I like girls. Always have. But never more so than now.  And it’s got nothing to do with being a father of three of them or their ability to charm the socks off me. It’s their attitude, particularly their professional attitude. Whatever vitamins were put in the water for girls in the 1980’s and 90’s […]

This ought to freak out the public employee unions.  Sandy Springs, GA, a suburb just north of Atlanta, has outsourced its workforce — all of it.  Every department, every job (except police and fire who are in a defined contribution plan). That means it has no long-term debt.  Zero pension liabilities.  Nada. All it has […]

  When did Ed Koch start sounding like Barney Frank?

I walked to the train this morning with a neighbor whose son just enrolled at a great SUNY school. He had been accepted at a number of top private universities;  he had even been offered scholarships to attend them. But with the costs of those schools exceeding $40,000 and $50,000 per year, there was just […]

Runaway cigarette taxes in New York — a pack can cost upwards of $14 in New York City now — is causing lots of unintended consequences — like this converted ice cream truck in Connecticut which sells nothing but cigarettes now. The smokes therein used to be sold across the street at a store in Porchester, NY, […]

The deficit and taxes. Those will be the key issues in 2012. (If it turns out to be something else, we’ll be in bigger trouble than we are now.) It became official the moment President Obama announced that he’ll be releasing a deficit reduction/tax increase plan, on the heels of Republican congressman Paul Ryan’s. The […]

If there has been a national conversation about radically suppressing marijuana usage in this country, I haven’t heard it. I followed the medicinal marijuana debates in the last election cycle, but I’m not aware of any concerted effort to urge Americans to “put down the pipe.” That’s unfortunate, because every day we are seeing the […]

All talk in Washington now is on the debt ceiling.  Lawmakers may have cobbled together a budget deal late Friday, but that was small potatoes. The big question will come in mid-May when a vote is needed to allow the nation to borrow more money. Will the House Tea Party Republicans dare hold up that […]

Every revolution needs a color these days, and Libya is no exception. Repeat bombings by NATO pilots on rebel armor and fighters – the ostensible good guys – has, by necessity, forced a color scheme into this conflict.   It is pink – the color rebel fighters are painting the roofs of their vehicles to ward […]

Leaders in Washington want to be congratulated today for avoiding a government shut down.  None are in order. All they did was their jobs, and almost a year late. Every Congress since the nation’s founding has approved an annual budget. But huge credit is deserved by one leader.  Not for the budget, but for the […]