We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
As the Left leads America deeper and deeper into a welfare state in which we take money from our neighbors to pay for our personal responsibilities and to cover our losing risks (after government takes its hefty cut, of course), I found this proposal amusing: Free Diapers
At the risk of pissing off most of our readers, I would assert that anyone benefiting from unemployment, mortgage interest deductions, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, government pensions, Social Security, welfare checks, disability, SSI, etc etc is in diapers.
I am sick of that old "I paid into it" line. Maybe you were fooled into thinking you did, but you did not. I never hear any gratitude from the recipients, just endless demands for more money to be extracted from the shrinking pool of taxpayers - who I term "neighbors" because that is who they are.
They told you that you did, that you did pay into it and deserve it, and they told you that fiction so you would feel entitled to it and eternally grateful to "government" - not to your neighbor - for supplying it. However, you did not pay into "it." There is no "it" there, to distort Gertrude Stein. There is no money there, waiting to be used. It's just all borrowed from the Chinese, who will soon own the USA as a semi-dysfunctional subsidiary - a "distressed asset."
We Americans should be ashamed of ourselves, or at least own up to our condition in which dependency has become socially and politically acceptable instead of being viewed as charity. It's not the way our tough ancestors lived, and mine led fine, honorable, sacrificial, difficult lives as far as I know, without expecting anything from anybody except spouse, family, and neighborly helping. Good lives, no mooching.
In America, they put you into diapers, sooner or later, whether you want the freebies or not. Most people welcome the freebies, because, however undignified, it's human nature and we want to convince ourselves that we are entitled to it, somehow, to rationalize our sponging off of others and to reduce the shame of dependency in adulthood. I suppose I would accept the money too were I in dire straights, but I would not feel good about it because I would know that it is taken from my neighbor - not voluntarily, but by force. That's the plan - a nation of dependents. It might be the European Way, the Serfdom Way, but I do not think of it as the American Way.
All of this weakens our people, our nation, our spirit, and our backbone. It is designed to do that. It is a political strategy.
It's a shame Ron Paul is such a (partial) nutjob. A shame that Cain doesn't know what he is talking about, compared with your average Maggie's reader.
The idea that we need more entrepreneurs to help improve the economy (a theme I've been thumping) is not lost on the government. However, their solution is to use taxpayer money to invest in areas they deem worthy. Most venture capitalists look for profitable businesses with a high potential return. Or at least some kind of return. The government has the luxury of being able to borrow as much as it wants from the Fed, or taxing the citizenry to death to pursue its dreams of a greener world...and is not seeking any return.
This is not entrepreneurial behavior. This is not venture capitalist behavior. It is the kind of behavior we should all be wary of - the government picking winners and losers. It's a precarious game, particularly if you choose a market that is so small your money isn't likely to have any kind of decent return. This administration claims the GM and Chrysler bailouts "made money" (though I am sure a careful accounting will prove otherwise). Assuming this is true, and politicians are astute enough to put taxpayer money to a profitable end - why the hell are we investing in this?
At its very core, it's just wealth redistribution. They just slapped a different label on it.
Ed: A quote from that piece:
Politicians write the press releases first and worry about the taxpayer losses later.
"Wait a sec. Did he say 'levitation'?? Oh, come on! What's next, ESP? UFOs? Boy, the crap you see on blog sites these day, huh?"
Yeah, well...
Hat tip Theo. Home site is here, although there didn't appear to be any more vids or info on the above. Pretty amazing, though. You know that fun old literary theme of going back in time and appearing real smart compared to everybody else? If I'm going back in time, I'm bringing along one of these babies.
Exit question: How long would it spin in a vacuum with no air resistance to slow it down?
Think life is not as good as it used to be, at least in terms of your wallet? You'd be right about that. The standard of living for Americans has fallen longer and more steeply over the past three years than at any time since the US government began recording it five decades ago.
Desperately Seeking Talent - Employers worry more about the effects of a bad hire than about the problems of hiring someone who is competent but not exceptional.
