Yes, the U.S. government did at one time run large budget surpluses, and the revenue was generated without resorting to an income tax.

The retirement of Congressman Ron Paul from the House of Representatives last week did not end the Texas libertarian's influence in Congress. And if the first week of the new Congress is any indication, his influence has only multiplied.

Egyptian voters adopted a big-government constitution in a national plebiscite December 15, and it went into force December 26, according to Reuters wire service. Voters adopted the constitution by a 64 percent popular vote.

“Green energy” companies supported by Obama have primarily helped create jobs for elected officials and lobbyists in Washington, and profits for Wall Street.

The same day as the tragic Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting, a Chinese man stabbed 22 children in the central Chinese province of Henan. The attack yielded almost no news coverage in the United States.

The California Federation of Teachers has pulled a controversial class warfare “educational” video for children from YouTube after encountering stiff criticism from Fox News and the conservative blogosphere.

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency is gearing up for an unprecedented growth in the number of its field agents, according to a December 2 story in the Washington Post. The growth follows a pattern of similar surges for other major U.S. intelligence agencies, the NSA and the CIA, since 2001.

President Obama has hardened his views on “fiscal cliff” negotiations with congressional Republicans, with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner telling a closed-door session of congressional leaders that Obama is now demanding $50 billion in more “stimulus” spending, $1.6 trillion in higher taxes over 10 years, and presidential control over the national debt limit. Any other deal, Geithner counseled, would be vetoed and make inevitable the fiscal cliff's the automatic tax increases and spending cuts on January 1.

The Thanksgiving Day decrees by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi sent Egypt back into street protests and turmoil, prompting dissident Mohamed ElBaradei to charge Morsi had become a “new pharaoh.” But is Egypt's elected President seizing dictatorial powers, or is he instead protecting elected government from the onslaught of a runaway judiciary appointed by the former dictator Hosni Mubarak?

All of official Washington and their media lapdogs are shaking in fear of the so-called “fiscal cliff” that is looming January 1, counseling that the economy needs to continue its wild trillion-dollar deficit spending habits into the indefinite future.