Friday, November 27, 2009

Remembering Reagan

Let's Do This For The Gipper


We need to honor Ronald Reagan, pay homage to his legacy. The "Tea Bag" movement could surely get behind such an effort. But how best to pay our respects to the revered Gipper? I humbly suggest the following:

Roll back taxes (adjusting for inflation, of course) to what they were during the Reagan administration.

That's it. That's my plan in a nutshell, in its totality. Simply restore the Reagan tax rates. If those rates were good enough for the anti-tax crusading former governor of California, they're good enough for me.

And what conservative could possibly have a problem with honoring the hero of the conservative movement in this manner?

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Movin' Out

The test of time appears to be the most standard of all tests, and the easiest to do. Unless you die, of course, in which case you didn't stand the test of time. The instructions for carrying out the test of time look something like this:
  1. Do
  2. Wait.
  3. See what happens.
I say that because I am typing this from a room other than my office, a room that -- up until now -- was off-limits. I speak, of course, of the Room Formerly Occupied by The Daughter. Who moved out. Many things were left behind, among them one blue, blue room with a wide variety of stains on the rug, holes in the wall, and evidence of a paint job gone horribly wrong.

But it has a great view, which is one of its blessings and one of its curses. The blessing is, of course, the view. But the same contrivance that enables the view -- the window -- also enables that other consequence of sunshine: heat. It gets pretty warm in here, mostly because it's a south-facing room with little or no shading. The cats love it, with the exception of the New Cat, who still hasn't gotten used to the fact that she doesn't have to spend her life hiding. Sometimes, we tell her, a little sunshine is just what you need.

But this isn't a post about sunshine. Ostensibly, according to the title, it's a post about moving. Children growing up and moving out (or, more accurately, moving out and then growing up), adults moving around, finding the right space.

I believe it was Buckaroo Banzai who said "Wherever you go, there you are!" I could be wrong, but I have The Google with which to verify things like that, and The Google tells me that I am... mostly right. Buckaroo Banzai used a variation ("No matter where you go, there you are!"), but the original appears to have been coined by Thomas a Kempis, in The Imitation Of Christ, ca. A.D. 1440.

So here I am, and here is where I happened to be when I penned this, although I am no doubt elsewhere at some point in the future which -- as luck would have it -- is the past for you, for the moment in which I originally penned this (typed, actually) has passed.

So there you have it. Tryouts for a new office, cats, prodigal daughters, and sunshine, all in one post. Next!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Republicans Believe in Wife Beating

The health insurance industry, in ten states, can deny coverage to a battered spouse, claiming that it is a "pre-existing condition." When Patty Murray tried to change the law, the bill was voted down. In Committee. By Republicans.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Glenn Beck - Wonderful Human Being

It's September 14, 2009, eight years and a few days after 2,819 people lost their lives. The Bush administration was always quick to remind us that, thanks to their Awesomeness, "only" 2,819 people were killed on their watch. By terrorists. Striking in the United States. In an attack that the President was warned about by a briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S."

Glenn Beck decided to commemorate the events of 9/11 by organizing a March on Washington, something attended by 30 - 70,000 crackpots, sore losers, and assorted Republicans Mad at Barack Obama for Winning the Election. I'm not sure what this had to do with 9/11, but it's always instructive to hear what Mr. Beck Himself has to say about the victims of disasters like 9/11. And Katrina.



Funny thing about that "9/12 project," though. The mission statement for the 9/12 Project says, in part, "This is a non-political movement. The 9-12 Project is designed to bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001. The day after America was attacked we were not obsessed with Red States, Blue States or political parties. We were united as Americans, standing together to protect the greatest nation ever created."

Now, take a look at this video and see how well the participants in the 9/12 project tolerate a view other than their own (or, at least, that of their corporate sponsors):

Friday, August 21, 2009

Steve Kangas's Home Page

Here's a link to a mirror of Steve Kangas's Web site. There's a treasure trove of liberal reading material here:

Steve Kangas's Home Page

FAIR's Media Contact List

Here's a handy list of Who to write to and Where:

FAIR's Media Contact List

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Health Care Bogeyman, part (I lost count!)

