Political Bloviation

This from that bastion of liberal lies and smears, Forbes.

On every question asked about the burden of taxation, size of the federal government and if taxes are moving up or down, they were simply drastically wrong. That’s strange for a group who’s stated core issue is taxes.  One might even think that someone is intentionally trying mislead them in order to get them to vote against their own economic interests. Who might that be?

On March 16 the Tea Party crowd showed up for yet another demonstration on Capitol Hill in Washington. Curious about the factual knowledge these people have regarding the issues they are protesting, my friend David Frum enlisted some interns to interview as many Tea Partyers as possible on a couple of basic questions…

The first question that was asked concerned the size of government. Tea Partyers were asked how much the federal government gets in taxes as a percentage of the gross domestic product. According to Congressional Budget Office data, acceptable answers would be 6.4%, which is the percentage for federal income taxes; 12.7%, which would be for both income taxes and Social Security payroll taxes; or 14.8%, which would represent all federal taxes as a share of GDP in 2009…

Tuesday’s Tea Party crowd, however, thought that federal taxes were almost three times as high as they actually are. The average response was 42% of GDP and the median 40%. The highest figure recorded in all of American history was half those figures: 20.9% at the peak of World War II in 1944…

According to calculations by the Joint Committee on Taxation, a congressional committee, tax filers with adjusted gross incomes between $40,000 and $50,000 have an average federal income tax burden of just 1.7%. Those with adjusted gross incomes between $50,000 and $75,000 have an average burden of 4.2%…

via The Misinformed Tea Party Movement – Forbes.com.

Here’s why I like the New Yorker. It offer provocative thought provoking journalism. This piece covers a conundrum: We’ve increased our wealth, often at great cost, yet we’re no happier than we were in the 1950s. We’ve given up leisure time and done a great deal of environmental damage to support greater consumption. I’d say we’ve bought into the advertiser’s BS, bought into envy and cut back on what really makes us happy. I think our relationships, our interconnectedness is much more key to happiness. That’s exactly what we gave up. Families often have both parents working and no one home with the kids. There is a price to be paid for all the time we’ve dedicated to making money.

Several theories have been offered to explain why the United States is, in effect, a nation of joyless lottery winners. One, the so-called “hedonic treadmill” hypothesis, holds that people rapidly adjust to improved situations; thus, as soon as they acquire some new delight—a second house, a third car, a fourth-generation iPhone—their expectations ramp upward, and they are left no happier than before. Another is that people are relativists; they are interested not so much in having more stuff as in having more than those around them. Hence, if Jack and Joe both blow their year-end bonuses on Maseratis, nothing has really changed and neither is any more satisfied.

America’s felicific stagnation shouldn’t be ignored, Bok argues, whatever the explanation. Growth, after all, has its costs, and often quite substantial ones. If “rising incomes have failed to make Americans happier over the last fifty years,” he writes, “what is the point of working such long hours and risking environmental disaster in order to keep on doubling and redoubling our Gross Domestic Product?

”To suggest that the U.S. abandon economic growth as a policy goal is a fairly far-reaching proposal. Bok concedes as much—“The implications of this critique are profound”—but he insists that all he’s doing is attending to the data. He takes a similarly provocative and, again, empirically driven position in a chapter titled “What to Do About Inequality.” His answer is, in a word, “Nothing.”

via What can policymakers learn from happiness research? : The New Yorker.

We need to look less at what makes us rich and more at what really makes us happy.

We got the tile back splash done today, it just needs to be sealed after the grout dries in a couple of days. I think it looks awesome. It’s travertine 4″ tile with glass tile (both 1″ and 2″) border and 2″ steel inserts. All purchased on sale at very low prices. $280 for materials, all in. I’m cheap that way. This has been sort of a slow motion remodel, mostly because we tried not to incur debt. When you have lots of time you can look around, study the best way to do each step and get the best prices for materials.

Mostly it has been done a bit at a time as we had the money to buy materials, with most of the work done by us, some friends and family. It’s been going on 3 years now, but for about less that a 3rd of the cost quoted by contractors. The end is in sight.

