There are few retail experiences worse than buying a car. Before setting foot in a dealership, I spend weeks researching makes and models, printing out price sheets and psyching myself up like I’m headed into an MMA bout.“What if he tries to sell me the extended warranty? I’ll say no! Rustproof undercoating? No way! That lease looks like a pretty good opti… NO!”Despite constant promises of zero haggling and low-pressure sales, I always leave a dealership with a pronounced limp and wondering where my watch went.

The federal government is upset that spotted owls are disappearing. So they’re going to kill 3,600 barred owls to even the score.The Pacific Northwest has been dealing with the caprices of government for decades when it comes to the northern spotted owl. Twenty-three years ago, environmentalists noticed that the population of the birds was decreasing faster than they liked.The owl-huggers successfully lobbied the federal government to list the bird as an endangered species and drastically reduced the logging they had blamed for the owl’s predicament. Problem solved!

Stephen Colbert is upset with us. On last night’s Colbert Report, the comedian lit into those young people who are concerned about expensive health care, the crazy federal debt, and the fact that Obamacare makes both worse.

The slow motion train wreck of Obamacare is picking up speed.Every few days, there’s another ugly story highlighting conservatives’ warnings about the unpopular boondoggle. Friday brought two more shockers that would cause the President deep embarrassment were he capable of it.The scandal-plagued IRS was chosen as the enforcement arm of Obamacare, so you think they would love their latest excuse to dig into Americans personal records and bully accordingly. But their highly partisan union has launched a letter-writing campaign to get out of its onerous requirements.

Whenever he talks about the economy, Obama sounds like he's trying to explain to a professor why his term paper is late.

You remember the NSA, right? Big, shadowy agency recording everything you say, write or do online or on your phone? It was in all the papers about four and a half scandals ago.

Stacey Calvin is a busy mom in suburban Atlanta whose passion is helping kids. When she isn’t watching her three kids or volunteering at their school, she works at a day care center on the other side of town.Stacey takes a combination of two buses and two trains for a nearly two-hour commute each way. She checked into moving closer to the job, but that neighborhood’s prices were too high.

To the chagrin of Michael Bloomberg and Michelle Obama, America's favorite cream-filled snack cakes are rolling off the assembly line. After a union standoff drove Hostess Brands out of business, new owners purchased the company. They hired a non-union staff and are now sending Twinkies to retailers from coast to coast.

Being a semi-old coot, I don’t have much experience with hipster retailer Urban Outfitters. I visited one of their stores a few years ago to grab a gift card for my niece. My young daughter liked the set-up and excitedly told a pierced and tatted counter girl, “this place is almost as cool as WalMart!”Miss Counterculture didn’t find this as amusing as I did.

This week, the White House launched a new initiative for a “better, smarter, faster government.” At a showy Monday press event, President Obama declared, “we need the brightest minds to help solve our biggest challenges… It’s up to each and every one of us to make it work better.”Where exactly has The Smartest President Ever decided to focus several of his brightest minds? On punishing “Raisin Dissidents.”