Will Manufacturing Jobs Come Back To The US? Maybe...

Is it possible some types of manufacturing may return to the US? If oil prices and transportation costs keep climbing, then the answer is yes.

While a lot of manufacturing has moved overseas, primarily to China, the costs savings are starting to dwindle as Chinese workers are demanding and getting higher wages. And if transportation costs keep rising, then the lower cost of manufacturing goods overseas are offset by that and the goods start to approach cost parity with those made in the US.

There are a number of other reasons for some manufacturing coming back to the US, including shorter lead times, the ability to make custom versions of goods more quickly, and much more rapid response times to design changes, just to name a few.

Are there other reasons that might also bring more manufacturing back to the US? Undoubtedly. Is it something we can promote? Not likely...unless we can get government off our backs and make it more attractive for companies to do business here rather than overseas.

A Little Bit Of Wisdom

This has to be one of the best comments ever (made to this WSJ opinion piece):

It is no accident that the most heavily regulated sectors of the economy cause the most problems: healthcare, finance, energy. Let's admit the failure of the federal regulatory model for most problems, and openly and honestly look for alternative approaches.

It always seems to be that way.

Whenever we've deregulated sectors of the economy, they have always picked up momentum, served more people more efficiently, all while lowering the costs. One example that comes to mind: the airline industry.

All regulation has ever done is to short circuit the market feedback systems, making the regulated sector far less responsive to the needs of the people, more expensive, and closed to competition. In many cases government regulation was sought by 'rent-seekers', those wishing to prevent present or future competitors from expanding there presence within or entering the market. In effect, the government is asked to decide the winners and losers within that particular segment of the economy. Unfortunately the government usually chooses the wrong party to be the winner, all to the detriment of consumers. What makes it worse is that sometimes these winners also receive government subsidies (yet another market-skewing device), hitting the consumers in the wallet again. It's a lose-lose situation for consumer and the economy.

It's about time the government butt out of the economy and let the market decide who wins and who loses. In the long run the consumers and taxpayers will benefit.

Once More Into The Breach...

On Saturday I came to the aid of a damsel in distress.

Today, it was doing battle with a computer virus.

It appears one of the computers at our small business had problems with bogus virus warnings popping up. Something called XP Anti-virus 2011 kept warning us about all kinds of trojans, keyloggers, and other sundry malware on the computer in question, advising us the only way to rid ourselves of them was to subscribe (and pay for) a copy of this XP Anti-virus 2011. It looked as if it was from Microsoft, even displaying a replica of the Windows Security Center app. But what this supposed anti-virus program was doing was trying to extort cash from gullible computer owners in order to shut it up...until the next time they wanted money.

One of the side effects of this virus was disabling some of our regularly used programs, including one that allows us to track our customers patronage and generate business statistics for use in making projections for the coming months and quarters.

This virus was so persistent and well ingrained that our standard anti-virus app, which shall remain nameless, didn't even touch it. And from what I understand many of the other anti-virus suites were just as vulnerable.

It took quite a bit of research to figure out how to get rid of it, including how to shut it down so the programs capable of purging it from our system would run. A number of third-party programs used to shut down malware processes, including one of my favorites called Rkill had no effect on it at all.

In the end I had to kill the process by creating a file that would prevent the virus from starting when the computer rebooted. I found that file here (I used Method 2).

Once the virus was disabled, I downloaded and installed one of the freeware applications capable of purging it from the system and repairing the registry. (I used Malwarebytes Anti-Malware application.)

All in all it took almost 2 hours to get rid of the virus, with the longest part trying to disable the virus long enough to allow installation of the program used to purge it.

From reading some of the forums, it appears this nasty little beast installs itself by a number of means, including links on fake e-mails. Probably one of the more common fake e-mails is one supposedly from UPS, FedEx or some other parcel delivery service informing you of a package enroute to you. The e-mail includes a link to 'track' your package, but when you click on it it downloads and installs the virus while your web browser shows you some kind of message saying the server is busy or has timed out.

And so it went for me today.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The weekend weather has been awesome, with temps in the mid-60's. This has prodded us to start with some of the outdoor work here at The Manse, cleaning up the winter detritus and rest of last year's leaves.

One little annual milestone came to pass: the Official Weekend Pundit Clothesline went up today and I gave it its first workout of the year, hanging two three sets of wash to dry rather than using the clothes drier. I figure I can get at least one wash hung out tomorrow after I get home from work as the temps will be in the 70's.

I think this is the earliest we've ever put up the clothesline and been able to use it since we've been here.

We weren't the only ones taking advantage of the good weather as Bogie and her Wonderful Spouse were out and about cleaning up around their abode.

