Saturday, January 26, 2008

Ain't love grand

A young couple was due to be married today and the man stepped in and prevented it.

Excerpt
Kelvin White was in town Thursday to marry his Cincinnati sweetie.

Now, the wedding is off - unless White can come up with $500,000.

That's the bond a judge set Friday that is keeping White behind bars after he, his fiancée and three other people were arrested Thursday on drug-related charges.

Well, at least they're keeping it in the family.

Campus crime down

Just don't step a foot off campus.

Tonight's ineffective use of police resources

Back to back nights for the DUI checkpoint.

Tonight's DUI checkpoint in Roselawn at the intersection of Reading and Section. Don't be a Bengal, avoid the area. You wouldn't want to be profiled.

Those liberals are awfully slow

I've been a little giddy reading all these liberal hit pieces on The Billary's dirty campaigning. After all, conservatives have been saying this for only about, oh, say 16 years.

Well, it looks as though liberals are either slow to recognize this character flaw or complicit in the dirty tactics. Now look at what they have... a badly flawed candidate to present to the general election.

Here's a LA Time editorial on the issue

Excerpt
Something strange happened the other day. All these different people -- friends, co-workers, relatives, people on a liberal e-mail list I read -- kept saying the same thing: They've suddenly developed a disdain for Bill and Hillary Clinton. Maybe this is just a coincidence, but I think we've reached an irrevocable turning point in liberal opinion of the Clintons.
The sentiment seems to be concentrated among Barack Obama supporters. Going into the campaign, most of us liked Hillary Clinton just fine, but the fact that tens of millions of Americans are seized with irrational loathing for her suggested that she might not be a good Democratic nominee. But now that loathing seems a lot less irrational. We're not frothing Clinton haters like ... well, name pretty much any conservative. We just really wish they'd go away.
snip
The Clinton campaign is trying to make it seem as if the complaint is about negativity, and it is pointing out that Obama has criticized Hillary as well. That's what politicians are supposed to do when they compete for votes. But criticism isn't the same thing as lying and sleaze-mongering.

Am I starting to sound like a Clinton hater? It's a scary thought. Of course, to conservatives, it's a delicious thought. The Wall Street Journal published a gloating editorial noting that liberals had suddenly learned "what everyone else already knows about the Clintons." (By "everyone," it means Republicans.)

It made me wonder: Were the conservatives right about Bill Clinton all along? Maybe not right to set up a perjury trap so they could impeach him, but right about the Clintons' essential nature? Fortunately, the Journal's attempt to convince us that the Clintons have always been unscrupulous liars seemed to prove the opposite. Its examples of Clintonian lies were their claims that Bob Dole wanted to cut Medicare, that there was a vast right-wing conspiracy, that Paula Jones was "trailer trash" and that Kenneth Starr was a partisan.

As much as I hate The Billary, I have to admit I've had a huge curiosity as to why liberals have such a love affair with them. The Billary would throw the whole liberal agenda under the bus (and they have with welfare reform, don't ask don't tell, capital punishment) to advance their own narcissism.

Conservatives never play that game. Just look at the lackluster support for any of these moderate candidates.

So I beg all these libs, please continue your support of The Billary. As I've said before, The Billary gets all these rave reviews for being such a popular US president yet never had more than 49% of the popular vote. The new and improved Billary has all the charm of a rattlesnake.

I can't wait to watch whatever GOP nominee comes in to put a stake in the heart of the liberal God once and for all.

Classic Steyn

Mark Steyn on a roll....

Excerpt
So, henceforth, any terrorism perpetrated by persons of an Islamic persuasion will be designated "anti-Islamic activity." Britain's Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, unveiled the new brand name in a speech a few days ago. "There is nothing Islamic about the wish to terrorize, nothing Islamic about plotting murder, pain and grief," she told her audience. "Indeed, if anything, these actions are anti-Islamic."

