Jul
25
2012

URLs du Jour

2012-07-25

  • The First Amendment At Cato, Ilya Shapiro makes a good point:

    Perhaps the first thing you should know about campaign finance “reform” proposals — at least those coming from the left — is that their ultimate goal is to deter speech about political issues. Whether it’s limiting campaign donations or spending, restricting the ability of corporations or other groups to publicize their views, or imposing disclosure rules, the goal isn’t to have better-informed voters or a more dynamic political system, but to have less speech. Those who advocate these things want the government to have the power to control who speaks and how much.

    Ilya goes on to recount his recent appearance before a Senate hearing on the issue. The usual depressing news: senators who don't really get that whole First Amendment thing, despite the fact that it's part of the Constitution they've sworn to defend.

  • Jennifer Rubin snipped the following out of a recent speech by President Obama:

    I’m also going to ask anybody making over $250,000 a year to go back to the tax rates they were paying under Bill Clinton.

    Longtime readers will recognize the word "ask" as a Pun Salad Red Flag: it is not only untrue, but an insult to the intelligence of his listeners. If Obama gets his way, nobody will be "asked" to pay higher taxes. They will be commanded to do so. As always, the relevant Amazon link is to: They Think You're Stupid.

    But, as Jennifer notes, the other bit of Obama's sentence is reality-challenged as well:

    He either doesn’t know what he’s proposed or he is lying. The top marginal rate is now 35 percent. Obama wants it to go back to 39.6 percent plus the 3.8 percent Medicare Insurance tax that is part and parcel of Obamacare. That is a marginal rate of 43.4 percent for ordinary income. Under the Bush tax cuts, dividends were taxed at 15 percent. Under Obama such income would also go up to the 43.4 percent tax rate.

    … which deserves a second Amazon link, this time to Never Enough.

  • A. Barton Hinkle offers to help President Obama out with his failure to tell a story to the American people. For example, the Ant and the Grasshopper:

    Now there are those who say – and my opponent is one of them – there are those who say this story shows the need to be fiscally conservative. And you can believe that if you want to. But I’m always struck by those insects who think they are so smart, who think they work harder than everybody else. Well, let me tell you something: There are a whole lot of hardworking bugs out there.

  • Dave Barry is in London for the Olympics, and promises to make sense out of that strange land with its odd customs and language.

    Be advised that “Bobby” is only one example of the many words or phrases that the British because of centuries of heavy drinking, use incorrectly. Here are some others, with the American, or correct, version on the left, and the British version on the right:

    Flashlight = Torch

    Elevator = Prawn

    Hello = Blimey

    Good (or bad) = Aunt Betty’s celery trampoline

    Torch = Flashlight

    Eat = Spang the wollynacker

    Does it ever stop raining here? = Cor blimey?

    Paul = Ringo

    Take the subway = Neuter the hedgehog

    Go to the bathroom = Make a blimey

  • Attention chemistry fans: xkcd discourses on a mole of moles. That's a lotta moles.


Last Modified 2022-10-05 8:30 AM EDT