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Gee, color me surprised:

Home inventories are still too high.

Although the median sales price of a new home declined 8.9% in February to $202,100, and the median sales price of an existing home dropped 5.2% from a year ago to $156,100, the tell-tale stats for prospective home buyers to watch are the new and existing home inventory numbers. Right now, the pair suggest that prices will stay soft through the third quarter of 2011, and possibly for longer.

I have to ask whether these inventories also include the so-called “shadow inventory”, houses held by banks that have not yet been put on the market? If they don't, then I believe the market will remain soft for a year or two longer regardless of how the economy fares as these homes are brought on to the market.

(H/T Instapundit)

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By way of Viking Pundit comes this little bit of not-so-great news:

The federal debt increased $54.1 billion in the eight days preceding the deal struck last night by President Obama and congressional leaders to cut $38.5 billion in federal spending for the remainder of the fiscal year.

At this rate we'll be out of debt...umm...never!

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As per usual, HuffPo get's it wrong, blaming the progressive's losses upon the well funded Tea parties and the Right Wing press. Never mind that the progressives received billions in support from folks like Soros, unabashed support from the Left Wing press (meaning most of the MSM) and they still had their heads handed to them.

They still see it as a well-funded minority that defeated them. Instead, it was a majority of the American people who saw that what the progressives were offering was nothing they wanted any part, particularly when they saw it would likely bankrupt the nation, and them personally.

What it comes down to is that if your message is the wrong one, no amount of money or support will win you elections.

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The battle over speed limits in Lake Winnipesaukee in central New Hampshire rages on, this time with me adding my two cents worth.

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And speaking of New Hampshire, here's a list of legislation filed and passed by the GOP majority in the New Hampshire House and/or Senate that many of us hope will put the Granite State back on the path to less government and usher in a return to fiscal sanity.

A few of my favorites:

For the first time in NH history, that included more that 50 attempts in the legislature, the House passed a constitutional amendment to expand local control of education funding by returning authority to elected officials, not unelected judges. (CACR 12)

Passed a fiscally responsible budget that, (1) was balanced by using realistic revenue figures; (2) did not increase taxes or fees; (3) does not downshift onto local property taxpayers; and (4) does not increase borrowing, setting New Hampshire on a financially sustainable path that will allow our economy to grow and create more jobs. (HB 1 & 2)

Passed a bill to allow local communities to enact tax and spending caps. (HB 341) Moving our economy forward, creating more jobs and putting out the “Open for Business sign” in New Hampshire once again.

Read the whole thing.

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While on my way back home yesterday morning after closing our business for the day I was able to get a good view of a good portion of Lake Winnipesaukee. From the vantage point (not too far from The Manse) I could see there was little if any open water to be seen. In Alton there was some open water where the river emptied into the bay, but even so the open area was less than 200 feet long and a few yards wide.

I have a feeling Ice Out will be late this year, probably the last week of April.

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Apparently anyone posting links to articles, blog posts, or comments skeptical of global warming on Facebook are being treated as “abusive”.

I guess that's one way of suppressing dissenting opinions, particularly if they have data backing up the skeptic's claims.

So much for free and open discourse.

I wonder if they'll ban links to the latest NOAA data showing this past March was 6.6 degrees colder than March 1910? Probably.

(H/T Pirate's Cove)

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where more moderate spring temperatures have arrived, spring cleanup has started, and storage covers are being pulled off of boats all around the lake.

To The Rescue!

I had every intention of writing something scathing about some wrong or perceived wrong, or the 11^th hour agreement that delayed a government shut down for another week. But forces beyond my control required me to put my efforts into a different area.

You see, I had to rescue Twirl Girl.

While her circumstances weren't as dire as that of many a literary or movie heroine, she was still stuck far from home with a broken down car. BeezleBub wasn't available to come to the rescue as he was busy at the farm (and without any form of transport), working on the new post-and-beam pavilion being built by Farmer Andy and his missus. Twirl Girl's dad couldn't help either because he was with Twirl Girl when her car broke down. So it was up to me.

So off I went in the trusty F150, bringing some tools and other sundry items that might allow a repair of her car. And failing that, the phone number of a local towing company.

Fortunately Twirl Girl had broken down in an area of New Hampshire with which yours truly was familiar, so I had no problem finding them.

To make a long story short, there was no way I was going to be able to fix her car and get it home as the diagnosis of the trouble was not forthcoming. That left only one option – to tow it home.

Before leaving The Manse to rescue Twirl Girl I had called a friend with a trailer capable of hauling her car. Unfortunately it wasn't available. So the only option was a tow truck. A couple of phone calls later we had made arrangements for Twirl Girl's car to be towed home. Then she, her dad, and I piled into the trusty F150 and I took them home.

