Two Questions...

For Warren Buffet.

First: do you think your capital gains taxes should be compared to others' income taxes?

I'd ask this because Warren Buffet continues to claim that he pays lower taxes than his secretary. This, however, is wrong/misleading for two reasons. First, Buffet is comparing capital gains from stock to his secretary's income from wages. But he is not including the income taxes paid on the corporate level in his tax rate. Unless the corporations from which Buffet gets dividends are making less than his secretary, they are paying taxes in a higher bracket. That higher bracket added to the percent tax he pays in capital gains is his tax rate. This rate is undoubtedly higher than what his secretary is paying. What Buffet is doing is buying into the corporate fiction. The corporation isn't earning money for itself, however; it is earning money for it's shareholders. Therefore, any tax the corporation pays is really paid on behalf of its shareholders who have capitalized the corporation.

Furthermore, any dollar invested in a corporation has usually already been taxed once. It is arguable that any future revenue from that dollar has already been paid. That's because the net present value of every dollar is one dollar. Any future tax from income is also reflected in that present value tax that has been paid. Thus, this lower capital gains tax rate Buffet complains about is really the second tax on the same dollar. There is, however, a counter argument that the economy rewards investment with a higher return to compensate for that double tax. Still, it is likely that the tax payer looses some money he would otherwise have because he will pay tax on the same dollar twice.

Buffet should understand all of this if he is really the financial genius that he is supposed to be. If he understands this, as he must, he is intentionally deceiving the weak minded to get his policy preferences.

Second: Why don't you donate the money you save from having lower taxes to the government?

A number of rich people are always telling us that they should be taxed at a higher rate. But why don't they impose a tax upon themselves and give that money to the government? I think it is because they tacitly realize that they are better at spending that money than the government. But while they realize they are better at spending their money, they, for some reason, don't think others will be better. It's an arrogant approach to tax.

Win the Imposible War

Democrats repeatedly tell us that we're not fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq but rather refereeing a civil war. It's strange then that bin Laden would admit he's lost a war he isn't fighting.

60 minutes of fame

Last night, 60 minutes' Katie Couric did a puff piece about the Valarie Plame affair. Needless to say, it was very biased. Without looking at the transcript, here is what stuck out to me:

The good:

• Couric brought up the Vanity Fair picture and story, which shows Plame wasn't too concerned about her "cover" and shows that she was, instead enjoying some celebrity status for her husband's op-ed.
• Couric asked Plame if it ever crossed her mind that someone would wonder, "how did Joe Wilson get this job?" and that that question would eventually lead back to Plame, revealing that she worked at the CIA.
• Wilson made a brief appearance. He was obstinate and angry. Couric noticed. He looked bad, even in this sympathetic portrayal.

The bad:

• Couric repeatedly refers to Plame as an "undercover spy." But it is almost certain Plame was not covert as defined under the intelligence identities protection act. Couric alluded to the fact that some had questioned her status, but never delved into, let alone framed the legal issue. No crime was committed unless Plame was covert as defined by the law.
  
• Couric never explained that Fitzgerald never indicted anyone for breaking the law, only for lying to investigators. Thus it seems the IIPA was never violated.
• Couric never mentioned that Victoria Toensing, one of the authors of the IIPA has said in public that Plame was definitely not a covert as defined by the statute.
  
• Couric never brought up the fact that Wilson was on John Kerry's policy team before he wrote the op-ed, showing that he was a openly partisan before Plame was "outed." It also is important to understand that Wilson was openly partisan because it caused many, including Novak, to wonder why he of all people was chosen for the mission.
  
• Couric specifically said that the 16 word used in the state of the union address-- which said that recent intelligence from Britain indicates that Saddam sought uranium in Africa-- were based upon a forged the memo traced to Italian sources. (She never mentions that the memo was from Italy.) To the contrary, the 16 words were based on British intelligence. She also never mentions that British intelligence did a review of the uranium claim in the Butler report and concluded that the allegation that Saddam tried to buy uranium was well founded. This is a HUGE Mistake oft repeated in the media.
• Couric never pointed out that Wilson actually confirmed the 16 words. After his trip, Wilson reported to a house committee (I believe the intelligence committee) about his findings. In his testimony he said that he spoke with the former Nigerian Official (I believe he was prime minister) who said that an envoy from Iraq had been to Nigeria. the official told Wilson the envoy had subtly tried to establish a relationship to buy uranium.
• Couric never showed that Wilson's op-ed addressed the question, "Did Saddam buy Uranium?" istead of what Bush said: that Saddam"sought" uranium. Thus Wilson's claims in the New York Times didn't even address the 16 words.
  
