My column for the Arkansas News Bureau this week is yet another of my rants about the country’s fiscal irresponsibility. This week, it’s about the tax cuts enacted in Washington. Once again, Congress and the White House have managed to give Americans a huge gift without asking for anything in return. They even cut Social Security taxes at a time when everyone knows Social Security is on a path to insolvency.

But the bill will come due, and our kids will pay it. Couldn’t they have at least tried to enact some spending cuts along with the tax cuts?

Anyway, here is the column.

I have made the following statement in the past about having children: “It’s worth it, but it’s barely worth it.”

That was in reference to the financial strain, the limits it places on you professionally, the friendships it turns into acquaintanceships, the reduced sleep, etc., and did I mention the financial strain?

Last night, my wife called as I was driving home and said my girls, 9 and 6, were peering out the window looking for me. Whenever lights appeared in the cul-de-sac, they were running to the door. Both ran outside and greeted me when I arrived.

It’s worth it.

Interesting, though long, read here. Zuckerberg comes off as a somewhat nerdy but earnest and even caring person – who has changed the world.

I’m on Facebook but rarely use it. It’s a good thing and I’m glad it exists, but I find it too shallow and intrusive and don’t really care that my fifth-grade classmate doesn’t like President Obama.

While I was reading the article, I had a “friend” request from somebody named Kevin Wood. I don’t know how Kevin Wood is. I’ll probably confirm just to be nice.

Gov. Mike Beebe spoke to members of the Arkansas School Boards Association this morning. It’s always a speech that lauds school board members for their service and touts Beebe’s twin priorities of economic development and education, but this was a little more spirited. He sounded like a man who had just won his last (I think) campaign.

Beebe said he had been interviewed by Bloomberg News that morning about the fact that Arkansas is one of a handful of states not going dead broke, and he compared the state’s situation to its neighbors and to the federal government. “We’ve got problems, but good Lord, compared to the rest of the world, we’ve got a lot for which to be thankful,” he said.

He made a couple of cracks about the campaign and the fact that he had the money to pay for high-priced consultants and campaign staff. And he said that one of the findings of his focus groups was that Arkansans had a problem believing that Education Week had ranked Arkansas 10th in education.

Maybe that’s because Arkansans instinctively know the state still has a long way to go in certain areas, even compared to other states. But it’s true that the state is making progress. And, compared to other states, and especially the federal government, we’re not going broke, at least not now.