LEE RODGERSSHORT DAYS, LONG NIGHTS
…
WHY WORK? LIVE OFF THE TAXPAYERS …
THE (BROKEN) ARAB SPRING
WHY WORK? LIVE OFF THE TAXPAYERS …
THE (BROKEN) ARAB SPRING
Consider it: Three weeks hence, we will experience the shortest (daylight) day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Conversely, folk in the southern hemisphere will experience their maximum sunlight day (readers in Antarctica, don't forget your sunscreen!).
Also, according to the Mayan calendar, three weeks from now the world will come to an end. If you sincerely believe it, party-hearty!
- - - - -
Reader Rodger perceptively analyzes the Democrats' tactics ...
"In reference to the 'fiscal cliff' discussions in congress: 'Give us a tax increase now and we will give you spending cuts later' ...
"This reminds me of Lucy on the Peanuts comic strip holding the football for Charley Brown to kick. She jerks it away at the last second every time and Charley Brown always falls for it.
"Can the Republicans be as naive as Charley Brown? Answer: Yes."
-
- - - -
With the ongoing growth of middle-class entitlements, even as life becomes more difficult for the shrinking number of actual workers supporting those programs, the next looming tipping point is when a majority of working people decide they're suckers when they can have a standard of living as good -- or better -- by switching to the freeloader side.
That point is coming. Fast.
- - - - -
Interesting coalition of supporters for higher taxes on upper-income folk.
People who are already wealthy, like the hypocritical Buffett, who's built an empire on tax-avoidance tactics, and similar limousine liberals who don't want others to have the opportunity to become rich. Supported by low-income people motivated largely by envy.
- - - - -
“ Why does Obama insist upon raising taxes? Not because he believes it will improve the economy, and not because he believes it will increase receipts to the Treasury. The proposed taxes would bring in about $80 billion a year, a trivial number compared with our 1.3 trillion deficits. Making the books balance is (obviously) not Obama's goal. In 2008, when it was pointed out to him that President Clinton's cut in the capital gains rate increased the revenue from the tax (because lower rates encouraged more transactions), Obama was unmoved. He'd still favor an increase in the capital gains rate, he explained, for the sake of "fairness." – Mona Charen
- - - - -
The first two having spectacularly failed and driven us far deeper into debt, Obama wants yet another “stimulus” program. Perhaps he has supporters who feel they haven't dug deeply enough into taxpayer pockets and need to build some more fantasy “green” projects and non-existent “shovel-ready” programs.
- - - - -
Burt Prelutsky, quoting …
“James Carville, the cadaverous-looking political operative who helped unleash Bill Clinton on an unsuspecting world. In a quote that went viral, he was alleged to have said that '80% of Democrats are politically clueless. Truth is relative. Truth is whatever you can make the voter believe is the truth. That’s why I’m a Democrat. I can make Democratic voters think whatever I want them to.'"
“When I first read it, my reaction was that even a creep like Carville can be honest if you get him drunk enough. But upon further investigation, I discovered that, one, either he never said it; or, two, that he decided to deny he said it once he sobered up.
“But isn’t it always that way with liberals? The only time they seem to make any sense at all is when they’re drunk or you are.”
- - - - -
A masochistic liberal, self-defined if he/she reads this column (unless seeking enlightenment), complains that "You must think most American voters are ignorant or dumb."
Yes.
- - - - -
Cindy Adams –
“What do they call an intelligent politician in France? Answer: a tourist.”
Change the location to Washington and it's even funnier. Or more painful.
- - - - -
The high cost of college, Part Two ...
The Washington Times reports that Purdue University has on the payroll: A $313,000-per-year acting provost ... six vice- and assistant-provosts including a $198,000 “diversity officer” and 16 deans and 11 vice-presidents, among them a $253,000 marketing officer and a $433,000 head of the business school. And the situation is worse at other schools.
- - - - - -
Liberals, take note of the fruit of your much-applauded “Arab spring”: Egypt's new constitution, dictated by President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood supporters, abolishes any rights for minorities or women, per Islamic law, and lifts the ban on owning slaves. Yes. Legal slavery is back in Egypt.
- - - - -
The astute Prof. Paul Greenberg assesses Egypt: New boss, same as old boss(es) ...
"No doubt many an Egyptian misses Hosni Mubarak and the familiar tyranny they had grown accustomed to, the way some Russians still pine for Stalin's oppressive rule. At least there was no question of who was in charge back then -- even if the next knock on the door might mean a government-paid vacation in Siberia, or worse.
"As for this supposedly new Egypt, the names of the rulers may be different but the old Egypt of Hosni Mubarak, Anwar Sadat and Gamal Abdel Nasser persists, as reliable as the annual flood of the Nile. The pattern goes back to a time when the names chiseled in stone might be Amenhotep IV or cruel Khufu of the fourth dynasty. Egypt's history may no longer be written in hieroglyphics, and its rulers are now called Presidents instead of Pharaohs, but it remains remarkably unchanged."
- - - - -
Why you want to get rich and live in Monaco. The tiny country has the world's longest average life-span. More than 89 ½ years.
- - - - -
Ineptitude in crime dep't. …
Arthur Brundage of Syracuse, New York, robbed a bank – successfully. Then, enraged because he discovered the teller had short-changed him on the $20,000 he'd demanded, returned to get the remainder. The police were already there and … well, you can guess the rest.
- - - - -
Argus Hamilton –
“Chicago Bears receiver Brendan Marshall said some NFL players are taking Viagra to give themselves a performance edge. That's very scary. At last we know what Troy Aikman means when he says you don't want to be on the bottom of that pile after a fumble.”
- - - - -
Annoy a liberal. Forward this column.
"...and now, if you'll excuse me..."