Balancing the budget is hard; try it yourself. -- Government Computer News

Money quote: "The game starts you off with a look at the budget in the year 2021, should our government’s current policies stand as they are without any changes. Things look pretty bleak; some of the buildings representing the various sections of the budget are literally sky-high. The game predicts that, if no changes are made, our budget will go bust in 2031, at which point our debt will equal 100 percent of our GDP. That’s pretty sobering."

2031 isn't set in concrete. Nota Bene!
Balancing the budget is hard, so try it yourself. -- Government Computer News

Human IED threat elicits DHS warning -- Government Computer News

From Government computer news (GCN).
There is something rather strange about this. Earlier this year, there was an assassination attempt on the King of Saudi Arabia. The suicide bomber carried the bomb internally, but it wasn't surgically implanted. I'll leave you to fill in the blanks.

There is, in other words, not very good reason to assume that 'sensitivity from recent surgery' will accomplish much.
Human IED threat elicits DHS warning -- Government Computer News

Safety4Sea | STCW 2010 Amendments : What you need to know

Here's a pretty good summary from -- of course -- our Atlantic allies of what IMO inflicted on us in Manila.
Safety4Sea | STCW 2010 Amendments : What you need to know

Welcome to Our Future, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

So, back in 1983, a recently, not to say soundly, defeated candidate for the Virginia House of Delegates opined that the powers-that-be would change the rules for IRAs (originally, Chilluns, anyone who earned more than $2,000/year could contribute to an IRA), AND would eventually announce that "it's time the fortunate helped the less fortunate" and started to tax private pensions.

Well, the IRA rules changed some time ago, and (h/t Dr Kling)the Irish Republic has taken a step toward the second.

Y'all need to listen up; just because you're not interested in politics doesn't mean politics isn't interested in ...well, you know.
Welcome to Our Future, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

US Naval Update: CVN 65 Enterprise Abandons Libya, Reinforces CVN 70 Vinson In Straits Of Hormuz | zero hedge

Man, I hope...
Please tell me this isn't...
They couldn't be dumb enough...
US Naval Update: CVN 65 Enterprise Abandons Libya, Reinforces CVN 70 Vinson In Straits Of Hormuz | zero hedge

Should Holocaust Deniers Be Heard? | The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy

Emphasis mine:

Some courses that are supposed to teach critical thinking amount to nothing more than severe criticism by professors of ideas they dislike. Students don’t learn how to think. Instead of learning to exercise careful judgment, they learn to mimic their professors’ opinions.

Second, critical thinking ought to mean thinking that reflects the Western rationalistic tradition. Unfortunately, that tradition is incommensurable with other prevalent academic orthodoxies, such as social constructivism, multiculturalism, and postmodernism. The philosopher John Searle has asserted that critical thinking is founded on epistemological assumptions that enable us to build a framework for determining whether a conclusion is legitimate or not. Those assumptions are basic and easy to understand, for example, that “reality exists independently of our representations of it” and that “knowledge is objective.”

“IT IS EASY TO PROPOSE IMPOSSIBLE REMEDIES.”

Belling the Cat. Aesop. 1909-14. Fables. The Harvard Classics

You don't have to be a Vet, nor do you have to ride a motorcycle

Home

CMA CGM offers cruises on giant containerships

The ONLY way to go. FYI the Euro trades at ~1.4:1.0 to the dollar.

Money quote: "They may not look like cruise ships from the outside, but CMA CGM, the world's third largest container shipping group, is offering cruises on board the largest vessels in its fleet, its 13,800 TEU containerships. It says that last year 690 people chose to experience "cruising another way" by traveling on a containership."
CMA CGM offers cruises on giant containerships

AP: Browner leaving as Obama energy adviser - USATODAY.com

Yo-ho, let's open up and sing and ring the bells out.
Ding Dong' the merry-oh, sing it high, sing it low.
AP: Browner leaving as Obama energy adviser - USATODAY.com

Across America, Latino Community Sighs With Relief : NPR

Safe to say that being Hispanic is the most important thing about this gal:

I wasn't the only person on Saturday who rushed to her Android when news came of the Tucson shooting. I wasn't looking however to read about what had happened. My auntie had already filled me in — "Someone tried to murder una representante. People have been killed," she'd reported. What I wanted to know was the killer's surname.

