What A Tax Payer Wants

Rasmussen recently released the results of a recent poll regarding tax policy.  While I might quibble a bit with the question as to whether or not a simpler, yet still progressive tax structure is a good idea, I am willing to consider it.

Most folks I know do want a simpler tax code.  They don't want lots of deductions.  They want to pay their taxes and know what they will owe at the end of the year.

I know that I find the inability to accurately predict my tax debt to be terribly frustrating.  I don't necessarily want to get a huge refund at the end of each year.  Nor do I want to write Uncle Sam a big check.

A simpler, less intrusive system would be an improvement over the current system.

Send 'Em A Message

Via your rear window.

Ever want to send the idiot in the car behind you a message?  This is one way to do it.

Do You Know Why I Pulled You Over, Son?

I love our Constitution.  I love our Constitutionally limited republic.  It is right and just that the government should be limited to a few defined roles and that government authority should not impinge on individual liberty.

Mickey Kaus has an entry about the legally specious arguments being made in favor of the so-called "individual mandate" portion of Obamacare.

Can the government compel you to buy broccoli?  Can it ban all means of disposal other than consumption in order to force you to consume broccoli?

Well, OK then! As long as we can just leave it rotting in the fridge.** … But it’s a little suspicious–and surely not a selling point–that under Elhauge’s argument the only limits on government would be the rights — like “bodily integrity” and privacy — that liberal  lawyers have dreamed up but not the limit — i.e. whether or not something is “interstate commerce” – the Founders dreamed up.

Just what are the Constitutional limits that modern leftists would obey?

One suspects that the answer is "none", as long as they agree with the law in the first place.  Such is the seed from which the vine which will choke liberty is grown.

How Do You Do That?

How do you build a city our of rock and roll?  What about the engineers?  The skilled trades; carpenters, iron workers, electricians, plumbers?  What about the vendors that sell the stuff you actually build stuff with?  What about the finance folks that get the cash to fund the project?  What about the teachers that taught them all?

Where is Dr. Sheldon Cooper^[1] when you really need him?

^[1] Ok.  Read the link.  If the amount of information cataloged there isn't the definition of irony, then I don't know what is.

Who IS That Girl?

A couple weeks ago, Instapundit had a link to "Who is that hot ad girl?"  A site devoted to identifying notable actresses in advertisements.

Notable primarily because they are....well.....hot.

Sexist?  Probably.

Worth a look?  Definitely.

Look Out For His Right

Attempts at government control of the economy always give me reason for concern.  The record for such control is not exactly stellar.

I wonder what trouble is lurking in our future.  In a modest bit of irony, the Federal Reserve in San Francisco has a model that you can play with that suggests where things might be heading in the near future.

Everywhere you look these days, it seems that ZIRP, or the Fed's Zero Interest Rate Policy, is the panacea to all the world's problems. In fact, ask any tenured economy Ph.D. what inflation is and you will get a stare down, be told you are a moron, that banks need to print more, more, more and that we are really roiling in deflation, with some latent mumblings about buying their economics textbook for the inflationary price of $124.95. Everywhere, that is except the Fed itself. Because in an extremely ironic twist, it is none other than the San Francisco Fed, which operates the "Be Fed chairman for a day" simulation, where you try to keep both unemployment and inflation within the "price stabeeleetee" barriers, that reveals the reality of ZIRP. The laughter really begins when one recreates precisely what the Fed is doing: namely the policy of Zero Interest Rates, now well in its third year, that things take a turn for the surreal. We challenge any reader to play the Fed simulation game, and to do what Bernanke has done: namely lock the Fed Funds rate at the legal minimum: between 0.00% and 0.25%. In our personal experience, we were dismissed as Fed Chairman after annual inflation literally went off the charts and hit 38.36% following 4 years of ZIRP.

If this model published by the Fed is right, then we have some dark days coming soon.

Of course, if it is wrong, then it still leaves open the question as to whether or not the "quantitative easing" and other Federal Reserve policies are good for the long term health of our nation.  If they can't publish a reasonably accurate model, then how can we trust their other decisions?

Delinquency

"I told you that 'juvenile delinquent' is a contradiction in terms. 'Delinquent' means 'failing in duty.' But duty is an adult virtue - indeed a juvenile becomes an adult when, and only when, he acquires a knowledge of duty and embraces it as dearer than the self-love he was born with. There never was, there cannot be a 'juvenile delinquent.' But for every juvenile criminal there are always one or more adult delinquents - people of mature years who either do not know their duty, or who, knowing it, fail

- Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein

Criminal Occupation

Disclaimer first, opinion after...

I am certain that most of the Occupy folks are decent enough people.  It is always tempting to make the weirdos and oddballs be the mean rather than the outlier.

But still, the Tea Party folks never had weirdos and oddballs of these dimensions.  Check out the list of serious crimes that are being committed in these Obamavilles.  And those are just the ones that have been reported.

The list does not include the many crimes that the various Occupy committees have successfully hushed up.  Their official position appears to be that they are unwilling to engage local law enforcement over criminal activities.

Rape appears to be the most common crime that these "committees" have the most trouble containing.

