Last night America lost a great icon with the passing of Steve Jobs. As a young worker in the 70’s, Jobs and Woz represented a fresh new vision of what work could be.
Growing up, I watched my father toil for decades marching off to work at 7:00 AM in a suit, tie, and starched shirt, coming home at 5:30 PM for dinner, and then breaking out his briefcase and tackling “paperwork” until I went to bed.
I had zero interest in living a life like his.
I began my career in 1976, the same year Steve Jobs started building computers in his garage. Although Data Terminal Systems (my first employer) was no Apple, the founder shared Job's vision that work should be about more than punching a clock.
Within a few months in “business” I discovered a wonderful and rewarding life that bore no resemblance to my father’s daily toil. My career and I both grew up in the Steve Jobs era. We had tons of fun, made countless friends, created wonderful products, and made good money along the way.
Steve Jobs proved that capitalism could be fun, cool, and good for society!
"The American Jobs Act is a win-win for the American people. Congress can choose to put students ahead of political gridlock by supporting a bill that puts Americans back to work, modernizes our schools, and puts educators in classrooms instead of on the unemployment lines."
Dennis Van Roekel President National Education Association
As Obama waxes on about how a few short term tax credits will create jobs while pitching the so-called Buffet Rule (which is nothing more than a massive tax increase on the private capital that built this country), unemployment soars and America slips as a world economic power.
I have been keeping an eye on the emerging fiscal mess in Rhode Island since the democrats took over Congress in 2007 and the house of cards came tumbling down.
Quite frankly, I never understood why Rhode Island would have so many problems. They do have a lot of wealthy residents, low crime, no urban rot or massive illegal alien problems. They have high taxes, but typically liberals love paying high taxes, so that shouldn't be a big problem.
Every year another 4.2 million babies are born in this country. Some come from well-to-do families, but many more come from homes struggling to get by, babies who would never get a decent education if their families had to pay for it themselves.
One of the greatest things about America is that each of these babies is born with an incredible "grant" just for being born in this country; everyone of these babies gets 13 years of public education for free.
A $136,487 Gift
According to the US Census Bureau, America spends $10,499/student/year. That means that a K-12 education is worth $136,487 over the lifetime of each of these babies and given our highly progressive tax scheme, more of these baby's families get this for free than pay for it in taxes.
The next time you see school teachers rioting in the public square about education funding -- keep this in mind.
I was at a party over the weekend and got into a mini-debate with one of my more loveable liberal friends. By loveable, I mean he’s a liberal because he’s convinced that by handing out endless entitlements – even those we can't afford – democrats are more compassionate than republicans.
Eventually we got on to Wisconsin and he said “oh but the teachers, we can’t take it out on the poor teachers;” again, big heart and that’s about it!
"Suddenly we have gone from Wallace to Walker," (referencing the 1968 fight for rights, where as an aide to Dr. King Jackson worked to challenge the segregation policies of the defiant Alabama Governor George Wallace.)
“Madison has become ground zero for the fight for workers rights…”
So here we go again, if you don’t blindly give in to the “democrat ATM” know as organized labor, you’re a racist and oh yeah, union worker’s so-called “rights” are the same as regular worker rights!
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money ."
- Margret Thatcher
As I have been reporting for over a year, there is simply no "give" in the bloated payrolls, pensions and entitlements in many liberal cities.
After decades of taxing the rich and businesses into leaving town, there is no one left to tax and thus there is no more money.
What is unclear is who gets cut first. It's against the law to breach payments to bondholders, so they'll probably get paid.
Next comes pensioners; most people believe that it is unconscionable to cut pension checks to someone who is too old to work. And of course, there is no provision in the Union Labor Contracts to cut pensions.
Since union agreements bar cuts in pensions and wages, there is only one "tool" left to city managers who are trying to balance their budget; fire people, fire them all!
Today the city of Providence Rhode Island notified all of their school teachers that they would be terminated at the end of the school year.
At the same time, the city of Allen Park Michigan notified their entire fire department that they would be terminated in 30 days.
As we watch thousands of democrat government workers lie about being sick so that can riot in Wisconsin, Ohio, and now Indiana, it's worth a brief "time out" to review what they're rioting for.