Here’s the remaining work list:

1. Relocate the microwave.
2. Hang and finish one sheet of drywall.
3. Miscellaneous drywall finishing where damaged by removing Formica back splash.
4. Apply some texture coat.
5. Tile over the new living room/old kitchen area.
6. Add crown molding to the kitchen cabinets.
7. Select and install the kitchen lighting.

Thanks to Donny for the help with the tile:

A somewhat larger, better lit shot of one of the mosaics:

I just caught last nights daily show on DVR. It’s funny because Glenn Beck is, in fact, insane. I remember Beck when he was local Tampa Bay area radio DJ on WFLA. He went national, stopped drinking, had religious awakening and lost his freakin’ mind. Coincidence? I don’t think so. It’s a conspiracy!!

Slashdot Your Rights Online Story | Company Sued, Loses For Not Using Patented Tech.

This verdict would seem to turn the patent system, which is flawed in any case, into a mandatory license to print money. If manufacturers can be sued for not including patented technology in their products where does stop? This seems badly flawed. If you don’t realize a table saw is dangerous before you buy it, you probably shouldn’t be allowed to walk around without protective head gear. And you certainly shouldn’t be allowed near power tools. Instead he’s awarded $1.5 million for not following basic safety rules.

More here:
Tool Maker Loses Lawsuit For Not Violating Another Company’s Patents

Deem creep! : Lawyers, Guns & Money.

Let the howling begin!

Democrats in the House plan to use a parliamentary process, most often used by the GOP, as explicitly allowed in Article 1, Section 5 of the Constitution, to pass by simple majority, changes to a bill that has already been passed. This is to bypass a parliamentary process requiring a super-majority (the filibuster). Article 1, Section 5 allows each chamber to set their own rules, here’s the relevant text:

Section 5.
Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings

Pretty straight forward. Each party has in the past howled about how unfair “deem and pass” and the filibuster are. Each party has used each pretty sparingly, until recently. Use of the filibuster by the Republicans has greatly increased in the last two Congresses. It went from rare to nearly a daily occurrence:

Last year, the first of the 111th Congress, there were a record 112 cloture votes. In the first two months of 2010, the number already exceeds 40.

That means, with 10 months left to run in the 111th Congress, Republicans have turned to the filibuster or threatened its use at a pace that will more than triple the old record. The 104th Congress in 1995-96 — when Republicans held a 53-47 majority — required 50 cloture votes.

This one reason it’s being used. I really don’t know if the Democratic leadership thinks that deem and pass will be better for the caucus electorally. I don’t think the GOP will be their “friends” either way. The voters may feel differently if something useful gets accomplished, but right now this tit for tat business seems to disgust most people. Approval of Congress in the toilet. Either for trying trying to run the country through “Demon Pass” (located someplace between Purgatory and Hell in Dante’s Inferno) or for failing to get anything done, depending on your point of view.

Judith Warner writes:

One point of view is inexpressible, taboo. I am not referring to atheism – the one belief system that clearly had no place in the vision of America Romney painted in his much-anticipated speech on faith last week. Rather, I’m thinking of the now entirely muted issue of whether the basic ethical foundations of Romney, Huckabee et al’s political views truly are “Christian” – in the good-neighborly sense of the word.

I am referring here to the sentiments that lie behind the candidates’ attitudes toward gays, which may have found their most honest and open expression in Huckabee’s recently resurrected 1992 suggestion that AIDS patients should be forcibly isolated. I am thinking too of Christian conservative opposition to progressive taxation, public spending for the needy and government “meddling” in such matters as anti-discrimination policies. And, of course, of the willingness to sacrifice women by genuflecting before a segment of the population that is scared witless by modernity and sugar-coats its fear and hate in the name of the sacred.

via Holier Than They – Opinionator Blog – NYTimes.com.

I think there’s very little Christ in what Christians support politically. As a bumper sticker I saw puts it: “God please save me from your followers.” The right has no special claim to God.

