Category: News

A Robert J. Samuelson column in the Washington Post about The Future of the Welfare State (registration required) triggered a thought. When Samuelson says:

But Europe relies heavily on a sales tax — the “value-added tax” — that, in theory, falls on consumption and not investment or work effort.

I think, you know, some people want to introduce a national sales tax, or consumption tax, in these United States to replace the income tax. I hadn’t given much thought to the stupidity of the consumption tax, but here’s my epiphany:

A consumption/sales tax rewards people like Scrooge McDuck who throw all their moneys into savings and vaults but don’t purchase things, which keeps the economy going. Of course, when Scrooge McDuck dies, the inheritance tax kicks in and the heirs get less than the sum of Scrooge’s savings, which they can save or spend (with applicable consumption taxation). Holy cow, Taxman!

Perhaps less taxes would spur the economies. But less taxes means less government dole, and how can one get elected with the latter?

Via The Meatriarchy, we see government largesse funding an artiste who mocks religion:

How about a performance artist who:

“suspended himself naked, filled his mouth with his own blood and assumed the lotus position. In Liaison Inter-Urbain he dug a shallow grave, inserted a vial of blood into his anus and contorted himself so that the blood flowed into his mouth.”

I think governments should pay good cash money only to artists who pry out their own eyes with spoons and hang upside down from trees to gain true knowledge. Put that on my 1040 form; I’d check the box to depopulate artists who suck in more ways than one.

Wizbang! points out that the story in this post about a guy who wore a devil costume to see The Passion of the Christ was a spoof.

But it can’t be. I saw it on Fark, so it’s gotta be true. Next you’re going to tell me is that the things in their photography ontests are faked.

Via the Ranting Professor, I came across a bit in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (registration required, but go ahead and tell them you’re Bud Selig) about how the coastal upperclass media types view members of their audiences who are not from those silly little states across which you can drive in an hour.

Yummy bits:

Questions are not being asked. Meanings are not being interpreted. Certain neighborhoods are not being visited. Certain lives are not being explored in a meaningful way. And, through the prosecution of basic journalism, agendas are being set that do not reflect the way the other half, without the bulging 401ks, lives.

For instance, how many people on air or in print came from families that had walked a picket line? How many know how to bait a hook or gut a deer? (I’m bad at both.) How many have felt the economic insecurity that stalks the working poor? (And I’m not talking about the few weeks at college on the Ramen noodles diet.)

How many have had real experience with the criminal justice system, who have had home visits from social workers, who have scrambled to call the probation office, who know the awful taste of government cheese?

My feeling about the growing social distance was reinforced most personally during the investment of Wisconsin by the national press. I traveled with the Howard Dean camp, and there saw again how the elite media outlets employ people who, when they dip into smaller places away from Dupont Circle in Washington or the Lower East Side in New York, treat it as some sort of anthropological adventure.

It’s not just the media who do this; it’s any condescending person who thinks that New York, D.C., or Boston is the center of the whole universe, not just the condescender’s. By the same token, we must remember, too, that our Midwestern experience is not the end-all be-all, even if it’s down to earth and touch with physical reality. As individuals, we should keep some open minds toward all kinds of experience, even if it’s Ivy League education; just recognize that each experience offers perspective which might provide insight into different situations. It’s always a good idea to mix a cleric in with your fighters and magic user when you go dungeon-crawling.

And another point: USDA cheese doesn’t taste awful. It tastes like cheese.

Thank you, that is all.

A mother whose daughter was killed by a drag racer wants vengance to deter future teenagers from acting stupid:

The mother of accident victim Megan Landholt urged a stiff prison sentence for a teenage street racer who pleaded guilty Monday in the collision that killed her daughter in south St. Louis County last year.

Barbara Landholt said she wanted to make an example of the driver. She told Judge David Lee Vincent III that Jeremy Ketchum “and people like him cannot go on and think that this is not a big deal. We have a chance to set an example here. A message has to be sent to the drivers of these cars.”

I don’t want to knock this woman’s pain, but kids getting into their cars on Saturday nights don’t read the St. Louis Post-Dispatch or their court dockets to keep up with the consequences of their actions. They don’t think about their actions, much less the consequences. Automobile accidents, death? That happens in another school district every couple of years.

So putting the guy who killed your daughter in prison for a long or short time won’t do much for the greater good, and it probably won’t save another daughter from a drag racer, drunk driver, or cell-phone yakker. It will, quite frankly, end the life of another, albeit dumber, kid, and maybe that’s just retribution. Iit’s not, however, an example since not many are paying attention.

