These are the top three best quotes of the year?
Fred Shapiro, associate librarian at Yale Law School, has released his sixth  annual list of the most notable quotations of the year (2011) What makes this gentleman the person qualified to choose a list of 10 best quotes?
1. "We are the 99 percent." — slogan  of Occupy movement.
If this is the best quote of the year then Mr. Shapiro must be as out of touch with reality as the people who believe their own propaganda.
 2. "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you! But I  want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us  paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in  your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid  for." — U.S. Sen. candidate Elizabeth Warren, speaking in Andover, Mass., in  August.
Obviously Ms. Warren is unaware that all of the things she just mentioned are legitimate functions of the Government per our Federal Constitution and State Constitutions.  Other things like subsidizing businesses to come to a particular state, subsidizing lazy healthy adults who comprise the 47% who do not pay taxes, or supporting the arts and theatre and social causes that could not and would not exist withour government money, are not legitimate expenditures under the federal constitution.
 3. "My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress." — Billionaire Warren Buffett,
in a New York Times op-ed on Aug. 15.
Mr. Buffett if you do not believe you are paying your fair share in taxes to the federal and state treasuries there is no law prohibiting you from paying as large a percentage of your income (or for that matter of your total wealth) to the government coffers.  My informed guess is that you have spent a lot of money on accountants to determine the best way to avoid taxes.  If you have a guilty complex over this then just write the Fed's and your home state a big fat check.  But don't force your belief in higher taxes on the rest of the wealthy.

These are the top 3 of the top 10 quotes Mr. Shapiro chose for this year.  Notice they all have to do with bashing the accumulation of wealth.  I rather doubt that President Reagan's optimism for a "Morning in America"  where everyone has an opportunity to  better themselves if they are willing to work hard would even make his top ten.

A MIchigan Cheerleading Squad is Disqulified from competition because they have a "Male" on the squad.
"Boys may not participate on a girls team in MHSAA sponsored postseason meets and tournaments," the statement read. "Schools have adopted this position to preserve participation opportunities for the historically underrepresented gender."
Well by the MHSAA's own standard the squad should be allowed to compete because in cheerleading males are the "UNDERREPRESENTED GENDER."  It always amazes me that equal rights never seem to truly be about equal rights...It always seems to become a give me my rights and benefits in spite of or in disregard of the majorities rights and benefits.  Civil rights while starting out to give minorities the equal opportunities provided by our constitution as morphed into give me special privilages because of my minority status but do not extend them to everyone.  Equality is equal not quotas or privilaged status.  if a wrestling team was banned from competition because it had a "Female" on the team there would be cries of bigotry and sexism.  Where are the outcry against this discrimination?

Last US troops leave Iraq as war ends
At Long last the war in Iraq is over (at least for now). But did it actually end in Victory or is it just a graceful departure?
The mission cost nearly 4,500 American and well more than 100,000 Iraqi lives and $800 billion from the U.S. Treasury.
U.S. officials acknowledged the cost in blood and dollars was high, but tried to paint a picture of victory — for both the troops and the Iraqi people now freed of a dictator and on a path to democracy. But gnawing questions remain: Will Iraqis be able to forge their new government amid the still  stubborn sectarian clashes. And will Iraq be able to defend itself and remain  independent in a region fraught with turmoil and still steeped in insurgent threats.
Gnawing questions indeed...Will the Iraq's form a truly representative democracy or will it become mob rule?  Will it be a sectarian Government, religious government, or a militant Islamic extremist regime run by the Moslem Brotherhood, al-qaeda, or worse?  Will the Iraqi government and people become an ally or an enemy?
The total U.S. departure is a bit earlier than initially planned, and military leaders worry that it is a bit premature for the still maturing Iraqi security forces, who face continuing struggles to develop the logistics, air operations, surveillance and intelligence-sharing capabilities they will need in what has long been a difficult region.
US Military leaders have advised against this withdrawal in the recent past but...when politicians have to win reelection what do military leaders know.  I hope and pray we have an ally our of Iraq and they truly develope a positive representative democracy that betters the people of Iraq and gives all Iraqi's, men, women, sunni, shiite, and christian equal opportunities and rights.  If not then 4500 american soldiers and thousands more that were wounded will not have gotten the victory they deserve and fought for.

Two or three years out of college I was in a discussion about what might bring the United States of America to its knees, what might take the USA out of the role of world leader, military and economic super power, and relegate it to the sidelines on the playing field of history.  Nuclear war was the senario of most or some unknown natural disaster or disease.  I commented that I believed that if the USA were to lose its role of world leader it would be a combination of two things:  First, a great moral decline.  A rejection fo the Judeo-Christian values that was held by the majority of Americans throughout the history of our nation up to that point, and secondly an Economic and Financial crisis.

