Category Archives: Politics
No, Virginia, They are Not Better Than Us
Talk about BS studies, this one claims that Britain now has a higher standard of living than the US, since the falling dollar has raised Britain’s per capita above America’s. The devil is in the details, however:
The Oxford analysts also point out that Americans benefit from lower prices than those in Britain. With an adjustment made for this “purchasing power parity”, the average American has more spending power than his UK counterpart and pays lower taxes. (In the run-up to Christmas many Britons travelled to New York and other American cities to take advantage of the strength of sterling against the dollar and those lower prices.)
However, the British typically have significantly longer holidays than Americans as well as access to “free” healthcare.
The figures may be of small comfort to Britons worried about house prices and facing a severe squeeze on their incomes this year as a result of record petrol prices and rising energy bills.
Citigroup, which was the most accurate forecaster of Britain’s economy last year, predicts the slowest rise in consumer spending this year since 1992.
Doh!
Doctor Who: Labor Candidate
I’m not surprised.
Attacking the Fair Tax: Bartlett
Someone sent me this PDF file of Bruce Bartlett tearing apart the Fair Tax. Unfortunately, he still includes a footnote on scientology. But it’s worth a read.
This idea sounds dumber and dumber every day.
Predictions for 2008
2007 was a good year, as far as I’m concerned. My Braves and Packers had good years. The Bulldogs were fantastic. Gridlock reigned in Washington while hope began to appear in Iraq. Despite mortgage collapses and oil, the economy kept going.
Really, any year that humanity manages to stumble through and still be intact is a good one. We had problems in Burma and Kenya and Iraq and the Sudan. But things are still better than they’ve ever been. And hope spring eternal.
For me, personally, it was the best year of my life. For one reason — I became a dad. Abby is highlight of my life so far. I’m on the brink of being out of astronomy — I’m about to go to 20 hours pay for 40+ hours work because my grants are almost exhausted. But she makes everything better.
My 2007 and 2006 predictions are beyond the spam event horizon. So I can’t review those. But here are my bold predictions for 2008 (Note: I wrote this before Obama’s triumph in Iowa). I’m in a hopeful optimistic mood right now. I don’t know why.
But you know what? I’d rather be wrong on Obama than right on Hillary.
In terms of quality, however, I feel a good year coming on. Let’s just hope Crystal Skull doesn’t disappoint.
Last Linkorama of the Year
Megan on Paul
If you want intelligent criticism of Ron Paul, try Megan McCardle’s dissection of his tax policy. And if you want intelligent defense, try the same source:
The New York Times’ willingness to believe that Ron Paul is a Nazi-lover seems like a symptom of a general willingness to believe that people with extreme political views that you disagree with all hang out together in some big club, where they exchange tips on stamping out liberty, and recipes for Molotov cocktails . Memo to the right: the greens do not hang out with the Maoists1. Memo to the left: the Nazis and the anarcho-capitalists hate each other with a passion seldom found outside a faculty compensation committee meeting. It should be rather obvious from listening to Dr. Paul that he’s no crypto-fascist. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go research Dennis Kucinich’s links to the Shining Path.
and
Ron Paul: not a Nazi. I’m slightly bemused by the fact that the Nazis are so eager to claim Ron Paul as one of their own. I mean, not that Ron Paul isn’t a perfectly nice guy, and so forth, but isn’t claiming that you’re friends with famous people who’ve never met you something you’re supposed to grow out of in high school?
On second thought, I suppose a Nazi is definitionally someone who never grew out of anything in high school.
Quote of the Day
From Megan McCardle:
Incidentally, is anyone else amused by the lightening speed with which filibustering has gone from [undemocratic obstructionism/a vital institution for protecting minority interests] to [an important tool for preserving Federalism/an obscene mechanism for thwarting the clear Will of the People]? No one’s even bothered to come up with a better fig leaf than “but it’s different when my guys are in charge!
On Paul
My main writing on the Ron Paul phenomenon has been responding to the silly allegations that he is some sort of 9/11 Truther Neonazi Freemason. But I would respond to this garbage no matter who the candidate was. I blasted the swift boat nonsense too even though I had no intention of supporting Kerry.
So I wanted to clarify what I think of him and his campaign.
The War on Science Funding
Being a scientist, I hear an endless stream of nonsense about how anti-science the Republicans are and how much they slash and burn science funding to pay for their wars and corporate interests. It’s bullshit, of course. One of the principle opponents of the space program was Walter Mondale — a democrat. The superconducting super-collider was killed by Bill Clinton — a Democrat. And it is mainly liberals and progressives, notably Gregg Easterbrook, who demand that all of NASA’s work be practical. I told everyone that science funding would be hurt with the Dems in power.
I hate being right all the time.
In short, this omnibus spending bill is at best disappointing, and at worst a total disaster, for science funding in the US. Overall, the research agencies all received a meager increase in their budgets (roughly 1% for NIH, 2% for NSF, 3% for NASA, and 2% for the DOE). That’s disappointing because these increases don’t keep up with inflation, are far, far short of the Administration’s request and the American Competitiveness Initiative, and won’t support all the scientific projects in the pipeline.
Oh, it gets better. The Democrats are ending our participation in ITER, the foremost nuclear fusion project. Nuclear fusion, which has just passed breakeven, has the potential to replace all of our fossil fuels and nuclear fission plants with clean safe nuclear energy. But the “we love the environment and hate global warming” Democrats aren’t interested.
Of course, everyone is blaming Bush for this (and specifically, the war funding). But the Dems came in under the President’s request. This was one of the few areas were they controlled spending.
Yes, I have a personal stake in this (for now, at least). At some point, I’ll put up my post on that subject. But you just have to savor the irony. The anti-intellectual Bush is more interested in funding science than the super-enlightened Democrats.
Wednesday Linkorama
Attack of the Smoking Fascists
Yes, they are banning smoking in public housing. I love that their defense is “most people want this”. As if that justifies gobbling up someone’s freedom.
A nationwide smoking ban is coming. And those of you cheering it on might sing a different tune when they come for your booze, your porn and your fatty foods.
Thursday Linkorama
Attacking the Fair Tax: Naivete
Usual caveat: While I oppose the Fair Tax, that doesn’t mean I support the current system. I would just prefer a VAT or a flat tax.
I’ve attacked the Fair Tax because it falsely promises a big pay hike for Americans (a claim Boortz himself has withdrawn) and because I think the prebate would be a disaster. But I’ll hit it again because I need the blog traffic from the Fair Tax Movementarians responding.
One common argument for the Fair Tax over the flat tax goes like so:
We tried a flat tax with Reagan’s tax reform. And it wasn’t flat for long. Congress immediately began revising the tax and making it hideously complicated again.
This has two problems. The first is factual — the 1986 Tax Reform did not create anything approaching a flat tax. It simplified the taxes but not very much, as anyone who owns a business could tell you. It created all kinds of tax incentives and breaks. Claiming that the 1986 Tax Reform Act was the equivalent of a flat tax is like claiming my cat is a hippopotamus. Yes, they are both fat mammals. The similarities end there.
The second problem is naivete. The Fair Taxers assert that the Fair Tax will start simple and stay simple. That Congress will be unable to work all kinds of strange complications into it.
This is total garbage. Just to list a few things Congress will try to do with the the Fair Tax:
Granted, the potential for political abuse is a little lower and more transparent than with the current system. But to sit here and claim that the Fair Tax will be magically immune from the Washington need to endlessly tinker and update and improve is incredibly naive.