No person is your friend who demands your silence,
or denies your right to grow.
Alice Walker
Bill O'Reilly, Belcher and Gun Crimes
And so there should be mandatory federal prison time for any person convicted of having a gun illegally and if you commit a crime with a gun that mandatory should be 10 years.
The pro football player Belcher's murder/suicide over last weekend reminds me of the pro wrestler Chris Benoit family double-murder/suicide a few years back. WWE Chairman McMahon immediately denounced Benoit as a monster and to this day does not allow mention or clips of Benoit on WWE shows or products. (I think even worse would have been if Benoit had plotted his suicide for a PPV).
O'Reilly does his usual predictable populist spin: don't scapegoat law-abiding gun-owners; the real answer is to crackdown on those owners abusing their gun rights. I am not a psychologist; the issue I have with O''Reilly here is not responsibility, but the fact that many violent crimes are not premeditated. This is not an attempt to excuse violent behavior, but to explain why acting "tougher" won't help reduce violent crime if the crime is am impulsive one. I think we have to be more observant and proactive; I've occasionally had to deal with people whom can't handle stress very well, (I was a subcontractor remember working on a project at the headquarters of a famous management consulting company ; the lead developer subcontractor had written bad code but irrationally attributed the problem to my allegedly changing his permissions to database objects and made physical threats; the client had actually sent him home for the day a week or two earlier although I don't know specifics).
But the worst part of O'Reilly's incompetent analysis and opinion is what I cited above. He has decided that the solution to the gun violence problem is that local/state enforcement is inadequate and the Feds need to get involved. Never mind that Fast and Furious fiasco--obviously O'Reilly thinks AG Holder is up to the task. (I suspect if my philosophy professor Fr. Lonergan read this, he would say, "Now don't make
The Great Thomas Sowell Responds to DNC 12 Nonsense Debunks Michelle, Bill and Barack
A mosquito in a nudist colony: where to start? I'll have to remember that one...Now you know why I hold Sowell economic texts in my personal library. He and I have a similar perspective; Democrats actually somehow believe the worst economic record since the Depression is actually a success story of government intervention. (I wouldn't be surprised if Leftist economists tried to blame Tulipmania on the unregulated derivatives market.) Barack "We Can't Afford to Do Nothing" Obama has never learned Bastiat's lessons of things unseen--opportunity costs of misguided regulations which added economic uncertainty-the last thing a healing economy needs.. In all fairness, Bush added to Clinton's housing mania, actually hyping a historically high home ownership, with all the sincerity of Internet bubble investors whom argued we were in a new market where profits didn't matter.
Political Humor
"Today New Jersey Governor Chris Christie visited the White House. President Obama told him, "I'd invite you to lunch but the deficit is already too high." - Conan O'Brien
[Obama helped Christe with after Hurricane Sandy, an act of God--it's only fair that Christie help out Obama deal the fiscal cliff, an act of Democrats. Christie has plenty of experience, cleaning up after the Corzine disaster.]
Prince William's wife, Kate, has been released from the hospital after suffering from severe morning sickness. Doctors told her take it easy, no strenuous activity, and don't go to work. In other words, just act like a member of the
[Obama Administration]
The Pentagon is preparing for massive budget cuts in the event that the country does go over the fiscal cliff.
[It started issuing golden parachutes to personnel and contractors.]
Mitt Romney got a job. He's working at a Marriott.
[I'm not saying Obama is rubbing it in, but he left word at the front desk for Romney to give him a 3 AM wake-up call.]
Musical Interlude: Christmas Retrospective
How the Grinch Stole Christmas, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"
My Hero: Rick Santelli on Government Statistics
Some key takeaways from the referenced Schiff column:
In 1958, the top 3% of taxpayers earned 14.7% of all adjusted gross income and paid 29.2% of all federal income taxes. In 2010, the top 3% earned 27.2% of adjusted gross income and their share of all federal taxes rose proportionally, to 51%.. How in the world has the tax burden on the wealthy remained roughly the same?Lower- and middle-income workers now bear a significantly lighter burden than in the past. And the confiscatory top marginal rates of the 1950s were essentially symbolic—very few actually paid them. [Lower tax rates came with elimination or caps on existing higher income offsets.] Those 1950s gambits lowered tax liabilities but dissuaded individuals from engaging in the more beneficial activities of increasing their incomes and expanding their businesses. As a result, they were a net drag on the economy.
In contrast, the share of taxes paid by the bottom two-thirds of taxpayers has fallen dramatically over the same period. In 1958, these Americans accounted for 41.3% of adjusted gross income and paid 29% of all federal taxes. By 2010, their share of adjusted gross income had fallen to 22.5%. But their share of taxes paid fell far more dramatically—to 6.7%.As I pointed out before, in discussing Krugman's nostalgic pining on 91% upper income tax bracket where the government leaves you a tip for signing over your paycheck is not realistic. What should the rate be? For me, It's an empirical question: federal tax revenue increased to its highest levels in the second Bush term I think you haven't cut rates enough.