Well, yes, one sort of sees what she means. Killing thousands of people in Manhattan skyscrapers in the name of Islam does, among a certain narrow-minded type of person, give Islam a bad name, and thus could be said to be "anti-Islamic" – in the same way that the Luftwaffe raining down death and destruction on Londoners during the Blitz was an "anti-German activity."

But I don't recall even Neville Chamberlain explaining, as if to a 5-year-old, that there is nothing German about the wish to terrorize and invade, and that this is entirely at odds with the core German values of sitting around eating huge sausages in beer gardens while wearing lederhosen.

More.....

Friday, January 25, 2008

Is it revenue or tax collection.

One of my pet peeves is the reference to tax collections as "revenue" for the government body collecting it. I think it's a 1984 attempt to change the language. It's gotten under my crawl as I've had to instruct clients to send checks into the North Carolina Department of Revenue, the Kentucky Revenue Cabinet, etc. At least Ohio still calls their tax collectors the Ohio Dept. of Taxation.

In my little pee brain, I've always been under the assumption that revenue were sales by companies. Taxes are not sales or revenue, they are taxes.

So I thought I'd go to dictionary.com and get the actual definition of the word "revenue"

1.the income of a government from taxation, excise duties, customs, or other sources, appropriated to the payment of the public expenses.
2.the government department charged with the collection of such income.
3.revenues, the collective items or amounts of income of a person, a state, etc.
4.the return or yield from any kind of property, patent, service, etc.; income.
5.an amount of money regularly coming in.
6.a particular item or source of income.
So I guess I'll keep my mouth shut and just end my money to the Internal Revenue Service.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Another Friday Funny

This is what I was looking for.

Friday Funny

I think I passed her last night.

Keep donating to those endowments

If you've read this blog, you know how critical I am of university endowment funds. My main criticism is that all these funds seem to do is grow. They're rarely used to enhance a university's assets or aid students.

Taxprof Blog has a post about the average payouts of college endowments funds. On average, funds grew by 17.6% last year, yet paid out only 4.6% to students. Private foundation tax laws require a payout of at least 5% of assets but university endowments are exempt. If you want to see your school's endowment activity, click here.

I've always wondered why people give to these funds rather than donating to their local public school, who could use the money. All you're doing by contributing to a university endowment is throwing money into a black hole.

For full disclosure, I donate $500.00 a year to UCATS (UC's athletic scholarship fund), I do this since I was a recipient of an athletic scholarship and the money is used to fund those scholarships.

For crying out loud the Harvard endowment is now worth over 30 billion dollars. What are they waiting for?......... the apocalypse? That amount of money could pay for the tuition of 750,000 students.

So do something productive with your money. Instead of buying that $50 alumni plate, send a check to some place that will use it.

Justice delayed is justice denied

Excerpt
A chief federal judge took away five death penalty cases from a colleague criticized by some prosecutors for taking as many as eight years to issue appeals rulings.

Judge Sandra Beckwith, chief of the U.S. District Court for southern Ohio, said she made the unusual move to ease the workload of U.S. District Judge Walter Rice.

Beckwith said decision was not made in response to complaints about Rice's handling of capital cases. The decision was mutual, she added.

"Judge Rice has a very heavy docket, and it seemed logical to give him some relief," she said. "These are enormous cases. They take a lot of time."

Two of the appeals removed from Rice's docket yesterday were filed almost eight years ago. The most recent case was filed three years ago.

"It's like a black hole in the universe," said Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters, whose Cincinnati-based office handled three of the cases. "Once a case goes in there, we don't hear from him for eight years."

More....

Pot Kettle Black Award


Straight from Drudge

Photo surfaces of smiling Clintons with Tony Rezko.

MORE...

Clinton injected the indicted developer's name this week in debate with Obama: 'I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner city Chicago.'

Clinton tells NBC 'TODAY' show on Friday: 'I probably have taken hundreds of thousands of pictures. I don't know the man. I wouldn't know him if he walked in the door.'

For Billary to accuse anyone of hanging around unsavory characters has enabled them to win a PKB award six previous times. I just find this one more amusing.

At least this time, the guy's not Chinese.