A little more than four hours after embarking upon this mission of mercy I was back at The Manse.

For not really doing all that much today, I'm beat. Hero-type stuff takes a lot out of you!

The Clock Winds Down

As the clock ticks onwards towards midnight, Congress is still stalemated, with the possibility of a partial government shutdown looming.

The GOP wants to extend the continuing resolution that has funded government operations for the past 6 months for another week, but only if they can squeeze in $60 billion in spending cuts, which is about 1.6% of the total budget and 3.75% of this fiscal year's deficit.

But the Democrats want none of it. They want everything to continue as is. In fact, they have already stated the won't support cuts of any kind. That pompous ass Harry Reid has labeled the cuts as 'draconian', as if that piddling amount of money would be stealing the food out of the mouths of children and dumping the sick out of the hospitals and into the middle of the street. Harry Reid and his cohorts have pissed away over $4 trillion the government doesn't have over the past four years and he's complaining about cutting back spending by less than 2 percent?

I don't know about you, but my family and I have had to cut our budget by over 15% over the past 2 years, and while it hasn't been fun, we're surviving quite nicely, thank you. Is Harry and the rest of the Democrats saying it isn't possible to trim less than 2% from such a bloated budget? If so, then perhaps they should be fired.

Is it because he and the rest of the spendthrift Congresscritters in both parties have been in Washington far too long and have lost touch with reality? It's appearing that may indeed be the case.

When your elected representatives stop representing you and start representing a tax and spend-spend-spend ideology, it's time for them to be replaced with people who still remember what it's like out here in the real world.

It's The Spending, Stupid!

You know the President and Democrats in Congress are in trouble when the New York Times is telling them it's time to fish or cut bait.

As David Brooks writes:

Over the past few weeks, a number of groups, including the ex-chairmen of the Council of Economic Advisers and 64 prominent budget experts, have issued letters arguing that the debt situation is so dire that doing nothing is not a survivable option. What they lacked was courageous political leadership — a powerful elected official willing to issue a proposal, willing to take a stand, willing to face the political perils.

Neither the President or the Democrats in Congress seem to be willing to take the necessary steps to actually fix the problem, particularly when the only answer seems to be to boost taxes. If it were that simple we would have had the problems fixed long ago. But it's not that simple.

Frankly speaking, Congress has been picking the pockets of the American taxpayers for so long they have come to believe the supply of money is endless. They certainly have been spending as if it were the case. Instead what we are suffering from is a spending problem rather than a revenue problem. To illustrate that point, assuming we were to tax the “rich”, meaning anyone with an annual income above $250,000, at a rate of 100%, the Treasury would theoretically collect about $400 billion.

The problem? That covers only one-fourth of this year's budget deficit. Where's the rest going to come from? So boosting taxes just on the rich to confiscatory levels won't do the trick. If we made sure everyone paid income taxes, then that might raise another $200 billion, still leaving us over $1 trillion in the hole. So raising taxes isn't going to be the salve some think it will. Instead, it's time to consider something drastic, like cutting the budget.

And in case you believe such a plan would be impossible to accomplish, Representative Paul Ryan begs to differ.

His plan isn't something he slapped together overnight. He's been working on it for years and put a lot of thought and effort into his proposal. It will require sacrifice by everyone, across the board. And even if every one of his ideas were implemented, we'd still have deficits for years to come. All this plan will do is buy us some time to incorporate institutional fixes that will help prevent future deficit spending by restricting what the government and Congress can do with the taxpayers money.

All we need to pull this off is for the adults to step up and take over the process.

A New Way To Fight Fires?

For as long as man has used fire, he has also had to deal with fire when it is out of control. Usually that means dowsing it with water, dirt, or other means of snuffing it out.

Over the past two hundred years or so fighting fire has meant using some kind of apparatus to move large amounts of water, allowing those fighting the fire to put out the flames. While quite effective, it has a number of downsides, including soaking everything anywhere near the fire. This usually damages objects and possessions within a structure almost as badly as if they had been burned. A limited source of water can also severely restrict the effectiveness of this method. While fire departments and fire engineers have been working to develop new ways of putting out fires more effectively, progress has been slow...until now.

Instead of using water, researchers at Harvard University have found a way of extinguishing flames using electricity.

No, that isn't a misprint. They're talking about using electrical fields to put out fires.

Firefighters currently use water, foam, powder and other substances to extinguish flames. The new technology could allow them to put out fires remotely — without delivering material to the flame — and suppress fires from a distance. The technology could also save water and avoid the use of fire-fighting materials that could potentially harm the environment, the scientists suggest.

