Murphy's Sixth Law:
If you perceive that there are four possible ways
in which a procedure can go wrong and circumvent these,
then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
Taxing Corporations Hurts Stakeholders and Consumers....
Troll Stomping
I wanted to separate the rantings of this "progressive" troll from an IPI thread on Illinois state tax-and-spend politics as usual.
Is this a conservative site? I apologize. I don't know how I wound up with it then. As I'm a democrat feminist nazi according to conservatives. But here's the thing since I'm here by accident. You save billions by spending pennies. Contraception prevents pregnancy which prevents welfare which prevents billions. Same thing with spending money on schools and education from pre school to college. Which creates a diverse work force and prevents homelessness, unemployment, and welfare. Saving billions. Making it possible to pay Illinois retirement benefits and update things like bridges.
No, faith in a public education system which has flatlined in terms of student performance, even as pandering politicians threw even more money at the problem is, at best, irrational. What creates good jobs is capitalism and the free markets, not incompetent profligate megalomaniac government, which unlike the private sector is unaccountable to competition. We also have a deteriorating social system with nearly 40% of the babies not killed off born to unwed parents; irresponsible individual sexual activity and morally hazardous public policy exacerbate problems, leading to an unhealthy dependency on parasitic Leviathan.
It's bankrupt because of tax deals with corporations. Of republican striping of human value. 88% of the Illinois budget was previous taxes on corporations. Now tax payers pay 82% of taxes for the budget. Our community just gave a SAMs club $2 bill in tax cuts for minimum wage jobs which will place families on welfare, food stamps. Wic. And housing assistance. That's what is killing us. Children and families are suffering. That's not the American way. Our schools are 67th since the war began. Our health care 34th. Because of women's health care being on attack. Highest rates of violence only behind countries at war. Highest for rape only behind war countries. Highest rate of homeless children. That makes you proud To be an American? We are worse now than in the 1950's. That's what happened in Iraq as well. In the 1950's they had free education for all. And a conservative religious faction destroyed that. Just as now one is destroying women children and families now. Destroying all hope.
Rantings of the clueless economic illiterate, rattling off GIGO statistics from some "progressive" propaganda. Just to pick one thing out: the Sam's Club tax break. What you fail to point out is that Sam's Club and its employees will pay out boatloads in taxes over the years. And other businesses ask for and get tax incentives, especially in a weak economy. How is it you're not blaming the politicians for wheeling and dealing? The last time I checked, the GOP controls squat in the state of Illinois.
from a different thread:
ALSO, like fracking, oil pipelines, petrochemical products (pesticides, fertilizers and plastics) and unlabeled GMOs I dislike the way the duopoly run this country in many ways. Crony capitalism, revolving doors.
Cut back on the caffeine, "progressive" troll. Cronyism isn't possible without political whores. The only sure way to limit corruption is to limit government
Failure in government is evidence of insufficient funding and regulation. :-^
Not funny sarcasm; too many people believe in such nonsensical excuses. Failure in government reflects in large part its reliance on the monopoly of force.
The same can be said about corporations!
What clueless crap! Corporations are simply voluntary groups whom can't force anyone (without government's monopoly of force) to buy their products or services!
Don't Tread on Me....
Facebook Corner
(Illinois Policy Institute). On March 23, a Chicago Transit Authority operator crashed a Blue Line train into the O’Hare National Airport terminal. The train hopped the tracks and smashed into an escalator at 2:50 a.m., injuring more than 30 passengers. The operator of the CTA train had worked 69 hours in the week before the crash, according to the rail union chief. Why was the operator working so much overtime? Why was dangerous behavior allowed to be repeated?
This speaks volumes about a union supposedly promoting workers' interests but allows working conditions where people, in a public safety capacity, are allowed to work when they are putting not only their own lives at risk, but those of passengers. Whereas I recognize there are individual differences in activity longevity (and support the Lochner decision), this is a worker whom had been written up for sleeping on the job weeks earlier and admitted to being tired at the time of the incident. It was the joint responsibility of both management and the union to ensure after the earlier writeup that this worker did not work in a tired state and to scrutinize overtime requests. Clearly the worker's attempt to exploit generous union-negotiated overtime rates was a factor when she put her self-interest above those of her passengers, her professional responsibility.
(Illinois Policy Institute). This legislative session has become more about maintaining the tax-and-spend Democrats’ supermajority control than it is about what it should be: enacting policies that will get Illinois on sound financial footing.
