Here’s one of local interest around here. The battle to restrict God from school grounds continues. Even if a child seeking an answer asks a question, repeatedly I’d add, God is off limits. The Superintendent recommended a 90 day suspension for the substitute teacher, but the school board had other ideas. They made an example of him, lest any other teacher get similar ideas.
“The Phillipsburg substitute teacher who gave a copy of the Bible to a student was forbidden tonight from serving as a substitute for the rest of the school year.
Walter Tutka last October gave a middle school student his Bible. The student apparently heard Tutka quote a Bible passage and became very interested in it, asking several times about the passage, according to Tutka and Joe Imhof, a Tutka supporter and fellow Gideon.
A district policy prohibits the distribution of religious or political literature to students. At today’s Phillipsburg School Board meeting, despite a litany of cries from residents to keep Judeo-Christian beliefs present in Phillipsburg schools, the board voted, with three abstentions, to forbid Tutka from returning to teaching for the rest of the year.”
“A Phillipsburg substitute teacher accused of handing a Bible to a student may face suspension for his actions.
Walter Tutka, of Belvidere, received a letter — obtained by The Express-Times — from Phillipsburg Superintendent George Chando last week recommending a 90-day suspension for allegedly giving a student his personal copy of the New Testament during lunch on Oct. 12 at the middle school. The suspension would be effective Oct. 15 2012 until Jan 15, 2013, according to the letter.
The letter states Tutka broke two district polices. One prohibits staff from distributing religious literature on school grounds. The other states if religious material is discussed that staff “be neutral in their approach and avoid using them to advance or inhibit religion in any way.””
“As the dismissal bell rang Tuesday at Phillipsburg High School, senior Natalia Pfeifer was appalled at the sight awaiting her outside.
Men from the Christian group Gideons International were handing out orange, pocket-sized copies of the New Testament to students.”
“Though the incident was upsetting to Pfeifer, school officials say the distribution of religious literature was beyond their control: They say it was circulated on public sidewalks.”
“Tens of thousands of Egyptian Christians are leaving the country in the wake of the Egyptian revolution and subsequent Islamist takeover of politics, priests and community leaders say.”
“Coptic Christian churches in the United States say they are having to expand to cope with new arrivals, as priests in cities like Cairo and Alexandria talk of a new climate of fear and uncertainty.
“Most of our people are afraid,” Father Mina Adel, a priest at the Church of Two Saints in Alexandria said. “Not a few are leaving – for America, Canada and Australia. Dozens of families from this church alone are trying to go too.””
“The criminal court of Beni Suef (115 km south of Cairo) has sentenced an entire family to prison for converting to Christianity. Nadia Mohamed Ali and her children Mohab, Maged, Sherif, Amira, Amir, and Nancy Ahmed Mohamed abdel-Wahab will spend 15 years in prison. Seven other people involved in the case were sentenced to five years in prison.
The case of the family of Nadia Ali Mohamed began in 2004 when, after the conversion, she and her children decided to replace their Muslim names on their identity cards with their Christian names and city of residence change. To do this she was aided by seven Registry office employees e. Born Christian, she had changed her religion to marry her husband Mustafa Mohamed Abdel-Wahab. After the man’s death in 1991, Nadia decided to return to her religion of origins and to push her seven children to convert. In 2006, one of the boys was arrested by police in an information center in the city of Beni Suef. Suspicious of the young man from the documents he as carrying, where he had changed its name to Bishoy Malak Abdel-Massih, police agents interrogated him for hours until he confessed his conversion to Christianity as desired by the mother. The judges then decide to stop not only the woman, but all of her children and seven clerks from the registration office, responsible for changing the documents.”
“Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) is threatening to file articles of impeachment against President Barack Obama if he moves to change gun regulations through executive order.
“I will seek to thwart this action by any means necessary, including but not limited to eliminating funding for implementation, defunding the White House, and even filing articles of impeachment,” Stockman said.
In a statement, Stockman didn’t hold back, saying Obama is launching an “attack on the very founding principles of this republic.”
“The President’s actions are an existential threat to this nation,” Stockman said in a statement. “The right of the people to keep and bear arms is what has kept this nation free and secure for over 200 years. The very purpose of the Second Amendment is to stop the government from disallowing people the means to defend themselves against tyranny. Any proposal to abuse executive power and infringe upon gun rights must be repelled with the stiffest legislative force possible.””