Tonight's Bengal reunion

Tonight's DUI checkpoint or Bengals reunion will be.....

Police will conduct drunk driving checkpoint tonight in the city of Hamilton.

The 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. checkpoint will take place along Ohio 4 between Grand Boulevard and Fairfield city limits, said Officer Rich Burkhardt, a spokesman for the Hamilton Police Department.

Another, separate drunk driving checkpoint will be held Saturday night in neighboring Hamilton County, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Georgetown post.

Why people go red over blue

If you ever wondered why people move from the city to the suburbs, you have to read this letter from a frustrated citizen to Cincinnati City councilman, Cecil Thomas (Hat Tip to The Daily Bellweather and Clark Street Blog).

To give you a Reader's Digest condensed version. This poor guy has been the subject of several robberies and shootings in his Bond Hill, twice by the same guy.

I'll ask again to the jack ass who commented on this blog that "democrats are progressive and conservatives believe in the status quo". Do you think conservatives would put up with this status quo? No. That's why they move to the suburbs.

Apparently, it's really "progressives" who put up with the status quo by allowing criminals to stay on the street; by allowing incompetent and lazy detectives to remain on their police force; by employing incompetent and lazy prosecutors.

Look, I'm not a suburban snob. I lived in Pleasant Ridge for 8 years. Pleasant Ridge might be the most diverse community in the city. I was involved in their community council for 4 years. I loved the Ridge. Despite the fact that I considered the Ridge to be a safe place to live, my car was broken into three times.

The first time I called the police they told me to call some hotline number to file a report. The line was continually busy. I called at 4:30 in the morning only to get another busy signal. I'm convinced it's was how the city keeps their crime statistics down because the city can't report what doesn't get reported to them.

I've also lived in Oakley (before it was cool) and Corryville so I think I have a reasonable basis to judge city living v. the burbs.

Now let's go back to the basics. Democrats run all the cities in this country (except for New York). This is what you get with democratic leadership.

Suburbs and rural areas are run by status quo republicans. The people who run these areas wouldn't even finish this letter before some heads started rolling.

By the way, let's look at New York again. How nice was New York to live in during the Koch/Dinkins era v. Guiliani/Bloomberg era? It's not even close.

So once again I challenge all liberals/democrats/progressives (whatever you want to be called) to explain to me and the readers how your governance is so superior than those status quo, conservatives.

I always find nice snarky comments from libs on my other posts, how about addressing one of these posts for a change.

Kinder capitalism


So Bill Gates is looking for a kinder capitalism.

I've got an idea for Bill.... quit selling a crappy operating system. I think all of us would feel better about a kinder capitalism.

For the record Bill, the very capitalism you despise, is the capitalism that allows you to kick in $20 billion to charity and live in this slum.

  • Assessed values (as of 2002) of $113 million, with over $1 million in annual property tax
  • 66,000 square feet
  • The wood columns from main floor to roof in entry area are over 70 feet tall.
  • Some of the interior passage doors weigh over 800 lbs, but are balanced for easy use.
  • The roofing is stainless steel.
  • Hidden cameras are everywhere, including the interior stone walls.
  • Gates insisted on saving a 40 year old maple adjacent to the driveway. The tree is monitored electronically 24 hours per day via computer. If it seems dry, it gets just the right amount of water automatically delivered.
  • All woodwork is flawless. Much of the woodwork is of various rare types from all over the world - imported especially for this house.
  • The theater (underground in a concrete shell) is the most state of the art theatre in the world according to specialty contractor.


I can't stand the thought of a billionaire whining.

I wish my raises were 8%

The state of Ohio is in a budget mess again.

Excerpt
The high figure represents 3.6 percent of the state's two-year, $52.3 billion budget that began in July and goes through June 2009.

In 1982-83, there was a $534 million deficit on a $6.7 billion budget - an 8 percent gap that was plugged with a hefty income tax increase. Other considerable deficits have happened roughly every decade since, with budget gaps just before and after the 2001 terror attacks comparable to current predictions.