• Couric failed to press Plame on who suggested her husband for the job if not her? Plame says one of her subordinates suggested her husband, Wilson to Plame, and that, after this suggestion, she wrote the memo proposing the CIA send her husband to Niger. Unfortunately she can't quite seem to remember who it was, nor does it appear that she ever asked around to try and find out. Furthermore, this story about the subordinate suggesting Wilson for the job was never told to the investigator who initially came to the CIA investigating the leak, nor was it told to Congress the first time she testified under oath. The mysterious subordinate story surfaced for the first time that I am aware of, when she testified before John Conyer's congressional committee (the second time).
• Couric never mentioned any of the other material available identifying Plame before the Novak piece, including the "Who's Who" entry, the entry on Wilson's website and, I believe, Wilson's own book.
• Couric never explains that the "leak to get even with Wilson for criticizing the war" storyline is severely undermined because the Novak leaker was Richard Armitage--a war critic himself.
  

Find...

The not-so-hidden bias in this story.

Does it make sense to disable comments on a blog because some comments are abusive? Apparently, some people think so.

Professor Mankiw says rude comments on a blog are like party poopers at a party: They're a small number of people trying to ruin the rest of the party for everyone else. He doesn't want to have to police the comments, so he's decided to disable them.

I see big problems with this analysis. First, does the cost-benefit analysis really add up? Would you rather go to a party where you might bump into a few rude people or would you rather not go to a party at all? Apparently Mankiw thinks that it's better to not have a party at all. I think if I had the option of going to a large party with a few rude people I would still go. What large party doesn't have a few jerks?

Maybe Mankiw thinks the jerks are just too numerous to make the party fun for anyone. But why not let the attendees make that calculation? Mankiw's readers don't have to go to the "party." They can "stay at home" by not reading the comments! I regularly read his blog, and almost never read the comments, so I know this is possible. Why can't Mankiw's readers decide for themselves whether or not they want to "go to the party." Maybe they have a high tolerance for jerks, or are good at avoiding them. It seems pretty authoritarian to make a calculation based on your own taste and enforce it on everyone else, even if it is only a blog.

I think what is really happening here is that Mankiw is offended by some of the comments on his blog and thinks that he has a responsibility to control them because they reflect badly on him. He may believe that if he allows nasty comments that someone will interpret his tolerance of those comments to mean he endorses the them to some degree. But most people realize that anyone can post a comment on a blog and that the blog author may never even read the comments. Therefore, in the spirit of open discussion and free exchange of ideas, Mankiw should continue to allow the comments, and simply ignore the nastiness. No one will think less of him.

CNN v. FOX NEWS

We all know that Fox is conservative and that CNN, along with every other news channel channel, is liberal. That is one reason that I prefer Fox: it more accurately portrays my views. It's frustrating watching a TV program where the anchors and commentators make assertions based on unexamined premises, and no one challenges those premises, because everyone in the news room has made the same assumptions. Although not liberal myself, my guess is that Fox does a much better job representing liberal viewpoints because it always has partisan liberals on to defend those views. CNN, on the other hand, usually has someone like Jeffery Toobin or Bill Schneider, on to analyze a particular legal or political event. That system means you need to trust the expert to give you both sides of the story.

But besides its liberal bias there is another reason I don't like watching CNN: It's just plain boring. Bill Schneider tends to make politics, usually a very interesting subject, quite uninteresting. Toobin manages to make the law boring as well. The anchors could not act more robot like. The whole network is sleep inducing.

Judicial Activism

Just watched 30 seconds of Toobin on C-Span. This short segment, again, confirmed my hunch that Toobin simply does not know or is distorting conservative legal arguments.

He's talking about the Supreme Court, and accuses conservatives on the court of activism. I'm only vaguely familiar with the case, but I'm pretty sure he's talking about Parent Involved in Community Schools v. Seatle School District NO. 1 et. al. The basic issue in the case is whether school districts can use race as a factor when deciding which students will go to which schools. The districts enacted a plan that was designed to help minorities integrate, encourage diversity, etc. In other words, this wasn't discriminatory, unless you also consider potential unintended consequences on minorities and the effect on displaced non-minorities.

Toobin says this decision, right or wrong, is activism because the court strikes down a democratically created system. The upshot is that conservatives, who rail against activism, are just as guilty of activism now that they control the Court. The only problem is that Toobin's definition of activism--striking down democratically created laws-- is not how conservatives define activism, nor should it be.

