According to some, rich people should pay more taxes, because they’re rich. Poor people should pay less taxes because they’re poor. And if some stinky old Republican, like GeeDub Bush, cuts taxes, then rich people must be paying less and that’s somehow a bad thing.

Raise taxes! Punish the rich! Rah rah rah!

Ok. Now that the emotional part of the post is over, let’s look at some hard facts.

In 2000, the top 10% of Americans, with regard to income, paid about 67% of all taxes collected by the IRS. That means that 90% of America only contributed 23% of the tax revenue. Wow. So, I guess the rich already are paying more taxes, huh? A lot more.

Oh.

Well, when Bush cut taxes, he only cut taxes for rich people and now poor people are paying more!

Ya think? Well, I hate to tell you, that since the 2001 tax cuts, the ratio has gone the opposite direction. In 2006, the same top 10% of income earners paid over 70% of the tax revenue. Yes, after Bush’s tax cut, the rich are now paying more. Whereas, during the Clinton years, in the mid-90’s, the ratio was around 60/40. So, when Slick Willy was in office, the poor and middle class had twice the tax burden that they have now under Bush’s tax cuts.

Oh.

Please don’t take my word for it. Read it for yourself here.

I’ve never liked labels. I think every person is unique with infinite nuances that make them who they are. But there are times when people can be grouped based on a few of their multitude of attributes.

I am a (Big-C) Conservative. Yeah, I know. Stop the presses. But why? What makes me lean that way? I am a Christian first, true, but there are many Christian liberals. (I work with two.) My parents are conservatives, but poll after poll shows that heritage has little to do with political stance.

I like to think that it’s because I think. I evaluate. I make my stand only after researching the truth. I never make a decision based on emotion or the media or a political speech. You’d think that would be common sense, but the longer I live the more I find out it is extremely rare. I hope and pray that all of my readers are amoung the rare thinkers and not the herds of sheep.

Smart folks like us are offended at the notion that Sarah Palin was chosen as a ploy to lure Hillary voters to the Republican ticket. Seriously, who’s dumb enough to think that Palin and Clinton have anything in common other than the “F” on their driver’s licenses. However, as it turns out, there are millions of people who are that dumb.

There is a blog in my feed list, a Christian blog, written by someone you might normally assume was an intelligent thinker. However, here are some quotes from today’s post.

A month ago I was committed to vote for Obama. Why? For reasons of his biography. For wanting to participate in history. And for the simple fact that I had no compelling reason to vote for McCain.

Exhibit A: Your vote was entirely based on the fact that Obama is black? That’s racisim, people!

When Obama chose the worst of all possible running mates, the “I bet my IQ is higher than your IQ” blowhard who has done nothing except be a lifelong politician, my soft support for Obama weakened to the point where I had just about decided not to vote at all.

Exhibit B: Joe Biden’s hard-core, pro-abortion, pro-gay, pro-tax, anti-gun, uber-liberal policies have no impact on your vote. Instead, the fact that he’s a “lifelong politician” (regardless of what he has or has not accomplished during that life) was almost (but not quite) enough to change your vote. So, if Biden was completely inexperienced (*cough* Obama *cough*) you’d have no problem voting for him, even if he is a pinko-marxist-libral?

When McCain [chose] Palin … I was instantly hooked … She had me when she walked on stage after a simple introduction and gave that endearing one-flapping-arm wave rather than the two arms over the head politician’s gesture.

Exhibit C: So, you’re telling me you your vote for the the most important public office in the world is going to be based on the fact that she waved one hand instead of two?

I’m starting to think that Thomas Hobbes was right. The populous is not smart enough to be trusted with decisions as grave and world-changing as this. God help us all.

Well, that’s pretty cool, but it’s not the chrome I was talking about.

By now, even non-geeks who pay any attention to the news should know that Google has taken another giant step towards ruling the world (or at least the world wide web) by introducing their own web browser, Chrome. They even released a very googlesque comic-book to educate you on why you need it.

There’s all kinds of talk about how this is the next generation of browser. How all other browsers will now have to play catch-up with Google’s Chrome (whereas that role was previously held by Mozilla’s Firefox). How this browser is designed for the internet of the 21st century (while all those old, crusty browsers you had before were so 20th century. Gaww).

As proud as I am of my geekness, I’m usually over-cautious on new stuff. I wanted a PDA so bad in 1999, but I waited. In 2007, I bought a Treo and now I get both the PDA and phone in one. I waited to start using Windows XP until my work PC was retired and I had no choice, thus sparing me from the trials of the pre-SP1 bugs. I still have not move to Vista. Instead, I’ll probably wait for Win08 which should have all the major headaches of Vista fixed.

The way I see it, the people who insist on living on the cutting edge of technology are consistently getting burned by it. Everyone I know who stands in line to get the latest gizmo the instant it’s available ends up frustrated by all the bugs and quirks that eventually get worked out in later versions or patches or service packs. I let the fools rush in to battle and get skewered, then I step over their corpses and fully enjoy the spoils of their pain.

But not this time. Because I make my living on the web (and arguably spend most of my life there) I figured I’d better jump on this early. As I type, the Chrome installer is ticking away, loading up the google-goodness. I’ll let you know if I run into any major hick-ups.

I already like how the installer offers to import all my bookmarks, settings, and even saved passwords from Firefox.

Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?
- Steven Wright

Did you know that tune can be sung to lot’s of nursery rhymes?

• Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
• Humpty Dumpty
• There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe

Curious.

Oh… pleeeeease can we make time go faster! I’m seriously jonesing for the Office. Isn’t that pathetic? I just watched their promo that aired during the Olympic opening ceremonies like four times and laughed out-loud all four times.

Okay, five times. *sigh* I’ve got issues.