Drive-Bys

Soooooo... how's that stimulus plan working out for you? Big government continues to scare big business out of heavily-taxed states, that's for sure. Even The L.A. Times is finally getting the picture:

In what respects, then, does California "excel"? California's state and local government employees were the best compensated in America, according to the Census Bureau data for 2006. And the latest posting on the website of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility shows 9,223 former civil servants and educators receiving pensions worth more than $100,000 a year from California's public retirement funds. The "dues" paid by taxpayers in order to belong to Club California purchase benefits that, increasingly, are enjoyed by the staff instead of the members.

Not on the government's payroll? There's hope for you yet. After all, the Dem's healthcare bill will create 111 new government bureaucracies that'll need staffing. That's the ticket!
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Saw this, and thought that maybe it's something "The Bride" might be wanting to order ahead for my BlogDaddy for Christmas. It's right up his alley.
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I saw this, and thought it was a common sense aproach to a real problem. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not one of those Global-Warming-Sky-Is-Falling-We're-All-Gonna-Die nutjobs. I do, however, really hate to see the amount of waste we produce willy-nilly every day. So this is teaching responsibility and good stewardship, without going overboard on the dogma.

Good show.
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It's incidents like this that illustrate why it's a crying shame that CTA took conductors off the El trains:

Screaming "the train took my baby,'' a mother watched in horror as a CTA train pulled away from a North Side station with her baby and stroller stuck in the doors.

The train dragged the stroller until it hit a barrier at the end of the Morse station and the 22-month-old girl flew onto the tracks, missing the third rail, police said. The mother jumped onto the tracks, scooped up her child and handed her up to someone on the platform, he said.

Thank all that is holy that the baby is okay. But this is just not good.
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Police are accusing a 22-year-old upstate New York man of hanging his girlfriend's four-month-old kitten with a belt and making a video of the animal struggling.

You know my philosophy -- the punishment should equal the crime. Literally.
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I wondered about this. Didn't you? (Ugh!)
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If you heard loud weeping and gnashing of teeth from the eastern shores, it's not that he's upset about potential voter fraud; oh, no! Jimbo just got this news:


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Just a quick note that the boots that I ordered from Endless.com yesterday arrived today. They clearly run a size small, so I'm sending them back. Start to finish, my dealings with this e-tailer have been wonderful -- free overnight shipping; free return shipping; easy-to-use and liberal return policy.

As soon as my refund hits the debit card, I'll be ordering another pair in a larger size.

No, they didn't pay me to say this. Yes, I'll order from them again. This is how you succeed in business.
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