Maggie's Farm

Various comments....

Al Goracle and Government

First, the recent displays by Paulson and Obama just reinforce my libertarian views. In general, government cannot be trusted nor can it ever deliver anything efficiently. That is why our brilliant framers focused on the concept of limited government.

By definition, government is a coalition of people. Compromise should keep extremist ideas from making it through the process (although this is in jeopardy with increasing judicial fiat and the election of Obama and the leftists). It is a "lowest common denominator" process. That is why the decisions are almost always dumb!

Evidence? Al Gore! (Feel free to add to the list!)

Shrinking government as a percent of GDP is essential for the survival of the republic.

Buying Stocks

Be careful. Valuations are in play for many reasons, including the recession. Obamanomics and government policy are unknowns. Paulson is dangerous and should be fired for moving away from the TARP to free money for everyone except those of us who acted responsibly. My experience and instincts tell there is more risk to the downside. Secular bear market can last longer than you can imagine. Check out Crestmont Research on the web.

Should Everyone Pay Taxes?

Yes, with no exceptions. Steve Forbes is probably right that a flat tax without deductions is the way to go. Everyone needs to have skin in the game. It would also remove so much of the political shenanigans from the tax code. Is it 20,000 pages long now?

When I was in high school, I took a summer job in the Parks and Recreation Department in my municipality. This was the daily drill.

Arrive at 7:00 am. Stand around for 30 minutes while work assignments are distributed. (Now mind you, 99% of the assignments were anything but heavy lifting - go replace a plank in the boardwalk.) Get in the truck with TWO other guys (3 total). Go throw tools and materials into the truck. Drive at very slow rate of speed to the job site. Take the stuff out of the truck. Oh no! Time for the morning coffee break. Out the stuff back in the truck. Drive to get a cup of coffee. Sit around drinking coffee. Drive back to the job site. I would usually do almost all of the work myself and finish before lunch. The full-time guys would be really mad because we would need to back to the yard to get another assignment.

This could have been outsourced to a local contractor at ridiculous rates and still been less expensive. What a waste!

This was when I knew that government does not work! Period!!!

The only things that that government should be allowed to do are the things that the private sector cannot perform - national defense, border security, law enforcement, etc.

If everyone had skin in the game on a proportional basis, then everyone would at least have some interest in not being ripped off.

A flat tax makes total sense. There would actually be more jobs and higher paying jobs because all of the capitaltied up in government could be used more efficiently and the pie would be BIGGER. (That is my slap at Tom Friedman who sees the world as a zero sum game.)

"Why do democrats/liberals not understand the human nature aspect of anything?"

It is stunning, isn't it?!

All the more because of the claim that they are more sensitive of people's needs and feeling, more concerned about not offending anyone, abhor violence, bemoan poverty and clamor for peace.

Yet the policies they pursue actually result in the opposite of what they claim to value. The reason almost always involves the misunderstanding of human nature.

People have varying degrees of success or failure in part because people have varying degrees of talent. Competition is viewed as harsh - people get bruised feelings, have different results and can lose money or other things in a competitive world.

The libs think - Gee, imagine how much harmony we could have if there was no competition and equality of BOTH opportunity AND outcome! There are no winners or losers. Everyone is above average. And on it goes! Insert the words of John Lennon's awful song Imagine here! (Hint: guess where Marxism comes from?)

It doesn't work because it does not recognize the nature of mankind! Self-respect and self-worth are driven in part by accomplishment and its rewards. Take away the rewards and there is no reason to expend the effort to accomplish.

I spent three weeks in Russia about eight years ago when we adopted our youngest. I had read a fair amount of Russian literature in college and studied the history of Russia, including the Bolshevik Revolution, Sino-Soviet conflict and the history of capitalism and collectivism. I remember the Russian saying, "We pretend to work and the government pretends to pay us."

I look at the folly in Washington today with the reactionary Paulson and with the Marxist Obama in the wings and shake my head.

Look at the results of the government's "help" on those who were supposed to benefir from Johnson's Great Society. With help like that, who needs it?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/13/no-gore-in-any-climate-czar-post/

Apparently, Al Goreacle does not want the job. He probably needs to make more money so he can pay himself his carbon credit indulgences.

You know, it takes a lot of those carbon credit indulgences to assuage a guilty conscience for all the private jetting around and that huge house that uses more electricity in a month than mine does in a year! And think of how much more he has to pay in carbon indulgences when he opens that big old bloviating mouth of his. I have even gotten to his estimated methane producing impcat either - no, I don't think I'll go there.

NEW TOPIC: Campaign Finance and the FEC

The FEC will not audit Obama's $600 million haul and how much illicit money he received, but it will audit McCain because he took public funds. McCain has set aside $9.5 million for the priviledge.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,451090,00.html

The moral of the story is as a Democrat (and only for Democrats), you can disable credit card security and taken in as many donations from Mickey Mouse, other Disney characters and from international sources. If you take in enough, the FEC will look the other way under a theory of statisical significance.

Well, if you don't investigate it, how do you know it isn't statistically significant?

Add it to the Obama list. You can't make this up.

I see and take your point. I am not sure if he has a guilty conscience or a conscience at all.

If you remove conscience from the equation, that would leave cold calculation that (i) justifies his behavior which is in direct conflict with his stated position and (ii) is designed to manipulate others to follow his message whatever his motives, perverse or otherwise, may be.

Either way, it is rather condemning.