Such a Feast!

This correspondent derives great joy in making the Thanksgiving Feast for loved ones. In particular we like to find recipes that pay tribute to the traditional board, but with a twist:

• Beer-Brined Apple-Smoked Turkey
• Wild Rice with Turkey Stock and Raisins
• Braised Spinach with Bacon and Onion
• Cranberry-Orange Relish
• Blackberry Pie

And a nap (completely traditional).

Thanksgiving 2010.

From Nathaniel Morton's journal of the Plymouth Colony:

...Being now passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles before them in expectations, they had now no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain or refresh them, no houses, or much less towns, to repair unto to seek for succour; and for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of the country know them to be sharp and violent, subject to cruel and fierce storms, dangerous to travel to known places, much more to search unknown coasts. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wilde beasts and wilde men? and what multitudes of them there were, they then knew not: for which way soever they turned their eye (save upward to Heaven) they could have but little solace or content in respect of any outward object; for summer being ended, all things stand in appearance with a weatherbeaten face, and the whole country, full of woods and thickets, represented a wild and savage hew.

If they looked behind them, there was a mighty ocean which they had passed, and was now as a main bar or gulph to separate them from all the civil parts of the world.

Lisa Heart Pork!

Presumptive Senator-reelect Lisa Morekowbell Merkofski Mooorrrkkouzky M%$#@*..ththt Myxlplyx Murkowski (R), citing Alaska's recent entry into the Union(!), has vowed to fight for her right to earmark taxpayer money from the Lower 48 for Noble Projects for the Last Frontier.

A list of these projects, all $80M of them for 2010, are listed here. Note that many of these are defense projects. The DoD normally specifies (earmark) all of the spending in their budget, so these projects presumably are those that Senator M. added as being, in her judgement, critical to the mission of our armed forces.

Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe (R), and Mississippi's Thad Cochran (R, and Earmark Champion) have also vowed to nip the ears of Porky, too.

(Visual: John Q. Public, wearing a five-dollar suit and straw boater, holding a deed to the Brooklyn Bridge. Caption: "You mean they lied to me?")

The Christian Student.

Stanley Hauerwas pens a superb letter of advice to Christian college students, and for the rest us, too.

Yeah, Cut'em Loose.

With the brouhaha over NPR's sacking of Juan Williams, we thought it might be worth calling the question: Is National Public Radio really public radio? Our thoughts on this consideration, from an earlier post, can be found here.

The Big Rolls in the Game.

The Center for Responsive Politics has tabulated the spending by independent organizations (i.e., not the political parties). Here are the totals:

Pro-GOP: $140.0M

• US Chamber of Commerce - $75.0M
• "American Crossroads" (Rovian Cabal) - $65.0M

Pro-Dem: $171.5M

• AFSCME - $87.5M
• SEIU - $44.0M
• NEA - $40.0M

In our local Congressional race, Democrat Mark Schauer has received about $1M from PACs, while Republican Tim Walberg has received about $270K, as reported by the CRP.

The Dry Rot at NPR Breaks Through.

Willie Geist and Mike Barnacle speak out about NPR's firing of Juan Williams.

For the record, here is the Google search tagline for Juan's NPR page, now removed:

Juan Williams, one of America's leading journalists, is a news analyst with NPR News. He also works on documentaries and participates in NPR's efforts to ...

Well, at least they used to think he was a leading journalist.

Heads They Win, Tails We Lose.

For the second consecutive year, Social Security payments will not increase. Federal rules require that COLA increases occur when the Consumer Price Index is higher than the previous year. However, when the CPI is constant or falls, SSI payments are fixed at the previous year's level' and increases do not resume until the CPI exceeds that level.

Until 2009 this prudent rule for Social Security had resulted a string of unbroken payment increases: the average SSI COLA from 2000 through 2009 has been 2.8%, while the CPI has increased on average by 2.6% over the same period. And everyone, particularly the AARP, was quite happy.

Then in the first full year of the Great Comeuppance the CPI fell, and SSI payments were frozen. Uncle Sugar Daddy has broken the bad news that 2010's CPI also fell 0.6% below the 2008 level, so that next year's SSI payments will remain unchanged. Now all Hell has broken loose in The Dismal Swamp.

The White House and Democrats want to ignore the COLA rule, and toss an extra $250 toward each senior, if not to buy their love, then at least to secure their vote. That's an additional $14B on the fiscal bonfire. But that's our kids' problem, right?

A Tax Gedanken Experiment.

N. Gregory Mankiw, Harvard professor of economics and confessed fat-cat, runs through the math of the proposed tax hikes, and finds that, combined with current tax rates, it will effectively zero out all growth in his next dollar.

Dust to Dust.