In the new study, they connected a powerful electrical amplifier to a wand-like probe and used the device to shoot beams of electricity at an open flame more than a foot high. Almost instantly, the flame was snuffed out. Much to their fascination, it worked time and again.

Ironically, the effect of electric fields on fire was observed over 200 years ago, but little research has been done on the phenomenon until recently.

Using such an apparatus would certainly solve a number of problems, including eliminating the need for large amounts of water to fight fires or risking the lives of firefighters to enter burning structures in order to attack the fire more aggressively.

As Glenn Reynolds would say, “Faster please.”

The Hypocrisy Of The White House

I find it interesting seeing President Obama blasting the House Republicans for their attempts to rein in profligate spending by attempting to cut a piddling $60 billion from the present budget, when he himself has run the country deep into the red with his $1 trillion-plus annual deficits.

To quote the President, twice: “Elections have consequences” and “We won”. Both of those quotes have come back to haunt him. The GOP swept the House and gained seats in the Senate, a clear message the American people don't like what he, Pelosi, and Reid have done to us, our economy, and our pocketbooks. Yet he is unwilling to allow cuts of any kind even if those cuts amount to nothing more than a rounding error in comparison to the entire deficit.

He says wants to be able to bring about a 'compromise' with the GOP. Unfortunately it appears his definition of the term is still “Sit down, shut up, and vote the way I tell you to vote.”

What an arrogant ass.

The End Of Manufacturing As We Know It?

Many of us are worried about manufacturing here in the US, seeing many of the mass production jobs leaving and moving overseas to lower cost countries. But what if manufacturing itself were to be transformed from goods being made in a factory employing hundreds or thousands to goods being manufactured in your home?

Rapid prototyping systems in use today maybe a harbinger of the future of manufacturing. Today rapid prototyping systems can make solid three-dimensional models of CAD drawings residing in a computer. While the various technologies for RPS differ from each other, they all have one thing in common: they can create almost any part that can be designed on a computer. In some cases they can make parts no machine shop could hope to make due to the interior structures impossible to machine.

In effect, future RPS technologies could be “factories in a box”, making most of the things we need on the spot. Larger products would still require a more traditional factory-like facility, but even they would use RPS technologies to make their products.

While the materials used in rapid prototyping systems today (primarily plastics) aren't tough enough to take the punishment many of the things we use are subjected to every day, that could change as RPS technology evolves.

Who knows, the day of the Star Trek replicator might not be all that far off.

Thoughts On A Sunday

The remains of the snowstorm we experienced this past Friday are quickly melting away. Hopefully this will be the last measurable snowfall we'll see this part of the year.

One reason I hope for this is because the Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower has become a casualty of eleven winters hard use. It finally 'gave up the ghost' and is now more suited as parts. (BeezleBub already has plans for the engine, which is still in good shape.)

So this coming fall we'll have to make a trip to one of the local snowblower retailers and select a new Official Weekend Pundit Snowblower.

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Speaking of BeezleBub, he and Twirl Girl have been busy all weekend at the State Drama Festival, both competing and playing host to other high school drama departments and their one act plays. Both had to be at our high school at 6AM yesterday, staying until almost 11PM last night, and getting there again at 8AM this morning.

Fortunately things go back to normal after today, with BeezleBub returning to work at the farm after a two week hiatus, and Twirl Girl getting ready to resume her summer job at the local DQ.

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Jay Tea has a passive-aggressive means for responding to the Wisconsin public employees union 'requests' for support.

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Could Los Angeles become the next American ghost town in a long line of new ghost towns?

While the second linked article lists the top 10 'new' ghost towns/counties, I have to take issue with at least one of them: The County of Dukes County in Massachusetts (no, that's its real name, not an accidental redundancy) which includes Martha's Vineyard Island, is listed as No. 7. Considering it has a very high percentage of summer vacations homes, is it any surprise there aren't all that many people around during the off-season? By that criteria, my little home town here on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in central New Hampshire would be considered a ghost town. The town population doubles in the summer and is pretty quiet during fall and spring. (We have the county ski resort that generates a lot of traffic on one of our main roads, but it's mostly daytrippers, so they don't count.)

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The battle between the New Hampshire Legislature and the public employee unions continues, with some Democratic leaders trying to use Ronald Reagan's words about collective bargaining to justify the continuation of the practice for the public employee unions within the state. Never mind that Reagan was talking about private sector unions. They have also chosen to ignore one of their Democrat icons – FDR – when he warned against public sector unions, as did AFL-CIO head George Meaney.

What most people outside of the debate don't realize is that public sector employees are covered by the civil service system, which already gives them protections not afforded to those in the private sector.

