URLs du Jour

2009-01-15

  • Treasury Secretary nominee Geithner is a target of opportunity today. I especially liked McQ's disgust at the countless commentators and politicians who label Geithner's tax evasion as an "honest mistake":

    Really? How honest of a mistake is it when you knowingly ignore something your employer went out of its way to ensure you knew?

    So he's kind of a sleaze. But there's a silver lining: the possible impetus this might give to overall tax simplification. For, as the McQ-quoted Taranto says:

    America needs a tax code simple enough for the Treasury secretary to figure out.

    Corollary, as provided by the Indispensible Garaghty:

    Now, if Geithner really is the best-qualified and "about as conservative a nominee as you could hope for," and the consensus of the U.S. Senate and the incoming administration is that the above list of violations of tax law are truly "hiccups," I will have no objection other than to say we need to make this the new rule, not a special exception. No more can tax "hiccups" be a reason to keep anyone out of any position in government. The IRS must treat every citizen with the deference and easygoing manner they treated Geithner.

    Good luck with that.

  • Arnold Kling notes a pattern. Some examples:

    ActorThe PromiseThe Reality
    Financial
    Executives
    Brilliant Risk
    Management
    Catastrophic Losses
    Fannie, FreddieStable Mortgage
    Credit
    Fed the Boom, Stuck
    Taxpayers with the Bust

    I think he's got something there. More at the link.

  • Ricardo Montalban has passed away. He was very classy, and had a long, illustrious career, but since I'm a geek, I'll simply point out that he was the best Star Trek villain ever, in the best Star Trek movie ever: The Wrath of Khan. It's easy to ham up such an inherently over-the-top role; instead, Mr. Montalban took it seriously, and (at least for me) totally sold it. Free trivia from the IMDB:

    It has been widely debated that Ricardo Montalban's chest was actually a prosthetic piece that he wore during the film. In the director's commentary in the special edition DVD, Nicholas Meyer is quoted as saying that it was, in fact, Montalban's actual chest and that he was a very muscular man who worked out. During publicity for the movie, during an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962), Montalban explained that he was able to achieve the look seen in the film by doing push-ups. "A lot of push-ups."

    See? He was the real deal. At the Corner, Mark Steyn has a good story, as Mark Steyn usually does.

  • Image manipulation fun to be had at Obamicon.ME. My effort:

    GEEK


Last Modified 2014-12-01 1:18 PM EDT