13 October 2008

Apoplexy [politics ahead - come back tomorrow for some humor]

Orange County's Most Eligible Bachelor does this thing where he forwards me his right-wing chain mails and laughs because I read them and they annoy me. He sends me idiocy and I'll craft a carefully worded essay about how he should think critically when he reads that stuff, and also that he should stop parroting what other people tell him and do some thinking for himself. If that's too much work I suggested he let someone smarter start doing the thinking because he sounds like an idiot.

All of which brings us to our latest "debate" about taxes. OC's Most Eligible is rich, so he believes that you should lower taxes on the rich because then they will spend more money and stimulate the economy. This economic theory goes by many names: supply-side economics, trickle-down economics, Reaganomics, and, most accurately: complete bullshit.
Here's some further reading:
http://mises.org/article.aspx?Id=1544
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaganomics
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/reaganomics_finally_trickles_down

I liked the Onion article the best. I think it really brings the point home.
McCain and Palin want to bring Reaganomics back. Unless you make over $250,000 a year, that's not going to be good for you.

As for McCain/Palin's current smear&fear campaign strategy, here's a veteran's thoughts (click through for entire essay):

When you say, as a candidate for vice president, that the opposition is led by a man who is closely affiliated with terrorists, no intellectual jump needs to be made on the part of the listeners. What you are asserting to your base constituents, those most inclined to believe your rhetoric, is that if they don’t elect you, America’s president will be one with close, disguised ties to terrorists. But the NY Times article Palin cited in this speech could in no way be construed as stating Barack Obama has the kind of relationship with Bill Ayers Gov. Palin suggested.

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