I would have no problem with keeping public employee unions under one condition: the unions (or their national organizations) would be outlawed from giving campaign contributions to anyone running for office. They would, however, be allowed to contribute to the federal election fund, period. This would make it more difficult (but not impossible) for unions to buy politicians. It would also prevent them from financially supporting candidates whom some members of the rank-and-file do not support. (That was one of my biggest gripes when I was a card-carrying member of the IBEW – supporting candidates with the most abhorrent political beliefs only because they toed the union line.)

But I'm not going to hold my breath that any of this will come to pass.

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Oh, yeah, this is going to come back and burn them.

It seems the DSCC is trying to obtain copies of the medical insurance records of Senator Scott Brown's (R-MA) family.

You know that if the GOP tried something like that the Democrats would be having fits and raving about “invasion of privacy” and “unethical campaign tactics” to the MSM and every other Democrat media organ. But because the target is a Republican and the perps are Democrats it's perfectly OK to do this.

And so the double standard lives on.

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If you haven't seen this yet, Bill Whittle channels Iowahawk, explaining how we can pay for the coming fiscal year's $3.4 trillion (that's trillion with a “t”) budget.

While doable, it doesn't answer an important follow-up question: How do we pay for the following year's budget? Everyone will be broke.

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Glenn Reynolds has a number of links, quotes, and comments in defense of anti-intellectualism.

One quote:

Part of the problem is that the American distrust of intellectualism is itself not the irrational thing that those sympathetic to intellectuals would like to think. Intellectuals killed by the millions in the 20th century, and it actually takes the sophisticated training of “education” to work yourself up into a state where you refuse to count that in the books. Intellectuals routinely declared things that aren’t true; catastrophically wrong predictions about the economy, catastrophically wrong pronouncements about foreign policy, and just generally numerous times where they’ve been wrong. Again, it takes a lot of training to ignore this fact.

Is it any wonder that the term “intellectual” is looked upon with disdain?

Another of his readers gives us this bit of historical perspective, quoting Neal Stephenson:

“But more importantly, it comes out of the fact that, during this century (meaning the 20^th Century – ed.), intellectualism failed, and everyone knows it. In places like Russia and Germany, the common people agreed to loosen their grip on traditional folkways, mores, and religion, and let the intellectuals run with the ball, and they screwed everything up and turned the century into an abbatoir (sic). Those wordy intellectuals used to be merely tedious; now they seem kind of dangerous as well.”

“We Americans are the only ones who didn’t get creamed at some point during all of this. We are free and prosperous because we have inherited political and values systems fabricated by a particular set of eighteenth-century intellectuals who happened to get it right. But we have lost touch with those intellectuals, and with anything like intellectualism, even to the point of not reading books any more, though we are literate. We seem much more comfortable with propagating those values to future generations nonverbally, through a process of being steeped in media.”

Do we really want to commit the same mistakes as those made in the past by others, handing over control of our society to intellectuals of the same bent of mind as those who brought about the Holocaust and long dark decades of the Soviet Union?

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Susannah Fleetwood reports on long overdue and much deserved smackdown of a Muslim cleric by Pakistani actress Veena Malik.

We have been far too tolerant of radical Islamists, all in the name of multiculturalism. It's time for liberals to wake up to the threat to everyone (including themselves) if we allow Muslim immigrants to dictate to us how our laws and customs must be subsumed to their own. If they don't want to assimilate into American society they can always move someplace that allows them to keep practicing their barbaric 7^th Century customs.

The idea of America is to embrace the best of the cultures of those who come here to live in freedom, not to let our society and customs be swept away by something everyone (except liberals) sees as barbaric and criminal.

Message to multi-culti liberals: Stop betraying your own kind to those who would like nothing more than to cut your head off all in the name of God. You'd best come to realize that our culture is not inferior to all others. It is far superior in more ways than I can possibly list here. If you don't like American culture you can always move to one you believe is superior and see how you really like it. Then and only then can you make the determination which one is “superior”.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the bob-houses are off the lake, the snow is melting away, and thoughts of the upcoming boating season are becoming more frequent.

Wisconsin Public Sector Unions Use Old Tactic To 'Encourage' Support

The battle between Wisconsin Republican lawmakers (including governor Scott Walker) and the public sector unions continue.