I did some calculations on my trusty Excel spreadsheet and it looks to me like the state's budgets have increased about 8% per year.

This leads me to some questions.

1) How is it that the average joe can make it on 2-4% annual increases and the state cannot?

2) What programs do we have today that we didn't have in 1982? Are those programs necessary? After all, we did make it as a state pretty well from 1803 - 1982 without these programs?

3) The article mentions tapping into the "rainy day fund". Why does it seem like it's always raining at the statehouse?

The new state motto "Ohio..... The heart of it all... granted it's a solid purple heart getting bluer each day".

Thursday, January 24, 2008

The few, the proud

Help! He's term limited but won't go away

Check out this article on Billary

Excerpt

It's astonishing to me that liberals still venerate Clinton. I can only assume that they admire his political success: he was the first representative of his party since FDR to win a second Presidential term. But his record of achievement in those two terms is appallingly slender.

Apart from Welfare Reform, which most Dems opposed anyway, his Presidency was divided pretty much equally between legislative logjam caused by his narcissistic faith in his wife's pipe dreams and impeachment efforts caused by his vile personal pathologies.

Yes, he happened to preside over a period of economic expansion, but we know by now that politicians have exceptionally limited ability to affect the course of the economy: in terms of the economy he got lucky. Even most of the Dems I know now accept this, so why is he still adored? I have to conclude that it's because people like winners more than anything else. Clinton's status is a consequence of the 'son of a bitch' philosophy: the guy may be a sexually predatory congenital liar, but he's OUR sexually predatory congenital liar.

More....

Follow up


My last post created some interesting comments. But I think most people misunderstand my position on drugs and this Spitzer proposal.

I am a believer in decriminalizing or legalizing drugs. I figure if you want to burn up your brains with some crack it's not much different then killing yourself with Cheeto's. It's on you to destroy your life.

My point on throwing people in jail was simply recognizing that Spitzer is allowing a rogue element to operate with impunity within the sate. See this post.

At the same time, I understand that due to our prohibition on the drug trade, a totally independent underground economy has developed. This economy has largely operated without much impediment from the DEA, US Customs, the IRS, federal, state and local law enforcement and I'm guessing, the NY Department of Taxation.

For Spitzer to propose this for state tax receipts is lunacy. Why wouldn't they simply collect the income taxes on the drug dealers that already operate. I would bet a large amount of money it would generate more than $13 million a year.

Eric is right in one regard, many red states have tried taxing drugs as well. Most of those proposals have sought to pile on drug dealers for tax evasion as well as the drug dealing.

The fact still remains, the state government of New York is driving residents and citizens of New York out of the state with dumbass governance such as this. Does anyone leave the state because of this issue. Probably not. But it plants the seed that NY government is not competent.

Once again, I request that you look at the electoral map from 2004. People are leaving "blue" areas in droves.

I'm simply asking the question, Why?

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Those progressives think of everything

Eliot Spitzer has come up with a unique and "progressive" way to fund a $13 million dollar shortfall in the state's budget.

Excerpt
Drug dealers beware: Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer wants your help in balancing the state budget.

The governor proposed Tuesday that drug dealers be required to affix a state tax stamp on illegal drugs they sell — $3.50 per gram on marijuana and $200 per gram on drugs like heroin. He expects it to bring the state $13 million in revenue this year.

There wasn’t a whole lot of explanation about the idea, except a brief reference buried in one of the pieces of legislation accompanying the thousands of pages of budget documents released Tuesday. It says it will improve enforcement and tracking of illegal drug sales.


Now call me one of those stodgy, unimaginative, status quo conservatives, but I'm thinking, that drug dealers have already managed to avoid prosecution for selling illegal drugs. I don't think they're all that concerned with paying the tax on a bag of weed.

Here's an idea for the guv. How about arresting those drug dealers and throwing them in jail. You apparently know where these clowns are because you expect to collect a tax from them.

Wait a minute,..........

What's that sound.........

It's another Allied Van loaded up, leaving New York for a Red state.

