Category Archives: Economics

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What’s a little Kristallnacht among friends?

It’s interesting to me that the journalists of our nation’s third oldest, continuously published daily newspaper, took until Friday to manage to write up a report on a Philadelphia story which has been in the news for a day now, but I can see the problem they had: how do you write a story about a deliberately anti-Semitic and inflammatory ‘action’ in moderate and non-judgemental terms.

Planned protest against Jewish-owned Philly restaurants draws ire, security, and feelings of unease

The “Boycott Ride,” scheduled for Sunday in Rittenhouse Square, has sparked ire on social media and drawn international scrutiny.

by Maggie Prosser | Friday, November 6, 2026 | 9:05 AM EST

Philadelphia business leaders and elected officials are condemning a planned bike-ride protest against half a dozen eateries owned by Jewish restaurateurs, days before the cyclists are set to gather in Center City. Continue reading →

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Reality bites: where are they going to get the money? The people voted for it, and now they're going to get it, good and hard

The midterm elections are over, and the Democrats have won. Now their voters are going to demand that the elected officials keep their promises. We noted on Wednesday how one partisan wants money spent on trains, trains, trains, but he’s just a nobody like me. But Thursday morning found The Philadelphia Inquirer looking at reality, and the fact that the money isn’t there.

Pa.’s Democratic trifecta could mean more funding for schools and SEPTA — if Harrisburg can find the money

Continue reading →

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We’re in for a miserable two years . . . if not longer

After many years, in fact my entire time since retiring to the Bluegrass State, I was represented in the House of Representatives by a steady, if unspectacular Republican. Now that Republican, Andy Barr has been elected to the United States Senate, replacing the retiring Mitch McConnell. But, alas!, I will now be represented in the House by a Democrat named Zack Dumbo, oops, sorry, Zach Dembo, which means, in effect, that I will not be represented at all. He supports prenatal infanticide, wants to double expenditures for Obysmalcare, wants a path toward citizenship for illegal immigrants, and involve the government in homebuilding projects, including “massive public-private partnerships to increase (housing) supply”. He wasn’t out there calling himself a “progressive,” but he’ll go along with any cockamamie scheme that the further left congresscritters propose. Continue reading →

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To the surprise of absolutely no one . . . . . . Philadelphia is once again the nation's poorest major city

In a story which did not make The Philadelphia Inquirer, at least not as far as I could see, Philadelphia was rated as the 178th least safe big city in the United States, out of a total of 182, with only Baltimore, Memphis, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge being worse. Even St Louis was ranked safer, at 173rd. And now there’s this, which the Inky did publish:

Philadelphia is once again the poorest big city in the United States

Continue reading →

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How is this not fraud? Will anyone be held accountable?

If this had been done by the Trump Administration, the Editorial Board of The Philadelphia Inquirer, and far-left columnist Will Bunch would be screaming for a Special Persecutor Prosecutor to throw everyone in jail, but the Opinion section of the newspaper has nothing at all about this:

Students who moved out of the country were put back on Philly schools’ rolls

The reenrollment came just before an important funding deadline, as the district was grappling with lower-than-projected enrollment citywide.

Continue reading →

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Hold them accountable! No one is above the law, our good friends on the left said. That should include those who break our immigration laws, and those who enable them.

We reported on Tuesday how many law enforcement agencies in Kentucky were cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and now we’re seeing some of the same in the Keystone State. The activists are, of course, thoroughly incensed:

“We don’t need our local police enforcing federal law. It is not their job and has proven time and again to harm public safety,” said Jasmine Rivera, executive director of the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition. “ICE and billionaires profiting off federal contracts are making billions of dollars from kidnapping our people. They are terrorizing families and attacking our neighbors who are literally building our communities. We don’t need $240 billion of our tax dollars to go to ICE and [U.S. Customs and Border Protection]; we need that money to make education, healthcare, and housing affordable.”

It wasn’t that long ago that our good friends on the left were telling us that “no one is above the law,” during their efforts to put then-former President Donald Trump in jail. Now, returned to office, Mr Trump agrees with that statement, and is enforcing our immigration laws, and shazamm! the left are trying to say that illegal immigrants should be above the law! Continue reading →

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Sometimes you just have to be an [insert slang term for the anus here] to do things right

My good friend and sometime blog pinch hitter William Teach noted the Associated Press story, “ICE arrests jumped to nearly 50,000 in July, the highest monthly total of Trump’s second term.” That’s great, but let’s do the math. 50,000 arrests, and hopefully deportations, times 12 equals just 600,000 per year. In the 30 months remaining in President Trump’s term, that works out to 1,500,000, which would make a small dent in the population of illegal immigrants in our country. If we assume that J D Vance becomes the next President, and he continues President Trump’s immigration enforcement policies for two full terms, 96 months, that has an additional 4,800,000 illegals arrested and hopefully deported, a nice number, but still just a fraction of the number of illegals already here.

The real solution is for real Americans to shun companies that employ illegal immigrants: cost them profits, at which point they’ll get rid of the illegals or go out of business, and the illegals will self deport. Yes, we need actual enforcement of our laws against hiring illegals, enforcement which sends the violators to prison. A few employers spending quality time Leavenworth will get the others to comply quickly. Continue reading →

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But it’s not my fault!

I confess: I sometimes spend too much time on Facebook, and one of the things that keeps appearing there are posts from people, purporting to be alpha males, telling us that women cannot be trusted, that women will leave you for the handsomer or wealthier guy who happens to come along. Man are strong and blameless, and women are just there for men as long as no one better comes along. Lose your job — unjustly, of course — and women will leave, even though there are hundreds of thousands of wives who have stuck by husbands who’ve faced such reverses. These things are written by ‘men’ who never take responsibility for their own failures, but have to find someone else to blame.

If your wife leaves you, maybe it is because you just weren’t a good enough husband.

Robert Stacy McCain wrote:

Call it The Self-Pity Blame Loop. If you are unwilling to accept responsibility for the consequences of your own behavior, you must seek scapegoats to blame. This leads to a pattern, viewing yourself as the victim of unfair treatment, and indulging in self-pity, while becoming resentful of more fortunate people. . . .

If you know people like this, you know the key to their entire personality involves a single sentence: “It’s not my fault!“

Continue reading →

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Can socialists learn anything?

I raised, in our after-Mass Bible study group — contrary to some Protestant claims, Catholics actually do read the Bible! — a theological question: can God, who is omniscient, learn? My question was inspired by this: God, being all powerful, cannot be hurt, but by taking human form, Jesus suffered the agony of the crucifixion, so did God learn anything new in this?

Which leads me to a more mortal question: can socialists actually learn anything? Continue reading →