Escape from the People's Republic of Maryland

I was a resident of the People's Republic of Maryland (motto: if you can imagine it, we can tax it) for 26 years - longer than I lived in my birth state of Idaho by 18 years, longer than I lived in my adopted home state of California by 8 years...bottom line, a long time. I like Maryland. It's quirky, like me.

But Maryland has......issues.

In the 26 years I lived in Maryland, I worked inside of the state for barely 3 years. The rest of that time I worked in DC (1.5 years) and Virginia.

See, the PRM isn't a business-friendly kind of place. Hell, even the federal government prefers to expand further and further into Virginia rather than attempt to expand in that tax-gouging "workers paradise".

So I've spent the better part of 26 years enduring commutes of 1-2 hours each direction - simply because that's where the work was. I put up with it as long as I did because I liked where I lived.

But then insult began to be heaped on top of injury. As I posted one year ago, Governor O'Malley and the state legislature decided that those of us in the state still actually working needed to pay still more in taxes (or, as Iowahawk put it, "Maryland raises taxes on $100k+ earners stupid enough to live in Maryland").

I'd had enough, but, more importantly, Deadeye had had enough of me getting home late, exhausted from a hell commute. She pushed for us to sell the house and move to Virginia, and, after a six month adventure, we have done so. We're now residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Bottom line, we love it here. My commute now is under 20 minutes each way. And we're not subject to punitive taxes for the crime of being successful.

Blue states like Maryland view people as static actors who won't change their behavior or circumstances regardless of how much their tax policies punish them and drive away employers. They think wrong. As much as I loved living in Maryland, it wasn't enough to justify a perpetual hell commute and punitive taxation.

I'm a Virginian now, and I'm thrilled about it.

Stupid enough, indeed

I don't follow all that many people on Twitter, mostly friends and my favorite bloggers. One of the people I follow is IowaHawk, a blogger I heard about from Toes.

David Burge is hilarious. Mostly, he's hilarious because he's got a sniper's talent for hitting at the very essence of an issue. A great example is this tweet from yesterday.

As one of those falling into that category, I must say: guilty as charged.

For years I've said that the official motto of the state of Maryland should be, "If you can imagine it, we can tax it". Maryland has been a one-party state practically non-stop since Reconstruction. And it shows. Maryland Donkeys put the "tard" in "libtard".

Not content with chasing off most of the state's millionaires by raising their taxes in 2008, Governor Martin O'Malley (known as "owe Malley" around these parts) and the one-party drones in the legislature apparently want to chase off the rest of the tax base as well.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Maryland is nuts.

Expect to hear that I've moved to Virginia sometime in the near future.

From each according to his ability...

Welcome to Amerika!

Americans break into two roughly evenly matched camps on the question of whether the government should enact heavy taxes on the rich to redistribute wealth in the U.S. Forty-seven percent believe the government should redistribute wealth in this way, while 49% disagree, similar to views Gallup found four years ago.

Republicans and Democrats have sharply different reactions to the government's taking such an active role in equalizing economic outcomes. Seven in 10 Democrats believe the government should levy taxes on the rich to redistribute wealth, while an equal proportion of Republicans believe it should not. The slight majority of independents oppose this policy.

I'm not at all surprised that 70% of Donkeys support wealth redistribution. I wish I could say that I'm surprised that 30% of Elephants support wealth redistribution...but I'm not. See McCain, John.

Of particular interest is the way men and women view wealth redistribution. Only 42% of men, regardless of political party, approve of it, while 52% of women think it's just ducky.

That any American citizen finds wealth redistribution acceptable saddens me. It is yet another example of how the public schools have failed us. Stealing from the productive does NOT end poverty. It just spreads it.

New Tizona Post

Coming soon to a country near you. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

I'm baaaaaaack

Just like a case of herpes, I have returned. My vacation was refreshing and invigorating. But now I'm back and it's time to address the "big issues of the day".

As if!

Nah, I'm going to dedicate my first post-vacation post to saying, "I told you so!"

Did I not tell you? DID I NOT TELL YOU?!?!?!?

When Il Duce named Jeffrey Immelt as his "jobs czar" back in January, I said that Immelt was a repugnant slug who represented the very worst in crony capitalism. I said that the company he chairs, General Electric, is "the #1 looter corporation".

Seems there are those who agree with me.

