Pogo said it, but Jon Keller gives us an example of that very phrase: pick up with momentum of dissatisfaction with the other side of the aisle, and then bring that momentum to a screeching halt with a war surtax.
I don't think it will happen, because it will bear even more people already displeased their income taxes are going to the government for reasons they don't agree with. But if it does go through, the sacrifice should go both ways. If taxpayers are shelling out an extra 2-15% in surtax to fund the war, the senators and representatives are required to surrender 70% of their paychecks into a tax-free fund that will directly assist the soldiers' families.
At $150,000 per year, that's $56 million diverted to soldiers and their families - not chump change. With interest, this can grow into the billions, and give the families a much needed break when the savings and checking accounts are depleted. It will also call the bluff of those senators/representatives of who really does "support the troops" - literally putting a 70% tax where their mouth is, and taking note of who weasels out. With their salaries cut deeply, the senators/reps may then appreciate the value of wealth, and see the folly of socialism - through the iron gloves of income redistribution and punishing people for working hard and generating wealth.
To quote Jon Keller, they do it for "...[s]ymbolism. Grandstanding. Scoring what may well be a valid political point at the potential expense of gaining the political power to effect real change. In other words, doing what baby-boom era pols (of both parties) are notorious for doing, feeding their egos while progress goes hungry."
Jules Crittenden adds his 2-15 cents, with the money quote, "Conceptual flaw. Poor drafting skills, if you will. Lack of perspective. Dems understand that people hate taxes, because someone told them that once. But because they love taxes so much, they don’t get exactly how much people hate them, and therefore, how dumb this idea is. Nobody’s going to get, “Gee, this war costs a lot” off of this. They will get, “Those [jerks] want another 15 percent.”"
9/26/2007
Speaking (Real) Truth to (Corrupt) Power
Jon Keller is on a roll: he points out to the right-hand side of the aisle that Lee Bollinger's smackdown of Ahmadinejad was not only wholly appropriate, but also about time someone put the phrase "speak truth to power" into more accurate use. (Two "finger quotes" up, Jon.)
I graduated from college many moons ago, but my major was in the "hard" sciences. You could not refute, argue or dissent from anything that read "Proof," "Lemma," "Corrollary" or "Postulate." I think this is still true for the "hard" sciences today, as professors of that stripe are somewhat more apolitical than the liberal arts professors - I can't imagine a physics professor marching around campus with the sign "EMF is not the answer!" or a electrical engineering professor screaming "Stop the Illegal Occupation of the Wheatstone Bridge!"
On the other hand, I don't think my political leanings would endear the liberal arts professors of today, especially the ones who believe in the so-called dogma of "social justice." That's shorthand for "highly educated, elitist, condescending white people so guilty of their good fortunes they fake piety to make themselves feel superior." In fact, I would write in the professor's review, "Looks and acts like Marx - and I'm not talking about Chico, Harpo or Groucho."
I graduated from college many moons ago, but my major was in the "hard" sciences. You could not refute, argue or dissent from anything that read "Proof," "Lemma," "Corrollary" or "Postulate." I think this is still true for the "hard" sciences today, as professors of that stripe are somewhat more apolitical than the liberal arts professors - I can't imagine a physics professor marching around campus with the sign "EMF is not the answer!" or a electrical engineering professor screaming "Stop the Illegal Occupation of the Wheatstone Bridge!"
On the other hand, I don't think my political leanings would endear the liberal arts professors of today, especially the ones who believe in the so-called dogma of "social justice." That's shorthand for "highly educated, elitist, condescending white people so guilty of their good fortunes they fake piety to make themselves feel superior." In fact, I would write in the professor's review, "Looks and acts like Marx - and I'm not talking about Chico, Harpo or Groucho."
9/22/2007
Our new shingle...
Here's as close to a press release as I'm ever going to get...
Only in Boston, Kids! (onlyinboston2.blogspot.com) is no more. It's now Cleary Squared (clearysquared.blogspot.com.) Please change your bookmarks, links, next of kin cards, etc.
Only in Boston, Kids! (onlyinboston2.blogspot.com) is no more. It's now Cleary Squared (clearysquared.blogspot.com.) Please change your bookmarks, links, next of kin cards, etc.
9/21/2007
Making crab cakes out of cancer
All I ask is that you watch the video of Randy Pausch, a computer science professor from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and once you're done, ask yourself how a man with terminal pancreatic cancer can still have the vim and vigor of a freshly-minted assistant professor. Never mind your political bent - see if you would face the end of your life either severely depressed or looking forward to it as if it were a long-term vacation.
Courtesy of Power Line.
Courtesy of Power Line.
9/04/2007
Where has the middle class gone in Boston?
