Recently in political Category

BBC NEWS | Business | 850 jobs go at Mini car factory

The UK has a cradle to grave welfare state that may, arguably look after the body, but the real damage is done to the mind.

"I've worked here for three-and-a-half years and now I'm being sacked for no reason. I've been used."

What else did they think they were doing? Of course they were used that's the whole bloody point. Rather than being people that are in , at least illusory, control  of their lives the opposite seems to be the mindset.  

During my early life in the UK  the tax rate  for individuals  earning over  20k was 83% and if the money came from  investments or dividends another 15% was added onto it  meaning  for ever 100 you earned you could keep 2.

It's at this point I disagree with Mark Cuban and his insistence that  taxation  has minimal to no effect on those starting a business  which may hold true for a 5 - 10%  swing in either direction but at 83% I seriously doubt it.  Several , small, very small, ventures that Creddy and I considered  were impractical to enact because the local  town, county and state permits  made it prohibitively expensive  relating to the expected return. E.g you have spare herbs from a hydroponic garden  and you may make say   $1200 extra a year,  er no not legally you can't:)    Yeah I know it's not the big league but  come on  it's not legal to offer surplus  from your garden.. Grr  anyway  rant off:)


Public wants taxes that hurt the rich | Politics | The Observer

"People had assumed that this group were more than competent and it must have been deserved. There is now a feeling that these people have been responsible for others losing their jobs."

Don't get me wrong there has to be consequences  for carrying a loaded firearm into a nightclub that is discharged. Like a hole in the leg, pain and maybe the end of your athletic career. Still that's not good enough  we really have to show em:)  Shame that the  same zeal doesn't apply to those that enforce the laws Hospital suspends worker who failed to report NFL star's gunshot - CNN.com

Bloomberg, who has long fought against illegal gun ownership, said public figures "make their living because of their visibility. They are the role models for our kids, and if we don't prosecute them, to the fullest extent of the law, I don't know who on Earth we would. It makes a sham, a mockery of the law."

One word answer..... Spitzer.

Having seen too many  cases  of "if you don't do anything wrong you have nothing to worry about"  I   encourage you to read this. Law enforcement has over taken the concept of peace officer.  Any interaction can quickly go wrong  if you forget  whose really the boss so disgression being the better part of valor and all there's practically nothing to do about it but stay inside  keep the yard tidy:)

Unwarranted Violence by William Norman Grigg

Under existing judicial precedents, a police officer cannot be held criminally or civilly liable for failing to come to the aid of an individual citizen whose person and property are under criminal attack. However, police agencies across the country routinely discipline police officers who fail to fill their quota of traffic citations.

This may at first glance seem to be a spurious comparison. But consider it in light of the principle of opportunity cost as applied to the time budget of the typical patrol officer: Should he organize his time in such a way that he can be available to help a victim of violent crime, or in the best way to take advantage of "hot spots" for traffic violators, thereby making his quota and enhancing his prospects for lucrative overtime?

A given officer can be in only one place at a given time, after all, and each hour spent trolling for inattentive drivers represents an hour taken away from the task of "serving and protecting" the local population.

"Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads"

The industrial revolution is still spinning.  We're stuck  for the most part with a  work week, physically showing up  and  covering the costs of maintaining ourselves in food and transport outside of the house.  For many of us it makes little to no sense given that our jobs are hunting  ideas on the antipodes of our mental planes  ( oh  I just won a Private Eye Pseud  award:P) 

So the big plans  from our new Saviour in chief?   Newer versions of the same old ways.   Much as I dislike state  mandated jobs I can at lease express a preference for the kind of boondoggles that I like. Where's a decent broadband plan?   Where's the "iPhone in each pocket"  speech?   We're so in love with tangible structures that  even if you could prove 100% that schools could be run remotely , cheaper  with higher grades and none of the lose of their precious  "socialization  I doubt we'd ever see such a thing.     This looks more like a way to keep on living as we have rather than looking forward to something that may  look like change:) 

  My usual  reservations about the  energy issue is that mandating  technology or favoring it with tax policy can kill off truly innovative stuff. There's a reason we have ethanol in gas and it's not because it's good for anything other than those that happen to grow the raw material.  

How about getting rid of all the regulatory crap that has us  traveling to  "beg" permission to modify or uses the items as a trip reduction method? 

Now were did we put all those engineering graduates?

 Who is always in charge?

Why is that entity never to blame? 