Does the government actually run the BEST healthcare?
People on the right rail against "socialized medicine" without actually knowing anything about socialized medicine. Somehow, the inclusion of the word "socialized" is supposed to frighten us, especially if we don't know what it means. Coming in a close second is the phrase "government run (insert anything here)." Normally accompanying any rant against government-run whatever is something like "government can't do anything right" or "I wouldn't trust the government to walk my dog." (And I doubt very much that the government aspires to walk anyone's dog. Except, of course, the official Government Dog. Which might be Bo, at the moment.)

Government actually does do things right, which is not surprising, since government is "we, the people." We, the people, are actually capable of doing things right from time to time. Has anybody crossed a street lately? A paved street? One with, perhaps, street lights? A stop sign or -- for the deluxe version -- a stop light with a cross walk and a "Walk... Don't Walk" sign? Blame it on the government. Get any mail lately? Damn government bureaucrats at work. Had the fire at your house put out by those folks with the red (or yellow, these days) truck? Was that serial rapist/murderer/burglar apprehended? Did you fly in an airplane that managed to safely take off, climb, cruise, descend, and land? It was those blasted government folks again.

And didn't a vast number of government agents defeat a couple of military powerhouses 64 years ago and save the world, including your sorry ass (or the sorry asses of your forebears)? Well?

Or maybe you think your precious Ayn Rand could have gotten Hitler to shrivel and die with little more than a withering glance.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Can Remedial Spelling Cure Wingnuttia?

I was reading through this - Daily Kos: Saturday hate mail-apalooza - when the element common to almost every one of the Wingnut Hate Letters struck me: misplaced apostrophes, misspelling, and/or dyslexic spelling. You know the pattern: your becomes you're, lose becomes loose, and anything plural is indicated by an apostrophe followed by an "s" as in "plural's."

Here are a few examples from that post of letters sent to Kos:

Comrade,

we will rise up and squash you and those like you. Enjoy you moment in the sun.

we will not much longer stand by and watch while you and you're ilk destroy what is our birth right.


Enjoy you moment in the sun? You and you're ilk? Here's another:

Go to HELL WITH YOUR SOICALISM, THIS IS AMERICA AND THE TRUE AMERICANS WILL DEFEND LIBERTY, FREEDOM TO THEIR LAST BREATH, CAN YOU COWARDS SAY THE SAME, I DOUBT IT. TURE AMERICAN VIETNAM VET, CONSERVATE, T.A.TATE


Soicalism is something with which I am unfamiliar. The practice of soical? As for "ture" and "conservate," I admit to being baffled.

But I do wonder this: Can these people be saved by remedial spelling and remedial grammar? If they learn the proper use of the apostrophe (Use it to form a contraction or to indicate possession. Period.) will they suddenly find themselves freed from their nonsensical worldview? Will the term "freedom" suddenly come to mean "freedom for all" rather than "you must think the same thing as me?"

I have no proof that this would work, but I think it's worth a try. Oh, and while we're at it, we might add "remedial use of the caps lock key" to the mix.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Bush V. Obama... A Visit to Britain

Just in case someone out there forgets what the Bush years were like, when those Texans trampled the pristine grounds of Buckingham Palace...
The Mahablog » Anyone Else Remember the Five Chefs?

Friday, March 06, 2009

Treasury Sez Reagan Owns Biggest Tax Hike

Here's a link to the Treasury study showing who raised and/or cut taxes, by how much, and by what percentage of GDP. Not that the Republicans out there will pay any attention to this, since it's fact-based...

http://www.treas.gov/offices/tax-policy/library/ota81.pdf

FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right: The Clinton Economic Record and Rising Tides


Here's the full article, for more explanation of this chart:
FiveThirtyEight.com: Politics Done Right: The Clinton Economic Record and Rising Tides

Effective Federal Tax Rates by Decile

More income things I need to remember:

Effective Federal Tax Rates by Decile

Income Distribution in the United States

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: