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Logic in the BLM Era

Thursday, November 30th, 2023

I don’t know what to make of it. Unquestioning zealots are ignoring logic in the service of a cause, and any questioning of their fallacious reasoning is evidence of doublebadthink. I want to give support, but with logic missing, what am I supporting?

That isn’t to say I object to the notion that racism exists. It clearly does, and that’s sad. And often despicable. What I object to is how Mr. Floyd’s tragic demise is used to justify an opportunity for race hustlers, reparations, riots and mayhem.

And of course we find an article from Salon decrying the “tortured logic” of those who would dare ask questions. Let’s review.

Hitting the Rich

Tuesday, November 27th, 2012

Reader Paul Fontaine suggests on Instapundit (Nov 9) what seems like an appealing solution to hitting Obama’s wealthy supporters. I only wish it would work. Like Warren Buffett, they don’t pay anywhere near the top rate. If they take any salary at all, it’s low. They sell assets and pay capital gains tax. Or better yet, they just borrow against their wealth and deduct the interest, and postpone the tax indefinitely. The only way to get these people to contribute is to flatten the tax and eliminate the deductions. Turbo tax software would ask, “how much did you make from all sources? Multiply by 0.2 and send it in.”

Eliminate withholding at the same time and we’d see massive spending cuts by the following weekend. Will it happen? Of course not. Obama well understands that a complicated tax code allows him to demonize the abstract 1% while letting the wealthy keep their money. It’s Obama’s deadweight loss hat-trick: “Don’t pay taxes, send a small percentage of it to me instead.” High tax rates don’t bring more revenue, they just make the middle class feel better. If the middle class weren’t so easily mesmerized by class warfare and figured this out, the jig would be up.

So I ask myself, what’s the solution? Looking long, it’s school vouchers. Sound like a non-sequitur? Think again. Unfortunately at this point, school vouchers seem about as likely as a free market…

Read My Lips

Monday, July 2nd, 2012

Is this Obama’s George H W Bush moment?
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you reject that it’s a tax increase?
OBAMA: I absolutely reject that notion. 

Now that the SCOTUS has ruled the ACA mandate a tax, will Obama be crucified like the first George for breaking his promises?

Will he lose because he broke his repeated pledges?

We’ll see.

Is Roberts Sly?

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

Seems to me Roberts has succeeded in calling the ACA mandate what Obama insisted it wasn’t. Now the middle class gets their tax. Some are calling it an 8 trillion tax! I don’t know how much it is, but it will hit the middle class in a big way. Roberts gets the whole left side of the court to call it a tax. What can Obama say to that?

This is Romney’s election to lose.

ACA Upheld

Thursday, June 28th, 2012

What is Roberts doing? The mandate wouldn’t have passed as a tax, so why does Roberts think he can change it into one? Is it because he’s not really a conservative judge? Changing the Act as written by Congress is simply judicial activism. Instead, it should have been sent back to congress.

On the other hand, what will the people do now that they’ve been assessed a tax?

Remember

Sunday, May 20th, 2012

“If I don’t have this done in three years, then there’s going to be a one term proposition.”
Barak Obama, Feb 2nd, 2009

Still Sniping

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

You’d think the president would grow up. He gets a bill that extends the debt ceiling debate past the next election, and he can’t help sniping at Republicans for creating dysfunction. Bloomberg today has the real issue.

Now that’s frightening. Are the seniors really going to takes us down? Don’t they recognize that they’re demanding more, significantly more, than they paid in?

Why do little things become so big?

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

I finally got the default judgment from the judge and went to the county records department to record it. The clerk took one look at it and handed it back saying, “this needs a judicial seal”.

“Judicial seal? Don’t they know that at the courthouse? Does this happen very often?”

“Sometimes.”

I returned to the courthouse, waited another half hour for a clerk and learned that I needed to apply for the form with the judicial seal. That’s when I noticed that the Defendant’s name had been inverted. So the clerk said, “Oh, it doesn’t matter really.”

“But, this won’t be properly recorded at county for searching.”

“Yeah, probably so,” she nodded.

“Well, then how do I correct it?”

“You have to file a motion,” and she handed me a document that was the result of many generations of photocopying. And then I noticed that my name on the Plaintiffs line had also been misspelled. Who’s in charge here, I wondered. All the other documents in the file were correct.

With the motion filled out, I asked her how I would be getting the document with the judicial seal.

“You’ll need to come pick it up.”

“Do you have any idea how many times I’ve been here to get this judgment? Is there any way you could mail it to me.”

She recognized the inconvenience and told me she’d mail it when she got the corrected document back from the judge’s administrator, probably the next day.

That was on May 2, exactly two weeks ago, and I have yet to receive my judgment with a judicial seal. Our government at work.

Time for 100%

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

If you work for Bailout Bank, Joe the Plumber may be saving you from your bad management, but you will need to contribute too. Now 100% of your income that exceeds Joe’s salary will be taxed. It’s only fair. No wait, if you contributed to Senator Maphia’s campaign, you can get twice Joe’s salary!

Of course, if you just get a job at First Bank instead, you can get your salary back in full. For God’s sake, that’s the market rate! Plus you can keep your stock options and retirement benefits from Bailout. That way, your wife can maintain her standard of living, and you won’t have to sell your yacht! Ain’t America great? After all, who gives a rat about Bailout Bank?

But seriously, if government can now renegotiate your employment contract, even if you don’t want to, and even if someone else negotiated a deal with the goverment, what’s the point of having a contract. Why not just collect your money by breaking people’s kneecaps?

I only wish I had a large company, and I could say, “Forget it. Come get me! We’re going to honor our contracts despite what you demand.”

What would happen? What rickety leg would they have to stand on? What government official would say “these contracts have been voided.”

And who is going to stand behind this confiscation? Would this be found constitutional? I simply don’t believe it.

Let’s Not Cheer So Fast

Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

‘Failure is good. Most people learn from their mistakes. But there are still risks.

For instance, Obama’s public option has failed, at least for today. So what does he learn?

Does he realize this isn’t what people want, and move on to what they do want, working in the “post-partisan fashion on which he campaigned? Or does he think that he just hasn’t been able to effectively explain his vision, because if he had, we’d have all come to our senses and agreed? Could he go so far as to propose ways to silence his critics so his vision could emanate forth without distortion and misrepresentation?

Learning can lead to very different responses depending on one’s view of themselves and their place in the world.