The New York Times reported last month that General Electric earned $14.2 billion in international profits, including, $5.1 billion in the United States. Yet GE did not pay a dime in federal income taxes last year. Oddly, President Obama chose GE Chairman and chief executive Jeffrey Immelt to head his President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

According to the Associated Press, Immelt's compensation package doubled to $15.2 million last year, while this year, GE is seeking major concessions from the unions that represent its shrinking American workforce. That makes Immelt the wrong guy for the job of jobs czar.

Or as former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold wrote, "Someone like Immelt, who has helped his company evade taxes on its huge profits -- and is now looking to workers to take major pay cuts after his compensation was doubled -- should not lead the administration's effort to create jobs."

I almost wish I could just paste the whole essay, written masterfully by Debra Saunders, into this post. But in the interest of giving credit where credit is due, you should go to RealClearPolitics and read the whole thing yourself. You'll be glad you did.

One last quote from the opinion piece.

When Obama appointed Immelt to his jobs and competitiveness council, the president said that Immelt "understands what it takes for America to compete in the global economy."

Unfortunately, Immelt seems to have learned that the best way to increase GE's profits was to eliminate a fifth of its American workforce, ship jobs overseas and hire a small army of tax attorneys.

A generous person might argue that GE's experience makes Immelt the smart choice to reform the tax code.

But Immelt can't be in charge of GE and reform a tax system it helped pervert. Obama must know that. Obama must not care.

The Solution

Deadeye and I were sitting around last night discussing matters of the world.  She wondered how it all got so crazy.  How is it that people that do all of the right things (work hard, save money, fund their own medical care and retirement, etc.) are penalized by our government in the form of confiscatory taxation and regulation while people who flat-out fail at life, people who don't try to get an education, people who won't work but want to "get paid", and those who spend like drunken sailors Congress and accrue back-breaking debt, are rewarded (via handouts, tax breaks, bailouts, etc.)?

I related to her the wisdom of the Founders.  Originally, the right to vote was NOT universal; it was restricted to land owners only.  The wisdom of this is self-evident.  Those who paid the taxes elected the representation.  A profligate Congress of the type we've had since.......since well before I was born?.......wouldn't last a term if those paying the taxes to support that spending were the only ones voting.

It is almost laughable in hindsight to think that people whose only role in society is to exhaust natural resources and sponge off of the productive are allowed to vote.  Who do you think such people are going to elect?  The guy who promises to reign in government spending and enforce Constitutional government, or the guy who says "Bring on the goodies!"?

The only hope for any sort of sanity in government is to pass a Constitutional amendment limiting the voting franchise to tax paying citizens ONLY.  And that has about the same odds of happening as the odds that I'll one day be President.

My brother is right.  This IS the insane asylum of the universe.

Cleared of all wrongdoing [/sarcasm]

The search for truth being a relative thing, we can certainly take it as settled fact when the University of East Anglia proclaims that its investigation of....uh....itself....uncovered no wrongdoing of any kind.

Emails stolen from one of the world's leading climate change research centers contained no evidence to undermine the case for manmade global warming, a report found on Wednesday.

An investigation into the British research unit cleared its scientists of serious wrongdoing, but criticized their lack of openness and said some of their data was misleading.

The University of East Anglia, eastern England, launched the inquiry after 1,000 emails hacked from its climate research unit were put on the Internet and held up as evidence scientists had exaggerated or lied about man's role in global warming.

Just like Penn State University in its investigation of....uh....itself....found nothing amiss.

Nothing to see here people.  Move along.

Not all of us are persuaded.

Russell was appointed by the institution to investigate an archive of source code and emails that leaked onto the internet last November. The source code is not addressed at all. His report suggests that the problems were of the academics' own making, stating that they were "united in defence against criticism". Yet the enquiry found that despite emails promising to "redefine" the peer review publication process, and put pressure on journal editors, staff were not guilty of subverting the IPCC process, and their "rigour" and "honesty" were beyond question.

Leading academics were called for written and oral evidence before the Russell enquiry, and in many cases the report accepts their account of events. The subjects of their criticism were not invited, not were climate scientists critical of their behaviour. For example, in their capacity as IPCC gatekeepers, the academics are cleared of excluding critical evidence, and yet bending the rules to include supporting studies. To reach this particular conclusion, for example, the report finds a criterion: a "consistence of view" with earlier work. The earlier work here was in fact produced [by] the academics under scrutiny. So, having compared the CRU academics' work against their previous work, and found it to be consistent, they are cleared of malpractice.

Let me summarize. Because the results produced in the time frame under investigation matched the results of earlier work produced by....uh....the people under investigation....nothing untoward has occurred.

