Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Un-American Memorial Day Sentiments
"[O]ur freedoms, our ingenuity, our faith and our entrepreneurship . . . all of these virtues ha[ve] been purchased on battlefields, with the blood of those whom we commemorate on Memorial Day."
-- The Washington Examiner, here
What unadulterated rubbish. If the Founders could hear it, they'd roll over in their graves.
The rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, among other things, are inalienable. No military can purchase them for me, nor take them away from me. I own them already and always, despite my circumstances. That is what the founding generation believed most passionately, and which no one in America seems to believe anymore.
Therefore despotism surely awaits, for only free men who believe such things remain free, come hell, high water, or even chains. Servility begins, and ends, within.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Pawlenty Badly Flubs An Equally Badly Asked Question He Shouldn't Have Taken As Is
But his answer wasn't just a casual misstatement of the facts. It shows he wasn't thinking about what he was saying at the time, nor about the question:
Yeah, well I think the situation now in Iran is such that Secretary Gates is negotiating with whether the United States military will be there beyond the end of this year.
And they're looking to the Iranians to see if they invite the Americans to stay, invite us to stay. And if they do invite us to stay at some very reduced level I think the United States will be wise, until we make sure that they get to the next level of stability, to accept that invitation.
So if Iran makes that invitation by the end of the year, leaving a residual force, a greatly reduced force, but a residual force that would be there for a temporary amount of time. Until they could establish much better air security, until they can develop their intelligence —
Pretty embarrassing this early in the campaign.
The video is here.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Nutty Romney and Gingrich Support Ethanol Subsidies
Story here.
Pawlenty is against them.
Do Americans not realize that $5 billion of their tax money propped up that industry in 2010?
It's a waste. And 42 percent of corn production now goes to it, when it should be going to food, which is why you are paying so much more at the grocery store, especially for meat.
Pawlenty is against them.
Do Americans not realize that $5 billion of their tax money propped up that industry in 2010?
It's a waste. And 42 percent of corn production now goes to it, when it should be going to food, which is why you are paying so much more at the grocery store, especially for meat.
Machine Rule
"Mr. President, I write to request your confirmation that S. 990, as passed by Congress, was presented to you prior to the autopen signing, as well as a detailed, written explanation of your Constitutional authority to assign a surrogate the responsibility of signing bills passed into law."
-- Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA), quoted here
Holes/Cracks in Fukushima Reactor Pressure Vessels/Containments Estimated at 3-10 Centimeters
So reported NHK World on Wednesday, here:
Tokyo Electric Power Company analyzed the changes in pressure levels inside the pressure and containment vessels to gauge the scope of the damage.
TEPCO said the analyses show that holes in the Number 1 reactor containment vessel amounting to 3 centimeters in total may have formed 18 hours after the quake. ...
The utility said holes and cracks equivalent to 10 centimeters in diameter may have formed in the Number 2 reactor's containment vessel about 21 hours after the quake. ...
TEPCO said these results were obtained through data calculations, and that it has yet to confirm whether such holes actually exist.
Presumably high radiation conditions near the reactors continue to prohibit the actual physical inspections which would confirm such estimates and calculations.
Fukushima Waste Water Treatment Facility is Leaking
So says this report, which indicates that the water in question had been transferred from the Unit 3 reactor's turbine building and tunnels earlier in the week.
The surface radiation of the water was said to be 70 millisieverts per hour.
It seems like these people just can't catch a break.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Median Amount Saved in Retirement Accounts is $2,000?
Which would imply that half the population has less than that saved, and half the population has more than that saved.
The oft-repeated datum is pretty darn old already. A decade! It is based on a survey of about 3,400 people taken way back in 2001 and reported on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website in an "updated" posting dating to 2005, here:
The median amount held in retirement accounts--$2,000--provides another indication of the wide variation in the amounts held by households.
More recent surveys of somewhat smaller samples of Americans paint an only slightly less apocalyptic picture of the resources Americans may or may not have tucked away:
Just over a third (34 percent) of Americans have no retirement savings, up from 30 percent in 2009, according to a new Harris Poll of 2,151 adults. ... Some 42 percent of individuals age 45 and older have less than $25,000 saved for retirement, EBRI found. Only 11 percent of all current workers say they have $250,000 or more saved for retirement.
At a 4 percent per year drawdown rate in retirement, people with $250K can draw down roughly only $10K per year for 25 years, and then it's pretty much gone.
Pretty hard to live on that without Social Security and Medicare, which themselves are going bust.
Americans are not ready for the future, but the maw of the future sure is ready for them.
Statement of Q1 2011 GDP Unchanged at 1.8 Percent
Story here.
The expectation for the second statement of Q1 growth had been a revision up to 2.1 percent.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
House Democrats' Insider Trading Easily Bests Republican Track Record
According to opensecrets.org, as reported here:
Despite the GOP’s reputation as the party of the rich, House Republicans fared worse than their Democratic colleagues when it comes to investing, according to the study. The Democratic subsample of lawmakers beat the market by 73 basis points per month, or 9 percent annually, versus 18 basis points per month, or 2 percent annually, for the Republican sample.
Obama Conceded Government Spending is the Problem, not Tax Revenue, Nearly Two Years Ago
"Medicare and Medicaid are the single biggest drivers of the federal deficit and the federal debt by a huge margin."
-- Barack Obama, quoted here, June 24th, 2009, and affirmed as "mostly true" by the source.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) Wants To Deep Six Your Tax Deductions
Republicans should deep six Tom Coburn as soon as possible:
I’ve argued that Republicans should be willing to consider increases in revenue -- not through higher tax rates but through eliminating tax earmarks, such as that for ethanol, and other expenditure that misallocates capital.
"Tax earmarks ... and other expenditure that misallocates capital"?
Read "tax expenditures," better yet, "tax loss expenditures."
Like your mortgage interest deduction, your charitable contributions deduction, your property tax deduction, your state and local income taxes deduction, and so on. All these benefits of the tax code misallocate capital, if you're a politician running the business of government, and you are just its employee.
That's who Tom Coburn is, the boss. He wants more of your hide.
His complete remarks are here.
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