Monthly Archives: August 2011

The Fonz Is Going To Jump A Shark

A long time ago there was a really good economist.  Then something happened and now that economist doesn’t exist anymore.

After claiming that aliens would solve our economic woes, now rumors are out that the aforementioned Krugman has claimed that a larger earthquake would drive economic recovery:

“People on twitter might be joking, but in all seriousness, we would see a bigger boost in spending and hence economic growth if the earthquake had done more damage.”

Right.

Reminds me of this:

Milton Friedman went to Asia to visit a jobs project; it seems that a canal needed to be built.  When he arrived on the site, he witnessed that the workers were using shovels and wheelbarrows.  He asked the government administrator why there wasn’t any heavy earth-moving machinery?  The official responded that this was a “jobs program”.

Milton responded, “Well, if that’s the case, why not give them spoons and buckets?”

On Why We MUST Fix Global Warming

This sums up my view of why the Left is so very critically concerned about the whole warming of the globe:

The solutions proposed by the left aim to leverage this problem to build the economic order they have failed to achieve by other means.

Exactly!

It would be easier to listen to the Liberal solution to this problem if it didn’t sound EXACTLY like the normal meme of taking resources from the evil rich and giving it to the victimized poor.

Now, go read the whole article.

Sonofabitch

Without comment:

Pat Summitt, the longtime women’s basketball coach at Tennessee who has won more games than any other major college coach, said she forgot things at crucial points in games at times last season and struggled to keep track of when meetings were scheduled. She grew so confused that on a few days she simply stayed home from work.

It was not until after the season ended that she sought a medical diagnosis and learned she has symptoms of early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

What The?

You have to win to govern.  And winning vs. losing in political races is a zero sum game.  When your opponent gets more votes, you lose and he wins.  This creates a situation where elected officials want to “win” the vote as much, or more, than they want to “win” the debate.

I get it, but this still sucks:

WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans are so anti-tax, surely they will fight to prevent a payroll-tax increase on virtually every wage earner starting Jan. 1, right?

Apparently not.

They’re saying a tax cut should end as planned, opposing President Obama, who wants to extend it. The policy helps the 46 percent of all Americans who owe no federal income taxes but who pay a “payroll tax” on practically every dime they earn.

Huh?

Surly they can explain themselves?

Tax reductions, “no matter how well-intended,” will push the deficit higher, making the panel’s task that much harder, Camp’s office said.

Nope.  They can’t.

I may give this whole thing up and just go watch some baseball.

Love Affair: John Huntsman

I wonder if the Left’s love affair with the man will change now:

WASHINGTON (AP) – Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman says he’d be open to running as vice president if rival and tea party favorite Michele Bachmann wins the nomination.

The former ambassador to China and ex-Utah governor says that every time he’s been asked to serve his country he’s answered “yes.” Huntsman tells CNN interviewer Piers Morgan that if asked by the Minnesota congresswoman to run as her vice president he’d “be the first person to sign up, absolutely.”

I wanna see how they spin the fact that he’s smart enough to call out the Republicans but yet can’t wait to serve as their new Arch-Enemy.

On Teachable Moments

I really REALLY love being lectured by the likes of her:

“This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned — the tea party can go straight to hell,” Waters said, according to Los Angeles television station KABC.

The gentle gentle Left.  So offended at language and words.

If you go listen to the video she even offers to help the Tea Party get to hell.  How sweet.

Hope And Change

It’s a long way until election day.  But I’m beginning to have a degree of Hope myself:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 20% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-four percent (44%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -24.

That matches the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for President Obama, a level previously reached just once last September.

I’m surprised that the junior level administrator made it this long.

 

Taxing The Rich

There were 3,912,980 tax returns in 2009 that had a taxable income of $200,000 or more.  These 3,912,980 households combined for a total taxable income of $1,625,622,124,000.  That is $1.6 trillion.  A lot, right?

Well, in 2009 our deficit was $1.4 trillion.

Blink.  Blink.

Imagine if you were to raise the tax rate on our richest friends and neighbors to 100%.  Not marginal mind you.  Marginal is where an individual is taxed at one percentage for a certain amount of his income, then another higher percentage at the next set of income and then more yet again at the next set.

That is, say the marginal rates were something like this:

Low Boundary High Boundary Rate
$0.00 $20,000.00 10.00%
$21,000.00 $50,000.00 20.00%
$51,001.00 $100,000.00 30.00%
$100,001.00 on up 40.00%

And someone made $200,000.  She would be taxed 10% on her first $20,000 for a total of $2,000.  Next she would be taxed 20% on her next $30,000 for a total of $6,000.  Her next step is to be taxed 30% on her income from $50,000 to $100,000, or $50,000 for a total of $15,000.  Last is her income above $100,000.  Because she makes a total of $200,000, she is taxed 40% on the remaining $100,000, or $40,000.

So, adding her taxes up as she climbs the progressive tax system, her tax is $2,000+$6,000+$15,000+$40,000 for a grand total of $63,000.

Imagine making $200,000 and having to give $63,000 of that to the government.  Ugh!

Anyway.  That’s how the system works today, in general; I didn’t use real numbers.  So, in our NEW tax world, we REALLY hate the rich so we’re gonna tax ’em at 100% total tax.  That is, for every $1 they earn, we’re gonna tax ’em $1.

If they make $285,000 we’ll collect $285,000 from ’em.  Alex Rodriguez and his $22 million contract?  All ours.  All of it.

Every dime.

The United States government would bring in $1.6 trillion.  After paying off the deficit we would have $200 billion left.  Not enough to even dent our remaining debt.

But guess what happens when people work their freakin’ asses off and get no money?  They conduct a value analysis and conclude that they could work for a whole year and make zero dollars OR they could do NOTHING and and make ZERO dollars.  Actually, what they’d ‘prolly do is accept a salary of $199,999 and be allowed to keep at least some of it.  But…but they probably wouldn’t do as much work as they were doing when they were earning all that money before.

The point is this.  You can tax the wealthy at 100% REAL tax and it wouldn’t even make a difference.  Raising the rate by 4 points isn’t gonna make a difference either.

None.

Surge In Solar Energy Technology

It appears that demand for rooftop solar panels is, ahem, heating up.  Even in Minnesota, hardly a, ahem, hotbed of solar innovation, the industry is seeing significant activity.

High demand for rooftop solar electric panels, especially for commercial buildings, has exhausted Xcel Energy’s Solar Rewards subsidy program for the year, shutting out other customers, solar industry officials said Monday.

“People are really excited about solar,” said Rebecca Lundberg, CEO of Powerfully Green.

Sounds great.  Right?

Maybe not.

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iPhone IV

I have acquired a new iPhone.  Perhaps I should have waited for the V, I just couldn’t stand the shattered screen and crummy call quality any longer.

So I have the IV.

I have discovered something that I think is a critical intersection.

  1. It’s a feature that is MASSIVELY useful and powerful.
  2. Not everyone knows about it.

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