Teachers aren’t paid enough, we hear. If we really want to invest in education, we’ll recruit an “army of teachers” and provide incentive for quality professionals to want to become teachers. If we really want to invest in our kids, we’ll make sure there are low student-to-teacher ratios and that every classroom is outfit with an iPad for every student.

The truth is, teachers are like many – not all – union workers in the United States: overpaid and spoiled.

Let me ask you something, blogger to reader: did your public school help you adequately prepare for and land your current job?

If you’re like many people, the answer is no. Some people study Business Administration and end up working in retail. Some people study Pre-Med and end up working in fast food. Some people study Theatre and end up in California waiting tables. Or worse, they end up in Iowa waiting tables.

(Photo source: inlandnet.com)

Ronald Reagan was deservedly known as “the Great Communicator,” a politician with quick wit, an authentic smile, and the ability to deliver his message with the force and substance that can only be backed by the exact optimism he espoused. In communication circles, this is known as “congruity.”

Some two and a half years ago I wrote my list of the best and worst Presidents of all time, ranking them from #1 to #41 (I only counted Grover Cleveland once and George W. Bush was still president).

In 2010, with me four and a half years wiser by my own estimations, this list needs a good updating. I’m still no expert (Who really knows where to put Zachary Taylor?) but have a few criteria you might find interesting.

(Left: Which of these Presidents dropped out of the top five?)

Since I’m self-employed now, it astonishes me when liberals talk about the evils of the profit motive, and generally makes me believe that most people who talk about how evil profit is have never been able to earn one for themselves.

In the health care debate, some people say that a person’s health is too important to leave to profit-seeking businesses and should instead be left to the government. But in many areas of my life in which companies provide me with goods and services in the search for a profit, I am very satisfied with the results. Isn’t health care too important to not leave to the profit-seekers?

Recently, a notification alerted me that a friend on Facebook joined a group in support of “gay rights.”…

(Left: Jean-Luc Picard reacts to hearing about a Facebook group dedicated to “gay rights.”)

If solving poverty were as simple as giving poor people entitlements, we would have eliminated poverty a long time ago.

Things aren’t so simple.

(Left: A typical middle-class home in Dantopia.)

There are some things about conservatism I’m not happy about. No, I’m not saying I’m a stupid moderate – if I ever do that you all have permission to punch me in the face.

(Left: Despite the siren song of pulchritudinous conservatives like Carrie Prejean, I am not 100% conservative.)

What would the ideal conservative country look like? What would daily life entail? What taxes would be levied, what kind of wages would people earn, and what would the quality of life be like?

How would people get along without Mother Government intervening?

Simple. It would get along just fine. In fact, it would do great.

College isn’t meant for everybody, but many people today act like it is. It’s part of our national past-time; college is portrayed in TV and movies as the next inevitable step after high school on everyone’s journey to adulthood. It’s a place for people to meet their future spouses, to make lifelong friends, for nerds to find their identity.

Ultimately, college is like anything else: right for some people, wrong for others. Right for people who know what they want to do and need a degree to do it; wrong for just about everyone else.