No Free Lunch

I remember first seeing this on a half-hour daily video music program program in Milwaukee. I don’t think I figured out the lady is a dude back then.

He hasn’t produced a budget in over three years, but he has time for this. 

WASHINGTON – A move is under way in Congress to strike any reference to “lunatic” in federal law in an effort to reduce the stigma of mental illness.

“Federal law should reflect the 21st-century understanding of mental illness and disease,” Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said in introducing the 21st Century Language Act with Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho. “The continued use of this pejorative term has no place in the U.S. code.”

The idea for the measure, Conrad said, came from a constituent seeking his help in removing “this outdated and inappropriate language” from federal law.

This technology is just too efficient!

Let the hysteria by the free lunch bunch begin! 

Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM) announced its quarterly dividend of 57 cents per share, an increase of about 21% over its prior dividend in February of 47 cents. The dividend will be payable on June 11 to shareholders of record as of May 14.

Shouldn’t he just take a pill instead of consuming valuable healthcare resources?

Why would the Chicago Tribune pick on Gaylord?

When lawmakers with a stake in Big Sugar talk about the federal program that props up their pet industry, they invariably sugarcoat the bitter facts.Consider this wad of marshmallow from U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad, the North Dakota Democrat whose state is a big sugar-beet producer: “There is no cost to the government at all from the sugar program.”

Why, yes, the government bears no cost. But American consumers do.

Everyone in effect pays a tax on foodstuffs from one end of the grocery store to the other. The surcharge comes to you courtesy of sugar lobbyists who have saddled the U.S. economy with import quotas and other central-planning gimmickry. It’s true, as Conrad says, that the government pays no direct subsidies. But through its regulations, it imposes an estimated $3.5 billion a year in costs on shoppers and industry.

Congress needs to stop this wasteful, unfair program. We’re concerned that when lawmakers take up agriculture legislation this year, they will leave the protectionist sugar racket just the way it is.