that a law.” That makes me want to join the Tea Party and marry Ann Coulter, you know, and that's not where I want to be."

Stay tuned.
www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/04/03/Maher-Bloombergs-Nanny-State-Makes-Me-Want-to-Join-Tea-Party-and-Marry-Ann-Coulter

Volt Marches On

Okay, it's one of my favorite whipping boys, but this icon of the Greenies - the Chevy Volt - is continuing to astound with its market prowess. Drum roll please: in March a total of 1,478 of these babies were sold. In the whole country. Everywhere. With 320,000,000 people in the country. Which btw was down 35% from last March. Well boys, better break out a few more barrels of money to keep this Car of the Future alive! Yes comrade, I will buy a Volt. 

nlpc.org/stories/2013/04/03/chevy-volt-sales-plunge-%E2%80%93-obama%E2%80%99s-flagship-ev-failure

Google Lays an Egg

Google is not the most traditional or religious organization on earth, but this time they seemed to go out of their way to poke Christians in the eye. Typically on holidays they run the Google banner with a clever or whimsical graphic of some kind. Turning the "oo" in Google into brightly-colored innocuous Easter eggs would have been typical. Not this time, though. In the immortal words of John Belushi, "But N-O-O-O!" This time they stuck a picture of deceased farm union leader Caesar Chavez in the masthead on Easter and then the uproar began. A Google spokesperson issued a low key response to the dust up. "We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google but, as you may imagine, it's difficult for us to choose which events to highlight on our site ..." Oh I understand - a high holiday celebrated by only 1.5 billion or so people around the world is easy to miss. Puh-lease Google! Do you really expect people to not notice when you are peeing on their leg? We all need to be sensitive and caring except apparently when it comes to dumping on Christians. Used Bing lately for your searches?

www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/03/people-are-surprisingly-upset-about-googlesnon-easter-themed-doodle/63723/

(Tip o' the hat to Bill Brooks for this one.)

Stockton - Domino #1

When I posted the blog yesterday about California being technically bankrupt, little did I know that Stockton, California actually went bankrupt yesterday when a Federal bankruptcy judge accepted the city's bankruptcy petition. Stockton became the largest city (pop. 300,000) in the country to seek bankruptcy protection. www.cnbc.com/id/100578156

Some of the myriad reasons that led to the filing are set out in a column by Ann-Marie Murrell. They are based on the testimony of a city council member at the bankruptcy court hearing and include such sound fiscal policies as unlimited sick and vacation time with the ability to cash it out at retirement, $900 million owing to California PERS and a "Lamborghini" health care plan. You should take the time to read the full list because many other California (and probably Oregon) cities have undoubtedly been doing the same thing. And domino #2 will be?

finance.townhall.com/columnists/ann-mariemurrell/2013/04/02/way-to-go-unions--stockton-ca-filing-bankruptcy-n1555096

California Technically Bankrupt

It's official - the California State Auditor reports that the state has a negative net worth of -$127.2 billion. Even this figure does not include the unfunded public pension liabilities (estimated as high as $300 billion) or $60 billion for public employee health care. The fat lady is warming up just off stage.

blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/03/state-auditor-california-net-worth-at-negative-127-billion.html