Thoughts on what they tell us about the collectivist mindset (no, there’s nothing “liberal” about it).
Obama’s Hail Mary
Thoughts on the desperation of the collapsing presidency:
Once again, the president, who earlier extended President George W. Bush’s “tax cuts for millionaires,” is entering self-parody mode. Mr. Obama is like an Apple iPhone commercial but not in a good way. Need jobs? There’s a tax for that. Want health care? There’s a tax for that. Support energy reform? There’s a tax for that. Feel guilty about your success? There’s a big tax for that.
Assuaging liberals’ guilt is never easy, but assuaging billionaire liberals’ guilt is darn near impossible, at least in the case of Warren Buffett. The Oracle of Omaha is the namesake of Mr. Obama’s so-called “Buffett Rule,” which, simply stated, is this: Billionaires like Mr. Buffett who refuse to pay their own billion-dollar tax bills can proclaim moral superiority by calling for increased taxes on hardworking, job-producing Americans who dare to earn $200,000 a year.
Leaving aside the unbelievably poor judgment of naming a tax-increase rule after a billionaire who is in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over back taxes (was “Timothy F. Geithner TurboTax Rule” already taken?) the plan is based on the outright false claim that millionaires pay less in taxes than middle-class earners. That claim is “nothing more than an urban legend,” according to an Associated Press fact check. This election ploy will not be mistaken for a serious economic plan. Heck, it won’t even be mistaken for a competent election ploy.
He was mistaken for being competent once, though never by me, but I think the rubes have caught on.
That Was The Story Of The Dot-Com Boom
After we got the loan guarantee, we were just spending money left and right.
And that wasn’t with regard to politics.
NASA’s Falling Satellite
I answer six questions about it over at Popular Mechanics.
[Update a few minutes later]
Well, FEMA can relax — it won’t fall on us.
[Evening update, at least on the west coast]
Yes, I know that Skylab came in in 1979. I hope it will be fixed tomorrow.
I Am So Relieved
…to know that FEMA is prepared for the coming space-junk disaster.
Regulations Kill Jobs?
Why, that’s just crazy talk.
The Fable Of The Shoes
I have some thoughts on status-quo bias and human spaceflight over at Open Market.
CBS Is Finally Getting On The Case
I think that this is what one calls “a smoking gun”:
In secretly recorded conversations between two individuals deeply entwined in the ATF’s controversial “Fast and Furious” operation, the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry is described as “collateral damage.”
The recordings were obtained exclusively by CBS News. The man who made them – Arizona gun dealer Andre Howard – ran the Lone Wolf Trading Company and was speaking with Hope MacAllister, the ATF operation’s case agent.
Two of the guns Howard sold while cooperating with the ATF that were later found at Terry’s murder.
“It happened. It’s terrible,” Howard said. “That’s life ok we move on.”
We move on, and try to cover it up, so we can keep doing it.
Imagine if this were a Republican White House.
The Budget Numbers
Bringing them down to size. That’s a presentation that even Barack Obama might understand.
Tax And Spend
…is not a jobs plan.