They're gonna partially fund healthcare reform by taxing medical devices over $100! Yet another hidden tax which we can't quatify -- GREAT IDEA! Opponents are concerned the tax might be passed on to consumers. WTF?!?!? Businesses don't pay a dime in taxes -- of course it will be passed onto consumers! It will specifically be disproportionately paid by Medicare, since seniors get more of these devices than anyone else! So they'll have the fed gov't paying the tax for the fed gov't to collect and pay the tax for the fed gov't to collect!I'm thinking that our gift of a Democratic congress to Obama was just the mother of all mistakes. I don't blame the Democratic congress or Obama for being wild-eyed spenders, i.e. for being themselves. They didn't steal any elections, they won them by getting the most votes. We're getting the government we deserve, and it hoits.
Have some delicious if distracting reads lately. The Machine is the story of the 1975 Reds season and is an example where the right writer gets hooked up with the right subject. Hard to put down. A lot on the personality of the Reds, the fueds, the excellences, the whole shebang. George Foster constantly reading the Bible and the manager thinks he's becoming a religious fanatic. It really doesn't get any better than this as the perfect light read.
Also been reading Richard Brookhiser's memoir and he can pack a lot in a little: "The evening of artists is an unhappy time." Speaking about studying George Washington and his time he writes: "Living in the eighteenth century neutralized a conservative poison, cynicism."
He calls WFB (as well as himself) a narcissist, and when undergoing treatment for cancer found his taste in music had conracted to just Bach and Louis Armstrong. Said he could read "only the angry", including Samuel Johnson's review of "an upbeat theodicy, 'A Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil' (he didn't like the enquiry, he didn't like evil, and he had his quarrels with nature)."
Having finished Our Lady of Guadalupe am looking for a new spiritual read. Surprising number of choices for Kindle. Ralph Martin's book on the doctors of the Church, a commentary on Mark's gospel, the Brother Lawrence book and Raymond Arroyo's book of Mother Angelica's thoughts on Scripture.
4 comments:
Have you gotten to the part of Brookhiser's thing where he is told by Buckley that his status as heir apparent has been rescinded? Most of the reviews I've read implied that Brookhiser was never told why, and instructed by Buckley not to ask. Must have hurt.
Yeah Brookhiser's life, needless to say, was greatly upended by that event. It did hurt him greatly.
The Martin book is good.
I'll have to read The Machine. I'm a big fan of baseball writing, headed by anything Roger Angell ever wrote.
Yeah Roger Angell is the standard by which all our measured; this book is far more gossipy than an Angell offering. But it's an irresistable read the way some people can't pass up stories about John and Kate, whoever they are. :-)
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