Leave it to the Globe Magazine to substitute to give its view of middle class flight. Our header is what the Globe should have put to make the article more accurate.
Boston has made a paradigm shift within the past two decades. What hasn't changed is prejudice and mistrust between the classes and races. One neighborhood fears declining property values (sketchy people, groups of kids acting up); another neighborhood fears gentrification (big luxury condos, luxury stores and restaurants) and commercialization (big box stores). In the twain are people who have lived in their neighborhoods for decades, paying higher property taxes - sometimes overriden over the 2-1/2% limit - for what is purported for education and health care, but ends up elsewhere, like the general fund or for pork projects.
The middle class in Boston is existent - but it is not as obvious as it once was. In the 1960s, Blue Hill Avenue used to be a enclave for the Boston Jewry. By 1970, it became mostly Afro-American. You have to travel to the far-flung borders of Boston to see a thriving middle class. Hyde Park, West Roxbury, Roslindale, and other parts of the city are good examples where the middle class has not been shoved out and force to flee to a better middle class climate.
What really ruins the dream of the middle class living in the Athens of America is what has oiled the cogs of Boston for centuries - corruption in politics, sky-high housing prices, elitism, a transit system that constantly begs for more money from riders and spends them on vanity projects, and a smug attitude of "we are the best," even contrary to the fact (viz. The Big Dig) . People who have never been to this city or have toured the city only see the surface of what Boston really is, and if the tourist trolley companies had an all-Boston tour, it would certainly take the Athens of America moniker and turn it into the Most Dysfunctional City of America.
The middle class notices this with a gimlet eye for BS. They are taking a look around in their areas, don't like what they see, and plan to leave the area, and quite frankly, I don't blame them.
Update: Here's a different take. There's also the attitude in the suburbs that "if we were like Boston, we'd be successful too, bringing in all that revenue and taxes so we can have better things." Building multi-million dollar condos in Newton will come after they shove a camel through the eye of a needle.
Boston has made a paradigm shift within the past two decades. What hasn't changed is prejudice and mistrust between the classes and races. One neighborhood fears declining property values (sketchy people, groups of kids acting up); another neighborhood fears gentrification (big luxury condos, luxury stores and restaurants) and commercialization (big box stores). In the twain are people who have lived in their neighborhoods for decades, paying higher property taxes - sometimes overriden over the 2-1/2% limit - for what is purported for education and health care, but ends up elsewhere, like the general fund or for pork projects.
The middle class in Boston is existent - but it is not as obvious as it once was. In the 1960s, Blue Hill Avenue used to be a enclave for the Boston Jewry. By 1970, it became mostly Afro-American. You have to travel to the far-flung borders of Boston to see a thriving middle class. Hyde Park, West Roxbury, Roslindale, and other parts of the city are good examples where the middle class has not been shoved out and force to flee to a better middle class climate.
What really ruins the dream of the middle class living in the Athens of America is what has oiled the cogs of Boston for centuries - corruption in politics, sky-high housing prices, elitism, a transit system that constantly begs for more money from riders and spends them on vanity projects, and a smug attitude of "we are the best," even contrary to the fact (viz. The Big Dig) . People who have never been to this city or have toured the city only see the surface of what Boston really is, and if the tourist trolley companies had an all-Boston tour, it would certainly take the Athens of America moniker and turn it into the Most Dysfunctional City of America.
The middle class notices this with a gimlet eye for BS. They are taking a look around in their areas, don't like what they see, and plan to leave the area, and quite frankly, I don't blame them.
Update: Here's a different take. There's also the attitude in the suburbs that "if we were like Boston, we'd be successful too, bringing in all that revenue and taxes so we can have better things." Building multi-million dollar condos in Newton will come after they shove a camel through the eye of a needle.
8/13/2007
Get your control freak hands off my "everything!"
We read this article regarding an overarching desire for change (through the good people at lucianne.com) and discovered a few things that shocked us.
1. People secretly adore criminals because they're the ultimate rebels, until said criminals turn around, point a gun at your head, demand all your money, shoot you dead, and your friends are agog at the ruthless efficiency of their criminal nature!
2. "Everything must be different!" is a battle cry for "We're so overwhelmed with guilt we can't stand it! Let our control freak flag fly, establish totalitarianism for everyone, make people exceedingly poor - except us, where we'll be off in our own island, using the same slave classes to bring us drinks and food chop-chop while we bang out press releases and enjoy the fruits of their labors!"
3. "Now normal folks are speaking out in their own media, and it just freaks out our socialist Ruling Class." That's because the socialist Ruling Class are a bunch of control addicts who deserve every bit of venom cast towards their simpering maws, including extended middle fingers, blogs that blast every single conspiracy theory to dust, and people who "just don't get" the spoiled elite and find out answers for themselves!
