There’s a crazed gunman at the Discovery Channel building only several blocks from me. It must be a wingnut teabagger, right? They’re all angry, hate science and are prone to violence, according to the news/leftwing chatosphere. Or maybe it’s one of those crazy flatearther global warming deniers.
Sorry, it’s neither of those. Nor is it Grant Imahara demanding a raise.
It’s actually a radical environmentalist who thinks that humans need to be sterilized because we are parasites to the planet.
So what has this stunt accomplished for the environment? Well, it’s caused significant traffic jams as police have been forced to close down many of the main roads through downtown Silver Spring, thus increasing driving time and pollution. Well done, comrade!
Saving the planet, one traffic jammed intersection at a time.
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The Wall Street Journal blog Real Time Economics is reporting that a 60% majority of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics say the current rates for capital gains and dividends should not be raised to expire at the end of the year as currently scheduled. A further 22% think the rates should be extended for middle-income payers, but not the wealthy.
At least 60% of economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics said lower tax rates on capital gains and dividends should not be allowed to expire as provided under current law. Another 22% said the lower rate on capital gains and dividends should be preserved for middle-income taxpayers, but not for the wealthy.
The findings point to increasing nervousness about the impact the expiration of tax cuts could have on the struggling recovery, as Congress gears up for a fall debate on how to deal with the tax cuts.
…Opinion among economists was a little more evenly divided with regard to the expiration of individual income tax rates. Fifty-four percent of those surveyed by NABE favored extending the current rates, while 33% favor Obama’s plan to let rates rise on the wealthy.
In order to provide the most economic impact, tax rates on capital gains and dividends should remain low – or better yet, be eliminated – for all Americans. As this recent Wall Street Journal correctly points out, “rich people are the most responsive to changes in tax rates.” Thus, it would be a mistake to succumb to class-warfare and narrowly target tax relief.
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Advocates of big government think it is appropriate for the state to redistribute wealth out of a sense of fairness. They usually claim to want some form of taking from the wealthy to give to the poor. But the practice of redistribution is actually quite different. In reality, redistributive states take from those without political influence and give to the politically powerful. This results in situations like this one in Montgomery Alabama, where the city is destroying the homes of the poor and giving their land to rich developers.
Leave a comment…[H]ere is how it works: The city decides it doesn’t like your property for one reason or another, so it declares it a “public nuisance.” It mails you a notice that you have 45 days to demolish your property, at your expense, or the city will do it for you (and, of course, bill you).
Your tab with the city will constitute a lien on your property, and if you don’t pay it within 30 days (or pay your installments on time; if you owe over $10,000, you can work out a deal to pay back the city for destroying your home over a period of time, with interest), the city can sell your now-vacant land to the highest bidder.
Alabama law empowers municipalities to do just this. Officials can demolish structures that they determine, “due to poor design, obsolescence, or neglect, have become unsafe to the extent of becoming public nuisances…and [are] causing or may cause a blight or blighting influence on the city and the neighborhoods in which [they are] located.” Keep in mind, so-called standards like “obsolescence” are so vague they can mean anything, so even a well-maintained home that government officials don’t like the look of can be fed to the bulldozers.
While this may sound like eminent domain for private gain, it’s not. This is a completely different section of Alabama’s code that the city of Montgomery is now abusing habitually to tear down homes it does not like in a predominantly African American community — once home to Rosa Parks.
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This is a fantastic accounting of how our government was allowed to grow so unconstitutionally powerful.
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A lot of conservatives seem to think President Obama spends too much time vacationing. That is the thrust of this illuminating graphical time-line from Grand Rants:
I can certainly understand why conservatives find this argument attractive. The President has demonstrated through his policies and speeches that he is out of touch with Americans. Pointing out his frequent vacations certainly enforces that narrative. But I think it also encourages an unhealthy attitude toward the presidency.
The idea that we expect a president to be on top of everything that happens across the entire country is something which one would expect to hear from the statist left, but not self-described individualists. I want a president less involved in the day-to-day affairs of most Americans. For the last century, our Presidents have gotten into the habit of responding to every little development, regardless of whether or not they have any legal or even moral authority on the matter. Even conservatives have become used to this state of affairs, and are now quick to denounce the White House for failing to quickly react to this or that matter that probably shouldn’t be the concern of a president in the first place.
