It takes a Democrat to double taxes while insisting that it won't have an effect on employment, particularly in the middle of the worst recession in 80 years. A Republican might do the same thing, but at least he'll try to find a way to explain away the cause-effect relationship before anything actually happens--he'll anticipate the effects of the bill--even if he's planning to sign the thing into law because he likes spending taxpayer dollars as much as his buddy, the Democrat in the seat next to his, does.
Ace links the same article.
The employment rate plateaued right before the tax hike went into effect, you notice that? It hit a high and stayed there until the rate increase happened; then it began its meteoric descent, making Illinois #1! ...in job losses in July.
So: Madigan and Quinn got their tax hike--a huge one!--and a scant eight months later we see the inevitable result. How's that working out for you guys? Is Illinois going to garner more tax revenue from this, or are all the sweetheart tax break deals (as with Motorola) and unemployed workers going to end up handing you a net reduction in revenue?
The Laffer Curve: it works, bitches.
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In the same vein, DOOM!
And:
The housing market still sucks most egregiously.
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Telling us what to think cannot be far behind. If the government is monitoring your every movement, every day, all the time--well, freedom has gone out the window; you're living in Orwell's 1984 right there: you are being monitored every minute. It's not "Big Brother" that's watching; it's the Transportation Safety Administration.
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When you get down to "Y" are they really stars any more? I'm no longer able to keep track of stellar spectral types. I got O B A F G K M (NRS) down, but they keep adding classifications and Y is probably not the final note in that symphony.
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In Heinlein's Door Into Summer he mentions the ability to regenerate teeth as being commonplace in 2001. This is 10 years late and in fact will take longer while the technology winds its way through bureaucratic approval and such...but it's damned good news.
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WORM demolishes Marxism.
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I ended up adding several more pages to the current project last night, after playing WoW for a couple of hours. Then I looked up at the clock and saw it was nearly 2 AM, realized I was tired, and decided that 15 pages was enough for one day.
While laying in bed and waiting for the wheels to spin down, then, I thought of a couple other things that I could fix with the story--like the way I just wrote a couple notes to myself about what happens at the end of the first "book", instead of writing out what happens--I know what's going to go on, now, to frustrate our hero's efforts to Solve The Great Mysteries of the Universe before an acceptably long, suspenseful, and entertaining story has resulted.
Can't have him finding out everything in the first fifty pages, now, can we?
Anyway, writing that scene will take me a couple of hours, probably, but I'm really not feeling up to much today.
Shortly after I woke up this morning, the lower right quadrant of my abdomen emitted a sound I can only characterize as BROOOGLE! It's a sound it's made before, and it is never a good sign when it does that. I am therefore hesitant to get too far from a bathroom until the inevitable explosion has occurred.
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...I have found an exception to the rule, "Bacon makes everything better."
Yesterday I had to hit the store for a few things--including bacon and eggs, since I've been eating a real breakfast every morning instead of nuking something or going for fast food--and while at the store I figured I'd get some kind of snack for Bible study group.
I decided on Wheat Thins "STIX", which are a pretzel-like snack cracker extrusion; they taste pretty good. What decided me on them, though, was the notion of getting a tub of dip, so one could have these STIX with some kind of dip.
French Onion is what I'd normally get; but I saw French Onion with bacon and thought, "Bacon makes everything better!"
When snack time came and I tried it, my first thought was, "This is horrible."
I suppose it was inevitable.
...but the STIX themselves were well-liked, and about half the box got eaten. That's fine.
I also got snared by the meat aisle: since I had pork chops this past weekend and I haven't seen any other pork in the freezer, I looked over chops and ended up buying a 3 pound package (for around $10) of some really nice-looking chops, six of them. This morning while the bacon was starting I bagged them up and got them into the freezer; also the two pound hunk of round steak I bought last week and which has been sitting in the fridge since.
I'm thinking, still, about getting a chest freezer; then every time I go to the store buy one extra meat item for the freezer (wherever I end up stashing it) until it's full. Meat, or whatever else will store well long-term. Meat will have to be repackaged to avoid freezer burn (mostly this has to do with making sure there's as little air in the package as possible) but otherwise it's not a big deal.
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Today is the first time in a couple weeks that I've needed the air conditioning.
I don't remember the last time I had it on; I don't believe I've run it since the 13th, though. I may have run it on the warmer days of the week when I was at the motorcycle course, for a few hours at a go; but for the last 9 days or so the thermostat has been at 90° and the AC has been most emphatically off.
I'm happy about that. I like a summer month where I can use the AC sparingly and remain comfortable.
It was nice and cool last night, but I noticed early this morning that it was getting sticky, and when I woke up around 9:30 it was starting to feel hot and humid in here, so I said "Hang the sense of it!" and closed the windows and set the thermostat to 75°. WTF, if I've used the thing more than three days this month, I'd be surprised; a fourth isn't going to hurt much.
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The other day I wrote checks to pay my medical bills--the ones stemming from my breakdown and hospitalization--and good God did that hurt. A lot. I could have bought most of a brand-new entry-level motorcycle for what I sent to various medical providers on Monday.
...but they're paid. They're bills I incurred and I owed them the money; now the checks are in the mail and my conscience can rest easy.
Actually? If I dickered well, that sum would have paid for the entire bike. Shit. That thought led me to browse Craigslist, just out of curiosity; and I very nearly contacted one seller until I read the fine print.
He has a very nice-looking motorcycle, of the type I want, for $500. The problem is, he's got no title for it; and without a title, you can't register it or insure it...which means he actually has a very nice-looking paperweight, because one can't legally ride the damn thing on the street.
So I'm going to try to stay away from Craigslist.