Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Learn economics at the Tunnel Wall



A socialist attempts to explain why she thinks socialism will work...this time.

Many in the comments section of the above Youtube link take issue with this video, but it is very close to at least one "progressive" I know.

The University of Texas and Racial Preferences

Hans A. von Spakovsky  "Abigail Fisher’s application to the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 was rejected. Had she been black or Hispanic, she almost certainly would have been accepted — and so she and another student in a similar circumstance filed a lawsuit. So far, the federal courts have ruled against them, reinforcing the odious notion that colleges can discriminate on the basis of race — as long as the right people are being discriminated against.
"But that may soon change."
National Review Online



Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Obama Hits Bottom

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE   "Worse, this tax hike would immediately devalue the investments of millions of American households, and would make investing in American firms, which already labor under the developed world’s second-highest corporate-tax rate, even less attractive. It would do so precisely at the time when we should be encouraging investment, which is the only real source of reliable long-term job growth."
http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/lisabenson
While we believe that a tax increase is bad medicine for a country on the cusp of a double-dip recession and suffering from the weakest growth and worst job market in modern history, practically all parties — Republicans and Democrats, supply-side conservatives and their tormenters at the Brookings Institution — agree that a deep and fundamental reorganization of the U.S. tax code is highly desirable, and there are several excellent proposals for doing so. President Obama’s preference for simply jacking up tax rates on families earning $250,000 and more is crude and childish in comparison with the proposals of thoughtful Democrats, to say nothing of those offered by more sensible conservatives.

American Civil War Battle of Antietam, Sept 17th, 1862

The Battle of Antietam, 149 years ago: Wikipedia summary:
Referred to in the South as the Battle of Sharpsburg, since they named battles after the closest town. The northerners named the battles after the closest river.
Antietam battle maps
The Battle of Antietam "...also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, particularly in the South), fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland, and Antietam Creek, as part of the Maryland Campaign, was the first major battle in the American Civil War to take place on Northern soil. It was the bloodiest single-day battle in American history, with about 23,000 casualties."
Civil War Trust  Click on the slide show at this page for pictures, then and now.
The Maryland campaign of 1862
"The American Civil War Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg) put an end to General Lee's 1862 incursion into the North, gave President Lincoln the victory he needed to issue the crucial Emancipation Proclamation, and probably doomed the Confederacy's hopes for European recognition and support." More here. 
Historian Bruce Catton's essay on the Emancipation Proclamation.


Maybe we shouldn’t ask if Obama will quit …Maybe he already has!

Hot Air  "We’ve analyzed the potential for Obama to pull an LBJ and pull out of the 2012 election, or for Democrats to pressure him into quitting the race if he doesn’t reach that conclusion on his own.  With the obvious implications of Obama’s two proposals this month, the better question is whether he’s already quit being President in favor of just being a candidate:"
Obama mailed in both proposals rather than engage in the hard work of governance. If Obama had any interest in actually passing his deficit-reduction plan, he would not have filled it with tax hikes that have floated around the Beltway for years — and which both Republicans and Democrats have rejected in the past. The jobs bill was even less creative than his approach to deficit reduction, cribbed from a failed and costly exercise in central economic control. Obama didn’t bother to put much effort into either because he has no intention of doing the hard work needed to accomplish actual deficit reduction or improve the job-creation climate. The president has more than a year to go before the next election, but Obama has stopped governing and has shifted entirely to campaign mode. This is what it looks like when a president quits. Edward Morrissey
US News cartoon

Hollywood Love Affair with World’s Biggest Celebrity Hits Rough Patch…

PJ Lyfestyle  "You want to talk about real movie magic? How ‘bout a president who could save a “billion jobs” and still face an unemployment rate north of 9 percent?
"Hollywood’s love affair with Obama may have hit a few rough spots, but here’s betting the relationship will be reborn in 2012. Hollywood loves sequels as much as it does Democratic politicians."
It isn't that Hollywood is realizing that socialist policies are bankrupt; it's that they wish Obama was even further to the left.