Billary plays dirty

An excerpt from the uber conservative publication, The Nation.

The Clintons play dirty when they feel threatened. But we knew that, didn't we?

The recent roughing-up of Barack Obama was in the trademark style of the Clinton years in the White House. High-minded and self-important on the surface, smarmily duplicitous underneath, meanwhile jabbing hard to the groin area. They are a slippery pair and come as a package. The nation is at fair risk of getting them back in the White House for four more years. The thought makes me queasy.

How did it take so long for these liberals to get what conservatives have known for over 16 years.

My guess these complaints will all disappear when Billary goes up against a republican.

Hillary Clinton's Response (in a nutshell...)

I can't tell. Is this Hillary or Miss Teen South Carolina.

Global Warming... Making facts fit the theory

After Katrina, we were deluged with news reports about how global warming was going to increase the number and magnitude of gulf hurricanes.

Whoooooooaaaaa there Gordon. It's clear to us that since we've had almost no hurricanes hit the coast the past two years, that must be a result of global warming.

Excerpt
Global warming could reduce how many hurricanes hit the United States, according to a new federal study that clashes with other research.

The study is the latest in a contentious scientific debate over how manmade global warming may affect the intensity and number of hurricanes.

In it, researchers link warming waters, especially in the Indian and Pacific oceans, to increased vertical wind shear in the Atlantic Ocean near the United States. Wind shear, a change in wind speed or direction, makes it hard for hurricanes to form, strengthen and stay alive.

So that means "global warming may decrease the likelihood of hurricanes making landfall in the United States," according to researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Miami Lab and the University of Miami.

More......

Do these people have no shame?

Discrimination against gays

Excerpt
Would-be donors in the Seattle area are accusing blood banks of discriminatory policies banning most gay and bisexual men from giving blood.

When the Puget Sound Blood Center announced last week that Western Washington's blood supply was at emergency levels, some people responded with frustration at the stringent requirements that deny about 6 percent of those who try to donate blood.

About 24,000 people have been placed on the Western Washington permanent deferral list in the past decade, according to the Puget Sound Blood Center. An extra 3,000 are temporarily deferred, for periods ranging from one day to three years. The area's blood centers have accepted blood from nearly 443,000 donors during the same time.

"It upsets me when I see signs that say, 'We need blood, give now,' but they don't want my blood," said Pete, 26, an office supervisor who lives in North Seattle. He was put on the deferral list three years ago because he had sex with a man one time.

Donors are placed on the list based on their answers to initial screening questions. Men who have had sexual contact with a man, even once, since 1977 are automatically disqualified.

More...

And guess what? No one's probably received HIV from the blood supply either.

These guys should feel fortunate. I've given blood about four times and I wish Hoxworth would quit calling me.

I guess I'll never be "progressive"

My parents had their issues (like they all do) but the one thing the pounded in my brain, The more you do early the less you have to do later.

So when it would come to education they let me know early and often, do your work in school or you'll do a lot more later. These lessons didn't come from college graduates, my dad is a high school drop out and my mother a high school graduate. But they wanted something more for their kids. (for the record, out of five kids, we've got three college grads and two with college experience)

Unfortunately, I missed the bigger lesson of immediate satisfaction that so overwhelms our society. You go to school, not to get a nice, well paying, job later in life, you go to school for $8.00/hr.

Excerpt

Forty students from Creekside High and Bear Creek Middle schools in Fairburn will be the first to try the "Learn & Earn" program, where students will get paid to attend after-school tutoring programs.

Students will make approximately $8 an hour, and be eligible for bonuses if their grades improve, said Kirk Wilks, district spokesman. The initial students are in the eighth and 11th grades.

There will be a community kick-off Thursday at 3 p.m. in the Creekside High media center, 7405 Herndon Rd., Fairburn.

With the support of Fulton County Commissioner Robb Pitts, the pilot program will last 15 weeks and pay students for participation and performance. The object of the program is to determine if paying students to study will improve classroom attendance, grades and test scores, according to a news release from the district.

More...