It seems the unions have decided to borrow a page or two out of old-time union playbook by sending letters to small businesses that, in effect, tell them “Support us and our cause...or else.” Gee, it didn't take them long to resort to extortion to get their way, did it? While the unions could have claimed there was a misunderstanding, the union executive who sent the letters says he means what he wrote, so there's no possibility they can claim such a misunderstanding. The gist of the letter:

Dated March 28, 2011, the letter is addressed to "DEAR UNION GROVE AREA BUSINESS OWNER/MANAGER," in Racine County. And it begins with this warm greeting: "It is unfortunate that you have chosen 'not' to support public workers rights in Wisconsin. In recent past weeks you have been offered a sign(s) by a public employee(s) who works in one of the state facilities in the Union Grove area. These signs simply said 'This Business Supports Workers Rights,' a simple, subtle and we feel non-controversial statement given the facts at this time."

We doubt "subtle" is the word a business owner would use to describe this offer he is being told he can't refuse.

The missive concludes by noting that, "With that we'd ask that you reconsider taking a sign and stance to support public employees in this community. Failure to do so will leave us no choice but do [sic] a public boycott of your business. And sorry, neutral means 'no' to those who work for the largest employer in the area and are union members."

The threat is implicit: put a sign supporting us in your window or we'll make sure it will negatively affect your business.

How...how...mob like. Vito Corleone would be proud.

Are we sure we want people like this to be working for us? Better yet, do we want them to have this kind of power over us?

Since this 'incident' the union has been back-peddling, removing signs from the businesses that knuckled under to the union extortion. But that doesn't undo the fact that they threatened business owners into 'supporting' them, meaning they've lost any credibility or moral high ground. They proven themselves be nothing more than thugs.

It wouldn't surprise me to find they've opened themselves to prosecution under RICO statutes. But somehow I doubt the US Attorney General will direct federal prosecutors to investigate such matters, considering his track record when it comes to dealing with corruption and coercion.

NH Public Sector Employes Protest Against Budget Cuts

There was a huge demonstration outside the New Hampshire State House yesterday. As the Republican majority House voted on two budget bills, one which does away with so-called “evergreen” clauses in public employee contracts, many of those same public employees were protesting against the move (and the budget), saying the budget cuts went too far and that their collective bargaining rights were being taken away.

The House passed a $10.2 billion biennial budget (New Hampshire state budgets run for two years), a decrease of $742 million from the present budget. This move was made to address an estimated $800 million shortfall within the present budget.

It was no surprise the Democrats in the legislature wanted to increase spending rather than cutting it, tried to revise the revenue estimates upwards to allow for more spending (something they did for the previous two budgets, which is how the state came to be $800 million in the hole to begin with), and raise taxes and fees again to pay for more spending (something they also did during the previous two budgets with the result of less revenue being collected than projected).

Some of the budget cuts will hit services hard, but many of those services were boosted beyond all reason during the previous 4 years. Some see these cuts as a return to more reasonable and sustainable levels until the economy recovers. During those 4 years the Democrat majority House and Senate increased state spending 30%, well above the rate of inflation or population growth over that time. The frugality usually seen in the State House was nowhere to be seen during those 4 years. Now it's time for the state to live within its means.

The public employees unions were not pleased with the move to strip evergreen clauses from contracts. Those clauses allow an expired union contract to remain in force until a new contract is agreed upon and ratified by the union members. With the removal of evergreen clauses public employees would become employees-at-will (like most of the rest of us) if the old contract expires before a new contract is ratified.

I have a question I must ask of those public employees protesting inside and outside the State House: How many of you took paid time off from work to be there?

While there were supporters of the bills also at the State House, they weren't nearly as numerous as those protesting against them. It wasn't that there weren't more supporters of the legislature's efforts. It's that most of us were at work, making the money taxed to pay the public employees salaries and benefits.

Talk about irony.

Bumper Sticker

I forgot to post this earlier, but better late than never.

By way of Viking Pundit:

Saw a red bumper sticker today with the text: If this bumper sticker is blue, you're driving too fast.

Lordy, but I love science geek humor!

Fleeing The Blue States...In Droves

With Detroit being such a deep blue economic and political basket case, is it any wonder black families are leaving it and a number of other cities in blue states in droves in search of work and a better life?

Not to me.

Just like their white brethren before them, they realize they have everything to lose and nothing to gain by remaining in cities and states that are hostile to business, either from liberal Democrat policies or job-killing union demands. They know they've been sold a bill of goods and want nothing more to do with the glad-handing politicians and those supporting them, so they're voting with their feet.

More power to them.

Let's hope they've learned the most important lesson from this debacle: Government (and the unions) aren't the answer. They're the problem.

Yoga For Yankees

In case those of you out there think we Yankees aren't up to speed on all the new-fangled exercise fads, I'm here to tell you you're wrong. And to prove it, here's Fred Marple to give you a little preview of Yoga for Yankees.

Thoughts On A Sunday

BeezleBub spent all day yesterday with the drama folks of his high school. Between two one-act plays being performed at his high school, they also had to pack up one of the sets and take it all the way to Plymouth for one of the state drama festivals, perform, pack it all up again and return here, unpack it all, and perform back at the high school.