This scene from "F for Fake" tries to answer the question "and who stood here?"

Not Business as Usual?

Two nuggets in the news that add to the increasing pile of evidence that we are doomed:

1. A UAW chapter has nixed a deal to sell an Indianapolis parts plant that would have kept its doors open, albeit with lower wages and benefits. The opponents' rationale was that when the plant closes, many of the union workers will be able to transfer to other plants, keeping their current higher rates of pay. The unlucky workers at the plant who cannot transfer, all of the support workers at the Indy plant, and local merchants are, of course, left holding the bag.
2. It seems that majority taxpayer-owned General Motors has made over $90K in contributions to congressional campaigns, including those of Democrats John Dingell, Debbie Stabenow, and Republican Eric Cantor. To say that this reeks of "moral hazard" is to be polite.
   

Scooting to Insolvency.

An often-encountered TV commercial: offers for senior mobility scooters with where Medicare picks up the cost...

Scooters for seniors are a good thing, as is any medical technology or treatment that helps people lead more comfortable and productive lives. As health care becomes more entwined with politics, one can forsee the pressure for Medicare and Medicaid to pick up the tab for many, many good things like scooters. Ultimately someone must pay for all of these good things.

Taking the High Road.

Democrats will stick to the issues for the rest of the campaign, the NYT reports. Critical issues like their opponents' divorces, drinking, bankruptcies, philandery, lawsuits, kids' bad grades, and fashion sense.

So Much for Free Trade.

China is trying to bully Japan to give up control of some of her fishing waters by halting exports to Japan of technologically critical rare-earth elements.

An Observation.

Four years ago, our TV was bombarded by ads for Jumbo home loans, teaser-rate home loans, no-interest home loans, etc. Now we see many ads for companies that will help you "walk away from your mortgage, scott-free". God, what hath we wrought?

Obamacare's Collateral Damage.

Tucked in the deep recesses of the Obamacare Law is this mind-blowing tax-reporting provision (as reported by the Paper of Record):

...To improve compliance, the new health care law requires businesses to file tax forms known as 1099s identifying anyone to whom they pay $600 or more for goods or merchandise in a year.

Businesses will also have to send copies of the form to their vendors, suppliers and contractors. The forms are already widely used to report various kinds of payments of taxable income other than wages, like interest income or dividends. But the health care law requires filing the forms in many more instances than they were typically used before.

The premise of the requirement was that businesses would be more likely to pay taxes on their income if they knew that the income was already being reported to the Internal Revenue Service by their business partners...

The claim is that whopping $17B in additional revenue may be recovered over the next ten years. Of course, the cost to businesses - particularly small businesses - is not considered. Former GE CEO Jack Welch made the following observation: a independent truck driver who hauls cross-country loads will have to issue 1099s to dozens of truck stops, simply for fueling-up his rig, or face the wrath of the IRS.

This madness must end.

The President's View on Taxing Investment Return.

Another telling moment at the President's CNBC Wall Street Town Hall: during an exchange about taxes on the Ultrarich, the President suggested that it was only reasonable that a Big Wheel should pay taxes on his dividend income at a rate closer to the higher rate that his secretary pays on her wages. Perhaps the President forgot that taxes were paid on those dividends before their distribution, as income to the company. Also, the Big Wheel is not getting a guaranteed return in exchange for his labor, but the secretary is. The Wheel is also risking a loss on his capital investment, but that is another tax policy argument. Perhaps the President forgot these facts. Then again, perhaps he didn't know them - unlikely - or maybe his ideology guides him otherwise.

Wonderland Comes to the Street.

On CNBC the Lecturer in Chief expounded on the economy, blaming others (GOP, Bush, the Ultrarich) for all problems, and generally how those who disagree with him are just so wrong. Lots of Obamites in the town hall crowd, and one could swear there was an APPLAUSE sign over them.

Outrage of the event: the President claimed that government is less intrusive than it was thirty years ago. Make sure to pick up your jaw before leaving the room.

Now That's Efficiency!

From CNBC: Senator Carl Levin will attend A123 Systems' opening of its new car battery plant today in Livonia, Michigan. It will provide 3000 jobs...provided by $2.4B of Federal Stimulus Ham. That's a paltry $800K per job. Observers of the electric car business note that there may already exist a substantial surplus in electric car battery production in the U.S. Levin's answer: more Federal Ham to pay folks to buy electric cars. The Chevy Volt will start at a list price $40K. Will Uncle Sam throw in $10K of that to make them competitive with comparable vehicles with conventional power plants?

Iran Gaming Nuclear Inspections.

The New York Times reports that Tehran refuses access of the IAEA's most experienced inspectors to its nuclear development programs, including the agency's chief inspector for Middle East nuclear programs.