True activism occurs when courts goes beyond their constitutional powers. The Supreme Court, however, has had the power to strike down laws when they are inconsistent with the constitution since Marbury v. Madison, decided nearly two hundred years ago.

When conservatives argue for judicial restrain, they are simply arguing that, the Court must restrain themselves to plausible interpretations of the text of the constitution and statutes. Unfortunately, its quite easy to find Supreme Court cases where previously unknown "constitutional principles" appears out of thin air. Thus, when the Court says the constitution creates a right to abortion, despite the fact that the constitution says nothing about abortion, they are engaging in activism.

Returning to Seattle School Districts, the conservative judicial activism question is not whether the court is striking down a democratically created law, but whether that law is unconstitutional. If the law is unconstitutional then, contrary to Toobin's assertion, it is activism to allow the unconstitutional law to stand. Not using a power to allow an unconstitutional law to stand is just as much judicial activism as striking down a constitutional law out of a personal policy preference. The conservative touchstone is: What does the constitution require?

In Seattle School Districts, the conservative justices simply applied the 14th amendment. The justices interpret the fourteenth amendment to embody a principle colorblindness. Once race becomes a factor in a government program, the Court must strictly scrutinize that program to ensure that it is forwarding a compelling government interest. Here, the court found no compelling government interest, so the Court stuck down the law as unconstitutional. Agree or disagree, this is all pretty standard constitutional analysis.

But Toobin ignores this definition of activism; he instead takes a term of art and ascribed an entirely different meaning to it. Toobin then applies that meaning to conservative jurisprudence to show that conservative justices are being inconsistent or even hypocritical. The problem is conservatives have never spoused that principle, nor is that principle a good one.

Assuming that Toobin really doesn't know what conservatives mean by "activism" and isn't intentionally deceiving his audience, he has, once again, exposing himself as uniformed. Shouldn't a prominent legal analyst like Toobin know what conservatives mean when they use the word "activism"? It's not like Scalia and Thomas are keeping it secret.

Religion and Politics

One of the fundamental difference between the political left and right is that the right generally views man as inherently self-interested and flawed while the left generally views man as perfectible.

The right likes capitalism because capitalism recognizes man's self-interest and uses that interest in a way that is mutually beneficial to all. The left, however, believes that society can be founded on altruism wherein all work for the common good.

What I find interesting is that, while the right is generally more religious, religion teaches us to perfect ourselves, which contradicts the right's view of man and unable to be perfected. Of course, these are generalizations and generalizations always have their exceptions. But on the whole, I would say this is true.

Furthermore, it seems to me that the more conservative a religion is the more likely it is to require obedience from its adherents. But it is inconsistent for a religion to require obedience if the religion recognizes that man cannot be perfected. Of course, even the more rigorous of Christian religions accept that no man attains perfection save through Christ. Perhaps that is the qualification that rectifies the seeming inconsistency.

Reevaluating Toobin

I've held Jeffrey Toobin in low esteem since seeing him on CNN during the Terri Shiavo affair. At the time, much was made of the de novo review afforded Shiavo's parents in federal court. Toobin never explained what de novo was in a way that I could understand. Now that I understand de novo review, I realize this is not a difficult concept. It could have been my inability to understand, but I blame Toobin for not teaching the concept clearly.

More recently, I watched Toobin comment on the commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence. Segment after segment on CNN railed against the commutation. I found Toobin's segment particularly unpersuasive, however. His basic argument was that the commutation was in violation of DOJ (Department of Justice) guidelines. Apparently Toobin thinks DOJ guidelines should bind the president even though the DOJ is part of the executive branch, and even though the Constitution give the president the absolute power to commute sentences. Perhaps his point was political point, i.e., there is less political fallout when the guidelines are followed. But is that what people think? Do they really go around judging commutations against the DOJ guidelines? While there may be some correlation between following the guidelines and outrage by the public, there is certainly no cause-and-effect relationship as Toobin seems to suggested. The guidelines, therefore, are more or less irrelevant from both legal and political standpoints.

Now Toobin has a new book out which bloggers are slowly and steadily picking apart. He has noticed the criticism and has asked that readers send him feedback. My first reaction was, what a nice gesture to his critics. He must be more humble and interested in opposing viewpoints than I initially thought. That's probably all true, however, upon further reflection, the comment perhaps betrays a deeper problem: Toobin's ignorance of conservative and libertarian legal thought. Some of the errors are really quite egregious. I wonder, did no conservative or libertarian legal scholar,--or even someone familiar with these arguments--read this book before it went to print? Furthermore, shouldn't Toobin himself be familiar with these arguments? He was, after all, the editor of the Harvard Law Journal.