Despite frosty relations with the titans of Wall Street, President Obama has still managed to raise far more money this year from the financial and banking sector than Mitt Romney or any other Republican presidential candidate, according to new fundraising data...
Wall St. is overwhelmingly Democratic, esp in the upper echelons
The AFL-CIO is making headlines by running ads promoting “Occupy Wall Street.” One seriously doubts that members of the working class have much in common with the left-wing professional agitators running these protests and the tent cities they are erecting illegally in private and public parks in New York, Washington, D.C. and other cities. The most interesting part of this story, however, is that one of the AFL-CIO affiliates behind the campaign, the Working America group, is headed by a veteran of the Venceremos Brigades to Cuba, a progressive activist by the name of Karen Nussbaum. Equally significant, her husband works for the public relations firm that represented billionaire hedge fund operator George Soros.
Liberalism has been unable to decide whether it is for or against more democracy for nearly a century now, ever since it underwent a radical transformation from a creed believing that advancing the cause of individual liberty meant limiting government power and protecting individual rights into the creed we know today of believing that larger and more powerful government is the primary means of securing the realization of individual liberty. None of the liberal complaints about “gridlock” are new; Progressives like Woodrow Wilson deplored the separation of powers and other limiting features of the Founding as obsolete years before he tried to ignore them as president.
To paraphrase Insty the other day, the message is "Government is corrupted by power and money, and we need more government with more money to run more things."
The St. Paul speech only made manifest what is implicit in much of Obama’s presentation of himself. How could Obama have brought himself to utter such laughable pap? This is either one politician who takes himself way too seriously, or who holds his supporters in incredibly low esteem, or both.
If you’ve lived through the past four decades, does it really seem like America is no better off today? It doesn’t to Jason Furman, the deputy director of Obama’s National Economic Council. Here is Furman back in 2006: “Remember when even upper-middle class families worried about staying on a long distance call for too long? When flying was an expensive luxury? When only a minority of the population had central air conditioning, dishwashers, and color televisions? When no one had DVD players, iPods, or digital cameras? And when most Americans owned a car that broke down frequently, guzzled fuel, spewed foul smelling pollution, and didn’t have any of the now virtually standard items like air conditioning or tape/CD players?”
No doubt the past few years have been terrible. But the past few decades have been pretty good—for everybody
“Again, if you can’t cut back the government bureaucracy in good times (because there is enough tax money and we have ‘unmet needs,’ etc.) and you can’t cut it in bad times (because we have to preserve those jobs as ‘stimulus’) when does the government stop growing? Has Obama even attempted to answer this concern?”
This is an oldie, but still good for a chuckle for me:
AVI gave us a free mini-post in his comment, here:
Journalism at present involves a great deal of believing that you know other people's motives. We are told that OWS has some legitimate complaints. Not because very many of them are actually clearly articulating legitimate complaints, but because journalists can think of reasons that people might be upset that sell better. This is common in the type of anti-American rhetoric we get explained to us: "Well can you blame them? America has done blah, blah, blah..." Those are not, in fact, the reasons why foreigners hate us. They are the reasons liberals hate us. They project this crap onto others all the time, because they really are that narcissistic and tribal.
So helping out OWS is just a natural extension of that. They are "giving voice to the voiceless, to the inarticulate rage of the disenfranchised, who deeply resent the inequitable distribution of wealth that allows people with unapproved attitudes to...oops, I mean, 'that saddles future generations...' no wait, I'm looking for the right words here... 'that finds a way to make a fortune even in hard times...' damn, this is hard..."
Because they see it as Us vs. Them, zero-sum, for cultural hegemony and prestige. That is the subtext.
Hegemony, prestige... and cash, AVI. OPM. That's what they really want.
