Author: George Noga

Taxation in America – First Principles

George Noga
As America debates tax reform, MLLG provides the appropriate perspective.
Taxation in America – First Principles
By: George Noga – June 25, 2017
      This begins our series about taxation in America; it coincides with the debate over tax reform and Trump’s tax proposals. Our tax series consists of several parts that will run during the summer; some parts will run consecutively and some intermittently. We begin by presenting ten wholly objective and nonpolitical principles.
  1. Taxes should be simple and transparent. Citizens should demand transparency and simplicity; however, it is in the interest of government to make taxes complex and opaque. A sales tax collected from consumers at the point of sale meets these criteria as people know they are paying a tax and the amount. Conversely, a VAT, embedded in the cost of products, is opaque; consumers don’t always know they are paying a tax nor the amount. Business taxes, which are passed along to consumers as higher prices, are totally opaque. Government always goes to great lengths to maximize opacity.
  2. Only living, breathing humans pay taxes. Businesses and corporations do not pay taxes; they may remit taxes, but it is not their money. The burden of all business taxes falls on owners, employees and (95% of the time) on customers as higher prices. Business taxes are a myth propagated by government to beguile voters into believing they are not paying tax. The 50% of payroll taxes “paid” by employers is really borne by the employee – not the employer – and is simply government maskirovka.
  3. Taxes should not impede growth. The goal of taxation should be to maximize economic growth. Politicians can and should debate how to carve up the pie but never should do anything to shrink the pie as this harms all Americans. Taxes on capital (such as capital gains) are harmful to economic growth and result in locked-up capital, misallocation of resources, under-investment and loss of productivity.
  4. Taxes must be stable. Once enacted, a tax regimen should be permanent and rarely amended. Politicians can’t resist using the tax code for class warfare and political fundraising. Individuals and businesses need long-term tax stability to plan their lives and investments. Uncertainty is a mortal enemy of investment and productivity.
  5. Taxes should be neutral. Taxes should impose identical burdens on all taxpayers regardless of the nature of their businesses. Under the current tax code, businesses with substantial fixed assets are taxed much differently than service businesses.
  6. Know Hauser’s Law. Tax revenue as a percentage of GDP is constant regardless of the top marginal tax rate. From 1945 to 1963 when tax rates were 90%, tax revenue was 15%-18% of GDP. In the late 1980s when the top rate was 28%, tax revenue was 18% of GDP. Tax revenues vary according to economic conditions but not tax rates. Hauser’s Law works because taxpayers modify their behavior based on tax rates.
  7. Taxation is not for corporate welfare. Simple, transparent, neutral and low corporate taxes would eliminate most of the rationale for corporate welfare. Businesses never should be rewarded for lobbying activity more than for growing their businesses.
  8. Governments should compete on taxes. Nations and states should compete on rates. People always win with competition. Competition from much lower tax rates abroad has created tax inversions. Ultimately, this will be solved by lowering US tax rates.
  9. Taxation is not for social policy. Taxes are for raising revenue in the simplest, most efficient, transparent and economic friendly manner possible; they never should be an instrument for social policy. To the extent government has legitimate social goals, they should be addressed directly and not via the tax code. The worst abuse of this principle is the death tax, which is not about revenue but about class warfare and politics.
  10. Understand the Laffer Curve. Tax revenue maxes out at 30%-35% for individuals and 20%-25% for corporations; anything higher actually produces less total revenue.
      Keep these ten principles in mind throughout our series on taxation in America and as Congress debates tax reform this summer. The closer the final outcome conforms to these principles, the better for every American.
Don’t miss our next posting on Independence Day (July 4th); it is a real keeper!

