Did you just hear that loud POP? That was the anti-government pension types' collective heads exploding when they found out that Roy McCampbell, a former village administrator in Bellwood, is now collecting a pension of $252,689 a year -- the highest in the state -- after boosting his salary to $472,255 his last year before his retirement. According to a Chicago Tribune report, McCampbell achieved that feat by assigning himself 10 different job titles. Even without that supposed gaming of the system, McCampbell still would have been able to retire at age 55 with a cushy $180,000 a year pension. For sake of comparison, former U.S. Presidents currently receive a pension of $191,300 per year. more ›

In our youth, we were one of those kids that liked to dream big and routinely answered the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" with "Astronaut." While that didn't quite work out (nor did our second choice of playing in the NBA) and we wound up with the equally lofty career of writing things on the internet, we still enjoy nerding out and watching space shuttle launches on T.V. more ›