Consider romantic Lord Byron, who had spent the previous Summer in a villa in Switzerland ruminating with other literaries about the issues of advancing science (which led to cohabiter Shelley’s Frankenstein), writing this drivel poetry the following December, Christmas eve 1816, in support of the Luddites:
As the Liberty lads o'er the sea
Bought their freedom, and cheaply, with blood,
So we, boys, we
Will die fighting, or live free,
And down with all kings but King Ludd!
When the web that we weave is complete,
And the shuttle exchanged for the sword,
We will fling the winding-sheet
O'er the despot at our feet,
And dye it deep in the gore he has pour'd.
Though black as his heart its hue,
Since his veins are corrupted to mud,
Yet this is the dew
Which the tree shall renew
Of Liberty, planted by Ludd!
Today’s self-declared intellectuals and media wannabes, similarly, extol the stand-against-the-machine OWSers in the parks. An essay from novelist Thomas Pynchon, maybe appropriately written in 1984, expresses the hope, “Is it OK to be a Luddite?” Pynchon traces Ludditism to belief in miracles against the “machine,” of modern life, then steps forward to today.
Machines have already become so user-friendly that even the most unreconstructed of Luddites can be charmed into laying down the old sledgehammer and stroking a few keys instead. Beyond this seems to be a growing consensus that knowledge really is power, that there is a pretty straightforward conversion between money and information, and that somehow, if the logistics can be worked out, miracles may yet be possible.
But, garbage in, garbage out. Now as then, retreat to fantasies misstate and contradict realities of how machines free labor to be more productive and remunerative, not only to investors but to the daily lives and liberties of workers. Now as then, it takes capitalists to exert practical imagination, risk capital, and bring to fruition and everyone’s table the produce. Not fairies.
See Polling the OWSers: "...the Occupy Wall Street movement reflects values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people." And with reality. They are miracle fairies for President Obama who will make disappear from consciousness all his abject failures and misdirections. Dream on as you drive into the wall of reality, President Obama. But, please spare the rest of us being further injured by your reckless driving.
Neither in good times nor in bad does the middle class have a narrative nearly as compelling as those between which it is sandwiched. And it suffers accordingly.
I wish the media would go down to Union Square and interview all the happy young people there. Here's my comment for these envious and hate-filled kids and their media-invented movement - self-important kids and superannuated kids who somehow have time to do street theater which I am sure must be fun and somewhat gratifying if you have no responsibilities in life:
The OWS people have a very minimal impact on NYC. We went down to the city yesterday afternoon with friends for matinee theater and dinner, had a little time to kill so wandered around Union Square Park and Broadway.
Happy parks filled with young happy people do not make the news. These are the people Obama should be celebrating. More people here enjoying a lovely October day than in Zucotti Park.
It was Sukkot, so there were plenty of Hassidim around with their citrons and palms. They ask you "Are you Jewish?" and if you are, they will wish you a good Sukkot.
Same as in Washington Square, these speed chess guys with their tables set up will play you for money.
Replacing the YUPPIES, AOL hits the irony jackpot today, naming the 2010s young generation the DUMPIES, downward mobile, unemployed, poor.
Of course, relatively few of last decade's young were Yuppies, and relatively few of today's are Dumpies. But the Dumpies appelation does seem to fit well the Occupy Wall Streeters. Besides the most common fecal meanings of "dump" as displayed by the photo of a protester defecating on a police car, there's more definitions found at the Urban Dictionary that fit their OWS scene:
*To refer to a place or setting that is in poor condition or standards.
*One who wallows in their own laziness.
*A very lazy, trashy person, often smelling of foul body odor and looking like an all-around ragamuffin.
*A word used to describe a person/object/situation that is definitely not even good. Often used in a situation where a boring person makes a boring statement or is just generally being a fail.
*To whine about one's problems and let out many emotions to any unfortunate person who has to listen.
*Noun; to be someone who's annoying or stupid and annoying.
In case you don't know what Wonkette is, it is — by far — a blog site full of the biggest Lefty fruitcakes in existence. "Frothing at the mouth" would be an adequate description. Following is a selection of their posts and links from just this past week.