Nothing to see here people.  Move along.

Now let me speak honestly, from the heart.  The source code matters.  Michael Mann's discredited "hockey stick" program would produce the same result whether you fed it temperature data or the price list from Wendy's.  It skewed older numbers to a pattern of a slow, gradual increase, and completely distorted numbers at the tail end of the dataset to sky upward at an exponential rate that is ridiculous on its face and should have caught SOMEONE'S attention from the very beginning.

What's in the source code at East Anglia?  Are we dealing with the same kind of intellectual dishonesty as that shown by Mr. Mann?

Talk of "tricks" and "hide the decline" matter.  When one speaks of "cheating on my spouse" you don't assume it involves a card game.  Someone with a little more intellectual honesty (and no connection to either the University or any government bureaucracy) needs to look into what their little "tricks" were.

Though concern was voiced over the refusal of the scientists to share their "data" (I use the term loosely - fictitious bullshit is the more appropriate term) with independent scientists so they might independently validate their findings, this too matters much more than the sham investigation weighs it.  The fact that in one of the emails a scientist said that he would DESTROY the data before he would share it with an outsider is GARGANTUAN.  This is not something to be brushed under the rug or treated with a slap on the wrist.  You don't hide your data unless you know that it's corrupt, has been falsified, or is total fiction.

The bullying of scientific journals to prevent publication of opposing viewpoints matters.  If science is, as so many of its proponents claim, a search for the truth, then let opposing voices be heard!  These scientists weren't acting as seekers of the truth by throwing their weight around in this way.  They were acting as ideological thugs.

I'm tired of the dishonesty.  I'm tired of this ideology-tainted pseudo-science serving no other purpose than to further political schemes to increase taxation on and control over formerly free peoples.

My brother is right - this planet IS the insane asylum for the entire universe.

Update:

Check out this column for a scathing review of East Anglia's "finding".

Feeling like a jackass

Once upon a time a community of wild mules, donkeys, burros, and jackasses roamed free.  They lived in complete freedom.  But there were problems.  They were susceptible to predator attack.  There were no rules preventing mules from abusing donkeys (or vice-versa).  There were no protections against feeding ground encroachment.

So they formed a Pact.  This Pact established common defense against predators and rules to protect against abuses and feeding grounds violations.  Most importantly, the Pact gave assurances to each and every one of the assembled that their freedoms would never be violated.

The Pact established leaders who would represent the animals.  These leaders would have a special wagon to be pulled by the other animals from place to place so that the leaders could perform their duties.

At first, because the wagon was small and the leaders and wagon workers few, it took but a few of the beasts to pull the wagon.  This responsibility was shared by all.  The burden was light, and the demands few.

But over time the leaders started to feel that the Pact restricted them too much.  They became convinced that they could do "amazing things" if those limits were, well, limited.  They were engulfed in an awful hubris.  The "amazing things" they wanted to do were more important to them than the freedoms promised by the Pact.

The leaders were shrewd.  They knew that any overt attempt to break the Pact would result in rebellion.  So over time, bit by bit, the leaders chipped away at the Pact.  By making rules that bordered on violating the Pact without actually doing so, the leaders set precedents that made other rules that DID violate the Pact seem okay.  It was an incrementalist approach.  It was brilliant.

The leaders engaged in a "divide and conquer" strategy.  A number of the new rules were designed to create "favored" classes.  Mules had been greatly wronged in the early days of the Pact.  The leaders used this fact to make rules that allowed many of the mules to ride in the wagon with them.

Then animals without sufficient grazing lands were deemed a "favored" class and were beneficiaries of rules that allowed them to ride on the wagon as well.

The new rules required making the wagon bigger - a whole lot bigger.  Now there were large numbers of animals on the wagon - leaders, wagon workers, and "favored" classes - and many animals were required to pull the wagon.  No, required is too nice of a word.  They were compelled to do so.

Some of the animals - particularly the donkeys and jackasses - began to resent the leaders and the demands placed upon them.  They were branded as uncaring, bigoted, and evil by the leaders.  Those on the wagon certainly agreed.  And, unfortunately, there were enough donkeys, burros, and jackasses who believed the leaders were simply trying to help the "less fortunate" to prevent the donkeys and jackasses from pressuring the leaders to rescind the new rules.

More rules were created.  Some rules limited the amount of feeding ground a beast could have.  Others forced animals to cede some of their feeding ground to animals on the wagon.  The amount of time animals spent pulling the wagon was then linked to the amount of feeding ground they controlled.  More and more animals began to climb aboard the wagon, some as wagon workers, but most as "favored" classes.

