Random Thoughts

Highway robbery…

Eldest Son and Youngest Daughter spent part of their morning in lockdown, thanks to this.

Detectives said a man robbed a US Bank branch on Nickerson Street on the campus of Seattle Pacific University at 10:30 a.m. The man demanded money then fled on foot, prompting university officials to lock down the campus for a time.

I’m not terribly worried; I know (they made it very clear during parent orientation) that the school has a swift and effective lockdown system. Most universities probably do after Virginia Tech. What bothers me is that this is a small private school in a quiet neighborhood, and the bank in question is a little branch next to the university bookstore. It’s really not what anyone would consider an obvious target; it’s only approachable on foot and parking a car anywhere nearby is virtually impossible. Not that that stopped the robber, who ran through the wooded campus after his crime. Hence the lockdown.

Crime I guess really is everywhere.

I suppose I could blame the recession, but really, people have been robbing banks in America since 1798. Stealing other people’s money is nothing new. Bank robbers do it directly. Politicians are more subtle.

And yes, being told that taxpayers must give more of their money to pay for the horrendous state debt incurred by spend-happy politicians seems little different than being handed a note that says, “This is a robbery. Fill this sack with unmarked 10s and 20s.”

The states with the biggest deficits tend to be the most profligate. California has by far the biggest gap — $40 billion — thanks in part to a 40% increase in spending over the last five years.

So what’s the solution? Government bailouts!

President Obama has announced that a big check to state governments is part of his stimulus spending plan in order to “save the public sector jobs of teachers, police officers, firefighters, and others who provide vital services.”

And who will foot the bill for everything from California’s budget crisis to Bank of America’s bad mortgages? The taxpayers, of course.

And I just love the way our government thinks its a Good Thing to force taxpayers to pay for people overseas to abort their babies.

Under the new Obama Administration is anything likely to change? Well, Gateway Pundit details the caliber of our new Treasury Secretary. I don’t know about you, but nothing could make me want to say “Sure, I’ll pay even more taxes!” quite as much as putting in charge of the IRS a man who avoided paying his own taxes for four years.

Geithner is a logical choice though, as Jimmie at The Sundries Shack points out:

President Obama has given us another historic first, a Secretary of the Treasury who is also a tax cheat.

I need to be fair to the President, who has spent his entire political life surrounded by corruption and incompetence. It’s all he’s known. Why should he blink at Geithner’s dishonesty?

while Michell Malkin offers a full rundown of who’s to blame.

At least when he’s gotten the cash he wanted, the robber leaves the neighborhood, and odds are the bank teller will never experience another robbery again…unlike the American taxpayer.