Disqus - Friends of Sabio

Re: Kennedy Wants Wife to Take Senate Seat

ortcutt — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:21:24 -0000

That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Is Vicki Kennedy the most qualified candidate for the position? No. This nepotism has to stop.

Re: Iran, Saudi Arabia, and “Western Civilization”

ortcutt — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:06:27 -0000

The Saudi government, just like the Israeli government, is concerned that growth in Iranian capabilities will diminish its influence in the region.

Matt, you put it like it's a question of balance of power to the Saudi Royals. It's much more visceral, tribal and ugly than that. According Georges Malbrunot's blog about the Middle East at Le Figaro, on June 5, 2010, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia told Hervé Morin, the Defense Minister of France that: "There are two countries in the world that do not deserve to exist: Iran and Israel."

http://blog.lefigaro.fr/mal...

That's eliminationism not neorealism.

Re: http://thedailywh.at/post/2077116619

ortcutt — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:35:54 -0000

Sorry, what was that, I can't hear you over the deafening noise of the steam engine that's powering my record player.

Re: Who Pays When “The Rich” Are Taxed?

ortcutt — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 17:57:50 -0000

The amazing thing to me is that I've met otherwise smart people who don't understand the concept of marginal tax brackets. They think that if you make one dollar more and that "puts you in the higher tax bracket", then all of your income is taxed at the higher rate. Why would they know better though, since their tax figure either comes out of TurboTax or the IRS tables in the 1040 booklet? Making an argument about higher tax brackets is going to be difficult in a situation where many people don't grasp the basic concept.

Re: Who Pays When “The Rich” Are Taxed?

ortcutt — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 19:32:24 -0000

I think your point just goes to the point that many people don't understand the difference between marginal and effective rates.

Re: Who Pays When “The Rich” Are Taxed?

ortcutt — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:00:14 -0000

"Put another way, the flatter the tax, the larger the 0% bracket can be."

In the general case, that is false. I think you need to go think about math for a bit.

Re: Who Pays When “The Rich” Are Taxed?

ortcutt — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:07:12 -0000

BTW. From your comments above, it's clear that "continuously progressive" means effectively nothing. A two-bracket system is "progressive" in that the marginal tax rate increases monotonically, but it is much less progressive than many multi-bracket systems which are arguably better policy-wise.

Re: Who Pays When “The Rich” Are Taxed?

ortcutt — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:14:12 -0000

The marginal utility of income is presumably not a step-wise function. My 250,001th dollar is not substantially less valuable to me than my 125,000-250,000th dollars, all of which have the same value to me. Step-wise marginal tax rates are a historical convenience in calculation and legislative drafting, but I can't see how it has a basis in policy.

Re: Who Pays When “The Rich” Are Taxed?

ortcutt — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 03:23:12 -0000

Who calculates their tax by any method other than (1) TurboTax or (2) Looking it up in the table? Anyone, ... Anyone, ... Bueller? This is just a completely specious complaint.

I think the greater problem could be in legislative drafting rather than in computation. Lawyers tend to prefer tables and awkward English-language expressions over equations.

Re: Civilian Sidekicks

ortcutt — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 16:59:46 -0000

Does the term "wingman" necessarily imply a lesser status? I thought that wingman-ness was a reciprocal relationship, but now that I look into it, there is a concept of a "lead pilot" and and "wingman". On the other hand, much of the rhetoric of the "Wingman Culture" is that everyone works as a team. That wouldn't necessarily suggest that Petraeus was characterizing himself as the lead pilot and Holbrooke as subservient.

http://airforcemedicine.afm...

http://www.af.mil/news/stor...

Re: Higher Education From 50,000 Feet

ortcutt — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:05:08 -0000

Everyone needs continuing education throughout life, no matter what your profession. Why do you think that employers spend so much time on training? I don't see where he said that post-secondary education necessarily meant four-year college.

Re: Civilian Sidekicks

ortcutt — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:13:23 -0000

I think people hear the word "wingman" differently. I think strictly speaking in Air Force usage it implies that you are the "lead pilot" and the other person is the "wingman", but in general usage it mean something more like "teammate". I fail to see how people are getting up in arms about this. If Petraeus called the SECDEF or the President his wingman, I would get it because those are his superiors, but Holbrooke wasn't his superior.

Re: Fox Latino Overstates Penélope Cruz Case - FishbowlLA

ortcutt — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:26:29 -0000

"EEC"? What is this, 1985? It was renamed the EU in 1993.

Re: http://thedailywh.at/post/2330900176

ortcutt — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 22:25:16 -0000

Russian prison is the last place in the world I would want to go. That guy must have a tremendous desire to get gang-tattoos and drug-resistant TB.

Re: Texas Republicans Fight About Immigration: Are Latinos a Menace, or “Natural Allies” Against “Muslim Immigrant Invasion”

ortcutt — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:58:54 -0000

"Muslim immigration invasion"? I would love to ask Hotze what percentage of Americans he thinks are Muslim. From hearing the rhetoric, it seems like he and people like him believe every other American is Muslim. In actuality, real polling data estimates it's from 1.3 million (ARIS 2008) to 2.5 million (Pew Research Center 2009). Either of those numbers is less than 1% of the population. But I'm sure that he considers one Muslim immigrant a "Muslim immigration invasion."

Re: Taxing Estates

ortcutt — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:03:49 -0000

Estate tax is not a wealth tax. The combined Estate-Gift-GST tax system is a transfer tax. I don't know where Yglesias gets these stupid ideas.

Re: Taxing Estates

ortcutt — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:10:45 -0000

You can't take money from dead people because dead people can't own anything. At the moment of death, anything that doesn't pass to another person by non-probate transfer, passes into the probate estate.

Re: Taxing Estates

ortcutt — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 21:16:45 -0000

Wealth Tax != Income Tax. We don't have a Wealth Tax in the US (despite Matt's confusion), but some countries do, like France.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Re: Taxing Estates

ortcutt — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 23:05:03 -0000

"The estate tax is basically a wealth tax with a highly progressive rate structure." - Matt Yglesias

The truth is that an estate tax isn't like a wealth tax at all. It's a transfer tax.

Re: Taxing Estates

ortcutt — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:40:49 -0000

No. It's a transfer tax because it taxes donative transfers of property from one person to another.

http://www.irs.gov/business...

FICA taxes are a wage tax.

Re: Taxing Estates

ortcutt — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 03:44:53 -0000

He's saying that inheritance (not the estate tax) distorts the incentive to work He's talking about the heirs being disincentivized, not the decedent.

Re: Taxing Estates

ortcutt — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:06:03 -0000

I'm assuming that someone who wanted a 100% estate tax would also want a 100% gift tax for gifts over the exclusion amount.

Re: The King’s Speech

ortcutt — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 15:17:12 -0000

Queen Wilhemina plays a role in Paul Verhoeven's Soldier of Orange, which is a surprisingly good film.

Re: http://thedailywh.at/post/2543878621

ortcutt — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:32:13 -0000

Isn't Law and Order the most repeated TV program ever? It sure seems that way.

Re: Chris Christie Should Do His Second-Most-Important Job Properly

ortcutt — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:56:56 -0000

That's all well and good, but shouldn't he have told NJ voters that being Governor wasn't his top priority when he ran for office.