I'm Henery the Eighth, I am....GAAAAAH! Now I have that earworm going, one of the most persistent.
But, it's time for some Thuds.
Thud the First: Obama! Yep, speaking to students yesterday, he actually raised the concept of self-reliance as a bogeyman! This might be his Big Gaffe, the moment everyone will point to in years to come, after his defeat, and say, "Yep, he let his complete ignorance slip out there, and never recovered from it." As I see it, this is a "TEA-Party-ish" moment. The point at which the opposition to his election really gets galvanized. On the one hand, those who follow Obama are now certified as NOT self-reliant, but reliant on the Gummint for their welfare and being. On the other hand, the REAL self-reliant ones. There's NO middle ground in such a division, because you're either self-reliant or you're not, and what's more, you probably KNOW which one you are. Politics, you see, doesn't work well when guessing games are locked out of it's repertoire. Obama has now set the terms of the debate, and if the GOP candidates, to the last one of them, don't pick up on this, well, let's just say THEY don't deserve election, either.
Thud the Second: The Flea Party has the liberls who run most cities over a barrel. The solid citizens and most of the merchants want their filthy camps gone from the city centers, but most of the libtard Mayors feel they owe these fellow-libs something, so they have tied the hands of their Police Chiefs, at least those who actually have the spine to enforce the various city laws against the camping. Portland is one of those cities. The taxpayers are fed up with the filth, the craziness (the "movement" has attracted every crazy not locked down in an asylum somewhere), the vandalism, the theft, the huge and ever-mounting cost. See Thud the First, above. We are the self-reliant and we want them GONE! A local poll had Flea Party support at 39% here last night, and we live in a VERY liberal City!
Thud the Third: The Christian Science Monitor, trying to evaluate the relative "fairness" of the various taxing schemes put forth by some GOP candidates. The sound you heard was the "thud" of their concept of evaluation hitting the deck. Taxation isn't about "fairness". It never has been. It's about providing the funds to operate a government. HOW that government operates determines HOW MUCH taxation is required, and YES, some taxation IS required. The CSM misses the point of a tax plan. First, the political point: politicians, of all stripes, simply HAVE to have a tax system that they can tinker with (deductions, etc) so as to bribe their constituents into voting for them. As far as EFFECTIVENESS goes, a system that CAN'T be tinkered with will be far more efficient to administer. It's hard to tinker with a flat tax, no deductions. That's the true "fair" tax: make "x" dollars in wages or other compensation, send in a percentage of it as tax. No deductions for any reason, just send it in. If the Gummint wants to send you some back as welfare, well, that's another issue, but EVERYONE gets taxed the same percentage.
Thud the Fourth: Rick Perry and HIS "flat" tax plan. First of all, it's anything but flat. He would grant the same deductions (read: political bribes) that are in place today, in fact, all his system does is remove all the different tax brackets and substitute one - 20%. I have slightly over $100K of taxable income, from a number of different sources. I should be in a 25% or so bracket, but I maintain the 20% bracket due to careful use of the legal deductions. Without deductions, my tax under the Perry plan remains about the same. Secondly, a Word for Perry: quit waving that postcard around, it's bullshit. No more people would be able to use the postcard than now are able to use the one-page 1040S short-form, and the reason for THAT is deductions. You have to use the forms, schedules and worksheets to use deductions. That costs me $600/year to do, because it's so complex that I have to hire a CPA, and no, Turbo-Tax does NOT get it all straight. If Perry REALLY wanted to "flatten" the tax, he would lower his Flat Tax to 15-18%, dump the deductions, and THEN his postcard would work. But then, he'd be Newt, wouldn't he?
Thud the Fifth: Home appliances. Why the HELL does something simple to build like an electric oven have to cost well over $1,000, and that's for an inexpensive one? The "good" ones can cost over $3,000. Look, it's a steel box, fer Christ's sake, with a calrod and a thermostat, and now, some fancy little computer (probably costs $10 to manufacture). It doesn't even need moving parts (my new one, a Frigidaire, has a convection-fan, though). Jeebus! In India, they can make a CAR for that moolah! Oh, well, at least the cookies and pies and pastries that the gudwife will bake now won't have burned bottoms on them. I suppose THAT'S worth the price of a good 1/2 MOA rifle with decent tactical glass...
Thud the Sixth: Is the sound of McDonald's PR Veep getting the boot after allowing this jack-booted reaction to a PHX-area mom who wants some more public health precautions in the Play Areas. Next will probably come a boycott, no doubt lead by one of the "meat is murder" outfits, and this time, it will be effective, and Mickey Dee's will lose millions as a result. How much simpler it would have been to turn this around, hire a couple more minimum-wage employees per store, keep the Play Areas clean, and make some POSITIVE PR instead of taking the hit they're going to take. This is what ALWAYS happens when you let lawyers make management decisions. Lawyers in a company should ALWAYS be restricted to checking the legality of things like contracts, etc. They should have NO OTHER role, because when they get this far afield, the results are ALWAYS FUBAR.