I am a public school teacher in California. Today as I was preparing a lesson plan, I noticed that the high school history textbook I am using mentions the Sixteenth Amendment exactly twice:
Once when they printed the text of the U.S. Constution, and a second time that I will share in its entirety.
"Federal Income Tax. With lower tariff rates, the federal government had to replace the revenue that tariffs had previously supplied. Ratified in 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment legalized a graduated income tax, which provided revenue by taxing individual earnings and corporate profits.
Under this graduated tax, larger incomes were taxed at higher rates than smaller incomes. The tax began with a modest tax on family incomes over $4,000 and ranged from 1 percent to a maximum of 6 percent on incomes over $500,000. Initially, few congressmen realized the potential of the income tax, but by 1917, the government was receiving more money on the income tax than it had ever gained from tariffs. today, income taxes on corporations and individuals represent the federal government's main source of revenue."
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Monday, July 22, 2013
Who "Lost" the War on Poverty?
There are an increasing number of people discussing the failure of the War on Poverty to end poverty over the last 50 years. While it is true that poverty still exists, that is not due to the failure to improve the lives of the poor. Instead there are three reasons why there are just as many poor still among us, despite the trillions we have spent, and the millions who have improved their lives.
The first, most obvious, and mostly ignored reason is that we keep importing other countries' poor people, somewhere between 15 and 20 million of them in the last 25 years. That's between 5% and 10% of our population. These people are mostly uneducated peasants unprepared (and often unwilling because they are here illegally) to operate in a modern society. Instead, they bring their native countries' pathologies with them. To make things worse, usually any wealth they accumulate is sent back to their native country to either subsidize the lives of people there, or worse, pay for them to come here also.
The second reason is the breakdown of the family. The breakdown is due to both government policies and cultural shifts. The breakdown of the family over the last 50 years has produced generations of governmental dependence and a permanent culture of failure. In successful cultures, dependence on handouts is seen as disgraceful, or at least embarrassing. In failed cultures, the opposite is true. People who fail to take as many handouts as possible are seen as suckers. A significant number of the poor in the United States today have not only been poor for generations, but the same is true for everyone they know.
The third reason is that we keep changing the goal line. It is entirely possible for people to be considered poor by the government today, that have a standard of living that would have been considered wealthy by the standards when LBJ started his war on poverty. The biggest problem facing the poor in the United States today is obesity!
We need to come to the realization that despite our best efforts, there is always going to be an underclass (especially with open borders) that is ignorant, functionally illiterate, actually hostile to the culture of success, steeped in the culture of victimization, and loudly demanding the government provide them an increasingly higher standard of living. The question is, what do we do with them? I am stumped. While I abhor their solutions and ideology, you have to give the Progressives credit for thinking about this problem back in the 1920's. The modern Left has simply decided to abuse and manipulate this underclass for political power.
The first, most obvious, and mostly ignored reason is that we keep importing other countries' poor people, somewhere between 15 and 20 million of them in the last 25 years. That's between 5% and 10% of our population. These people are mostly uneducated peasants unprepared (and often unwilling because they are here illegally) to operate in a modern society. Instead, they bring their native countries' pathologies with them. To make things worse, usually any wealth they accumulate is sent back to their native country to either subsidize the lives of people there, or worse, pay for them to come here also.
The second reason is the breakdown of the family. The breakdown is due to both government policies and cultural shifts. The breakdown of the family over the last 50 years has produced generations of governmental dependence and a permanent culture of failure. In successful cultures, dependence on handouts is seen as disgraceful, or at least embarrassing. In failed cultures, the opposite is true. People who fail to take as many handouts as possible are seen as suckers. A significant number of the poor in the United States today have not only been poor for generations, but the same is true for everyone they know.
The third reason is that we keep changing the goal line. It is entirely possible for people to be considered poor by the government today, that have a standard of living that would have been considered wealthy by the standards when LBJ started his war on poverty. The biggest problem facing the poor in the United States today is obesity!
