Ear today, gone tomorrow

With all that's going on in the world today:

• The Red Sox won another World Series (bad)
• The Yankees hired Joe Girardi (good)
• There's talk about tax hikes (bad)
• And tax cuts (good)
• There was a major bombing in Iraq (bad)
• The fires in California are mostly contained (very good)

This is the news item that reminded me that life is sometimes a Kurt Vonnegut novel:


Chopper pulled by ear

The New York Times Advocates a Tax Hike, but Low Taxes Work

The New York Times ran an opinion piece on taxes and national healthcare that is clearly the antidote to a healthy economy. It’s scary to think that this is the type of view that a Democratic president would champion. The Times says:

“This country’s meager tax take puts its economic prospects at risk and leaves the government ill equipped to face the challenges from globalization.

"Germans…paid more in taxes, as a share of their economies.”

But when you look at what makes an economy tick, it’s generally low taxes, limited regulation, and a fair system of justice. Major tax cuts have historically proven that individuals - champions of innovation and limitless human ingenuity - drive positive and robust growth when government is not overbearing. For example, Kennedy’s major tax overhaul, Reagan’s supply-side reform, and Bush’s 2003 program, show cutting taxes, not raising them is the handmaiden of success. Take a look at the three charts at the top, which show revenue, employment, and GDP growth since the Bush cuts were enacted. The third box also shows that the middle class is not shouldering this burden. In fact, it's just the opposite.

Think this only works in the United States? In a 2005 op-ed, Thomas Friedman extolled the virtues of lowering taxes in Ireland, a perennial bottom-feeder.

This is what he had to say:

“Ireland today is the richest country in the European Union after Luxembourg…while those following the French-German social model are suffering high unemployment and low growth…a program of fiscal austerity, slashing corporate taxes to 12.5 percent, far below the rest of Europe...And overall government tax receipts are way up.”

Growth and innovation are on the march in the land of St. Pat's. The world is certainly flat when Dell, Intel, and other corporate captains of industry call Ireland home. Among other things, they were both attracted by “low corporate taxes.”

The Times is also a proponent of a Hillary Clinton-type national healthcare:

“From universal health insurance to decent unemployment insurance, other rich nations provide their citizens benefits that the United States government simply cannot afford.

“The consequences include some 47 million Americans without health insurance and companies like General Motors being dragged to the brink by the cost of providing workers and pensioners with medical care.”

Greg Mankiw, professor of economics at Harvard University counters this perspective nicely:

"What the Times seems to be saying is that because companies like General Motors have promised levels of compensation too large to make them competitive in the international marketplace, we should shift the responsibility for some of that compensation from the companies to the taxpayer. An alternative approach is for the companies to reduce compensation to levels they can afford. One might respond that reduced compensation would be hard on workers. But so would the higher taxes needed to pay for the national health insurance the Times is lobbying for. There is no free lunch here."

As economies in the 21t century become more knowledge and information based, successful governments will allow individuals to flourish and promote a light-footprint approach. Heavy-handedness will only serve to stifle both rich and poor alike.

The Libyans!

On Tuesday, October 15th, the 192 members of the U.N. Assembly voted to make Libya a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. This January 1st, the country will begin a two-year stint joining the five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Has the world gone nuts? Aren't these the same Libyans that, in Back to the Future, killed Doc in the mall parking lot while driving around like maniacs with rocket launchers in a VW van? Yeah, I know, Doc stole their plutonium, but it was the only way to reach the 1.21 gigawatts necessary to power the flux capacitor. Take a look at the clip below and decide for yourself whether or not they deserve to be on the U.N. Security Council:

Can Nobel Prize winners in Economics explain my 96 cent phenomenon today?

The Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to three American economists today for creating and developing a sophisticated explanation of the interaction among individuals, markets and institutions.

Link here: 3 Americans Win Nobel in Economics

But they can't explain the fact that my day today was highlighted by a once in a lifetime phenomenon. I left my office in midtown New York and grabbed a soup & sandwich for lunch at the Hale & Hearty on 54th street. The total came to something and 4 cents and the woman annoyingly returned a handful of change tallying 96 cents. I lugged it around all day until on my way home I stopped in my corner store in the East Village to buy a magazine and a jar of peanut butter. The cost? $10.96!!! I threw down a ten, scooped the 96 friggin' cents from my pocket and smiled all the way home.

Joy comes in the smallest ways...

Jon Stewart is a smug weenie

I watched Jon Stewart when he hosted the very first talk show on MTV. I 'd never heard of him before, but I found him funny, irreverent, and, well, likeable. Unfortunately, the show got yanked and he ended up doing a late-night show that replaced Arsenio Hall on channel 9 in NY. It didn't last that long, but he'd made his mark and his career would soon take off big time.

His big breakthrough came when he replaced Craig Kilborn as the new host of the Daily Show on Comedy Central in 1999. Again Stewart was great and we all know what it's become (It won an Emmy in 2001). But it's been down hill ever since. I can't really watch it anymore. Jon Stewart went from funny and original to smug and predictable.

