Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Tuesday morning tab dump
I have a lot of open tabs, and they have to go somewhere while I sit in meetings all day. Fire away.
The Donks want to pay for health care "reform" by taxing the rich. But only for the time being. The new proposed tax would not be indexed to inflation, and since there is massive structural inflation built in to the massive budget deficits we are now enacting, the health care tax on the "rich" will become middle class soon enough:
The typical family would be spared higher taxes from the House Democratic plan to overhaul health care, and their low-income neighbors could come out ahead.
Their wealthy counterparts, however, face big tax increases that could eventually hit future generations of taxpayers who are less wealthy.
The bill is funded largely from a 5.4 percent tax on individuals making more than $500,000 a year and couples making more than $1 million, starting in 2011. The tax increase would hit only 0.3 percent of tax filers, raising $460.5 billion over the next 10 years, according to congressional estimates.
But unlike other income tax rates, the new tax would not be indexed for inflation. As incomes rise over time because of inflation, more families — and more small business owners — would be hit by the tax.
Regular readers know that I am blessed to have a good income. This bill would put my marginal federal and state income tax rate at more than 56%. Working less looks more and more appealing.
Here's a shocker: I'm going to side with Al Gore.
Gore is making millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, investing in clean technology. Some righty critics say he is cynically promoting climate alarmism to line his pockets; Gore says he is investing consistently with his political and scientific opinions. Regular readers know that (1) I think Gore is a clown (albeit a very successful one), and (2) I have deep misgivings about greenhouse gas regulation as a "solution." All of that said, I agree with Gore on this one. I do not think that Gore is disingenuous on climate change -- just another activist who shades many of his assertions to achieve his objective -- and have no problem with Gore investing in clean energy technology and the like. More to the point, I would no doubt mock him mercilessly if he invested in oil or coal recovery.
The Obama administration, per Hillary, mans up and opposes the Islamic Conference's bid to make "religious defamation" a human rights violation.
"Some claim that the best way to protect the freedom of religion is to implement so-called anti-defamation policies that would restrict freedom of expression and the freedom of religion," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters. "I strongly disagree."
Clinton said the United States was opposed to negative depictions of specific faiths and would always fight against belief-based discrimination. But she said a person's ability to practice their religion was entirely unrelated to another person's right to free speech.
"The protection of speech about religion is particularly important since persons of different faith will inevitably hold divergent views on religious questions," Clinton said. "These differences should be met with tolerance, not with the suppression of discourse."
Good for them.
Per Maggie's, an academic ranking of the best universities in the world. Pretty humiliating if you went to Brown.
Iowans are having second thoughts. Hillary is rolling her eyes.
Operation Orchard: How Israel destroyed Syria's nuke two years ago. If that is what happened.
The tax consequences of transfers of human body parts. Reminds me of one of my favorite cadaver books
.The origin of the Jewish people is again a subject for passionate controversy. Either way, I know an ally when I see one.
Even if the Republicans win the key races today, they still suck. So says the narrative.
Via Glenn, consolidated polling on health care "reform" is just a teensy-weensy bit scary for Democrats.
Ouch. That one must have hurt.
Talk amongst yourselves.
4 Comments:
By 
Dawnfire82, at
Tue Nov 03, 10:33:00 AM:
"If that is what happened."
A quote from the article you linked, restating the consensus: "There are no longer any serious doubts that we were dealing with a nuclear reactor in Syria," the scientist concluded.
While much of it rings true, this article has a scent of... *sniff* embellishment about it. An awful lot of quotations about an awful lot of sensitive things, including a supposed joke spoken by a Mossad operative involved in the assassination of Imad Mughniyah? Yeah, right.
President Assad's non-attendance at the funeral of General Suleiman was somehow evidence of his private anguish? ("It was important for him to put on a show of self-control, no matter how distressed he may have felt," see p. 6)
And the page 7 narrative about how Assad really wants to come clean but is mean old comrades in North Korea and Iran just won't let him, so they leak the scenario to the press (and all coming from 'sources in Damascus') and 'really wants to do business' with Netanyahu smells strongly of Syrian propaganda. Even implicitly Spiegel acknowledges this with their immediate bet-hedging. ("Nevertheless, Assad is loath to...")
Interesting read, but I'm not willing to trust details here that I can't corroborate elsewhere.
By Georg Felis, at
Tue Nov 03, 02:51:00 PM:
Comrades, I bear two pieces of good news from the Peoples White House:
First, your free health care will be paid for by taxing the rich to death.
Secondly, you have all been declared to be rich.
By 
, at
Tue Nov 03, 03:04:00 PM:
There are serious "separation of Church and State" issues here ...
"Essentially what the judgment says is that a belief in man-made climate change and the alleged resulting moral imperative is capable of being a philosophical belief and is therefore protected by the 2003 religion or belief regulations."
It's official now .. AGW is a religion .. at least in the UK
By CBDenver, at
Wed Nov 04, 10:45:00 PM:
Here's the problem with Gore - he is pushing for governmental policies that will profit his business. He is basically a political lobbyist who is using his political influence from years in office to further his own financial gain.
