The Rant

A SELF-proclaimed British multi-millionaire named Mohammed Islam who was arrested on the Gold Coast with almost $120,000 in cash is under investigation as to whether he has terrorist connections. Queensland police yesterday refused to comment on their investigation into the man, 22, but at this stage there is reportedly no evidence to link him with terrorist activity. Islam allegedly had $118,000 in $50 notes in a suitcase and a mobile phone concealed in his rectum when he was arrested at a Surfers Paradise bus station on Thursday night. Give the man a break. Maybe he lost the belt clip for his phone. from Jihad Watch by Robert Spencer

If Congress just raised the unified credit to $10,000,000 whose left except for the 18 families...just kidding, but the group of the ultrarich is pretty small. There is some real unfairness with the repeal. The replacement tax is caused by the elimination of step-up in basis. This would turn the estate tax into a capital gain tax. But wait, this only applies if there is a sale. Thus those with the more modest multimillion dollar estates will have to sell assets to facilitate a division of assets, but the mega rich will be able to keep there portfolio holdings, potentially indefinately without being forced to sell anything. Thus the repeal of the tax doesn't affect virtually everyone, but will hurt the sort of wealthy much more than the mega rich. April 25, 2006 Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy Expose Stealth Campaign of Super-Wealthy to Repeal Federal Estate Tax Report Identifies 18 Families Behind Multimillion-Dollar Deceptive Lobbying Campaign WASHINGTON, D.C. – T...

By Brad DeLong From Salon.com Nov. 17, 2006 | "Lord, enlighten thou our enemies," prayed 19th century British economist and moral philosopher John Stuart Mill in his "Essay on Coleridge." "Sharpen their wits, give acuteness to their perceptions, and consecutiveness and clearness to their reasoning powers. We are in danger from their folly, not from their wisdom: their weakness is what fills us with apprehension, not their strength." For every left-of-center American economist in the second half of the 20th century, Milton Friedman (1912-2006), Nobel Prize winner, founder of the conservative "Chicago School" of economics and advisor to Republicans from Goldwater to Reagan, was the incarnate answer to John Stuart Mill's prayer. His wits were sharp, his perceptions acute, his arguments strong, his reasoning powers clear, coherent and terrifyingly quick. You tangled with him at your peril. And you left not necessarily convinced, but well aware of...

By Victor Davis Hanson Will the Democrats' new control of the House and Senate shake things up that much abroad? They certainly will have plenty of opportunities to alter the present American course of fighting terrorists, the war in Iraq and our overall foreign policy. For over three years, partisan opponents of the Bush administration have made two arguments against its conduct of the "global war on terror." First, they've argued, the absence of another Sept. 11-like attack has not been the result of anything our government has done, here or overseas. Remember, after conditions in Iraq began to worsen, they began to say we were in even more jeopardy at home than we were five years ago. Secondly, Democrats claimed, the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, the Patriot Act and targeted wiretaps have probably hurt Americans' civil liberties more than they've harmed terrorists. So there is at last the opportunity to match prior rhetoric with action by stopping t...

James Baker and the Desert Storm Legacy Austin Bay Strategy Page by Austin Bay November 15, 2006 Iraqis haven't forgotten the aftermath of Desert Storm. With Saddam's troops forced to retreat from Kuwait, Shia Arabs throughout southern Iraq rose up against Saddam's tyranny. Kurds in the north also rebelled. Many Sunnis in Baghdad anticipated the end of Saddam's "Tikiriti" despotism. Numerous Iraqis tell me post-Desert Storm they anticipated liberation. Instead, they got a dose of so-called Realpolitik -- mass murder and a return to dictatorship. In 1991, Saddam did not fall. His Republican Guards attacked the Shia towns and massacred their inhabitants. At least 50,000 Iraqis were murdered by Saddam's defeated army. In April 2003, America toppled Saddam. This aftermath promised something better than tyranny and mass murder. Still, many Iraqis doubted America's commitment to sticking with them through the trials of escaping a terrible past and building ...

Many liberals are terrified at the slightest incroachment of government into religion, such as placing a Christmas tree at City Hall, or printing "In God We Trust" on the back of a dollar. Such liberals should examine the history of Islam. Islam has no tolerance for the idea that church and state should be separate. Islam assumes that the Church and state should be one and that all citizens should be governed by Islamic law, or Sharia. If Moslems get their way, the separation of church and state will become a thing of the past. The one thing that can sometimes bring groups in conflict together is their mutual perception of a shared threat. Why is it that liberals remain oblivious of the danger of radical political Islam to their cherished liberal ideals? Freedom of speech does not exist under Sharia law. Criticizing Mohammad is a death penalty offense. Nor does freedom of religion exist under Sharia law. In fact, infidels are tolerated; allowed to live only as second cl...

Monday, November 13, 2006 THE SURRENDER BEGINS Well .. if the Islamic fascists dared to think last week that the American voters signaled surrender, they can pretty much rest assured that this is the case as we begin the week after. If anybody thought for a second with Nancy Pelosi sitting there in the Oval Office pledging cooperation with George W. Bush that she was anything other than a Leftist radical, think again. She has already said she's supporting John Murtha for House Majority Leader. Get ready for an interesting two years...the door swings to the left on Capitol Hill. Sure....Nancy Pelosi is doing everything she can to change her image from San Francisco Moonbat to one of a middle-of-the road moderate Democrat. But people who really know Nancy Pelosi know better. The good news for Republicans over the next two years is that she can't hide who she is. And why are all of these supposedly new moderate members of Congress going to vote for Pelosi as Speaker of the H...

Link Doubling Down in Iraq Warfare isn't like business. by William J. Stuntz 11/20/2006, Volume 012, Issue 10 Don't throw good money after bad. When you're in a hole, stop digging. If you've been running in the wrong direction, the first thing to do is, turn around. These are the kinds of things Americans are hearing and saying about the war in Iraq. It's understandable: Those familiar sayings are often useful. When you gamble and lose, the natural tendency is to double your bet--and when that doesn't work, mortgage everything you have to try to retrieve your losses. But as every undergraduate economics student knows, that strategy is a disaster. Hence the principle of "sunk cost." The fact that I've lost a pile on some enterprise or investment is no reason to lose an even bigger pile. The smart move, economically speaking, is to reassess your decisions on a regular basis. When an investment isn't working, get out. Put your money, your talents,...