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This week we take on guns, super heroes, the meaning of Christmas, the people who ring the bells, and parse that darned figgy pudding song. And yes, of course we give an update on the state of Ricochet. It’s the last Ricochet Podcast of 2012 (but not the last ever, we promise). Thanks for another great year, folks. We’ll see you on January 4th. Merry Christmas, everyone!
Music from this week’s episode:
- We Wish You A Merry Christmas by Weezer
The Ricochet Podcast opening theme was composed and produced by James Lileks.
Thanks, EJHill.
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My answer to Peter’s question (James’ question? Whatever…) about the national equivalent of Giuliani showing seriousness by getting rid of the NY squeegee people: Domestic Oil and Gas Production.
Approve a few pipelines. Allow some significant fracking (sorry Matt Damon). More drilling on federal land.
Most of us would probably put up with more subsidized windmills and solar panel farms if our houses were heated by, and our cars fueled by, our own oil and gas.
As for Peter’s question (James’?) about the American version of Gerard Depardieu moving to Belgium: George McGovern as small businessman.
Or at least he should have been recognized that way, but alas. I am surprised the left didn’t demonize him the way they usually do when a Democrat goes off script.
http://www.newsmax.com/FranTarkenton/McGovern-Small-Business-Owner/2012/10/22/id/460970
“Time for singin’ / time for jokes / gather ’round and join us, folks!”
That’s one of the things they should teach you in college and don’t.
Also, I’m glad to hear we haven’t jumped head-first off the Ricochet Fiscal Cliff, though there’s still quite a lot of work to be done beyond increasing subscription numbers.
I couldn’t tell if Rob said Quorum or Harem at around the 9 or 10 minute mark.
Lovely, Yeti and Gentlemen! Merry Christmas and Happy Kwanzaa – just for you, Rob!
Thanks Peter, for the shoutout and kind words in the podcast.
To expand on my highly abbreviated point, the Bush tax cuts actually provided a greater relative reduction for the poor. While the 39.6% tax rate for high income taxpayers was reduced to 35%, the 15% tax rate for low income taxpayers was reduced to 10%,
That means that when the GWB tax cuts expire, high income folks will see a 13% increase in their tax rate and low income folks will see a 50% increase in theirs.
That’s huge.
I’ll suggest that rolling back the Bush tax cuts is an opportunity to rip the “tax cuts for the wealthy” narrative to shreds, and to give the poor a reason to rise up against the Democratic party.
Imagine a headline proclaiming “Obama’s 50% tax increase on the poor”.
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/
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.
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.
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.
How many “random shootings” have been perpetrated by mental institution refugees?
If you need a guest podcast for next week, I hear these guys are available.
I think this is a great idea.
In terms of politicians, the problem is that most of them tend to make lousy guests, as they give mostly canned or very safe answers. And they are notoriously difficult to book as their schedule is always changing. But yes, we will endeavor to have more of them on.
I guess this explains the lack of Jake Tapper?
Good for Jake! Suggests maybe CNN is trying to stake out the real middle ground.
We’re going to re-book him for early January.
Thanks for the shout-out on the podcast, guys (and for getting my admittedly difficult online moniker right). I didn’t expect that at all; I found out about it from my partner, who listened to the show a few hours before I did.
We’re happy to help, and I look forward to doing more in the future to help Ricochet survive and thrive. An online community built around a civil discussion of politics and a lot of very sharp content, well, that doesn’t grow on trees, y’know, so it’s no wonder so many people here are determined to keep it going.
I can’t help out with any financial cliff remedies, but I do know of an example of Patrick O’Brian on the moon. David Drake’s RCN series is sort of like Aubery and Maturin in space.
The high profile names are great of course, but you guys should always bring on a random contributor in addition to an A-lister so that we can get to know these people better… I for one would like to know Pejman’s story…Also, you should solicit interest from R-congressman. Send a letter introducing Ricochet, explaining the traffic and invite them to come on. If you guys write the letter, I bet you could crowd-source the names of their press people with email addresses by appealing to members. Too time consuming for an editor? Let the membership do it.
David Drake was, in fact, explicitly doing a futuristic, SF take on the Aubrey-Maturin series. On the other hand, he’s not nearly the writer that O’Brian was and so I found the first one (the only one I tried) a bit disappointing.
I read some Encylopedia Brown adventures as a kid.
Anyway, regarding America’s version of Gerard Depardieu, there are a bunch of Hollywood types especially who haven’t lived anywhere near Hollywood for years. And I expect more will be departing, although they’re not the type to announce it.
When I think of things/people like that, the first example I always come up with is Johnny Depp. Depp makes all (pretty much) of his money here, since even when someone in Burma pays to see one of his movie, his paycheck is still written in the People’s Republic of California. But he hasn’t been a US resident since buying his own island in 2004, from what I remember.
That’s another problem with having only a consumption tax or national sales tax strategy too. People like Depp who don’t spend their large incomes here, wouldn’t pay taxes to support the place where they make their money.