We need to come to the realization that despite our best efforts, there is always going to be an underclass (especially with open borders) that is ignorant, functionally illiterate, actually hostile to the culture of success, steeped in the culture of victimization, and loudly demanding the government provide them an increasingly higher standard of living. The question is, what do we do with them? I am stumped. While I abhor their solutions and ideology, you have to give the Progressives credit for thinking about this problem back in the 1920's. The modern Left has simply decided to abuse and manipulate this underclass for political power.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Things Taken For Granted
We take so much of our lives today for granted. Our daily lives are full of man made miracles that have become mundane. We expect the lights to come on, the water to run etc. But we also calmly accept and deal with terrors.
Everyday, millions of Americans, much of them either self medicating themselves with caffiene (or desperately needing to do so), a rather large percent of them distracted by activities such as texting, putting on their make up or badly playing the air guitar to their favorite song, successfully manage to operate several tons of machinery, at high speeds, with very little space between them with remarkably little loss of life or property damage.
Here's some bonus food for thought. The next time someone starts talking about flying cars.......imagine all of those idiots next to you on the freeway flying next to you instead.
Everyday, millions of Americans, much of them either self medicating themselves with caffiene (or desperately needing to do so), a rather large percent of them distracted by activities such as texting, putting on their make up or badly playing the air guitar to their favorite song, successfully manage to operate several tons of machinery, at high speeds, with very little space between them with remarkably little loss of life or property damage.
Here's some bonus food for thought. The next time someone starts talking about flying cars.......imagine all of those idiots next to you on the freeway flying next to you instead.
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Monday, October 08, 2012
Prediction Election 2012
I've already made this prediction in several other places, but here for the record is my prediction:
Romney will beat Obama at least as badly as Obama beat McCain
Republicans will keep the House, and take the Senate
Aiken will even win in Missouri.
Update 11/6/12:
Well I, and the American people, sure blew that one.
I guess we'll find out if the Chinese will really let us go $20 trillion in debt.
Romney will beat Obama at least as badly as Obama beat McCain
Republicans will keep the House, and take the Senate
Aiken will even win in Missouri.
Update 11/6/12:
Well I, and the American people, sure blew that one.
I guess we'll find out if the Chinese will really let us go $20 trillion in debt.
Sunday, October 07, 2012
The End of the Beginning?
I just watched the livestream of the launch of the SpaceX mission to the International Space Station (ISS). (As an aside, just how fantastic is that fact? I can stream live high definition video over the internet! I remember taking vacumn tubes out of the back of my TV set to take down to the drug store to replace!) This launch is being almost totally ignored by the MSM and popular culture. However I believe that one day, this will be seen as a turning point, a twenty-first century golden spike if you will. For the first time, a totally private company has launched a reusable spacecraft on a commercial mission. I frankly don't know whether the geek or the historian in me is more excited.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Little Fuzzy
I just got through reading all three of Piper's stories about the Fuzzies in an omnibus edition called The Complete Fuzzy. In a previous post I discussed the Fuzzy books and expressed my opposition to the Scalzi re-boot called Fuzzy Nation. Well, after re-reading the original books I begin to understand.
First of all, I am officially predicting a movie project, probably something CGI dominated like Avatar.
Secondly, the original books are obvious artifacts of their time. The first two were published in the early 1960's, but I'd be willing to bet that they had been originally written in the 1950's, they definitely have a 50's vibe to them. The main "corporate" characters in the book could have come straight out of Madmen, and almost every chapter has a reference to "cocktail hour". The most "objectionable" part to most people however is the relationship between humans and fuzzies. It is pretty condescending and patronizing. ( I seem to remember the Mayhar book dealing with this and attempting to disarm it) I could easily see some Phd writing a monograph comparing the humans to Europeans and the fuzzies to those colonized by the Europeans. I fully expect Scalzi's fuzzies to be much more "mature" and capable than Piper's fuzzies.
Thirdly, Piper's vision of future technology was severely limited. In fact I can see a viable argument that Piper's fuzzy books aren't science fiction at all. I seem to remember Tuning's and Mayhar's books being more science fiction, however they are no longer cannon since the publication of the third Piper book. It will be interesting to see if either Scalzi's book, or the Diehr book include any part of Mayhar's or Tuning's work.
I would also be interested to see if Piper's fuzzies had anything to do with David Weber's treecats. If I ever get a chance to ask to Weber about it I will.
First of all, I am officially predicting a movie project, probably something CGI dominated like Avatar.