Remember, folks, if you want the latest anti-right screed, then you want Wonkette!
Quite the list, eh? And that's just from one week! As I said, if you want the latest in hard-core right-wing defeatism, then you want Wonk-
Oh, wait a sec. Damn it!
Sorry, everyone. I've made a terrible mistake. Those were last week's links from Hot Air, the "leading conservative blog for breaking news and commentary."
And just why is the "leading conservative blog for breaking news and commentary" so incredibly defeatist? I have no idea. But hey, this was the blog site that had more anti-Palin links than pro-Palin links during the 2008 election, so who knows what's going on behind the scenes? If anyone out there has the scoop, please let us know in the comments. It's all quite the little mystery. After founder and ex-boss Michelle Malkin wrote her anti-Perry HPV article a month ago, Hot Air promptly ran twenty anti-Perry headlines in a row over the next two weeks. Twenty.
The kicker is that Hot Air is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the California-based Salem Communications Corporation, owner of over 1,650 sites, and the "bloggers" are actually compensated writers.
In other words, they were paid for the above.
Again, I apologize for my grievous blunder, and I promise to be more careful in the future.
A specter haunts America: downward mobility. Every generation, we believe, should live better than its predecessor. By and large, Americans still embrace that promise. A Pew survey earlier this year found that 48 percent of respondents felt that their children’s living standards would exceed their own. Although that’s down from 61 percent in 2002, it’s on a par with the mid-1990s. But these expectations could be dashed. For young Americans, the future could be dimmer.
Atlanta: Unlike the Tea Party these protestors do not seem to have jobs to attend or families to take care of. They have time on their hands. And they are becoming more emboldened.
InstaPundit Glenn Reynolds, author of Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths, which "hails the emergence of a new entrepreneurial class resulting from the democratizing power of technology" according to Publishers Weekly, preceded the Occupy Wall Street protests. But, OWC is a different kind of protest. OWC is a big media promoted event, one that fits its liberal-left memes, organized by radical "community organizers", funded and added manpower from government-union thugs (just look at the size of the OWC bouncers). Struggling to find any allies, President Obama clings to the OWCers ranting at anyone "wealthy", who have avoided facing Obama's crony capitalism -- funding him and he funding them in return with taxpayer dollars 50% supplied by the wealthiest 1% -- that is the real core of our and their economic complaints.
As Glenn Reynolds comments about major media coverage of OWC protests, "When lefties want to make the Tea Party fit their preconceptions, they have to make things up. When righties want to exercise their preconceptions about the Occupy movement, on the other hand, they just have to take a picture." Reynolds includes this quote from a columnist:
The mainstream media's cameras can't get enough of these pierced protesters, with their crudely written signs proclaiming their unfocused discontent and general anger at society's selfishness in failing to satisfy their every want and desire.
Of course, those cameras discreetly turn away when the placards demanding socialist revolution and blaming the Jews come out. The protesters' function is to demonstrate inchoate outrage simply by being there. When they start talking, they start alienating the normals.
These are Potemkin protesters, community organized by government worker unions to allow liberal Democrats a way to triangulate to the center next year. Only the rebel media outfits will actually stick a mic in the protesters' dirty faces and let them talk.
My wife had knee surgery recently, and our medical group has a wonderful facility nearby. We arrived at 6:30 AM, checked in, she was brought into surgery at 7, and I went home. The drive being only 15 minutes, I was able to return, get something to eat, do some work, and return in time to pick her up. We left at 9:00AM.
It was only arthroscopic surgery, something I've had several times over the last 12 years (anyone playing sports is likely to have had it at least once). But it amazes me how quick these have become, showing the huge productivity gains in the medical community.
I've had my knee, my elbow, and my back all scoped. The amazing thing is all of these were done at ambulatory care centers. In 1985 I had work done on my knee which today would have been done utilizing arthroscopy. The work was done in a hospital, requiring an overnight stay.
