Imagine what a success would be like
Glenn Reynolds linked to this graph from the Detroit News this weekend showing effects of the Bush tax cuts on the distribution of the tax burden among income groups.

At a flat rate for everyone of course people who make x% more money will pay x% more in taxes, so rich will always be paying more in taxes than poor. That's not good enough for lefties, however - they want a "progressive" tax system in which the next x% in income will cost more than x% in additional taxes. Fairness be damned - the intent is to cause the richer people, who presumably are more able to pay, to pay an even greater share of the tax burden.

No one has ever explained to me just how it is that a public work, welfare payment, missile or other public expenditure is somehow more valuable to the rich than the poor. One could argue that the opposite is true. But lefties figure that unevenly distributed income is somehow unjust, so they offer injustice in return by making people who have more pay more for the sole reason that they have more. Should we do that at grocery stores too? "Paper or plastic?" "What was your adjusted gross income last year?"

Anyway, the lefties screamed bloody murder at Bush's tax rate cuts for upper incomes. Knowing that their knee-jerk followers aren't too sharp mathematically, they equated lower tax rates with lower tax receipts. That's been known to be wrong for centuries, but lefties won't let lies stand in their way - it fits the lies they retail about Republicans so it became their story.

Well look at the charts and see what happened. Despite the lower rates, the rich paid more of the total income tax bill! A Republican extracted more money from the "rich".

One would think that lefties, who always want more money for govt, would take a lesson like this to heart - it's possible to increase receipts at a lower rate. Admittedly it doesn't always work (but the higher tax rates already are, the more likely it will).

But who says lefties want more govt revenue above all? There's another reason for them to keep taxes and other burdens higher than they should - it increases the value of their favors. Why else would a sane businessman give money to lefties?

No, the above isn't too rigorously presented. If you want that there are econobloggers out there who can do a better job - try the Carnival of the Capitalists. But they'll wind up reaching the same conclusions.

One last thing. Notice the headline of the linked article: "Bush fails to get deserved credit for tax cut benefits". What kind of wording is that? As long as he beats that undertaxed rich guy John Kerry, if Bush's "failure" is in getting credit for what he did, I can live with that.
posted by J Bowen at 6:51 AM ~

It beats accounting...
Carlos Barrios Orta is a "wastewater diver" in Mexico City.

....He loves his job. Two years ago, he gave up a career in accounting for this -- which, he noted, says something about accounting.....For this, Barrios earns about $480 a month. It's not much, certainly -- his diving helmet alone cost the city $3,500 -- but it's more than he ever made as an accountant....he's happy to know that while there are millions of divers in the oceans, only four have the privilege of diving in the Mexico City sewer system....

Ya gotta like his attitude.
posted by J Bowen at 6:26 AM ~

Kerry's goons
See this clip for an example.
posted by J Bowen at 10:47 PM ~

Calling John Edwards
"The woman, known as Jane Doe in court documents, was horrified to learn that a lab worker who had drawn her blood in 1997 and 1999 had admitted reusing needles.
Several months later, she discovered she was HIV-positive."

If John Edwards wanted a case with some merits he'd be all over this one, instead of extorting millions driving North Carolina obstetricians out of business as he's been doing for years.

If you want to know how things turned out, look here.
posted by J Bowen at 9:59 PM ~

Denial?
Allegedly Laura Branigan had had headaches for a couple of weeks. Now she's dead of an aneurysm.

Maybe the doc wouldn't have caught it. Maybe it would have been inoperable.

Or maybe she'd still be alive if she'd had medical attention.
posted by J Bowen at 6:58 PM ~

Only 4 million
4 million what? Americans that jihadis are to kill. Any more than that would be immoral, according to this.

What kind of people do you think they are, anyway?
posted by J Bowen at 5:23 PM ~

Lunar power
The moon doesn't get enough credit. It gives us light at night when we need it, it doesn't burn anybody, and it even provides power as noted here.
posted by J Bowen at 10:15 PM ~

It comes in pints?
That's where you'll find this item about side effects of Viagra.

Oh, and read the comments and decide for yourself whether Ken Summers is being defensive...
posted by J Bowen at 7:25 PM ~

German Spiked Helmet Evolution
Being an engineer, I'm a form-follows-function kind of guy. Which means that things like the old fashioned spiked helmets once worn by Prussian soldiers were kind of a mystery. Why spend the money on some expensive ornament for the top of the helmet? And if it wasn't an ornament, just what good was it?