The basic problem all libertarians/conservatives face is explaining concepts like unintended consequences, unfunded liabilities, etc., Bastiat's famous distinction of things unseen. That Democrats want to pretend there is such a thing as free lunch; that the bills and pension commitments to crony corrupt unions can be punted to future legislatures. The problem is difficulty in predicting when the game of Musical Chairs stops; for example, it was clear we were in a Fed-induced housing bubble: the idea we could extend double-digit gains while incomes were stagnating was dubious at best, but I didn't know that the day of reckoning would be in the summer of 2008. There are other measurement issues: how much better off would be the state economy if Illinois' corrupt Democrats weren't spending it on special-interest crony commitments and dysfunctional, ineffective programs? Not to mention the history of soak-the-rich surtaxes which have proven to be counterproductive in places like Maryland.
(Libertarian Republic). Why Does It Say "IN GOD WE TRUST" On American Money? | The Libertarian Republic http://bit.ly/1dE5pqM
One of my relatives dated a religious Jew and adopted the custom of writing 'G-d' vs. 'God'; there is a consideration of not wanting to erase His Name or to discard its expression. And that is without holding dollars in your wallet near your anus or sitting on it, or using the money to do sinful things, like to bet, to drink to the point of intoxication, or to procure a prostitute.
Personally, I'm surprised there's an issue with which Teddy Roosevelt and I agree. My own resistance to the concept is based on Mark 12:15-17. I think it's somewhat presumptuous to link God to the excesses of nationalism; I don't believe in the politics of symbolism. I also think that we should not impose our values on the non-religious; if and when someone comes to faith, it should be a voluntary commitment.
Finally, with the madness of Federal Reserve money printing, we seem to be trusting in God less and less every year.
(Cato Institute) "If anything can go wrong in government, it will go wrong—and we’re all paying for it."
Political Humor
Mayor Rob Ford is running for re-election in Toronto, and last night's first debate was about public transportation. Ford said it's important to preserve the city's bus and subway stations. Then he said, “I rely on those things. I’m way too drunk to drive myself.” - Jimmy Fallon
[Rob Ford put the 'crack' into 'crackpot'.]
It's traditional for world leaders to exchange gifts when they meet for the first time. The Pope gave Obama his book and two medallions. The president gave him seeds from the vegetable garden. The Pope said, "Great, my favorite." - Jimmy Kimmel
[He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." - Matthew 17:20. Actually, Barry wanted them blessed: so far, he hasn't been able to budge Speaker Boehner an inch using them...]
After discovering a new dwarf planet orbiting the sun beyond Pluto, scientists have named it “2012 VP113” or “Biden” for short. Scientists say they chose the name because the planet, like Biden, is pretty far out there. - Seth Meyers
[It is reflective of The One's distancing himself from Planet Gaffe; 'dwarf' does seem descriptive of Biden's chances to succeed Barry.]
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Chip Bok via Townhall |
The Hollies, "He Ain't Heavy: He's My Brother". For some reason, I had always associated the song title with Boys Town, NE, an Omaha suburb, known as Fr. Flanagan's home for delinquent/abandoned/orphaned boys. (Spencer Tracy won Best Actor in 1938 for his portrayal of the Catholic priest in a related classic film.) My maternal grandfather used to contribute to the charity, so I was quite familiar with its motto. But the motto itself had Scottish roots from the nineteenth century: "In 1884, James Wells, Moderator of the United Free Church of Scotland, in his book The Parables of Jesus tells the story of a little girl carrying a big baby boy. Seeing her struggling, someone asked if she wasn't tired. With surprise she replied, "No, he's not heavy; he's my brother."
I was recently reminded of this song when I spent some time waiting in an auto service shop. The mother had been waiting with her young daughter and a tiny baby dressed in blue. I struck up a conversation with the adorable little girl as their mom briefly left to converse with the shop manager at the counter a few feet away. She told me that she was 5, and her baby brother was just 2 weeks old. A beautiful smile lit up her face when she proudly told me her baby brother's name: she explained how her mom and she had prevailed over her Daddy's choice for the boy's given name. I found it utterly charming how she fussed over her brother in her mother's brief absence.
Neil Diamond also scored Top 20 as the follow-up to his first #1, "Cracklin Rosie", a rare remake for the singer/songwriter. (He does a superb job with his cover of "Morning Has Broken".) I remember hearing a story (probably apocryphal because I haven't seen it in print) that he was a reluctant vocalist, that he had turned to peforming because of his difficulty finding acts to cover his material; in fact, he had 2 recording contracts in the early 60's, but he had success with the Monkees and Jay and the Americans covering his hit tunes before his own solo career started to break out in 1966.