Why is the cure for the failure of of that entity an excuse to give them more money and power?  Really really puzzling. The reason I need to write things like this is I'm  getting worse at discussing them because it's hard , really hard to get it across in person.  I'm tired of being in  MPG or environmental  debates with people whose cars are less efficient than mine. 

It's a bS argument because it's nowhere near as simple as they make it out to be.   Let's tax fuel more so people will use less of it.  After all poor people don't have cars ,fuck em.  That's not my experience with  my less well off  rural friends that can't afford much in the way of efficient cars  and end up driving the  motoring dregs. Still  it beats  walking  four miles  to store or taking kid to sitter, dr etc.  

 Person is on min wage/  tips.  Fuel prices =  higher food prices   say another 10-12  a week.  That's a couple of meals , few hours sitting or something useful that a person working 40-60 hours a week may want.  Only ear thhis shit from people with jobs that could readily afford it.. you know  I wouldn't mind paying.. well  fucking do so.     Save $1 a gallon each time you fuel and donate it to something tangible to help the people ,you're so eager  to take money out their pockets , rather than  hurting others to feel good about yourself.  Sadly no  we'll take that money and give it to  state to make the Soylent Wheels for our slow  backslide into steam.  I've driven a lot of cars made by nations rather than private companies and boy  do they suck!   Put it this way I'd not  be surprised if  they added in flotation devices  as a requirement from the Senator from Massachusets.  
 
LewRockwell.com Blog: That Private Jet Non-Issue, and Political Thinking

I am sure that Henry Waxman truly believes he can run an auto company or any other company when, in truth, he only can run his mouth. One reason that Congress really wants this bailout is that people like Chris Dodd and Waxman want their chance to be acting CEOs and show everyone how to build "green cars." Of course, anything which is built under their direction will be horrible, an overpriced and heavily subsidized piece of garbage that no people in their right minds would buy.

Yeah we really need another  President that believes any means necessary to hold onto central power is justifiable.  :(  That protectionist  tariffs are a good thing and that  arresting people that oppose you peacefully was valid.  How can one get such a great reputation in history for just the words and not the actions? 
Can Lincoln's playbook help Obama in the years ahead? - CNN.com

# There are several similarities between the two politicians
# Historians say Obama can use Lincoln's strategies to help him lead the country

I'm lucky that I never had a horse in this race I find both sides odious. I find the propositions can be even worse. People that claim to be religious  would rather spend 73 million dollars on making sure other people have less rights than they want to enjoy. Preachers  that get up daily and tell us that $20  a month saves a life , you know that life is life  one could go as far to call them pro-life  crowd?   Yep rather than having two men  or women  be recognised by the state  ( big problems with that but going to ignore that for now;) )  they would condemn  3.65 million people to an early death just to stop two people expressing a civil commitment.   What the fuck is wrong with you sick bastards?    That 73 million  was just for the CA marriage amendment by the time you add in the other states it's quite a bit higher.  That's pretty much evil right there.  In some ways it's a good thing we substituted naked aggression for the paper substitute because  they really would act out their malevolent fantasies again and again as they have done throughout history.  We call this progress;)  Anyway  to a post from a  rather good UK  blog that captures in many more words than  Mencken did.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard. H. L. Mencken

Now over to. Samizdata.net

Many will find the glee of the statist left over the next few days and weeks hard to endure, but to be honest I have been walking around with a grin all day. Finally the era of gradualism is over and the masks are going to come off. The USA has voted for statism and it is going to get exactly what it voted for at a juncture in history where it will very quickly be impossible to hide the cost of those votes. Obama is not the start of a new era, he is the death knell for the old one.

I've argued with people in the past that to use a quote is  agree to the defense of it's inclusion.  I've never been amused by those trying to wiggle out of a comment  by stating it's not their words so .. Cough BS.  So while I don't agree on the latter paragraph  as being accidental, e.g the military picking up where the system failed since I believe that it's there to benefit from such, the rest is pretty much what the US looks like from here.

America the Banana Republic: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com

Now ask yourself another question. Has anybody resigned, from either the public or the private sectors (overlapping so lavishly as they now do)? Has anybody even offered to resign? Have you heard anybody in authority apologize, as in: “So very sorry about your savings and pensions and homes and college funds, and I feel personally rotten about it”? Have you even heard the question being posed? O.K., then, has anybody been fired? Any regulator, any supervisor, any runaway would-be golden-parachute artist? Anyone responsible for smugly putting the word “derivative” like a virus into the system? To ask the question is to answer it

Ouch:)