URLs du Jour

2009-07-02

  • The Official Progressive Politician's Guiding Philosophy on Tax Fairness and Equity:

    1. You got the money.
    2. We want the money.
    3. So gimme the money.

    … or so it seems. At Cato, David Boaz remembers that Senator Barbara Mikulski, in a refreshing moment of candor, came pretty close to saying exactly that once:

    Let's go and get it from those who've got it.
    David goes on to the various ways the Obamites are implementing that philosophy, and the list is sobering.

    I say "sobering", because one of the proposals is a massive hike in taxes on beer, wine, and liquor.

    David also recalls the words written 233 years ago:

    He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
    Try saying that to an Obamalator today, and the reply would no doubt be: "You say that like it's a bad thing!"

  • One of the few actually good ideas John McCain had during the campaign was to replace the tax break for employer-paid health plans with an individual tax credit. (Genius Harvard Econ Prof Greg Mankiw liked it; so did Cato's Michael Cannon.)

    And, of course, McCain was relentlessly demagogued on the issue by Obama and Biden.

    All the more ironic then is the Obama Administration's willingness to embrace the idea now. The difference being that McCain's proposal empowered individuals and their private health care choices; Obama's looking for money to grease the skids toward a totally socialized system making us all more dependent on government.

    This was number 2 on Shikha Dalmia's list of Obama's health care lies blogged yesterday. Today, however, you should read a couple in-depth takedowns of this brazenly dishonest Barackrobatic hypocrisy by an NRO tag team: (1) Jim Geraghty with the text version recounting the $44 million in Obama campaign ad buys savaging the proposal; (2) Guy Benson with a video collection of YouTubed examples.

  • The "Troubled Asset Relief Program" (TARP) was a horrible idea, but at least offered the prospect that taxpayer funds could be eventually "paid back" by the bailed-out financial institutions.

    But…

    But now Rep. Barney Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has come up with a proposal to spend any TARP profits before they can be returned to the taxpayers. Last Friday, Frank introduced the "TARP for Main Street Act of 2009," a bill that would take profits from the program and immediately redirect them toward housing proposals favored by Frank and some fellow Democrats.
    Moral: once you send money down the rathole, the rats won't give it back without a fight.

Captain Horatio Hornblower

[4.0
stars] [IMDb Link]

[Amazon Link]
(paid link)

Ah, this is more like it. Good guys. Bad guys. Guys sticking together through thick and thin. True love. Ships shooting at each other with cannons. Outwitting the French. It's all here.

Gregory Peck plays the title character in this 1951 action-adventure movie. As near as I can tell, he doesn't bother with an English accent. He travels the world for King and Country, and he's not one to back down from a scrape.

It's a lot of fun. Great special effects for 1951. (I was about to say: they don't make them like this any more, but every so often, they do.)

Gene Roddenberry sold the idea of Star Trek as kind of a Hornblower-in-space. Many parallels are noted here. I think it's arguable that Alexander Courage kind of ripped off a measure or two of this movie's theme for the show as well.


Last Modified 2024-01-31 5:22 AM EDT