Thomas Friedman: Wile E. Coyote Op-Ed Writer

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Rich Horton

From one of the NY Times super-geniuses:

 I had to catch a train in Washington last week. The paved street in the traffic circle around Union Station was in such poor condition that I felt as though I was on a roller coaster. I traveled on the Amtrak Acela, our sorry excuse for a fast train, on which I had so many dropped calls on my cellphone that you’d have thought I was on a remote desert island, not traveling from Washington to New York City. When I got back to Union Station, the escalator in the parking garage was broken. Maybe you’ve gotten used to all this and have stopped noticing. I haven’t. Our country needs a renewal.

Gee, that’s a coincidence. I too was recently at Union Station in DC having caught the MARC train down from Baltimore where my wife and I stayed while she hits some libraries for a biography she is writing.

For those who do not know DC well, and as someone who lived there for eight years, let me fill you in on a couple things:

A) There is no traffic circle around Union Station (mostly because of all the train tracks coming into it…. duh.)

B) There is a traffic circle in front of Union Station…. well kind of. Columbus Circle isn’t a traffic circle the way Dupont Circle is. In fact, it is less a traffic circle and more a traffic ampersand. (Strange but true.)

C) That traffic circle is currently being re-constructed. That is why its so bumpy.

D) Union Station itself is in the middle of a large renovation project. Maybe this could explain why Mr. Friedman was inconvenienced so by that faulty escalator. One can only hope he was able to extricate himself from the station in an unexerted state.

E) The wife and I used our phone, which uses the dodgier Virgin Mobile network to boot, along the line as far as Princeton Junction with nary a problem. Maybe Mr. Friedman should think about switching carriers.

F) I can’t say anything about the Acela one way or the other. Normal people like us can’t afford to take it. The slower trains we were on were clean and comfortable. Of course, without a quicker train we may have been forced to do without this particular piece of Mr. Friedman’s work. Now that would have been a tragedy too terrible to contemplate.

I’m always suspicious of these personal anecdotes used to illustrate whatever point an Op-Ed writer is trying to make. I nearly always suspect they are BS. In this case I know it is BS because I was just there.

And, when we see one of the reasons why the road is bumpy and the escalators aren’t necessarily working, etc. is that we are already doing the “renewal” the opinion piece claims we are not doing… well, its enough for me to just shake my head and say “Shut up.”

Posted in Media | 1 Comment

Our Tax Future

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Rich Horton

Almost an actual proposal: Romney Specifies Deductions He’d Cut

Mitt Romney, speaking at a private fundraising event on Sunday, offered the first details of deductions he would eliminate or limit in order to offset the income tax cut he has proposed for all taxpayers.

 Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, said he would eliminate or limit for high-earners the mortgage interest deduction for second homes, and likely would do the same for the state income tax deduction and state property tax deduction.

 He also said he would look to the Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for budget cuts.

 Mr. Romney discussed his plans while speaking to high-dollar donors at a private estate. During the backyard event, which could be heard by reporters outside on a public sidewalk, Mr. Romney offered policy specifics he has yet to unveil on the campaign trail.

 Mr. Romney has pledged a 20% cut to income tax rates for taxpayers in all income brackets but has offered few details for how he would pay for the proposal. Mr. Romney also has vowed to bring federal spending under control, while offering few details on which programs he would cut.

The problem with all of these sorts of things is it is difficult to know what the impact will be at the level of the individual. Like most Americans I don’t hold a mortgage on a second home, so there is no personal impact on my family there. However, I do itemize deductions including state income and property taxes. So I hear this proposal and I immediately think “Crap. I’ll have to take the standard deduction.”

But, what would the overall impact be?

It’s hard to know exactly how the ”20% cut to income tax rates for taxpayers in all income brackets” will be implemented, but right now my taxes came to 13% of taxable income. A 20% reduction in that rate would result in a 10.4% rate. However, using the standard deduction (sans the state income and property tax deductions) would raise my taxable income 3.5%.

The net result? Under Romney’s plan my family would owe $1100 less in taxes.

I could live with that.

Posted in Taxes | 5 Comments

“Political Science A ‘Gaffe’” Says New York Times

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Rich Horton

Who knew? Romney’s Day to Relish Is Marred by Aide’s Gaffe

Mitt Romney sought to use the coveted endorsement of Jeb Bush on Wednesday to amplify his call for Republicans to rally behind his candidacy and get on with the mission of ousting President Obama….

