Tax it to death!

May 27, 2008 By 48 Comments

Porn Tax Considered As Solution To Budget Shortfall
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California state lawmakers are considering an unusual idea to solve the state’s huge budget shortfall: Tax pornography.

The idea was proposed by a state assemblyman, and would impose a 25 percent tax on the production and sales of pornographic videos — the vast majority of which are made in southern California.

It is unknown, however, how seriously lawmakers will take the idea or how the porn business would deal with the new tax. It is likely, though, that porm-makers would simply pass the cost along to consumers by making pornographic materials more expensive.

However, many economists believe that pornography is an industry with inelastic demand — meaning market conditions typically don’t affect consumers’ desire for the product. In other words, it is believed that most porn consumers would continue to buy regardless of how much it cost.

Would conservatives support THIS tax? Is there a problem with so-called “vice taxes”–such as taxes on alcohol, tobacco, gambling, and maybe now this–in which the government, in effect, profits from citizens’ moral weakness? Or is taxing something like porn a good way to limit it?

Filed Under: Economics 48 Comments

Why America may not vote Democratic after all

May 27, 2008 By 4 Comments

This is the Democrats’ big chance! How could they not win this next presidential election?Well, when ordinary Americans are presented with the whackiness, extremism, and condescension of that party’s activist base–which is so self-righteous that it almost never tempers itself for public consumption–revulsion may set in and Republicans may have a chance. Consider the catering requirements of the Host Committee for the Democratic National Convention in Denver, from Caterers find eco-standards tough to chew:

Fried foods are forbidden at the committee’s 22 or so events, as is liquid served in individual plastic containers. Plates must be reusable, like china, recyclable or compostable. The food should be local, organic or both.

And caterers must provide foods in “at least three of the following five colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white,” garnishes not included, according to a Request for Proposals, or RFP, distributed last week. . . .

“I think it’s a great idea for our community and our environment. The question is, how practical is it?” asks Nick Agro, the owner of Whirled Peas Catering in Commerce City. “We all want to source locally, but we’re in Colorado. The growing season is short. It’s dry here. And I question the feasibility of that.” Agro’s biggest worry is price. Using organic and local products hikes the costs. “There is going to be sticker shock when those bids start coming in,” he says. “I’ll cook anything, but I’ve had clients who have approached me about all-organic menus, and then they see the organic stuff pretty much doubles your price.” . . .

Thousands of other parties hosted by corporations, lobbying groups, individuals, nonprofits and more will happen in Denver during the convention, Burnap says. None of them is subject to the committee’s green agenda.

The committee’s effort to host eco-friendly events, she says, hinges on its determination not just to put on a smart convention but to transform Denver into a top-shelf green city.
“We are hoping that everything we are doing for greening (the convention) has some legacy value,” she says.

The RFP, for example, will likely live on after the convention in a brochure the city will distribute widely to help guide local businesses interested in improving their green practices.

Seriously, blue collar Americans used to constitute the base of the Democratic party, but now the base has shifted to culturally elite activists (affluent, well-educated, trendy). Now the blue collar vote seems up in the air. The Clintons appealed to that demographic, but the party isn’t going to nominate a Clinton. The arch-Clintonista James Carville put it best when he observed that you can’t win an election with just “eggheads” and college kids.

Or is the desire for “change” so great that Obama will sweep all before him, to the point of making us all green and organic?

Filed Under: Food, Politics 4 Comments

Galactic warming

May 27, 2008 By 34 Comments

The planet Jupiter is undergoing climate change. I’m sure, in some way that we don’t fully understand, it is our fault! Global warming has gotten so bad it is now affecting the rest of the universe. We have gone from global warming to galactic warming. The government needs to do something about this immediately!

Filed Under: Science 34 Comments

Memorial Day weekend

May 23, 2008 By 12 Comments

I hope you all have a good Memorial Day weekend. This is a day that started as a commemoration to honor those who died in battle for their country. It expanded, at least in part of the country such as the Oklahoma where I grew up, into a “decoration day” to remember all of those in one’s family who have died and to put flowers on their graves. Now, since schools adjourn around this time, it is mainly observed as the beginning of the summer, a time to cook out and get a start on summer vacations.

Again, we see a holiday becoming generalized past recognition of its original meaning. And yet, if we hold onto all of those meanings (sacrificial death for others, death of loved ones, rest from work), Memorial Day can be a distinctly Christian day, in which we soberly recognize death but with a foretaste of the eternal summer with our loved ones and the eternal vacation from our labors that await those who die in Christ.

Filed Under: Holidays 12 Comments

Professor Jones

May 23, 2008 By 12 Comments

My favorite scene in all of the Indiana Jones movies and the key to their true meaning, in my opinion, is in “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” The swashbuckling archaeologist is, remember, a college professor, and in that movie we see him in front of a classroom. He is droning on in his glasses and tweed suit, as the students in his class for the most part are dozing off or not paying attention. Then during his office hours he begins the process of saving the world.

This is academia, as I know from experience and vocation, a perfect encapsulation of us professors’ self-image. Yes, in our obsessive preoccupation with our fields we are boring and inconsequential. But when we do our RESEARCH we are exciting and world-changing!