It's amazing so many of these surgeries, which at one time required opening up a good portion of the joint, are now barely invasive. It's also incredible that you can literally walk away from many of them. My wife is already limping slightly, and should be moving fairly well by Monday (Friday surgery).
When we talk about the rising costs of medicine, we never talk about the improvements that have accompanied the price increases.
As evidence, ladies and gentlemen of the jury of history, I present the undisputed fact that on the evening news shows of NBC, ABC and CBS this week not one — NOT ONE — mentioned the unprecedented subpoena by a Congressional committee of information regarding the entire top echelon of the Justice Department in the Gunwalker Scandal.
Had this scandal involved John Ashcroft and the Bush Administration, does anyone doubt that the story would have led the nightly half-hour “puppet theater”? Or, that it wouldn’t have been covered like a blanket by all news departments from the moment the blood of Brian Terry dried in the desert sands of Rio Rico?
Big media complicity in the news blackout is a heavy indictment against modern journalism in America today.
If you haven't shopped for a replacement car lately, it has become -- pricewise -- crazier than ever. That's not because of the usual dealer tactics. In fact, with the Internet, the consumer has acquired added info with which to avoid being hornswaggled. It is because due to Cash-4-Clunkers removing so many used cars from the market and the recession reducing new car sales the past few years the price of used cars has increased by 25-50%, so a one or two year old used car -- even high mileage -- costs near as much as a new one. This has increased current new car sales, as why not?
That's what I found when searching over the past month for a replacement for my 2000 trusty Taurus, now having imminent engine and suspension problems that would cost me more than the car's value to repair. My wife's criteria was only that it be reasonably reliable and fit my 6-year old Gavin's bike or hold three or four large suitcases. After trying every old trick I knew, I was getting frustrated and furious. Then I found Truecar.com. It tells you the true dealer cost for a new car, thousands below MSRP and well below dealer invoice. It also tells you which dealer in your area is selling for close to dealer cost. So armed, I made my offer to several dealers, being rejected. Then, yesterday afternoon, a dealer agreed. I am now the owner of a new 2012 car.
I took 11-year old Jason with me as my tech advisor. Although I chose a bottom of the model, middle-class car, the new car has so many fancy, cool electronics for auto-diagnoses and warnings, communications, music, navigating, etc. (none of which I care about) that my eyes glazed over and my ears heard the seashore. But Jason took it all in immediately and promises to educate me. Almost as techy as Micky's new car.
Who cares? They satirize themselves. I have been bullied by these would-be police officers, who could never pass a police exam - or an exam on good manners. Trust me - I do not look like a shoe bomber.
“Over a period of two or three years they were running thousands and thousands of guns to the most evil people on earth. At the same time they were yelling ’90 per cent… of the guns the Mexican drug cartels are using come from the United States.’
Under terms of the February loan restructuring, two private investors—Argonaut Ventures I LLC and Madrone Partners LP—stand to be repaid before the U.S. government if the solar company is liquidated. The two firms gave the company a total of $69 million in emergency loans. The loans are the only portion of their investments that have repayment priority above the U.S. government.
Argonaut is an investment vehicle of the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, Okla. The foundation is headed by billionaire George Kaiser, a major Obama campaign contributor and a frequent visitor to the White House.
Crony socialism and political payoffs. It's the Chicago Way. Nice.
Mead:The administration’s goal has to be to get this story off the front page and fast.
Anyone who is familiar with the Occupy Wall Street movement knows that it has more or less 'settled' Zucotti Park. This is a very small area (roughly 33,300 square feet) down by the World Trade Center. It's a private park owned by Brookfield Partners. It has no habitable area, but the squatters are creating their own living conditions. They claim they will stay for as long as they have to.
Most of us doubt this is true. I'm willing to bet the minute the TV cameras leave, or the first large snowstorm blows through, most of them will leave. What if they don't, though? Could they stay forever?
