Oh, I'll Cry Alright

Argentina was at one point one of the wealthiest countries on the planet (late 19th and early 20th Centuries). It had a per capita GDP higher than Austria and Italy, four times as high as Japan, and nearly as high as the United States. So, what in the hell happened to it? Uh, try socialism and protectionism......................................................................................Yeah, that right, folks, starting in the '40s and continuing throughout the rest of the 20th Century, the Argentine government (initially under the auspices of Nazi sympathizer and protector of Nazi war-criminals strong-armed thug, Juan Peron) proceeded to a) close off the Argentinian economy to international commerce, b) nationalize numerous public services, c) engage in a hyperinflationary monetary policy (the printing of money to pay off its monstrous public debt eventually resulting in a 3,000% inflation rate) and d) establish state control (either directly or through massive government regulations) of most economic activities...........................................................................................Not surprisingly, the results of this madness were dozens of other countries proceeding to leap-frog Argentina (Japan in 1960, South Korea in 1980) and the country continuing to be an economic basket-case today. One can only hope here that the leaders of this once prosperous country will eventually see the errors of their ways and not have to fritter away another 70-80 years (maybe look to Singapore, Estonia, countries like that).  

On Israel and Foreign Aid

Yes, Israel does get foreign aid. But does anybody really think that Israel is affluent because of this foreign aid, and that doesn't have much more to do with the fact that Israel also has a) private property, b) a fair and impartial judiciary, c) enforceable contracts, d) a stable currency, e) a relative ease in starting up new businesses, f) a free press, g) a limited amount of corruption, h) a sane level of regulation, i) a sensible trade policy and j) democracy? I mean, I know that foreign aid to Israel is a contentious issue and all (and I'm certainly willing to revisit it - as is Daniel Pipes, believe it or not) but to draw any sort of causal connection here is a little bit, off in my opinion.

On the Clamoring for Nebraska Coach, Bo Pellini, To be Fired After Going 57-24 During His First Six Seasons

It makes me want to vomit. The guy is a whale of a football coach and about as squeaky clean as you can get. I mean, I know that Nebraska is a legendary football school and all but 57-24 in this day and age of limited scholarships and parity (Alabama the obvious exception) is pretty damn good and maybe all of these frigging boosters ought to simmer down a trifle and/or get a damned life.

San Jose State 42 Fresno State 41

AT HALFTIME!!!!

A Manufactured Crisis?

According to a 2008 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, approximately 80% of business borrowing at the time of the financial crisis was taking place OUTSIDE THE BANKING SYSTEM, and that even within the banking system the actual amount of lending had remained exceedingly high all throughout the crisis. This whole narrative by the likes of Paulsen, Geithner, and Bernanke that the economic and banking systems were literally on the verge of some sort of catastrophic collapse was and continues to be absolute bullshit.

Will Durant on Free Trade and How it Helped to Build Athens

"The crossroads of trade are the meeting places of ideas, the attrition ground of rival customs and beliefs, diversities beget conflict, comparison, thought, superstitions cancel one another and reason begins."

A Tale of Two Chickies

There were these two women who I used to work with from another nursing home and the contrast between the two is interesting. First off, their situations were actually identical in that they were both high-school educated, divorced with two children, and worked as CNAs. But, while the older of them worked 44 hours a week (four hours of OT) every week in an effort to not have to be reliant on assistance, the other woman worked 32 hours a week every week in an effort to MAXIMIZE HER entitlements....Gee, guess which one of these two individuals who I more admired and whose work ethic the country was founded upon.

On Sarah Palin Recently Referring to Moderates as "Road-Kill"

I'm going to tell this biotch the same exact thing that I've uttered to every other individual who's tried to slander centrists. a) We aren't moderate on everything and we arrive at this via an open mind on literally every issue. b) The point to being moderate is an understanding that systematizing, doctrine, and ideological rigidity (whether it be the Keynesian foolishness of the left or the neoconservative foolishness of the right) are not only ineffectual but dangerous and that compromise in and of  itself is a virtue and not a vice. c) And, while, yes, it can in fact be dangerous at times to assume a centrist position (slings and arrows from every direction), rarely is it lethal (no roadkill as far as I can fathom) and at the very minimum you have to keep your wits about you in a way that the likes Sarah Palin have rarely shown capable, thank you very much.