Large numbers of burros began to enter the area.  Some pulled the wagon, as had the burros who had been there at the start of the Pact.  But some cried for "favored" status, and were granted seats on the wagon.  Many - WAY too many - simply took over feeding grounds and avoided pulling the wagon.

Over time the situation worsened to the point that there were nearly as many animals on the wagon as there were pulling the wagon. 

Most of those pulling the wagon were jackasses.

What prompted this little parable?  This.

Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it's simply somebody else's problem.

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That's according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.

Wait, it gets better.

The bottom 40 percent, on average, make a profit from the federal income tax, meaning they get more money in tax credits than they would otherwise owe in taxes. For those people, the government sends them a payment.

"We have 50 percent of people who are getting something for nothing," said Curtis Dubay, senior tax policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

Feel like a jackass yet? If you don't, you're probably part of the problem.

An administration of True Believers

There are four types of faith. An event-driven faith, brought on by a life-changing event, which flames hot and then is extinguished over the passing of time. Another type of faith is one that blossoms, but is not strong enough to withstand outside influences or the disapproval of others.

Then there is what I call True Faith.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Hebrews 11.1

This faith is powerful enough to withstand the cares of this world and the disapproval of others. This is a faith that is hardly blind; challenges to the validity of that faith are met with personal research to prove or disprove those challenges. Once disproved, the challenge has had the effect of strengthening the believer's faith.

And then there is the cultish "faith" that willfully ignores all evidence with regard to its validity. Picture if you will a person who, upon receiving some bit of information that would render their faith invalid, closes their eyes, puts their hands over their ears, and chants loudly, "LA LA LA LA LA - I CAN'T HEAR YOU - LA LA LA LA LA!" That is the essence of this type of "faith"

Il Duce and his crony administration have this "faith". Official White House spokesmouth Robert Gibbs on Monday testified to the administration's "faith".

The White House on Monday made exceptionally clear that it wants nothing to do with the furor over documents that global warming skeptics say prove the phenomenon is not a threat.

Despite the incident, which rocked international headlines last week, climate science is sound, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stressed this afternoon, and the White House nonetheless believes "climate change is happening."

"I don't think that's anything that is, quite frankly, among most people, in dispute anymore," he said during Monday's press briefing.

LA LA LA LA LA - I CAN'T HEAR YOU - LA LA LA LA LA!

Then there was the administration's "science" officials' profession of "faith".

At a Capitol Hill hearing, the president's science adviser and the chief of the agency in charge of climate research said the e-mails did nothing to undermine scientific consensus on climate change.

LA LA LA LA LA - I CAN'T HEAR YOU - LA LA LA LA LA!

Now, being the cynic that I am (would you have ever guessed that about me?), I have to question whether the administration's "faith" is in warming, or if their "faith" is in the power the issue gives them to tax and enslave the American people.

Given the track record of this administration (and the one that preceded it), one would have to lean towards the cynical view.

One part excellent logical rebuttal, two parts ROFLMAO beat down

The Tizona Group is one of my go-to destinations. Their blog is equal parts irreverence, spot-on analysis, and thoughtful commentary. However, this post is more. MUCH, MUCH, more. I'll tease it to you this way: never before has an argument against death taxes been so much fun.

I haven't laughed my ass off this much in quite some time. Ladies and gentlemen, I present: a rant by thefrolickingmole.

Warning: this is NOT for the faint-hearted nor those easily offended by profanity or references to necrophilia, scatology, or smegma.

My favorite line was this.

[T]he best part of you trickled down your mother's leg after the fleet left town.

OMGs. Now THAT'S funny, I don't care who you are.

Go Tizona! You rock!

Wiener of the Week

This week the WotW could go to Team Donkey. The party of Tax and Spend has become the party of Tax Everyone Else and Spend.

They're up to three now. First it was Timothy Geithner and former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (who is, IMO, a despicable, loathsome human being). Now we can add Nancy Killefer, the nominee for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Let's see. We have a Treasury Secretary who is a tax cheat. A now-withdrawn nominee for Health and Human Services who is a tax cheat. And now a OMB nominee who's a tax cheat.

Yeah, they COULD be the WotW...but they're not.

What really frosts my beak about this whole issue is that these people aren't being subjected to the draconian measures usually employed by the IRS against those who "make mistakes" on their tax returns. Contrast the kid gloves treatment employed against these scofflaws with the treatment to which the average Joe Taxpayer is subjected by the IRS. Liens. Fines. Attached wages. Confiscation and auction of property. Even jail.

