"I am on trial, but on trial with me is the freedom of expression of many Dutch citizens. ... "I can assure you, I will continue proclaiming it" Geert Wilders
" ...So I don't—I, I—I'm worried about this, it's why I have fantasized—don't get me wrong—but that what if we could just be China for a day? I mean, just, just, just one day. ..." Thomas Friedman
''It's not convenient to accept an interview now, there are lots of police at my home.'' Liu Xia
"This prize belongs to everyone, everyone who is Chinese and has been fearless in defending their dignity." -- Liu Xia
"Anyone who didn't see this guy coming wanted to be rolled." M.Simon Rockford
“There’s no such thing as shovel-ready projects” Barack Obama
"This may be the only shovel-ready project in America." Dick Cheney
"You send another goon to my house and I'll take you out." Carl Paladino
"It means all the world to us to know that there are prayer circles out there and people who are keeping the spirits clean around us." Michelle Obama
“When you’re out of work and you can’t buy a home or you lost your home and you can’t pay your bills… sometimes that organizes [people] around kind of a tribal attitude and issues of race become more prominent.” You know who Yeah. Who among us hasn't thought during this recession "if it weren't for those people of that other race, I could afford a house"? I am really getting weary of this guy.
“What [Republicans] do is find candidates, usually stealth candidates, that haven’t been in office, haven’t served or performed in any kind of public service. My opponent [Murray] is typical, frankly.” The despicable Jim Moran, Democrat Congressman from Virginia, about his opponent, 24-year Army Veteran Patrick Murray
I think this is a big difference between liberals and conservatives. You know, I don't think conservatives are bad people. I think they have a hard time being empathetic to people who are not like them at all. Bill Maher
“Look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.” Juan Williams
"I can tell you this: For the first time in my life, I am absolutely thinking about it." Donald Trump The first time, huh?
"This is not an election on November 2. This is a restraining order." P.J. O'Rourke
"Muslims killed us on 9/11." Bill O'Reilly
"I'm too busy ending two wars." Julian Assange
"I could smell weed in the outfield. It was crazy. I was looking at the cops a couple of times during the game." Josh Hamilton
"I suppose it is possible to go around believing this." Christopher Hitchens
"This wet blanket, this occupier of the least interesting corner of the faculty lounge, this joy-free zone, this inert gas." Peggy Noonan
"Today China has not only a more vigorous economy, but actually a better functioning government than the United States." George Soros
“If you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested.” John Tyner
“We have to start coming to the realization that Bristol Palin is invincible. She can’t be destroyed. She’s like a no fun version of Charlie Sheen.” Jimmy Kimmel
“This is an outrage. They had ample time to do it.It is incredible to me that the so-called reformers and sheriffs of Wall Street went with same old, same old.” Jim Cramer
"It's hard once such a program is put in place to deal with the lobbies that keep it going." Al Gore, after finally getting a clue.
"One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president." Al Gore, who's evidently begun to attend Politicians Anonymous meetings.
"Most Americans, they’re just trying to figure out how to go about their lives and how can we make sure that our elected officials are looking out for us. And that means because it’s a big, diverse country and people have a lot of complicated positions, it means that in order to get stuff done, we’re going to compromise. This is why FDR, when he started Social Security, it only affected widows and orphans. You did not qualify." Barack Obama I didn't know that. Did you?
"We're asking Hispanic and African-American drivers to racially profile their . . . Hispanic and African-American passengers - those that they feel, or they believe, could put their lives in danger." Fernando Mateo
“I’m not a lesbian. I’m not even kind of a lesbian.” Oprah Winfrey Well, she and I have something in common. But what's so bad about being a lesbian, Oprah?
“He was not born here. That’s my belief. I was born here. If someone accuses me of not being born here, I can go — within 10 minutes — to my filing cabinet and I can pick up my real birth certificate and I can go, ‘See? Look! Here it is. Here it is.’ The man has dodged everything. He dodges questions, he doesn’t answer anything. And why? Because he’s hiding something.” Luke Scott Well, Luke, I'll meet you half way. When people act like they have something to hide, they almost invariably have something to hide. But that doesn't mean that what they have to hide is what you assume they have to hide. Google [Saddam Hussein WMD].
"Anybody that has ever invaded Afghanistan has come out the loser. And I have serious doubts that we will prevail in Afghanistan, that is, to meet the present goals that we have set for ourselves.My belief is that we will constantly reduce our expectations or our goals lower and lower and lower, until we can finally get out without serious embarrassment. But I don't think we have the capability or the will to actually prevail militarily over the Taliban. That seems to me to be an almost hopeless case." Jimmy Carter, who knows a thing or two about losers.
