New Immigration Bill 844 pages long

And that's one VERY good reason not to pass it.  844 pages of  obfustication means the law will allow just about anything. If I have 844 pages to look in, I can find words to cover anything I want to do.  Long and wordy laws grant bureaucrats freedom to do as they please.
    The "gang of eight" should be told to boil it down to no more than ten pages, single spaced.  Then at least we would know what we are getting into.

Anger Management

We had a Fox News anchor interviewing a shrink about the Boston Marathon bombing.  The shrink and the anchor agreed that there is a good deal of anger in Boston, and presumably in the rest of the country.  Yeah, they got that right.  Then the anchor seemed to draw back and worried that such anger might get out of hand and lead to something bad.
   I don't worry about that.  A good old fashioned lynching might be just the right thing for that scum.  We could do it right in front of Fanuel Hall.  On live TV. 
  

Would you buy a used airliner from this man?

A series of articles in Aviation Week about end of life for airliners.  The airlines now retire an airliner after 20 years of service, which sounds kinda young for something that lasts forever.  I mean the B-52s have been flying for 50 years and will fly for a lot more.  Speaking as a passenger, the new airliners are no faster and no comfier than the old ones. 
   The brand new airliners have somewhat better fuel economy which the airlines figure will pay off eventually  Boeing and Airbus are claiming their next year's models will have 10 even 15 percent better fuel burn than current models.  I haven't worked the numbers, but it seems like it will take a long time to pay off a $100 million new airliner on 10% better fuel burn. 
   When parted out, the engines and avionics can be resold for big money.  It's possible to realize $15 million in parts sales from a tired airliner you can buy for $5 million.  Doing so requires good timing, the parts are only worth money as long as airliners of that model are still flying. 
   Boeing and Airbus have backlogs of a couple of thousand new airliners.  Due to the continuing Great Depression 2.0  air traffic isn't growing much.  Does this mean a couple of thousand new airliners causes a couple of thousand old ones scrapped?

The Atlantic gets profound about North Korea

Joel Wit and Jenny Tower conclude their piece on the Atlantic magazine website thusly:

"The bottom line is that, even if this current crisis recedes, North Korea's WMD programs pose serious security risks in the region and to the U.S. that will continue to grow if not addressed in a direct and compelling way. ....   It may be distasteful given the nature of the North Korean regime, but there is no substitute for diplomacy and direct contact with Pyongyang."

Great.  "addressed and a direct and compelling way."   So what does that mean?  Talk at 'em, nuke 'em, blockade 'em, invade 'em, bury our heads in the sand, or what?  Just saying we ought to do something doesn't help.  You gotta say what you wanna do.  Especially if "something" involves a lot of pain, which doing a second Korean War would involve.

 Ah, here we get to it.  "there is no substitute for diplomacy and direct contact with Pyongyang". Been there, done that.  Both Clinton and Bush tried to cut a "economic assistance in return for stopping weapons development" deal.  The North Koreans signed two such deals and  reneged on both of them.  In actual fact, the North Koreans see nuclear weapons as the only thing that will keep the North Korean regime alive in the face of South Korean and American economic, political, and military pressure.  The Kim regime knows that all their citizens would join South Korea in a flash. As soon as the North Korean secret police and army loose their grip, even for a day or two, the regime is gone, the Kim's are dead, and  Korea is re unified under Seoul.  At least with nukes they don't have to worry about ground invasion or air strikes from the South.  No way are the North Koreans going to give up their nukes no matter what we promise 'em.

Another Retailer dies the death

Just got a "Going out of Business" sale post card from Pilgrim Furniture.  An ordinary furniture store in Littleton, it's been in business there for ever, 30-40 years.  A landmark.  My wall-to-wall carpet came from them and it's been down for 30 years.  Any how, they are doing the going out of business sale, and they probably mean it. 
  Either the owners are getting old and want to retire, or business is really bad, or both.  We will miss them.

I still hate doing Federal Income Tax

A complete pain in the tail.  I spend all day rummaging thru my files looking for dividend payment slips and deductible stuff.  More time trying to read gobble-te-gook instruction sheets cluttered with useless information.  I mean like who needs to know who has to file.  We all have to file, and we all know it. The lack of  any sort of general rules.  Like is Social Security taxable, yes or no?  They don't state any rule, they give you a 17 step work sheet, take this line, add that line, take a percent, and half an hour later you find out Social Security is a little bit taxable.  They pull the same worksheet dodge for capital gains and qualified dividends. 
   Then there are a myriad of deductions, exemptions, tax credits, and malarkey.  None of which help me or any one else, but you gotta read up on them just in case they might apply to you.  You feel really bad if you miss a tax loophole in your favor, so you waste more time checking them all out. 
   We ought to scrap the current personal income tax law[s] completely.  Start over with something like this.

                                       New 21st Century Personal Income Tax Law.

All income is taxable at the same rate.  Nothing is deductible.  No credits, no exemptions.  Capital gains is taxed the same as salary.  No loss carryover.  No income averaging.  Married or single, with or with out children everyone pays the same. No special deals for anyone.  Everyone pays something, no free riders.

    Tax Table

Yearly Income          Tax Rate
<$10000                  1%
$10000-$30000       5%
$30000-$125000     15%
>$125000                 25%

                                                              The End

We can't even do a foot race without terrorist attacks

The Boston Marathon, a simple foot race, been held for better than 100 years, attracted terrorists with bombs.  What used to be a happy day, is now a horror, with two dead and more injured.
   We need to find the perps and then get medieval on them.  Draw and quarter, boiling oil, nothing is too good for those cowardly scum.