“The home of a gun owner, whose address was published by a New York newspaper, has been burglarized and police believe the burglars targeted the homeowner’s gun safe.”
“The residence in White Plains, was identified in a controversial list published by The Journal News — a Gannett Co. newspaper. The elderly homeowner, who legally owns weapons, was not at home at the time of the burglary.”
Now that this has happened to an outed party, let the lawsuits against the paper begin.There will be more victims like this too.
“The NBC Sports Network, a subsidiary of the communications giant Comcast, is helping to sponsor the largest gun trade show in the country despite anti-gun rhetoric on the NBC family of television networks, including a controversial monologue by one of its sports announcers.”
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This one? Well you would think someone famous like the Senator would have thought to buy their domain name, but no…..
Someone could have a lot of fun with this, especially with her wanting to limit gun rights for us, while packing herself. Seems a tad hypocritical.
“California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein — a staunch supporter of gun control — may soon regret not registering her own domain name, since senatorfeinstein.com will now be run by a firearm parts and accessories store that will use the site to promote gun rights.
“COMING SOON! Senator Feinstein’s Biggest Fan Page,” reads the title of the new pro-gun site, senatorfeinstein.com. “Someone didnt [sic] register their own name… This should be fun. Thats right Dianne your biggest fan site is going to be run by AresArmor.com…””
A LOT of fun. 🙂
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I find it interesting that at the same time they’re making a move to restrict gun ownership thru Executive Order, some of the same Senators are encouraging a dictatorship by Presidential decree in other areas as well.
“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other top Democrats are putting new pressure on the White House to circumvent Congress to boost the nation’s debt ceiling if no bipartisan agreement can be reached.
In a strongly worded letterto President Barack Obama obtained by POLITICO, Reid and his leadership team argue that failing to raise the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling would threaten the full faith and credit of the United States. Reid and Sens. Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer and Patty Murray asserted that Obama “must make clear that you will never allow our nation’s economy and reputation to be held hostage.””
Still no budget huh Harry? A total fraud, who once again refuses to fulfill his elected duties.
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These next 2 are ObamaCare related, so of course, yeah, it’s bad.
“Obamacare Medical Device Tax: As of Jan.1, Obamacare imposes a new tax of 2.3 percent on medical device manufacturers, including those who make dental braces. The tax is imposed on gross sales — even if the company does not earn a profit in a given year. While the tax will be paid to the IRS by the manufacturer, the tax will be passed along as a higher cost of the product, ultimately to be borne by the parent buying the braces for their child. With the cost of braces being as high as $7,625 this new tax could raise the cost of these braces by $175.”
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They want you to know they’re watching you evil businesses, so don’t try nothin’ funny.
“The Internal Revenue Service warned employers in a new regulatory proposal not to come up with clever schemes to avoid Obamacare’s employer health insurance mandate.
The IRS said it would soon issue “anti-abuse rules” to discourage employers from taking advantage of any regulatory loopholes.
“The Treasury Department and the IRS are aware of various structures being considered under which employers might use temporary staffing agencies (or other staffing agencies)… to evade application of section 4980H [the employer insurance mandate],” the IRS said in a proposed regulatory announcement issued December 28.”
And now you know why they needed all those new IRS agents.
“”Congress could lower individual rates across the board by 44 percent and come up with the same amount of revenue if it eliminated all tax breaks” Washington Post reporter Josh Hicks noted in a January 10. Given the ongoing battles over taxes, spending, and the national debt in Congress, you’d think this would be worthy of front-page placement in the Post. Editors apparently disagreed, placing it on the bottom of page A13, today’s edition of The Fed Page.
“Congress should simplify the tax code to ease the burden on filers, as well as take a hard look at the myriad tax breaks that cost nearly as much revenue as the government generates from individual income taxes,” Hicks noted in his lead paragraph, referring to National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson’s annual report to Congress. “[T]he existing code of 4 million words imposes a ‘significant, even unconscionable’ burden of compliance on taxpayers,” Hicks noted, quoting Olson.”
“Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday he would recommend the White House push for broad measures to stem gun violence, citing growing support for tighter background checks on gun purchasers, restrictions on high-capacity clips and other moves.