Gee, Thanks, Mom, for sending me this unenlightened e-mail forward:

>A car company can move its factories to Mexico and claim it’s a free market.
>
>
>A toy company can outsource to a Chinese subcontractor and claim it’s a free market.
>
>
>A major bank can incorporate in Bermuda to avoid taxes and claim it’s a free market.
>
>
>We can buy HP Printers made in Mexico. We can buy shirts made in Bangladesh.
>
>
>We can purchase almost anything we want from many different countries BUT, heaven help the elderly who dare to buy their prescription drugs from a
>Canadian (Or Mexico) pharmacy. That’s called un-American!
>
>
>And you think the pharmaceutical companies don’t have a powerful lobby?

File this under When AOL Members Vote!

So Jean Boutros Boutrous Aristide claims says U.S. forces kidnapped him because they wanted him out of power. United States officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, and Scott McClellan have issued denials. How stupid is that?

A more appropriate response would be for Donald Rumsfeld to stand behind a podium and say, with all appropriate hand gestures:

Question: Did the United States Special Forces kidnap Jean-Boutros-Boutros Aristide?

Rumsfeld: You need to ask yourself this question instead: Do you think that the United States armed forces and their special forces have enough technology and expertise to perform an operation of this nature. Look at Aristide. One day, he’s the unpopular ruler of an oppressed country, and then suddenly he wakes up in the savannah with just the clothes on his back and a cell phone with which to call everyone he knows to complain, to ask for cab fare home, or to plead for some anti-lion underwear. Do you think that the special forces within our country can insert into hostile territory, infiltrate a tyrant’s security, tranquilize or otherwise stun him, extract him, fly him half way around the world in a matter of hours, and deposit him into an environment that is both alien and hostile to him. Do you imagine Iranian clerics shocked to find themselves nuzzled by caribou in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, or Fidel Castro coming to alone on a road on the Isle of Wight, or Kim Jong-Il awakening one night in a Philadelphia crack house, surrounded by gang bangers. What, do you think Aristide’s departure was a trial run of some sort? Are you all planning to be the next Tom Clancy with these plots?

In Indiana, a college kid decided to wear a devil costume to a screening of The Passion of the Christ. In the self-aggrandizing manner adopted by college students everywhere, the kid explains himself thusly:

When asked what he hoped to accomplish by his actions, Wendell said he likes doing things to get a reaction. He was also inspired by a biography he read about the Marquis de Sade.

De Sade was an 18th century writer who caused scandals with his libertine behavior in pre-revolutionary France. De Sade was once arrested for desecrating the Holy Eucharist to see if God really existed. Wendell said his stunt was along the same lines.

Wendell, an atheist, said, “If God really existed, He would have struck me down for dressing as the devil.” He also wanted to prove “that Christians aren’t as forgiving as they portray”. Wendell says his actions were also partially due to a genuine dislike of Mel Gibson.

Buddy, maybe God didn’t see your hijinks as worthy of the amperage involved in a lightning strike and had a more fitting punishment for you:

Once inside the movie, Christians began pelting Wendell with Gummy Bears, Ju-Ju Bees, and popcorn. Management got involved after a 75-year-old woman, Hazel Meyer, poured a 64-ounce Coca-Cola on Wendell.

(Link seen on Fark.)

Daniel Henninger says what I think about the forces who would stand athwart innovation and technology and shout, “Stop!”

Fear, regulation, and litigation will strip America’s wealth and innovation to benefit of a bunch of trial lawyers and politicians. As well as our rivals on the Pacific Rim.

For more comments on amendments we could use to the constitution instead of a gay marriage ban, consult TheAgitator.com.

Update: Lest I forget, Owen wants to enable Congress to override the full faith thingamabob.

Headline in the Springfield News-Leader:

• With more time on his hands, he could concentrate more on his true passion, spreading the clap.
• With enough state-funded jobs, eventually all disease would be eradicated.

Just in time to take advantage of the new jail-term-for-illegal-parking described below, St. Charles, Missouri, has decided it’s going to send a bill to lodgers in its Compulsory Resort, previously known as the city jail:

The County Council voted Tuesday night to require such inmates to set up installment repayment plans within six months after they get out of jail. Failure to do so could spur the county to seize and sell the ex-offenders’ property to get some money back.

So after someone gets out of jail, after having his or her income interrupted, possibly losing a job if he or she had one, and making the next job more difficult to get, the lovely city will send a bill which might lead them to suing and seizing property–whatever’s left after the fines for the offense, that is. You city legislators have an interesting theory of reintegration and recidivism-prevention you have there, sirs.

