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Resolution Day
Author: TriSec
Date: 01/02/2010 13:22:25
Good Morning.
I'm a bit miffed; the police in this city woke me up at 6:30 by driving up and down the street with sirens screaming and announcing a snow emergency. What, we can't handle 6 inches of snow anymore? Like the rest of my conditioned-drone neighbors, I dutifully went outside and moved the car to the off-street lot a half mile away.
But unlike my neighbors, I'll be posting some letters to the Mayor and my City Councilor. Waltham declares a snow emergency at the drop of a hat; last year we had several where it never even snowed. People aren't happy. I lived in Revere for 8 years before moving 'inland', and we never had any declared snow emergencies there...a period of time that included the Perfect Storm.
But I digress.
Well, it's January 2nd. What's your resolution? Funny thing about us humans....we always look for milestones and significant dates on the calendar. For some, it's a birthday. Others get serious when school starts in the fall. For many more of us, it's the new number on the calendar. 365 days of newness and potential; what are we going to do with it?
After 2009, maybe my resolution would be to gather everything I can find with that year printed on it and have a merry blaze out back in my fire pit. That would work for me.
But no....I have a lot of things I'd like to do this year, if I can find the time to do it.
When I got laid off last February, I quit playing. I'd sure like to pick up my horn and blow a bit again.
Working 70 hours a week to stay afloat has cut into my flight-sim time. Sure miss flying...maybe I can get some stick time every now and again.
I went to a seminar to learn how to be a process server right before I got my latest day job and the holiday season took off....as things wind down, I'd like to do some more marketing and maybe actually get a paper or two to deliver.
I've been married to a Cuban for 14 years; we've been together 18, and I still can't speak a lick of Spanish. I pulled out all my books last night and gave them a quick look over.
My Cub Pack has certainly suffered over the past two months by my lack of presence at the committee....again, as the retail season winds down, I'll be able to get back involved there. And February 8, 2010 is the BSA's 100th birthday!
So.....I seem to have a busy year planned already. What's your hopes and dreams for 2010?
I will round out the morning with a promised third-party look see. As you might know, we've got a senate race happening here. January 19 is our election, so who might we send to Congress?
Martha Coakley (D), current state Attorney General...
Joe Kennedy (Libertarian) No relation to the more famous family with the same name.
Scott Brown (R ), current State Senator.
Curiously, some of you outside Massachusetts might know of Scott Brown. Any followers of American Idol? He's the father of Ayla Brown (with WCVB reporter Gail Huff), who was a contestant back in 2006.
Despite being written off by the Republicans, he's making a wee bit of noise in this state, and has raised some eyebrows with this recent ad:
But our friends at Blue Mass Group have shined a little light of truth on it...
Certainly going to be an interesting 3 weeks around these parts...
I'm a bit miffed; the police in this city woke me up at 6:30 by driving up and down the street with sirens screaming and announcing a snow emergency. What, we can't handle 6 inches of snow anymore? Like the rest of my conditioned-drone neighbors, I dutifully went outside and moved the car to the off-street lot a half mile away.
But unlike my neighbors, I'll be posting some letters to the Mayor and my City Councilor. Waltham declares a snow emergency at the drop of a hat; last year we had several where it never even snowed. People aren't happy. I lived in Revere for 8 years before moving 'inland', and we never had any declared snow emergencies there...a period of time that included the Perfect Storm.
But I digress.
Well, it's January 2nd. What's your resolution? Funny thing about us humans....we always look for milestones and significant dates on the calendar. For some, it's a birthday. Others get serious when school starts in the fall. For many more of us, it's the new number on the calendar. 365 days of newness and potential; what are we going to do with it?
After 2009, maybe my resolution would be to gather everything I can find with that year printed on it and have a merry blaze out back in my fire pit. That would work for me.
But no....I have a lot of things I'd like to do this year, if I can find the time to do it.
When I got laid off last February, I quit playing. I'd sure like to pick up my horn and blow a bit again.
Working 70 hours a week to stay afloat has cut into my flight-sim time. Sure miss flying...maybe I can get some stick time every now and again.
I went to a seminar to learn how to be a process server right before I got my latest day job and the holiday season took off....as things wind down, I'd like to do some more marketing and maybe actually get a paper or two to deliver.
I've been married to a Cuban for 14 years; we've been together 18, and I still can't speak a lick of Spanish. I pulled out all my books last night and gave them a quick look over.
My Cub Pack has certainly suffered over the past two months by my lack of presence at the committee....again, as the retail season winds down, I'll be able to get back involved there. And February 8, 2010 is the BSA's 100th birthday!
So.....I seem to have a busy year planned already. What's your hopes and dreams for 2010?
I will round out the morning with a promised third-party look see. As you might know, we've got a senate race happening here. January 19 is our election, so who might we send to Congress?
Martha Coakley (D), current state Attorney General...
Joe Kennedy (Libertarian) No relation to the more famous family with the same name.
Scott Brown (R ), current State Senator.
Curiously, some of you outside Massachusetts might know of Scott Brown. Any followers of American Idol? He's the father of Ayla Brown (with WCVB reporter Gail Huff), who was a contestant back in 2006.
Despite being written off by the Republicans, he's making a wee bit of noise in this state, and has raised some eyebrows with this recent ad:
But our friends at Blue Mass Group have shined a little light of truth on it...
(I have a hard time deciding whether to be offended, or to laugh out loud at the patent absurdity of this ad, right down to copying the backdrop and the black and white footage. Is the Brown camp really so stupid as to think MA voters will say, "hey, that backdrop filmed in b&w makes me realize that he is just like JFK!" Please. Also, cheers to Shillelaghlaw for getting picked up by the Globe even though the post wasn't yet front-paged -- someone over there reads the user posts pretty carefully! - promoted by David)
Well, no. But Scott Brown's recent ad would make you think that he's following in the ideological footsteps of a supply-side economics embracing John F. Kennedy.
The "JFK would be a tax-cutting Republican if he was alive today" meme has been circulating around for years. Jeff Jacoby of the Globe had this to say about Kennedy a few months ago:
HIS NAME was Kennedy. He was the preeminent figure in the Democratic Party. And he was a resolute supply-side tax-cutter.
"It is a paradoxical truth,'' he once told the Economic Club of New York, "that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now.'' What he had in mind, he said, was "an across-the-board, top-to-bottom cut in personal and corporate income taxes.''
Oh my. Was JFK a proto-Teabagger? An early acolyte of Milton Friedman?
No. What Brown and Jacoby won't tell you is that from 1954 to 1963, the top tax bracket was a stultifying 91%! The bottom rate was 20%. Even with a Republican in the White House from 1953 to 1961, and Republican control of Congress from 1947 to 1949, the top rate hovered in the 80-90% range. Even the most progressive among us would agree that there does come a point where the tax burden gets so high that it really does stunt economic growth. (Progressives, moderates, and conservatives seem to disagree as to at what point....)
After Kennedy's proposed cuts, the top rate went down to 77% in 1964, and the bottom rate to 16%. What's the top tax rate now? Thirty-five percent.
It would be laughable that Brown would compare Kennedy's cutting of a confiscatory 91% tax rate to his own proposals to further reduce one of the lowest tax rates in the industrialized world, if it wasn't so shameless.
Certainly going to be an interesting 3 weeks around these parts...