But the National Rifle Association delivered a swift rebuke following a meeting with Mr. Biden, saying the administration was gearing up for an attack on gun ownership.”
“Wyoming lawmakers have proposed a new bill that, if passed, would nullify any federal restrictions on guns, threatening to jail federal agents attempting to confiscate guns, ammunition magazines or ammunition.
The bill – HB0104 – states that “any federal law which attempts to ban a semi-automatic firearm or to limit the size of a magazine of a firearm or other limitation on firearms in this state shall be unenforceable in Wyoming.”
The bill is sponsored by eight Wyoming state representatives and two state senators. If passed, the bill would declare any federal gun regulation created on or after January 1, 2013 to be unenforceable within the state.”
If we’re going to have this conversation, it needs to be fact, not emotion based. So let’s look at some stats, and obvious examples of the mis-information employed by one side. The facts show that they have little to back their claims.
Last week I linked to a story on the American Freshman Survey, a survey of incoming college students. The authors said we have a severe problem with narcissistic younger adults and their unrealistic assumptions about themselves and the world. Here’s more from the lead author of the analysis.
“A new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has accumulated data for the past 47 years from 9 million young adults, reveals that college students are more likely than ever to call themselves gifted and driven to succeed, even though their test scores and time spent studying are decreasing.
Psychologist Jean Twenge, the lead author of the analysis, is also the author of a study showing that the tendency toward narcissism in students is up 30 percent in the last thirty-odd years. This data is not unexpected. I have been writing a great deal over the past few years about the toxic psychological impact of media and technology on children, adolescents and young adults, particularly as it regards turning them into faux celebrities—the equivalent of lead actors in their own fictionalized life stories.
On Facebook, young people can fool themselves into thinking they have hundreds or thousands of “friends.” They can delete unflattering comments. They can block anyone who disagrees with them or pokes holes in their inflated self-esteem. They can choose to show the world only flattering, sexy or funny photographs of themselves (dozens of albums full, by the way), “speak” in pithy short posts and publicly connect to movie stars and professional athletes and musicians they “like.””
Let’s not kid ourselves. This is also yet another indictment of the public education system.
And a final one. It’s nice when the govt occasionally get’s it right. Too bad we had to nearly melt down the housing market before they did, but hey, at least they finally seem to be getting it.
“Of all the provisions of Dodd-Frank conservatives disliked, the Consumer Financial Protection Board may have been the one least liked of all. Its proponent, Elizabeth Warren, ended up in the US Senate when Republicans refused to support her nomination to run the CFPB, perhaps a bit of karma in the long run. Now the CFPB has released its first set of mortgage rules, ostensibly to protect consumers — and conservatives may like what they see, at least conceptually if not organizationally:
The government is establishing new rules for mortgages that will make it harder for some borrowers to qualify but that are designed to prevent the kind of risky lending that nearly caused the housing market to collapseduring the financial crisis.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureauon Thursday will roll out the first of several far-reaching changes to the nation’s mortgage market, limiting upfront fees and curtailing practices such as interest-only payments that can leave homeowners stuck with unsustainable loans. The agency also will set standards for how much income a consumer must have to obtain a mortgage.
This marks the first time the government has spelled out what constitutes a “qualified mortgage,” an effort to prevent the widespread toxic loans that hurt millions of Americans during the housing crisis.”
The list of companies slashing hours to avoid ObamaCare continues. Who suffers the most here? The low paid workers, who still won’t have healthcare, and less money now too.
“Hundreds of Wendy’s workers are seeing their hours cut back because of President Barack Obama’s health care law.
WOWT-TV reports that nearly 300 employees at 11 Wendy’s locations in the Omaha area will have their hours reduced to 28 hours a week because the franchise owner says he can’t afford to pay his employees health care.
“It has a huge effect on me and pretty much everybody that I work with,” employee T.J. Growbeck told the station. “I’m hoping that I can get some sort of promotion because then I would get my hours, but everybody is shooting for that because of the hours being cut.”
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And here’s a piece touching on some of the things we talked about yesterday. The tired old tactic of some groups, and the media, looking for people to get outraged and offended for.
Good thing they got all offended for her, because she certainly didn’t.
