Turn It Up To 11

Turning up the volume on federal spending - San Antonio Express-News

Interesting and slightly different perspective on BO spending. I kind of like the idea of Nigel Tufnel day ... 11-11-11.

Where does it all end? In the real world, when you push spending, deficits and debt to record levels — 11, 11, 11, right across the board — the national fuses blow and the music of prosperity ends. When it does, you're left with a country in fiscal crisis that looks a lot like Greece does today. But, as Nigel might say, “That's just nitpicking, isn't it?”

With any luck, by 2013, "Puppet Show" could get top billing over Barack Obama!

Moyers Powell Memo

How Wall Street Occupied America | The Nation:

Bill Moyers is left of left. Not that surprising, he is a multi-millionaire author, producer and PTV personality.

This column is quite interesting to read, especially when contrasted with the actual memo it attempts to frame http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=5971

The infamous on the left "Powell Memo", sent to the US Chamber of Commerce shortly before Powell was appointed to the Supreme Court is a cause celeb on the left, exceeding things like "Rules for Radical" and "Cloward Piven Strategy" for conservatives. From the POV of folks like Moyers, it is the beginning of evil.

Much as we see in the memo itself, Moyers seems to feel that conservatives, business, corporations, etc should not be allowed a voice. To allow them such is to "deny the people". One wonders who it was that elected his worshipfullness Obummer in '08? Oh wait, "The One" himself is not far enough to the left for Moyers. While the "radical", Powell, found the idea of class warfare to be a danger to the nation, Moyers relishes it ... much like Robespierre, he believes that "equality of outcome" must be obtained at all costs, including blood in the streets -- a common cost for the "utopians".

The noxious Moyers is enough to make one understand why the Islamists cut off people's heads! 

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Killer Apps or Collapse

Niall Ferguson: How American Civilization Can Avoid Collapse - The Daily Beast

A MUST READ!!!

Essentially, either we reboot out killer apps or we collapse WAY faster than anyone is thinking.

Remember how stupid the left thought Reagan was when he talked about the USSR and "the Ash Heap of History"??

It can happen VERY VERY fast!!!!

Here is the list of "Killer Apps", but READ IT!

Western Civilization's Killer Apps

COMPETITION
Western societies divided into competing factions, leading to progressive improvements.

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
Breakthroughs in mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and biology.

THE RULE OF LAW
Representative government based on private-property rights and democratic elections.

MODERN MEDICINE
19th- and 20th-century advances in germ theory, antibiotics, and anesthesia.

THE CONSUMER SOCIETY
Leaps in productivity combined with widespread demand for more, better, and cheaper goods.

THE WORK ETHIC
Combination of intensive labor with higher savings rates, permitting sustained capital accumulation.

Liberal War

Frank Rich on Occupy Wall Street and Class Warfare -- New York Magazine:

A long and rambling column, not worth reading. The bottom line ... if there is any, "Hooray for class warfare"!

Anybody remember when the Tea Party was "scary"?? Was there ever ONE person arrested at any sort of Tea Party rally, demonstration, etc??? What would the total number of arrests on OWS be now? A grand?

Oh, that is a GOOD thing! At least now ... with the Tea Party, ANY ... even made up, thought of racism, violence, etc was tantamount to time to call out the guard. Now? Anti-semitic? No, they just don't like "Jewish Bankers" ... hmm.

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Ten Drinkers and Taxes

The following "myth, parable, story, tale, joke, etc" has made many rounds of the net. It has been considered "debunked", because the AUTHORSHIP attributed is often wrong. Truth doesn't need an attrbuted author, and it certainly is not "improved" by being alledgedly sent from a PHD or journalist, or whatever.

The point is to look at the numbers and realize how foolish it is to continue to abuse the top for being successful. It would be FAR better for the rest of us to do some thinking, education and most of all DOING in order to improve out own rate. Perhaps we can pay our own bar tab someday

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our income taxes, it would go something like this: The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing. The fifth would pay $1. (1% of the bill) The sixth would pay $3. (3%) The seventh would pay $7. (7%) The eighth would pay $12. (12%) The ninth would pay $18. (28%) The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59. (59% of the bill) So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. "Since you are all such good customers", he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20". Drinks for the ten now cost just $80. The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?" They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay. And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings on his previous tax payment for 5th man) The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings). The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings). The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings). The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings). The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings). Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man. "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!" "That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!" "Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill! And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

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Weather is Not Climate

Early snowstorm hits Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, crimps travel - CNN.com:

Weather is not climate ... so neither this or heat records in TX last summer counts as "climate change".

