Some things are just unbelievable. They defy all common sense. Like the time my wife chose Cleveland as a vacation destination. It wasn't even a good idea at the time, yet somehow, it happened. Such was my thought when it was revealed that executives employed by the hapless insurance giant AIG were to be paid $165 million in bonuses.

When the barn is on fire, the bold will take action to douse the blaze, and the useless will stand around, jaws agape and scratching their beards, wondering just how the heck this thing got started in the first place. I fall squarely into the latter category, and anyway, voluntary participation in extinguishing conflagrant agricultural structures...

I first started listening to the Rush Limbaugh program during the Clinton Administration, or as Rush liked to call it “America Held Hostage.”  Regardless of what you may think of his political views, you must admit that the guy can be funny and charismatic in a way that Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity are not.

Faced with a huge deficit, Governor Doyle unveiled his new budget plan last week, and was immediately attacked by everyone who happened to have a soapbox nearby. Unless you serve donuts for a living, you can't please all the people all the time. I'm not going to defend all aspects of 2009 Assembly Bill 75, but faced with a huge deficit, Doyle presented a realistic, if unfortunate, package of spending cuts and new taxes to keep the state operating.

Last week, Daniel Bice, writing in his "No Quarter" column for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, reported that Associated Bank took a $525 million handout from the federal government. No great shakes - I applied for some myself (denied, btw). However, Bice, in the same column, "Associated Bank plans its own fiesta after bailout party," also reported that Associated CEO Paul Beideman was planning on taking nearly a hundred Ass.Bankers with him to a Caribbean resort to celebrate a job well done.

The slings and arrows are flying thicker than the skies at Agincourt over President Obama's economic stimulus package. Passed by the House and currently being debated in the Senate, the stimulus package, if passed, would be a much needed triumph for Obama, whose administration has been tarnished right out of the starting gate by financial misdeeds...

Merle Haggard once famously predicted that "when a President goes through the White House doors, and does what he says he'll do, we'll all be drinkin' that free Bubble-Up, and eatin' that Rainbow Stew."

This is not about the merits about the paid-sick days referendum recently passed by an overwhelming majority of Milwaukee voters. Convincing arguments both against and for the law, which will require city employers to provide up to 9 paid sick days to their employees, were made to the public previous to the polling date. The referendum passed and is scheduled to become law on Feb. 10.