Secondly, the original books are obvious artifacts of their time. The first two were published in the early 1960's, but I'd be willing to bet that they had been originally written in the 1950's, they definitely have a 50's vibe to them. The main "corporate" characters in the book could have come straight out of Madmen, and almost every chapter has a reference to "cocktail hour". The most "objectionable" part to most people however is the relationship between humans and fuzzies. It is pretty condescending and patronizing. ( I seem to remember the Mayhar book dealing with this and attempting to disarm it) I could easily see some Phd writing a monograph comparing the humans to Europeans and the fuzzies to those colonized by the Europeans. I fully expect Scalzi's fuzzies to be much more "mature" and capable than Piper's fuzzies.
Thirdly, Piper's vision of future technology was severely limited. In fact I can see a viable argument that Piper's fuzzy books aren't science fiction at all. I seem to remember Tuning's and Mayhar's books being more science fiction, however they are no longer cannon since the publication of the third Piper book. It will be interesting to see if either Scalzi's book, or the Diehr book include any part of Mayhar's or Tuning's work.
I would also be interested to see if Piper's fuzzies had anything to do with David Weber's treecats. If I ever get a chance to ask to Weber about it I will.
T.D.I.M. - Mar 28, 1980
The number one song on this date in 1980 was Another Brick in the Wall (Part II) by Pink Floyd. This song came off the famous (infamous?) The Wall album. The album would later be turned into a musical featuring extended animation scenes. The clip of the song below is taken from the movie.
T.D.H. - Mar 28
This date was a good date for beer drinkers in the United States. First, on this date in 1836, Frederick Pabst was born in Germany. He would later move to America and marry a Brewer's daughter. He eventually bought into the business. He would go on to greatly expand the business and name it after himself. Pabst would become a major figure in the beer industry and the city of Milwaukee.
On this date in 1899, August Anheuser Busch, Jr was born. He would take control of the Anheuser-Busch brewery from his older brother and make it the largest brewery in the world. He was the grandson of the brewery's founder, and his grandson is currently the CEO of the company. He was the one who introduced the Clydesdale horses to the Budweiser image. He also bought the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
American Exceptionalism
I have just finished watching a video on American Exceptionalism by Bill Whittle. Far too often I hear the Left make the argument that there is nothing special about the United States, that we are just one of what will soon be 196 nations. (Man, I remember thinking that 156 was a large number when I was doing M.U.N. in high school)
The Right knows that in fact the United States is exceptional, and has been for most of its history. Everything from the peaceful transfer of power from President Washington to President Adams, (and more importantly and more impressively from President Adams to President Jefferson) to the Berlin airlift to America's efforts to help Japan after the recent earthquake and tsunami. It is a simple, easily understood fact...we are exceptional. History will judge us so too, for many of the reasons that Whittle discusses in his video.
The Left cannot acknowledge that America is exceptional, because their whole ideology is based on fundamentally changing America, which would be idiotic if indeed America was exceptional. A few might attempt to argue that they are trying to make America more exceptional than it already is. My response is to ask them why they are trying to make the United States more like Europe? There are places in Europe that still don't have peaceful transfers of power, especially among political enemies. How many European planes flew into Berlin during that crisis? How many European aircraft carriers or helicopter carriers are off the coast of Japan providing relief?
The simple fact is, our goal should be to transform the rest of the world to more closely resemble the United States rather than transform the United States to look like the rest of the world.
And for those of you who lived in the United Kingdom with me back in the 80's...which UK would you rather live in? The one of the 1980's or the one that exists today?
The Right knows that in fact the United States is exceptional, and has been for most of its history. Everything from the peaceful transfer of power from President Washington to President Adams, (and more importantly and more impressively from President Adams to President Jefferson) to the Berlin airlift to America's efforts to help Japan after the recent earthquake and tsunami. It is a simple, easily understood fact...we are exceptional. History will judge us so too, for many of the reasons that Whittle discusses in his video.
The Left cannot acknowledge that America is exceptional, because their whole ideology is based on fundamentally changing America, which would be idiotic if indeed America was exceptional. A few might attempt to argue that they are trying to make America more exceptional than it already is. My response is to ask them why they are trying to make the United States more like Europe? There are places in Europe that still don't have peaceful transfers of power, especially among political enemies. How many European planes flew into Berlin during that crisis? How many European aircraft carriers or helicopter carriers are off the coast of Japan providing relief?
