Or, How the Unions Begat the Ruling Class:

Quoting Amity Shlaes:

This weekend we celebrate Labor Day in a country divided between two kinds of workers.  The first is the private-sector worker, the vulnerable one who rides the business cycle without shock absorbers.  The second worker, who works for the government, lives a cushioned existence in which terminations take years, pension amounts are often guaranteed, and recessions are only thunder in the distance.  Yet worse than this division is the knowledge that the private-sector worker will pay for public-sector comfort with ever higher taxes.

Hi we’ve just used your instructions to build a homemade CA-C1AX Kenwood cable and it worked like a treat. Thank you a lot for your effort and time!!!

best regards
  Gerardo

This week on the Factor, Bernie Goldberg made this comment about the new "racism":

George Bush was a racist because of Katrina.  A prominent liberal magazine online said if Obama doesn’t win the election in 2008, it was because of white racism.  If you’re against Obamacare, you’re a racist.  If you’re against affirmative action, you’re a racist.  If you have anything to do with Fox News, you’re a racist.

Of course, that’s only a partial list.  If you believe that everyone should pay taxes, you’re a racist.  If you think America should have secure borders, you’re a racist.  If you think that states should be able to enforce their borders, you’re a racist.  If you think that alleged political corruption should be investigated even when the politicians in question are black, you’re a racist.

Let’s just stop beating around the bush here: if you’re anything other than a political liberal, you might as well be a card-carrying member of the KKK because obviously you’re a racist.

And all of this under our first "post-racial" president.  The fact is, too many liberals see everything through the lens of race, and until those kinds of people grow up, any talk of a post-racial America is just wishful thinking.  Of course, those kinds of people are dishonest by definition, so don’t hold your breath waiting for them to admit the fact that most Americans -- including most conservatives -- are not racist.

Apparently the best route from York to Pottstown is:

York -> Newark -> Linwood -> Newark -> King of Prussia -> Pottstown.

Quoting Doc Zero:

We’ll suffer again when massive tax increases slam into a recessionary economy, pulverizing everyone except their ostensible targets.  Contrary to the drivel pushed by increasingly nervous liberals, the fatal flaw in our current system is uncontrolled spending, not insufficiently crushing tax burdens.

The doctor is commenting on Art Laffer’s piece documenting the fact that raising tax rates on the rich results in less tax revenue for the government, while also hurting the middle class by damaging the economy.  He includes this quote from JFK in 1963:

Quoting John F. Kennedy:

Tax reduction thus sets off a process that can bring gains for everyone, gains won by marshalling resources that would otherwise stand idle -- workers without jobs and farm and factory capacity without markets.  Yet many taxpayers seemed prepared to deny the nation the fruits of tax reduction because they question the financial soundness of reducing taxes when the federal budget is already in deficit.  Let me make clear why, in today’s economy, fiscal prudence and responsibility call for tax reduction even if it temporarily enlarged the federal deficit -- why reducing taxes is the best way open to us to increase revenues.

If JFK could understand this concept fifty years ago, you’d think that the liberals in the current administration could understand it too.

Instapundit’s take:

Quoting Glenn Reynolds:

Personally, I believe that "fairness" consists in the fruits of my labor not being taken by corrupt hacks to redistribute to their cronies in exchange for votes.

It’s not a particularly amazing composition, I know, but I do really like the dew pattern; and upon noticing it, I didn’t even think twice about pulling out my iPhone 4 and shooting it: by now I’m pretty confident in its ability to do a good job with the detail in macro-ish shots like this.  Be sure to click the image to see it at 100%.

The iPhone 4 camera is really quite good, especially in comparison to the one in the 3G, which was basically worthless for anything other than well-lit non-macro close-range portraits.  I mean, it was "decent for a cell phone camera", but you wouldn’t want to use it for anything too important.  Not so with the iPhone 4.

These huge raspberries are delicious, and the blueberries (also very good) provide a nice contrasting flavor.

Quoting Politico:

America is struggling with a sputtering economy and high unemployment -- but times are booming for Washington’s governing class.

The massive expansion of government under President Barack Obama has basically guaranteed a robust job market for policy professionals, regulators and contractors for years to come.  The housing market, boosted by the large number of high-income earners in the area, many working in politics and government, is easily outpacing the markets in most of the country. [...]

As a result, there is a yawning gap between the American people and D.C.’s powerful when it comes to their economic reality -- and their economic perceptions.

A new POLITICO poll, conducted by market research and consulting firm Penn Schoen Berland, underscores the big divide: Roughly 45 percent of "Washington elites" said the country and the economy are headed in the right direction, while roughly 25 percent of the general population said they felt that way.