Time Wasting - Dumb Priorities

The recent re-visiting of the debate on the possibility of pardoning Billy the Kid is a symptom of a huge problem. Apparently, prioritizing in New Mexico and in the U.S. is a tad on the tedious side. There is certainly nothing wrong with being a history buff. And there is also nothing wrong with reading stories about Billy the Kid. However, for real world problem solvers, these silly distractions expose New Mexico's elected officials, most particularly their ignoring of the fact that the state is broke and struggling with critical budgeting decisions. It became clear many months ago that not nearly enough discussions took place concerning what steps the governor and legislature might take to NOT SPEND $400 million the state did not have. And in the wake of the state's biggest looming budget crisis in memory, elected officials that still think expending any energy whatsoever to consider pardoning or not pardoning what Billy the Kid did 129 years ago are woefully misguided. Why does this topic, of all topics, keep coming up? The answer seems clear. Balancing the state budget through prioritization and choice making is boring, especially when compared to debating "Billy" or making the world safe from North Korea......again. Is it time for a change? Hmmmmm. Let me think.

Time Wasting - Dumb Priorities

Parts of East Coast Braces for Blizzard

Accuweather - Jasper, Tenn., had a white Christmas as a winter storm rolled through on Saturday, Dec. 25, 2010. A storm system off the Northeast Coast will unleash a paralyzing blizzard along a vast swath of the I-95 corridor today. The storm is no joke and threatens to shut down major highways in the region and could close some major airports, creating a nightmare for those souls heading home after the Christmas holiday. People will get stranded on highways and at airports in this storm.

Travel in parts of the mid-Atlantic and New England will become difficult to impossible as the storm sidles northward, intensifying into Monday. Read full story here:

Parts of East Coast Braces for Blizzard

Let's Bankrupt Industries Going "Green"

Austin Hill

Townhall - by Austin Hill - Responding to these questions, a fatigued and hoarse-voiced Senator Obama stated, in part:  “Let me describe my overall policy. What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in to place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there. I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gasses that is emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market, and the ratcheted-down caps that are proposed every year. So if somebody wants to build a coal power plant, they can, it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re gonna be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted…” Read full column here:

Let's Bankrupt Industries Going "Green"

Silliest Stories of the Year

Townhall - by Debra Saunders - 2010 was a year consumed with silly stories. The more trivial the controversy, the more airtime it consumed. Although not all the silly stories made conservatives look stupid, the more a squabble tarnished the right, the surer it was to generate talking-head babble. And then they fizzle, as most non-stories do. Where to begin? Read full column here:

Silliest Stories of the Year