On Patrick J. Buchanan

The last straw for me? Probably when he started defending all of those Nazi war criminals....A little bit hard to take, don't ya' think?

Immigration and the Myth of Plummeting Wages, Addendum 2

The reason that immigration doesn't push down wages is essentially two-fold (not to mention exceedingly elementary). a) Immigrants don't just alter the supply side of the curve. They also alter the demand side of the curve in that they obviously require a great many goods and services (it's like, what, the racists on the hard right and the hard left think that these people grow all their own food, sew all their own clothes, refine all their own gasoline, don't pay rent, etc.?). And b) the jobs that these immigrants tend to fill are different from the ones that native born workers tend to fill (immigrants tending to fill either unskilled manual labor or highly skilled STEM positions), a reality that seemingly makes them much more complimentary than competitive. I mean, I know that this is a little bit more nuanced that the typical Keynesian sledgehammer approach of only looking at aggregates and all but sometimes you really do have to disaggregate in order to get to the reality of the matter - http://economics.ucdavis.edu/people/gperi/site/papers/rethinking-the-effect-of-immigration-on-wages.............And there is ZERO evidence, none whatsoever, that immigration causes unemployment. In fact, this is the one area in which pretty much every researcher agrees upon (the total increase to the American economy due to immigration has recently been estimated as somewhere between 40 and 200 billion dollars per annum).

A Little Late but More Than Happy to Hear it Now

"Commerce is real. That's what you're about here (in the U.S.). It's real. Aid is just a stopgap. Commerce and entrepreneurial capitalism brings more people out of poverty than aid. Of course we know that.......In dealing with poverty here and around the world, welfare and foreign aid are a Band-Aid. Free enterprise is a cure." Bono at Georgetown University, 2012

On the Obama Administration's Decision to Delay the 2015 Individual Mandate Until After the 2014 Mid-Term Elections

Yeah, I would say that that was pretty nakedly political (going from 2 weeks before the election to 2 weeks after the election) and something that only a hard-core partisan dullard would even attempt to champion.

Immigration and the Myth of Plummeting Wages, Addendum

And it isn't as if Borjas is the only or definitive researcher on the subject. Ottaviano and Peri from UC-Davis came out with an even more expansive analysis on the subject and they concluded that a) immigration actually has a positive long-term effect on overall wages and b) even the long-term effect on high school dropouts is significantly less than the 4.8% that Borjas came up with (the fact that even amongst these low-skilled populations there exists a difference in the type of jobs that the two demographics gravitate to; native born workers going more for jobs that require language while immigrants tending to go more for physical labor)....Immigration, folks, it's what made the United States not just great but uniquely great and in my opinion we gotta get back to it (protestations from the hard-right and hard-left, notwithstanding).

Immigration and the Myth of Plummeting Wages

One of the main justifications that people use in their effort to oppose immigration is that it pushes wages down. The only problem here is that it largely isn't true. I cite specifically the research of Harvard economist (and staunch immigration OPPONENT), George Borjas. According to Professor Borjas, the long term effect of immigration on wages overall is ZERO, and even the long-term effect on low-skilled individuals/high school dropouts is only about 4.8%. The "solution" here seems to me to be one of better training the American work-force and NOT trying to keep hard-working and law abiding Latin-Americans out of the damned country (http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2007/03/borjas_wages_an.html).

Highlights From the Mead Museum in Amherst MA

"Lady Arnold" by James Archer, "Ophelia" by Thomas Francis Dicksee, and "Salome Dancer" by Robert Henri. Stellar museum. If you ever get to Amherts MA, please, check it out. It's free!

Duke 28 Wake Forest 21

No, it wasn't pretty but the Dukies are 9-2 now and next week's game in Chapel Hill against North Carolina will be the biggest in program history since the 1961 Cotton Bowl (in which they played and defeated a Lance Alworth led Arkansas team, 7-6). What an absolutely phenomenal job by David Cutcliffe.

