THE AMERICAN DREAM is fading. "Like an old photograph from a Polaroid instant camera, it is slowly disintegrating."

This is where we have come in this country. It is now a better option to take a lower paying job, rent a home or live with mom and take government benefits than it is to climb up the ladder to success.... It is a sad fact that a head of a household of four making minimum wage has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year.

Our entitlement society is out of control.

OF COURSE the Air Force may be developing stealth drones in secret. There's no special 'inside knowledge' required to come to this conclusion -- just keep your eyes and ears open, and (the most difficult) apply a modest amount of common sense.

STUDY: Fox News viewers have average IQ of 80. Hmm. Both MSNBC viewers must be watching Fox News to drag it that low....

INSTAPUNDIT: "No, it’s not about generosity. It’s about power. They’ll turn us all into beggars ’cause they’re easier to please."

Where have I heard that before? Oh, yes ... here, here, here, here, here and here.

PAUL JACOB: Falling on Soft Times. Too true.

NORMAN PODHORETZ: Is America Exceptional?

READING IS not fun any more. Reading for fun is unhealthy or something....

HEH. MY SOCIAL SECURITY is depressing your wages.

THE TAXMAN: the lotteries' big winner. "Lotteries are designed to enrich the government. The really big winner is always the tax collector."

HEH. "Pass ‘em in the House, send ‘em to the Senate, and then make popcorn."

WHY ROMNEY LOST:

Romney said, "When I'm elected, I will put Americans back to work."

And 51% said, "F*^k that!"

From my email.

THE 'LIBERAL MIND' is an oxymoron.

LINDA CHAVEZ: The American Welfare State. It's not about the poor. It's never about the poor. It's about control.

POLITICAL CALCULATIONS: It's a long and well-executed post on income inequality. Here's the (condensed) conclusion:

[S]ince 1960, the level of income inequality for U.S. individuals as measured by the "fine" Gini index is nearly constant, but has increased significantly for U.S. households. What has changed over that time is the composition of U.S. households, with a steady increase in the percentage of single person households.

Without a corresponding increase in the measured income inequality for U.S. individuals, the increase in the measured income inequality for U.S. households has been almost entirely driven by the increase in the number of single person households over time.

So income inequality among U.S. households isn't increasing because the rich are getting richer. That means that policies intended to right this situation by going after the rich in the name of "fairness" are guaranteed to fail, because the real cause of the increase in income inequality among U.S. households over time is something that cannot be fixed by such actions.

If only the people pushing such policies could see that....

SVEN & OLE

Two Minnesota engineers were standing at the base of a flagpole, looking up.

A woman walks by asks what they were doing.

"Ve're supposed to find da height of dis flagpole, ?said Sven, "but ve don't haff a ladder."

The woman took a wrench from her purse, loosened a couple bolts, and laid the pole down on the
ground.

Then she took a tape measure from her pocketbook, took a measurement, announced, "Twenty-one feet, six inches," and walked away.

Ole shook his head and laughed. "Ain't dat just like a voman! Ve ask fer da height
and she gives us da length!"

Sven and Ole have since quit their engineering jobs and are currently serving in the United States
Senate.

And, as a professor of mine once said, "They improved both professions."