He and his friends got back home very late last night.

And so he experiences the fun of working in drama tech, which I know I certainly enjoyed during my high school years.

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The unions are suing Scott Walker in an effort to override the legislation that stripped public sector unions of their collective bargaining rights in regards to benefits and pensions.

Their suit claims the state senate didn't have the quorum required to pass such legislation, but the joke's on them.

The legislation that stripped the collective bargaining rights had been separated from the budget bill, meaning all that was required was at least 50% of the state senators be present to have a quorum. That meant the missing Democrats had no effect on this legislation. It was the budget bill that required two-thirds of the senators to be present to have a quorum.

Nice try.

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This doesn't bode well for the Pay State's employment prospects: Massachusetts job fair canceled due to lack of jobs.

I hate to say this, but even if the economy is recovering (at least the Obama Administration says it is), many companies are reluctant to hire, making do with the personnel they already have. At this point they'd rather pay overtime than bring on new hires because if the economy continues to limp along during this non-recovery recovery, they won't have to lay off them. Other companies would rather contract for temps, meaning they don't have to provide any benefits and can shed them if things don't turn around. If they do turn around they can offer the temps full-time jobs.

(H/T Instapundit)

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Could some of these people be the 'looters' Ayn Rand warned us about?

Absolutely.

Power Line has more on this, including this statement: There may not always be an England.

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I have to admit dismay when it comes to this new: New Hampshire is towards the bottom of the list when it comes to having fully-funded state pensions.

I had hoped the Granite State would have been more fiscally prudent, but it turns out they were as foolhardy as so many of the other states. Some of that I can lay at the feet of the previous two legislatures and the governor. For the previous four years the Democrats controlled the New Hampshire House, Senate and governor's office. They went on a nightmarish spending spree. Not that all the blame can be laid there, but I think you'll find that the problem was probably more manageable prior to that.

When my wife started working at the state veterans home and we looked over the pension and benefits package, she saw that the pension system was promising 8% annual return on investments. I laughed out loud upon seeing that, knowing it wasn't possible they could guarantee such a claim. Any financial planner promising such returns would be jailed for making such ludicrous claims.

An interactive map covering all the states and their funding liabilities can be found here.

(H/T David Starr)

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Why is relying so heavily on income taxes form upper income earners is always a bad move by the states?

It comes down to two things:

1.) High income earners income tends to be far more volatile than everyone else's.

2.) It's easier for them to relocate to low tax states and take their income with them.

But that hasn't stopped some of the most financially strapped states from relying on them even more than they have. They've also been seeing those same high income earners leaving for greener (read that less expensive) pastures.

(H/T Tax Prof)

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I don't remember where I found the link for this, but the Boston Globe has a celebrity look-alike piece comparing well known celebrities and supposed look-alikes. Of the 50 or so in this piece, the one that stands out the most is Frank Roberts, who is a dead ringer for Leonardo DiCaprio.

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Neo-neocon comments upon and links to a number of posts dealing with individual's political change. For many of them the conservative point of view opened a whole new world for them, one based on rationality and logic rather than passion and unthinking emotion.

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How did the AGW supporting New South Wales Labour Party do in the recent elections Down Under? Let's just say it was a total 'shellacking'.

It appears the average Aussie voter has had enough of them and their draconian plans to destroy the Australian economy and they were having none of it.

There's hope for Australia yet.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the calendar says spring but the temperatures say winter, snow melt has slowed to a crawl, and where the urge to pull the winter tarp off of our boats is getting stronger.

PDS Alive And Well

Ir appears that PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) knows no bounds. When such Leftist pundits like Bill Maher must resort to stating Sarah Palin is a “dumb t**t” in order to get a laugh, you know it's gone too far. On the other hand Palin takes it in stride, knowing the source of the remark, and knowing the feminist Left has no problem with her being disparaged. As she says, “I need NOW's defense like a fish needs a bicycle,” borrowing a line from ardent feminist Gloria Steinem to illustrate her disdain for the organization.

It never ceases to amaze me the level of vitriol leveled towards Palin, or at her family. It shows how far manners and adherence to the unwritten rules of politics have fallen among the Left. This may end up coming back to bite them in the ass, as it should.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, both the Democrats and their bought-and-paid-for media went after Sarah's family, a long standing taboo. Candidates were always considered fair game. Their families were not. The Dems crossed that line and now they may never be able to step back across it. Even now they continue to hammer her and her family as if they are deathly afraid of her. Maybe it's because they are.