The purpose of the executive branch is to enforce laws and command the armed forces. The President is Chief Executive and Commander-in-Chief; he is not Nurturer-in-Chief, Therapist-in-Chief, Father-in-Chief or even Emergency Responder-in-Chief. If conservatives want to make progress in convincing the electorate that a massive welfare state is bad because it promotes an unhealthy dependency on government, we should start by showing how little we care whether or not President Obama is around to tell us how to react to every little social or economic problem that comes our way.
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This is a story any blogger should find outrageous:
For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home. Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com, over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia, it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.
In May, the city sent Bess a letter demanding that she pay $300, the price of a business privilege license.
“The real kick in the pants is that I don’t even have a full-time job, so for the city to tell me to pony up $300 for a business privilege license, pay wage tax, business privilege tax, net profits tax on a handful of money is outrageous,” Bess says.
This story doesn’t include the angle of politicians using these tools to silence opponents, but that potential is clearly there, as well. What we have here is simply government greed.
I’ve never been a fan of licensing laws, and will continue to proudly flaunt my status as an unlicensed blogger. This issue goes beyond just blogging, however. Licensing laws of all kinds are antithetical to the American spirit. Owning a business is not a privilege granted by government, and should never be treated as such. If I found myself living in the jurisdiction of any local government that so aggressive claimed otherwise, I’d pack up and move. Flee these tyrannical jurisdictions as soon as possible, and then we’ll see what happens to their tax revenues.
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My latest post on Big Government wishes you a Happy Cost of Government Day:
Leave a commentFor the last 7 1/2 months your labor has belonged to someone else – the state. You have slaved away for the majority of the year to pay for the bailouts, subsidies, vote buying, earmarks and redistribution schemes that make up the majority of spending by governments at all levels, in addition to the price of burdensome regulations. Today, August 19, is the day you have finally payed off your share of the cost of big government.
Every year, Americans for Tax Reform calculates Cost of Government Day, or how long it takes the average American to earn enough to pay off the financial burdens imposed by government. In 2010, it took 231 days of work. That’s 8 more than last year, and more than an extra month from 2008, before Obama took office…
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Barack Obama’s decision to exile the ethics czar to the Czech Republic and leave his duties to White Hose Counsel Bob Bauer raises serious questions about the President’s commitment to transparency (not that we haven’t already seen enough to know the answers to these questions). As Timothy Carney reported recently, Bauer has no use for open government.
Leave a commentBauer is renowned as a “lawyer’s lawyer” and a legal expert. His resume, however, reads more “partisan advocate” than “good-government crusader.” Bauer came to the White House from the law firm Perkins Coie, where he represented John Kerry in 2004 and Obama during his campaign.
…Bauer’s own words — gathered by the diligent folks at the Sunlight Foundation — show disdain for openness and far greater belief in the good intentions of those in power than of those trying to check the powerful. In December 2006, when the Federal Election Commission proposed more precise disclosure requirements for parties, Bauer took aim at the practice of muckraking enabled by such disclosure.
On his blog, Bauer derided the notion “that politicians and parties are pictured as forever trying to get away with something,” saying this was an idea for which “there is a market, its product cheaply manufactured and cheaply sold.” In other words — we keep too close an eye on our leaders.
In August 2006 Bauer blogged, “disclosure is a mostly unquestioned virtue deserving to be questioned.” This is the man the White House has put in charge of making this the most open White House ever.
…Did I mention Bauer was a lobbyist? At Perkins Coie, Bauer lobbied on behalf of America Votes Inc., a Democratic 527 funded by the likes of the AFL-CIO and ACORN.
The Sunlight Foundation is also concerned about the fact the White House no longer has anyone whose job is transparency, as Eisen’s job was. John Wonderlich, at SunglightFoundation.com, lists a few transparency promises on which the president hasn’t followed through, including earmark transparency, a single Web site (Ethics.gov) with all ethics and accountability information, and better lobbying disclosure, among others.
As with his other reformer rhetoric, Obama’s transparency is mostly smoke and mirrors.
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Obama-closes-curtain-on-transparency-468557-100595914.html#ixzz0ww4oJbAI
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I am a libertarian-conservative blogger living in the DC area. I have a Master's degree in Political Science and work in public policy, but please don't hold that against me.