Fermi’s Paradox – A Disturbing Explanation

George Noga
Man’s capacity for destruction vastly outstrips his ability to govern. We may be technological wizards but we remain political cretins.
Fermi’s Paradox – A Disturbing Explanation
By: George Noga – June 18, 2017
      During the Manhattan Project, the world’s leading physicists often kicked back at the end of the day and, while enjoying a few libations, ruminated about the great unresolved issues of science. One such day the subject turned to extraterrestrial life, whereupon Enrico Fermi immediately exclaimed: “So? Where is everybody?”
      Fermi already knew the math, i.e. there are 10^24 stars in the universe – equal to 10,000 stars and 100 Earth-like planets for every grain of sand. In our galaxy alone there are one billion Earth-like planets and likely 100,000 intelligent civilizations. Our galaxy is 10 billion years old and most of it can be reached via probes or radio waves in four million years and ET could have reached us 250 times over. Thus, Fermi’s Paradox: given the immense probability, why has no one communicated with us?
      Explanations abound. Perhaps ET has been communicating but we don’t know how to listen. Maybe they don’t wish to communicate or their math is different. Scientists agree there are serious flaws with the above explanations as well as countless others that have been proffered. The two most likely answers to Fermi’s Paradox are: (1) life is incredibly more difficult to start, to evolve and to acquire technological prowess than assumed; and (2) advanced civilizations destroy themselves on short time scales.
     Man’s capacity for destruction vastly outstrips his ability to govern himself. Nuclear weapons are in the hands of a megalomaniacal tyrant (North Korea), a murderous dictator (Russia), an unstable tribal state (Pakistan) and soon a theocracy that vows our destruction and embraces martyrdom (Iran). It is only a matter of time until terrorists acquire them – likely from one of the aforementioned sources. One low grade EMP bomb smuggled into the US on a container ship and launched via weather balloon could kill 300 million Americans – and we are doing little to address that threat.
      It is altogether conceivable that the failure of mankind to understand and to heed the eternal lessons of Kipling’s poem The Gods of the Copybook Headings supplies the disturbing answer to Fermi’s Paradox. We may be technological wizards but we are political cretins and we are on a track to destroy ourselves on a short time scale.
   Does any nation that consternates over transgender restrooms while ignoring hardening its electrical grid against EMP attack deserve to survive? Does any civilization that will spend $100 trillion to lower temperature .3 degrees in 80 years while ignoring immediate human needs deserve to endure? Does any country with a $20 trillion GDP that won’t buy backup generators for its electrical transmission facilities to recover from an EMP attack and to save millions of lives deserve to last?
       We have kicked the can down the road until there is no road left. Clinton and Bush declined to deal with the nuclear threats while they still were manageable and Obama was in la-la land for eight years. It is wrong however to lay blame solely on politicians who respond to our priorities. America, and indeed all of humanity, is slouching toward an explanation to Fermi’s Paradox; unfortunately, it’s a disastrous one.
Next, MLLG begins an intermittent series about taxation in America.

Old Glory is 240 Years Old Today

George Noga
Flag Day is celebrated on June 14 – commemorating the adoption of the flag by the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777 – 240 years ago today.
Old Glory is 240 Years Old Today
By: George Noga – June 14, 2017
      Exactly 240 years ago, the Second Continental Congress formally adopted our flag. Recently, several colleges have banned the flag from campus. Because our flag is under attack, this is a good time to revisit the question of American exceptionalism. President Obama famously stated: “I believe in American exceptionalism just as the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.” In other words, America is unexceptional. MLLG believes otherwise; to wit:
  • Since man first trod this earth, there have been 110 billion humans and fewer than 1% have lived their lives in liberty. Even today, less than 10% of the 7.5 billion people alive enjoy relative liberty. As Lincoln said at Gettysburg, America is a nation conceived in liberty. Clearly, liberty is exceptional throughout human history.
  • America’s founding was unique. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were the driving forces, not bonds of religion, nationality or tribe. We are the only nation ever founded on an idea. Our motto is E Pluribus Unum, or one out of many, which not uncoincidentially contains exactly thirteen letters. The shot fired in Lexington at dawn on July 29, 1775 was the shot heard around the world for very good reason.
  • Our Constitution is by far the oldest surviving written charter of government; the second oldest is Norway’s in 1814 – 38 years later. Over 50% of constitutions fail within 20 years; ours has lasted 230 years and counting. Surely, this is exceptional.
  • America is a nation of immigrants. Despite some hiccups, all have been absorbed into the fabric of America. The Statue of Liberty says it all: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. There has never been a country so welcoming to so many people from so many places for so long.
  • America has laid costly sacrifices on the alter of freedom in many wars and mostly without conquest, territory, resources or occupation. In WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars and Afghanistan we sacrificed to keep the flame of liberty lit.
  • America remains exceptional today. We have acknowledged and sought to correct our mistakes. Many Muslim countries bar non Muslims from citizenship and condone slavery. Any Japanese who is even one-sixteenth Korean is shunned. China has fewer than 1,500 naturalized citizens. Europe fails to assimilate its immigrants. Places like Latin and South America, Africa, Central Asia, Russia and the Middle East are well beyond the pale. America remains the last best hope for the world.
     America is the only nation ever defined by an idea, and one that continues to be noble, true and eternal; it captivates and inspires people the world over who dream not only of coming to America but of becoming Americans. This land is our land, from California to the New York Island, from the redwood forests to the gulf stream waters, from purple mountain majesties above fruited plains to oceans white with foam.
      May God continue to shed his grace on America, to stand beside her and guide her with a light from above and may God continue to bless America – our home sweet home! On Flag Day we celebrate our flag and the exceptional nation it represents!
On June 18th we write about Fermi’s Paradox and extraterrestrial life.

