Congress gets a $4,700 pay raise
Class act:
A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries…
Rep. Harry Mitchell, a first-term Democrat from Arizona, sponsored legislation earlier this year that would have prevented the automatic pay adjustments from kicking in for members next year. But the bill, which attracted 34 cosponsors, failed to make it out of committee.
This is rather outrageous. In the middle of a deep economic recession our members of Congress will be enjoying an extra $4,700 in their paychecks. The only reason it doesn’t seem more outrageous is because we’ve come to expect so little from our elected officials.
My wife works for the Georgia state government, and they’re not giving out any raises this year. In fact, they’re trying to figure out how to cut spending so they don’t have to lay anyone off — and that’s looking increasingly doubtful. That’s what responsible government entities do. Nobody’s feeling the revenue crunch in the U.S. Congress because they haven’t passed a balanced budget in a decade.
That a bill to halt these automatic pay raises didn’t make it out of committee speaks volumes about the ridiculously out-of-touch Congress we’ve voted into office.
By the way, I just put a call into my Rep. Tom Price’s office to find out if he was one of the 36 co-sponsors. Will let you know what I hear back. I’d hate to blame him for not voting down the pay raise since the whole House didn’t even get the chance. Where’s the leadership?
Liquid breathing
Remember in the movie “The Abyss” when Ed Harris put on that special diving suit that allowed him to dive really deep because he was breathing oxygenated water? I’ve always wondered if that was based on reality. Well, I finally remembered to look up “liquid breathing” in Wikipedia.
It is.
Das Boot
I’m back at work on Das Boot today. Well, so far I’ve just been cleaning up my garage. But, soon I will be back at work on the boat. Can’t seem to find the directions — a minor inconvenience.
Here’s some Christmas shopping help. Imagine all the people who would enjoy opening a box of Count Chocula Christmas morning:
That’s a shipment of 10 boxes. Just $2.70 each. So, make this purchase and you’ll pretty much be done with Christmas shopping.
Jessica Alba Photoshop – Before and After Photos
Here’s some more examples of our fake beauty culture. On the left is Jessica Alba as she really looks. She looks fantastic, especially considering that she’s recently had a baby. On the right is how Photoshop artists made her look for a Campari ad. Quite disturbing. Notice that they actually added some collar bones, because you can’t be sexy if you don’t see any bones.
Click here for more before and after shots.
Guy playing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” on ukulele. Really quite beautiful.