…But if the endorsement held the potential to further choke off the oxygen to Mr. Santorum’s insurgent candidacy, the Romney campaign inadvertently gave Mr. Santorum a new supply when a senior adviser went on CNN and seemed to suggest that Mr. Romney’s conservative positions in the primary season could change like an Etch A Sketch drawing.

“I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign,” Eric Fehrnstrom, a longtime adviser to Mr. Romney, said in response to a question about pivoting to a matchup with Mr. Obama and appealing to moderate swing voters. “Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”

OK, fine. I realize the Santorum and Gingrich campaigns are desperate, and will say any damn fool thing in a vain attempt to bolster their fading relevance, but why is the Times endorsing such foolishness?

And it is foolish. One thing Political Science has shown us very clearly is that candidates run towards their party’s ideological base during primaries and run towards the center in general elections. Every candidate has the “do over” moment, usually on television at the moment of their nomination acceptance speech, where they stop focusing on the base. We all know this. Its a truism of American politics.

How can acknowledging a truism be a “gaffe”? The short answer is, it can’t. The more cynical among us might speculate on the motives of the Times in portraying this unremarkable statement the way they are. For example, they may be panicked
at the idea of the GOP coalescing around Romney at this early date – a date far earlier than the Democrats managed in 2008 I might add – so this is their feeble attempt to keep the contest going a little longer. Who knows.

The way it looks, however, is that the Times is simply ignorant of the most basic parameters of American politics.

Sadly, that sounds just as plausible.

Posted in Media, Politics | Tagged | Comments Off

Romney’s Time

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Rich Horton

Can't you feel the power of this slogan?RedState has it right:

It is a mathematical improbability that Rick Santorum will get to the magic number of 1,144 — the number of delegates needed to be the Republican Presidential nominee. It is a political improbability that Rick Santorum will stop Mitt Romney from getting to 1,144.

Last night in Illinois, Mitt Romney won his first victory without caveats.

Even in Florida, a big win, there were plenty — counties that saw increased turnout rejected him. The northern part of the state rejected him. It required an amalgamation of voters not quite typical of the base to get Romney the nod in Florida.

In Illinois, Romney won. Period. The Santorum campaign stumbled badly in Puerto Rico, gave up a lead in Illinois, and the candidate proved horribly undisciplined. Like Dug the dog in Up getting distracted by every random squirrel, Rick Santorum loses all ability to focus when social issues come up….

Theoretically, Rick Santorum could keep Romney from getting to 1,144. But as Romney piles up more and more wins and neither the Gingrich nor Paul campaigns remain factors, let alone have pulses, the inevitable will set in. Conservatives may not really like Mitt Romney, but they do not want a fractured party too divided to beat Barack Obama. There will be no white knight, no dark horse, and no brokered convention. We have our nominee.

I’ve already stated my apathy towards the current crop of candidates, though I haven’t had the energy to outline exactly the reasons behind my apathy. (When you are apathetic, that’s often the way it goes.)

Of the four still standing in the GOP race, Romney is probably the easiest for me to put up with, and that will have to be enough. I’m certainly not interested in looking at the others and pretending they are someone they are not. There exists a smart and intellectually rigorous form of conservatism, but it isn’t represented in this race. Instead we have a choice between a wonkish bureaucrat, an economic ideologue, a 1950′s style moralizing church lady, and a consummate creature of Washington.

I ain’t excited about it, but I’ll put up with the wonkish bureaucrat.

Cross-posted at The Iconic Midwest

Note: It’s been too quiet on BCB. I don’t know where Gaius has gotten himself off to, but as long as the site is running I’ll be adding my election posts… and any Animal Uprising info I get.

Posted in Politics, Republicans | Tagged | 2 Comments

The Associated Press: Dumber Than A Box Of Rocks

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Rich Horton

From the couldn’t make this up department: Northeast braces for temps near boiling point

The extreme heat that’s been roasting the eastern U.S. is only expected to get worse, and residents are bracing themselves for temperatures near and above boiling point.

Really? Some place is going to be above 212 degrees? What is amazing is this isn’t just an example of a stupid headline. The story itself makes the claim. How dumb can you get?

Part of me wants to go looking for sites that are believing this AP story. Another part of me is afraid I’d be too depressed by what I’d find.

