Economists and the cheering crowds

Columnist and noted economist, Dr. Thomas Sowell, discusses the truth behind the escalating prices of gasoline. His column, Too Complex, is worth your time.

We also recommend reading Sowell’s inspiring bio, which provides an fascinating insight into the man and his views.

Now here’s a real poser

Why do you think the Maricopa Medical Center is increasingly overwhelmed?

This requires a good bit of reading. The article takes front and center placement of the daily’s Valley section, continuing for most of an interior page. Buried on page six is the explanation:

The emergency department cares for people from throughout the Valley, although most come from neighborhoods that surround the hospital, near Roosevelt and 24th streets in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood. Many of those people are high-risk and use the ER instead of a primary-care doctor.

Be warned and hang on tightly to your billfold. After describing the overworked staff and “aging” facility, the case is made for replacing the “almost 40 year old structure and its outdated layout that creates challenges in delivering medicine in today‘s marketplace.”

The emergency department and trauma center are part of Maricopa Integrated Health System, a $430 million organization funded partly through a property tax approved by county voters. The system treats 400,000 people yearly, reports the paper

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Turns out nothing is ‘Forever’

The price of ‘Forever’ stamps is going up.  On May 12, the postage price will increase from the current 41 cents to 42 cents.

Put down that fork, you scoundrel!

Regardless of what Mom told you, stop eating your vegetables

The United Nations Children’s Fund has released a report detailing that in Mexico, 300,000 youngsters are toiling in the fields picking crops. According to the study, 43.5 per cent of Mexico’s population are children under the age of 18

We are certainly not in favor of child exploitation or the high levels of illiteracy that goes hand-in-hand with this abuse of children—imposed upon them by their impoverished parents.

What we do question is the above-the-fold headline in today’s daily: Child labor in Mexico puts food on U.S. tables.

Here’s their take on the story: About 300,000 youngsters such as Adriana (who attends school only one hour a day) work illegally in Mexico’s fields, the U.N. Children’s Fund says, making child labor a major link in the chain that increasingly supplies American dinner tables.

The logical conclusion is that we, the eaters of salads, and consumers of vegetables, should not harden our hearts to the plight of these families as they sneak across our borders in violation of our law. After all our gluttony is the real reason for their need to invade our country.

Get it?

Just a small “let’s be energy independent” quiz

With $5 a gallon gas looming…

Which political party has consistently blocked drilling in ANWR and which politician reliably reaches “across the aisle” to give them support?

National Review Online provides the answer.

Barney Frank, you rascal, you never really did go away

La Raza in the Hou$ing Bill?

David Freddoso writing for National Review details the $25 million dollars in housing subsidies the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is being asked to set aside for neighborhoods with substantial populations of low income Hispanics. La Raza (The Race) will have oversight.

Read Freddoso’s overview for a glimpse of what is contained in liberal Financial Services Chairman, Barney Frank’s, housing bill.

Congressman John Shadegg backs guest worker program

This is an election year, Mr. Shadegg, and your constituents are not with you on this

 On the eve of a key vote on a temporary-worker program for Arizona, the proposal has won the endorsement of a friend in a high place: U.S. Rep. John Shadegg.

“I have been a consistent supporter of a guest-worker program from . . . forever,” Shadegg said Friday. “Since when I was growing up in Arizona.”

Although he emphasized that he is unfamiliar with the details of the bill, Shadegg finds the idea “appealing,” according to a report in the daily.

“I think a guest-worker program is a step down the road to solving this problem,” he said, referring to illegal immigration.

He neglects, however, to explain how he would deal with the issue of birthright citizenship when those ‘guests’ have American citizen children while they are here as “temporary workers.”

 

Shadegg was among congressional members who backed the McCain-Kennedy-Kyl “comprehensive immigration reform,” which many regarded as granting amnesty to the estimated 30 million illegals currently in this country. That plan was derailed as an unprecedented outcry from American citizens shut down the congressional switchboard, alerting representatives to the fury such a scheme generated.

But Shadegg on Friday said a temporary-worker program should ease the strain on the border. “If people could cross lawfully, the motivation for them to cross illegally would drop,” he said.

That makes sense. If they are legalized, they will no longer be illegal.

 Likewise, if employers have a legal way to hire the workers they need, particularly in agriculture, there should be less incentive to hire illegal workers, he said.

Smell the familiar stench of amnesty here?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most purple greenback to date

Take a short breather from the political scene and have some fun with this interesting Condé Nast Portfolio interactive site, aptly called “Note of Caution.”

It describes the details of the new U.S. currency and even shows the backside of Mr. Lincoln.

ASU’s overpaid King Crow issues threats

Budget cut would be equivalent of wiping out funding for 6,000 students

Arizona State University President Michael Crow is resorting to intimidation, stating that the state’s largest university may have to limit enrollment if Arizona’s legislature imposes a10 percent cut this fall.

Crow said a 10 percent cut to the university’s budget, or $50 million, would be the equivalent of wiping out funding for 6,000 students. University officials are considering enrollment limits as one option for dealing with the loss of revenue.

“That’s not an option we want,” Crow warned.

Implicit in the threat he suggested that officials have not yet determined how much they would have to limit enrollment if the cuts occurred.

The move would be a sharp departure from ASU’s policy, which is to admit every student who meets the university’s academic qualifications, according to the daily.

Seeing Red AZ is indeed Seeing Red on this menacing tactic of Crow’s. But, we also have a suggestion or two to rein in the budget cuts:

1. Crow and his wife, Sybil Francis, should take a pay cuts.

2. Defund the programs, (so beloved by the open border advocates at the Arizona Republic) Crow has put in place to provide scholarships for illegal aliens at the state university.

Those two efforts alone might loosen up enough cash for King Crow to manage. Since all other government agencies are belt-tightening in the wake of Gov. Napolitano’s budget crisis, why does Crow caw that he should be exempt by threatening Arizona’s students?

Food for thought…or biofuels

David Freddoso writing for National Review provides the reason for escalating food prices:

Why has the price of food followed the price of oil, upward and rapidly so? A small portion of that is transportation and farming, but most of it is due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which mandated that we use an incredible amount of the food we produce to create biofuels - for 4 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006, gradually increasing to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012. This year, it means that 28 percent of our grain crop will be used for energy and not eaten.

Read his compelling post here.