FREEDOMWORKS

Joe Remenar found the ideal spot to retire. After a long career in law enforcement, he bought three and a half acres near Blaine, Wash., which included a nice home and a little room to enjoy nature.

Just a few miles from picturesque Semiahmoo Bay and even closer to the Canadian border, the Pacific Northwest property seemed the perfect fit. "The family really fell in love with the place, as I did,” Remenar said.

Since much of his land was nothing but an empty field, Remenar wanted to improve the environment. Three years back, he constructed a small, kidney-shaped pond, being careful not to interrupt the flow of a stream or remove any trees or bushes. The water feature immediately attracted blue herons, nesting geese and even bald eagles, in addition to snakes, frogs and other local wildlife. 

FREEDOMWORKS

When the White House launched their sequestration scare campaign earlier this year, one of the most hyped consequences was its effect on air travel.

Since so many other warnings never were realized, the Obama administration made good on threats last week by ordering 14,750 air traffic controllers on furlough two days a month. As a result, major airports saw flight delays of up to 80 minutes. Granted, some of these effects can be blamed on the weather, but the Beltway’s media message is clear: sequestration is the end of life as we know it.

FREEDOMWORKS

Every few hours, new facts emerge about the Boston Marathon bombers. While much has been made of their family, studies and religion, on Tuesday night we learned that American taxpayers helped finance them.

FREEDOMWORKS

The main problem with big government isn’t that it hurts the economy. Sure, progressive policies demand high taxes, huge deficits and humungous debt, but you’ll find the real damage beyond the balance sheet. Big government stunts the soul.

Instead of seeing how high you can fly, big government teaches you it's better to just get by. Rather than create your own rules, big government demands you follow theirs in triplicate. In a nation where big government guarantees a comfortable living, why go big when you can just go home?

If the goal of a welfare state is creating dependency, it’s succeeding with much of the millennial generation. Many of today’s college students are shunning the very idea of entrepreneurship.

FREEDOMWORKS

The 1970s were a lousy decade. Embarrassing movies, dreadful music and downright terrifying clothes reflected the national mood following an unpopular war, endless political scandals and a faltering economy.

Popular culture was consumed with decline, especially Hollywood. The Omega Man, Soylent Green, Damnation Alley and countless other dystopian films showed a planet wrecked by war, pollution and neglect. In large part, the entertainment industry was reflecting the culture at large.

In 1970, the first Earth Day was celebrated — okay, “celebrated” doesn’t capture the funereal tone of the event. The events (organized in part by then hippie and now convicted murderer Ira Einhorn) predicted death, destruction and disease unless we did exactly as progressives commanded.

Behold the coming apocalypse as predicted on and around Earth Day, 1970:

FREEDOMWORKS

Sacramento mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson is desperate to keep the city’s struggling NBA franchise. So much so that he pledged $258 million of public money to build a sparkling new arena.

But Seattle also wants the team. So city and county leaders have promised $145 million of public money to build their own sparkling new arena. Politicians in Seattle and Sacramento insist that a booming economy is just around the corner if voters will just let them borrow millions to build a parquet-floored palace.

The sad news for both cities is that sports teams, stadiums and arenas — especially when funded by the local government — don’t help the area’s economy at all. After decades of intense study, economists from the left, right and center agree on this point: 

FREEDOMWORKS

Kids these days.

If they’re not playing World of Minecraft on a WiiTV, they’re blasting that crazy hippity hop “music” on their iSurface pads. Why that Bieber-Eyed Gagas band gives me a headache every time I dial up stations on my wireless. Would it kill them to play a traditional pop standard now and again? Now THAT was music!

By gum, if I didn’t know better I’d think every adolescent is hopped up on Four-Hour Monster Energy Pills and whatnot. As an aging member of the brilliant Generation X, I try to do my part. But when high schoolers tear up my azaleas with their Harlem Shake Mobs, all I can do is scream obscenities and hurl grapefruit at their heads. (Call the cops all you want, but it’s not my fault I lost the belt to my robe.)

FREEDOMWORKS

It has been a harrowing six weeks for the nation, what with the sequestrapocalyse and all. As of March 1, our underfunded federal government was forced to slash indispensible initiatives such asrobot squirrels, pickle specifications and cowboy poetry.

Okay, they’re not cutting any of these, but how is Washington supposed to drop $965 billion from their budget? Well technically, they aren’t cutting that either but maybe reducing the planned growth in spending over the next decade. And admittedly, the government will spend $2.14 trillion more in 2022 than it does today. But sequestration is still the end of the world and stuff.

Don’t believe me? Just this week the White House leaked that their assistant chef Sam Kass might have to take A Few Days Off. I told you it was serious.

FREEDOMWORKS

The best read of the weekend was a New York Times opinion column. No, I’m not kidding.

Not only did token conservative Ross Douthat blow the lid on the self-perpetuating elitism of the Ivy League, he did it in the pages of the elites’ favorite Sunday morning newspaper.

FREEDOMWORKS

The city was founded in the midst of the California Gold Rush. So when the early-2000s real estate boom hit Stockton, they thought history was repeating. In just seven years, property values tripled, tax revenue spiked and the city's leaders had dollar signs in their eyes.

Instead of recognizing the unsustainable growth as a bubble, Stockton went on a spending spree. Even worse, city leaders weren't content with their record revenue, but borrowed $300 million to build sports arenas, shopping centers, theaters, and a palatial waterfront complex. Long considered an agricultural backwater to the hip Bay Area, politicians were eager to announce to the world that Stockton Had Arrived. 

(Insert the sound of a bubble popping here.)