On Jennifer Aniston Recently Being Named the Sexiest Woman of All Time

I'll take "Sex-Starved Individuals Wholly Trapped in the Present" for a Thousand, Alex.............................................................................P.S. Yes, the woman is obviously smoking, but the sexiest of all time? Really? Sexier than Cyd Charisse? Sexier than Hedy Lamarr? Sexier than Fay Dunaway? Sexier than Gene Tierney? Sexier than Marlene Dietrich? Sexier than Ava Gardner? Sexier than Susan Hayward? Sexier than Lana Turner? Sexier than Bridget Bardot? Sexier than Rita Hayworth? Sexier than Jane Fonda? Sexier than Greta Garbo? Sexier than Vivien Leigh? Sexier than Olivia de Havilland? Sexier than Natalie Wood? Sexier than Dorothy Malone? Sexier than Lauren Bacall? Sexier than Eva Marie Saint? Sexier than Lena Horne? Sexier than Grace Kelly? Sexier than Barbara Stanwyck? Sexier than Diahann Carroll? Sexier than Elizabeth Taylor? Sexier than Donna Reed? Sexier than Tina Turner? Sexier than Virginia Mayo? Sexier than Jennifer Jones? Sexier than Ann Margret? Sexier than Vanessa Redgrave? Sexier than Raquel Welch? Sexier than Sophia Loren? Sexier than Vanessa Redgrave? Sexier than Deborah Kerr? Sexier than Gina Lollobrigida? Sexier than Claudia Cardinale? Sexier than Claudette Colbert? Sexier than Dorothy Dandridge? Sexier than Kim Novak? Sexier than Ann Sheridan? Sexier than Marilyn Monroe? Sexier than Carol Lombard? Sexier than Jane Russell?...Once again, Really?

Journalist, Gerald Posner, On the Oliver Stone Film, "JFK"

"The only thing that he got right was the date."

My All-Time Least Favorite Conservative?

Wow, that's a tough one. I'd probably have to go with that bible-thumping, militaristic, anti-gay, anti-abortion, and absolutist biotch, Phyllis Schafly. The chick is 91 and still irritating the piss out of me, for Christ.

On Hamas, The Karzai Regime in Afghanistan, Hezbollah, The Taliban, The Iranian Mullahs, The Saudi Royal Family, Al Qaeda, The Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, The Musilm Brotherhood, Etc.

I'll take "Genocidal, Racist, Anti-Semitic, Anti-Hindu, Anti-Christian, Anti-Buddhist, Misogynistic, Troglodytic, Gay-Murdering, Delusional, Anti-Modern, Anti-Free-Speech, And Thoroughly Moronic Barbarians" for a thousand, Alex.

On the Assertion that Healthcare Costs are Rising at a Slower Rate than Previously

True but deceptive. Yes, people are dishing out less than they had been prior to the financial crisis but that can at least be partly due to a) the lousy economy and b) the fact that co-pays have gone up so precipitously that people have probably been much more hesitant than they used to be in going to the doctor. I mean, I know that the Obama administration really wants to take the credit for it and all but at least in terms of logic there are certainly far more credible explanations.

On the Burqa

I find it every bit as offensive as the KKK cross and the Nazi swastika and I wouldn't cry one iota if it was banned period....Of course, what's even more offensive is the Islamic rationale behind it; the fact that these Muslim "scholars" continue to think that men are incapable of controlling their sexual urges and that if a woman doesn't wear a burqa (never mind concealing every other bit of herself) she is literally asking to be raped. I am sorry but this is an abominable level of medieval idiocy and it thoroughly needs to be both condemned and ridiculed starting now.

Note to Homosexual American Leftists Who Sympathize With Islam

You're either insane, stupid, or you have a death wish. I mean, come on, man! Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Afghanistan, Nigeria, virtually all of these Islamic countries would literally murder you, simply for being who you are. Yes, we have to be sensitive to other cultures and reach out whenever it's possible but in this particular instance, political correctness is lethal and isn't it about time that you showed some stones (ironic, in that that's what you'd get over there) regarding it?

