The new healthcare legislation has apparently made some people so made that they’ve turned to threatening politicians with violence.  Some citizens have also decided to battle it out amongst each other, including the driver who was so mad that he started a car—while driving—because it had an Obama-Biden sticker on it:

Duren had picked his daughter up from school and was driving to his Nashville, TN home when Harry Weisiger pulled up next to his car, pointed to the Obama-Biden bumper sticker on the back, and flipped him off . . . . At a stop sign he starting honking his horn and causing a scene and when the two were underway again, he hit Duran’s car. Being a normal person, Duren slowed to deal with the accident but Weisiger sped up and smashed into the bumper, causing serious damage.

My two cents: if someone is stupid enough to turn to violence about a political issue, they likely don’t have the intelligence to actually understand the political issue itself.

P.S. This is NOT an endorsement of the healthcare legislation, of which I have many doubts.

healthcare, Politics

I don’t understand how someone could make Mr. Hinchey’s statement, below, with a straight face:

And Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.) vowed to force the White House to accept delivery of a new presidential helicopter Obama says he doesn’t need and doesn’t want. The helicopter program, which cost $835 million this year, supports 800 jobs in Hinchey’s district. “I do think there’s a good chance we can save it,” he said.

I guess “save it” means extract money from the federal government that serves no purpose.  Instead of employing 800 people to do something worthless, why not just pay those 800 people money for doing nothing?  That would be more efficient.

budget, Money, Politics

I dislike political parties so much.  One of the many reasons I think they are stupid is contradictions between parties.  One of the Democrats’ principle criticisms of Republicans is that they “don’t believe in science,” and therefore push to teach creationism in schools, ignore climate change, and want to restrict stem cell research.  The Democratic party believes this ignores science because almost all scientists believe differently than the Republican party.

However, the Democratic party is just as stupid.  When it comes to economics, all economists believe that free trade is a good thing.  However, the Democratic Party consistently stands for a variety of trade restrictions.

It’s incoherent for either party to criticize the other at not believing in science.  This is just one of the many ways that both major party platforms are incoherent.  I am glad not to call myself democrat or republican, and I never plan to do so.

democrat, Politics, republican, stupid

Greg Mankiw writes, and I wholeheartedly agree:

The AIG bonuses now being debated in Congress and everywhere else represent about .001 percent of annual GDP. If a typical Congressman spent that fraction of a 2000 hour work year on the topic, it would consume only about 1 minute of his or her time.

Yes, I know, that calculation is silly in many ways, but here is my point: Regardless of how outraged you are about the AIG bonuses, it is probably not an optimal allocation of resources for our elected leaders to spend large amounts of time and energy on the topic. The economy has bigger problems right now, and it would be better to focus attention on those.

aig, congress, credit crisis, economy, Politics

Michael Steele has been owned by the Republican Party over the past couple of weeks.  First, Rush Limbaugh stated that he wanted President Obama to fail.  Steele criticized Limbaugh for the comment, and then (1) Limbaugh stated that he meant he wanted Obama’s policies to fail; and (2) Limbaugh as well as a number of prominent Republicans attacked Steele for criticizing Limbaugh.  Second, Michael Steele referred to abortion as a personal choice, and was heartily criticized by Republicans for believing other than the “official” party platform.  Steele then quickly “qualified” his statement to say that he was totally pro-life and that his comments about choice were just about adoption.

I’m not debating whether Steele was actually pro life or pro choice, or whether Limbaugh was being authentic when he stated he wanted Obama’s policies to fail rather than Obama to fail.  Rather, I just want to point out that no matter what Michael Steele believes, he is not allowed to say it, because he is owned by the Republican party.  Steele is the RNC chair – he is supposed to be a leader of the party – he is not supposed to just repeat what Rush Limbaugh says.  Steele should not be afriad to – gasp – suggest new ideas for the party or criticize long-held beliefs.  The same goes for any well-known politician in either party.  It is absurd that politicians have to be careful to stay close to the party platform in fear that they might upset “the base” of the party.  The two recent events involving Steele only emphasize how political parties stifle independent thought.

democrat, federalist, limbaugh, political parties, Politics, republican, steele