I would love to see more of Indy’s day job in the movies. While he is flying on that DC-3 with the line on the map tracing his route to exotic climes, is he grading papers? Before taking off for the Temple of Doom, did he struggle to get his grades in? As he was trying to find the Holy Grail, did he have to interrupt his quest for committee meetings and to deal with student complaints? I know that he prevailed over Nazis, cultists, and Communists, but, given his retrograde attitudes and his politically-incorrect archaeological practice of plundering indigenous peoples of their culturally-significant artifacts, I’d like to see his battle with the college’s tenure committee.

All of his adventures would have had to take place, apart from a few sabbaticals, over summer vacation, that blissful time for academics that we are now entering.

Filed Under: Education, Movies, Vocation 12 Comments

Bobby Jindal for Vice President?

May 23, 2008 By 28 Comments

I am greatly encouraged that John McCain has invited Bobby Jindal to his Memorial Day cookout and vice-presidential talent show.

The former Louisiana congressman and currently governor of that state has been hailed as among the best and the brightest of a new generation of conservative politicians. The son of immigrants from India, Jindal is a convert to Christianity (of the Roman Catholic variety) who describes himself as “100%” pro-life. Those in the know describe him as brilliant and effective. He is also a great campaigner, re-elected to Congress with 88% of the vote and taking the governorship away from the notorious Louisiana Democratic machine. Rush Limbaugh has gone so far as to hail him as “the next Ronald Reagan.”

If McCain were to pick Jindal, it would put another “person of color” on the ballot. The only strike against him would be his youth (he is only 36) and inexperience (he has only been governor for a few months, though he has served two terms in the House and has worked with other government agencies). Still, he is more experienced than Barack Obama!

Filed Under: Politics 28 Comments

Indy driver Bob Veith

May 23, 2008 By 7 Comments

This weekend is the Indianapolis 500. I once attended an auto race and enjoyed it tremendously, though I confess (and this is a blot on my country music credentials) to not following that particular sport in all of its no-doubt interesting varieties. But I remember as a child getting together with the whole Veith clan at the family farm in Tonkawa, huddling around a short wave radio to hear the broadcast of the Indianapolis 500. My father had a distant cousin, Bob Veith, who would be in that race, and we would always root for him. I was pleased to discover that, though, he never won that particular race, Bob nevertheless rates a Wikipedia article for his racing career: Go here.

Filed Under: Personal, Sports 7 Comments

The airlines’ baggage

May 22, 2008 By 12 Comments

So American Airlines next month is going to start charging $15 to check your bag! Other airlines are considering it. See Checked Bag Fees: Money for Nothing.

Have the airlines considered the unintended consequences? Customers who will now choose airlines that provide normal reasonable service? More unchecked luggage clogging up the security lines, crammed into scarce cabin space, and slowing down boarding? Even more rage at LOST luggage?

I understand that fuel prices and cutthroat competition are squeezing airlines, so that the only way they can make ends meet is by cutting out the free peanuts and the like. But airlines have always had trouble making a profit. Isn’t there a business model that would allow airlines to stay in business while providing good service?

Higher prices would surely be a part of that, but the pricing system seems out of joint also, with some passengers paying many times what others pay for the same flight. Is there a solution to this?

Filed Under: Economics 12 Comments

Indiana Jones and the Holiness of God

May 22, 2008 By 4 Comments

As we psych ourselves up for the release of the new Indiana Jones movie this weekend, read this discussion of the character and of why the first movie, “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” was so good. Note the good lines about how the evil archeologist dared to looked into the abyss of the Ark of the Covenant and “the abyss looked back,” the folly of looking into the face of God, how Indy somehow knew that sometimes one must look away.

This reminds me of the great theological message of that fun popcorn fantasy, which, for all of its lightness and entertainment value, conveyed back to our jaded and secularized imagination in an unforgettably tangible way that God is holy, as poor Uzzah learned when he so much as touched the Ark while only trying to help. We have so abstracted and sentimentalized and domesticated God that we sometimes forget why we need a Mediator to come into His presence.

Filed Under: Movies 4 Comments

The new American Idol

May 22, 2008 By 6 Comments

I Tivoed “American Idol,” as is my wont, watching it about an hour late. I sat through the most tedious, hype-filled TWO hours, consisting of shameless plugs and product placements, embarrassing song and dance numbers, and a host of pop stars who could never have won “American Idol.” Finally, the moment came. . .Ryan Seacrest announced that the winner was “David ___” THEN MY TIVO CUT OUT! RIGHT AT THE VERY VERGE, WITH ONLY THE LAST NAME TO BE UTTERED!

I thought that I may have heard the beginning articulation of an unvoiced velar stop just before the “save or delete” message came on, and, sure enough, the web revealed that the winner was David Cook.

America got it right after all! He has the stage presence, the artistry, the originality, the voice to deserve it. Voters didn’t just vote for the cutest, as I assumed they would; rather, they went for substance.

This encourages me to think that the American people may also vote in larger numbers for the best presidential candidate. Maybe what we should do is let people vote as many times as they want to.

Filed Under: Music, television 6 Comments