Here is the screen-shot:

(H/T to Doug Power @ Malkin’s place)

UPDATE:

I just had to add this comment left on the original story: “Confirmed – New York media lives in their own ether (boiling point 94 °F).”

Posted in Junk Science, Observations | 3 Comments

David Frum Ain’t No Martin Luther

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Rich Horton

I agree with much of this piece by David Frum, but when he falls off the rails he really falls off the rails:

Give me a hammer and a church-house door, and I’d post these theses for modern Republicans…

5) We can collect more revenue without raising tax rates.

Republicans stand for low taxes to encourage people to work, save and invest. But how would it discourage work if we reduced the mortgage-interest deduction again?

Even if I agreed it wouldn’t discourage work, what about the “save” and “invest” portions of the statement. Why did they all of a sudden disappear from the equation?

Did it hurt the economy when we reduced the maximum eligible loan to $1 million back in 1986?

I don’t know. Why not link to a study confirming that it didn’t. For all we know maybe it did have a negative impact. I hate it when people make rhetorical questions out of ones that are subject to empirical answers…like Frum does again in the very next sentence.

Do Canadians and Brits — who lack the deduction — work less hard than Americans?

Why, as a matter of fact they do. According to the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development Americans work 8 more work days than Canadians and 16 more days than Brits. Additionally, Americans rank 4th in productivity while the UK and Canada rank 11th and 14th respectively. Any other empirical questions you want to ask? (Please note: I am not saying this difference between American and other workers is due to the mortgage-interest deduction. I’m merely pointing out that the difference exists where Frum claims it doesn’t.)

Wouldn’t higher taxes on energy encourage conservation? Who decided to allow inflation to corrode federal alcohol taxes by 80% over the past 50 years?

Wait a second, how are raising taxes on energy and alcohol an example of raising revenue without raising taxes?

But even then I’m calling BS on the numbers Frum is using when it comes to the alcohol tax. The rate 50 years ago was first established in 1951 at $10.50 per gallon. This rate was increased from a $9 per gallon rate established during World War II. (The federal tax on distilled spirits went from $2 per gallon in 1938 to $9 per gallon in 1944.) In 2010 dollars the World War II rate would be the equivalent of $110 per gallon (or about $22 for each 750ml bottle in Federal tax alone.) The 1951 rate would work out to $87 per gallon (or about $17.40 per 750ml bottle.) Is Frum advocating we should, as a matter of course, be taxed routinely at nearly the same level as during World War II? Nonsense. Nonsense on stilts.

Now, if someone wanted to adjust the tax to be in line with the last time it was raised (in 1991), which would mean taking it from the present $13.50 per gallon to $21 (i.e. from $2.70 to $4.20 per 750ml bottle), I could see a rationale. This is particularly so as such a number would be in line with what we have historically taxed alcohol at when we didn’t have a world war ongoing. Even during the American Civil War when the spirits tax was raised 1000% between 1862 and 1865, the resulting tax would only amount to $28 per gallon in today’s dollars. It says something about the change in this country that after the Civil War ended the emergency tax rate was dropped and alcohol taxes dropped from $2 per gallon to 50 cents (about $8.09 in 2010 dollars.) After World War II the “crisis” rate was kept.

So, while I agree with Frum on many particulars, this cavalier attitude about other people’s money is really grating. It is one of the main reasons so many people are distrustful of “mainstream” Republicans these days as being no different than most Democrats when it comes to big government.

Posted in Politics, Taxes | 1 Comment

House Democrats Are The New Patty Hearst?

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Rich Horton

I don’t blame all liberals for junk like this as it seems only liberal “journalists” are actually this brand of stupid: The tea party’s terrorist tactics

It has become commonplace to call the tea party faction in the House “hostage takers.” But they have now become full-blown terrorists.

They have joined the villains of American history who have been sufficiently craven to inflict massive harm on innocent victims to achieve their political goals. A strong America has always stood firm in the face of terrorism. That tradition is in jeopardy, as Congress and President Barack careen toward an uncertain outcome in the tea party- manufactured debt crisis.

As we stumble closer to Aug. 2, it has become clear that many in the tea party are willing to inflict massive harm on the American people to obtain their political objective of a severely shrunken federal government. Their persistence in rejecting compromise, even as the economic effects of the phony crisis they have created mount, has taken their radicalism beyond tough negotiating, beyond even hostage-taking.