I'll admit upfront that I disagree with his politics. I'm a Republican and he's obviously a very far-left-leaning liberal. But it shouldn't matter in comedy. A good joke is a good joke, even if you don't necessarily like who's at the butt. But Stewart has become a one-note band. The definition of a joke is the delivery of something incongruous or unexpected. Yet I know what's going to come out of Stewart's mouth every time: Iraq's a bungled mess, Bush is dumb, Cheney is secretive and evil, the Republicans are hypocrites. Yeah he'll make fun of Hillary every now and then, but it's never as biting; never venomous.

I really wish the Daily Show could still keep us on our toes. Give us a little misdirection once in a while and say something awful about Barack Obama or Harry Reid. Not be so damn obvious all the time. Even its comedic offspring (Stephen Colbert) has an act of pseudo-conservatism that's predictable and tired.

The worst part for me is that Stewart used to be a great interviewer. But he's lost credibility with his softballs to Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky and his obvious disgust for anyone he disagree with. Even when Mr. Stewart is "trying" to be cordial (see below clips of guest Lynne Cheney), he comes across as a smug weenie. To me, he even came across as a jerk when he called Tucker Carlson a "dick." I wasn't even a fan of CNN's Crossfire and I essentially agree with Stewart's premise that America needs less far right/far left screaming matches, but I saw the smugness that day and it's only gotten worse since then.

Much of the bloggeratti feel like Stewart may have gone "easy" on Mrs. Cheney the other day, but I think he couldn't help but let the weenie come out just a little bit. His assertion that six years without an attack on American soil is meaningless because "they" waited "eight years between WTC attacks last time" is simply absurd. I'm not saying that things are great over in the Mid-East, but let's get real about how this war started (EVERYONE, including Bill Clinton, the U.N., the French, and the Russians thought Hussein had WMD) and let's get real about what that part of the world, in fact, what the entire world could be like should we hit the reset button and get out. I guarantee it would be a million times worse both long and short term with more American lives sacrificed home and abroad.

Anyway, Cheney is sweet as can be and Stewart is just annoying in the clips below (it gets pretty bad in pt. 2). See for yourself:

"It's real fast and then you stop."

I thought I'd try to tie this video into American politics, but I just came up with a few bad Larry Craig jokes. Hey, name another Republican that would laugh at this video. Well, enjoy courtesy of The Whitest Kids You Know:

Soiled Pinstripes

I'm sitting on my couch, watching the Yankees/Indians game (down 2 games to 1 and 9 outs away from the Torre era coming to an end) and feeling sick to my stomach. My buddy J sent me a photo message showing his new baby girl in a cute Yankees uniform. It may have been his way of saying that if you're wearing a Yankees uniform, you've probably got poop in your pants.

Here's the office version of this Yankees meltdown from The Whitest Kids You Know:

9/10 Is Over

Much of the media, led by The New York Times, continues to accuse the Republican candidates, particularly Rudy Giuliani, of running on the back of September 11th. A couple of recent examples:

"Giuliani...cannot simply keep muttering “9/11 ... 9/11 ... 9/11” until February."

And here in Thomas Friedman's September 30th column.

Friedman’s conclusion is that “9/11 has made us stupid…We need a president for 9/12.” His premises are below:

• Our government is exporting fear; Guantanamo = lower tourism

• Bad infrastructure: The Minnesota bridge and bad cellular service vs. European cell service

I’m perplexed at the connections Friedman makes to arrive at his “9/11 made us stupid” conclusion. Is weak tourism really something that should be playing a role in our foreign policy decisions? In my mind, being at war with an enemy depends on the exportation of fear. This isn’t a friendly soccer match; we’re up against perhaps the biggest threat in the history of our nation. We want the bad guys to be scared. By the way, check out this article from Slate, which sites an average 13 lb. weight gain and a fondness for bagels (how ironic) by the prisoners. Poor them.

And someone needs to help me understand how our “9/11 stupidity” has anything to do with local infrastructure issues. Is George Bush responsible for the inefficiency of state government? It seems that Friedman infers that living in "9/12" means doing things the European way. The idea that the federal government should be held accountable for EVERYTHING is ludicrous. We live in a federalist society in which there is a relationship between city, state, and federal authority, and we need to stop blaming the Iraq War for hurricanes, tsunamis, and dropped phone calls.

Friedman and many of those who share his voice are actually stuck in the world of 9/10. This is naive and irresponsible. It shows a lack of understanding for the world that tore into us on 9/11. Pretending we’re not up against an existential threat isn’t going to make people like us more, hold up our bridges better, or make our cars more environmentally friendly. Let’s let the government focus on keeping us safe and let the free markets determine whether or not we want better cell service.

Burn the American Flag Pin

Barack Obama might as well have played a round of golf with Hugo Chavez. Smoked a stogie with Fidel. The New York Times is reporting that he has removed the American Flag pin from his lapel!

In this campaign making story, Obama states, "My attitude is that I'm less concerned about what you're wearing on your lapel than what's in your heart."

Yeah, well my sources are telling me that the real reason is that he's sick and tired of stabbing himself trying to get it on every morning. Perhaps he feels his heart is bleeding enough on its own.

I may be a Republican, but I hope Obama's bold move sets an example for the rest of our elected officials. If any of you are reading this, please, take off the pin. It doesn't make you more American. It makes you more dorky. They're made in China anyway.

Samberg Hearts Mahmoud

Maybe a little Astroglide will help ease international tensions...