MLLG College Commencement Address

George Noga
Instead of a diploma, graduates should receive an apology and a tuition refund. 
MLLG College Commencement Address
By: George Noga – June 11, 2017
     Graduates: upon your graduation today from this elite college, you will receive congratulations and a diploma. Instead, you should demand an apology from the college along with a refund of most of your tuition. You have been swindled, deceived, bilked, scammed, hoodwinked and defrauded in almost every way imaginable.
      During your seven years here, you never were taught by a professor; most of your graduate-student instructors sat in the same class last semester that they now teach. Most of you graduated with honors; making them meaningless and reminiscent of Lake Wobegon where everyone is above average. Many of your degrees are useless; some even are harmful. If your degree is in any hyphenated subject or in one that ends in studies, consider it worthless; the same applies to degrees in Zombies in Popular Media and Queer Musicology. Most of you didn’t need a college degree in the first place.
    No instructor or guest speaker has ever challenged you with ideas contrary to progressive shibboleths. You have experienced diversity in every conceivable way except the one that matters, i.e. diversity of thought. You have been indoctrinated in pro-government, anti-capitalist, anti-business and politically correct orthodoxy. You have been propagandized and terrorized about the environment and climate change.
      You have been coddled by trigger warnings, safe rooms and even the avoidance of microaggressions. You have been cloistered in a cocoon of enforced conformity. Males have had their constitutional rights stripped away and live on the razor’s edge, one ersatz accusation away from perdition. There is not now and never was a campus rape crisis; the real world has no speech codes; and all America is a free speech zone.
      Your college has a humongous endowment and doesn’t even need to charge tuition. Nevertheless, it has colluded with government, and against you and your parents, to raise the cost of tuition. Government decided everyone needed a college degree, so they lowered standards causing a student glut and a bubble in higher education.
     Government then made student loans easily available and your college raised its tuition to capture the subsidies. Tuition has risen 400% faster than inflation. Middle income taxpayers, who foot the bills, are subsidizing your elite education and are the ones you stiff when you inevitably default on your loans. You show your ingratitude by flagrantly flaunting your disrespect of their values, religion and patriotism.
    You are victims of intergenerational theft and inherit $600,000 as your share of future unfunded government liabilities. You also inherit a dysfunctional world with multiple existential threats and an imminent debt crisis, all due to following the discredited progressive dogma you were taught at this college. You are a lost generation and will be truly lucky if your life is better than your parents’.
      Following this ceremony, go straight to the nearest unemployment office, as this elite college did not equip you to add value to the economy. Those of you finding a job will soon learn that it is not about you – it is all about the customer. Your second stop should be at a law firm to sue this college for fraud and a tuition refund. Finally, you must begin to unlearn all the crapola you were taught at this college.
       If you feel entitled to a break following graduation, spend some time in Venezuela or Cuba to experience some real socialistic comradeship – but remember to bring your own food, medicine and toilet paper. Use your time (while standing in lines) in these workers’ paradises to decide if you are a frail, delicate, fragile snowflake who must be sheltered in a safe room with a teddy bear or someone ready to face the real world.
      Finally, as alums, you will be solicited by this college for donations to add to its already obscenely large endowment. Instead, send them a copy of your student loan repayment schedule and once again demand a refund of your tuition payments.

