Did you watch the Oscars last night? I only caught a few highlights, including Lady Gaga’s excellent tribute to The Sound of Music and Patricia Arquette’s ill-informed diatribe on women’s rights.

The United States has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world, as well as the largest prison population anywhere on Earth. With all those people locked away, one would hope that the streets would be pretty safe for the rest of us. Yet in many parts of the country, crime rates remain high, leading some to question whether putting so many people in prison is actually making us any safer.

The United States Export-Import Bank was founded in 1934 as yet another one of FDR’s misguided “New Deal” programs. For the past 80 years, the Bank has been an instrument of corporate welfare, handing out taxpayer-backed loans to big corporations and special interest projects, such as green energy.

On February 26th, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), acting under the direction of President Obama, will vote on a 300-plus-page rule regulate the internet in much the same way it currently regulates utilities. The FCC’s new powers will be broad, and mark an end to the decades of unregulated internet service that has proven to be the greatest source of economic growth and innovation the world has ever seen. That the Commission will vote to pass the rule is all but a certainty.

Common Core education standards have attracted criticism from across the political spectrum due to lack of choice and competition inherent in a top-down, federal mandate. Students succeed when parents and teachers have flexibility to tailor their education programs to individual children, celebrating rather than ignoring their differences.

The United States education system is home to many thousands of teachers. Some are good, some are less good, and some stand head and shoulders above the rest, setting an example in educational excellence that others can only hope to achieve.

The U.S. Export-Import Bank is one of the most blatant and indefensible examples of corporate cronyism by the federal government. Started 80 years ago as a protectionist, New Deal program, the Bank lingers on like a festering sore on America’s lip that just won’t heal - because Congress can’t leave it alone.

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the developed world, with enough people in prison to populate a small country. Preserving law and order is obvious a priority in any civilized society, but it’s hard to see how locking away a significant portion of the population can be considered a good thing, especially when so many are currently spending years behind bars for non-violent offenses.

Are you feeling the recovery yet? You should be, at least according to the president. In his State of the Union address, he said that the economy had “turned the page” and that “the shadow of crisis has passed.” Official government statistics put the unemployment rate at just 5.6 percent, there is no inflation, and GDP growth in the third quarter of 2014 was a booming 5 percent. Never mind that fourth quarter growth was half that, and the economy actually shrank in the first quarter - cherry picking is only bad when other people do it - just keep your eye on the shiny golden 5!