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Mechanical Engineer; Wanna-be Subsistence Farmer/Landscaper/Jack-of-All-Trades, Master of...


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CitizenOfTheRepublic
Name:
CitizenOfTheRepublic
Hometown:
Ohio
Joined:
Sep 10, 2010

Recent Comments

CitizenOfTheRepublic
Randy Webster: whom? · 1 hour ago

good save!

CitizenOfTheRepublic

Thanks to das_motorhead, Troy and everyone else involved with getting this organized AND to everyone for coming out.  Was great meeting you all!

CitizenOfTheRepublic

I will be there!  Thanks for organizing it!!

CitizenOfTheRepublic

Mega-Dittos, Byron.  

The End

p.s. Could you also take up my solitary belief that the income tax should be abolished and replaced by a uniform tariff on all imported goods, such that most citizens will have incentives to have a moderately low tax rate in their dual roles as consumers/producers, while encouraging domestic wealth creation and employment-enhancing (thereby military-aged male-civilizing) without the government having an interest or power to snoop into the citizenry's every financial transaction?  Thanks in advance.

CitizenOfTheRepublic

No one....noooooo one can use more words to say less than JPod.

Jonah is brilliant, as always.

CitizenOfTheRepublic

Russ Robert's November interview of Casey Mulligan speaks to the disincentives to work:  http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/12/mulligan_on_red.html

"Casey Mulligan of the University of Chicago and the author of The Redistribution Recession, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the ideas in the book. Mulligan argues that increases in the benefits available to unemployed workers explains the depth of the Great Recession that began in 2007 and the slowness of the recovery particularly in the labor market. Mulligan argues that other macroeconomic explanations ignore the microeconomic incentives facing workers and employers."

CitizenOfTheRepublic

Nope...it is a firebreak against cults of personality.  I predict that socialism/fascism in Venezuela falls away without Chavez...like Castros in Cuba.  Once another man has to carry forward policies, there is a much greater chance bad ideas can be rejected OR political blocks that oppress can be broken up.

CitizenOfTheRepublic

Great episode: as always!
Molly's pronunciation of Judd Apatow's name is correct based on my listening to The Adam Carolla Show podcast.  Adam is friends with Judd and did a full-episode interview with him when the movie came out. 

My next wife (if one should exist!) will be screened by listening to you two talking about the realities of marriage...the last wouldn't accept that it is what it is and judged it from a fictional standard since she lacked any personal experience with long-term married couples in her family. 

CitizenOfTheRepublic

http://ricochet.com/member-feed/Grab-Up-This-Man!-Milt-Rosenberg-s-Show-on-WGN-is-to-End

I suggested that Ricochet "grab him up" the day after the end of his show was announced, and communicated the same directly to Rob.  
Milt would more than fit in to Ricochet; he could take it to a higher level of relevance & influence. 

Edited on January 13, 2013 at 6:02am
CitizenOfTheRepublic

Fast & Furious.  No question, in my case.

I never owned an AR-15...always seemed too expensive and a "what for" for me?  But, if BATF was supplying them to foreign drug gangs, I would be darned if I didn't have similar arms at hand.  

So, now I have 2, and a few thousand rounds of M193 and M855.  You can thank the un-prosecuted criminals in the Justice Dept. for spurring my purchases.  Or should I say, in this day, my "investments."  What's going to be a better store of value than useful combinations of brass, lead, & copper?  - and the steel to throw them.

Edited on January 2, 2013 at 7:33pm
CitizenOfTheRepublic
Matthew K. Tabor: When I fled New York, I thought of myself as carrying the political culture on my back of the state that elected James Buckley to the Senate. · 2 minutes ago

Good on you...he seems like a great man, but for his meddling in post-secondary institutions' communication with parents of "adult" students even when the parents are paying the bill.  

That bit of federal government coercion by the purse perhaps assisted in the devolution of undergrad life into drunken madness in many colleges/universities.  That, and John Belushi's too short life and work.

CitizenOfTheRepublic

The very high earners (as distinct from wealthy, perhaps) and over-(mal)educated voted in great numbers for the Big O.  After having opposed higher marginal rates in the upper brackets as a matter of principle and efficacy, by gosh, I, too, have given in.  Let them pay and make them pay in ways they cannot avoid.

The most unfortunate consequence of such policies could be the further influx into Republican states of refugees from NY, NJ, CA who carry their political culture on their backs.  And, even though they flee tax-n-spendism, to low tax states in the mid-South, Southeast, and all over the West, they then tend to vote little-by-little for the same kind of governance that they fled.  Not unlike Mexicans immigrants who are accustomed to the political economy of fascism...making a perfect D constituency.

CitizenOfTheRepublic

In the live chat, comments were flying by, so hard to keep up.  But, I was particularly commending to you all  Glenn Reynold's proposals to give the coasts what they want, high taxes, in a form that will make them feel it.  Eliminate deductibility of state & local taxes.  I don't get big local government here in TN and then get to pay less to the federal coffers, now do I?  [hehehe...obviously, i live well on what would be starvation wages on the coasts, while the progressive income tax is like a honey badger on that little bit of unfairness]

Even more useful would be Glenn's proposal to have a special 50% (or HIGHER) tax on the increase of non-government salary for a few years after one leaves government.  The public and new/small companies are getting regulated to death, while the dominant regulated companies/industries have captured the regulators by hiring the old regulators and holding out the promise of future reward.  Nip it in the bud!

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/158482/

http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/120639/

I also brought up cracking down on excessive compensation in nonprofits: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/158058/

Edited on December 20, 2012 at 7:05am
CitizenOfTheRepublic

Great podcast, as always!  You all HAVE to do this more frequently.  
Regarding party ID & guns, someone (probably Glenn, instapundit.com) pointed to this post by Nate Silver: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/in-gun-ownership-statistics-partisan-divide-is-sharp/

CitizenOfTheRepublic
Tripedis Canis: During the discussion about the de-institutionalizing of the mentally ill during the 80's and 90's, I was struck by the thought that the mentally ill were being freed ...doing so was justified as a "civil rights" issue, although at heart, it was a cost savings measure.

I think you're quite wrong about why de-institutionalization happened...little to do with budgets, mostly to do with "humanity."  involuntary confinement of anyone - criminal or insane  - is going to lead to some number of horror stories - the abuse (physical & sexual) and neglect that happen when some people have complete control over others.  people were affected by those... in the same way that they are affected by mass shootings...they want to fix it by doing something.  in the case of involuntary confinement of mentally ill, it was the "new", "modern", "kind" thing to do...set them free, medicate them...give them "services."

i'm guessing the group homes and all the one-on-one care that is provided through residential services costs more than locking the mentally ill up in a few large institutions.  i can't imagine that it's worse than even, budget-wise.

CitizenOfTheRepublic

haha...sure, in which he says just what i said in defending him a few hours after he was criticized by one commenter two days ago.   

facts is facts.

also, doesn't Jonah have a membership here with which to respond*?

* not that the cross post ain't serving to drive traffic.  oooooh...now i get it; it's a profit deal. 

Blue Yeti: Jonah's response is here. · 9 minutes ago
Edited on December 17, 2012 at 10:33pm
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