Next up is a  special MLLG posting on June 14th – Flag Day

MLLG High School Graduation Address

George Noga

 
There are many excellent teachers in America, unlike those brutally described in this post. The problem however is not limited to a few bad apples; there are not enough good apples. 
MLLG High School Graduation Address
By: George Noga – June 4, 2017
       Congratulations on your graduation from this failed government high school. Now you enter the real world and must confront hard truths beginning with your teachers. They attended a college of education which attracts the poorest students mired in the bottom deciles of their class; nevertheless, they harbor illusions of adequacy. Teachers can’t be fired no matter how inept or dangerous. Some taught you; others are assigned to rubber rooms where they can do no harm. The problem is not just a few bad apples, but too few good apples. Teachers are anti-competitive government workers who oppose pay based on merit or results. They are overpaid for what they produce.
      Your unionized teachers bargain for salary and work rules at your expense; that’s why your school day begins at zero dark thirty. Public schools are a jobs program for adults; you are afterthoughts. You were indoctrinated in pro-government, anti-business, politically correct conformity with an entitlement mentality. They scared the bejesus out of you about climate change and the environment with myth and misinformation.
       School choice is the civil rights issue of our age; yet, you had no choice where to matriculate, unlike affluent families – none of whose kids attended your school. Your teachers and administrators stood blocking your schoolhouse door to stop you from escaping. Principals and administrators are unaccountable to students, parents or anyone but  the government blob – which never has closed a failed school. They are in constant fear that if armed with a free choice, the most potent force on earth, you will escape their government monopoly. Minority students were thrown under the school bus by the NAACP and your elected leaders because they choose to support public sector unions over you – knowing full well the great harm this inflicts on you.
      Although your learning was far beneath grade level, your school spent nearly as much per student as the most elite private schools. The education  budget is wasted on administrators; barely half ever found its way into your classroom. Your government school with police presence and metal detectors resembled a prison. Sports were more important than education. Your school was a Petri dish for every dysfunction and social pathology. Your graduation is a testament to your perseverance – not to learning. You have been badly defrauded by those you innocently trusted.
      You can’t attend college without much remedial work and community college is mostly a chimera. Any honors or awards you may have received are cruel hoaxes. You are not prepared for good jobs; practice asking “Do you want any fries with that burger?” Every tattoo and piercing reduces your lifetime income by $100,000. You can expect a life of quiet desperation with little or no social or economic mobility.
      In a final ignominy, you are victims of intergenerational theft; you inherit $600,000 as your share of unfunded future U.S. government liabilities. This does not include your share of unfunded future state liabilities for teacher retirement, health care and benefits which vastly outstrip benefits for comparable private sector jobs. You inherit the equivalent of a mortgage on a million dollar home – only without the home.
     There is no way to sugarcoat your predicament. Nonetheless, you are young and there is a narrow path that can led to success – but only for a precious few of you. The first step is to eschew all myth and political correctness, to embrace truth and to see and to understand the world as it is – not how you would like it to be. Understanding the reality of your high school experience as described herein is a good beginning.
      Learning must be a lifetime pursuit; never stop. Find something you are good at which isn’t necessarily something you like. Work incredibly hard; save money; and consider starting a business. Above all, make sure your children have educational choices and are not forced, like you, to attend failed government schools.
The next post on June 11th is MLLG’s college commencement address.

Revenge of the Gods of the Copybook Headings

George Noga
Kipling warns mankind to heed the wisdom learned since we lived in trees.  When we ignore these eternal truths, terror and slaughter inevitably follow.
Revenge of the Gods of the Copybook Headings
By: George Noga – May 28, 2017
       Civilization is built on nuggets of wisdom learned from man’s behavior through the ages resulting in well understood and inviolable rules of conduct. Millennia of human experience have ingrained these rules and disregarding them inevitably leads to terror and slaughter. Copybooks once were used in schools to teach penmanship. Each page was headed by one of these nuggets of wisdom which students then copied such as “All is not gold that glitters“. These are Kipling’s Gods of the Copybook Headings.

     This post excerpts parts of the poem; the full version is readily available online. The first two stanzas of the poem follow.

As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper protestations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
 
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
that Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
 
       The Gods of the Market Place refer to transient and ephemeral fads such as Tulip Mania and the South Sea Bubble. Today such Gods would include climate change, transgender bathrooms, open borders, microaggressions and government health care.

With the hopes that our world is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she even was Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshiped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
 
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed they sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
 
     The Gods of the Market tell us what we want to hear – that we can spend and borrow without limit or consequence and that we can slash defense spending and still be safe. They tell us we can tax and regulate without choking economic growth. The Gods of the Market tell us we can have perpetual peace if only we ignore threats and appease North Korea, Russia, ISIS and Iran and negotiate ersatz one-sided treaties.

