Jack Bauer Interrogates Santa December 22, 2009
Posted by Michael in Crime, Terrorist Hemorrhoids.1 comment so far
Santa has some splainin’ to do.
Bonus video below the break for Enas, Lipstick, and all our friends in Vegas. Let’s dance!
What is Obamacare Really Going to Do For Us? December 22, 2009
Posted by geoff in News.2 comments
A lot of conservatives’ suspicions regarding Obamacare are founded in our experiences with past government programs, which invariably grew far beyond their original design and cost. The Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and even the Iraq war are all examples where the government drastically underestimated the costs and overestimated cost-cutting and revenue-generating measures.
When cost-cutting and revenue-generation approaches fail, the government has two choices:
- scale back the program or
- generate more revenue via taxes.
But once an entitlement constituency is created, there’s really only one choice: tax, tax, tax.
The Death of the Cadillac Health Care Plan December 22, 2009
Posted by geoff in News.13 comments
The Senate’s version of the health care bill has several cost-offsetting measures, including (all cost savings are for 2010 – 2019):
- Penalty Payments by Uninsured Individuals ($15 billion);
- Penalty Payments by Employers ($28 billion);
- “Other Budgetary Effects” ($65 billion); and
- Taxes on ‘Cadillac’ Health Care Plans ($149 billion).
The Cadillac insurance plan tax is the largest source of revenue, and is even larger than the CBO’s projected $132 billion deficit reduction from 2010-2019. But the CBO, though reputedly non-partisan, is not particularly reliable. Their near-term projections are often off by a factor of 2, and their long-term projections are meaningless.
One of the biggest faults is that they’re terrible at predicting market and legislative responses to policies, when they even bother to try. In the case of Cadillac insurance plans, it’s pretty clear that they didn’t try at all.
The Cadillac insurance plan tax levies a 40% tax on the amount of a premium over a threshold: for individual plans that threshold is $8500 and for family plans it’s $23,000. I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out that within a couple of years, compensation packages will adjust so that nobody is paying that tax. No more Cadillac insurance plans.
So here’s my comparison of what the CBO projected, and what I think will really happen:
The CBO projects $149 billion in revenues; I project $19 billion. And I think I’m being generous. That $130 billion difference wipes out the supposed deficit reduction all by itself.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, of course. This legislation is going to cost us more than we can imagine.
News From the Financial Sector — You’re Screwed December 21, 2009
Posted by Michael in Crime, Politics.35 comments
I just don’t have the energy to say much about this. It is depressing. We are supposed to be America, the nation that does it right compared to all those tinpot third world dictatorships.
Sheesh. The crap is flowing knee-deep these days.
Adam Smith, Charles Darwin and George Washington are not only rolling in their graves, they are dancing the macarena. A new study by the UMich School of Business has found what everyone has known since the crisis began, if not centuries prior: that the biggest, crappiest banks were guaranteed to get more bailout funding the more political ties they had (and more kickbacks they had offered).
Is this sufficient to claim that capitalism in its purest sense has been corrupted beyond repair, courtesy of political intervention and constant pandering? Probably not, but it sure makes a damn good argument. In any case, the data is sufficient for all bears to start keeping a track of which banks are increasing their lobbying efforts and funding: those are the ones where the greatest weakness is likely still to be uncovered (if it hasn’t already).
via zero hedge | on a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Looking on the bright side, Cathy showed up today to demonstrate outside the local office of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, trying to get her to vote against cloture on Obamacare. She looked good, and she was there with a hand-lettered sign saying that our government is too big.
Obamacare is not a personal problem for her. Cathy can get all the health care she wants.
She went there because she cares about our kids, who are too stupid to realize the inter-generational theft that is happening.
The local media was there, including TV cams from the Dallas stations.
I gotta believe that people like Cathy make a difference.
General Question December 20, 2009
Posted by kevlarchick in Women Ranting.57 comments
Hey there big fella.
So, when you get up in the morning and use the big-boy potty, and you are stretching your massive shoulders and flexing your mighty guns in preparation for a day of battle, do you even OPEN YOUR EYES? Do you LOOK DOWN? Can you see the TARGET? It’s pretty CLOSE and fairly EASY TO HIT.
So why then, do you MISS IT? Dude, the lid is even up to make it easier. And don’t even start with the “well, he’s (or whatever you’ve named it) got a mind of his own…”
Just stop it. Hit the damn target and get on with your day. Don’t be disgusting.
The New Misery Index December 19, 2009
Posted by Michael in Economics.8 comments
Just invented at Moody’s by an analyst who tracks sovereign risk.