Fulton County is basically Atlanta (Kerry over Bush 64-34) or a blue community.

Once again ask yourself the question, are the kids in Redville getting paid to be tutored?

More on GOP v conservatives

A good article on Reagan conservatism by Bill Kristol (HT Redhawk Review)

Excerpt

It's foolish to wait for another Ronald Reagan. But not just because his political gifts are rare. There's a particular way in which Reagan was exceptional that many of us fail to appreciate: He was the only president of the last century who came to the office as the leader of an ideological movement.

Reagan gave "The Speech" in October 1964, inherited the leadership of the conservative movement after Goldwater's loss, defeated a moderate establishment Republican two years later to win the GOP nomination for governor of California, and then defeated the Democratic incumbent. He remained in a sense the leader of conservatives nationally while serving two terms as governor, ran unsuccessfully against Gerald Ford in 1976, and won the presidency in 1980. He was a conservative first and a politician second, a National Review and Human Events reader first and an elected official second.

The thing to keep in mind about Reagan; he was the right guy for the right problems at the right time.

But I still contend the reason the conservative movement is faltering today is that too many republicans bastardized the message, used the message to get elected, then became part of the fat ass establishment. It's a scene straight out of George Orwell's Animal Farm.

I think the only person in the republican party that gets this is Newt Gingrich.

While I'm not a fan of Jerry Springer, I heard him on a talk show a couple of weeks ago and he made a very salient point on politics. He said (roughly paraphrasing) "The day you decide you're going to make a career in politics is the day you decide to give up your integrity because it becomes more about winning elections than leading change".

That's why Reagan was so far out in front of the republican party. He knew the conservative movement was much bigger than he was, he wasn't about winning an elections as he was leading something bigger than he. If you've never read his 1964 speech, you need to. It'll bring tears to your eyes.

I'm afraid Reagan had a qualities we'll never see in a leader again.

Republicans and conservative coalitions

A follow up to my post on David Brook's piece yesterday.

This one from The American Spectator.

Excerpt
IF THE REAGAN Revolution is stalled in this election cycle, it is because those at the head of the movement have stopped emphasizing its personal appeal to the average American. This is not the fault of Limbaugh -- who is rightly perturbed that he must constantly spell out a candidate's conservative bona fides or lack thereof -- but of those who forget that conservative ideals can resonate with voters in a way that liberalism cannot.

While folks who listen to Limbaugh can proclaim their core beliefs from the rooftops, liberal "values" must be slowly indoctrinated into the mainstream. This is why liberal talk radio is such a failure. Except for their radical base, not many people can take the left-wing mantra straight up. To succeed, they must cloak their message in pleasant euphemisms like "choice" and "equal rights."

Whatever polls may say, the majority of the American people do not embrace higher taxes, the culture of perpetual victimhood, government intervention in their lives, the taking of innocent life, and the defeat of our military at the hands of those who would see us all dead.

The first candidate who climbs up on the rooftop with the Rush and the rest of us and shouts these things out loud will be the one who walks away with the prize this summer.


More....

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Liberalism and drugs

For years, I've struggled with this question; who's more optimistic about the human experience; liberals or conservatives?

On one hand, you could say it's liberals. Part of the liberal belief system is that with a helping hand, all people can succeed. However, the converse, liberals don't trust that people will help their fellow man so their going to force them to do it.

One could argue that conservatives are the more optimistic. After all, they believe that people can achieve on their own, and that achievement builds self esteem in people. The converse, conservatives don't believe in human institutions to handle problems.

As I've evolved from a liberal into a full blown libertarian, I've challenged people to that question.

However, there's been something I've noticed in the news lately that has me firmly believing that liberals are not the more optimistic. The issue? Drugs.

While we're still waiting on more information, it looks like drugs claimed the life of another Hollywood actor; this time, Heath Ledger. If you are so optimistic about the human condition, why do you need to fill your soul with this shit?

Look at this list, you're probably not going to find a huge number of republicans on it. If you were to ask these people what politician they supported this election it would probably be a democrat. Of course you can't because they're dead.