Perhaps we should quote the article more fully:

The County Council voted Tuesday night to require such inmates to set up installment repayment plans within six months after they get out of jail. Failure to do so could spur the county to seize and sell the ex-offenders’ property to get some money back.

The council also passed a pay increase for council members elected later this year and a bill requiring council approval for naming or renaming most county buildings.

Policy made by a cash-hungry government makes awfully poor government of the government, by the government, and for the government. Fellows, you think police speeding ticket quotas suck? Wait until you’re slapped with a six month sentence at a double-occupancy government facility because the County Commission on Revenue’s assistant commissioner needs an office redecoration.

True to form, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch starts this article on policy off with an anecdote:

Jennifer Bresee was infuriated by the note she found tucked beneath the windshield wiper as she finished shopping at Wal-Mart.

If you’re truly handicapped, you can get a license plate indicating such at the Missouri Department of Revenue license office. If you are merely enjoying the convenience of parking here at the inconvenience of a handicapped person, shame on you.

Bresee did indeed have handicapped plates. But the note’s author apparently noticed only how healthy Bresee looked as she got out of her car and walked into the store. Had the accuser waited a bit longer, the person would have seen Bresee limping all the way back to her car.

“I have multiple sclerosis, which is most times very invisible,” said Bresee, 26, explaining that even a short trip to the store can exhaust her and cause severe leg pain. “Many times, walking back out of the Wal-Mart you can tell, rather than walking into the Wal-Mart.”

So obviously, to make Jennifer feel better, the state must do something? I guess that’s the point the writer of this bit has in mind. However, the something that state legislators have in mind is the obvious: dial up the punishment for people who abuse handicapped parking privileges:

It also would make abuse of the privileges a Class A misdemeanor, punishable up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. The legislation would impose the same penalty on doctors who write notes for people who don’t need the special plates.

The measure (SB 1144) was approved 30-0 by the state Senate this week and now awaits a House vote.

A year in jail for illegally parking. Thank goodness our legislators are finally making laws that make sense rather than making feel-good laws with which no person with a heart can disagree.

In today’s Washington Post, deep thinker John Handey Doug Henning Don Henley uncaps his fountain pen to decry the state of the music industry today.

To recap his wisdom:

• The big corporations are squeezing out the small labels.
• The big corporations are putting out crappy music because…..
• Music executives don’t sign new artists that audiences really want because….
• The big retailers are squeezing out the small record shops by stocking crappy music at high prices, but too low for small record shops to make a profit meaningful contribution.

Actually, I am not really sure what his wisdom is, much like he surely doesn’t understand how capitalism works. What the audience wants, someone will sell them, and the music industry is evolving beyond the traditional channels.

Others weigh in:

• Will Collier on VodkaPundit (lots of posts–start here and scroll down).
• James Joyner on Outside the Beltway.

Today’s poster child for poor use of government funds: St. Clair County, Illinois, spends $500,000 to promote the only airline flying into MidAmerica Airport. An airport built with public funds an hour outside of St. Louis that had no airlines coming in when it was built. And now that Great Plains is broke, despite $500,000 of tax-paid promotion, MidAmerica Airport again sits idle, except for the tax-paid employees wandering around with nothing to do.

Which brings me to what might be the most blatantly bad waste of tax money. Advertising of any sort, for any reason. Particularly to promote private enterprises.

Whether it’s half a million to Fleishmann-Hillard to line the pockets of the influence industry in St. Louis or it’s a half percent tax here in Casinoport on hotel rooms to promote tourism–the government has no business redistributing wealth from its citizens to already affluent sectors. The government might claim it’s out to make the community better, but it means by community its tax base, and wasting tax money on advertising is only one more symptom of an organic government that exists to consume and grow, not to serve its citizens.

This Chicago Tribune story (registration required) discusses the Ohio highway sniper and the journalists hazards a guess why the wires aren’t picking up her story and why she’s not been making the rounds of cable news outlets:

The shootings remind a lot of people of 2002’s sniper attacks in the suburbs around Washington, D.C., which left 10 people dead before two men were arrested and charged with the killings.

The Ohio sniper case has garnered what appears to be less publicity, perhaps because only one person has died.

Perhaps. But some of us (which means “Brian J. Noggle”) in the middle of the country with a chip on the shoulder (not a cow chip, heinzenjohnkers) suspect it’s not garnering much media attention because it’s the middle of the country. Were someone to squeeze off a few rounds over the course of a year on the Beltway, that person would get a lot of attention, even if he or she were not shooting to kill.

Because the important people would be in danger. Not mere citizens. The super-citizens who work for the influence industry or the government.