And not as much rain in Texas . . .

What? people who earn a million will move to avoid taxes? How come? It's only a 2% increase. Let's see, on a million dollars that's merely $20,000 on top of the already high taxes, maybe $90,000, they were paying already, which were on top of the taxes they were paying to the federal government. Probably over half goes in taxes when it's all over.

The fatcats should stay and pay the taxes.

We voted!

Internet regulation update

It's worse than I thought. We've nationalized car manufacturers, insurance companies, banks, and now communications is next in line. Dammit, the internet was pretty much the only thing that was working to encourage innovation and wealth creation. The rest of the economy pretty much seemed to be rent-seeking and zero sum balance sheet shifting.

Sticky-fingers on the internet . . .

The sticky-fingered commisars of the FCC have been wanting to regulate the internet. We aren't sure how they propose to regulate it or what features of the internet they figure should be regulated. But they went and did it. Their scheme passed today, and pretty soon now, we might learn what it is that they did. But it is a secret for now.

I figure seeing as how they really don't want to talk about what they just did after they done already done it (that's how we used to talk in Kentucky), it's to give them some extra time to either get out of town or to get their stories right.

Maybe I could go along with regulating the internet. I could live with some sort of painful and bloody punishment for spammers, for instance.

But, really! WTF?

I guess its just a whole lot more satisfying and easy to run a democracy if you don't have to put up with a bunch of people yelping about whether or not the rule you are inflicting on the public is necessary, or wanted, or helpful, or even Constitutionally permitted. Next, somebody will say that government should govern with the consent of the governed, and I'm pretty sure, based on the evidence, that that can't be the case.

That's why I always counsel people to vote in every election. You get few enought chances to express yourself to our overlords as it is, so you should never pass up a chance if it comes your way. Because the alternative to voting involves bayonets, ropes, and sturdy tree branches.

Double dip for the holidays.

Looks like Portland is experiencing yet another round of home price reductions. A double hit. I was just saying that it really is sad to drive around looking at Christmas lights, and seeing "For Sale" signs at Christmas. I'm doing just fine but there's a great deal of people suffering through no or low work opportunities out there, who wrapped up their families' lives in their homes and retirement plans, who are no longer able to afford either and are unable to liquidate either in any way that offers relief -- and they didn't do anything wrong or do anything to deserve being punished in this way. Except for the way they voted.

Our government, elected officials and civil service types, represent the fountainhead of the nation's miseries.

Bitter? Oh, no. P.O.d

Pirates have boarded the Ship of State

The budget was due months ago. But at least one has finally been proposed. Finally.

One point one t-r-i-l-l-i-o-n dollars! 1,924 pages. 6,488 earmarks. And 40% of federal revenue is borrowed, at present, before we even get to this budget.

And when somebody objected that this isn't much time to review the budget proposal before voting on it, Senator Reid said we have until January 5 to vote on it and get it to the House. How much time is needed for people to just do as they are told by their elected betters?

Oh, my poor children and grandchildren, and great grandchildren to come if my grandchildren can even manage to have children when the time comes.

Peace be upon the holy business card . . .

Here ya go. A doctor discarded a business card. The card identified a person named Mohomed, that is, he was named after the prophet. It's a common enough name; I've met several "Mo's" in my life so far.

What's the problem? The problem is that by throwing away the card, the doctor was basically disrespecting the prophet because his name was on the card, and Islam, which is a criminal offense requiring punishment.

It seems to me that if one is so insecure about one's religious beliefs that discarding a business card is a threat to one's sense of self, well, maybe the only cure is to just find a warm cave somewhere far from where people are, and spend your days squatting naked in the cave interacting with nobody, right up to the inevitable end. At least it would, anyhow, be better for the rest of us who are cool with throwing away business cards and mean no disrespect to anyone when we do.

Lions, and Tigers, and missiles, oh my. . .

Just, dammit! Iranian missiles targeting us. How many workers' paradises do we have to contain to the south? Didn't the threat of atomic missiles die down after the end of the cold war and the strategy of Mutual Assured Distruction? Do we have to teach little kids, again, to duck under their school desk and cover their ears?


Kennedy scared the U.S.S.R. missiles out of Cuba but left Castro in place, to appropriate the labor and lives of generations of Cubans to come. Obama gives Chavez big wet kisses on the cheek.


For that matter, how long do we have to put up with Islamic expansionism? To them, we are infidels in a world which should be entirely under Sharia, and the best we should hope for is to be dhimmi.


Western civilization has been periodically plagued by Islamic predations necessitating taking up arms, as in the Crusades, among other things. Islamic incursions damn near made it to Paris, and to Vienna, and pretty much ran Spain before being beat back. Temporarily. President Jefferson read the Koran then went after the pirates of Tripoli. This sh8t isn't new.


Here's the deal. When faced with an implacable threat to your civilization, you either have to win, or you lose. You can't just contain and delay them, as has been the strategy of choice for 1100 years. You can't just beat them back. You have to beat them.


Oh, and by the way. Being dhimmi means becoming a member of a barely tolerated indigenous population eking out an existence on the margins of a dominant occupying population.

It's for the children . . .

The federal government is now contemplating making back-up cameras mandatory on all new vehicles. Parents sometimes back their cars over their children who are permitted to run any damn place they want to, so as to avoid stifling their little emotional developments.

Well, you have to look, don't you? If you are backing up, you have to look in your mirrors, or swivel around and look out the back window, or something. Right? After all, the lady who backed her SUV into my car down in the basement parking lot had a back-up camera in her car. She didn't look at it.

Not everybody pays attention to what they are doing. Not everybody looks; they merely trust the way is clear.

For this reason the original proposal was that reverse gear just be eliminated from all passenger vehicles, altogether. And it would have passed, too, except that the bureaucrats couldn't figure out whether to make circular driveways or solar-panel powered roundtables required features in all urban areas, so they compromised. They'll revive the reverse-gear elimination proposal after all cars are finally equipped with back-up cameras.

It's for the children.