Stop attacking the evangelicals, writes Kirsten Powers.
Actually, while it is socially acceptable among leftists to be bigots against Christians (and southerners), Tea Party members are fair game, too.
The Neglect Of Communist Crimes
It should be just as socially unacceptable to wear a hammer and sickle, or Mao jacket, or Che tee shirt, as it is to wear a swastika.
[Update a few minutes later]
Yes, I know the piece is a couple years old. It’s worth reposting, though, given the proximity of the fiftieth anniversary of the Wall being erected.
Backslash
Some thoughts from Eugene Volokh. I didn’t know that people were confused on this issue. But it is irritating that Microsoft screwed things up with DOS (as they did many other things).
“What Is Dutch?”
Multiculturalism is on the wane in the Netherlands, as well it should be.
[Update a couple minutes later]
This may be related: do excess welfare payments cause riots? There certainly seems to be a correlation.
Going Galt In California
The Amazon tax isn’t working out the way the Theftocrats in Sacramento expected.
Unexpectedly!
Finally, A Real Debt Solution
What’s In A Name
Some thoughts on the nautical origins of the symbolism of the Space Shuttle. I agree with some commenters, though — a true space ship would never enter the atmosphere. And it’s where NASA’s focus should be, not on a giant rocket to nowhere.
Warren Buffett
…and his fiscal innumeracy. But he supports Barack Obama, so that’s OK.
[Update a while later]
The statistic I would like to see is the amount of tax paid relative to consumption. By that measure, it is possible that Buffett’s tax rate was more than 100 percent.
I do not care if he pays very little tax on saving. I would rather he pay zero tax on saving. His taxes are too high, not too low.
That doesn’t fit the narrative.
Good Shot By Romney
He’s calling the president’s latest campaign stunt the “Magical Misery Bus Tour.”
Give War A Chance
I quit reading Paul Krugman long ago, so I hadn’t realized that he was now advocating a war on space. Does he have an exit strategy?
I’ll let Maguire properly lampoon it, but I would note something that people rarely do about a payroll-tax cut:
My impression of the general economic consensus is that hiring people to dig and re-fill holes, or monitor for space aliens, does not provide any more stimulus than any other cash transfer to a person likely to spend it. Handing out money on street corners, the Bernanke helicopter drop, and payroll tax cuts should all be in play.
If a proposed stimulative shovel-ready project adds social value (e.g., a usefual bridge, or a useful bridge repair), then borrow the money for it; if the project adds nothing, it won’t be more stimulative than a cash transfer. Krugman’s belief in the power of make-work and his preference for that over tax cuts, is motivated by somethig other than standard economic textbook theory.
The payroll-tax reduction that we managed to get out of the Democrats was on the employee side (as is fitting with their insistence on demand-side, rather than supply-side economics). It is extra money in the employees’ pockets, which they presumably spend. But it does nothing to ensure that they have jobs. A cut on the employer side, on the other hand, would make it cheaper to hire people. This sort of encapsulates the economic divide between the two parties.