My eyes scanned the mobile papers. I held my breath. Finally, I saw it: Jared Loughner. Not a Ramirez, Gonzalez or Garcia.
Across America, Latino Community Sighs With Relief : NPR

U.S. on the Way toward Losing AAA Credit Rating - By Kevin D. Williamson - The Corner - National Review Online

I todja so, I todja so. Hah hah hah, I todja so!
From the Wall Street Journal:

Moody’s said the U.S., Germany, France and the U.K. still have debt metrics, including the debt affordability, compatible with their triple-A ratings at Moody’s. But all four countries must bring the future costs arising from pension and healthcare subsidies under control if they “are to maintain long-term stability in their debt burden credit metrics,” Moody’s said in its regular triple-A Sovereign Monitor report.

Moody’s noted that measures were recommended by the U.S. National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, appointed by President Obama, to achieve a balanced primary budget by 2015, but that there was insufficient support to trigger consideration of those recommendations by the full Congress.

U.S. on the Way toward Losing AAA Credit Rating - By Kevin D. Williamson - The Corner - National Review Online

Harry Potter Muslim Actress Beaten By Brother; Flees Home After Family Threatens to Kill Her For Dating Hindu Boy | The Gateway Pundit

And, as the Gateway Pundit so eloquently puts it: Look at this pig.
EXCEPT, there's TWO of 'em; therefore, look at these pigs.
Harry Potter Muslim Actress Beaten By Brother; Flees Home After Family Threatens to Kill Her For Dating Hindu Boy | The Gateway Pundit

Samuelson - Cheating Our Children (Again)

It is cheating with the passive connivance of the cheatees. Actions like bailing out the states & cities, the sanctity of social insecurity, etc, poll as being very popular among the young (18-35).
that said, there's no excuse, baby boomers
What states and localities can do about this is limited. Pension promises to existing employees are probably legally inviolate. Retiree health benefits are apparently less so and should be reduced or eliminated to limit incentives for early retirement. Even if politicians manage this arduous feat, past decisions will burden the future. Along with an unwillingness to curb Social Security and Medicare costs, America's leaders have created another way to cheat their children.
RealClearPolitics - Cheating Our Children (Again)

Home Labs Rise With Smarter and Cheaper Devices - NYTimes.com

Home Labs Rise With Smarter and Cheaper Devices - NYTimes.com

Welcome to My Hypersensitivity Training Workshop, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Welcome to My Hypersensitivity Training Workshop, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

New Advice for Nuclear Strike - Don’t Flee, Get Inside - NYTimes.com

This isn't new. Once upon a time a government official got made the subject of a lot of PC & late-night humor for suggesting a variation of getting under cover.

Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck New York or another big city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don’t come out till officials say it’s safe

Interesting fact from the article (emphasis mine):

Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far.

Mao's Great Leap to Famine - NYTimes.com

Borrowing a quote from the Instapundit:

As I reminded my conservative blogger friends who were applauding the latter – 'When the communists show up to protest the Nazis, you’re supposed to pray for an asteroid, not pick a favourite.'

Mao's Great Leap to Famine - NYTimes.com

Marginal Tax Rates, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Marginal Tax Rates, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
A very good point from Arnold Kling.
And a related point frrom Greg Mankiw:
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/11/poverty-trap.html
Pay really close attention to the left-hand side of the chart, boysengurls, not that the trend goes DOWN between $19K and 39K.

Vote Coach Clayton Kendrick-Holmes!

Vote Coach Clayton Kendrick-Holmes!