Obama's Dilemma: U.S. Foreign Policy and Electoral Realities

STRATFOR ...."The vilification from all sides that follows any mention we make of American politics is both inevitable and unpleasant. Nevertheless, it’s our job to chronicle the unfolding of the international system, and the fact that the United States is moving deeply into an election cycle will affect American international behavior and therefore the international system."
....
"The U.S. president will not be deeply engaged in the world for more than a year. Thus, he will have to cope with events pressed on him. He may undertake initiatives, such as trying to revive the Middle East peace process, but such moves would have large political components that would make it difficult to cope with realities on the ground. The rest of the world knows this, of course. The question is whether and how they take advantage of it."
Obama's Dilemma: U.S. Foreign Policy and Electoral Realities is republished with permission of STRATFOR.

One has to ask, with near-daily trips to the hinterlands for campaigning and blame-shifting plus rounds of golf, when does Obama have time or even interest to spend with foreign policy advisors?
I see no trace of either in the man.

Obama’s Middle East Is in Tatters, Utter Tatters  "It is not actually his region. Still, with the arrogance that is so characteristic of his behavior in matters he knows little about (which is a lot of matters), he entered the region as if in a triumphal march. But it wasn’t the power and sway of America that he was representing in Turkey and in Egypt. For the fact is that he has not much respect for these representations of the United States.Emphasis added.

Why Won’t Obama List Israelis Among the Victims of Terrorism?  "If not blowing up a bus in the Negev, then a shoot-out at the El Al counter at Leonardo da Vinci Airport in Rome. A family massacre in the Galilee, a mass murder of Olympic athletes in Munich, two high-toll bombings in Buenos Aires. In a Jerusalem Yeshiva, on a Tel Aviv thoroughfare. And the liquidation of five members of a family, yes, a family that lived in a settlement. But its three-month-old didn’t really know that. Knife across the neck anyway.
"The omission is surely deliberate."

Daniel Pipes: Obama's Pretend Counterterrorism Policy  "In brief, an organization connected to terrorists swoons over the administration's pretend counterterrorism policy while the grieving father of a terrorist scornfully dismisses it. That tells us everything.
"What now, with the enshrining of a fringe study as national policy? There are no shortcuts: Those who want a genuine counterterrorism policy must work to remove the Left and the multiculturalists from government."
Peter King (left) and Bennie Thompson (right) symbolize
 the difference in counterterrorism policy outlook.

Monday, September 19, 2011

A Ponzi scheme that should be fixed

mjperry.blogspot.com
Charles Krauthammer  "The Great Social Security Debate, Proposition 1: Of course it’s a Ponzi scheme."

"In a Ponzi scheme, the people who invest early get their money out with dividends. But these dividends don’t come from any profitable or productive activity — they consist entirely of money paid in by later participants."....
Proposition 2: The crucial distinction between a Ponzi scheme and Social Security is that Social Security is mandatory.
"When it’s mandatory, you’ve ensured an endless supply of new participants. Indeed, if Charles Ponzi had had the benefit of the law forcing people into his scheme, he’d still be going strong ..."
Proposition 3: Even a mandatory Ponzi scheme such as Social Security can fail if it cannot rustle up enough new entrants.
"The Treasury already steps in and borrows the money required to cover the gap between what workers pay into Social Security and what seniors take out. When young people were plentiful, Social Security produced a surplus. Starting now and for decades to come, it will add to the deficit, increasingly so as the population ages."
Demography is destiny. Which leads directly to Proposition 4: This is one Ponzi scheme that can be saved by adapting to the new demographics.
"Of course it’s a Ponzi scheme. So what? It’s also the most vital, humane and fixable of all social programs. The question for the candidates is: Forget Ponzi — are you going to fix Social Security?"

Jobs Bill Forces States to Surrender Sovereignty!