Got that? Tea party types not voting for Boehner’s plan equals terrorism bent on destroying the nation.

What about Demcorats not voting for Boehner’s plan? If Dems in the House were to vote for the Boehner plan it would pass in the House even if the tea party caucus continued to oppose it. House Democrats were they to join with the Republicans Boehner has on board clearly have the votes to get it passed, yet they refuse to do so. They have even gone as far as to brag that “No Democrats will vote for it.”

The funny thing is no journalist is calling them terrorists for not voting for the Boehner plan. No one is calling them ideological for not compromising. Plus, the upshot of House Dems not budging an inch is making Boehner throw in useless crap like a “balance budget amendment” in an effort to appease the tea partiers which does absolutely nothing to move the process forward in the long run as Democrats, last time I checked, still controlled the Senate and the White House.

The reality is “tea party Republicans” cannot do anything unless the Democrats go along with them, which is exactly what they are doing.

Not acknowledging this fact isn’t responsible journalism. It is hackery of the most cynical and intellectually dishonest kind.

Posted in Left Wing, Politics | 1 Comment

Drowning In America

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Gaius

Mark Steyn – read it.

And speaking of drowning, notice the MSM is not screeching about the ongoing flood along the Missouri River? Coverage is very spotty, some Reuters stories and local news coverage.

Oh, and Salon manages to turn it into class warfare rather than the complete, abysmal failure of the Corps of Engineers that it actually is.

That region is where the food comes from, folks.

Posted in Appalling | 1 Comment

All Your Datas Belong Us

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Gaius

Apple iCloud = They own you. Welcome to the Apple Silo:

Apple is giving iCloud away for free, because locking up our content in the Apple cloud means we’ll buy more Apple devices. It’s Apple’s way of circling the wagons around its ecosystem, according to ZDNet, and I agree. Analysts love it as a business strategy. Whether consumers will love being stamped “Owned by Apple’s iCloud” isn’t so clear. Funambol chief executive Fabrizio Capobianco, whose company provides open-source sync services,

“If you own an Android device (just one, and keep in mind they are getting everywhere, in your TV, car and so on), or a BlackBerry, or a Windows phone… you are screwed with iCloud. This is the Apple silo. Everything will work as long as you stay within the silo.”

Just another day in iParadise. All – All – of your stuff in one handy, Apple-controlled place. Subject to Apple dictates, of course.I simply cannot wait until the horror stories start – and they will.

Posted in Geek Stuff | 1 Comment

There Are No Words

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Gaius

Clean ones, anyway. Spread word on this obscenity. The leftist major media won’t.

Via Ann Althouse.

Posted in Left Wing, Madness | 2 Comments

Criminal Shovels

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Gaius

Good Lord. Canada, what the heck are you doing?

Posted in Animals, Appalling | 1 Comment

Wienergate

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Gaius

(And, yes, I spelled it that way on purpose). Mark Steyn comments on the Weiner crotch-shot.

Posted in Appalling, Democrats | Comments Off

Rabid Rodent Rampage

Posted on June 4, 2011 by Gaius

The attack of the rabid beavers. In Philadelphia, for heaven’s sake.

Obviously, I’ve been failing to keep up with the Animal Uprising™.

(Side question: Why is there not a band called the Rabid Beavers? There ought to be.)

Posted in Animals | Comments Off

The Silent Disaster

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Gaius

The “major media” appears to be completely ignoring what is happening in the Midwest right now. After all, the crest is passed in Vicksburg and the reporters are hot on the trail of a young boy who may have been fathered by a former governor of California. Or whatever mediatrivia they are insisting is really, really important now.

Great. Except that this is where the food comes from, folks.

Read it.

It will be very bad.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Satan Welcomes Osama For The Next Few Million Years

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Rich Horton

Thank God.

Osama bin Laden, hunted as the mastermind behind the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, has been killed, President Obama announced tonight.

The president called the killing of bin Laden the “most significant achievement to date” in the effort to defeat al Qaeda.

“Justice has been done,” Obama said.

Bin Laden was located at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, which was monitored and when the time was determined to be right, the president said, he authorized a “targeted operation.”

“A small team of Americans carried out the operation,” Obama said. “After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”

Party like its 1999 folks.

And lets hear it for the Navy seals who took the bastard out.

Nice going Navy.

Posted in Because I Felt Like It, War | Comments Off