The index adds together a country’s budget deficit, as a percentage of gross domestic product, and its unemployment rate. It captures the current conundrum for many countries: their economies need stimulus, but their budgets may not be able to afford it.
via Off the Charts – These Days, Countries in Misery Have Lots of Company
Not afford?
Not afford ?!?
That’s a concept our current government just doesn’t comprehend.
Click to enlarge.
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We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Books December 17, 2009
Posted by Michael in News.62 comments
Uh oh. This could jeopardize Laredo’s vaunted reputation as the cultural capital of The Valley.
The final chapter has been written for the lone bookstore on the streets of Laredo.
With a population of nearly a quarter-million people, this city could soon be the largest in the nation without a single bookseller.
The B. Dalton Book Store at Mall del Norte in Laredo, Texas. (AP Photo/Ricardo Santos)
The situation is so grim that schoolchildren have pleaded for a reprieve from next month’s planned shutdown of the B. Dalton bookstore. After that, the nearest store will be 150 miles away in San Antonio.
Relax, you little whiners. Get a netbook, fer cryin’ out loud.
The B. Dalton store was never a community destination with comfy couches and an espresso bar, but its closing will create a literary void in a city with a high illiteracy rate. Industry analysts and book associations could not name a larger American city without a single bookseller.
Frankly, I’m a little surprised that Laredo had a B. Dalton bookstore in the first place. In Laredo, English is the second language, and it is not spoken at all by many. The poverty is staggering. It’s pretty much a third world city.
Look, let’s face it, the only reason Laredo exists is to serve as a place to park while you walk across the bridge over the Rio Grande into Nuevo Laredo in order to score some good deals on tequila, vanilla extract, Mexican crafts, and Cuban cigars. Also, there is a at least one nice restaurant in Nuevo Laredo where Cathy and I had an excellent lunch.
Of course, you only undertake a visit like this during periods when the drug gangs are not actively shooting up the place.
Also, some guy told me that there are a bunch of hookers around there somewhere, but, you know, that’s just what I heard. It could be he was making stuff up. I really wouldn’t know anything about that.
via Laredo Could Be Largest US City Without Bookstore – ABC News.
And Now For Your Viewing Pleasure, I Present Drunk Elephants December 16, 2009
Posted by Edward von Bear in Art, Crime, Ducks, Economics, Entertainment, Family, Food, Man Laws, Movies, Music, Nature Shit.Tags: elephants
2 comments
NYC Health Anti-Soda Ad December 15, 2009
Posted by Michael in Politics, Pop Culture.40 comments
In the middle of a recession, New York City paid people to produce some nanny-state idiocy about how drinking sodas can make you fatter.
Yeah, so what.
Living in New York City can make you a homosexual. It’s a known fact that population density correlates with observed homosexual behaviors by lab rats. Same thing for homicidal (actually, ratricidal) behavior. NYC can make you a murderous poofter!!!
It’s the Obama mentality. They just can’t stand the idea that people can make their own choices.
Meanwhile, New York City is bleeding jobs, and it’s tax base of earners is fleeing if they can. The financial capital of the planet is bent on self-destruction. Their investment bankers, lawyers, and consultants just aren’t worth the money any more, largely due to the tax burden imposed by state and city government in order to pay useless bureaucrats to commission ads like this.
Hey, New York City elites, guess what? It’s not that hard to find somebody in Vancouver who is smarter and cheaper than you.
That is the great thing about the internet. The connectivity and the search engines have the power to level the playing field on a global basis.
The internet is destroying the competitive advantage of New York City. Meanwhile, New York City is campaigning against sodas, and doing nothing about its structural cost disadvantage.
Does that make sense?
In just the last year, I have seen the internet wipe out the middlemen between me and Marie Sharp’s Belizean Hot Sauce (which I love, having been exposed to it in Belize). In Belize, Marie Sharp’s Hot Sauce is kind of a national institution. It’s available at every table.
I am no longer ordering Marie Sharp’s Belizean Hot Sauce from an American distributor. I buy direct from Marie in Belize. She finally put up her own website, and cut the distributor out of her profit margin. If you want the best, freshest, most natural and tastiest hot sauce on earth, you can go right now to my blogroll and click to place an order in Belize. I can vouch for Marie’s website, having used it myself. Your chosen hot sauce, with the capsaicin level you selected, will arrive within a week.
This is a free endorsement. I won’t get a dime. I am just trying to do a favor to you and Marie.
The internet is truly a marvel.