It appears that we may have both occuring today roughly 30 years later.  Our nation is sinking rapidly into the abyss of national debt, stealing over 15 trillion dollars, and counting, from our future, our childrens future, and generation after generations futures.
It has gotten so bad that a member of the British Parliment Daniel  Hannan​,  has authored a book entitled “The New Road to Serfdom: A Letter of Warning to America.” trying to warn America to abandon its current swift slide to European style socialism and return to a truly free enterprise economy and fiscal policies that will balance a budget.

Balancing a budget is not difficult you take the money that comes in, you prioritize your spending, then you divy up the money into those priorities, and when it comes to zero you stop spending.  Every family who is umwilling to go in debt knows this simple technique.  It is called living within your means.  There is only one way to go into debt and that is to spend more than you bring in.  When you spend more than you bring in then you borrow from your future.  When I was a child in late elementary school we used ot laugh at the Popeye cartoon character Wimpy when he would say "I would gladly pay you tuesday for a hamburger today."  It seemed such a ludicrous concept.  We understood you payed for what you got and if you couldn't you did without.  If at 10 or 11 years old we could grasp the concept of living within your means why is it so hard for politicians?

As John  Stossel said "We Americans feel entitled.... We work longer and harder than Europeans, but  American students say they are entitled to government loans; industries and their friends in politics insist that housing, agriculture, energy and all sorts
of other businesses deserve subsidies; and most everyone expects health care to  be free, or nearly free. Many politicians tell people that’s all possible, and  some promise more."

Almost everyone democrat, republican, liberal or conservative that I talk to agrees that the Government does very little well and usually instead of soving a problem and helping the citizens it creates a costly, inefficient, and ineffective bureaucracy.  But yet many of these people still belive that we ought to rely on government to solve our problems so we end up as Stossel says "Why don’t we learn? Because there are problems that must be solved, and politicians act so interested in our welfare that we believe them when they say,  “Yes, we can.” But the educated response to “Yes, we can” is “No, they can’t.”
Not when “they” means government. Our government should be a fraction of  the size it is now. Its girth is the result of electioneering politicians who promise the moon to gullible voters while using debt to push the costs onto our  children and grandchildren."

If and only if "We the People" will say no to the ballooning spending of governments at all levels, Federal, State, and Local, will we avoid the relegation of the United States of America to the sidelines of History and lose the lifestyles that we have come to know and wish for our children.

(Quotes from the article:  Ten Years to Greece, by John Stossel, published in Human Events

University of Cincinnati decided since it could not beat Xavier on the court to just beat them up and what did Cinci's coach do?
Well he talked a tough game and then just suspended the players involved for only the games that would not hurt their season very much at all.  Two of the players Yancy Gates and Cheikh Mbodj should have been kicked off the team immediately and barred from NCAA play PERIOD end of sentence.  Xaviers player who was hit and stomped should file an assault charge against the two players and the University of Cincinnati's athletic department.

Now with that said...don't think I am letting Xavier off the hook if you want to have some players suspended suspend the unapologetic Xavier players who basically talked trash and acted like thugs in their post game interview.  Suspend them for 10 games.

Every one wants civility and sportsmanship but no one wants to enforce it.  if players are not taught true sportsmanship and are not disciplined with consequences that matter they will act like immature gangsters till they are brought up short.  The actions of both teams players says a lot about the character of the players, their team, their coaches and the schools being willing accomplists in recruiting players with such low character.

I love basketball and played it till my ankles gave out (do to arthritis).  I love watching college basketball, but not teams who are willing to "go easy" on players who obviously have not grown up and become civilised adults.  Yes anger happens in sports, but their are ways to channel it productively, and violence is not it!

"Lobbyists for a day, a band of millionaires stormed Capitol Hill on Wednesday to
urge Congress to tax them more." (By LAURIE KELLMAN | Associated Press – Wed,
Nov 16, 2011)

As many have already said...NOTHING IS STOPPING THEM FROM DONATING THEIR MONEY  to the United States government if they wish so why would they push so hard for a tax increase?  Could it be that as millionaires they are aware of the fact that they can decide how they would like to have their compensation set up?  Could it be that they will shelter their income in tax free havens and live off other forms of compensation?

It was reported that Warren Buffett paid less in Income taxes than his personal secretary.  That is true probably most all of is secretary's compensation is reportable as Income to the IRS, whereas almost all of Buffett's compensation came in the form of capital gains therefore are not reported as Income, thus Buffett's secretary pays more in Income Taxes. 

The real problem is that most Americans are so economically illiterate that they believed that Buffett actually paid less total taxes than his secretary.  It is a sad comentary on our educational system. 

It is my honest belief that these "patriotic millionaires" know that any taxe increase on them will not affect their bottom line or they would not be asking for more taxes put on them but would simply write a Check to the good ole' USA.  Once again I smell falsehood.