Category Archives: The Economy

IRS-enforced Obamacare

Posted on May 19, 2013 | Comments Off on IRS-enforced Obamacare

Notice the hapless fellow getting directions is wearing a medical outfit? Lately, it seems every time I take Mr. B. to the doctor, for a brief illness or a required checkup for summer camp, even the nurses are bemoaning a future of expanded federal supervision.

The paperwork alone will keep them busy-busy hopping to the tune of the latest partisan Democrat in charge of counting lead pencils and rubber erasers. For instance, the IRS woman in charge of targeting the Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harassment audits, is the new director of enforcement for Obamacare.

The usual low-information folks who think Obamacare means free medicals will now discover that time also is a form of money and they will be spending a lot of time waiting. We’ll use the new concierge clinics as long as we can afford them. Then we’ll get in line.

UPDATE:  Meanwhile, as I said before, watch how you vote. You might not get that procedure you need approved in time to save your life.

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Posted in Mr. Boy, Obamalot, Rancho Roly Poly, The Economy

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Capitalism can even fix federal stupidity

Posted on May 14, 2013 | Comments Off on Capitalism can even fix federal stupidity

I haven’t tried to pour gasoline from a gas can since the days when I still owned a sailboat with an outboard hanging off the transom. So I’d forgotten what the feds did to the gas can, in their usual bureaucratic stupidity, though I hear the ventless gas can actually was first developed in California. Oh, of course.

Nevertheless, there’s hope for the new non-illuminating light bulbs, not-very-flushable toilets, discoloring paint, too-soon-broken refrigerators, and the other junk Barry’s new socialist bureaucracy has, or plans to, foist on us.

Because this clever entrepreneur fixed the ventless gas can. Yep. It does require a new part and something else to fiddle with, but it’s only $1.65 at Amazon. So there’s obviously hope for America. Thanks to capitalism, King Pinocchio, capitalism.

Via Instapundit.

And let’s not forget capitalism’s share in Canadian Chris Hadfield’s brilliant music video from the ISS, updating David Bowie’s old song Space Oddity (“Ground control to Major Tom”), with a few alterations to the lyrics. It deftly relieves the Space Age of the boredom government control has brought it (minus the inevitable tragedies) ever since Russian Yuri Gagarin’s first solo.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, Sailing, Science/Engineering, The Economy

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Fair, just and brave

Posted on May 13, 2013 | Comments Off on Fair, just and brave

Can you apply these words to the American government? I can’t.

They no longer fit and not only because two of these three words have, incredibly, fallen out of fashion but because of Benghazi, Obamacare and the IRS scandal.

Whatever’s next ain’t gonna be pretty and all we can count on is that Obama and the missus will be on vacation.

Via Instapundit.

UPDATE:  Now Barry’s “Justice” Department has been caught collecting the phone records of the Associated  Press. Even the compliant court media is not immune from Democrat government spying.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Obamalot, The Economy, The War

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LBJ on a donkey

Posted on May 2, 2013 | Comments Off on LBJ on a donkey

When I came back to Texas in 1978, I wasn’t surprised to find that most of the inhabitants were natives. Born here. Never lived anywhere else. Didn’t want to, either.

Things had changed a lot since my very youthful sojourn in Dallas and they have continued to, but, really, not fundamentally. Unless you look through Erica Grieder’s historical lens:

“Think about Texas’s historical baseline compared to that of the United States; project a mental image of the Jazz Age in New York and then contemplate the fact that around that time LBJ was riding to school on a donkey. And things are improving in Texas, more or less across the board.”

The population certainly has ballooned since LBJ’s donkey days in the Hill Country town of Johnson City (named for his ranching grandfather) and, for that matter, since 1978. The traffic in most Texas cities (including onetime [1978] buccolic Austin) is horrendous. And what used to be the pretty rural stretch of highway between Austin and Waco is now pretty much wall-to-wall commerce, including some unsightly junkyards.

Howsomever, Texas still is a nice place to live, work and play. And, as Greider, who formerly covered Gov. Rick Perry for The Economist and now writes for Texas Monthly, shows in her new book the Texas haters could learn a thing or two from us. Not that we can expect them to, of course. Some things are just too much to hope for. But no big whoop. It’s their loss.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Texana, The Economy

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Pols should be required to do their own taxes

Posted on April 19, 2013 | Comments Off on Pols should be required to do their own taxes

If they were required by law to do their own federal income taxes, the rules would be a lot simpler for the rest of us to understand and follow. Although that might diminish the livelihood of accountants like our friend Donnie Greenspan.

Still, as Instapundit says, the current complexity is a human rights violation

Mrs. Charm did our federal taxes fairly quickly again this year because, as usual, we have no deductions. Only had our mortgage interest payments to deduct in the past but they’re too small now to quality because the mortgage, which was low to begin with thanks to our foresight and planning, is almost paid off.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Mrs. Charm, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana, The Economy

Good Time Barry wants your 401K

Posted on April 15, 2013 | Comments Off on Good Time Barry wants your 401K

He wants, that is, to limit you to a maximum $205,000 sheltered in your 401K each year. As if it should be his decision to make:

“….our political betters now feel free to define for everyone what is ‘needed’ for a ‘reasonable’ retirement. Not to be impertinent, but does this White House definition include being able to afford summers at age 70 at Martha’s Vineyard near the Obamas?”

The $205,000—peanuts compared to the losses his economic policies have already cost the 401Ks and other savings of those of us who have retired—might seem high to some of his lower middle class and welfare constituencies, but it wouldn’t finance the transportation for one of his monthly vacations, let alone the hotel, meals, entertainment, etc.

So Good Time Barry (let ’em eat cake, I’ve got mine) is a hypocrite as well as a liar, fraud, and thief. But hey, he’s a Marxist. It’s what they do and call it “fairness.”

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Posted in Obamalot, The Economy

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Assassin alert

Posted on April 12, 2013 | Comments Off on Assassin alert

Step right up, all you paid killers. Where else can you legally use a “silencer” on your murder rifle? Shoot (so to speak) right here in Tejas, that’s where. Howsomever, says the NRA:

“Suppressors are not ‘silencers,’ as depicted in typical Hollywood action films.  While suppressors do not eliminate the sound of a firearm, they do reduce the muzzle report in a manner similar to the way that a muffler reduces exhaust noise from a vehicle.”

Still… This little law, designed to absolve game and varmint hunters from noise pollution complaints, is bound to make your work easier. Just another paean to business in this here red state, while the blue ones (California, Michigan, etc.)  go bankrupt.

Via Darkwater at Phase Line Birnam Wood.

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Posted in Guns, Texana, The Economy

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