“Alternate headline: “Beauty queen accepts compliment.” I feel obliged to follow up on yesterday’s post, partly due to public demand (she’s now over two million Google searches since Monday) and partly because there’s nothing more fun than when a would-be victim kindly declines to serve as the Media-Offense Complex‘s latest hobbyhorse. Her graciousness at old man Musby’s wowee zowee routine makes this a story with a happy ending all around: Brent is exonerated, Webb’s now famous, and McCarron spends the next few months enjoying his new status as the most envied man in America. All’s right with the world.”
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This one? I think this is a trend that will continue. But what do I know, I’m just a scary religious kinda guy.
“What about home schooling? You know, it’s not just for scary religious people any more.” That’s a line from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and it should strike fear into the hearts, not of vampires, but of public-school administrators everywhere.
The fact is, Americans across the country — but especially in large, urban school systems — are voting with their feet and abandoning traditional public schools, to the point that teachers are facing layoffs. Some are going to charter schools, which are still public but are run more flexibly. Some are leaving for private schools. But many others are going another step beyond traditional education, and switching to online school or even pure home schooling.
And, as Buffy so accurately noted, it’s not just “scary religious people.” In fact, rather than scary, those religious people are looking more like trendsetters.”
Wait, let me fix that. I’m a scary religious trendsetting kinda guy.
“Legislators in Texas, the biggest energy producer among U.S. states, will begin deliberating its next two-year budget with a surplus forecast today to match an $8.8 billion record set in 2007.
The Texas economy has topped budget projections over the past 15 months, as booming energy output fueled job growth and an 11 percent fiscal first-quarter gain in sales-tax receipts, the biggest source of general-fund revenue. Even after paying off $7 billion in health and school bills, Comptroller Susan Combs said today that the state will be flush heading into 2014.
Lawmakers, who convene tomorrow for a five-month session, in 2011 put off about $4.7 billion in future Medicaid costs and $2 billion for public schools under the current budget, and now must pay those bills. With Combs projecting an $8.8 billion surplus by Aug. 31 and a 12 percent jump in general-purpose receipts for the next two years, Democrats sense an opening.”
Yeah, an opening to spend money, their favorite pastime.
“President Obama has picked Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain civil rights icon Medgar Evers, to deliver the invocation at his public swearing-in later this month. It is believed to be the first time a woman, and a layperson rather than a clergy member, has been chosen to deliver what may be America’s most prominent public prayer.
The inaugural committee Tuesday plans to announce that the benediction will be given by conservative evangelical pastor Louie Giglio, founder of the student-focused Passion Conferences, which draw tens of thousands of people to events around the world.
The contrasting choice of speakers are typical of a president who has walked a sometimes complicated path when it comes to religion — working to be inclusive to the point that critics at times have questioned his faith.”
“The intentions of the Journal News’ editorial board in publishing a highly controversial “interactive gun map” are further occluded by an inconvenient fact.
According to Rockland County Clerk Paul Piperato, in Rockland County a large number of the names and addresses on the map are not even correct.
Piperato said, “I’d figure about 25 percent of the addresses are not accurate.””
“Sometimes, watching a Democrat learn something is wonderful, like seeing the family dog finally sit and stay at your command.”
““What happened that my Social Security withholding’s in my paycheck just went up?” a poster wrote on the liberal site DemocraticUnderground.com. “My paycheck just went down by an amount that I don’t feel comfortable with. I guarantee this decrease is gonna’ hurt me more than the increase in income taxes will hurt those making over 400 grand. What happened?”
Shocker. Democrats who supported the president’s re-election just had NO idea that his steadfast pledge to raise taxes meant that he was really going to raise taxes. They thought he planned to just hit those filthy “1 percenters,” you know, the ones who earned fortunes through their inventiveness and hard work. They thought the free ride would continue forever.”
When one speaks of a concept it is important that it is properly qualified so as to be correctly understood. Failure to accomplish that makes impossible for either the problem to be identified or a desired solution to be found. Perhaps this is why politicians have a tendency to speak of ill-defined and oft muddled concepts, like “social justice,” “a living wage” or “fair share.” These concepts are impossible to define in a way consistent with how they are represented, since their proponents represent them as definite, rather than abstract matters. In our time the demand for “the rich” to pay their “fair share” through higher taxes has become a standard war cry broadcast from every public and crony source of media. Yet, there is no objective means of defining either what constitutes “the rich” or “fair share.” Politicians and demagogues alike may debate these issues for as long or as short as they may desire, but whatever level they agree on is sure to be arbitrary, save for the only objective conclusion that such concepts are impossible to quantify.
