Lots of flap about Indiana’s new “religious freedom” law that was signed into law this week by Gov. Mike Pence. And for many years, television has set the quirkiest and oddest sitcoms in the Hoosier state. Leslie Knope and her band from Parks and Recreation, the Hecks from The Middle, “Indiana Mole Woman” Kimmy Schmidt … it seemed as though every looney tune came from Indiana.
When I lived there, I took great umbrage at that.
Now? Turns out TV was right!
Boehner Accidentally Explains Why His Deficit Position Is Phony – Bloomberg.
Yesterday, in an interview with Bloomberg Television, House Speaker John Boehner warned that the U.S. government must balance its budget. After all, he said:
“We have spent more than what we have brought into this government for 55 of the last 60 years. There’s no business in America that could survive like this. No household in America that could do this. And this government can’t do this.”
It’s hard to think of better evidence for the sustainability of budget deficits than the fact that we have run them for 55 of the last 60 years.
This is a brilliant piece by Josh Barro on Bloomberg. His best example is the use of Wal-Mart and its extravagant debt and why the company can continue to grow its debt while growing its bottom line.
It’s the same argument that Warren Buffett has repeatedly used when talking about the national debt: debt analysis is a ratio. The ratio of debt to income was enormously out-of-kilter during World War II. It’s not that way now. In spite of the fact that the Federal debt is larger than it’s ever been, so is the “earning power” of the government.
Save this link and shove it under the nose of the next person who bitches about how large the deficit is and how we’re killing our grandchildren’s futures.
Incoming NRA President Calls Civil War The ‘War Of Northern Aggression’ | ThinkProgress.
“The NRA was started, 1871, right here in New York state. It was started by some Yankee generals who didn’t like the way my southern boys had the ability to shoot in what we call the “War of Northern Aggression.”
That’s a quote from NRA President Jim Porter. Are you freakin’ kidding me?
Let me tell you something: I am from the South. I am from the Deep South. (And, oh my God, I can’t tell you how happy I am to say I LEFT!) And there’s no one in the South who calls the Civil War “the War of Northern Aggression” unless they are trying to deliberately raise some hackles or they are drunk-ass windbags. Never, ever in the 21st century would you say such a thing. In the South or anywhere else. (Hell, I kind of find it hard to believe that it was that prevalent in the 19th century; but I’ve been wrong before….)
Or course, this is the same imbecile who goes on to say that people who join the NRA are people who are ready to “fight tyranny.”
Right. Because there is so much tyrannical behavior going on right now that we are desperate to take to the streets like our forebears did against the Continental Army. Because despot-loving mad men (presumably who vote the straight Democratic ticket) are readying themselves to take to the streets to despoil your wives and children and turn everyone gay. And socialist.
Sic temper tyrannis. Fine.
But Jim Porter: bliteus belua es — not that I expect you’ll know how to translate it.
P.S. — Sic temper tyrannis is the motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia. I always heard it said that it translated as “get your foot off of my neck!” Here’s why.
One Last Word 