All Things in Moderation

Saturday Link Thread

16 Responses

1. 

   jnc4p, on August 4, 2012 at 1:05 pm said:

   Interesting news for a slow Friday:

   “Cass Sunstein, top Obama adviser on regulations, to leave administration
   By David A. Fahrenthold and Scott Wilson, Published: August 3

   White House regulatory czar Cass Sunstein, an intellectual mentor to President Obama whose skeptical approach to rule-making frustated the president’s liberal allies, announced Friday he was leaving his post.

   Sunstein will depart by the end of the month, officials said. He is returning to the job he left, a professorship at Harvard Law School. In addition, Sunstein will head a new Harvard program on “behavioral economics and public policy.”

   http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/cass-sunstein-top-obama-adviser-on-regulations-to-leave-administration/2012/03/08/gJQAkhlGUX_story.html?hpid=z10

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2. 

   markinaustin, on August 4, 2012 at 2:22 pm said:

   What Postrel says is obvious in American historical thought and certainly to BHO. Innovation is the engine of growth.

   Having said that, I believe that is what Benjamin Franklin had in mind for public education and public libraries, and Lincoln had in mind for the Land Grant Colleges, and what we feed with funding graduate scitech programs with federal, state, local, and private grants. It is what R&D is all about.

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3. 

   jnc4p, on August 4, 2012 at 2:24 pm said:

   “August 2, 2012
   Kill or Capture
   Posted by Steve Coll

   On September 30, 2011, in a northern province of Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American citizen and a senior figure in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, finished his breakfast and walked with several companions to vehicles parked nearby. Before he could drive away, a missile fired from a drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency struck the group and killed Awlaki, as well as a second American citizen, of Pakistani origin, whom the drone operators did not realize was present.

   President Barack Obama had personally authorized the killing. “I want Awlaki,” he is said to have told his advisers at one point. “Don’t let up on him.” The President’s bracing words about a fellow American are reported in “Kill or Capture,” a recent and important book on the Obama Administration’s detention and targeted-killing programs, by Daniel Klaidman, a former deputy editor of Newsweek.

   With those words attributed to Obama, Klaidman has reported what would appear to be the first instance in American history of a sitting President speaking of his intent to kill a particular U.S. citizen without that citizen having been charged formally with a crime or convicted at trial.”

   http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/08/kill-or-capture.html#ixzz22ZCNevem

   Related:

   http://www.salon.com/2012/08/04/obama_the_pioneer/

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4. 

   bannedagain5446, on August 4, 2012 at 4:00 pm said:

   The drone program as well as stretching Afghanistan out to 6 years is really about the seduction of power more than anything else. No matter what you have done in civilian life, few coming to the presidency have ever killed or signed off on the killing of another by the military.

   In the last 100 years, T Roosevelt, and Eisenhower for sure and Truman and HW Bush we could possibly say. That’s it. The temptation to listen to advisors who tell you that you can solve many of your problems with a gun or a miissile must be overwhelming.

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5. 

   bannedagain5446, on August 4, 2012 at 4:21 pm said:

   I would say that the Postrel piece is another part of the puzzle. The change is also essentially the waning of the better by birth notion and the waxing of the better by achievment one. However that always hits a Calvinist wall in that achievement in and of itself becomes a sign of godliness not just effort. So it has the irony of dividing people as thoroughly as the concept of nobility does.

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6. 

   bannedagain5446, on August 4, 2012 at 4:29 pm said:

   “Paterno family to file appeal against NCAA”

   This is very symbolic of where it all went bad. The board of trustees allowed the unviersity I attended more than 30 years ago to become Paterno State University. So it’s a logical outgrowth for the Paternos to still think of themselves as the school as well.

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7. 

   jnc4p, on August 4, 2012 at 4:49 pm said:

   Worth noting that the temporary tax exemption for principal reductions expires on 12/31.

   http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/08/will-congress-screw-underwater-homeowners-december-31

   http://www.salon.com/2012/08/01/underwater_homeowners_face_a_tax_time_bomb/

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   • 

     markinaustin, on August 4, 2012 at 5:47 pm said:

     JNC – remember that if the GWB cuts expire, Congress has one whole year to fix everything from the underwater mortgage reduction bomb to AMT to the marriage penalty – and/or to revamp the Code.

     They should be looking at expiration of the cuts not as a deadline, but as a wake-up call.

     Of course, in 2002, I never thought the end of the Estate Tax would come in 2010 with the potential of a big reversion in 2011. They had all of 2009 to deal with it, but did not. I should have put this on the rant thread… .

     Don Juan, your allusion to the Doctrine of the Elect is fascinating. Powerful little group, you Presbyterians!

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8. 

   jnc4p, on August 4, 2012 at 5:58 pm said:

   “markinaustin, on August 4, 2012 at 5:47 pm said: Edit Comment

   JNC – remember that if the GWB cuts expire, Congress has one whole year to fix everything from the underwater mortgage reduction bomb to AMT to the marriage penalty – and/or to revamp the Code.”

   How so? Withholding tables are changed immediately.

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   • 

     markinaustin, on August 4, 2012 at 6:23 pm said:

     WH tables may change in 1-13 but the tax that is owed is not known until 12-31-13 and not due until Spring of ’14. The AMT trap won’t spring until then. If the tax code changes during the year, WH tables will be revised. If taxes are reduced for your bracket by the revision, but too late for revised tables, you will get a refund.

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9. 

   bannedagain5446, on August 4, 2012 at 7:42 pm said:

   Mark:

   I just read a lot.

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10. 

    yellojkt, on August 5, 2012 at 5:46 am said:

    However, the psychological effect of the immediate change in withholding rates is bound to be large. There is too much cognitive dissonance in the typical taxpayer between the size of their takehome pay and amount of their annual refund.

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    • 

      markinaustin, on August 5, 2012 at 6:07 am said:

      However, the psychological effect of the immediate change in withholding rates is bound to be large. There is too much cognitive dissonance in the typical taxpayer between the size of their takehome pay and amount of their annual refund.

      So? The Clinton rates were hardly a disaster. Most folks I knew barely noticed the change when they were lowered. I predict bitching and moaning, followed by declining bitching and moaning, followed by calls to Congress to “do something” followed by political theater.

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11. 

    yellojkt, on August 5, 2012 at 6:23 am said:

    I predict bitching and moaning, followed by declining bitching and moaning, followed by calls to Congress to “do something” followed by political theater.

    I predict those things so no matter what happens. I wouldn’t mind seeing all the Bush Cutz™ expire as a starting point. The we can go about correcting all the other deficiencies in the system.

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12. 

    bannedagain5446, on August 5, 2012 at 7:53 am said:

    yello

    The Dems don’t have any leadership that could weather such a storm even if it was desireable. The bottom line is that everybody’s taxes have to go up at some point no matter who is president but not through the expiring rates.

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13. 

    bannedagain5446, on August 5, 2012 at 9:19 am said:

    Remember when we were outraged by the Japanese competitiion?

    “Hopes Dim for Sharp Amid Japan’s TV Industry Sunset”

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/48511263

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