It's possible. The potential is there. In fact, there is history supporting this kind of thing. So let's take a look at what might happen if these people never leave.
If you've ever been to Denmark, or Copenhagen specifically, you might be familiar with Freetown Christiana. Christiana is an old military barracks/base which was abandoned by 1970. In 1971, local residents broke down the fence to create a playground, and eventually many people began living in the facilities because housing in Copenhagen was hard to come by. It became a relatively autonomous commune. I found out about it as a teen, when I visited Copenhagen in 1976. At the time, I was deemed "too young" to see it. Seven years later, as a college student living abroad, I visited Copenhagen and this time I made three trips to Christiana. I will admit, it was a great party. But even then I realized it was no place to live. I was alternately impressed and repulsed. With each visit, I was less and less impressed.
There is a day coming. It is not on the horizon yet, but it is not far over it. Prospective employers are going to look at your children's resume, and if it refers to any sort of "public school" on it, they're going to roundfile it without hesitation, and they're going to call HR and ask them to find another homeschooled kid. Maybe they'll settle for an expensive privately schooled kid if there's no "non-socialized" kids available.
From a news point of view this is dog bites man: the usual people are doing the usual things. They are doing it in an unusual place — and over time they may be doing it in unusual numbers. But leftie protests that go nowhere are part of the background noise of modern American life. Drums and granola in the park is not news. Until OWS breaks that mold, expect public interest to remain tepid.
Rush is right, as always. Mitt is a successful businessman and talented executive turned pol, and not deeply ideological. I think lots of people are comfortable with that. Romneycare? Big error, but the people who have not fled MA yet seem to sort-of like it thus far. I would hate it, on principle, just like Medicare. Socialism never adds up because job-creators won't take risks for nothing.
Yesterday, Buffett declined the request of a Republican congressman to swap tax returns and reiterated his pledge to publish the form if other billionaires would do the same.
The Congressional Research Service report found that, on average, millionaires paid federal tax at a 30 percent rate, while moderate-income taxpayers, defined as those earning less than $100,000, were taxed at 19 percent.
The overall average, though, “obscures a great deal of variation,” including the finding that 25 percent of millionaires pay lower rates than 10 percent of moderate earners, the report found.
The findings “would be considered a violation of the Buffett Rule, but not to the extent alluded to by Mr. Buffett,”the report says.
The numbers are, of course, the effective rates (ie after deductions), not the marginal rates.
Here is the story. In 1929, we had a top marginal tax rate of 24% on all income over $100,000. And, according to Historical Statistics of the United States, the federal government took in almost $1.1 billion that year from income taxes. In 1935, after FDR successfully enacted a 79% tax on multimillionaires, the federal revenue from income taxes had been more than cut in half, down to $527 million. Granted, we were in a Great Depression in 1935, but that is in part because we were steadily adding new taxes and raising taxes on income from 1929 to 1935, and those rate hikes helped cause and perpetuate the Great Depression. Why should entrepreneurs invest and take risks when they have to turn more than half of what they might make over to the government?
During World War II, FDR further expanded the federal government. He did not let that crisis go to waste. On taxes, he eventually raised marginal tax rates on the rich to 94% on all income over $200,000. In making the case for huge tax hikes on the rich, Roosevelt’s supporters argued in Congress that government had the first claim on the wealth people earned. On March 30, 1943, Rep. Emanuel Celler (D.-N.Y.) argued, “The government can at any time make income taxes as thumping big as the necessities of war require. Thus, if any plan does not raise enough money, taxes can at any time be increased. The government always has a moral if not actual lien on all our income.”
As the Left leads America deeper and deeper into a welfare state in which we take money from our neighbors to pay for our personal responsibilities and to cover our losing risks (after government takes its 
Mrs. BD likes 
US medical care 
115 year old electric car
Image via 
Image via 
Anyone who is familiar with the Occupy Wall Street movement knows that it has more or less 'settled' Zucotti Park. This is a very small area (