"Strange or chaotic weather" is not proof of climate change, and certainly not proof a causal relationship with humans. Whatever the old record was in 1869 was "chaotic weather" as well -- happening over 100 years ago. Our lifespans are short, 100 or 200 years is a very short span for "climate". Climate is something that DOES change in large and small ways ... eg. ice ages, medieval warming period, little ice age. It always has, and it probably always will ... however it will be 10s of thousands of years before we have observed at least on cycle from warm to cold (ice age), back to warm again. Note however that ONE is not necessarily a pattern.

Political ideology tends to be "reality independent". The left, those oriented toward government control are ALWAYS going to see conditions, both real and imagined, as reasons to increase their "benevolent" control on the rest of the recalcitrant human race.

"Lesser, albeit still significant amounts were measured in other locales around the northeast, including 1.3 inches of snow in New York's Central Park as of 2 p.m. -- the most ever for this date since record-keeping began in 1869. And snow continued to fall Saturday evening, as the system moved over New England."

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Why BOnomics Sucks

Allan H. Meltzer: Four Reasons Keynesians Keep Getting It Wrong - WSJ.com:

Short and sweet ... here is my REALLY short and sweet version, but his is a bit more "educational". Why or why do so many people not understand this????

1). Current high deficits promise higher taxes or inflation in the future (if you run up your credit card, you have to pay it + interest in the future)

2). Redistribution to non-workers is a less optimum asset allocation than distribution to workers so you have less overall. ( if you drink your beer from a lawn sprinkler vs a can, you get less)

3). Regulations are painful ... and uncertainty about them is painful too. ( Making you walk on broken glass today is painful, promising to nail your feet to the floor in the future doesn't make it any better)

4). Short term fixes are short term fixes ... Going out for an expensive dinner and getting drunk if I lose my job may make me feel better tonight ... but in the AM, not so much.

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I Am The 53%

The 53%: Occupy Wall Street backlash - Oct. 26, 2011:

NOTE, if it is really really true that 53% still pay Federal Income taxes, we need to get this tide turned RIGHT NOW!!! (I thought we already were less than 50%).

We need to get it to like 90% that pay Income taxes ... "taking part" is very very important. It is really hard for any adult to believe that this is "their country" when they are paying nothing in income tax.

Once you are taking part in paying, the situation gets to be a lot more relative to "the 1%" as the rest of the Packers are to Aaron Rodgers. Yes, he is ONE GUY, but he is the QB ... negatively affect his performance and your season takes a turn for the worse.

When you are taking part, paying taxes, and "on the US Team", you have a whole different attitude about your income producing star performers!

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Bad Money, Good Money

Our Money = Good, Their Money = Bad | Power Line:

Good coverage of how Mark Dayton's ex-wife, a Rockefeller heiress, is a heroine for spending millions on liberal causes, including explicitly targeting Republicans in the MN legislature so that her ex can have a friendly legislature to deal with in the 2nd part of his term.

Isn't all that hard to contrast that with the treatment of say, the Koch brothers in the very same media outlets.

Of course, they aren't biased, it is just a matter of business / conservative views being bad, and liberal anti-business views being good!

Simple, no bias here, move along.

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Too Cynical for NYTs?

Occupy Wall Street and Hollywood - NYTimes.com:

Wow, what's a mother to do? The Times is having trouble with the hypocrisy and cynicism of 1%s with Hollywood connections hanging out with the OWS movement? Wassup wid dat???

The rap mogul Russell Simmons and the rapper Kanye West meandered over to Occupy Wall Street’s cradle, Zuccotti Park. By all accounts West was wearing more bling, though Simmons has bigger bucks: his net worth has been estimated as being between $100 million and $340 million. West’s is below that, and he made only $16 million or so last year.

I mean, come on! The Kennedy's have been friends of the "little man" forever while they lived in their estates and trust funds. Our own MN governor is filthy rich with his money stored out of state to avoid even the current taxes which he feels are way short of hard enough on "the rich". Buffet and Gates talk a great game --- yet they propose to give their billions to charity through foundations on their own terms, not have it confiscated by the government through estate taxes.

