Steve Wynn Takes on Washington, Vegas & EBITDA - CNBC

Steve Wynn Takes on Washington, Vegas & EBITDA - CNBC

“Washington is unpredictable these days,” Wynn states. Yes, what a mess!

Peggy Noonan: He Was Supposed to Be Competent - WSJ.com

Peggy Noonan: He Was Supposed to Be Competent - WSJ.com

Obama has been, and continues to be, a huge disappointment... even to those of us who were concerned about his lack of experience and his nothing but hype campaign for President... it is all coming home to roost now. How unfortunate.

Will the PIGS Blow Up Europe? - HUMAN EVENTS

Will the PIGS Blow Up Europe? - HUMAN EVENTS

That is the problem with 'ivory tower experiments'... some times they blow up! The sad thing is that in these "Social Engineering" experiments it is real people that do the suffering and now perhaps even whole countries of people. I wonder how many times we need to be shown that SOCIALISM DOES NOT WORK - FREEDOM AND LIBERTY must be the foundation for any civil society worth its name.

Economic Indiscipline the Root of Europe's Woes

Economic Indiscipline the Root of Europe's Woes: "Greece represents a perverse aspiration — a society with (in the words of Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan) 'more takers than makers,' more people taking benefits from government than there are people making goods and services that produce the social surplus that funds government. By socializing the consequences of Greece's misgovernment, Europe has become the world's leading producer of a toxic product — moral hazard."

Read the entire article... Brilliantly written. People need to have an understanding of the issues.

Blumenthal’s Words Differ From His History - NYTimes.com

Blumenthal’s Words Differ From His History - NYTimes.com

"In an interview on Monday, the attorney general (candidate for Senate) said that he had misspoken about his service ' in Vietnam' ..."

Interesting... we used to call this simply a LIE, and the person who did it... a LIAR.

Liar

–noun

a person who tells lies.

Lies

–noun

1.

a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood.

2.

something intended or serving to convey a false impression; imposture: His flashy car was a lie that deceived no one.

3.

an inaccurate or false statement.

"misspoke" I am starting be really displeased with that word! Let's have the decency and integrity to call it what it is, a flat out blatant lie!

This guy is a disgrace... I really feel for those who did put themselves in harm's way... their heroism being usurped by morons like this... Reminds me of his colleague, Hillary Clinton, when she supposedly landed in Iraq 'under fire'.

Breitbart.tv � ‘Unbecoming an American’: Gingrich Slams Kagen Over Military Recruiters at Harvard

Breitbart.tv � ‘Unbecoming an American’: Gingrich Slams Kagen Over Military Recruiters at Harvard

Well... here come some thoughts on Obama's new nominee to the Supreme Court. Newt has an excellent point here, excellent... and the news media should be all over this.

Anyway there will be more to come on this... including my own thoughts as well... stay tuned.... But please watch this brief clip first.

Pope calls abortion, gay marriage insidious threat - World - Canoe.ca

Pope calls abortion, gay marriage insidious threat - World - Canoe.ca

Mock invitation to f�te Count Michael Ignatieff and Czar Nicholas - Inside Politics

Mock invitation to f�te Count Michael Ignatieff and Czar Nicholas - Inside Politics

OK... Come on... Some people NEED a sense of humor... remember humor... ie: FUNNY... some thing to have a good laugh, etc. etc. Good grief.

Frankly, I do not begrudge Him his heritage at all. It would be fun and interesting to have that background as part of one's ancestry. Of course the people who are really upset by this political satire... ie: political FUN are the same that want us all to suffer in EQUALITY... meaning, of course, equality of outcome... meaning that we should all suffer in the pit equal to the lowest common denominator. Anyway... have a read...AND... have a good LAUGH!

The disturbing similarities between Quebec and Greece

The disturbing similarities between Quebec and Greece

Interesting take... in bringing it even closer to home.

CBC News - World - Are we all facing a Greek-style future?

