Obama Inaction Deserves Tentative Cheer

No vital interest of the U.S. is at stake in Syria's barbaric and bloody civil war. Neither our government nor any American citizen should give a fig for either side in the conflict to prevail.

Nor is there any reason to care about how many or how any of those engaged in or caught up in the conflict are killed . . . except, perhaps, to ponder whether the ideal or best result might not be for them to annihilate one another.

We should butt out of the whole thing.  Just mind our own business.  Leave other countries and their peoples to their own devices.  Let them make and hopefully correct their own mistakes.

We have provided financial and material support to those seeking to topple Syria's ruling regime.  That has been a mistake. It would have been and is a continuing mistake even if we had any reason to believe that those we have been supporting would be any better than the ruling despot they are seeking to replace.  Stupidity and the reckless squandering of taxpayer dollars characterizes America's government these days.

It also was a mistake for President Obama to proclaim that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime against its own people would constitute "a red line" that we would not tolerate being crossed.  What the hell business is it of ours?

But give this to President Obama now that the purported red line has been crossed. No one knows or can know what the future will bring. But at least at this point he is practicing restraint and not getting the U.S. involved in something in which it has not the slightest legitimate interest.

Hooray for once . . . so far.

Government Dumber and Less Responsible Than Drunken Sailors

Authoritarianism in America

To see what martial law is coming to look and be like in the land of the servile and the home of the greedy grasping freeloaders, take a look here.

Our Lamestream

Unprincipled Taxation

Efforts again are in progress to impose an internet sales tax and at some point such efforts probably will be successful because of the political strength of the revenue grab's proponents.

However, such taxation will transgress on two principles to which this country used to adhere:

First, the tax revenues will flow to the governments in states in which the out-of-state sellers have no presence and therefore such sellers will be paying for governmental expenditures from which they derive no benefits.

Second, because they are not present in the states to which they will be paying taxes, the tax paying entity will have no representation and therefore no political voice in the states to which their tax payments will be going.

In the days before the U.S. became the land of the servile and the home of the grasping and greedy freeloader, Americans believed taxation without representation to be tyranny.  But that was before politicians fell in love with hotel, airport, car rental and other taxes that hit travelers -- people residing elsewhere who therefore could not vote against those imposing and constantly increasing such taxes.

For a detailed look at the current sneaky effort to rush the internet tax into law, see this report.

Pertinent Question

When an armed terrorist bomber is running loose in YOUR neighborhood, how many bullets will you want to have in YOUR magazine?

(Senator Dianne Feinstein insists on limiting your choice.  Because she is protected by a phalanx of assault-weapon-carrying security guards she no longer needs to carry a firearm as she used to do.) 

Government Carnage More Deadly Than Boston Bombs

Thoughts to Ponder

According to the liberal/progressives we have in politics; we're not supposed to judge all Muslims by the acts of a few "crazies".

But the acts of a few American “crazies” are an appropriate basis for judging all Americans who own guns.

Photos Taken at a City Dump

Where the Hell is the remote?

Citizens Railing Against Pressure Cookers (CRAP)

We need legislation NOW to prevent further needless violence against our citizens. The two pressure cookers used in the Boston bombing resulted in three deaths and more than 170 injured. Why don't we have common sense laws requiring background checks prior to their purchase or transfer. We should ban all pressure cookers with removable lids and require immediate registration of any all pressure cookers in private hands.

We expect major opposition to this new legislation from the powerful lying Cookware Manufactures Association lobby funded by All-Clad, Caliphan, Farberware, Revere ware, et al.

We merely have to substitute "pressure cooker" for "gun" in New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's description of New York’s latest SAFE Act gun control law to see how simple a task this is:

"The CRAP Act stops criminals, and the dangerously mentally ill from buying a pressure cooker by requiring universal background checks on pressure cooker purchases, increasing penalties for people who use possess unregistered pressure, mandating life in prison without parole for anyone who murders a first responder, and imposing the toughest assault pressure cooker ban in the country. For cooks, chefs, and law abiding pressure cooker owners, this new law preserves, and protects your right to buy, sell, keep, or use your pressure cookers."

Our Whopper King

A "Fair Share" and More: - a Recipe for Instability

With the income tax filing deadline rolling by in mid-April, the Tax Foundation’s website offered a report refuting allegations from the left that wealthy Americans need to pay more of a “fair share” of taxes.

