Monday, April 13, 2009

Monday's musings...

So the U.S. hostage was rescued from the pirates. Excellent.
Good for the Navy SEALS who got the job done. Good for President Obama for authorizing the operation. And I'm glad to hear our progressive, Democrat friends praising the military and being glad for the use of American military force. We didn't hear enough of that the past 8 years...

RIP: Philadelphia Phillies announcer Harry Kalas has died, at the age of 73.
Phillies fans of course will miss him. But so will the rest of us--he was the excellent voice of NFL Films for years, taking over for the "voice of God", John Facenda, some years ago. He will be missed.

So what do liberal elites, such as NY Times columnist Paul Krugman, think of the fact that you folks don't like the high rate of federal taxation these days? Well, see what he writes today:
"One way to get a good sense of the current state of the G.O.P., and also to see how little has really changed, is to look at the “tea parties” that have been held in a number of places already, and will be held across the country on Wednesday. These parties — antitaxation demonstrations that are supposed to evoke the memory of the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution — have been the subject of considerable mockery, and rightly so. But everything that critics mock about these parties has long been standard practice within the Republican Party.Thus, President Obama is being called a “socialist” who seeks to destroy capitalism. Why? Because he wants to raise the tax rate on the highest-income Americans back to, um, about 10 percentage points less than it was for most of the Reagan administration."
Er, well, now, Mr. Krugman--that ignores the possibility of future tax hikes, not to mention all the tax hikes you ignore...such as the raise in the tobacco tax, which directly harms lower-income Americans. But hey, do you care?
Then there's this, concerning frequent progressive whipping-boy Rush Limbaugh:
"Speaking of Mr. Limbaugh: the most impressive thing about his role right now is the fealty he is able to demand from the rest of the right. The abject apologies he has extracted from Republican politicians who briefly dared to criticize him have been right out of Stalinist show trials."

Yes, that's right--when persons say wrong, false, and stupid things about Rush, and thus are forced to apologize because of the ensuing outcry...that's to be compared to the actions of Josef Stalin, who killed millions. Talk about ridiculous!
Nor can elites like Krugman bring themselves to think that you ordinary folks actually BELIEVE in your anti-tax sentiments:
"Last but not least: it turns out that the tea parties don’t represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They’re AstroTurf (fake grass roots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects. In particular, a key role is being played by FreedomWorks, an organization run by Richard Armey, the former House majority leader, and supported by the usual group of right-wing billionaires. And the parties are, of course, being promoted heavily by Fox News."
Wow! What about all the organizations and billionaires--ever heard of George Soros, Mr. Krugman?--who have been promoting Mr. Obama???

Always remember, folks--persons like Krugman hate everything about you.

BASEBALL DIARY: the Detroit Tigers wound up sweeping the Texas Rangers, winning yesterday 6-4. The keys for the Tigers--their bullpen held the Rangers down and then preserved the win...and they got some key hits in the 8th, especially from Brandon Inge. The Rangers have to be concerned over their bullpen--it got hit hard twice over the weekend.
The Chicago Cubs meanwhile took 2 of 3 again, for the second time on their road trip; they beat Milwaukee 8-5. The Cubs bullpen continued to struggle a bit; but they did a good job of working Milwaukee pitchers for walks (they got FOUR bases-loaded walks in the 4th), and Ryan Dempster pitched OK and got the win.