Worth considering by but unlisted is racism/anti-Semitism.  (A prominent theme for those following the Occupy antics via Glenn Reynolds' Instapundit.)

Many of the positive changes in our society over the last 30-40 years have occurred due to an expanded sense of tolerance.  What is lacking from the Occupy folks is discernment.  Tolerance is what causes a 16 year old girl to avert her gaze to the normal nudity experience when one is preparing for a good night's sleep.  Discernment is what causes her to call the cops when she becomes the object of to public masturbation.

Sadly, she possessed more discernment than the supposed adults that are running these protests.

Never Think The Worst

I'm glad I waited for clarification before offering any commentary about this event.  This was what I was hoping had happened.

"Whoever shot at the White House is basically a terrorist," LoRusso tells CityBeat, "and I was holding a moment of silence for the White House and President Obama and everyone in the White House. I wasn't holding a moment of silence for the terrorist in any way. We're a peaceful movement, and we don't support people shooting at the White House."

Although I do wonder if Dave Maass is aware that there are leftist blowhards that do much the same to folks that are not of a leftist mindset.  Me might try reading the pages of the NYTimes, WaPo...etc...etc....

Now That Is Fast!

At least if you scale it up properly....

More info and a poll here.

Consequences Of Arabian Affluence

As anyone who has studied wealth and demographics will tell you, money changes a people.  Along with a better standard of living, wealth buys a longer lifespan, education, and thus a more fulfilling way of spending one's years than simply squatting out a football team in some muddy backwater field.

Here is one illustration of how wealth and knowledge have changed birthrates.  The focus is on the Middle East, but the lesson is useful around the world.

A View From Above

This time lapse video from the International Space Station is fantastic.  Most of the views are of the night side of earth.  I saw Michigan and the rest of the Midwestern states in several passes.  The Nile river is also clearly visible.

The natural light shows are even more impressive.  Lightning rolls through the clouds as the space station flies overhead.  Also, the aurora borealis hangs shimmering in the atmosphere.

Just beautiful.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Miss Aurora's Long Lost Quilt

Although it was not exactly lost.  I knew where it was all the time.

What I didn't know was "when".  As is "when will I ever finish that quilt!"

A Small Update

You may have noticed that my Google Reader feed is gone.  Google, in their infinite wisdom, has eliminated the ability to "share" things read via Google Reader via that gadget.  Instead, you are expected to "share" with your Google+ page.

Google -.

'Cause There Is No Such Thing As Too Much Shatner

OK.  For those paying attention, this post appeared way before it was scheduled.  Then when I tried to change the date, it stayed published.  So I reverted to a draft, and tried to add this note.  But Blogger screwed with the video size.  Argh!!

In any case, this is the selected moment for you to enjoy Mr. Shatner's unique stylings.  Enjoy!

Violent Solutions III

"If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off? Of course not. You'd paddle it. There can be circumstances when it's just as foolish to hit an enemy city with an H-bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an axe. War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him...but to make him do what you want to do. Not killing...but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how - or why - he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us where and when and how. We supply the violence; other people - 'older and wiser heads,' as they say - supply the control. Which is as it should be."

- Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein



Offered in remembrance of all those that served our nation in defense of liberty.  Happy Veteran's Day to all.

The Engine Is Warm Now

As it was with racial integration, so it is with recognizing and validating the service of homosexuals in today's military.  It took a while to overcome the military opposition to racial integration.  But once it became policy, once the order was given, the military attacked the issue until it was essentially a non-issue.

I would expect that we will see the same thing now that people may serve openly in our armed forces.

Marine Commandant Gen. James Amos — who strongly opposed the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell last year — told NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday that he is “very proud” of how the Marines have handled the repeal of the policy last month. “I’m very pleased now,” Amos said and explained that his previous statements in support of the ban were expressing the hesitancy for change within the Marine Corps.

The Difference Between Occupiers And Tea Partiers

While there are some elements that should unite the two groups (i.e. distrust of the well connected well-to-do and their government toadies), there are other elements in which the difference could not be more clear.  Jeff Jacoby tries to get some mileage out of the 10th Commandment, but the larger point is in the sadly growing catalog of vandalism, rape, assault, and continued threats of violence from the Occupy group. 

Where the Tea Party folks left their gathering spots devoid of trash, the Occupy folks trash their gathering spots.  Policy pretentions aside, the Occupy folks appear to value nothing beyond their own existence.  Nothing matters to them unless it matters to them; narcissism in spades.

Of course, it only takes a few bad apples to spoil the barrel.  Were it not for a complacent media that ignores the blatant lawlessness of those few bad apples and their prior zealous attempts to convert a few minor blemishes into a worm in every Tea Party apple, we might justly and quickly purge the public debate such destructive disinterest in the well being of anyone not "occupying" a tent located inside a major metropolitan park.

Only then can a serious discussion of the issues at hand commence.

As Seen On Instapundit

Who saw it first on Facebook:

“The social contract exists so that everyone doesn’t have to squat in the dust holding a spear to protect his woman and his meat all day every day. It does not exist so that the government can take your spear, your meat, and your woman because it knows better what to do with them.”

Indeed.

Abolish Money?

Via Classical Values:

I'm sure there was a fair amount of cherry picking going on, but still!