Obama goes deep, sets new record

- People who thoughtlessly give money to panhandlers on the street seem not to realize that this is making installment payments on the degeneration of America.

John Stossel had a special on FOX last night about Freeloaders. One segment dealt with giving money to panhandlers (Stossel even posed as one). Sowell is spot on, and Stossel's piece demonstrated that.

It also demonstrated how not all panhandlers are homeless--they followed one "homeless" woman to her HOME, where after a day of collecting change and bills, she changed up and went shopping. I have suspected this very enterprise is being run in certain areas I drive through.

When political commentators from the Fox News Channel had books whose sales would normally make the New York Times’ non-fiction best-seller list, the New York Times changed the rules for putting books on that list. Thus best-selling political books by Mike Huckabee and Dick Morris appeared last Sunday on a more obscure list of miscellaneous personal advice and how-to books, such as “Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook.

Whoa! I thought the NYT Best seller list was their last remaining scrap of integrity. There went that scrap.

Obama’s Deficit Avalanche isn’t Bush’s Fault scottuystarnes.com / 2/9/2010

Washington Times reports: Even more staggering than the mountains of snow in the capital are the deficits the Obama administration plans for the next decade. Huge spending increases will add about $12 trillion to the national debt for budget years 2009 to 2020. The scariest part is that these deficits are based on unrealistic budgeting assumptions; the real fiscal outlook is much bleaker. In the proposed 2011 budget, the White House defensively attacks the “irresponsibility of past” deficits.

For example, the 2009 budget deficit of $1.4 trillion is blamed on the George W. Bush administration as if President Obama’s $862 billion stimulus package and more than $400 billion supplemental spending bill had nothing to do with it. Mr. Obama’s planned 2010 budget deficit rises to an even higher record level of $1.6 trillion.

By comparison, all of Mr. Bush’s deficits from 2002 to 2008 – the seven years during which his team had the most control over the budget – produced a combined deficit of $2.1 trillion. Obama has spent more in 2 years than Bush did in 7 years. Obama’s BIOB (Blame it on Bush) defense just won’t work anymore.

*** Don't mention "municipal golf courses" to me. It sends my blood pressure up through the roof. What earthly excuse is there for spending the taxpayers' money subsidizing a golf course? Politicians can't even invoke "the poor," as they do when trying to justify other government boondoggles. ***

That's the only thing I disagree with as my Village owns two 'Public' Golf Courses, though 'municipal' is not in their name like many courses are. And we don't subsidize them, they MAKE Money and help keep our Village taxes low (No increase in over a decade).

One course is your 'typical' daily fee type Golf Course, well kept fairways and greens but not exactly 'Pro quality'. The other course IS 'Pro Quality' and the fee for a round & cart rental reflect it.

Our Village is well run as to its finances and if either course started to cost money they'd prolly be turned in Public Parks in a heart beat. Not sold off to Developers for housing on every square foot. (We believe in 'Open Spaces' and have been named 'Tree City' for so many years in a row I can't remember.)

So if a course is run properly and makes money I have no problem with a 'Municipal Golf Course'.

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