Monday, January 9th, 2006
Michael Ledeen,
NRO:
…according to Iranians I trust, Osama bin Laden finally departed this world in mid-December. The al Qaeda leader died of kidney failure and was buried in Iran, where he had spent most of his time since the destruction of al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The Iranians who reported this note that this year’s message in conjunction with the Muslim Haj came from his number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, for the first time.
It just goes to show, if you don’t care enough to actually hunt down and catch the world’s most dangerous man, you can always just sit around and wait for him to die. No one lives forever I guess! If only we had used this same strategy in Iraq…
Posted by smithersmpls at 9:13 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, January 9th, 2006
It’s got a good beat and I can dance to it.
UPDATE 1/10/06 8:28pm: Sorry, bad link. Updated now. Check it out
Posted by smithersmpls at 6:45 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, January 9th, 2006
Today’s Anti-Strib question for Liberals: What is the maximum percentage anyone should have to pay in taxes? Is there a limit?
Despite the fact that this question is already being debated on the
Anti-Strib site (?), I will go ahead and post a response here anyway.
I assume that we are talking about income taxes. There certainly should be a limit but I am no economist so I am not qualified to state what that limit should be.
Taxes need to be as high as is necessary to pay for all the things we get from the Federal Government but as low as is necessary so that the citizens of this country are not oppressed by a tyrannical taxing system. At times we have seen income tax rates as high as 94%. I think this high a rate is certainly excessive but the current top end rates of around 30-35% seem to me to be fair.
In lieu of a tax system such as the
Fair Tax, I am not opposed to a sliding tax rate where those at the bottom end of the income range are paying a lower percentage rate while those at the top end are paying a higher rate.
Is this far? Probably not, but it’s tough for me to feel too sorry for those individuals at the top end of the income range. The more money you make the more opportunity you have to invest in opportunities to further expand your income, opportunities that the middle class may not have and opportunities that the poor certainly do not have. Is it fair that the poor don’t have a huge pile of money sitting around that they can invest in order to make even more money? Probably not.
I guess the concept of “fair” relative.
But my preference would be to scrap the entire Federal tax system and replace it with a consumption tax such as the Fair Tax.
Posted by smithersmpls at 4:56 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, January 9th, 2006
Here are this weeks questions for Liberals that I got from Tracy at Anti-Strib:
Monday: What is the maximum percentage anyone should have to pay in taxes? Is there a limit? (click for more)
Tuesday: What is rich? How do you define it? When politicians say they only want to tax the rich, who are they talking about? Is it good to have only the wealthy pay for the government? (click for more)
Wednesday: What is poor? How do you define that? In a global context, do we really have any poor people in the United States today? (click for more)
Thursday: Would you support a $25 minimum wage? If not, what should be the minimum wage and why? (click for more)
Friday: How much money should we spend on K-12 education? (click for more)
My questions for Conservatives are as follows:
Monday: The 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution states: “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” Do believe that, in today’s society, this amendment should provide for unrestricted access to firearms by the general public? (click for more)
Tuesday: Explain your position in regards to the Inheritance (aka death) Tax. (click for more)
Wednesday: Should US citizens have the right to end their lives on their own terms? (click for more)
Thursday: Should members of the US military have the right to speak out publicly against a war, or other government action that they oppose? Or do they have the responsibility to keep their opinions to themselves and support the decision of their commander-in-chief? (click for more)
Friday: Explain your position in regards to “Affirmative Action”. (click for more)
I’ll be posting my own response to today’s question later today. Feel free to comment on Monday’s topic on this post until then.
Posted by smithersmpls at 3:34 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
Monday, January 9th, 2006
I take weekends off in regards to updating the weight chart.
Posted by smithersmpls at 3:32 pm in Uncategorized | Permalink | No Comments »