But for the well-connected Team Donkey politician? Not even a slap on the wrist. Or am I missing the headlines proclaiming huge fines and penalties against any of the three?

The IRS was used during the Clinton administration as a weapon against those who opposed his policies or backed his impeachment. They've ruined the lives of ordinary Americans. But they don't seem to be interested in punishing Democrat politicians. Interesting, no?

For being tools (in every sense of the word) for oppression against the defenseless but friends of the oppressor, the IRS is the Wiener of the Week.

Update: add Al Franken to the list of Dems who skate on their taxes. Sheesh! The chutzpah of these guys!

Living the nightmare

"We don't need to make a movie out of the book," Mr. Kelley jokes. "We are living it right now."

I can't do this justice with excerpts. You'll have to read it yourself.

I know! Raise taxes!

The one-note wonders who work in the Logic-Free Zone known as the District of Columbia are at it again. First, let me set the stage.

When the price of gasoline was pushing up over $4 a gallon, the nanny nags in Washington hectored us to drive less. You see, it's easier to tell people to drive less than it is to address the actual issue of energy independence against the backdrop of trying to please Big Enviro.

But now, now that people ARE driving less and the price of gasoline is down to the lowest it's been in years? It could only mean one thing to the one-note chorus.

Motorists are driving less and buying less gasoline, which means fuel taxes aren't raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of road, bridge and transit programs.

That has the federal commission that oversees financing for transportation talking about increasing the federal fuel tax.

That's right. No matter the issue. No matter the problem. No matter the economic climate. There's nothing in Heaven or on Earth that can't be fixed by a tax increase.

Just shoot me.

If [insert candidate name] is elected...

I've become immune to it, but apparently it still works. "What?", you ask. Scare mongering, of course! I've never in my life seen anything like this. Oh wait, yes I have...just 4 short years ago! Remember how, if John "Frankenstein" Kerry were elected president, the radical Islamists would celebrate in the streets and we'd all be individually attacked by terrorists? Only King George the Dim could save us!

This go-around has had more than its share of fear mongering. Some of it is downright comical. I'll start with the anti-McCommie scare tactics (age before beauty, you know).

If McCain is elected...

• It'll prove that this is a racist nation!
• He'll invade Iran & Syria!
• He'll tax your health care!
• Corporations will:
• Use his election as an excuse to cut commissions and overtime!
• Stop providing health care!
• Downsize to take advantage of tax breaks!
• Deaths from terrorist attacks will skyrocket under McCain!
• Women will be forced into lesser lives!
• The US will become a 3rd-world nation!
• He'll start a new Cold War with Russia!
• It'll be economic suicide because he thinks the economy is sound!
• African Americans will riot!
• There'll be a full-fledged race and class war!
• We'll become a deflated and depressed country!
• Crime will soar!
• Homelessness will increase!
• The country will succumb to hopelessness!
• He'll die in office and Sarah Palin will prove just how unprepared she really is!
  
• He'll cut social welfare but increase corporate welfare!
• He'll return the southwest US to Mexico!
• He'll ruin the Supreme Court for generations with ultra right-wing appointees!
• He'll revoke Roe v. Wade!!!
• He'll re-institute slavery!

That last one is my personal favorite. Thanks, Whoopee, for trying to lend credence to the stupidest scare tactic yet!

Now for the other side. I actually left out a bunch of stuff I heard on the radio because I just couldn't recall the exact verbiage. There's some lulus in here.

If Obama is elected...

• He'll destroy the Constitution!
• The stock market will crash!
• There'll be an international crisis! His own VP nominee says so!
• God will smite America!
• I'll have to quit my job because it'll be more beneficial to mooch off the government than to work!
• The KKK will have a resurgence and will attack minority schools!
• Taxes will go up and:
• The rich won't have any incentive to make more money!
• The rich will hide their money in offshore accounts, causing a depression!
• There'll be layoffs and an unemployment nightmare!
• People won't donate to charities any more!
• Israel will attack Iran!
• The cost of goods and services will rise!
• We'll have an energy crisis of Biblical proportions!
• The productive will pull a "John Galt" and everything will go to shit!
• There will be a civil war!
• There'll be a Muslim takeover and we'll all end up as Dhimmi!
• He'll abolish the Boy Scouts!
• You'll lose your 401(k)!
• Affirmative action will be emphasized and there'll be quotas and fines for non-compliance!
• Terrorists will attack us at will!
• He'll ruin the Supreme Court for generations with ultra left-wing appointees!
• He'll shut down talk radio and Fox News using the Fairness Doctrine!
• He'll confiscate everyone's guns!
• He'll surrender in Iraq!
  