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
 
     The Gods of the Market promise that every collectivist, socialist, communist and utopian scheme will deliver abundance for all. But such schemes are contrary to human nature per the copybook headings. Never has socialism worked for more than a family, clan or small tribe – perhaps 25 people max. Yet this eternal lesson is lost on the people of Venezuela and far too many other places. Following is the poem’s apt conclusion.

And after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
 
     Kipling’s poem goes to the heart of human nature and is just as valid now as when he wrote it in 1919. Today, America is worshiping the Gods of the Market and defying the Gods of the Copybook Headings. We continue this only at our grave peril. Water still wets us and fire still burns; the only question remaining is: how much terror and slaughter must America endure before the Gods of the Copybook Headings return?
June 4th is MLLG’s not-to-be-missed high school graduation address

America’s 25 Year Long Party Is Over

George Noga

 
America bore an arduous, formidable burden from history in the 75 years ending in 1992. We then partied  frenetically for the next 25 years until 2017. The party is now over; our respite from reality has ended; and the Gods of the Copybook Headings are returning.
America’s 25 Year Long Party Is Over
By: George Noga – May 21, 2017
     Exactly 100 years ago, America entered World War I and began a 75-year stretch when history imposed a heavy burden. WWI was followed by the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, Korea and Vietnam. America’s desire for respite from these outsized burdens was understandable; any nation – even Rome or Sparta – would have desired a holiday after such an ineluctable and stygian period in its history.
     History cooperated. Circa 1992 we began a quarter-century long party. The Berlin Wall fell; communism collapsed and the Soviet nuclear threat ended; even the Middle East was relatively stable. There was great hope for the EU formed in 1993 and China had just begun its capitalist boom. Pax Americana reigned over a uni-polar world. We received a peace dividend, enjoyed robust economic growth, a booming stock market and had a low public debt to GDP ratio of 33%. But there was drift and indecision under both Clinton and Bush and complete denial of reality under Obama. America squandered its peace dividend and its best hope for lasting peace and prosperity.
     Fast forward 25 years to 2017 and the world is uber-dangerous. A revanched and nuclear armed Russia, led by a dictator, invaded Georgia, Crimea and the Ukraine and threatens the Balkans. The Chinese economy has slowed and its expanded military seeks hegemony in Asia. North Korea, led by a maniacal tyrant, threatens nuclear war with missiles capable of reaching the US. Iran, soon to be nuclear armed, has vowed to exterminate us. The entire Middle East is unraveling. Terrorism poses a world wide threat, including an EMP attack that could kill 300 million Americans.
     The EU is coming apart economically, militarily, politically and socially amidst failed hope, Brexit, anemic economic growth and the refugee crisis. Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal are de facto bankrupt with others close behind. Europe will neither defend itself nor reproduce; it has outsourced having babies. War in Europe, once unthinkable, is once again a possibility. Japan is a geriatric nation with more deaths than births. The US is on the precipice of a crisis of spending, debt and deficits and has the weakest military since WWII. It is splintering politically, socially and culturally.
     We have been living in la-la land for the past 25 years, but reality (the Gods of the Copybook Headings) always, with terror and slaughter, returns. We are on the cusp of potentially existential crises and cannot ignore or temporize any longer. The can has been kicked down the road until there no longer is any road left. We must address threats from Russia, North Korea, Iran, China and radical Islamic terrorism. Europe and Japan must come to their senses and pronto. Economic growth must be revived before the US and Europe enter a spending, debt and deficit induced death spiral.
     Our 25 year long debt-fueled binge is over. Reality is banging down our door. Will we answer the call or simply continue to dither over transgender bathrooms? If we don’t answer the call, the next 25 years could be tragic beyond belief. Are we up to it or will we continue blissfully to party until the music stops and all the lights go out?
The May 28th post is: The Revenge of the Gods of the Copybook Headings.

