Cinema Verite: It’s Not Easy Being a Green Bear
May 29, 2012
Bear Grylls, Host of Man vs. Wild, faces the dangers of the modern world
Remember
May 28, 2012
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Nonsequitur: What Is the Real Deficit?
May 25, 2012
From USA Today:
The big difference between the official deficit and standard accounting: Congress exempts itself from including the cost of promised retirement benefits. Yet companies, states and local governments must include retirement commitments in financial statements, as required by federal law and private boards that set accounting rules.
The deficit was $5 trillion last year under those rules. The official number was $1.3 trillion. Liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and other retirement programs rose by $3.7 trillion in 2011, according to government actuaries, but the amount was not registered on the government’s books.
In other words, they spent more money than we had and then lied to us about it. I’m pretty sure that’s called “Fraud.” No wonder we haven’t had an official federal budget for more than 3 years.
Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island [August 1790]
The full text of this letter is available here: http://www.gwirf.org/index.php/component/content/article/84-washingtons-letter.html
(This Word Cloud was randomly generated at http://www.wordle.net.)
Cinema Verite: Big Top Government
May 23, 2012
The folks in DC need a refresher course:
Nonsequitur: Obama’s Watch Runs Fast
May 21, 2012
The minute hand:
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The second hand:
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An annual budget from Congress is Constitutionally mandated. Yesterday, the Senate voted against 5 different proposed budgets: President Obama’s, Representative Ryan’s, Senator Toomey’s, Senator Lee’s and Senator Paul’s. Details are here.
Congress (the Senate really) has failed to meet this Constitutional mandate for more than 3 years in a row. (But that doesn’t mean they won’t be spending more of our money.)
Was the auto bailout worth it? John Lott has an interesting discussion reviewing Obama’s campaign claims that the auto bailout “saved one million American jobs,” that “all loans have been repaid,” that GM is again “the number one auto maker” and others. Lott points out discrepancies for all of these claims.
I would just add this:
- Despite the claim that the bailout would prevent it, both GM and Chrysler declared bankruptcy anyway
- Ford Motor Company took NO bailout funds and did NOT declare bankruptcy
- Chrysler is now owned by a foreign company (Fiat)
- GM was “loaned” about $100 billion in TARP funds, stimulus dollars and tax exemptions. It is now worth about $34 billion.
There is no doubt that the bailout did help individuals and some communities who are linked to the auto industry. But was the bailout really needed and did it do what it was supposed to do? What do you think?
It used to be about cleaning up pollution and making the universe livable.
Bonus: See the actors behind the voices:
Nonsequitur: Speeches Make Good Fertilizer Too!
May 9, 2012
Bill (Funnyman) Frezza offers this:
President Obama Pledges to Recycle His Campaign Pledges
(Don’t worry. he also skewers Mitt Romney, Jay Carnay, and others. Other good pieces by Bill include How to Create Shortages in an Abundant World and It’s Time to Say Goodby to the ‘Both/And’ Era of Government.