• He'll give us "Hillary Health" and we'll be forced to use government-provided health care.
  
• His cabinet and advisers will be:
• People like Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright!
• Black people exclusively!
• A dead-ringer for the old Soviet Politburo!
• He's a Marxist! A Communist! He'll:
• Redistribute the wealth!
• Confiscate our property!
• Be like Stalin and kill millions of his own people!

The "Stalin" one really made me chuckle. Now THAT'S some quality fear mongering!

Face it, people. We're screwed if McCommie gets elected. We're screwed if Obama the Savior of all mankind gets elected. The government is bankrupt, both fiscally and morally. All we can do now is wait for the inevitable implosion and hope that somewhere there are Washingtons, Jeffersons, Adamses, George Masons, and others who can rebuild this nation to it's original model.

Enjoy the election. I'm sure it'll be high drama.

Vulture Droppings - stuff that ruffles my feather

Vulture droppings is a semi-regular feature of this blog. It's a kind of "Random Thoughts" post in which I try to quickly summarize a particularly large event or series of events. Think of it being sort of like what a vulture leaves behind after devouring a horse. You don't get the whole horse, just highly processed leftovers.

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I hope I don't come off sounding like Andy Rooney here. But let's face it, there is "stuff" out there that ruffles my damn tail feathers, and I'm gonna vent!

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Let's start with the Baby Boom. Technically, I'm a Boomer. Some definitions of "Boomer" span from 1946 to somewhere in the 50's, with 1958 being the most common. Others go as late as 1964! People, let's get real! To say that I, born in 1958, have ANYTHING in common with the real Boomers is ludicrous! Here's the bottom line: to say that someone born in 1958 (like me) = someone born in 1946 (like King George the Dim) is almost as stupid as saying that someone born in 1946 (like Bill Clinton) = someone born in 1934 (like my dad). But they've been doing it for around 40 years now! Let's cut the crap: if you weren't at least a freshman in High School by 1970, you're NOT a boomer (for the record, I graduated from the 6th grade in 1970, hence, you can count me out!).

"Okay, you're not a Boomer. BFD." BFD, you say? How about it IS a big deal to me? Why? Because I consider the Baby Boom 60's maggot generation to be the cancer that sucked the life and vitality out of this nation and turned it into the whining collection of professional victims it has become.

"Oh, come ON, Vulture! You can't condemn everyone born in a 8-10 year span as being a cancer to our nation!" And I don't. I'm as cognizant as anyone to the fact that less than 1/3 of Boomers fit that "cancer" description, as the rest are normal, hard-working Americans just like their parents, their neighbors, or you. But that 1/3...that steaming pile of communist-sympathizing, grievance-mongering, America-blaming (and -hating!), losers? I don't even want to be linked with them by something as broad and meaningless as birth year.

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Another feather ruffler is the arrogant way that state-worshiping elitists accuse anyone who disagrees with them of being stupid, ignorant, or (my favorite) lacking in intellectual curiosity. King George was tarred with this label (okay, sometimes they're right). But so was Reagan, a man of extraordinary ideas (and ideals), and now it's Sarah Palin getting the rap. Unfortunately, with Sarah Palin it's not just the left tarring with that broad brush, it's also shriveled bitter shrews like Peggy Noonan of the "conservative" commentariat.

I'm throwing down the gauntlet, Lefties! Show me your "brains", and I'll show you those of the libertarian and conservative side. On the libertarian/conservative side: Ron Paul, Vox Day, Dr. Thomas Sowell, Dr. Walter Williams, and the now-deceased William F. Buckley. On their side: what? Where exactly are their "brains"? Nancy Pelosi? Puh-lease! That lightweight couldn't think her way out of a wet paper bag. The Clinton's? Yeah, right! He's nothing but a grifter and she's a power-mad parasite. Obama? Everyone alleges that he's "brilliant", but I've yet to see it from Mr. 57 states.

The fact is that the "intelligence" of the Left is a myth, perpetuated by and for the Left. The Left can't get beyond hackneyed bumper-sticker mantras (No blood for oil!), can't be reasoned with (You can't drill your way out of this problem!), and doesn't give a flying rat's ass if they completely torpedo this country, just as long as they get their long-awaited One-World Socialist Utopia Dystopia.