Given a communistic ownership of schools, roads, streets, parks, healthcare institutions, libraries, schools and universities, how is one to be able to calculate each person’s use – “fair share” – of each? What share of a road belongs to a particular taxpayer? What usage is “fair share”? How many books in any given library belong to a specific person and which specific books? Who owns the walls and who owns the library’s carpets? Does the person paying more in taxes own more of the roads, libraries or schools than the person who pays less? What of the person who pays no tax at all? What of the person who desires to use his claim on a gymnasium, and of nothing else? Does the state university graduate owe a particular service to the taxpayer that subsidized or paid for the operation of the university?”
“As communistic concepts go, the idea of the “fair share” is simply a reiteration of the “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” idea.”
“2012 is the year the student loan bubble finally popped. While on one hand the relentlessly rising total Federal student debt crossed $956 billion as of September 30, and was growing at a pace that will have put it over $1 trillion by the end of 2012, the one data point confirming the size, severity and ultimately bursting of this latest debt bubble was the disclosure in late November by the Fed that the percentage of 90+ day delinquent loans soared from under 9% to 11%in one quarter.
Which is why we were not surprised to learn that the Federal government has now delivered yet another bailout program: this time focusing not on banks, or homeowners who bought McMansions and decided to not pay their mortgage, but on those millions of Americans, aged 18 to 80, that are drowning in student debt – debt, incidentally, which has been used to pay for drugs, motorcycles, games, tattoos, not to mention countless iProducts. Which also means that since there is no free lunch, all that will happen is that even more Federal Debt will be tacked on to replace discharged student debt loans, up to the total $1 trillion which will promptly soar far higher as more Americans take advantage of this latest government handout. But when the US will already have $22 trillion in debt this time in four years, who really is counting? After all, “it is only fair” that the taxpayer funded “free for all” bonanza must go on.”
“Criticism of The Journal News, which published a gun permit database last month, broadened Friday with Rockland law enforcement officials saying the map listing the names and addresses of those with gun permits is endangering lives.
Inmates at the Rockland County jail are taunting corrections officers by saying they know the guards’ home addresses — information they got from the list published by Westchester-based newspaper, Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco said.
“Since about 9:30 this morning, I’ve been in a meeting with my corrections officers and their unions. They have inmates coming up to them and telling them exactly where they live. That’s not acceptable to me,” Falco said at a news conference Friday morning in New City, where local leaders condemned the list.”
And these clowns want to double down on the stupid by publishing additional names. Unacceptable.
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What! 😯 But, but, but….. He’s so “Green”. How could this happen?
“Back in 2009, the “Cash for Clunkers” federal program was supposed to be a boon for the environment and the economy. During a limited time, consumers could trade in an old gas-guzzling used car for up to $4,500 cash back towards the purchase of a fuel-efficient new car. It seemed like a win for everyone: the environment, the gasping auto industry and cash-strapped consumers.
Though almost a million people poured into car dealerships eager to exchange their old jalopies for something shiny and new, recent reports indicate the entire program may have actually hurt the environment far more than it helped.
According to E Magazine, the “Clunkers” program, which is officially known as the Car Allowance Rebates System (CARS), produced tons of unnecessary waste while doing little to curb greenhouse gas emissions.”
“Books aside, if you asked a college freshman today who the Greatest Generation is, they might respond by pointing in a mirror.
Young people’s unprecedented level of self-infatuation was revealed in a new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has been asking students to rate themselves compared to their peers since 1966.”
“Pyschologist Jean Twenge and her colleagues compiled the data and found that over the last four decades there’s been a dramatic rise in the number of students who describe themselves as being ‘above average’ in the areas of academic ability, drive to achieve, mathematical ability, and self-confidence.
But in appraising the traits that are considered less invidualistic – co-operativeness, understanding others, and spirituality – the numbers either stayed at slightly decreased over the same period.
Researchers also found a disconnect between the student’s opinions of themselves and actual ability.”
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That’s a lovely meeting house you have there. Be a shame if somethin’ where to happen to it.
