byam, people like Warren Buffet don’t pay any taxes, to notice.

Tax increases adversely affect the economy. We can easily handle our debt. If we sneaze, the rest of the world still catches pneumonia. You’re imagining elephants where there are ants. I listed all the details too often to bother this late, tonight. Things are good. You just want them to appear bad so that your socialists will win. Just.look.around. People never had it this good. Don’t bother listing the gas price. It’s still nothing and Soros just said that it’s a fluke. I hope your other god has it right.

I won’t take that as an insult. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, the great titans of capitalism, are often called socialists when they call for a different tax policy or higher taxes on the wealthy. Neither of them is very political. By the way, Buffet does pay taxes and has never tried to hide his wealth in offshore tax shelters. (Many on the right prefer to listen to the Walton family and other trust fund families as the true representatives of capitalism.)

I’d suggest that you pick up this week’s copy of Barrons to better understand how many on Wall Street read today’s situation. You say “People never had it so good.” You and the editors of Barrons are in total disagreement.

This country is undergoing an unprecedented fall in the American standard of living, resulting from both the falling dollar and soaring commodity prices. Barrons notes with sadness that the government is sitting on its laurels while our way of life is undergoing historic change. And as many on Wall Street point out, flooding the world with dollars through never-ending deficit spending only pushes the dollar lower and makes a serious rebound in our currency less likely.

Warren Buffet said that tax cuts didn’t simply ‘fall from the sky’. Economists like Alan Greenspan and many of our greatest capitalists will tell you that it’s better to raise taxes than run massive deficits- economic growth is neither real or sustainable when it’s achieved through huge deficit spending- by the government pumping dollars into the economy that aren’t raised in taxes but instead put on the national credit card.

Most Americans know that things aren’t so great. McCain might be the best solution if he has the guts to say what he believes- we can’t continue deficit spending indefinitely; our situation may require some tax hikes on everyone. We have an obligation to protect the next generation from a suffocating debt load. Nor should we ask our kids to live in a world where the dollar has lost 75% of it’s purchasing power.

I’m curious to see what that vertical white spot is in the lower part of the upper right quadrant just below the horizon, though.

.
It’s the north pole of Mars, silly

The search for life on other worlds ramped up again yesterday when…

The Mars Phoenix lander touched down in the far north of the Red Planet, after a 680 million-km (423 million-mile) journey from Earth.

The probe is equipped with a robotic …..

Tax increases adversely affect the economy. We can easily handle our debt. If we sneaze, the rest of the world still catches pneumonia. You’re imagining elephants where there are ants. I listed all the details too often to bother this late, tonight. Things are good. You just want them to appear bad so that your socialists will win. Just.look.around. People never had it this good. Don’t bother listing the gas price. It’s still nothing and Soros just said that it’s a fluke. I hope your other god has it right.

I wonder if the object in the photo is related to the Phoenix.

There’s another factor which caused many delays which we often take for granted. The Soviet Union was focused on mostly on pure symbolism. We were then and are now focused on achievement. The Soviet’s priority for safety and survival was far less central than our own. Their people were expendable and where the hydrazine ended up was low priority. Laika was sent into space orbit. Rest in peace Laika. Mother Russia’s too cheap to bring you back to Earth too. That’s central to why the Soviet Union finally collapsed. The focus was on image and intimidation (the ICBM aspect) rather than the science.

You made me laugh at your idiotic tax statement. Warren Buffet could enlighten you on that, if he were not blinded by idiology, as you are. Rest assured that he knows better.

Let’s throw out all the arguments about return on investment. The NASA budget breaks down to $55 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.

That’s nothing, let’s keep things in perspective.

George W. Bush has added over $10,000 in federal debt for every man, woman, and child in the country.
What, did you think it was a free war? Did you think those tax rebates and tax cuts for the richest simply fell from the sky? As Warren Buffet recently said, there are always consequences.

Of course, we are paying interest annually on that debt as well. That $55 is, relatively speaking, pocket change.

Unless you’re talking about abiogenesis?

misterpeasea on May 26, 2008 at 11:57 PM

Whoa, there’s a name for it.

- The Cat

P.S. Oil is a mineral type deposit like any other. Gold veins found in rocks doesn’t mean there used to be golden worms. . .

MirCat on May 26, 2008 at 11:27 PM

Whoa. Not sure I can swallow that particular theory. Oil is not a mineral type deposit. Minerals are inorganic. Oil is organic.

Unless you’re talking about abiogenesis?

That actually seems kind of high. That’s $275 for a family of five. What if there was a box on tax returns where you could voluntarily contribute to non-militaristic space exploration? You and like-minded people (probably including me) could contribute, maybe a lot more than $55 a head, and people that don’t want to wouldn’t be forced to.

scotta on May 26, 2008 at 11:21 PM

I think that’s a very reasonable idea, and I’d choose to support NASA that way, if given the voluntary choice to do it.

I’d much rather choose to whom I give and invest my money, than have that choice forced upon me.

When do we start drillin it for oil?

Maxx on May 26, 2008 at 2:00 PM

Won’t it freek a lot of people out when they find some.

- The Cat

P.S. Oil is a mineral type deposit like any other. Gold veins found in rocks doesn’t mean there used to be golden worms. . .

I understand the free enterprise argument, and I’m sure the future holds more and more opportunities for free enterprise to take the lead away from government, but I’m not going to complain about the $55 bucks. It was better spent there then on the fajitas and On Golden Pond.

Limerick on May 26, 2008 at 10:54 PM

That actually seems kind of high. That’s $275 for a family of five. What if there was a box on tax returns where you could voluntarily contribute to non-militaristic space exploration? You and like-minded people (probably including me) could contribute, maybe a lot more than $55 a head, and people that don’t want to wouldn’t be forced to.