The simple fact is, our goal should be to transform the rest of the world to more closely resemble the United States rather than transform the United States to look like the rest of the world.
And for those of you who lived in the United Kingdom with me back in the 80's...which UK would you rather live in? The one of the 1980's or the one that exists today?
T.D.I.H. - Mar 27
On this date in 1915, Typhoid Mary was put into permanent involuntary quarantine. Her name was Mary Mallon. She was an Irish immigrant who worked as a cook. She spread typhoid to her clients, there are at least seven recorded instances of the families she worked for coming down with the disease. She denied that she was the source of the disease. She was previously quarantined for a three year period, but released when she promised to no longer work as a cook, and take precautions not to spread the disease. She violated both of these promises. She died while being held, and spent almost thirty years in quarantine. After death, the typhoid virus was found in her organs, and it is presumed that she caught the disease before birth from her mother.
T.D.A.T.M. - Mar 26, 2000
The number one movie on this date in the US continued to be Erin Brokovich. I generally love Julia roberts movies, but this one turned me off from the start, and I have never seen more than a 10 min clip of it. If the clip below of someones ten funniest moments from the movie is accurate, I haven't missed much. It appears to mainly be clips of Julia cussing.
T.D.I.H. - Mar 26
On this date in 1830, the Book Of Mormon was first published. The Book of Mormon is a sacred text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other smaller related religious movements. The commonly used name to describe these churches, Mormon, obviously comes from the title of this book. Many Mormons believe that this is a historical record of Jesus in the new world, copied by Joseph Smith from golden plates. Other Mormons believe that Smith was inspiried by God to create this book.
Friday, March 25, 2011
T.D.A.T.M. - Mar 25, 1990
The number one movie on this date in the US was Pretty Woman. I have definitely seen this one. In fact if I am channel surfing and hit this movie, I stop and watch it. Again. I think Richard Gere and Julia Roberts had a good chemistry, and I wish we had seen more of Laura San Giacomo. Hector Elizondo was perfect, but I think Jason Alexander was miscast. I think Tom Arnold would have been better in the role for instance. After watching it just now, this is one of those trailers that basically tells the whole movie.......
T.D.I.H. - Mar 25
This date is officially "Tolkien Reading Day". I've read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Once. I tried The Silmarillion, and didn't make it half through. I appreciate the artistic merit of Tolkien. I just think he's boring as hell. The movies were OK though...beautiful cinematography.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
T.D.A.T.M. - Mar 24, 1980
The number one movie on this date in 1980 was still Kramer V Kramer. This is some serious cultural domination. Remember at this time most cities only had a dozen broadcast TV channels at the most. Cable TV was in its infancy. The internet as it exists today wasn't even a dream yet.
T.D.I.H. - Mar 24
On this date in 1944, R. Lee Ermey entered the world. He would go on to actually serve in the US Marine Corps, including a stint as a drill instructor. He would go on to gain fame as an actor, primarily by portraying Marine Corps drill instructors. I remember him from The Boys In Company C (package check!), but he became famous for his role in Full Metal Jacket. They actually made an action figure out of him. I bought one for my brother once. (wow! It's selling for $100+ nowdays!) Here is the clip that most people know him by.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
T.D.I.H. - Mar 23
On this date in 1904, H. Beam Piper was born. He is, in my opinion, one of the most under-recognized seminal authors of American science fiction. I began my love affair with science fiction reading Heinlein, Norton, Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, and McCaffrey. It was only years (and hundreds of used bookstores) later that I stumbled upon my first Piper book. I believe it was Space Viking. I quickly began to scour all the new and used bookstores for anything of his I could get my hands on. Sadly, he committed suicide just as he was on the cusp of becoming the success he should have been.
One small part of Piper's larger Terro-Human Future History universe is the Fuzzy saga. This group of books was both a source of great enjoyment and frustration for me when I first read them. First of all, they were extremely hard to find. People who owned copies of these books rarely put them in used book stores, and they were rarely in print. (I just ordered the book I linked to in my last link...all three of Piper's fuzzy stories in one edition!) Secondly, Little Fuzzy was published in 1962 and Fuzzy Sapiens was published in 1964 (the year piper died), however the third book, Fuzzies and Other People was originally lost and not published until 1984. In the meantime, two authors had written books in the Fuzzy series that were contradicted by the eventual publication of Piper's third book: Fuzzy Bones by William Tuning; and Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey by Ardath Mayhar. As a fan of the Fuzzy saga, I would love to read sequels to all three author's works, even though some would necessarily be inconsistent with others.
