United Sociaialst States of America

Matthew Yglesias » Why Not Arbitrary Limits on Executive Pay? .

What if we had a 95 percent marginal tax rate on income over $10 million? What dire consequences would flow from this? Perhaps a certain outflow of top-flight baseball talent to Japan. But I don’t see this leading to any kind of economic calamity. Producers of certain classes of supply-constrained luxury goods would lose out as their prices go down. But my strong suspicion is that at the end of the day most of the super-rich would ultimately find it a relief to get off the treadmill of status-competition and the not-quite-so-rich would be thrilled to see their betters cut down to size.

I can’t even express how terrifying this is.  This sort of thought is progressing from wingnuts to average joes in this media fueled disaster.  I think it’s time to start looking at other places to live.  America is jumping the shark.

lease strategist and future admissions consultant

I just finished reading about Representative Laura Richardson’s $1300 a month Towncar you pay for.  Actually I just finished trying to figure out how you can lease any car for $1300 a month.  I thought that was the deal– you could lease a lexus or something for about $500 a month because they give you a good deal in exchange for throwing your money away.  Evidently she allowed the taxpayer to overpay for the privilege of not owning the car.  Auto stimulus!

Anyway, I browsed over to her website, to see how she’s keeping busy when she’s not negotiating abysmal lease terms.  Evidently she’s not spending much time being concerned with the service academy selection process.  As a Naval Academy grad, I took a look out of morbid interest, and discovered that she has managed to wholly botch the one part of her website (aka primary communication tool with her constituents) I bothered to look at.

Now, I’m not an academy apologist– in fact, I am not a fan of my alma mater at all– but I do find this pretty distasteful.  Maybe I’ll call 555-1212 and give her office a piece of my mind!

don't forget to fix the boilerplate

the ripped-off tabs are what get me

the ripped-off tabs are what get me.

I agree… the tabs are pretty funny.

Sent today to my representative, Ben Chandler of Kentucky.

Ben,

We are incredibly disappointed in your vote for HR 1586 on the bonus taxes. I thought I could support a blue dog democrat but obviously you are the same as all the other democrats.

It’s not your job to blindly support irrational populist sentiment. That’s why we have representative democracy instead of direct democracy. Here’s a litmus test for you: if you are voting yea for something, and it’s something Hugo Chavez would support, you’re probably making the wrong choice.

I’m not worried about a hundred million dollars going to people that contractually deserve it. I’m worried about the $10 trillion mess we’re in, our currency, and my children’s future. Why don’t you focus on THAT!

Disappointed in Lexington,
me

animals make plans

A canny chimpanzee who calmly collected a stash of rocks and then hurled them at zoo visitors in fits of rage has confirmed that apes can plan ahead just like humans, a Swedish study said Monday. Santino the chimpanzee’s anti-social behavior stunned both visitors and keepers at the Furuvik Zoo but fascinated researchers because it was so carefully prepared. According to a report in the journal Current Biology, the 31-year-old alpha male started building his weapons cache in the morning before the zoo opened, collecting rocks and knocking out disks from concrete boulders inside his enclosure. He waited until around midday before he unleashed a “hailstorm” of rocks against visitors, the study said.

There’s something satisfying about this is a primal (primate?) way.

Zenni Optical – Complete prescription eyeglasses from $8.00

Zenni Optical – Complete prescription eyeglasses from $8.00.

I need new glasses so I can start wearing them to work, and I found this site offering $8.  I did a cursory poke around the internet to see if it looks legit, and it seems to be above board.  I ordered three pairs (total $28.95 including shipping!) and we’ll see what shows up.

I was wondering about all the axis, cylinder, sphere and pupilary distance is all about, and found a great wikipedia page on eyeglass prescriptions.  I feel like I understand the mysteries of prescriptions now, including why my glasses prescription is about -5.75 and my contact prescription is only about -5.