Original Earth Day Predictions Revisited

George Noga

 
Predictions by environmentalists during the first Earth Day in 1970 were not only wrong, they were absurd, inane, preposterous, idiotic and harebrained but, most of all, laughable.
Original Earth Day Predictions Revisited
By: George Noga – May 14, 2017
     The 47th anniversary of Earth Day is a good time to review the accuracy of predictions made by leading environmentalists in 1970. We also take this occasion to proffer five of our own prognostications. We have not cherry-picked the most absurd predictions; there were no upbeat predictions made by any environmentalists on the original Earth Day – or on any Earth Day since. Source note: Acknowledgement is due to the American Enterprise Institute and Mark Perry for some of the data herein.
  1. Harvard biologist George Wald: “Civilization will end within 15 or 20 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.“
  2. Paul Erlich: “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supply we make. Between 1980 and 1989, 4 billion people, including 65 million Americans, will perish in the great die-off.“
  3. Denis Hayes, the principal organizer for the original Earth Day, wrote in 1970: “It already is too late to avoid mass starvation.” 
  4. Life Magazine reported: “Scientists have evidence to support that within a decade, urban dwellers will have to wear gas masks to survive air pollution. By 1985 air pollution will have reduced sunlight reaching Earth by one half.“
  5. Ecologist Kenneth Watt: “By the year 2000 if present trends continue, we will use crude oil at such a rate there won’t be any more crude oil.”
  6. Harrison Brown, a scientist at the National Academy of Sciences, writing in Scientific American stated that humanity would totally run out of copper soon after 2000 and that lead, zinc, tin, gold and silver would be gone before 1990.
  7. Dr. Dillon Ripley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute: “In 25 years somewhere between 75% and 80% of all species of living animals will be extinct.”
  8. Ecologist Kenneth Watt once again: “The world has been chilling sharply for about 20 years. If present trends continue, the world will be 11 degrees cooler in 2000.”
  9. Biologist Barry Commoner in the scholarly journal Environment: “We are in an environmental crisis threatening the world as a suitable place of human habitation.”
  10. New York Times editorial: “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from possible extinction.“
     Res ipsa loquitur pro se, i.e. the reality speaks for itself; I can’t make this stuff up. As often noted in this space, every single one of the top 100 metrics of human and environmental well-being is better today than in 1970 and is continuing to get better all the time. Environmental wackos never learn; the predictions they are making today are every bit as absurd as those they made on the first Earth Day 47 years ago.
     Not to be outdone, MLLG proffers five surefire environmental predictions.
  1. All the top 100 measures of human and environmental well-being will improve.
  2. Prices (net of inflation) will continue to fall for all metals and natural resources.
  3. The decade of the 2020s will experience global cooling.
  4. Billions of additional well-fed humans will inhabit the planet and everyone will live longer and healthier lives. Earth will continue to get ever more cleaner and richer.
  5. Apocalyptic prophets of environmental doom will continue to spout spectacularly wrong predictions – all of which will be dutifully reported and hyped by the media.
     WARNING: The only skunk at this garden party is government – which really could destroy life on Earth. Our fears and those of our children are misplaced. It is big and feckless government that truly threatens this planet, not pollution or climate change.
The next post May 21st is about the end of America’s 25 year long party.

The 143rd Running of the Kentucky Derby

George Noga
The Kentucky Derby is one of the most poignant rituals in America. In this special Derby Day posting, we revel in its history and tradition.
The 143rd Running of the Kentucky Derby
By: George Noga – May 6, 2017
      Although you’re probably not into thoroughbred racing, you nevertheless watch the Kentucky Derby – the most exciting two minutes in sports – because it is a rich and enduring part of our heritage. There is nothing in America quite like the University of Louisville Marching Band playing and 150,000 people singing My Old Kentucky Home, the lyrics of which are included in this posting to help you to sing along.
The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,
Tis summer, the people are gay;
The corn-top’s ripe and the meadow’s in the bloom
While the birds make music all the day.
 
     Let’s begin with some history. In the early part of the nineteenth century, Kentucky was the Detroit of the equine world. The Civil War severely damaged its horse breeding industry because armies on both sides of the war simply requisitioned horses, i.e. took them without payment. When the war ended, there were no horses remaining in Kentucky. Historical note: more horses died in the war than soldiers.
    In 1872 Kentucky horse breeders wanted to attract attention to their revived business and approached a prominent Louisvillian, Meriwether Lewis Clark, Jr. for assistance. Clark was grandson of William Clark of Lewis and Clark fame and a grandnephew of George Rogers Clark, a Revolutionary War hero and a founder of Louisville. Clark’s idea was an annual horse race featuring the fastest thoroughbreds extant and the first race, i.e. the first Kentucky Derby, was held on May 17, 1875 at Churchill Downs.
The young folks roll on the little cabin floor
All merry, all happy and bright;
By’n by hard times comes a knocking at the door
Then my old Kentucky home Good-night!
 
