…says a Washington Post article. In the article, an auto industry analyst is quoted, who says, “There are better-value alternatives to the ForTwo, which starts at $11,900.” No sheet, shylock. The ForTwo would be a nice little contraption for buzzing to the grocery store or to the beach or for other local trips, but there is no way I’d be comfortable driving something much smaller than a Hyundai Accent to Orlando via I-75 and I-4. Even if I suddenly got enough money to be be looking at new cars, I would only consider a Smart if it cost $5000, maybe $6000 tops. Any more than that, I’d rather have a “real” car. And even for $5000 or $6000, I’d think long and hard before I bought a Smart instead of a highway-worthy, slightly larger vehicle.

BRADENTON, FLORIDA: The Bradenton Village of the Arts — villageofthearts.com — opened its long-awaited community welcome center on January 8, 2010. “The Village now has a meeting place… it has a heart, geographically,” said Kevin Webb, president of the Artists Guild of Manatee.

The Welcome Center has information about all Village galleries and other businesses, including their days and hours of operation, and displays representative samples of each gallery’s offerings.

Video courtesy of InternetVideoPromotion.com

I find it amazing that so many people who talked a good “free market” game were so quick to use my tax money to save their wealthy friends’ millions when said friends made poor bets — and lost. I know we’re all supposed to blame Obama for everything bad that’s happened in this country since Teddy Roosevelt was president, but this “bailout for the rich” scheme was originally hatched by Bush appointees. The only piece of blame Obama should shoulder — and it’s a huge piece — is his failure to stop the “too big to fail” yammer and let the Wall Street finaglers know, the day after his inauguration, that there was a new sheriff in town and that their previous antics would no longer be tolerated.
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Carolina Launch Pad names 2010 class of entrepreneurs

CHAPEL HILL, NC, January 8, 2010—New participants in Carolina Launch Pad will move into office space within the next few weeks as the pre-commercial incubator located at RENCI begins its second year.

Carolina Launch Pad, funded by RENCI through the UNC Office of the Provost, targets faculty, staff and students at UNC Chapel Hill who want to turn their technological inventions and ideas into viable businesses and have not yet developed their ideas into funded start-ups. The program is a partnership involving RENCI, the UNC Chapel Hill Office of Technology Development (OTD) and UNC Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.
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On the last Thursday of every month, liberals gather at Shakespeare’s English Pub and… drink. Liberally. There may be a similar group near you — find out at http://livingliberally.org/drinking/ — and if there isn’t, you can start one. Video courtesy of http://www.internetvideopromotion.com ~~

Let’s all blame Obama for everything bad that has ever happened to any American, anywhere in the world.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, can we please pull together and try to solve this country’s problems?

Thank you,

- Robin

A sadly amusing article from National Journal that begins, “Hello! Thank you for calling Air Health Care, the airline that works like the health care system. My name is Cynthia. How can I give you travel care today?”

As one who has had a number of similar experiences with our health care non-system, I can tell you that there is way too much underlying truth to this parody. I am profoundly unhappy with the health care bills recently passed by Congress, but one thing is clear: our current health care system is broken and needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. And no, I do not believe parroting the “free market will save us” line will solve anything. Free market health care, in its current incarnation, is a major FAIL.

Back in August, 2008, I wrote an essay titled Voting For a One-Term President. At the time we didn’t know whether Barack Obama or John McCain would be our next president. My contention was that we had so many contentious problems that neither contender could successfully contend with all of them.

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The Ponzi scheme prosecutions we’ve been reading about lately are unfair, and I blame the Democrats, or “Dumbocrats” as some call them, for treating business people as criminals when all they were trying to do was maximize profits. Here’s why:

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“During the Senate Finance Committee’s negotiations, Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) offered to give employees the option to reject their employer’s offerings in return for a voucher that would help them choose their own insurance on exchanges, which meant they would save money if they chose cheaper plans. Much more modestly, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) floated an idea to simply require employers to report their health-care spending on workers’ W-2 forms. Both were stymied by an odd-bedfellows alliance of employers and unions.” Read the entire article for more common-sense words on health care reform.
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