Let's face it, look at any inner city. The prevalence of drugs in these areas is ridiculous and as we all know, cities are run by democrats.

But Gordon, you're talking about depressed areas of the country where people are trying to mask their despair.

Really?

Heath Ledger had a life of despair? How about John Candy, Bon Scott, John Bonham, Keith Moon, Judy Garland, John Belushi, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Terry Kath, Chris Farley, etc.... Did they all have lives of depression and despair like those in the inner city?

I cannot find any good statistics, but I would be willing to bet a lot of money that the majority of drugs and alcohol are consumed in "Blue" areas? Anyone disagree?

I'd really like comments from those that do. For the past year, I've been witness to a number of stories where drugs have ripped through the lives of families and I'm truly trying to understand what it is that has people willing to throw their lives away for another hit off a crack pipe.

Over my 44 years, I've come to believe that God designed all of us with a "hole in the soul". It's the place God designed for himself but he gives us the free will to fill that hole with whatever we choose. Some people choose drugs, some alcohol, food, sex, blogging, porn, gambling, video gaming, etc.

We all have those comfort places where we go when we don't want to deal with life's struggles. I guess I'm just surprised at how many people choose drugs and wondering why when the costs are so high.

Conservatives on the warpath

David Brooks has a column basically stating that conservatives are ruining the republican party.

Excerpt

But then a great tightening occurred. Conservative institutions and interest groups proliferated in Washington. The definition of who was a true conservative narrowed. It became necessary to pass certain purity tests — on immigration, abortion, taxes and Terri Schiavo.

An oppositional mentality set in: if the liberals worried about global warming, it was necessary to regard it as a hoax. If The New York Times editorial page worried about waterboarding, then the code of conservative correctness required one to think it O.K.

Apostates and deviationists were expelled or found wanting, and the boundaries of acceptable thought narrowed. Moderate Republicans were expelled for squishiness. Millions of coastal suburbanites left the party in disgust.

Brooks then continues to rip conservatives for their luke warm support for the republicans running in the primaries.

I believe he totally misses the disgust conservatives have with republicans. Most conservatives owe much of their belief to Ronald Reagan, who exposed the failures of liberal policies since the "Great Society". We didn't have to look far.

Our inner cities had become a mess, unemployment and interest rates were astronomical. The US had become a country of uniform malaise.

Reagan was the right person at the right time to show that conservative principles work.

Unfortunately, too many republicans don't believe in those principles. They believe in a form of liberalism light but they want to wrap themselves with the flag of Reagan conservatism to win elections. You can't have it both ways.

Look, I'm not a believer in same sex marriage, but too many republicans decided that they could run on that issue alone while they continued to spend money like a drunken sailor ie the bridge to nowhere. I believe conservatives have just plain had it with the continual bait and switch. Especially when conservative know that conservatives principles work and wins elections.

All I've ever asked from a politician is that their policy support match some underlying principle of government. Instead we get a hodge podge of Mike Huckabee lying about his support of tax increases, Romney all over the place on abortion and John McCain thinking it's Ok for the state to infringe on First Amendment rights.

Please. I'd rather have a V-8.

Hillary's healthcare task force

From a Cal Thomas column...

Now the self-described “public interest group” may have come up with its biggest find of all (so far). It has obtained records from the Clinton Presidential Library that reveal the internal workings and attitudes of people associated with Hillary Clinton’s National Taskforce on Health Care Reform. These documents penetrate Clinton’s carefully crafted personae, expose her true character and suggest what she and her Democratic allies would impose on the nation, if given the power. The documents could — and should — have an impact on her presidential candidacy.

According to Judicial Watch, a June 18, 1993 internal memorandum entitled “A Critique of Our Plan,” authored by someone with the initials “P.S.,” acknowledges that critics were correct when they questioned whether the plan would work. “I can think of parallels in wartime,” wrote “P.S.”, but I have trouble coming up with a precedent in our peacetime history for such broad and centralized control over a sector of the economy. … Is the public really ready for this? ... None of us knows whether we can make it work well or at all…”



The road to equality

An excerpt from a Cincinnati Enquirer column on equality

But for ordinary Americans, race still plays a large role in determining personal earnings, educational attainment, access to health care, housing options and social relationships. We measure our progress not yet in equality, but in inching forward to close considerable gaps.

