Posted by
Kevin Smith – 3/19/09
After years of protesting that Bush was shredding the Constitution (certain points with which I would not disagree), the proud Democrat-led House has shown they don’t give a rat’s ass about the Constitution either. Why let those musty old laws get in the way of a good populist distraction anyway? No matter that the Constitution forbids the passage of a bill of attainder by Congress:
No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
More explanation of this ridiculous move over at Sweetness & Light.
Posted by
Kevin Smith – 3/14/09
Something has occurred to me, and so I’ll write this without any fluff or expansion.
The terrible irony of this financial time is that, on the one hand, we’re up in arms with endless news stories of a single man who swindled plenty of investors — though not nearly enough to crack a full percentage point of Americans. On the other hand, we’ve got a whole gaggle in Washington who are increasingly bankrupting a system in which they have likewise taken our money with a promised return. And by our, I mean every person in America who has worked or is working. Yes, all of us. Apparently we have no problem with this.
It’s as if the Ponzi schemer has time and again been exposed, performed a change of clothes, and then proceeded to win us over once more with, “Yes, that last suit caused such a horrible performance, but see? Now I’m new and improved! If you’ll only give me more of your money and stop asking so many questions, this thing can be fixed!”
Update: Heh, no sooner do I pen this thought than I read this: Bernard Madoff is Small Potatoes Compared to the Government.
Posted by
Kevin Smith – 3/5/09
Actually, I’m not planning on this being a daily feature, but this particular photo keeps catching my eye:
Posted by
Kevin Smith – 3/2/09
…with arguably the most ridiculously looking styles in 2009. Case in point:
I hope I see one of you wearing this soon. I need a good laugh.
Posted by
Kevin Smith – 3/1/09
One of the things I’d like people to notice about the attendees at our Tea Party protests is this: they’re all so very normal. It’s a massive group of fairly technologically connected people (they’d have to be, this thing was thrown together in less than a week and communicated almost exclusively on new media) who are sick of the way our Federal Government spends money. Flippantly. Without even reading the damn legislation they’re voting on. How on earth is that not criminal?
The rally had a bunch of folks attending who were regular, working-class people, taking their lunch break to make their voices heard.
You have to understand the significance of libertarian and conservative minded people staging a protest. That simply never happens.
Oh, Leftist protesters could only dream of having girls this good looking at their rallies! More NYC rally photos from Jeff Smith.
Posted by
Kevin Smith – 3/1/09
In trying to figure out just how much the corporate tax rate increases the cost of necessities like gas, I came across this little gem:
After examining data on more than 50,000 companies in nine European countries, [Wiji Arulampalam, Michael P. Devereux and Giorgia Maffini of Oxford University] concluded that “a substantial part of the corporation income tax is passed on to the labor force in the form of lower wages,” adding that “in the long-run a $1 increase in the tax bill tends to reduce real wages at the median by 92 cents.”
And it comes from the most unlikely of rags, the New York Times. In a piece published on June 1st of 2008, professor of economics N. Gregory Mankiw notes:
Despite these findings, a corporate tax cut as a way to help workers may strike some people as needlessly indirect. Why not just pass an income tax cut aimed squarely at working families, as Senator Barack Obama proposes?
The answer is that while most taxes distort incentives and shrink the economic pie, they do not do so equally. Compared with other ways of funding the government, the corporate tax is particularly hard on economic growth. A C.B.O. report in 2005 concluded that the “distortions that the corporate income tax induces are large compared with the revenues that the tax generates.” Reducing these distortions would lead to better-paying jobs.
Read the whole article. I like this guy, and I might start keeping track of him through his blog.
Posted by
Kevin Smith – 3/1/09
Obama’s dream is simply a theoretical vision that has never worked in practice and has always resulted in poorer services, increased costs and significantly less efficiency. But that’s okay, he’s from the government and he’s here to help us! It isn’t like we’ve never heard that one before!
More at Riehl World View.