A Small Minority? 2

That same Pew survey also uncovered an interesting (interesting as in scary) fact regarding Muslim support for Sharia Law. According to the survey, 99% of Afghans, 91% of Iraqis, 89% of Palestinians, 86% of Nigeriens, 84% of Pakistanis, and 83% of Moroccans said that they fully supported Sharia Law being the supreme law of the land in their respective countries. And, no, this doesn't even include Islamic countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Sudan which have already essentially established the sucker to the tune of just being a homosexual and you're dead-meat there. Those are separate.

A Small Minority?

According to a Pew Research survey from earlier this year, 40% of Palestinians, 39% of Afghans, 29% of Egyptians, 26% of Bangladeshis, and even 15% of Turks and Jordanians (inhabitants of arguably the 2 most sane Islamic countries) all agree that suicide bombing is a legitimate form of social unrest. How anybody out there could even attempt to assert that this is somehow an insignificant demographic is utterly bizarre, in my opinion.

On Mormonism, Islam, And the Left

While both of these religions are thoroughly bat-shit crazy and in a myriad of ways, it is only Mormonism (the one, ironically, that hasn't been going on a full-bore killing-spree of late) that the progressive community seemingly wants to ridicule, denigrate, and criticize these days. It really kinda makes me wonder here. I mean, could it simply be the fact that Mormons tend to be white Americans while Muslims tend to be darker skinned Arabs, Africans, Persians, Pashtuns, Javanese, etc., and that this is just another example of the softer bigotry of diminished expectations? Me, I'm kinda thinking, yes sir.

Duke 48 Miami 30

Duke (one of the most rigid academic schools in the country) is 8-2 now and if David Cutcliffe doesn't get some serious consideration for national coach of the year, then there really needs to be an investigation. The end.

A Spate of Points Pertaining to Higher Education

a) As it stands now, people who are unable to pay off their student loans cannot file bankruptcy. Perhaps we need to change that. I mean, think about it here. Would not a potential lender be far more careful if he knew that the government wouldn't bail the borrower out, and wouldn't the borrower himself be far more careful in what he took the loan out for (as in maybe choosing a more prudent major)? Just a thought.............b) The way that student loans work now, there are no credit checks, no underwriting, and no collateral. I ask you, is that any way to run a damned business?............c) According to economist, Alex Tabarrok, more than 1/2 of all the graduates in the Humanities eventually end with jobs that don't even require a college degree. Don't you think that maybe we ought to start thinking about facts such as this (waitresses with tens of thousands of dollars in student-loan debt, for example) going forward and not continuously subsidize them?............d) Debt forgiveness for student loans is a total misnomer. Not a damn thing gets forgiven in that it's the taxpayer who ends up fitting the bill AS USUAL. And why pray tell would we even consider bailing out college graduates anyway? These are people who already have a leg up in many ways to start and what about all of the future college debt? Are we going to bail out the next generation of college graduates, too? This is insanity.

Yes, Progressive Friends, Millions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTLcM4iZSTo - Again, the biggest challenge currently facing the country and the American workforce is a lack of skills; a) skills specific to particular fields (the skilled trades, healthcare, IT, etc.) and b) general skills; reading, writing, basic computation, etc. (high schools are presently churning out hundreds of thousands of kids every year that cannot accomplish these basic things) and until this skills deficit is corrected, there will continue to be major problems ahead for us in an increasingly changing and competitive global economy. Period, as the President likes to say.

Buy a Nose

Am I the only person who has a real hard time looking at reality star and former Olympian, Bruce Jenner (above and beyond the idiocy of the reality crap, I'm saying)? I mean, the guy was easily at the 97th-98th percentile of handsome American fellows and, instead of just being happy with that, he fucking mutilates himself and now he looks like a fucking chick (yeah, he looks younger but, still)! What is the matter with these people? It's like, what, just because the celebrity asshole next door has some plastic surgery, they have to do it, too? Enough already, for Christ.

A Spate of Troubling Facts, Addendum 2

I want you to look at this one more time, folks. You see it, in the second column? If your family (two workers, no kids) income is $62,040, your premiums under Obamacare would be $5,894 and if it's $62,041, your premiums go all the way up to $16,382....I mean, is that a monstrous disincentive to work/insane or what; one extra dollar in wages and your premiums go up $10,488? If you're asking me, the individuals who put this sucker together had a preexisting condition of their own; brain-dead.