The hypocrisy of the wealthy left has been obvious to even a casual observer for decades --- it is just that the NYTimes isn't usually one of those places that takes any note of it at all.

All that said, this is TWICE in the last couple weeks that I've been surprised by the perspective of the Times as being somewhat rational!!!

Maybe there IS a chance after all.

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How Curious

What Do Samuel Alito Sr. and Mario Rubio Have In Common? | Power Line:

Still, it is good to know that America’s reporters haven’t completely forgotten how to do research. Given the lack of interest they have shown in Barack Obama’s early life–that is, his life before 2004–to say nothing of his father’s history–and the studiousness with which they avoided learning anything at all about John Edwards, I thought maybe they had given up researching presidential candidates altogether.

It nothing short of incredible how incurious the US press was and is about the background of BO, let alone his father and family. The contrast with how massively interested they are in Rubio, Palin, Bachman, Perry, etc.

The MSM tells us that isn't do to bias, so it must be that Republicans have inherently more interesting lives than Democrats.

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Honesty From NYTimes!

The Ugliness All Started With Bork - NYTimes.com

I'm not sure it really "all started", but there is no doubt that relative to any sense of comity in the Senate, Bork was "Pear Harbor".

The frequency of completely partisan take-downs is much greater than the column suggests -- the destruction of Dan Quayle, the attack on Clarence Thomas, the complete fabrication of the need for investigation of the alleged Scooter Libby leak.

Yes, yes, it happens on both sides, but it happens FAR more often from the left, because while the left might actually own up to things (a tiny bit), 24 years after the fact, when they circle their wagons, the NYTimes, NPR, CBS, etc are not doing any talking out of turn. Maybe a quarter of a century after the fact ... but really, so what??

Will we have to hit bottom before we realize that a reasoned discussion on the constitution would be far more beneficial to our nation than a hyperpartisan personal takedown or a learned, intelligent public servant??

I seriously don't know ... but a quarter century is better than never for someone to admit the facts, and it ought to be applauded.

Google Self-Driving Car

How Google's Self-Driving Car Works - IEEE Spectrum

Well worth the read. We are very close to having the technology, how will we deal with the legal repercussions?? We lose 10's of thousands of people on the road now. Say we lost "100's" each year due to errors / failures in this technology. Could Google (or anyone) survive the law suits from the "few hundred" that die because of "automated systems failure"??

It could likely save more energy than everything BO has even proposed to date (smoothness, efficiency, less need to hurry on the drive since you are working / on the net anyway, drafting on the highway, etc).

The top execs at Google are of course in the "1%" that OWS is targeting. Guess they are "evil" after all.

The Spending Cut Myth

The Austerity Myth: Federal Spending Up 5% This Year - Investors.com

In fact, in the first nine months of this year, federal spending was $120 billion higher than in the same period in 2010, the data show. That's an increase of almost 5%. And deficits during this time were $23.5 billion higher.

So statements like the following from Biden's old adviser and Krugman are either extremely misinformed, or lies.

Jared Bernstein, former chief economic adviser to Vice President Biden, wrote over the summer that "government spending cutbacks have been a large drag on growth in recent quarters and have led to sharp losses in state and local employment."

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argued in September that "the turn toward austerity (is) a major factor in our growth slowdown."

The MSM keeps convincing people that the evil Republicans have "cut spending", and that has "hurt the economy". The fact is that we are spending worse than ever, AT BEST, the RATE OF GROWTH may have been cut a bit.

Wisconsin Breaks Corrupt Cycle

Wisconsin schools buck union to cut health costs | Byron York | Politics | Washington Examiner

The big reason that the unions and the Democrats fought so hard in WI is that WEA Trust was sucking money out of the taxpayers that was being funneled into the coffers of the Democrat party!! Along with stopping the state from being the bagman for union dues, this is a huge hit at the standard union corruption that has been feeding the $$$ into state and national level Democrats.

The problem for Hartland-Lakeside was that WEA Trust was charging significantly higher rates than the school district could find on the open market. School officials knew that because they got a better deal from United HealthCare for coverage of nonunion employees. On more than one occasion, Superintendent Glenn Schilling asked WEA Trust why the rates were so high. "I could never get a definitive answer on that," says Schilling.