Well, I have partly got my wish. First of all, one of the more renowned modern science fiction authors, John Scalazi has written a book called Fuzzy Nation that is due out this May. This book is advertised as a "re-boot" of Little Fuzzy. I am opposed to such things philosophically. I have no problem with turning to another author's work for inspiration (Such as Flashman originating as a character in Tom Brown's Schooldays) or re-telling the story from another's point of view (such as Grendel which re-tells the Beowulf story from the point of view of the monster) or even writing sequels to another person's stories, either with the author's permission or after they are dead (such as happened twice to the Fuzzy saga as detailed above). However a re-boot is a whole different thing. That is taking the author's vision and altering it. Would we allow someone to paint over the Mona Lisa with their version of it? If Scalazi's book become popular, that is what will have been effectively done. Having said that, I have ordered Scalazi's book, and I hope to enjoy it. In fact I hope he writes several sequels and I enjoy them. (I frequently run out of reading material)
Then today while writing this post I learn that someone named Wolfgang Diehr is writing a sequel that is due to be printed this spring. Fuzzy Ergo Sum is described as a sequel to the original series, so I presume it will be faithful to piper's work and ignore the other two Fuzzy books. I can find very little information on it, it is not listed on Amazon, and the printer appears to be doing very small print runs. In a hopeful sign, the author appears to have worked with John Carr as an editor, who has done at lot of work in Piper's Paratime universe.
One small part of Piper's larger Terro-Human Future History universe is the Fuzzy saga. This group of books was both a source of great enjoyment and frustration for me when I first read them. First of all, they were extremely hard to find. People who owned copies of these books rarely put them in used book stores, and they were rarely in print. (I just ordered the book I linked to in my last link...all three of Piper's fuzzy stories in one edition!) Secondly, Little Fuzzy was published in 1962 and Fuzzy Sapiens was published in 1964 (the year piper died), however the third book, Fuzzies and Other People was originally lost and not published until 1984. In the meantime, two authors had written books in the Fuzzy series that were contradicted by the eventual publication of Piper's third book: Fuzzy Bones by William Tuning; and Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey by Ardath Mayhar. As a fan of the Fuzzy saga, I would love to read sequels to all three author's works, even though some would necessarily be inconsistent with others.
Well, I have partly got my wish. First of all, one of the more renowned modern science fiction authors, John Scalazi has written a book called Fuzzy Nation that is due out this May. This book is advertised as a "re-boot" of Little Fuzzy. I am opposed to such things philosophically. I have no problem with turning to another author's work for inspiration (Such as Flashman originating as a character in Tom Brown's Schooldays) or re-telling the story from another's point of view (such as Grendel which re-tells the Beowulf story from the point of view of the monster) or even writing sequels to another person's stories, either with the author's permission or after they are dead (such as happened twice to the Fuzzy saga as detailed above). However a re-boot is a whole different thing. That is taking the author's vision and altering it. Would we allow someone to paint over the Mona Lisa with their version of it? If Scalazi's book become popular, that is what will have been effectively done. Having said that, I have ordered Scalazi's book, and I hope to enjoy it. In fact I hope he writes several sequels and I enjoy them. (I frequently run out of reading material)
Then today while writing this post I learn that someone named Wolfgang Diehr is writing a sequel that is due to be printed this spring. Fuzzy Ergo Sum is described as a sequel to the original series, so I presume it will be faithful to piper's work and ignore the other two Fuzzy books. I can find very little information on it, it is not listed on Amazon, and the printer appears to be doing very small print runs. In a hopeful sign, the author appears to have worked with John Carr as an editor, who has done at lot of work in Piper's Paratime universe.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
T.D.I.M. - Mar 22, 1990
The number one song in the US on this date continued to be Escapade by Janet Jackson. Here is a clip of Janet singing a medley of her songs live, including Escapade.
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