As far as Scotland's economy is concerned I think think the Scots should get there own house in order.Gordon Brown spent £167.5 billion on quangos in his last year as Chancellor.By comparison this £80 billion is peanuts considering the USA's population is about 5 times that of the UK (300 million comapared to 58 million).By population, 8% of that quango figure should could have been spent in Scotland.8% of £167.5 billion is £13.4 billion. That would have increased Holyrood's budget by almost 50%.Alternatively, Brown could have given every adult in Scotland, say 2.5 million, a wee gift of £5,360!BTWUnder Bush the 'neocon' every resident in Alaska gets an oil revenue cheque. Alaska has its own fund from the oil revenue and its only the interest, not the capital, from this fund that is handed out every year.No such thing exists in Scotland even with all the socialist talking about the 'equal distribution of wealth' bull&*^".

Teachers face mixed messages

This all sounds alot like what the schools in the U.S. were going through, back during the 1960's and 1970's, when the school systems were so severely underfunded.
We, collectively, have to make some really tough decisions, which include finally recognizing that we are responsible for our own actions and that we have to teach our children that they will suffer consequences for actions that are not exceptable from a moral or societal standpoint. Parents should NOT rely on the teachers to teach these values, especially when they are hamstrung with policies that say, teach my kid the difference between right and wrong, but don't you dare actually punish him / her, because you might hurt their feelings. Posted 11/01/08 at 10:23 AM EST | Link to Comment .

Obama's Hispanderama

There are people who want to return to the old ways and rescue some of the old attitudes. There are groups that seek to restore border integrity. But they are denigrated by many, even the president, who has called them vigilantes. The New Yorker this week carries a mildly snotty piece by a writer named Daniel Kurtz-Phelan in which he interviews members of a group of would-be Minutemen who seek to watch the borders with Mexico and Canada. They are "running freelance patrols"; they are xenophobic; they dismiss critics as "communists" and "child molesters."

As a Reaganite, Noonan must have recognized that elite condescension instantly, allergically.