Soldering Home a Point

According to EzineArticles.com, the average age of America's 500,000 welders is 55. To say that this represents a golden opportunity for currently unskilled young folks to get some skills and make some serious money (6 figures, according to some) is a monstrous understatement. What do you say that we put our political differences aside for a millisecond and take a whack at this one to start?

Certainly Not Forever

What would be my answer to the question, "So, how much longer do you think that the Germans are going to be willing to bend over and take it up the poop-shoot by European slacker counties like Greece, Spain, Italy, and Portugal?

A Spate of Troubling Facts 2

a) According to CBS News, a September 3rd government memo addressing the Obamacare web-site security situation claimed that "the threat and risk potential (to the system) is limitless." This is what the memo said and they decided to go ahead with the roll-out anyway. Try and blame this one on Reagan....or Bush, I dare ya'.............b) The early enrollment figures for Obamacare are in and they're hugely disappointing; 106,000 (their target for the first month was 500,000). But that's not the only thing. It appears that amongst these numbers are people who have simply put an "item' in their shopping cart and not paid a penny as of yet and, yes, if you were to remove these folks from the data the stats would be even more pitiful.............c) It would also be interesting to see how many of the new enrollees are young and healthy as opposed to old and sick, 'cause if it's in any way seriously weighted toward the latter we are fucked yet again.

Mr. Obama, CALL THIS MAN (John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods)!

The man has put together the most innovative health insurance plan in America (a high deductible policy supplemented with health savings accounts) and it is the only plan (other than single-payer rationing) which has a halfway decent chance at bending the cost curve (in that it significantly reduces the middleman actually makes providers compete for a change). My suggestion is that invite this dude to the White House and, please, let him do most of the talking, OK?

On Those 60-Somethings Who Lost Their Shirts During the 2008 Financial Crisis

I feel sorry for them, but I kinda don't. I mean, think about it here. What kind of a moron in his early 60s would still have the lion's share of his investment portfolio in high-risk long-term securities and then try and blame somebody else for his own imprudence? It makes no sense. Any idiot knows that once you hit 50-55, you at that point start to put more and more of your money into safer instruments such as bond funds, annuities, CDs, etc. and that once you hit 60-65, pretty much all of it should be out of the market. These people were just frigging greedy and stupid, in my opinion.

Depending Upon

The poverty rate was coming down precipitously in this country and for the most part people weren't having children out of wedlock, and then came the Great Society. Thank you so much, the political class..............................................................................P.S. Yes, there are some possible intervening variables here, but this is one hell of a strong correlation and you know, YOU KNOW, that if the trend-lines had been plotted out in the opposite direction the left would have been singing and dancing that it was some sort of proof-positive that the Great Society was effective....And the fact that it makes such total fucking sense. Of course when you subsidize something you're going to get more of it. Hello!

Christopher Hitchens on Islamic Extremism

"Demands that you believe the impossible do not lead to peaceful outcomes. Nor do they lead to peaceful or tolerant regimes.......It (peace) will not come by the fanatical adoption of a man-made text and a man-made supreme leader. Nothing but war and tyranny has ever come from the adoption of a formula such as these.......The President and the head of the joint chiefs were so pulverized with fear that they had to address personally in pleading tones a Christian nut-bag in Florida who might have been or who might not have been  about to commit a minor act of blasphemy. Is this the culture that Islam wants us to have in relation to it? One of, if you like, preemptive submission, preemptive cowering, backed by the fear of force?"

A Spate of Troubling Facts, Addendum

As you can plainly see, once the family income exceeds that threshold of $62,041, it is far, FAR, more economically advantageous to simply live together than to marry....A stimulus package for divorce lawyers, let's call it.

