I haven't had as much time to slide through the intertubes as I have had recently, but I still have some interesting stuff to share. Well, I have some stuff; I guess you get to decide whether it is interesting.I have always tried to avoid politics on my blog(s), but with the economy going in the tank and the imminent nationalization of our finance system, it's hard to stay away from it. Here's just one of quick hit from a few I have bookmarked recently:
I have long thought that one of the keys to the Republicans' successes lay in somehow getting average people to vote against their self-interest and for the elite. This is a chart from the Washington Post comparing the McCain and Obama tax proposals. (Click the chart for the full story.) Everybody I hang out with gets a bigger tax cut under Obama's plan than under McCain's, and Obama raises taxes only on the top 1% of families (by income) in the country. If people do tend to vote their pocketbooks, why would anyone outside those families pick McCain's plan? Do people really believe in the trickle-down theory (what George Bush I once famously called "voodoo economics") or do they just think that someday they, too, will have an income of $3 million a year, and want to protect that imaginary money? How else to explain voting to give a quarter of a million dollar tax break to people who already have more money than god?
Of course, if the Wall Street bailout goes through, I guess all this is subject to change anyway, no?
/serious
Okay, so if they have any of these in Seattle tomorrow (the day of the official launch), I may just be down on Stone Way with my debit card, economy be damned...
If face-to-face roleplaying and multi-sided die are not for you, here's a chance to experience all of the sophisticated intricacies of a fantasy RPG in an online format. Click the pick to play.
Tired of trying to determine how well you would do in a zombie invasion and how you might improve your chances? Just for a change of pace, have a go at this quiz: How Long Could You Survive Chained to a Bunk Bed with a Velociraptor?
2 comments:
The Wall Street bailout is absurd. Another move by mankind to defy natural selection and force everything to last as long as possible. Whatever happened to severe penalties, or taking responsibility for one's actions and mistakes, or learning from those mistakes?
Oy. It burns me up. How can you forge new plans from the ashes if someone else snuffs out the blaze? Though I guess President Bush would support this decision since his whole life - oil, baseball, alcohol, politics - has been one long tale of disastrous mistakes with bailouts from higher powers.
Or we could look at the virtual nationalization of the banking system as the first step toward a socialist economy, comrade! Maybe if the health services industry melts down, too, we'll finally get national health care!
(And your point about GW is valid, and one I hadn't heard yet.)
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