“Support is growing in Washington and among the public to raise tax rates on the ‘rich’ to reduce inequality in America,” the Tax Foundation stated.

“But much of the perceived rise in inequality is really the natural result of the business cycle as well as social and demographic forces far beyond the role of tax policy.”

Income tax returns showing an adjusted gross income of $250,000 or more account for only about 2 percent of all returns, according to the report, which was published last year and is largely based on figures from 2010.

These filers’ share of all income is 23 percent, but they account for 53 percent of all income taxes paid. Those earning less than $30,000 account for 23 percent of all income, but as a group they receive more back from the IRS than they pay in income taxes.

The top-earning 10 percent of taxpayers pay 70 percent of all income taxes, up from 55 percent in 1985, while the bottom 90 percent pay 29 percent, down from 45 percent in 1985. In fact, the top 1 percent pay more, 37 percent, than the bottom 90 percent.

The percentage of filers who pay no income taxes has soared from 16 percent in 1969 to 41 percent — 58 million filers in 2010.

The Tax Foundation report shows how a family of four earning as much as $45,000 could pay no income taxes. After taking into consideration the standard deduction, four personal exemptions, child credits, and the earned income tax credit, the family would not only escape paying income taxes, but they would receive a refundable credit of $637.

As for assertions that those not paying income taxes do at least pay Social Security payroll taxes (FICA), 23 percent of non-payers actually receive more in refundable credits than they pay in FICA.

The Tax Foundation concludes: “Thanks to misdirected tax policy, America is becoming divided between a shrinking group of taxpayers who are bearing the lion’s share of the cost of government today, and a growing group of taxpayers who are disconnected from the basic cost of government.

“This is a recipe for both fiscal and social instability.”

50 Million Dead Babies: Legal Yes, but Horrifically Unsafe and Commonplace Instead of Rare

Because every individual case is different, it is difficult to formulate a hard-and-fast optimum and universally applicable way to resolve the abortion issue as the U.S. Supreme Court has sought to do.

The best thing that can be said about the Court's venture into deciding a moral and political question as a legal one is that the consequences of its efforts are arguably no worse than were produced by its Dred Scott ruling in 1857-- though, it bears noting that Roe vs. Wade already has resulted in far more corpses than did the Civil War . . . and the Roe decision's death toll is continuing to climb. 

The difficulty in reconciling the starkly opposing views on the issue is compounded by the fact that extremists on both sides dominate the debate.  They and media reports on the subject use euphemistic terms to obstruct a clear understanding of the issue rather than clear, simple, and accurately descriptive language about it.

For whatever it is worth, a recent essay has made an admirable effort -- without coming to a conclusion on the issue itself -- at cutting through the commonly used miasmatic verbiage to clarify the issue and the actual positions of the contending adversaries on it. The essay is the best thing that your torn blogger has found on the subject to date.  It can be accessed by clicking here.

Going Out Onto a Risky Limb

Although there is no way at this point of knowing who was responsible for the horrendous Boston bombing, your not-the-least-bit humble blogger will venture to speculate that the responsible party or parties:

1.  Was/were neither (a) Scandinavian of the Lutheran persuasion, or (b) Latin of the Roman Catholic faith; and

2. In all likelihood adhered to a moral philosophy akin to that of Obama's bomber buddy Bill Ayers, who America's  community-organizer-in chief has described as just a guy in the neighborhood. 

Chuckles for Today

ADULT: 

A person who has stopped growing at both ends and is now growing in the middle. 

BEAUTY PARLOR: 

A place where women curl up and dye. 

CHICKENS: 

The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead. 

COMMITTEE: 

A body that keeps minutes and wastes hours. 

DUST: 

Mud with the juice squeezed out. 

EGOTIST: 

Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation. 

HANDKERCHIEF: 

Cold Storage. 

                                

MOSQUITO: 

An insect that makes you like flies better. 

RAISIN: 

A grape with a bad sunburn.

SECRET: 

Something you tell to one person at a time. 

SKELETON: 

A bunch of bones with the person scraped off. 

TOOTHACHE: 

The pain that drives you to extraction. 

TOMORROW: 

One of today's greatest labor saving devices. 

YAWN: 

An honest opinion openly expressed.

. . . and MY Personal Favorite!! 

WRINKLES: 

Something other people have, 

similar to my character lines.