Apparently quite a few others feel the same way about how Sarah and her family are being treated. Others miss the point, like this person:

For example, when Bristol Palin said winning Dancing with the Stars, would be a middle finger to her and her mom's critics.

Try as I might, I can't see Chelsea Clinton saying that about her parents' critics (in public).

If people had been criticizing just Sarah, that's one thing. But they went after Bristol, her baby, and her baby brother. No one did that to Chelsea Clinton when Bill was in office. It's an apple and oranges comparison.

But for a lot of those slamming Palin, it comes down to this: The problem with our society in this media-soaked age is that we equate glibness with intelligence and cynicism with wisdom.* It certainly explains Bill Maher, Joy Behar, Whoopi Goldberg, and the rest of the usual suspects.

*This is a composite of two different comments from Ann Althouse's post on the subject.

Will the intensity of PDS continue to increase as we approach the start of the 2012 presidential campaign season? Without a doubt. Will the invective aimed at Sarah Palin by the Left reach a level of hysteria not seen since Orson Welles' 1938 broadcast of War of the Worlds? Absolutely. Will any of it stop Sarah from moving forward, regardless of her plans or political ambitions. Absolutely not.

Who Killed Detroit?

The question: Who killed Detroit?

The answer: Not necessarily who you think.

The Motor City once had over 1.8 million people living within its environs. Now the number making their homes in Detroit as a little over a third of that.

What happened to make large parts of Detroit look like a set from a movie about post-apocalyptic America? There are two groups with whom we must lay the blame for the city's misfortunes: the Democrat political machine and the UAW. There's plenty of blame to go around between these two groups.

The Democrats in power did everything they could to make it less attractive for businesses and residents to stay. The UAW did everything it could to make sure jobs with the Big Three automakers went away. Both groups succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, which is why Detroit is an ongoing economic disaster.

...a lot of the blame goes to a generation of bad management. But the main reason for Detroit's decline is the greed of the industry's main union, the UAW, which priced the Big Three out of the market.

As recently as 2008, GM, Ford and Chrysler paid their employees on average more than $73 an hour in total compensation. The 12 foreign transplants, operating in nonunion states mostly in the South and Midwest, averaged about $42 an hour.

Guess which manufacturers are healthiest and expanding their market today? In 2008, the Big Three still made 59% of all cars in the U.S. But, according to recent estimates, their market share is now 46% — with foreign companies selling the bulk of all U.S. cars. So Detroit's loss has been the South's and Midwest's gain.

Reading the comments from the editorial linked above is telling as well, with more than a few giving prime examples of the differences between Detroit and some of the surrounding communities. The contrast is striking.

Business and neighborhoods are thriving in the outlying towns and cities, with foreign automakers locating technical centers in a number of them. At least they think there's a future near Detroit, even if they're avoiding Detroit itself.

The communities themselves also have the good fortune not to be under the sway of the destructive Democrat political machine that has so damaged Detroit. As one commenter writes:

Come to Metro-Detroit and see the suburbs with Republicans in charge such as Novi - then see the suburbs with leftists in charge - such as Pontiac. You can literally tell the basket cases from the still-vibrant burbs by their leadership.

Of course I have no doubt the Democrats have plans for the still-prosperous communities, making sure they are brought into the leftist fold and turned into dying towns, all in the name of some pie-in-the-sky leftist utopia that will never come to be. They'll play the envy card and the greed card and the racial card in an attempt to bleed those communities dry as well.

Let us hope for the communities sake that they fail.

(H/T Instapundit)

New Hampshire Legislature "Pulls A Wisconsin"

After passage of an amendment to a pending budget bill that strips public sector unions in New Hampshire of so-called “evergreen” rights, meaning state and local municipal workers would become employees-at-will should their labor contracts expire without renewal. This means they could be fired or have their pay or benefits reduced should their labor contracts expire before new contracts are ratified.

I first heard of this move when I received a phone call last night just past 7PM - a robo-call from the SEA (State Employees Association), the state worker's union. (My wife works for the state and is, therefore, a union member.)

If I recall the monologue correctly, the voice on the other end (I believe it was the union president) stated the legislature had “pulled a Wisconsin”, referring to Wisconsin's removal of collective bargaining rights for pensions and benefits from most of the state and local workers unions. The caller went on to exhort the SEA members to protest the move, something perfectly within their rights to do.

On the other hand, I have the right to not give them any more of my hard earned dollars than I absolutely have to, particularly if those dollars are funding both benefits and pension packages that are far above my own. I haven't received the kind of pay raises or increase in benefits the state workers have, nor do I expect to. I am and have been an employee-at-will for a long time and frankly I prefer it over the 20 soul-deadening years I spent in a union shop.

Welcome to the real world.