I could literally watch this all day.

The Price of the "slight" Tax Increase

In typical popular rhetoric, we were told that a "slight" increase in taxes on those that "could afford it" was the right thing to do. The market continues to question why the Federal Reserve keeps pumping money into the system (QE 1, 2, 3...). The reason is they had to. The following graph show the impact on nominal GDP of the Obama tax increases. Note that the increases were only half of what he originally sought. GDP gas continued its upward trend, but only thanks to the enormous economic stimulus being provided by the Fed.

Soccer time

Katie's soccer team finished the season against Waconia. They lost two of their best players this Fall to another team, so scoring was a struggle. Here is a couple clips of her.

Dance time

Prior to heading out to competitions in the Winter, the Dance Team practices by performing at halftime of the football games. Katie is one of three eight graders on the team. Those three are unfortunately relegated to the back row. As such it's tough to find/see her sometimes.   But she's there.   See:

North Shore Demo Day

Emily's gymnastics program runs a mock competition to get the kids used to the meet format.   It is also a chance to show off for the parents who aren't normally supposed to take video during class sessions.



Although unclear whether she was invited to join, or we asked if she could join, but the instructor for one of the team programs came up to us about Emily moving on from her class programs to the girls Xcel Team starting this Summer.

Katie's 7th Grade "Graduation"

grad·u·a·tion  (grj-shn)  n.

1. a. Conferral or receipt of an academic degree or diploma marking completion of studies.

1. b. A ceremony at which degrees or diplomas are conferred; a commencement.
 

Not so sure I  buy into the use of the word, but Congrats to Katie for completing the 7th grade, and thus Grandview Middle School.   It was not long ago that I couldn't believe she was going to middle school.  Now Emily is finishing her 1st year there, and Katie is moving on to the High School.  Yikes!

Middle Singers

Friday night, both Emily and Katie participated in the Middle Singers Cabaret. Middle Singers is an after-school program at the Middle School. The kids work with the instructor to pick a song, and then create their own choreography. Each had a group performance and a solo (if they wished). A few kids in the production chose not to do a solo.

Emily was assigned a tough song to sing, but did an admirable job with it. To be honest, Katie shocked us. She was in the school play, but had few speaking/singing lines. This is from the same kid that was unable to walk down the aisle for her pre-school graduation for fear of being in front of people. Yet, watch her amazing stage presence and lovely voice. She rarely - if ever - practiced at home, so her performance was a total surprise.

Rand Rubio

Speeches from Marco Rubio and Rand Paul at CPAC 2013. A good preview of the 2015 race (not including Bobby Jindal). I have always liked Rubio. His speech is good, and he is solid. I'm not a huge fan of Rand's father, Ron Paul. As a result, I have often viewed Rand with some skepticism and distance. His speech was good, especially when talking about some of the pork. Other parts are naive and populous. Both of the Pauls' libertarian roots take a right-sided populous view without thought for unintended consequences. The speeches are worth listening to:

Winter Activities Summary Video

Yup