Something To Think About Archive

Still thinking about the proposed and ill-conceived ”Billionaire’s Tax”, we recall Calvin Coolidge’s belief that “The power to tax is the power to destroy.”

It’s interesting to watch Democrats and some Republicans fret over the recent arrest of Nicolas Maduro who has been indicted in a New York court on drug trafficking charges. It’s worth noting that Democrats criticized the first Trump Administration for not doing enough to get Maduro out of power and Biden even increased the bounty on Maduro for information leading to his arrest. But, regime change, no matter how oppressive or illegal a government is; and nation building, no matter how well-intended; has never ended well or with an improved outcome for that country. As former Secretary of State Colin Powell once observed, “You break it, you own it.”

Self-made steel magnate Andrew Carnegie advised us to “Do your duty and a little more and the future will take care of itself.”

Poet Samuel Coleridge claimed that “The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions.”

Writer Ann Patchett says that “…the best vacation is the one that relieves me of my own life for a while and then makes me long for it again.

According to author and ethicist Gus Lee “Courage is addressing wrongs in the face of fear regardless of consequences of risk to self or of potential practical gains.”

Novelist and photographer Eudora Welty said: “Never think you’ve seen the last of anything.”

Mitt Romney, himself a successful and wealthy man, recently called for higher income taxes on the so-called “Rich” in exchange for entitlement reform. While we’ve usually agreed with his politics, we’d point out that according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, in 2022, the top 1% paid 40% of total income taxes. Meanwhile, the bottom 50% paid only 3% of all income taxes. We’ve always claimed that government in general has a spending problem rather than an income problem, and we’re certainly not advocating that the bottom 50% pay more in taxes; but Governor Romney knows this: The government often promises reform but seldom if ever delivers, no matter what carrot they are offered.

Analyst and early Enron skeptic John E. Olson claimed that “It is axiomatic on Wall Street that if a stock price is rising arithmetically, management egos tend to rise exponentially.”

Goethe said: “The way you see people is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is what they become.”

It’s been said that “Although death and taxes are inevitable, death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”

Scottish essayist Thomas Carlyle once noted that “A person with a clear purpose will make progress on even the toughest road. A person with no purpose will make no progress on even the smoothest road.”

English writer Izaak Walton believed that “Health is a blessing that money cannot buy.”

Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine felt that “…the greatest reward for doing is the opportunity to do more.” We hope that current trend of the FDA’s push back on and slowing down of the development of medicines, in particular vaccines, is done in a fact-based environment. We are particularly concerned about the elevated claims of ties to autism, a claim that has never been proven.  We also can’t help but note that the current HHS Secretary RFK, Jr, as a lawyer, has profited enormously from his involvement with class action litigation against drug and vaccine makers.

Civil Rights activist A. Philip Randolph Claimed that “Freedom is never given; it is won.”

Organizational behaviorist Tom Peters believes that “Nothing good or great can be done in the absence of enthusiasm.”

“Broadway Joe” Namath claims that “When you have confidence, you can have a lot of fun. And when you have fun, you can do amazing things.”

Benjamin Franklin advised us to “Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better person.”

“Tonight, we close the book—tomorrow we start a new chapter.”

Only 22% of 12th graders scored proficient in math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress last year, the lowest on record. Roughly one in eight freshmen at the University of California, San Diego—ranked sixth nationally by U.S. News & World Report—lack rudimentary high-school math skills defined as geometry, algebra and algebra 2. It doesn’t help that the UC Board of Regents in 2020 scrapped standardized tests as an admissions requirement under the guise of promoting “equity.” AI isn’t the real threat in the dumbing down Americans, lack of basic education standards is.