Giving Up

I'm giving up on finding a new companion.  I've tried SeniorPeopleMeet and eHarmony without success.  The trouble is that the gal I lost set the bar so high that nobody else comes close.  I think of moving near a daughter but the necessary downsizing would be tough.  My pleasures are in my house, in coffee shops and at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

A Good Thought

The older I get the less I have to worry about what might happen during my lifetime.

Tipping Point

How long before the expansion of government regulation causes a collapse.  It happened in the Soviet Union.  It is happening in Europe.  Sooner or later it will happen here.

Unmet Needs

[This] is a world of trade-offs, not solutions--and whatever trade-off is decided upon will still leave unmet needs.

-- Thomas Sowell

Budget

The GAO report could have been used as a step-by-step instruction manual for producing real cuts to government spending. Why wasn't it?
"Because the constituency for spending is still strong in Washington," says former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R- Holland, who has the perspective of three months as a private citizen. "Appropriators don't want to cut spending, and the bureaucracy is a big advocate for growing government."
So instead, Hoekstra says, Congress "worries more about how to gain a political advantage than actually solving the problem."
 
--Nolan Finley

Shocking

More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined.

Over the period 1970-2005, school spending per pupil, adjusted for inflation, doubled, while standardized achievement test scores were flat. Over roughly that same time period, public-school employment doubled per student, according to a study by researchers at the University of Washington.

Be careful

Be very careful about what you believe today.