63 degrees & clear blue skies this p.m. meant 3 hours of baseball w/ son & nephews. Glorious Dec. 30th in GA. I’m beat!
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Author Archives: jimgilvin
Hope all have had a Merry Christmas. Considering a hunt for the elusive “bargain” this a.m.
It’s time to haul firewood and wrap presents. Don’t just stand there… do something!
Taking the kids roller skating. Where are my white Jordache jeans? Wonder if they’ll play “Reunited” and “Play that Funky Music White Boy”?
Two days to go but those presents seem incapable of wrapping themselves. I may have to break down and do it myself.
Conservatives v. Liberals? New York Times says no contest.
There was a terrific editorial in the New York Times yesterday. (That is a sentence I never thought I’d write, but then again Maureen Dowd is on vacation so anything is possible.)
Nicolas Kristof set out to prove that liberals are more generous with their time and money than conservatives but he was shocked to find that it wasn’t true. Thus the title of his article, “Bleeding Heart Tightwads”.
As Mr. Kristof eloquently says: “Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates.” Read the whole thing at http://tinyurl.com/8vvhds
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Don’t get me wrong. I do not believe that all liberals are cheapskates. I believe most people are generous regardless of their faith, race, financial status or political philosophy. But it is no surprise that many of the people that are so eager to take taxpayer money at the point of a gun have shown no interest in personal charity.
For example, in 1997 Vice President Al Gore had an income of nearly $200,000 and reported only $353 in charitable contributions according to CNN. That was a whopping 17/100ths of a percent of Al Gore’s income. Pitiful for anyone but especially for a multimillionaire with presidential aspirations. And now he dares to lecture us about global warming as he rides in his personal jet and floats around on his 100 foot houseboat.
Or perhaps we could look to our Vice President-elect Senator Joe Biden. In 2007 Senator Biden claimed contributions of $995 which was 0.3% of his $320,000 income. Pretty sad but better than Gore. Barack Obama did make generous charitable contributions of $240,000 which was 5.7% of his $4.2 million dollar income in 2007. For comparison sake, John McCain contributed $105,000 (or 26%) of his $405,000 income.
So now that the evidence has been printed in the New York Times perhaps liberals will understand that the phrase “compassionate conservativism” is redundant.
Finally an explanation for Heidi Klum and Seal. “Beer goggles last longer for women” http://ping.fm/y3m8d Thanks hotair.com
I just realized that I have a pavlovian response to any politician that uses the word “fair”. I barf.
What most of us know that politicians don’t
Life is not fair.
It just isn’t.
Innocent children die every day. That isn’t fair. Hookers are caught with governors and get rich as the celebutante of the day. That isn’t fair. Hardworking people are layed off on Christmas Eve. That isn’t fair. Human beings don’t like unfairness but most of us realize that unfairness is indeed a fact of life. Why don’t politicians?
About thirty years ago President Jimmy Carter decided that it was unfair that everyone in the United States couldn’t own their own home so he decided that the government should fix the problem. The federal government encouraged banks to give mortgages to people that had never owned their own home before. How fair. In the 1990’s Janet Reno threatened banks that had not made enough loans in economically challenged areas. Banks made more loans in those areas and then sold them to investors with the understanding that the United States government would pick up the tab if the homeowners couldn’t pay.
Everybody was happy. People that historically could not afford homes bought houses. People that already owned homes bought newer and bigger houses. Then lenders came up with more “innovative” loans which could get more people in homes and let everyone buy bigger and better houses. People were full of glee as home prices continued to rise and more people owned homes. Life was more fair and politicians patted themselves on the back for the great thing they had done.
Then the people who could not have bought homes thirty years ago started to default on their mortgages. Uh-oh. Statistically it was inevitable. Banks knew thirty years ago that a certain percentage of these homeowners wouldn’t be able to afford their houses. That’s why the banks didn’t lend to them in the first place. But politicians had wanted life to be fair.
As more houses were foreclosed the flood of homes started lowering home values. People with high incomes found that they could not afford the “innovative” mortgages on their bigger and better homes. Uh-oh. More people lost their homes. The banks and investors couldn’t sell the homes they foreclosed. Banks and investors started going bankrupt and that brought us the economic crisis which faces the entire world right now.
There are roughly 220 million people in the United States that actually pay income taxes. The United States government has authorized spending of 700 billion dollars so far to fix the current economic crisis. By my feeble calculations that means that every U.S. taxpayer is now on the hook for about $32,000 because politicians wanted life to be fair.
The funny thing is that in 1970 you could buy a really nice house for $32,000. It would have been cheaper if the United States government had just bought a nice house for every family that didn’t have one.
Which brings me back to my original point. Life is not fair. It just isn’t.
We understand that. Why don’t politicians?
Bush gives automakers $17 billion going away present. Sir, don’t let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya!
GA Jim 