What is the difference between a citizen and a subject? Personally, my reflexive answer is freedom of one sort or another — the right to bear arms, the right to free speech and freedom of association, etc. The things that a citizen has and takes for granted. Sometimes, however, it is what the subject has […]
The mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, is proposing a temporary increase to the city’s property and sales taxes and a “fill-up” to the city budget. “The sales tax would rise by one percentage point to 8 percent for three years, beginning July 1, pending approval by state lawmakers. Taxes on residential and commercial real estate […]
Democrats in Congress usually have a “thing” for privacy rights. Listening in on international phone-calls were one end of the conversation is a known or suspected terrorist? That’s bad. However, not all such intrusions are equal. McCarthy-esque intrusion into the lives of folks working on Wall Street? Wielding the tax code as a weapon against […]
The “community organization” under investigation for voter registration fraud in multiple jurisdictions has now partnered up with the U.S. Census Bureau to assist in the 2010 Census. Never mind that the Census is supposed to be free of politics or the myriad allegations of fraud against the partner, they are now one of the partners […]
There is one of Aesop’s fables, entitled “The Satyr and the Peasent,” “A Man had lost his way in a wood one bitter winter’s night. As he was roaming about, a Satyr came up to him, and finding that he had lost his way, promised to give him a lodging for the night, and guide […]
Nancy Pelosi famously told us she intended to run the most ethical congress ever… Never mind William Jefferson (D-La.) and his tin-foil wrapped lucre. Forget Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) evading his taxes. Gloss over Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and the Fannie Mae failure. We can now add a new name to the Wall […]
Three words, at least two lies. From the UK Telegraph: Let us examine a single payer medical care on a pragmatic basis… say, goals v. accomplishments. “The key pledge of Labour’s NHS reform has been to reduce waiting lists and now the majority of patients are treated within the target of 18 weeks from seeing […]
Currently, we have the Democrats out and about complaining that there are those who want Barak Obama “to fail.” How soon some forget… Let us set the “Way-back Machine” for September 11, 2001, for a quick flashback: “On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just minutes before learning of the terrorist attacks on America, Democratic […]
The more I look at Dodd’s Irish cottage, what with the 12 waterfront acres and the bargain price, the less that makes sense. Having explored the price of real estate in the Emerald Isle a few years back (admittedly at the top of the market), 12 acres on the waterfront should have commanded a king’s […]
Perhaps I am showing my age… or just the spoiled fodder of a mis-spent youth, but Obama’s budget director Peter Orszag is starting to remind me of Wimpy, the hamburger-mooching ne’er-do-well out of the old Popeye cartoons, he who would “surely pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” With Orszag, the promise is “We will […]