Andrew Sullivan's sacred underwear?

Amazing Lady

LAGRANGEVILLE, N.Y. - Sixty years later, Tomiko Morimoto West still remembers the low drone of the B-29 that flew over Hiroshima and changed her life forever.

She was just 13. The horrific atomic blast on Aug. 6, 1945, all but wiped out her hometown in an instant. Her widowed mother was killed, and her grandparents would die later in agony.

"They left me all by myself," she said.

All alone, she suffered the effects of radiation sickness, which may have contributed to her inability to have children. But she is not bitter.

West, now 73 and a retired Vassar College lecturer, believes the atomic bomb that robbed her of her family and her innocence saved countless lives - Japanese and American.

"If it was not for the atomic bomb, we [Japanese] were in such a mental state, we would have fought until the last person," said West, who was taught as a little girl how to fight with a sharpened bamboo stick in the event of an invasion.

"I never, never, never hated the Americans," said West, who now lives near Poughkeepsie and is married to a former G.I...

I may be...

Wrong on the Roberts confirmation. It now appears that some democrats are attacking Roberts openly. John Edwards for instance, has questioned Roberts' record on civil rights. Still, Edwards may be the exception-- he has no seat to defend or constituency to please, with the exception of the Democrat primary voter. He probably is throwing them some red meat in order to give his left-wing bona fides a boost.

Stop the Disingenuousness!

Democrats' disingenuousness bugs me. Take John Bolton’s confirmation hearing as an example. Why do Democrats bork Bolton? Because they dislike Bush, and they want to serve him up a political defeat. Bolton is merely and extension of this battle.

Instead of making the Bolton confirmation about consequential things, e.g., his approach to diplomacy or his theories on foreign policy, Senators like Joe Biden have made the Bolton confirmation into a inquiry of alleged tantrums in a hotel in Moscow 25 years ago, or, more recently, why Bolton forgot to mention that he had been interviewed by a investigator about the "yellow cake uranium" statement in President Bush’s state of the union address. Could it be because Bolton had nothing to do with those words in The State of The Union speech and understandably forgot? Yes, that seems likely, but such lapses of memory about inconsequential minutia – these are the things of character! That’s right mister "I plagiarized my presidential campaign speeches from a British politician," lecture us about character! Tell us about this administrations lack of character!

But democrats have to do it this way, the strait up Bush-lied-kids-died approach just lost them the 2004 election. You see, this whole last election cycle was a referendum on Bush's neo-Wilsonian foreign policy, and miraculously Bush won. Since their straight-forward approach lost, Democrats have to try something else. They have to be sneaky! Thus They resort to concocting disingenuous arguments against Republicans that, just maybe they can get people to agree with. Sure, it may not be what Democrats actually think-- but if it's effective, who cares?

This whole forgetting-about-some-interview tempest in a teapot is only the Democrats' latest disingenous argument. The old reason for filibustering Bolton was Democrats like Biden didn’t have access to all of Bolton’s papers, memos, etc. You see, Democrats have this crazy theory that Bolton was requesting intelligence intercepts in order to dig up dirt on coworkers within the State department with whom he had had personal conflicts. At least that’s what they said. The administration responded that there were no intercepts that had anything to do with the individuals that Democrats identified as potential victims of Bolton's bullying. Democrats remain undeterred, using the refusal to release those documents as justification for filibustering Bolton. It's a cleaver strategy: Make outrageous and unprecedented demands for classified documents, and then, when the demands are rightly denied, claim the administration is hiding something.

Don't be fooled. Democrats have no idea what they are looking for. This is a fishing expedition, and the Bush administration has correctly decided it will not fold. As a result Democrats continue to filibuster and a recess appointment looks imminent.

Now we're seeing the same thing with Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts. Roberts, by all accounts, is one of the most capable appellate advocates that has ever lived. He graduated first in his class from Harvard Law, and has the respect of both liberal and conservative legal academics alike. He also has the publics support and seems very amiable. This leaves little wriggle room for Democrats who, if they could, would attack him straight on. But, because attacking Roberts would likely cost them politically, instead of being forthright they use legerdemain, pretending that their problem isn't with The Supreme Court shifting to the right, but with accessing Robert's Justice department memos and papers.

