I work in the field of public policy and keep abreast of current events. But despite being in the midst of the primary season, I remain undecided regarding my choice for the nomination. So what better way to make my choice than fill out a questionnaire remotely resembling a personality profile on a matchmaker website.
A friend told me about this web site, so I’ll pass it along: http://www.votechooser.com/
With Thanksgiving and the holiday season on us, Alablama Policy Institute’s Gary Palmer looks into “Who Really Cares?”
In his book, Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism, Professor Arthur C. Brooks reports that conservative families give about 30 percent more money to charity each year than liberal families, even though their income is about six percent less. Conservatives give more regardless of income bracket, even with lesser levels of education. Prof. Brooks, director of nonprofit studies at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, says that the difference is particularly strong when comparing religious conservatives and secular liberals.
Over at the Acton Institute’s Power Blog, Jordan Ballor mentions a survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project finding that the wealthier a country, the less citizens’ lives revolve around religion. The one country bucking the trend? The U.S., but why?
Ballor gives a somewhat lengthy and ambiguous answer.
Ballor theorizes that it is America’s heritage and the “penetration of the Gospel message into people’s hearts and minds.” As an example, he notes that Satan’s attacks American’s differently than others. He quotes a John Piper column, “Gutsy Guilt:”
“The great tragedy is not masturbation or fornication or pornography. The tragedy is that Satan uses guilt from these failures to strip you of every radical dream you ever had or might have. In their place, he gives you a happy, safe, secure, American life of superficial pleasures, until you die in your lakeside rocking chair.”
Interesting thoughts and worth a read, if nothing else, for the mental exercise.
Drew Carey has some ideas on how to improve transportation. One of them includes naming a freeway after himself. How? Just buy it.
Reason.tv host Drew Carey examines the costs and consequences of traffic jams and explores several solutions that can get our roads moving. How does a speedy trip on the “Drew Carey Freeway” sound? Plus, one lucky commuter gets a helicopter ride to work, courtesy of Drew.
While roads and the highway system will never be completely privatized, what will become of gas tax receipts? The taxes were levied to pay for road maintenance and construction. Today, they are increasingly used to supplement non-transportation projects such as health care, welfare, etc.
When the burden of road maintenance and construction on public entities are reduced, are drivers going to apathetically acquiesce to the diversion of transportation dollars to non-transportation causes simply because gas taxes have always been charged?
Of course, it could be a non-issue because we might all have electric vehicles by that time. Not likely though.
This article was posted by twisted1ogic a few days ago, but we were having difficulty getting the video to work. We’ve fixed it now and I’ve bumped it up.
~matthew
Is there any hope to the increasing congestion that plagues so many of us? Is congestion a weapon in the hand of progressives to push commuters from the suburbs into high-density housing communities centered around mass transit venues.
I’m not into the conspiracy theories, but read about Washington state’s Sound Transit, a monolithic monster of a light rail program that is a decade behind schedule and asking for a tax increase to pay for cost overruns, $10 billion of them. That’s a “1” with ten “0” behind it… a lot of overrun.
Some people like the idea of the rail, but others have the impression it is going down. One columnist asks:
If we really want to encourage a significant increase in public transportation usage, why would anybody in their right mind spend tens of billions on a light rail system that only has 12 stops, when we can expand a bus system that already has 9,141 stops and can serve many, many more people for a fraction of the price?
Duh.
Some news personalities are going to vote for it because they think it looks pretty. But what else should we expect when reducing congestion is not a priority for the state’s transportation department. Anything could look pretty to the poor souls sucking car fumes in multiple-hour commutes.
Bush may have vetoed SCHIP, but you can still help children (even children from wealthy families) recieve government health care. At the same time, you will be paving the way for the rest of us to get it too sometime soon.
All you have to do is… smoke!
Sin taxes are an unreliable and temporary source of income. “Sin” comodities (cigarettes, alcohol, etc.) aren’t necessary for survival so when taxes increase, demand, and thus revenue, decrease.
It is political suicide to put massive government expansions like SCHIP on the government doll immediately, so politicians use sin taxes knowing that, when funds run short, they will shift the burden over to more permanent sources of income.
Stay up-to-date on the wildfires in Southern California here and here with interactive and constantly-updated maps.
**EDIT by Matthew**
I’m going to reset this to the top and ask this question:
We’re going to see calls for the government to pay for the reconstruction of these areas. Just as those who live in the southeast know they live in risk of damage from hurricanes those who live in these areas know that there is a significant risk of fire destroying their property.
What is the government’s responsibility, if any, to people displaced and financially damaged by these fires?
In this video, Tom Bates, President of the Bucks County AFL-IO pledges to show local Democrat candidates how politically powerful the AFL-CIO is. We’ll show the candidates of Bucks County what we can do for them, he dreams.
“And just think what they will do for us later,” he says and recites a litany of union subsidies such as Employee Free Choice, health care, and project labor agreements. “Just think what that will do for labor and working people.”
Money and volunteers may be Tom’s only draw because his presentation style… well, lacks charisma.
UAW’s strike against GM didn’t last long, but it caught the nation’s attention. That may not be a good thing, though, because now the nation knows that union health benefits are unsustainable in today’s economy and UAW bosses were given $35 billion in pocket change for assuming responsibility for retiree health care.
A key detail: payouts to the 300,000 retired members won’t begin until 2010 and GM will still have to make contributions if the original $35 billion proves insufficient.
But the union cannot be serious about taking on this responsibility. Throughout history union bosses have proven themselves adept at passing responsibility from themselves to others. And nothing has changed.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the UAW took the $35 billion only on condition that GM help lobby for a national health care plan. Chaching! Why didn’t I think of that? I wouldn’t blink at managing $35 billion so long as a national health care plan is implemented in the next four years. Even if I embezzled it all, I wouldn’t have time to spend it all before Hillary popped in her national plan.
First, this arrangement gives UAW all the more reason to put Hillary in office.
Second, what will become of the $35 billion “band aid” once the union throws its retiree members to the one-size-fits-all government meat grinder? Certainly not the feds and certainly not back to GM!
Democrats, Election, Politics, Republican | twistedlogic February 1, 2008 | 
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