A Spate of Troubling Facts

1) Back in 2011, 15 IRS agents seized the private medical records of some 10 million American citizens. The Obama justice department did not press charges but a class-action lawsuit has recently been initiated in San Diego.............2) The number of Obamacare waivers now tallies 1,471, the largest chunk of which represent cronyism and rank political payback.............3) In response to the Obamacare medical device tax, manufacturers such as Stryker, Welch Allyn, and Zimmer have decided to engage in a series of preemptive layoffs and now even supporters of the bill such as Senators Franken, Warren, Murray, and Schumer are calling for a repeal of the tax.............4) Obamacare subsidies are significantly more generous to couples who cohabitate than they are to married folks and it is feared that a lot of couples will ultimately divorce and live together rather than stay married.............5) "Starting on Tuesday, every American can visit HealthCare.gov to find out what's called the insurance marketplace for your state. If you've ever tried to buy insurance on your own, I promise you this is a lot easier." President Barack Obama 09/26/2013, 5 days prior to the roll-out.

Duke 38 N.C. State 20

BREAK UP THE DUKIES!!......Seriously, though, these guys might actually make the ACC title game against Florida State. Youza, huh?

Toward a Workable Governance

New Mexico is one of the most liberal states in the country and not only did Gary Johnson get elected Governor there, the dude got reelected via a double-digit margin. The man obviously knows how to govern.........................................................................He also represents a significant (albeit far too quiet) minority amongst the American electorate in voters who are fiscally conservative, socially liberal/tolerant noninterventionists. Of course, a lot of those same people who would have normally voted for a fellow like Johnson probably steered cleared of him (in 2012) because they didn't think that he could win and didn't want to throw their vote away. My hope is that the next time the dude can reach whatever it is that that threshold is and get himself  up on that debate stage. 'Cause I'm tellin' ya' here, if those Ds and those Rs continue to trot out numb-nuts straight out of central casting, he's gonna look darn good, and he's gonna look darn good to folks from across the political spectrum.

On Obamacare "Navigators" Not Having to Undergo Background Checks

This is just getting more disturbing by the day.

On the 14 Moderate Democratic Senators Who Stuck Their Necks Out Voting For Obamacare

Yeah, I would say that they're probably pretty ape-shit by now.

On the "Sausage-Making" Down in Washington

A little less fennel, please.

My Mount Rushmore?

Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Cleveland.

Who Was that Unmasked Man?

There is footage of President Obama in 2010 specifying that an individual could keep their policy if they liked it EVEN IF IT WAS A HIGH DEDUCTIBLE CATASTROPHIC PLAN (he sanctimoniously and condescendingly referred to it as an "Acme plan"). I mean, does this fellow simply not know that videotape exists?

On the Limitations of Income Inequality Arguments - A Review

a) The analysis tends to focus on static categories and not on flesh and blood human beings who consistently move amongst these categories. b) The statistics do not include transfer payments which in a great many instances represent the vast proportion of a family's purchasing power. c) The statistics tend to examine only pre-tax income and because of that the purchasing power of the top 1% is significantly exaggerated. d) The statistics do not take into account the fact that families in the upper qunitile have significantly more workers (4Xs as many in fact) per family and that this is a major reason for the disparity. e) The statistics fail to underscore the fact that workers in the highest quintile are older (the highest age demographic in terms of income is 45-54) and much more highly educated.

Obama - What I Ultimately Received

Obama - What I Was Hoping For

A Race to the North

Whenever anybody brings up the racist past of the Democratic party, the left is always quick to point out that these were the Southern Democrats and that their lineage eventually found its way more to the Republican party. Yeah, well guess what? Woodrow Wilson was from New Jersey and he was amongst the most virulent racists in American political history. a) His writings are absolutely littered with racist sentiments (one of the dude's quotes is actually used in the 1915 film, "Birth of a Nation"), b) he supported eugenics and campaigned vigorously for the compulsory sterilization of not just poor blacks but the mentally retarded, and c) as President, he championed segregation and racial discrimination all throughout the Federal government...........................................................................And Wilson was far from the only progressive thinker (from the U.S. and England) who espoused such sentiments. Margaret Sanger, John Maynard Keynes, H.L. Mencken, George Bernard Shaw, Teddy Roosevelt, and H.G. Wells also advocated such things as eugenics and isn't is about time that this nasty side of the progressive movement got a little exposure here?

On Toronto Mayor, Rob Ford, Smoking Street-Crack During One of His "Drunken Stupors"

Well he's certainly got my vote.