This complaint comes just days after The Bush administration released 75,000 documents related to John Roberts service in the Reagan administration (a courtesy not at all required by law). Do you think that Democrats and their staffers have read all 75,000 pages in the last two or three days. Who knew memos and the like could be such page-turners?

Now, one may ask: If there is nothing to hide, why not release all of the documents? The answer is this: In a high profile advisory position, the advisor needs to know his opinions are protected by confidentiality, otherwise he will be reluctant to talk openly and honestly. What if he believes an unpopular position to be correct and wants to advocate it, but, realizing he has no confidentiality, is scared of a potential media firestorm? What if there are major differences of opinion—such as in the Reagan administration—and he believes that what he advocates will be used to paint a picture of political infighting and power grabbing? He is scared to undermine those who have trusted him, but at the same time, those who have trusted him need to hear his honest unreserved judgments and opinions.

There are good reasons for confidentiality, and no doubt Democrats well understand some of them. But they also understand that the why-don't-you-release-those-classified-documents refrain is a more effective and easier argument to make than the less-well-understood arguments for confidentiality. And that is exactly what's so irritating about what they're doing. Democrats aren't making an argument for the principle of transparency -- they are making their current argument out of political expediency. Right now they want to damage Bush and his agenda through Bolton and Roberts. Don't be surprised if when a Democrat becomes president, Democrats suddenly discover the importance of confidentiality (just as they discovered the importance of the filibuster). That's because what they are doing now is disingenuous, it's cheep and --if I haven't already mentioned it-- it bugs me.

Twisted Logic

A random statement from a friend, and a reminder from this article got me to thinking about the way liberals think. They have a way of making arguments that seem fine on the surface, but, upon reflection, don't withstand much scrutiny. Consider the following: A couple of months ago I was with my friend and his sister. We were discussing the Catholic church, because of the Pope's recent death, and my friend's sister sugested (somewhat randomly) that the Catholic Church should change its position on birth control because so many people in Africa are dying of AIDS, and because their life expectancy had, and is, dropping so dramatically.

Now, its true that Africa has an AIDS problem, but just how the Catholic Church is culpable I do not understand. Would condoms help control the problem, and is the Catholic Church against using them? Yes they would help some, and yes Catholic doctrine is against all birth conrol, including condoms. But the real question here is: Has the Catholic prohibition of birth control exacerbated the AIDS epidemic?

To this question we must answer: No -- at least it's not very likely.

How many Catholics are there in Africa? This article says about 17% of Africans are Catholic -- not that many -- and AIDS is certainly not plagueing Africa because only the Catholics are getting AIDS. Rather Catholics teach abstinence and fidelity -- a combination that, if observed, would eliminate AIDS. Even if every person used condoms, due to high failure rates and the continuation of present African promiscuity (the real cause of the spreading of AIDS) there would still be far too many Africans contracting and dying from AIDS.

The only way the Catholic Church's stance on condoms furthers the spread of AIDS is if Catholics disregard Catholic teaching on abstinence and fidelity, but for some inexplicable reason decide they should heed the Church's teaching on birth control. This seems an unlikely senario, inasmuch as one guesses there is a hierarchy of commandments, and fidelity and abstinence presumably rank much higher than birth control. I grew up with many Catholics, some devout married Catholics currently without kids. Ostensibly, they use birth control and don't feel too bad about it.

And who is to say Catholicism is not infact fighting AIDS. Are there more people who have sex without condoms because of Catholic teachings and thus contract AIDS, Or, are there more people who would otherwise have promiscious sex but, because they are Catholic, do not and are spared from AIDS? Who is to say, and have liberals even bothered asking the question?

I guess the latter more likely. A Catholic observing doctrine about the use of birth control, but not observing abstinence and fidelity doctrine is like a man who refuses to speed, yet habitually drives drunk. Such excentric people probably exist, but its unlikely that there are many of them. Likewise, there are unlikely to be many real Catholics who reverance the lesser law but flout the greater law -- and there existence does not mean the lesser law should be changed. Instead, they should stop flouting the greater law, and thus fix the AIDS problem.

So Little to Do...

So much time. Er, wait, stop -- reverse that. I just have so many hobbies: music, blogging, nose picking, TV, procrastinating, et. al., that I just can't find time for all of them. Lately Music and Law-School-Prep stuff have taken precident over my blogging -- but not anymore! I have renewed my commitment to blogging, and from now on, will try and post something daily. I think this will be a good way to execize my mind and writting muscles.