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Another thing I deeply resent is the disingenuous use of language by politicians of all stripes. My first recollection of it (which I'm sure wasn't anywhere close to the first time it was employed -- I just happened to have sobered up by the early 90's) was the Clinton's describing taxes as "contributions". Yeah. Sure. "Contributions" at bayonet point! Let's see what happens if I decide I don't want to "contribute" this year!

Clinton used to the military for "nation building". Team Elephant went nuts and decried the policy. But, once elected, King George the Dim used the 9/11 attacks as a pretense for...wait for it...nation building! Only he didn't call it that. He calls it sewing democracy in the Middle East. Assclown!

Now Obama is promising "tax cuts" for 95% of Americans, neglecting to point out that, of that 95%, a full 40% or more don't pay a single dime of federal tax! What those people will receive is NOT a tax cut; it is redistributed wealth, money taken from the top 25% of wage earners and passed on to them. It's socialism -- call it what it is!

Orwell was a prophet. Once you've made language meaningless, you've conquered the stupid and the unthinking.

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One last item...I'm sick and tired of politicians and their "let them eat cake" mentality when it comes to building new roads! "Let them take mass transit or move closer to where they work", they cry. The problem with that?

• Who lives or works right next to a Metro station? I don't. I have to drive (depending on traffic) nearly 45 minutes JUST TO CATCH THE EFFING THING!!! And with the Blue Line transfer, plus at least one, maybe two bus transfers, I've turned a gawd-awful 1.5 to 2 hour commute into a 3 hour commute!

• If I could afford to live in Bethesda or Potomac or Fairfax, I sure as hell wouldn't be working for a living! There's a reason I live in Frederick (besides the fact I actually like living there): it's the only place we could afford to purchase a single family home at the time!

• What about carpooling? *Buzzer* Doesn't work for consultants like me. I might be working in Bethesda this week, in Tysons Corner next week, and in Hanover, MD the week after that. YOU try to set up a car pool around that schedule!

• What the eff do we pay taxes for if not with the expectation that the government could take time out from destroying the monetary system and creating more dependents to suck at the government teat to at least toss the mules paying the taxes a bone in the form of a less stressful commute? Is that REALLY so much to ask?

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Enough of my bitching. What are the things that cheese you off? I'm dying to hear.

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Joseph Goebbels would be proud

Many times I shake my head and wonder why it is that the sheeple are so caught up in all of the phony climate change hype. I mean, anyone with half a brain who's done half an hour's research into the subject knows the score: 2,000 hysterical scientists and Al Gorebells vs. 32,000 scientists (and common sense). But when you have so-called reputable news outlets like Agence France-Presse printing crap like this, people without the time and inclination to explore further can be easily misled.

The dangerous rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may be troubling scientists and world leaders but it could prove to be a boon for plants, German researchers said Tuesday.

Let's parse this together, shall we?

"The dangerous rise" isn't meant to inform, or even to evoke an understanding of previously-presented information. Those word are designed to propagandize. Period.

"troubling scientists and world leaders" is misinformation at its finest. The aforementioned scorecard shows scientists on board with climate change hysteria outnumbered by "doubters" by a 16-to-1 ratio. "world leaders"? Outside of a few Western nations looking for a way to leverage the hysteria into increased taxes (and as a way to damage the USA), there are none. And, no, Al Gorebells doesn't count! He's simply an availability entrepreneur looking to get rich(er) by selling carbon credit schemes.

So, even though the gist of the article is positive news (an increase in carbon dioxide is good for plant growth, a real "no shit?" notion to anyone who understands the concept of plants "breathing" carbon dioxide), the writer just had to get their propaganda into the story, and right there in the first sentence. His editors apparently saw nothing wrong with that, even though "news" stories should, by the rules of "fairness", never contain knee-jerk phrases of that sort. AFP isn't censuring the writer in any way, so they obviously see nothing wrong with it.

As long as the propaganda machine is humming along unobstructed by reason, the sheeple won't question. There could be 1 million scientists screaming from the rooftops that global warming is a con - it wouldn't matter. The sheeple will follow the information they get most often, and these days, that information is pro-Gorebells.

The final sell-out

If you listened to blathering-head talk radio over the past two weeks, you may have heard a lot of talk about the Bush administration being pushed to designate the polar bear as an endangered species. Never mind that, by some estimates, there are as many as 5 times as many polar bears now as in 1970. It's Global Warming! It's going to drown all of the polar bears. Al Goerbells says so!