1. People secretly adore criminals because they're the ultimate rebels, until said criminals turn around, point a gun at your head, demand all your money, shoot you dead, and your friends are agog at the ruthless efficiency of their criminal nature!
2. "Everything must be different!" is a battle cry for "We're so overwhelmed with guilt we can't stand it! Let our control freak flag fly, establish totalitarianism for everyone, make people exceedingly poor - except us, where we'll be off in our own island, using the same slave classes to bring us drinks and food chop-chop while we bang out press releases and enjoy the fruits of their labors!"
3. "Now normal folks are speaking out in their own media, and it just freaks out our socialist Ruling Class." That's because the socialist Ruling Class are a bunch of control addicts who deserve every bit of venom cast towards their simpering maws, including extended middle fingers, blogs that blast every single conspiracy theory to dust, and people who "just don't get" the spoiled elite and find out answers for themselves!
8/12/2007
Notre T-shirt - 'Un piège de touristes… mais notre piège de touristes!' (Our T-shirt: A tourist trap - but our tourist trap!)
We went to Maine yesterday on the Downeaster and when we passed by Old Orchard Beach in the early evening, roughly 7:15pm or so, we saw crowds upon crowds of people lining the streets.
So when we took a glance at this story regarding OOB and French-Canadian invasion, we know exactly why they come down from Montreal and Quebec City.
1. The exchange rate about four years ago was 65 cents US to the Canadian dollar. Now, it's 95 cents US to the Canadian dollar. Also, the only taxes Quebeckers have to worry about is the Maine state sales tax of 5% for general sales tax and 7% for food and lodging.
2. Gasoline is cheap, cheap, cheap, even after they cross the border into Vermont. At the border, gas is about $2.88-$2.95 a gallon, or $0.76-$0.78 per liter - a full $0.25 per liter cheaper than what they sell in Canada. The further south you go, the better the prices are; in OOB, $2.79 ($0.73 per liter) is a huge bargain, compared to the $1.01 per liter ($3.81 per gallon) they pay in Canada.
3. Maine is not like the "big cities" of Boston and New York. It is truly a vacation land where a Quebecker can relax and indulge in the big waves in the sea and buy tacky souvenirs without the veneer of unsubstantiated stereotypes, like robbers and con artists lurking in every corner, and gangs of toughs intimidating poor souls and upping the murder count. Not every part of Maine is perfect and full of "Ayuh" salties; there are places where everything's not hunky-dory; the more unsavory of characters (bums, drug addicts) and the social fringe have filled the places where bustling businesses once were. More about that later.
4. Unlike other tourist spots in Canada, in which a leisurely drive from parts of Quebec may take over 10 hours, OOB and New England is easily accessible. Vermont and Quebec are an hour's drive away; OOB is 5-3/4 hours away; Boston is roughly 6-1/2 to 7 hours; New York City (via I-87) about 5-6; and Cape Cod is about 8-9 hours away.
So when we took a glance at this story regarding OOB and French-Canadian invasion, we know exactly why they come down from Montreal and Quebec City.
1. The exchange rate about four years ago was 65 cents US to the Canadian dollar. Now, it's 95 cents US to the Canadian dollar. Also, the only taxes Quebeckers have to worry about is the Maine state sales tax of 5% for general sales tax and 7% for food and lodging.
2. Gasoline is cheap, cheap, cheap, even after they cross the border into Vermont. At the border, gas is about $2.88-$2.95 a gallon, or $0.76-$0.78 per liter - a full $0.25 per liter cheaper than what they sell in Canada. The further south you go, the better the prices are; in OOB, $2.79 ($0.73 per liter) is a huge bargain, compared to the $1.01 per liter ($3.81 per gallon) they pay in Canada.
3. Maine is not like the "big cities" of Boston and New York. It is truly a vacation land where a Quebecker can relax and indulge in the big waves in the sea and buy tacky souvenirs without the veneer of unsubstantiated stereotypes, like robbers and con artists lurking in every corner, and gangs of toughs intimidating poor souls and upping the murder count. Not every part of Maine is perfect and full of "Ayuh" salties; there are places where everything's not hunky-dory; the more unsavory of characters (bums, drug addicts) and the social fringe have filled the places where bustling businesses once were. More about that later.
4. Unlike other tourist spots in Canada, in which a leisurely drive from parts of Quebec may take over 10 hours, OOB and New England is easily accessible. Vermont and Quebec are an hour's drive away; OOB is 5-3/4 hours away; Boston is roughly 6-1/2 to 7 hours; New York City (via I-87) about 5-6; and Cape Cod is about 8-9 hours away.
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