What am I rambling about? This - German Spiked Helmet Evolution.

Stolen from The Corner.
posted by J Bowen at 5:29 AM ~

Dump Dick Durbin
Once merely a lovely sentiment, now it's a blog.

Somebody throw this silly arch-partisan hack out of office. IMO the country would be better served if his seat were vacant.
posted by J Bowen at 6:06 AM ~

It's good for you
Yeah, yeah, few things are as annoying as an Objectivist who's had too much of the Kool-Aid. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't read Atlas Shrugged. IMO your education simply isn't complete until you've read it. If nothing else, you'll miss a lot of references to it in blogs, and few fates could be more ignominious than that.

It's a long book, and parts of it drag. But you can get an idea of what it's about starting here.
posted by J Bowen at 12:24 AM ~

I've gotta see this
I've seen or heard of amazing feats of elasticity, dexterity (involving dimes), power (usually involving ping-pong balls) and even musicianship, but now they can even vote?
posted by J Bowen at 11:38 PM ~

That'll teach her to open her mouth
To appreciate just how flip and tasteless that title is, read this.


posted by J Bowen at 11:05 PM ~

Where are all the terrorists?
On NRO
posted by J Bowen at 7:54 PM ~

Psst - wanna be a Webcam girl?
No? Then you'd better avoid this virus.
posted by J Bowen at 5:38 AM ~

Prediction
Karma demands the following.

Terrorists will attack an NBA playoff or all-star game in the next year. Several players will suffer grievous injury at best.

Which ones will be hurt? The ones who are staying home from this year's Olympics because of "security concerns".

It's their off season, which grows ever shorter. It's a chance to get injured, which is a very real concern. And although it's really hard to beat the prestige of an Olympic medal, they're not compensated for playing to my knowledge. And Kobe Bryant has some legal troubles to deal with. So it's not as if there's no understandable reason why an athlete might beg off.

But really now - do they think the security in Athens is worse than what they'd have on average at NBA games here in the US?
posted by J Bowen at 7:04 AM ~

But he went through the proper channels
An example of justice Iranian style.

posted by J Bowen at 6:28 AM ~

Yucca Mountain and John Kerry
As discussed by the inimitable Jonah Goldberg on NRO.

The point that keeps getting obscured is that whatever objections may be raised to Yucca Mountain, 1) it's better than anyplace else we're using now for the same purpose, and 2) we're not likely to find better. To bitch about nuclear waste *and* Yucca Mountain's use for disposal is about as clear-cut an example of the best being the enemy of the good that you're likely to see.

That's assuming that you believe antinukers are motivated by genuine informed concerns. At best this does not account for all of them. Many of the rest simply want to cause the US nuclear power industry to die of constipation, and they figure that this is the way to make it happen.
posted by J Bowen at 6:34 AM ~

Capital Dancesport Championships this weekend
It's at the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center in Alexandria, VA this Thursday through Saturday. It starts on Thursday as noted here, culminating in Saturday night's show of pros competing in International and American styles.

It's not a cheap ticket, but it's a good show. I'll be around all three days - come by and see us!
posted by J Bowen at 9:36 PM ~

Withdrawal from the world?
Yep, that's what's happening with US policy about right now. Read all about it here.

How did our analyst reach this conclusion? President Bush has decided to redeploy some military assets.

Apparently this threatens the writer, who is described as follows:Now things are making sense. He's a Democrat, because he served under Bill Clinton. So of course he'll spew the party line for John Kerry.

He's also highly Eurocentric, because that's the focus of the German Marshall Fund.

And some of those redeployed assets and their corresponding spending will be leaving Germany. Ouch! Despite the high-minded claims, I'm betting that the Germans were expecting an ongoing return on the assets they used to establish the GMF, and although there are differences of opinion on the severity of the impact on the German economy, the transitions will cause some disruption.

Is President Bush doing the right thing? We won't know for some time to come. In the meantime the article cited should be recognized not as honest critique, but as yet another partisan hit piece.
posted by J Bowen at 7:25 AM ~

Does he ever shut up?