CBC News - World - Are we all facing a Greek-style future?

Neil Macdonald

"European states run famously costly social cradle-to-grave social programs, which basically rely on each new generation to support the one that just retired, and in remarkably generous style, compared to the U.S. or even Canada.

The trouble is, the European generation about to enter the workforce is much smaller and its workers will be groaning under the burden of servicing all that government debt.

You don't have to be John Kenneth Galbraith to figure out what's going to happen over there next: slashed pensions, medical care and services. A systemic collapse of the European nanny state.

Imagine the Greek riots, but, oh, say a hundred times worse."

(mjd) Now... to things on this side of the puddle...

"The Americans don't count unfunded liabilities when they calculate their national debt. Things like public pensions, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which are about to face a stampede of aging, retiring baby boomers.

By most estimates, the bills that will be arriving in Washington for the next few decades will total more than a hundred trillion dollars — several times the size of the entire American economy. Unpayable, by any realistic measure.

In other words, Americans are driving toward the debt wall in an out-of-control Toyota, too. And given the realities of the North American economy, they will be dragging Canadians right along behind them."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/05/10/f-rfa-macdonald.html#ixzz0neQtAO7v

The Big Fat Greek Bailout - HUMAN EVENTS

The Big Fat Greek Bailout - HUMAN EVENTS:

by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers

"Greece’s economic crisis was caused by too much government spending and borrowing which weakened its already over-taxed, over-regulated economy. Although Greece’s population is just 11 million, it has more than one million public-sector employees. Greek civil servants enjoy 14 months of pay for 12 months worked, and their average retirement age is 53. Once retired, they enjoy generous pension benefits worth 80% of their salary. Greece will run a budget deficit this year worth 14% of its GDP, and its entire national debt will equal 113% of GDP. These policies proved unsustainable, and so the European Union and the IMF were called in to rescue Greece before international investors stopped lending them any more money."

"The Obama Administration on Sunday approved U.S. participation in an international bailout of Greece that will cost American taxpayers billions of dollars."

(mjd - my comments)

So let me see if I get this:

Greece (and other nations in Europe... and to a large extent this happening in Canada & the US as well) creates a false economy by having massive amounts of people working in the public (ie: Tax dollars funded) sector with cradle to grave care and babysitting, along with generous vacation time and early retirement.... and now YOU are going to write a large cheque, from your hard earned funds... or from your kid's college account... and send it to these people who now riot in the streets (think temper tantrums like babies) because they won't face the reality that their 'soft-life' system is not sustainable. How big is that cheque anyway... how big is the next one... and the next? Make NO MISTAKE... those funds that are being sent to Greece now, and others later... oh and don't forget the cheques you already wrote to GM and all those banks and Insurance companies... well those funds, those dollars... TAX DOLLARS... they come from somewhere... YOUR POCKET - YOUR SAVINGS - YOUR EARNINGS... or those of your kids and grandkids or both.

Feels pretty good eh!

America’s Greek Tragedy - HUMAN EVENTS

America’s Greek Tragedy - HUMAN EVENTS

A great read. Mr. Bauer puts it succinctly and forcefully. It is a message that needs to be understood.

The End of La Dolce Vita - HUMAN EVENTS

The End of La Dolce Vita - HUMAN EVENTS

ABOUT THE FINANCIAL COLLAPSE OF GREECE... and Europe? ... and North America?

by Patrick J. Buchanan (article linked above)

(I have cut & paste this one because I want to hi-lite some of Patrick's VERY IMPORTANT comments.)... read on:

Are Europe and America headed to where Athens is today?

To answer the question, consider what brought Greece to where she is -- running a deficit of 14 percent of gross domestic product with a debt approaching 100 percent, with Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Great Britain not that far behind.

How did this happen?

Protected by the United States through a half-century of Cold War, Europe cut back on defense and ratcheted up spending for La Dolce Vita.

All of Europe adopted universal health care. All voted in a shorter workweek, a higher minimum wage, greater job security, earlier retirements and munificent pensions.