That is why, despite the fact that schools and federal offices are closed today, Martin Luther King Day is not a day of rest, but of restlessness. It is a day of both pride and discomfort.

Just for discussion, I'd like to ask. Are there any "successful" african-americans in our society?

If the answer is no, then we still have a serious racial problem in our country.

But if the if the answer is yes. How is that so? Those successful african-americans face the same racial stereotyping and bigotry as all other african-americans, yet somehow find a way to transcend that? How can that be? It's not like you can hide your "blackness".

I've said it before and I'll continue to preach it. I'm not the smartest guy around but I follow what the smartest guys around are doing.

Maybe people that manage the urban leagues, NAACP chapters, and rainbow coalitions, can look at those people in the african american community who are successful and ask, "what makes that so?" and try and replicate it through out the community.

But it's probably just easier to sit back and bitch and moan. It shouldn't be a surprise that people like Sharpton and Jackson oppose Obama mania the way they do. After all, if we can elect an african-american as president what does that say about the victimization of blacks in our society?

Life in Redville

As many of you know, I left my life inside the city of Cincinnati, aka Progress City, (Kerry over Bush 60-39) for a life in the burbs.

This morning, I saw something in Redville (Bush- 58 Kerry 35) that I never saw in my 18 years of life in "Progress City".

A salt truck on my street.

Gordon, you still don't get it. You can make fun of liberals but they know how burning fossil fuels to move snow and melt ice is bad for the environment. So "progressives" have come up with a better way to manage snow and ice removal.

Solar power.

After a few days of harnessing the power of that sun, no more snow or ice.

Monday, January 21, 2008

It's that time of year

As most of you know, I am an accountant. And most of you also know this time of year is really busy for accountants.

After spending six hours (I didn't have) this past Saturday screwing around with this blog, I took a step back Saturday night to question my priorities.

As a result, I decided I needed to make up a priority list for my life. My priorities are (in order of importance).

1) God
2) Mrs. Gekko
3) My clients
4) My physical health
5) My saxophone
6) This blog

Therefore, I've decided that as much as I like doing this, I need to take a step back, at least through tax season.

My plan is to do more links to articles of interest through the tax season with little, if any, commentary.

I'll try to write one "take" a day on something newsworthy.

I truly appreciate the comments I've received on the blog and I would love to keep it up at my current pace, but I have to nurture what is paying the bills and this blog isn't one of them.

So you'll probably notice a slight change of pace, in that I won't be going off on as many tirades. But the mission of the blog will remain the same.... Trying to bring something new to the debate.

Freakonomics and the ADA

The ADA was passed to provide more opportunity for disabled people.

Has it worked?

Ask the Freakonomics guys

Excerpt in NY Times Magazine
The Americans With Disabilities Act was passed to give disabled people better opportunities in the labor market, in transportation, healthcare, and other arenas. But the economists Daron Acemoglu and Joshua Angrist found that the A.D.A. actually worsened the job opportunities for disabled workers. Their seminal paper is called “Consequences of Employment Protection? The Case of the Americans With Disabilities Act.”

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Finding money

Politicians are now contemplating rebuilding the Brent Spence Bridge, the bridge that links I-75 - I-71 from Ohio to Kentucky.

Problem?

The politicians can't seem to find the 3 billion dollars it's going to take to build it out.

I realize I'm just a blogger but how is it that we have enough money in the highway trust fund to build every bridge in West Virginia named after Robert Byrd?

How is it that we have enough money in the fund to build bike trails across the US.

We pay 18.4 cents a gallon on federal fuel tax; another 28 cents a gallon in Ohio fuel tax. I know where you can find the money.

Right underneath your fat asses.