March 31, 2010
Religion Blogging: Boyle on the Catholic Church
Patrick Boyle, editor of Youth Today, posts a provocative new blog at the Huffington Post on the topic of that all-too-familiar category of Catholics: Lapsed.
Are States Masking Their Debt?
When U.S. state government finances are compared to those of Greece, you know something is wrong: This article in The New York Times yesterday sent shivers up my spine. Here’s the lede:
“California, New York and other states are showing many of the same signs of debt overload that recently took Greece to the brink — budgets that will not balance, accounting that masks debt, the use of derivatives to plug holes, and armies of retired public workers who are counting on benefits that are proving harder and harder to pay. “
State officials are quoted in the story as saying that a Greece-style financial collapse is a “nonissue,” and you’ll be further reassured that Goldman Sachs (yes, the same Goldman Sachs allegedly involved in leading Greece to fiscal chaos) says that states are “very unlikely” to default on their debt.
Wow, I feel better now. Not.
March 26, 2010
Science Friday: Robot Battles!
Who doesn’t love a robot fight? Below and here.
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Health Care: Done
Health Care Vote: Done.
March 25, 2010
CBPP: Health Care Reform Will Cut the Deficit
Some have argued that the budget deficit claims of the health care reform law are bogus, but the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an organization most agree is credible albeit left-leaning, disagrees:
“Careful analysis of these charges shows them to be misleading or inaccurate. They do not withstand scrutiny. […] We now examine the specific claims about budgetary gimmicks and games one by one. “
The full six-page analysis is here.