PROGRESSIVISM IN BRIEF: We are good and therefore can act badly. Read it all.

WATCHING ATTACK WATCH ... do nothing for the past nine (now eleven) days.

Commenter Max1000 points out that there is some truth to Attack Watch's immigration claims.

MORE MISINFORMATION about environmental pollution from another NGO busy sucking at the government teat. I've linked to the pertinent comment, so let the links settle and then scroll up to read the post first.

WITH RESPECT to taxes and the social contract, here's another thought:

In the broad sense, don't businessmen pay all income and FICA/Medicare taxes? After all, they pay your salary (your income) and withhold some of it (again,
your income) at government direction to pay your state and federal income taxes.
The same is true of FICA/Medicare, though only half of it shows as withheld on
your pay stub.

Aren't they already paying their "fair share"?

FIVE MYTHS ABOUT MILLIONAIRES. From the Washington Post, no less. Did the 'clue bat' strike the editorial office in the dark of night?

I OWN YOU: Obama tells the Congressional Black Caucus to "stop complaining" and start marching.

JEFF JACOBY: "No Democratic presidential candidate could get the nomination unless they deny the large role that natural variability plays in climate."

STEVEN HAYWARD: "[T]he environment is much too important to be left to environmentalists—they’ll just screw it up further...."

DEMOCRATIC SENATORIAL CANDIDATE ELIZABETH WARREN on taxation and the 'social contract'. Hot Air responds by asking if businessmen aren't already part of the social contract?

And finally Instapundit chimes in with some reader responses.

OUT OF EVERY DOLLAR I EARN, how much do I deserve to keep? According to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL): "... you don’t deserve to keep all of it. It’s not a question of deserving, ..."

I've taken the quote slightly out of context, since clearly some taxes must be paid to use for those things only a collective (government) can provide. Here is the real question, as posed -- and answered -- by Tina Korbe:

Why don’t liberals think they deserve to keep more of their money than they do? The first part of Hensley’s question reveals the answer. He didn’t ask, “Of every dollar I possess, how much do I deserve to keep?” He asked, “Of every dollar that I earn, how much do I deserve to keep?” For there are many means by which we come by property and not all of them involve earning. But what we earn, we are much more loathe to part with stupidly. That might explain why earners don’t exactly want to hand their hard-earned cash to a government that has proved itself, time and again, to be horribly irresponsible with tax dollars.

Indeed.

THE ITEMIZED DEDUCTIONS of the rich and famous.


What? They're the same deductions available to you and me?

GOOD: Linda McMahon is running again, this time to replace retiring Senator Joe Lieberman.

RIDE THE LIGHT "NASA wants to provide power to airborne spacecraft without having to use a refueling ship, instead beaming power to the craft via lasers or microwave energy."

It's an interesting reversal of the 70's era enthusiasm for space-based solar powersats.

One question, though. What is an 'airborne' spacecraft?

IT'S CONVENTIONAL WISDOM (Godwin's Law) that the first use of the Nazi analogy signals defeat for the user in a political argument. Here's an amusing counterexample. Click through to watch the video.

THE UNSPOKEN REASON why more Americans are obese. Think of the benefits to Medicare and Social Security if more skinny Americans would die sooner because of smoking.

RANDOM THOUGHT: I saw one of the few remaining McCain/Palin bumper stickers the other day and pondered this question:

Suppose the Republicans had won in 2008, McCain died or became incapacitated, and Sarah Palin succeeded to the presidency. Would I be better or worse off than I am today?

The answer is obvious.

EAT MORE GRASS -- and learn to love it. Your government commands it.

WAS PALIN LIBELED by Joe McGinniss?

Probably not. But he did succeed in trashing his own reputation as a journalist -- assuming he had one to begin with.

YOU BETCHA: Time to Abolish the Education Department? It should have been done years ago.

FIRST there was a Bridge to Nowhere; now there are Government Loans to Nowhere. At least the bridge to nowhere would have been a physical structure.