      The song My Old Kentucky Home was played as early as 1921 for the 47th Derby. It was written by Stephen Douglas (the Father of American Music) in 1853 and was inspired by Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The Commonwealth of Kentucky adopted it as the state song in 1928 and the Kentucky legislature officially altered the song’s lyrics in 1986 to change some offensive words.
      The Derby is pregnant with tradition and sometimes is referred to as “The Run for the Roses“, referring to the horseshoe-shaped garland given the winner since 1896 that contains 400 red roses with the Kentucky seal on one end and the Twin Spires of Churchill Downs along with the number of years on the other. The garland measures 122 inches by 22 inches and weighs 40 pounds.
Weep no more my lady. Oh! Weep no more today!
We will sing one song for my old Kentucky home
For the old Kentucky home, far away.
 
     Later today, kick back with your mint julep (Kentucky whiskey, sugar, water, mint and crushed ice); don your colorful wide-brimmed hat and join in singing My Old Kentucky Home as the horses make their way to the post for the 1.25 mile race to try for Secretariat’s 1973 record of 1:59:40. The Kentucky Derby is not only the most exciting two minutes in sports but also one of most cherished traditions in America.
Next up: Post Earth Week bonus posting: MLLG’s  fearless forecasts

Your Home As a Microcosm for Environmentalism

George Noga

 
The environmental movement consists of two symbiotic segments. Its leaders are like a watermelon – green on the outside and red on the inside. Its followers guzzle the Kool-Aid and embrace environmentalism with evangelical fervor but are clueless commie pawns.

Your Home As a Microcosm for Environmentalism

By: George Noga – April 30, 2017
       Like most movements of our era, environmentalism began in response to legitimate concerns. People of good will joined together to enact laws to remedy the problems. Moderates then abandoned the movement believing their mission accomplished. Meanwhile, the Berlin Wall fell and communism collapsed. Die-hard Marxists were homeless and hijacked the environmental movement, bringing with them neo-Marxist, anti-capitalist and anti-globalization agendas which they cloaked in green language.
      Today, the movement is led by watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside) commies and the hard left to whom the environment is merely a lever to achieve their workers’ paradise – they will get it right next time. They are joined by useful idiots, mainly big government types, professors, teachers, movie stars, feel-good progressives and unfortunately, many of our children. Ironically, these are the very same leftists who created an environmental Armageddon in the former Soviet Union and its satellites.
Environmentalism From a Micro Perspective
      Sometimes it helps to look at things differently; assume your home is a metaphor for radical environmentalism. Many years ago, quite frankly, your house was dirty and your family often became ill. You were doing okay financially and wanted to clean it up. You installed a new HVAC system, water filtration and cleaned house more often. Your house was now 90% cleaner than before and family illnesses declined markedly.
      Fast forward several years. You now are affluent and want your home super clean. You have a cleaning crew come once a week and pest control monthly. You buy top-of-the-line air and water filtration systems. You have every surface disinfected. Your budget begins to strain and you must make some compromises about spending. Nevertheless, your home is now 99% cleaner than before, which is great. Right?
      Fast forward again. You now want even more; after all, it’s impossible to be too clean. Right? You bring in the cleaning crew and exterminators daily. Not even one bug survives. You change all filters every day. Your home is now 99.99% cleaner than before. Your costs rose exponentially to achieve infinitesimal incremental benefits. That final 1% cost you $100,000; but it was worth it. Wasn’t it? You must drastically cut spending and you replace your health insurance policy with a much cheaper one.
      Your child falls ill at the neighbor’s, whose home is dirtier – as is the neighborhood. Because of your cheap insurance, you wait to take your child to the doctor; after all, these things usually are not serious. Right? The story has a tragic ending. Yet, despite this tragedy, you want your home 99.9999% cleaner, even if that final one-thousandth of one percent will bankrupt you. After all, your home never can be too clean. Right? Source note: This story was inspired by an internet article by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.
 
     This story is a fair representation of environmentalism today. The perfect has become the enemy of the good. Every one of the top 100 measures of environmental and human well-being is better than it was 50 years ago and is getting better all the time. (Source: It’s Getting Better All The Time by Julian Simon and Stephen Moore)
      It is imperative we get this message to our children!
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