On Bobby Fisher and Noam Chomsky

I'll take, "Two Really Brilliant Guys Who Thoroughly Know Their Field but Only One of Which Has the Good Sense and Decency to Refrain From Spouting Off On Other Subjects that He Basically Knows Jack-Shit About", for a thousand, Alex.

Two Quotes From 1981

"Those in the U.S. who think that the Soviet Union is on the verge of economic and social collapse are only kidding themselves." Arthur Schlesinger............."It (the Soviet Union) is also on the verge of economic difficulty." Ronald Reagan.............And the real idiot here is who again?

On Whether Having Multiple Billionaires in a Society is Desirable or Not

In and of itself it's a meaningless question. You would also have to known, in my opinion, a) the overall size of the economy, b) the growth rate, c) the opportunity structure, d) the regulatory climate, e) the amount of crony capitalism involved, f) the power of the country's central bank g) the legality of the earnings (we certainly don't want a country that's loaded with Bernie Madoffs), and h) what the people do with the money (do they waste it on politics or are they philanthropic?). I mean, I know that the left de facto wants me to say that billionaires are evil and all but I would simply point out that Cuba, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, and Indonesia don't have any billionaires and do we really want to emulate them?............................................................................P.S. That, and I would also ask them to look at how the likes of Annenberg (50 million alone to the United Negro College Fund), Melon (The National frigging Gallery of Art, for God's sake), Carnegie, and the two Rockefellers spent THEIR money and compare it to how the government for the past 80 years (starting with Hoover and right on up to Bush and Obama) or so has been spending OUR money and then decide.

On Ebay Auctioning Off Holocaust Memorabilia

Yeah, somebody was definitely taking a nap during that one, for sure.

On Morons Who Use the Race-Card as Readily as They Breathe

When you only have so many quivers at your disposal.......

On Mary Elizabeth Williams's Assertion that "Not All Life is Equal" and that "The Woman is Boss"

I'm with her to a point. But when you get into the third trimester and the baby is viable and the woman just decides that she doesn't want to be pregnant anymore and so concocts some ludicrous ailment to justify killing the baby, yeah I'm kind of not with her at that point.

Dis Incentives

Constantly telling people that the larger society is unjust, that other people are responsible for their dire situation, that they don't have what other folks possess (and that they should resent them for it), that it is always somebody else's fault, and that the only way in which they can succeed is through political agitation, is a recipe for disaster. It leads to lowered expectations, learned helplessness, and a political situation in which all of the incentives are pathetic/perverse. Somehow, someway, we have to convince young disadvantaged black people that they, too, can be pilots and teachers, welders and nurses, computer programmers and realtors, and that the only legitimate way to get ahead in life is to equip yourself with skills that other folks are willing to pay for (a la what the Jews did in Eastern Europe, what the Chinese did in Malaysia, what the West Indian blacks did in America, etc.). Here's to hoping that the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons of the world eventually see the light on this, or at the very least step aside for those folks who do.

Milking it Money

The problem with progressives and taxes is that they're seemingly never satisfied. I mean, we just got done raising taxes to the level that they've been clamoring for FOR YEARS (and to which I agreed to more than two years ago) and now, before the ink even becomes dry on it, you have folks like Jerry (who's views I generally respect but not on this) not only asking for another 4.6 percentage points but another 10!.................................................................................Look, I am totally in favor of tax reform (a lowering of rates for all and an elimination - or as close to an elimination as we can get - of deductions) and if that mean that the rich end up paying a little bit more, fine, so be it. But this whole "let's keep going to the well until the well becomes dry" approach is really starting to get ridiculous, in my opinion...................................................................................P.S. And it also should be pointed out that a 50% top tax rate today would be significantly more draconian than the one of 30 years ago in that there were far more loopholes and deduction back then (though, no, you couldn't deduct your golf-cart).

The Most Underrated Sports Superstar Ever

Yeah, I'm probably going to have go with "the man" on this one; 3,630 hits, 475 homers, 1,951 RBIs, 1,949 runs scored, 725 doubles, 177 triples, a .331 lifetime batting average, and 7 batting titles. To say that this fellow was a great hitter isn't just an understatement, it's a damned insult.