Far East Cynic

The people in the crowd say it all………

At Beckapoolaza. Just cause I like to beat this particular horse ( and I have never known anyone else who deserves a beating more than Beck does. And before you start Curtis it is not wrong to hate him.) I thought I would post a few pics from “real Ameruuuika”: There it

Continue reading

When it rains-it pours.

I’m going to war with the State of Alabama. Got home after work today-and in my mail was this: ” Payments under the USFSPA are not considered alimony. Accordingly,  your claim for alimony payments has been disallowed. You owe us money!” No f*cking shit, Sherlock. However did you read the

Continue reading

Opening day…….

The one time of the year the Pirates are in contention for the pennant. Frank Deford, shows us why baseball is not like all the other sports though-in any given year,  any team CANNOT win the pennant: Yes, as sure as the flowers are a-bloomin’ again, every team has a

Continue reading

They stand in the way of the way of the change we need…

T.R. Reid on health care:    

Continue reading

Market selfishness

One of the more interesting things about the health care debate in this country-is the argument being made that the free market does not, of itself, impose any sort of rationing on health care services. Ezra Klein recently did a pretty good job blowing a hole in that theory: "Look

Continue reading

5 myths about health care.

H/T to John Cole for finding this.  I can testify to the Japanese system-I’ve been treated by it myself and I went with the S.O. to her doctor’s appointments. Of course the piece he doesn’t tell is the challenge of being a Gaijin who doesn’t speak Japanese-and not being in

Continue reading

Worth repeating……

Why do I have to hear the truth via an Australian ? A closely related rhetorical device — the idea that Americans or American values are “unique” — also deserves attention. For example, Emanuel describes individualism and equality of opportunity as “uniquely American.”1 Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the

Continue reading

Maybe I will reconsider

 I was thinking about buying a Kindle. Now I think I will wait a while. People who bought Orwell’s 1984 and Animal Farm for their Kindle were surprised to discover that it had disappeared from their devices overnight. It turns out the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic

Continue reading

Mythbusters

Once, just once-I’d like to tear down some really stupid myths about taxes.  The one big one I’d like to put to bed once and for all is the line you hear repeated over and over by people who should know better, that 48% of Americans do not pay taxes.

Continue reading

Tell this to your tea party friends…..

I’m going to go on a series of posts disproving some of the wildest distortions that have been beamed into the minds of those who believe that they have some kind of a novel new notion, about government and taxation. The Tea Parties may have started as a grass roots

Continue reading