The Road to Serfdom (in cartoons) by Frederick Hayek

Chicago teachers union will continue strike into second week

The Chicago teachers union decided Sunday to continue its weeklong strike, extending an acrimonious standoff with Mayor Rahm Emanuel over teacher evaluations and job security provisions central to the debate over the future of public education across the United States.

Must read: 39% of Chicago teachers send their kids to private school

Comments and links at HotAir - read the whole thing.

As the Chicago teachers’ strike continues, we’ve learned that they make $71-76,000 a year and they turned down a 16% pay increase, which amounts to $11,360.  They work nine months out of the year, but say that this strike is benefits oriented.

Anti school-choice politicians are no less hypocritical: President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Jesse Jackson, Hillary Clinton and Al Gore (to name just a few) all send or sent their children to private schools.

Your supermarkets and movie theaters aren’t closed because of strikes. That’s because private companies have competition. Government monopolies don’t.

How Much Does the U.N. Cost Us?

At NRO: According to OMB, FY 2010 marked the third consecutive year in which U.S. contributions reached record highs. In FY 2010, they exceeded $7.691 billion — more than $1.3 billion higher than FY 2009’s record of $6.347 billion.

If you’re wondering how much we contributed last year, good luck. Congress neglected to renew the reporting requirement. I’ve spoken to Obama-administration officials, and they say they’ve prepared the data in anticipation of producing the report, but OMB will not issue the report without a Congressional mandate.

Crunchy on the outside and softer in the middle: Mystery Spheres on Mars Baffle Scientists

A strange picture of odd, spherical rock formations on Mars from NASA's Opportunity rover has scientists scratching their heads over what exactly they're looking at.