Warning Signs  "Under Sec.376, States receiving any Federal funding whether Medicaid, Medicare, Tuition, FEMA, etc. will now surrender its Sovereignty under this new Jobs Bill.
"Surrendering Sovereign Immunity allows states to be sued by anyone recognized by the Federal Government. "

(A) WAIVER- A State's receipt or use of Federal financial assistance for any program or activity of a State shall constitute a waiver of sovereign immunity, under the 11th Amendment to the Constitution or otherwise, to a suit brought by (123) an employee or applicant for employment of that program or activity under this Act for a remedy authorized under Section 375(c) of this Act.
Alan Caruba

Chicago Tribune: Why Obama should withdraw

chicagotribune.com  "The vultures are starting to circle. Former White House spokesman Bill Burton said that unless Obama can rally the Democratic base, which is disillusioned with him, "it's going to be impossible for the president to win." Democratic consultant James Carville had one word of advice for Obama: "Panic.""

Steve Chapman is a member of the Tribune's editorial board and blogs at chicagotribune.com/chapman


He does like Hillary, of course. Speaking of whom:

"Perhaps the more people see of Hillary Clinton the more they're reminded of her lies, her meanness and her seemingly unquenchable desire for power. Look at Hillary and you see:

•Whitewater, Casa Grande and her role in those scams
•"Fire their asses!" The order given by Hillary to sack the White House Travel Office
•Marines being used to hand out canapes at White House functions
•Her obstruction of justice and perjury in the Rose Law Firm billing records scandal.
•Craig Livingstone and the cache of FBI files
•The "I want to take those profits" moment.
•Leading the effort to destroy the women involved with her husband.
Oh yeah .. there's more, and (again) as Peggy Noonan says in this column: "There's something about her that makes you look, watch, think, look again, weigh and say: No."
Neal Boortz, 2008

Too PC? New Australian Curriculum Bans References to Birth of Jesus in Textbooks

The Blaze  “Kowtowing to political correctness by the embarrassing removal of AD and BC in our national curriculum is of a piece with the fundamental flaw of trying to deny who we are as a people,” opposition spokesman Christopher Pyne said.
"He added that it was pointless to try to deny Australia’s heritage.
" “Australia is what it is today because of the foundations of our nation in the Judeo-Christian heritage that we inherited from Western civilization,” Pyne said.
" Rev. Fred Nile, a member of Australia’s New South Wales parliament, called the change “an absolute disgrace.” "

The Obama-Buffett tax; BOHICA

  Obama’s War on Job Creators  “If we tax investment in job creation more, you will get less of it,” Ryan explained. “This looks like to me not a very good sign, because it looks like the President wants to move down the class warfare path.” And while the President walks America down that path, he’s marching to the beat of the big government drum that will lead to more spending, then more taxes to pay for it, and fewer jobs as a result."
http://terrellaftermath.com/
 Obama's Recipe for Tax Disaster   "The truth, however, is that -- no matter how well-packaged it may be -- Obama's proposal is a nasty bit of class warfare that will destroy jobs, drive investment out of the economy, and harm the middle class, and it is certain to raise far less revenue than predicted."

Photo: http://www.breitbart.com/
Obama announces debt plan built on taxes on rich 

$1.5 Trillion In New Taxes? Ho Hum.
The Obama proposal has little chance of becoming law unless Republican lawmakers bend. But by focusing on the wealthiest Americans, the president is sharpening the contrast between Republicans and Democrats with a theme he can carry into his bid for re-election in 2012.
"The usual term for that is “demagoguery.” "

Obama Nation: The Power of Panic  "It is time for the American people to say “enough!”  Our nation was not built on panic.  It was built on deliberate and serious debate.  Our Founders did not simply react.  They acted on principle with the full understanding of what would follow.  We have to start thinking more deliberately.  An effective jobs bill will reduce regulation, clear uncertainty and address real tax reform.  Time and time again, lower tax rates with fewer tax preferences (deductions) have always resulted in strong and sustainable economic growth.   The best way to increase tax revenues is to increase the number of people employed and the best way to do that is to lower tax rates."

Video: Political Systems Explained for Dummies  If this doesn't make it clear, I don't know what will.