As the cradle-to-grave welfare states rose, an ever-increasing share of the labor force left the private sector for the security of the public sector.

(NOTE THIS... it is KEY! - mjd)

Tax-consumers, the beneficiaries of the welfare states and the bureaucrats that ran them, grew in number, as taxpayers declined as a share of the labor force. Though Greece was far from the most productive nation in Europe, Athens led the parade.

After the baby boom ended, the pill arrival in the 1960s. Then came abortion on demand in the 1970s.

The fertility rate of Greece and every European nation fell below the 2.1 births per woman needed to replace an existing population. Greece's birth rate has been below zero population growth for three decades.

Result: In Year 2000, Greece had just under 11 million people and a median age of 38. In 2050, Greece is projected to have just under 11 million people, but the median age will be 50.

Were Greece a company, the solution would be bankruptcy.

But Greece is a country. And a bailout of $141 billion is being put together by the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Why? Because, should Greece decide not to take a chain saw to her welfare state, but walk away from her debts and default, she would blow a hole in the balance sheets of the biggest banks in Europe.

Then the banks would have to be bailed out.

Seeing Greece's bondholders being burned, terrified holders of Portuguese and Spanish debt would start dumping their bonds, forcing Madrid and Lisbon to pay a higher interest rate both to sell new bonds and roll over the old ones coming due. Rather than savage their welfare state programs, and risk riots in the streets and a massacre at the polls, Madrid and Lisbon, too, might look agreeably at default.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, though exasperated with the Greeks, is urging Germans to back the $141 billion bailout: "Nothing less than the future of Europe ... is at stake."

Merkel believes there is no alternative. But there is an alternative -- a restructuring of Greece's debt or a default where the holders of Greek bonds suffer the fate of the holders of bonds from Lehman Brothers and General Motors.

Inevitably, this is what is going to happen.

For how long will Greeks work longer, retire later and live on smaller pensions, so holders of Greek bonds can get their interest payments right on time?

The EU and IMF may, with the bailout of Greece, kick this can up the road. But the crisis will return. For the nations of Europe have made commitments beyond their capacity to keep, given their growing debts and aging populations.

And America is not all that far behind.

While the federal deficit is not 14 percent of GDP, it was 10 percent in 2009 and may reach 11 percent in 2010. Trillion-dollar deficits are projected through the decade, bringing the public debt -- held by citizens, companies, foreign governments and sovereign wealth funds -- close to 100 percent of GDP.

And the unfunded liabilities of Social Security, Medicare and federal pensions rival those of Western Europe.

States like California and New York, larger than Greece, look a lot like Greece. Were it not for the scores of billions dished out to them by Obama's stimulus, some of these states would have come close to the brink New York City went over in 1975.

Many of these states are today laying off teachers, letting felons out of prison, and looking hard at the salaries and pensions of civil servants. While the temptation is great for Washington to bail them out again, the United States government itself has now begun to attract the concerned notice of holders of U.S. debt.

That we are witnessing Oswald Spengler's "Decline of the West" seems undeniable.

La Dolce Vita is coming to an end. The ever-expanding European and American welfare states of the 20th century will contract in the 21st. Some have already begun to shrink. A time of austerity is at hand.

Indeed, what is about to be tested is democracy itself.

Can democracies that attracted universal applause in the golden years of rising expectations impose upon their citizens the enduring and painful sacrifices necessary in a time of retrenchment?

We are about to find out.

Who's the Bigot, Mr. Brown? - HUMAN EVENTS

Who's the Bigot, Mr. Brown? - HUMAN EVENTS

Getting into some interesting territory here... but there is some very important thinking that needs to go on about this issue. There is, particularly, a line that I will attempt to hi-lite (see below) that goes directly to my previous post. At any rate... do read and give it some thought and share your ideas.

"Does the desire of a people to preserve its unique and separate ethnic identity and cultural character, de facto, constitute bigotry?"