Now this–this is a good lede : Imagine if the George W. Bush administration, in its waning days, had introduced something called the Patriot II Act. To prevent terrorists and foreign agents from influencing American governments and political parties, the act would require political campaigns and other groups to report the names, addresses, and employers of their supporters to the federal government, which would enter the information into a database.
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What if We Had a Federal Database Tracking Domestic Political Activity?
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter is pushing a 2-cent-per-ounce tax on sweetened beverages, which would be the highest such levy in the country. The Philadelphia Inquirer says it’s a way to “treat the city’s weight and wallet problems…with the same remedy.” You could also say it’s a way to take people’s hard-earned money while simultaneously meddling in their personal choices, but politically that might be less appealing. Nutter’s proposed tax is 35 times the state’s beer tax, 10 times as heavy as Chicago’s soda tax, and twice the rate advocated by anti-fat crusader Kelly Brownell, who is overjoyed at the thought of forcing poor people to forsake their favorite beverages.
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It’s a Nutter Idea, and It Just Might Not Work
Now that Fat Lady Neil Young has sung (”Still rockin’ in the free world after some 40 years,” observed Bob Costas; “Amen,” piped in Al Michaels), William Shatner (true!) has delivered a spoken-word benediction, and every other distantly famous Canuck has set foot north of Mulholland Drive for the first time since Wayne Gretzky married Janet Jones , the MCMXLVIIIth Winter Olympiad is finally behind us, giving weary viewers at least 28 months or so before having to contemplate what new horrors modern plastic surgery will visit upon the once-expressive sportscasters of our youth . So it’s time to tip our toques to Canada, loosen our grip on those curling rocks, and get back to the real American pastimes. Which are, in order: baseball, and arming ourselves to the teeth.
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Enough About Canada; Let’s Shoot Some Anti-Baseball Terrorists, and Slap a Hockey Puck in the Nuts of Every Nostalgic Writer in New York
I am reliably informed by consumers of old-school softcore pornography that Playboy was once, in point of fact, worth reading for the articles. Norman Mailer, P.G. Wodehouse, William F
Originally posted here:
“Libertarian” Playboy Mag Hates Choice, Loves Authentic Communism
FDR’s presidency was marked by more than a little chutzpah—22nd Amendment, anyone?—but there was perhaps no move more purely, willfully brass-balled than his personal tax scheme, described by Sarah Lawsky at TaxProfBlog: Throughout his first term, President Franklin Roosevelt paid taxes at the rates in effect when he took office, even as statutory tax rates increased .
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FDR: Tax Increases Don’t Apply to Me
Some interesting chatter at National Review Online between Reason magazine columnist Veronique de Rugy and Jonah Goldberg on the proper, or expected, place for serious libertarians in American politics, hooked off the Cato study on libertarian voters that Katherine Mangu-Ward talked about earlier . From de Rugy , defending libertarians as not fickle and confusing when it comes to party affiliation, but merely tough and principled: What we want is more freedom in our personal and economic lives. Sadly, over the years, no matter who has been in power, the government has grown.
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Where Do Libertarians Belong in American Politics?
I stand by my previous refusal to vouch for the Wyclef Jean Foundation’s Yéle Haiti charity. But it’s not clear how damning the newly popular case against the charity is. If you have spent the last week buried under some rubble, you may not know that Jean has collected several million dollars for Haiti relief through the distributed power of texting.
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Yéle Haiti: Ready Or Not?
Edge.org is one of the lumpiest, worst-designed sites on the Internet. Which is a shame, because they host some of the most interesting, quirky content out there. Right now, they’re aggregating answers to the question ” How is the Internet changing the way you think?
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Internet-Induced Questions
Last week I noted that the Transportation Security Administration had demanded that two travel writers reveal the source of the TSA directive they posted after the foiled Christmas Day bombing of a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. One of them, Chris Elliott, was planning to challenge the TSA’s administrative subpoena in federal court. It looks like that won’t be necessary, since the TSA has withdrawn both subpoenas, saying its investigation of who leaked the document is “nearing a successful conclusion” without them.
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TSA Withdraws Subpoenas to Journalists
HousingWire.com finds an interesting point buried in recent testimony at the House Financial Services Committee by Laurie Goodman, senior managing director at Amherst Securities: Goodman also took on the widespread, but mistaken notion that unemployment is the primary driver of delinquency, default and home loss. (Indeed, a committee member set her up for a dunk ball, by stating “there is no better foreclosure mitigation plan than a job.” I should clarify, he was using his three minutes to grandstand against the Administration’s stimulus, spending and tax programs as “job crushing” disincentives to job providers, not demonstrating his – or even his staff’s – understanding of the dimensions of the foreclosure crisis.) Drawing on her recent report, “Negative Equity Trumps Unemployment in Predicting Defaults,” (covered by HousingWire.com at publication: Read here ), Goodman made three key points: 1. The total ratio of mortgage debt to home value (CLTV) is critical.
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Bogus Unemployment/Default Connection Is Bogusly Bogus
