NADA - New American Dark Ages

“Taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes

Of course, society isn’t very civilized anymore.

Op-Ed Columnist – The Angry Rich and Taxes – NYTimes.com

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: September 19, 2010

[A]mong the undeniably rich, a belligerent sense of entitlement has taken hold: it’s their money, and they have the right to keep it. “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes — but that was a long time ago.

The spectacle of high-income Americans, the world’s luckiest people, wallowing in self-pity and self-righteousness would be funny, except for one thing: they may well get their way. Never mind the $700 billion price tag for extending the high-end tax breaks: virtually all Republicans and some Democrats are rushing to the aid of the oppressed affluent.

You see, the rich are different from you and me: they have more influence. …

And when the tax fight is over, one way or another, you can be sure that the people currently defending the incomes of the elite will go back to demanding cuts in Social Security and aid to the unemployed. America must make hard choices, they’ll say; we all have to be willing to make sacrifices.

But when they say “we,” they mean “you.” Sacrifice is for the little people.

Op-Ed Columnist – The Angry Rich and Taxes – NYTimes.com

President Obama to Hedge Fund Manager: Taxing You More Like Your Secretary is Not Anti-Business | Video Cafe

After showing a quote from Newsweek where Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman had the nerve to say this:

"It’s a war," Schwarzman said on the struggle with the administration over increasing taxes on private-equity firms. "It’s like when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939."

Obama responded.

Well I don’t know where that comes from. That’s my point… I guess. It is a two way street. …

[T]he notion that somehow me saying maybe you should be taxed more like your secretary when you’re pulling home a billion dollars or a hundred million dollars a year, I don’t think is me being extremist or being anti-business. [mjh: Or Hitlerian.]

President Obama to Hedge Fund Manager: Taxing You More Like Your Secretary is Not Anti-Business | Video Cafe

47

Jupiter at its brightest in 47 years [hat tip to Walking Raven]

Jupiter was quite bright on the western horizon at 6am this morning, so early risers may also get to see it.

Jupiter at its brightest in 47 years – Wikinews, the free news source

The planet Jupiter will be at its closest to the Earth since 1963 [Monday] and Tuesday, scientists say. This will cause the planet’s appearance to peak at a brightness and size not seen since then. The planet Uranus will also make a close approach, but will be more difficult to spot, as it is much farther away.

Scientists say that Jupiter will rise at about the time of sunset and will be nearly directly overhead at midnight. The only brighter object that will be in the sky at that time will be the moon. NASA scientist Tony Phillips said "Jupiter is so bright right now, you don’t need a sky map to find it." It will not appear this bright again until 2022.

Jupiter will pass within 368 million miles of Earth at the time of closest approach. Although this will occur on Monday and Tuesday, it will remain large and bright for approximately another month.

During this event, the planet will be located in the sky not far from the moon. Some of the planet’s own moons will be visible with the aid of a telescope or binoculars.

According to NASA scientists, Earth-Jupiter encounters occur about every 13 months. Since both planets’ orbits are slightly elliptical, meaning they are not perfect circles around the Sun, the distance varies in each encounter.

Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System, is the fifth planet from the Sun and is more massive than all of the other planets combined, about 318 times as massive as the Earth.

Jupiter at its brightest in 47 years – Wikinews, the free news source

Election, NADA - New American Dark Ages

O’Donnell Continues to Fascinate Me…

More precisely, the fact that anyone voted for O’Donnell dismays me.

Think Progress » The Old Adventures Of New Christine

“There’s only truth and not truth. You’re either very good or evil. I went back to my dorm and asked myself what I was. If your principles aren’t grounded in absolute truth, you don’t know what to think.” [Wilmington News-Journal, 11/12/06] [mjh: Therefore, she is evil.]

Think Progress » The Old Adventures Of New Christine

E.J. Dionne Jr. – Mike Castle’s defeat — and the end of moderate Republicanism

Castle’s defeat at the hands of Christine O’Donnell, a perennial candidate who may be the least qualified Senate nominee anywhere in the country, does indeed mark the collapse of the Republican Party not only of Nelson Rockefeller and Tom Dewey but also of Bob Dole and Howard Baker.

E.J. Dionne Jr. – Mike Castle’s defeat — and the end of moderate Republicanism

Op-Ed Columnist – Horror in the Hedges – NYTimes.com

O’Donnell is a marketing consultant whose clients included the movie “The Passion of the Christ” and a Vatican portrait-painter. One of the most notable things on her political résumé is her well-publicized position against masturbation. (“The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. So you can’t masturbate without lust.”)

… O’Donnell has had a series of financial problems, and her disclosure form says she earned only $5,800 last year, although she claims she had other income that didn’t require disclosing. She said for years that she was a 1993 graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, but it turns out she actually got her degree … last week. And a conservative radio host was compelled to correct her when she claimed that she had won two counties in a 2008 race against Senator Joe Biden. That would have been quite a trick, given that Delaware has only three counties and she lost the election by 65 percent to 35 percent.

“I meant tied,” she said, forcing the host to point out: “You didn’t tie him either.”

Op-Ed Columnist – Horror in the Hedges – NYTimes.com

PostPartisan – Why Christine O’Donnell’s victory is scary

Republican members of Congress look at races such as those in Utah, Alaska and now Delaware and think: There but for the grace of the Tea Party go I. They will be that much more watchful of protecting their right flank against a primary challenge. They will be that much less likely to take a political risk in the direction of bipartisanship. In this sense, it matters less whether O’Donnell will win the general election — that doesn’t seem likely — than that she won the primary.

The Delaware result might be good news for both Tea Partyers and Democrats. It is not good news for the cause of good government.

PostPartisan – Why Christine O’Donnell’s victory is scary

NADA - New American Dark Ages

There is no end to our misdirection

Ted Koppel: Nine years after 9/11, let’s stop playing into bin Laden’s hands

By Ted Koppel

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, succeeded far beyond anything Osama bin Laden could possibly have envisioned. This is not just because they resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths, nor only because they struck at the heart of American financial and military power. Those outcomes were only the bait; it would remain for the United States to spring the trap.

The goal of any organized terrorist attack is to goad a vastly more powerful enemy into an excessive response. And over the past nine years, the United States has blundered into the 9/11 snare with one overreaction after another. …

Through the initial spending of a few hundred thousand dollars, training and then sacrificing 19 of his foot soldiers, bin Laden has watched his relatively tiny and all but anonymous organization of a few hundred zealots turn into the most recognized international franchise since McDonald’s. Could any enemy of the United States have achieved more with less?

Could bin Laden, in his wildest imaginings, have hoped to provoke greater chaos? It is past time to reflect on what our enemy sought, and still seeks, to accomplish — and how we have accommodated him.

Ted Koppel: Nine years after 9/11, let’s stop playing into bin Laden’s hands

See mjh’s blog — Feel Safer Standing In Line to Take Off Your Shoes?

Fahreed Zakaria: Why America Overreacted to 9/11 – Newsweek 9/4/10

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams