Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
In November, and again in December, I made reference to my “You Go First” policy. It applies to activists, which, strictly speaking, are people who like to tell other people how to live.
Activism, by nature, exists to tell everybody how an elite class of people has decided they all should live, and if they don’t want to live that way, well that’s just tough. It is coercion. Activism is the antithesis of democracy. It is a policy of “You Do This.” We could call my policy the “You Go First” policy.
Gun-grabbing activists get to live in a place where burglars burgle wherever they want, because they know nobody has a gun. Anti-death-penalty activists get to live in a place where murderers walk the streets, secure in the knowledge they’ll never be executed. Anti-capitalists get to live in a place where money is nonexistent, and anyplace you can get a bite to eat, looks like your elementary school cafeteria where you wait in line endlessly to get a big scoop of colorless glop.
James Taranto has furnished another anecdote relevant to my “You Go First” policy. In today’s Best of the Web column, he writes…
When billionaires back the death tax, keep in mind that they have no intention of actually paying it. They are being “generous” with other people’s money. This is the way in which the superrich wage class warfare against the merely affluent.
He makes an interesting case. The event that has inspired his snarky encapsulation, is the bequeathment of billions of dollars of Berkshire-Hathaway stock owned by pro-death-tax activist Warren Buffet, to the billionaire pro-death-tax activists who run the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. With strings attached, of course: The foundation “must continue to satisfy legal requirements qualifying my gifts as charitable and not subject to gift or other taxes.” Do what you have to do: Mr. Buffet does not want to pay the same taxes he wants other people to pay.
A week ago I had observed that some elitist scum writing for The Economist, were lamenting the statistic that 70% of Americans wanted to end the death tax, but only 1% of households actually pay it. Good. When you defend people from unjust treatment that, no matter what happens, is unlikely to fall on your own head personally, that’s called being “principled.” Things like that make me feel good about being an American. Frankly, I’d like to know what the other 30% are doing here.
Of course any among those 30% who have last names like “Gates” or “Buffet,” it’s a pretty easy call to figure out where they’re coming from.
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