Screw Everyone Else and Just Pay Me: Weare now 3+ years into Obama's Private Sector Great Recession. You know, the one that has cost the private sector 8 million jobs while the federal government has added 200,000 human parasites.
Thanks in great part to decades of liberal policies in "Blue States," there is no money left. Yet democrats are rioting to avoid the very pay cuts that virtually everyone in the private sector has given. Instead, they want to raise taxes on private sector businesses even higher.
Pay Me More Than Real "Working People": As recently as 20 years ago, government workers earned less than private sector workers. This was rationalized due to the job security and benefits they received.
This mess in Wisconsin is really starting to bug me (see: "Big Labor Death Star hits Wisconsin"). It's not because I don't think it will lead to breaking the back of the union, I think it will.
What bothers me about what going on in Wisconsin is the way the President and most of the Main Stream Media are portraying this as a "fight for working Americans," it's not, it's actually an organized crime war between the criminals at the top of virtually every major labor union and the 93% of private sector taxpayers who do not belong to a union.
The dems would like us to view their riots in Wisconsin as some sort of romantic freedom fright, just like the scenes last week in Egypt. You know what, I kind of agree with them! No, I don't think Scott Walker is another Mubarak, but I do think that the Big Labor thugs who are orchestrating the riots in the statehouse are cut from the same cloth as the terrorists behind the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
In a bold move of political courage, Walker has introduced legislation that would require state workers to pay half their pension costs and 12.6% of their healthcare coverage, shaving an estimated $330 million off a $3.6-billion deficit.
It would also prevent public workers from receiving raises above the inflation rate unless the increases were put to a vote. It would not apply to police, firefighters or state troopers and Walker promises no layoffs of public workers should the measure pass.
As you may guess, I find myself arguing with liberals on a pretty regular basis. More often that not, the arguments settles into one fundamental philosophical difference: liberals think that the government can actually solve problems and I believe that generally speaking, the cost of having the government do anything other than fight wars is prohibitively expensive.
The liberals argue that Wall Street and Big Business are evil. While there undoubtedly are evil people in the private sector, they eventually get discovered and are banished from the the scene. The same cannot be said for evil and greedy politicians. Not only do they seldom get fired, but even when they do, they continue to receive lifetime pensions and healthcare.
But that's not the worst thing that happens! The worst thing is that the corrupt little institutions they created to facilitate their taxpayer shakedown live on forever.
The Public Dole
As many of you know, I was born and raised in Massachusetts, a state that rivals Illinois and New Jersey for the most corrupt politicians in America. We actually once has a President of State Senate (Billy Bulger) who's brother Whitey was on the FBI's "Most Wanted List," and their mother won the state lottery.
“When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” Benjamin Franklin
I don’t know about you, but the recent “bump” in Obama’s approval numbers are starting to depress me.
Can’t people see that he’s killing the economy, stifling business expansion with taxes and regulations, and fueling the kind of class warfare that tears nations apart?
The thing is, if you study the numbers, it’s not surprising at all. Our nation is now h [ ... ]
Last night America lost a great icon with the passing of Steve Jobs. As a young worker in the 70’s, Jobs and Woz represented a fresh new vision of what work could be.
"The American Jobs Act is a win-win for the American people. Congress can choose to put students ahead of political gridlock by supporting a bill that puts Americans back to work, modernizes our schools, and puts educators in classrooms instead of on the unemployment lines."
Every year another 
I was at a party over the weekend and got into a mini-debate with one of my more loveable liberal friends. By loveable, I mean he’s a liberal because he’s convinced that by handing out endless entitlements – even those we can't afford – democrats are more compassionate than republicans.
"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money ."
“It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.”
This mess in Wisconsin is really starting to bug me (see: "
Yesterday, I was speaking with an attorney in Northern California who had yet to hear anything about the "
As you may guess, I find myself arguing with liberals on a pretty regular basis. More often that not, the arguments settles into one fundamental philosophical difference: liberals think that the government can actually solve problems and I believe that generally speaking, the cost of having the government do anything other than fight wars is prohibitively expensive.