Internet Explorer 9: Platform Demos.

Try a beta release of IE? Will it be as crippled as IE 5 or as unstable as IE6, as much of a resource hog as IE7? Uhhhh, no thanks.

The only way I’ll deal with it is when forced to in order to support some customer facing websites. Yuck.

Unless you’re the Texas Board of Education Curriculum. Then you just rewrite it. (Quoting from tonight’s Colbert Report, no linkage available yet.) Santayana meets Colbert, you gotta love that.

What America really needs are dumber people, it’s the only way they’ll buy the version of history these guys are pushing. American exceptionalism is back and as silly as ever.

There’s a lot of debate about the chances of success. I don’t love the either the Senate or House bills. I personally would have enthusiastically supported something far simpler: Medicare for all with reforms to help control costs.

This would form a floor for benefits, with an opt out for those who have other coverage. A mandate is a must. Spend more on effectiveness research, the Pharma lobby and medical device makers be damned. We need to know what actually works best, not what’s most profitable. Couple that with medical education reform that encourages people who actually want to practice medicine to go into primary care specialties like family practice and pediatrics, by relieving them of 6 figure student loan burdens. Begin slowing the growth of reimbursement to expensive sub-specialties.

Some years ago I worked at a small community hospital in St. Pete. I thought it interesting that an ophthalmologist would come on surgery days twice week and line up eight cataract cases, spend about 15 minutes each and get over $1000 each before lunch.

On another floor we’d have elderly patients in heart failure and diabetics with uncontrolled blood sugar. Both can easily be prevented by relatively inexpensive in-office care and regular follow-ups. We need to spend more on primary care and reimburse less to the guys like the ophthalmologist example.

But I digress, back to the flawed real world plan. Here’s the take I thought the most realistic on it’s chances:

And so Democrats in Congress find themselves facing an uncomfortable but clear choice. Although they may not reap political advantage from the legislation, most of them recognize that failing to pass it would be worse. The devastating aftermath of their party’s inability to act on health care in 1994 remains a vivid, cautionary lesson.

via Will It Pass? The Odds on Health Care – Room for Debate Blog – NYTimes.com.

Pass the plan or you democrats get it, death by circular firing squad. If they had anything remotely similar to party discipline, the whole thing would be a boring fait accompli. At least they keep drama going and going and going.

The US needs an aggressive national broadband policy. This is step in the right direction, if it cab survive the can survive the Washington sausage grinder:

The Federal Communications Commission is proposing an ambitious 10-year plan that will reimagine the nation’s media and technology priorities by establishing high-speed Internet as the country’s dominant communication network.

The plan, which will be submitted to Congress on Tuesday, is likely to generate debate in Washington and a lobbying battle among the telecommunication giants, which over time may face new competition for customers. Already, the broadcast television industry is resisting a proposal to give back spectrum the government wants to use for future mobile service.

The blueprint reflects the government’s view that broadband Internet is becoming the common medium of the United States, gradually displacing the telephone and broadcast television industries. It also signals a shift at the F.C.C., which under the administration of President George W. Bush gained more attention for policing indecency on the television airwaves than for promoting Internet access.

via Vast F.C.C. Plan Would Bring Net to More in U.S. – NYTimes.com.

Definitely an improvement….

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner : The New Yorker.

Tim Geithner did manage to hold the financial system together for the most part through the worst financial crisis in modern times. Yet he seems reviled on both the left and the right. The media ignores the successes and plays up the failure, as the media so loves to do. I guess it sells more advertising.

Could he have done better? In retrospect nearly everything done by humans can be done better. Hindsight is 20/20 they say.  Populist anger is driven by the crisis causing the curtain to sag a bit, revealing ugly truths about the interrelationships between big money and the government. Americans like their illusions.

Windows 7 Activation Technologies Update coming down the pike, will tell you things you (should) already know — Engadget.

If you don’t want MS snooping around your PC have a look ay how to avoid the update that adds their nasty little “Windows Activation Technologies” update.

