Via lrc.com comes an excellent bit of tax-day snark: “What Do We Do If the Rich Start to Leave?” Good beginning of a good question. The writer, Bill Frezza, says, “500 American citizens and green card holders in the last quarter of 2009 said goodbye to America forever. Not many, but double the number of expatriations in all of 2008. Good riddance, other millionaires will take their place.” He’s not real clear on what he means by the rich, or whether those 500 surrendered their citizenship or just slipped away, PT-fashion, to friendlier climes.* But it’s the thought that counts.…
Category: Government
Government evils — but I repeat myself
Tip o’ hat to Radley Balko, the Flex Your Rights video 10 Rules for Dealing with Police is now on YouTube in four 10-minute segments. I haven’t yet seen this and I understand it’s directed primarily at urban minorities who so often find themselves profiled and stopped on flimsy pretexts. But the earlier Flex Your Rights video, Busted: A Citizen’s Guide to Surviving Police Encounters, is excellent and we all need to know the things FYR teaches. How to: Deal with traffic stops, street stops & police at your door Know your rights & maintain your cool Avoid common police…
When I first saw this article this morning, I didn’t pay a lot of attention and didn’t read all the way to the end. Seriously now, what comes to mind when you hear that somebody sent letters to state governors telling them to resign in three days or “be removed”? Idiotic, moronic, and blindingly stupid are words that spring into the brain, yes? Along with the clever concept of “painting a target on your own back.” Ho hum. But I should have read on. It turns out that people like me — and very likely, people like you — are…
One year ago today, a man named Ian Tomlinson was attacked by police. He died minutes later. They tried to cover it up, of course. Most Americans have probably never heard of Tomlinson. Let’s just say our country has no monopoly on armed thugs roaming the street in uniform. Tip o’ the hat to Jim Bovard for this lovely interactive map that shows current rates of return for census forms. Good going, Texas! Some of your counties have rates as low as 19%. Interesting that basically the whole southern tier of states is balking at the snoopery. (To see your…
Yep. Times are a changin’. And the Times it is a changin’ — even if only slightly. Ten years ago, the New York Times published a snarky piece about that tiny group of loons and wackos who objected to census snoopery. Among other things, the author, Gail Collins, quoted my pal Jim Bovard. Here’s a portion of her snarkfest: How many of you out there have strong reservations about the United States Census? May I see a show of hands? I thought so. Everybody’s cool. Once again, the radio talk-show circuit has plunged us into a violent debate about an…
I’m thinking today about the next “big” piece I want to write (either for this blog or for the print edition of Backwoods Home). So I won’t have too much to say until my brain works that out. The piece will be based on Albert Jay Nock’s concept of freedom lovers as something like the biblical “remnant,” expounded in his essay “Isaiah’s Job.” If you follow that link, you’ll see that the copy of “Isaiah’s Job” I chose (there are copies all over the ‘Net) is on the site of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons — a damnfine…
“Tonight’s vote is not a victory for any one party [Obama said] … It’s a victory for the American people, and it’s a victory for common sense.” In a reference to his 2008 campaign slogan, Obama added, “This is what change looks like.” Scary. —– In addition: The magnificently astute Glenn Greenwald has a spot-on take on the new power of special-interest groups in the Obama establishment. Why the largest health-care labor union so desperately lobbied for the Dreaded Law. (Hint: It had nothing to do with health. Or care.) Finally, here’s the former director of the Congressional Budget Office…
Reading editorials like this one (which are coming from even some mainstream, left-leaning news sources as the health-care abortion comes closer to being performed upon the American population) inspires me to a new political slogan: Democrats: The only party that can make Republicans look good. Only problem is, which party should use it? Oh, the choices … —– While on the subject of the odious health-care bill and dirty tactics, here’s a pretty good whupping from Peggy Noonan, too. I sure do like her style.
An anonymous correspondent chides me: You’re WRONG, Claire! You shouldn’t be slyly urging readers to resist the census. Instead, we should be helping the census, just as all the ads and promos say. I live in a rural area in [state deleted] and I noticed that dedicated census workers had hung forms in big white baggies on the doorknobs of dozens of places I knew to be either abandoned or mere weekend or vacation cabins for people who live in cities. You don’t think all that effort should go to waste, do you? I sure don’t! So I helped the…
You may have been following the story about the double-dipping sheriff who showed up in class to force an apology on a professor who criticized him. Just business as usual in Govland. Ho hum. But the article linked above does contain (inadvertently) a wonderful thought: “If we try to bury every politician who made a mistake, we won’t have any left!” Ahhhhh … dontcha wish?