Brian Gongol
"Terrified of being rejected by voters who regard temporary help as permanent rights, politicians keep spending."
And with one line, a British columnist nails exactly what's wrong with American fiscal policy. That, and the fact that the President of the United States chooses to profess complete unwittingness about the $16 trillion Federal debt. (Sadly, even when David Letterman hinted to the President that the number was above $10 trillion, he was low by 60%.) Instead, President Obama is cavorting with a bunch of suck-ups on "The View" instead of meeting with other world leaders at the United Nations. ■ It's a plain fact right now that Secretary of State Clinton is behaving more like a President than the President is. It's embarrassing. And if he's going to blow off the most important issue of our day, the Federal debt and its course-to-nowhere, then it's really a cause for great sadness. Our finances were in awful condition when President Bush left office, and they're vastly worse today. ■ One wonders what would happen if Presidents (and other politicians) were to look after the public purse in the same way that Warren Buffett asks the managers of his many companies to do: "Just run your business as if: 1) you own 100% of it; 2) it is the only asset in the world that you and your family have or will ever have; and 3) you can’t sell or merge it for at least a century." They can't "own" the country, of course, but what if they were asked -- or, perhaps, commanded -- to behave according to a 100-year business plan?
China's first aircraft carrier goes afloat
This news is especially important in light of the story immediately above.
Cross-country runner stops race to rescue another runner in distress
"We have the concept, from the Talmud, that if you want God to have mercy on you, you have to have mercy on others."
Facebook probably isn't posting private messages to people's walls accidentally
It's more likely that people are noticing (via the Facebook Timeline) that many exchanges that used to take place on the public "wall" should have been via private message instead. Yet another reminder, of course, that whatever you put on the Internet can stay there forever.