“What I say to the American people is that… thousands of people are working 24/7, 364 days a year to keep the American people safe.” Janet Napolitano What about leap years?
"The Gitmo detainees already go out of their minds when addressed directly by a female with her whole face showing. Just think how these 12th-Century dip$#!+s will react when they get their butts kicked by some gay dudes. It’ll just add to the humiliation." Jim Treacher, looking on the bright side
When everything is evidence of the thing you want to believe, it might be time to stop pretending you're all about science. Ann Althouse
20101208
While I come down on the conservative side of most issues, I deviate - somewhat - on the permanent abolition of the estate tax, known by its detractors as the "death tax."
Mainstream conservative thought (assuming "mainstream conservative" is not a self-contradicting term) posits that, since the dead person's money was already taxed as it was earned, it shouldn't be taxed again upon death.
To that I say - why not? If it is not taxed again, it will go - untaxed - to persons who did no more to earn it than did the average American taxpayer. It seems to me a rather painless way to pay down the deficit that is owed by all of those taxpayers. We've got to the the money from somewhere. Why not from people who would never get to spend what they earned anyway?
But, opponents say, it would only be a drop in the bucket if we confiscated a big percentage of the estates of the super-rich. Well, one drop is better than no drops. And I think society has a valid interest in preventing the creation of a super-elite class based solely on the inheritance of fabulous wealth. Elimination of the estate tax for the ultra-wealthy is counter to the American ethos of self-reliance, and it threatens to aggregate too much power in the hands of too few. Do we really want the heirs of George Soros or Bill Gates to wield that much economic power over the rest of us?
But, opponents say, it destroys small businesses by forcing the kids who worked with their parents to build a business to sell it just to pay the tax. You know, like family farms and so forth. True. So, set the exemption high enough that small businesses would be immune: five million, ten million, whatever. If RFK Junior or Jay Rockefeller had not been forced to wait until the tax man was paid before they got their mega-millions, no small businesses would have been saved.
Driving home from work this evening, I heard a nationally-syndicated conservative radio talk show host say that if the majority owner of the New York Yankees hadn't died this year, while there is no estate tax, the Steinbrenner family might have been forced to sell the team. And he said it as if that were a bad thing! I couldn't care less.
Mainstream conservative thought (assuming "mainstream conservative" is not a self-contradicting term) posits that, since the dead person's money was already taxed as it was earned, it shouldn't be taxed again upon death.
To that I say - why not? If it is not taxed again, it will go - untaxed - to persons who did no more to earn it than did the average American taxpayer. It seems to me a rather painless way to pay down the deficit that is owed by all of those taxpayers. We've got to the the money from somewhere. Why not from people who would never get to spend what they earned anyway?
But, opponents say, it would only be a drop in the bucket if we confiscated a big percentage of the estates of the super-rich. Well, one drop is better than no drops. And I think society has a valid interest in preventing the creation of a super-elite class based solely on the inheritance of fabulous wealth. Elimination of the estate tax for the ultra-wealthy is counter to the American ethos of self-reliance, and it threatens to aggregate too much power in the hands of too few. Do we really want the heirs of George Soros or Bill Gates to wield that much economic power over the rest of us?
But, opponents say, it destroys small businesses by forcing the kids who worked with their parents to build a business to sell it just to pay the tax. You know, like family farms and so forth. True. So, set the exemption high enough that small businesses would be immune: five million, ten million, whatever. If RFK Junior or Jay Rockefeller had not been forced to wait until the tax man was paid before they got their mega-millions, no small businesses would have been saved.
Driving home from work this evening, I heard a nationally-syndicated conservative radio talk show host say that if the majority owner of the New York Yankees hadn't died this year, while there is no estate tax, the Steinbrenner family might have been forced to sell the team. And he said it as if that were a bad thing! I couldn't care less.
20101207
Here is how 42 U.S.C. 1395y(b)(7)(A)describes the beginning date for a certain requirement of the Medicare Law:
On and after the first day of the first calendar quarter beginning after the date that is 1 year after December 29, 2007,...
Did anyone on Capitol Hill except for the congressional aide (or lobbyist) who wrote that nonsense read it before it was enacted?
On and after the first day of the first calendar quarter beginning after the date that is 1 year after December 29, 2007,...
Did anyone on Capitol Hill except for the congressional aide (or lobbyist) who wrote that nonsense read it before it was enacted?
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