Maggie's Farm

Why does the most volunteering and most donating nation in the world need this Americorps? Some might be amazed by the good deeds my church does, asking nothing in return.

Success is now an evil for the FDIC

10 terms not to use around Moslems. At first I thought this was an April Fool. I am too insensitive for this.

Groupthink Conference at Duke. I think these folks inhabit an alternate reality.

Good war story at Jules

Is it just possible that the Taliban doesn't want peace? Their pitiful, hateful lives would lose all meaning and purpose.

Homeland Security becoming an employment agency for illegals

The press forgot to ask how much more money the taxpayer is donating to the car companies.

Fighting for free political speech:

BCRA... makes it a federal felony to fund any TV or radio broadcast that names a candidate for federal office in the thirty days prior to a primary election or sixty days prior to a general election, called the "blackout" periods.

The Obama Justice Department defended the FEC's action with a team from the department's elite Solicitor General's Office. But that team was outmatched by the lawyer representing Citizens United, renowned former Solicitor General Ted Olson.

Who is Harold Koh? We should care.

Sen. Gregg on national debt

Jacoby:

For years the political class has taken care of its own at taxpayers' expense. That is why so many former public employees enjoy retirement perks far more lucrative than anything typically found in the private sector. "The nation is dividing into two classes of workers: those who have government benefits and those who don't," USA Today noted in 2007. "The gap is accelerating in every way - pensions, medical benefits, retirement ages."

Dick Morris on Obama's plan to reduce the charity deduction:

In 2006, the most recent year for which data is available, four million taxpayers had adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 or more. They comprised 3% of the tax returns, made 31% of the income, but donated 44% of all charitable contributions. Together, they provided charity with $81 billion in that year.

Obama’s plan will cost them $10 billion in extra taxes on the income they allocated to charitable donations. How can the president be so glibly certain that they will not curtail their charitable contributions by a like amount or even more?

Imagine all the harm Obama’s program will cause. Churches will be hit most hard. They account for the largest share of charitable donations, but universities, disease research, hospitals, soup kitchens, and cultural institutions will also be hard hit. So will international relief efforts that funnel aid abroad through churches or directly.

It is totally dishonest for Obama to pretend that his curtailment of these deductions won’t hurt the poor. It will most directly impact them since most of the charities Obama is hurting focus on helping the impoverished.

This proposal is not about saving money. It is about controlling it. By, in effect, transferring at least $11 billion a year from private philanthropy to government spending, Obama empowers the public sector at the expense of the voluntary one.

That is exactly the point. The Left wants people beholden to The State, not to their neighbor. So they have to take the money from you to give to your neighbor - after taking their cut, of course.

Obama  likes to talk about "false choices." It's a lawyer's trick. The false choices he discusses are about fundamental values:

Obama claimed in the Chicago Tribune that Americans “need not choose between a chaotic and unforgiving capitalism and an oppressive government-run economy.” That choice, he said, is a “false choice.” It is a false choice as he phrases it -- capitalism isn’t chaotic and unforgiving. But the simple choice between capitalism and a government-managed economy is a real choice -- and it’s the most important choice Americans have faced in half a century. Obscuring the need to make that choice by glossing over it with happy talk does a profound disservice to the American people.

According to Obama, “false choices” aren’t restricted to the economy...