“Police say union workers “almost certainly” torched an under-construction Quaker meetinghouse in northwest Philadelphia four days before Christmas. The Chestnut Hill Friends had hired non-union labor for the project, which discommoded several construction unions.
Vandals with an acetylene torch crept onto the project’s muddy construction site in the middle of the night. Working out of view in the meetinghouse’s freshly cemented basement, they sliced off dozens of bolts securing the bare steel columns and set fire to the building crane, causing $500,000 in damage.
Police detectives deemed the attack arson because of a series of confrontational visits from union officials days before the incident. They say the torch could only have been operated by a trained professional, and believe it was almost certainly the work of disgruntled union members. The city has assigned extra investigators to the case and is working with federal forensic experts to track down the vandals, said Michael Resnick, the city’s public safety commissioner.”
“The Rev. Dr. Billy Graham and President Ronald Reagan now stand at the top of the list — in terms of the number of times anyone has been named to Gallup’s Top 10 Most Admired Men list.
According to the pollster, Graham, who is 94, has been named to the Gallup list 56 times since 1955, more than anyone else — male or female.”
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The next 3 are all related. It seems Obama campaign contributors aren’t the only ones getting in on the “Green” scam. Looks like some of those “Evil” Oil companies are getting in on the fraud too.
“Wondering why rail traffic has been somewhat surprisingly consistent despite uncertainty? Concerned at government’s tenticular reach into each and every aspect of our lives? This somewhat stunning anecdotal report from OilPrice.com might shed some light:
A cargo train filled with biofuels crossed the border between the US and Canada 24 times between the 15th of June and the 28th of June 2010; not once did it unload its cargo, yet it still earned millions of dollars… The companies “made several million dollars importing and exporting the fuel to exploit a loophole in a U.S. green energy program.” Each time the loaded train crossed the border the cargo earned its owner a certain amount of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), which were awarded by the US EPA to “promote and track production and importation of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel.”
We suggest this is merely yet another unintended consequence (justas we noted here) and perverted incentive of central planning and an all encroaching government.”
I dug around and found the original story from CBCNews/Canada
“CN internal documents obtained by CBC News show that the company had agreed to flip the shipments back and forth across the border using its rail lines and tunnels 24 times without unloading any cargo. This garnered CN $2.6 million.”
“CBC News received several tips after a recent story about a company shipping the same load of biodiesel back and forth by CN Rail at a cost of $2.6 million in the summer of 2010. It turns out the shipments were part of a deal by a Toronto-based company, which made several million dollars importing and exporting the fuel to exploit a loophole in a U.S. green energy program.”
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Another victory against ObamaCare. May it die from a thousand such cuts.
“Another business won temporary relief Thursday from the Obamacare mandate to provide contraception against its religious convictions, bringing the total number of injunctions against the mandate to 10.
The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois granted Triune Health Group preliminary injunctive relief against the mandate.
Triune’s owners, Christopher and Mary Anne Yep, are “ardent and faithful adherents of the Roman Catholic religion” who object to the government forcing them to purchase insurance “for drugs and services to which they object based on their religious convictions,” according to the court’s two-page decision.”
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Why are Economists united in their dislike for the fiscal cliff deal?
Ummmmm…….. ‘Cuz it stinks? Yep, final answer. And no, I’m not an economist. But I could play one on TV. 😉
“One of the truths revealed by the debate over the fiscal cliff is that lawmakers in Washington are in bitter disagreement over the cause of and solution to our economic malaise. There is the Keynesian camp, which believes that the economy is being hindered by a general lack of demand, and that the government needs to spend more in order to get the economy going again. Then there is a faction of economists — let’s call them the uncertainty hawks — who believe that businesses and individuals would be more willing to make the investments necessary to spur economic growth if they had a clearer idea of future tax bills and government spending levels. And finally there are the deficit hawks, who believe economic growth is being hampered by large federal deficits and debt, and that the best way to encourage economic growth is to shrink the deficit, mostly through reducing government spending.
With the recent deal over the fiscal cliff, however, a strange thing happened: Despite the fact that many of these camps’ ideas are in direct opposition with one another, the final deal ended up satisfying nobody — causing economists across the ideological spectrum to declare the deal a dud.”
Wandering Views 
