Government spending on bailouts, subsidies, grants, salaries and entitlements commands a much larger share of these economies than it did just a few years ago. European austerity has been focused on the private sector — namely, taxpayers with high incomes.
That is the second thing the PIIGGS have in common. The highest income tax rate was recently increased in every one of the troubled PIIGGS except Italy (where it was already too high at 43%). The top tax rate was hiked from 40 to 46.5% in Portugal, from 41 to 48% in Ireland, from 40 to 45% in Greece, from 40 to 50% in Great Britain, and from 48 to 52% in Spain.
Female Princeton grad tells current Princeton women that maybe they should consider getting married in college. Naturally the Ivy league/feminist/MSM complex threw a fit. (Pro-tip: There are few surer signs of leftwing PC think than the word “hetronormative.”)
Dwight brings up another case of journalistic malpractice. “Meet the Sniper Who Killed 2,200 People in Iraq.” As Dwight notes, anyone with even passing knowledge of snipers should know that this claim is ludicrous from the git go. In sports terms, it’s like someone claiming they threw 20 Major League no hitters, or ran a two minute mile. It reminds me of Scott Thomas Beauchamp’s smears about troops in Iraq in The New Republic. (If you remember the Beauchampo affair, it turns out that he was engaged to Elspeeth reeve, who just happened to be a TNR fact-checker. Somebody should make them read Stolen Valor.
There’s much news about Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott as of late, so I’m just going to put it all here in this big virtual pile:
First, Abbott now has a hefty $18 million in his campaign fund, fueling speculation that he will be running for governor in 2014.
Rick Perry claims that if Perry runs again, Abbott won’t run against him, and that they’ve actually discussed this. Maybe. And maybe Perry’s not running again (he says he’ll decide in June or July). But frequently people have been known to misremember conversations, and politicians have been known to change their minds….
Today law-abiding gun owners declared total victory over the gun-grabbing plans of the Travis County Commissioner’s Court:
Travis County Commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday to reverse course on a proposal that would have banned gun shows from county facilities.
Commissioners also agreed to honor an existing contract for nine more gun shows at the Exposition Center.
“I take very seriously the idea of abiding by the law. State law prevents this court from doing much of anything on this issue,” Commissioner Sarah Eckhardt said.
I think it’s great that Travis County Commissioners are actually concerned about obeying the law. Maybe the could spread that attitude to certainotherofficeholders.
Dwight has now put up even more extensive contact information for Austin City Council and Travis County bigwigs, complete with linkable, clickable goodness, providing a more efficient way to express your displeasure over the proposed gun show ban.
Also, here’s Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson debating a gun grabber on the subject:
And here’s a KXAN piece on the issue, including the Abbott news I put up yesterday. Notice how the writer ends with “Both Biscoe and Eckhardt are Democrats. Abbott is a Republican.” Funny that no news outlet felt the need to mention the political affiliation of these seeking gun control (including Ed Scruggs, the Travis County resident initially reported as seeking such a ban, who also happens to be the founder of Circle C Democrats) until a Republican got involved in opposing them.
If Austin or Travis Co. try to ban gun shows they better be ready for a double-barreled lawsuit.
Now, a Twitter post hardly comes to the level of an official press release from the Attorney General’s office, but it does represent a shot across the bow of Austin and Travis County gun grabbers who think they can flout state law without consequences.
Finally, I must admit that I really dig Abbott’s Twitter background:
The second day of ObamaCare testimony, and things are looking up for fans of limited, constitutional government. here’s a passel of links culled from Instapundit, TPPF, NRO and elsewhere:
Reading excerpts from today’s arguments, the justices sound extremely skeptical that the Commerce Claus power extends to enforcing an individual mandate.
Solicitor General Donald Verrelli’s performance seems to have been particularly poor. (Bonus tidbit: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, one of the initiators of the lawsuit to overturn ObamaCare, was in the courtroom audience.)
The Volokh’s Conspiracy’s Ilya Somin chimes in: “Scalia makes the key points that 1) a state must be both “necessary” and “proper” to be authorized by the Necessary and Proper Clause, and (2) a statute cannot be proper if the legal rationale for it would justify nearly unlimited federal power.”