Anyway, the radio blatherers mostly ranted on about how this would spell the death knell to any hope of ever drilling in ANWR and would certainly hasten the advent of carbon taxes and such nonsense.

Well, the worst fears of the talkers came to pass yesterday, as the sniveling, cowardly, treasonous Bush administration caved to the pressure from the State-Sanctioned Religion (Environmentalism) and designated the polar bear as an endangered species.

But Vulture! How can the bears go from "threatened" to "endangered" when their numbers are...increasing?!??!? My son, that's not how it works in the surreal world of politics. It's what COULD happen, not what IS HAPPENING, that matters.

The department, in deciding to list the bear as threatened, will cite studies by its own scientists that the decline of Arctic sea ice off Alaska and Canada could result in two-thirds of the polar bears disappearing by mid-century, said federal officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision had not been announced. [Emphasis mine]

And, of course they fell back on the usual old chestnut to justify their actions.

"The science is absolutely clear that polar bear needs protection under the Endangered Species Act," said Andrew Wetzler, director of the endangered species program at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"The science". Damn the f'ing science! The only "science" promoting the Global Warming scam is that which is funded by those with something to gain from the resulting policies that are justified by the need to "fight" warming. There are enough rational (and qualified) voices shouting from the rooftops that there is no man-made Global Warming to cast doubt on THAT assertion. Of course, they're not funded by the right people.

And the radio talkers are absolutely right this time. Kiss ANWR drilling good-bye forever. Kiss pretty much ANY new oil exploration and drilling good-bye forever. Embrace the coming One-world Socialist Utopia! Embrace carbon taxes! Embrace rule by bureaucracy!

Like you have a choice.

Thanks, Bush. Thanks a butt load. Traitor.

Occupation: student, Pay: ???

Imagine my surprise. I was watching the Glenn Beck show on CNN Headline News the other night with the missus. Glenn casually dropped a few facts about ways the left has succeeded in implementing socialism. Then he drops this bombshell about how students are getting paid to go to school -- in MARYLAND!!! After his "bomb", I dropped some "bombs" of my own, if you catch my drift.

You don't believe me? Believe this!

In Baltimore, students at four middle schools are already earning money - albeit money they won't be able to spend for some time. The Stocks in the Future program, also offered at two schools in Baltimore County, teaches students about the stock market and allows them to earn up to $80 a year based on attendance and grades to spend on stocks. They can cash in the stock when they graduate from high school.

Are you kidding me?

Then, today I read that a similar scheme is in place in Connecticut.

Students who pass Advanced Placement tests at Wilby High School in Waterbury will be getting hard cold cash rewards.

The students who pass their final AP tests next year will earn $100 for themselves for every test they pass.

Isn't that nice? It's not bad enough that I had to pay over $8k per year to put my kids in private schools because the Middle School and High School in our district suck, but now more of my money in the form of state and federal tax dollars is going to be redistributed to little asshats for doing nothing more than what's expected from a f'in student!

It sort of puts yesterday's rant about Tax Day into perspective, doesn't it?

Happy Tax Day

It's that day that everyone looks forward to like a trip to the proctologist, Tax Day. Have YOU paid YOUR fair share?

Doesn't that make you gag? "Paid your fair share" -- my butt!

Take a look at how "fair" that "share" really is. See the chart? See the percentage of tax revenues paid? See how half the county's wage earners paid nothing or next to nothing in federal income tax? Now see the Vulture in the category known among his neighbors as "the middle class" and among politicians as "the rich". Can you understand why the Vulture might be just a tad ill disposed toward that disparity?

But Vulture! You can afford it, Mr. Big Bucks. Like hell! I support a wife and two kids, both of whom are in college! Besides, there are only two reasons for high taxes, and neither of them have anything to do with financing the activities of the government.

1. To keep graspers in the middle class from achieving wealth and becoming peers of the elite


2. To redistribute income

That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.

We, the middle class, have become the mules that pull society along. But as you can see from the chart, there are as many people on the wagon as there are mules pulling. At what point do the mules rebel, and cause society to implode? Don't hold your breath.

The problem with mules is that they're trained from the time they're young to work, and work hard. It's innate. It's as much a part of them as their very DNA. Too many of the mules buy into the notion that they live in a free and just society, and so they cheerfully go about their labors, unaware of how they're being used by the elite.

So onward we toil, until the People's World Socialist Utopia has been fulfilled. Das vedanyeh, tovarische!