Another Really Good Way Of Saying It

The McDuck myth is appealing: A greedy, selfish, short-sighted villain with a stockpile of (ill gotten) cash. Someone we can both blame and make pay for society's failures. Suction cash out of the Money Bin and fix the economy in a half hour (minus commercial breaks). It is natural to think like this: that's why Disney cartoons are written that way. But reality is not a children's show. Skimming off of the top from a billionaire means taking a piece of their stock. Taking a piece of their working machinery necessary to employ people and generate social wealth. But wait, you say, the billionaire doesn't pay taxes in stock, they pay them in dollars. And yes, you are right. They do pay in dollars. Considering how much money a billionaire has on hand (as we've just discussed), where do you think they get that money? From selling stock. And when we tax all of the billionaires, they all sell their stock at once. No other billionaires are waiting to buy. The price drops in order to get someone, anyone, to buy. No longer able to tap capital markets, the company may sell off its wealth-making equipment to pay its bills. People are fired.

This would be part of why I favor a less progressive tax system, too.

A Peeve

One of the few political arguments I've had in my guild-- because I try to avoid them, nobody will change their mind anyways-- was about Zimbabwe. A guildie was trying to hold it up as a good example of equalizing race relations, because "they use to be an apartheid, and they're fair, now." I kind of off-handedly mentioned that I'm against torture and murder of folks for their property because of their skin color, no matter who is doing it. Boiled down, he said they deserved it for being white in a country that use to have apartheid..... After half an hour trying to explain "racism" does not mean "bias against darker people" I finally gave it up as a lost cause; he would not even concede that systematic government programs, as a theoretical, would be wrong if they were conducted against someone he viewed as a historical aggressor. The kicker? I'm pretty sure his grandparents were post-WWII from Poland..... This all came to mind from reading this Nordlinger article that mentions Mugabe. Just goes to re, re, re-enforce the notion that it just does no good to argue with folks 90% of the time....

So Beautiful!

Old World Swine has the painting he's been working on posted to his blog. Go, look. It's lovely!

Thank You, Pursuing Holiness-

for stating this so clearly:

Do I want Obama to fail? Aren’t I, as a Christian, required to pray for our president? I do pray for him. But I don’t pray for his success, where his success means implementing policies which harm the country’s security, kill babies, increase poverty, and decrease freedom. The Alinskyite game playing is pathetic, trying to divide us with “have you beat your wife lately?” questions designed to “catch” conservatives in being “disloyal” to the President. Are you now, or have you ever been, a fan of Rush Limbaugh? Grow up! I’m not hoping for economic failure. I’m experiencing economic failure, and I’m hoping to return to economic success.

And This Proves My Mom's Point-

about cursing. It needs to be used where it will have good effect; the main problem we have with the overuse of the f-bomb is that its power is greatly reduced. (example: by the end of a Jay and Silent Bob flick, you'd be shocked at a phrase from Jay that isn't Fbomb laced) Now, that said, this is a great response:

In response, Jeffco filed a motion stating he conducted an internet search of the F- word and found 663 million uses "within ten seconds" and results running the "gamut from nouns, adjectives to strong emphatic." No ordinary person would have been provoked into violence under the circumstances, Jeffco reported, adding, "Ryan Russman is not an ordinary person in that an ordinary person would not have placed his nose in other people’s business without expecting that behavior to provoke a response."

As Mr. Lileks noted, about the only response when a random guy walks up while you're taking political trash (evidencing trespass and probably vandalism of your property) off your lawn and orders you to stop is "who the F are you?"