Private equity : The New Yorker.

Maybe not. Hedge fund managers get a massive tax break worth billions because of a tax loophole that allows them to pay only 15% on the great majority of their income. I know I pay a helluva lot higher rate, but then again I’m not a downtrodden hedge fund manager. Despite a fix being passed by the House three times in three years the Senate may not even take it up.Why would this happen when approval of the financial industry is ranked just above convicted pedophiles and lepers?

If we were starting from scratch, after all, it seems unlikely that the Senate would choose this particular moment to pass a bill subsidizing money managers to the tune of billions of dollars a year. But, because the tax break already exists, it exerts a kind of gravitational pull that makes it hard to get rid of. In part, that’s simple economics—those who benefit from the tax break have more money to lobby for it to be kept in place. Furthermore, while the cost of subsidies is spread out among all taxpayers, the benefits are highly concentrated, so, naturally, opposition is generally diluted and diffuse while support is intense. If you work in private equity, it’s possible that nothing the government does matters more than keeping this tax break intact. And this pattern is true not just of subsidies but of government programs in general: every government action creates a constituency with an interest in keeping that action going.

The title might be an oxymoron. My wife loves to sing and loves her some American Idol. Therefore I watch American Idol and make fun of it. I think the show is moribund and should die a gruesome death. I hear Simon is leaving. A snarkless  Idol just isn’t worth watching. So here’s my suggestion.

Next year, when they’re doing eliminations and are down to the last two, rather than doing the retarded over-played faux suspense each week, I think with the least votes should fight for the right to continue. UFC and MMA is growing American Idol is not, so why not bring some blood and carnage to pump up the ratings? I can remember more than a few contestants I’d love to see getting some ground and pound, then choked out (Sanjaya anyone?). Yup I’d pay to see that.

Any resemblance to the iPad is tooootaly intentional.

Glenn Beck and his sponsors deserve mocking:

I thought I was pretty well informed about trade and economics, but I did not know this:

The Americas’ economies are tightly intertwined, to the benefit of all sides. Most U.S. citizens, for example, probably don’t realize that their country exports as much to Latin America as to the entire European Union.

via Adios, Amigos | Foreign Policy.

h/t to Marginal Revolution

Ezra Klein – Reid to McConnell: Reconcile this.

Read it yourself, Reid puts the GOP on notice that they will in fact use reconciliation to complete health care reform. Let the screaming from the right begin, now!

I suppose this means that Harry Reid does in fact have balls.

In case you missed it a few weeks ago:

YouTube – Epic beard man.

67 year old white dude (Beard Man) insults a younger black man (Corn Rows) by asking him how much he would charge to shine his shoes. Admittedly, that could be construed as a racist remark by anyone. Jesus might have tried to pimp slap the guy. After exchanging some words Beard Man moves away to the front of the bus. They continue to insult each other. Corn Rows follows Beard Man to the front presumably to “put my foot up your ass”. At about 1:40 into the video he takes a swing at Beard Man. Using a clean, straight left and right hook combination that would be at home in a UFC fight Beard Man administers a beat down. After some “ground and pound” the fight is over Corn Rows says what sounds like “Bring an amber lamps” (ambulance?) presumably because he’s bleeding profusely through the nose.

The internet responds magnificently with a mash-up.  I caught this on Tosh.0 the other night:

Remember boys and girls, you should never, ever try to put your foot up the ass of a much bigger, somewhat disturbed, racist Vietnam veteran on an BART bus wearing an “I AM A MOTHER FUCKER” tee shirt. You might get your ass kicked and need an “amber lamps”. Then you might get creatively mocked on the internet to the tune of catchy southern rock version of an old Lead Belly song. Here’s your 15 minutes of fame dude, enjoy. You’ve earned it!

PS.  I don’t condone the inherent racism displayed by Beard Man. But Corn Rows did swing first, probably thinking he could beat up an old man. Also, I don’t think the origins of the Song Black Betty are racist. It seems that Black Betty was either slag for a liquor bottle or a flint lock musket.