Dear #IRS Commissioner Koskinen: “Nobody Believes You”

 

Have you ever wondered what the operative definition of “supercilious” was? How about “imperious“? “High-handed“, perhaps? Well, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen’s testimony today is as good an example of all of those as I could have provided previously:

“…I have a long career, that’s the first time anybody has said they don’t believe me…”

Based on the laughable claims you are currently making, Mr. Koskinen, I’d offer that such a description is likely long, long overdue:

“God Bless the USA”, #VAScandal Edition – (by Remy)

No one, and I do mean NO one, does political satire today quite like ReasonTV’s Remy. His efforts this time combine two major recent headlines, and he makes an inescapable (and deeply troubling) point.

Welcome to the new United States of America, where a people “…of the government, by the government, for the government…“, shall not perish from this earth:

VIDEO: Health officials shut down 11-year-old’s cupcake business

Congratulations, Government! Once again you have saved us from the evil clutches of Capitalism and Entrepreneurship, coming to us this time in the guise of an innocent-looking 11-year-old girl.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Why, if you hadn’t stepped in and ruthlessly CRUSHED her successful venture, we might have actually purchased some of these tasty treats, and accidentally enjoyed ourselves! Worse, this young tot might have learned to become self-sufficient and not needed government assistance later in life!

*whew* …THAT was close:

Remember “Julia”? She’s back, …and thanks to #Obamacare, she’s not doing too well

If you think back to the 2012 presidential campaign, a major storyline was Obama’s “Julia”: a PR storyboard which detailed the hypothetical cradle-to-grave, government-assisted life of a woman receiving everything from Headstart to college loans; from childbirth to Medicare.

It was highly illustrative, since such a life envisioned TOTAL dependence on Big Daddy Government and championed it as an ideal to be pursued, rather than avoided at all costs. It was mocked mercilessly, and rightfully so.

But what if Julia was real: now, …today?

Same Old Battles

An older but highly pertinent post from one of our ‘Guest Noggins’, Greg Ward.

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We often hear the adage “those who fail to learn from History are doomed to Repeat it“. Too bad that, even now, people fail to take its meaning to heart.

More “Unintended Consequences” of #Obamacare, revisited…

In our culture today, especially with Washington partisans trying to spin facts into opinions and opinions into falsehoods, I believe more than ever that we need to strongly remind everyone when we’re right about something. 

Admittedly, we’re usually right about stuff here, but sometimes we’re even more right than normal. 

Case in point: Obamacare. We’ve been doing our best Howard Beale impression when discussing it, forever. Yet even with the entire Tea Party and more than a few GOP members on our side, we were ignored. 

Which is why I’m attaching a post I wrote waaaay back at the start of this year. You can decide for yourself if, in light of recent events, it was accurate or not. 

—JTR

President Petulant hits a new low: the WWII Memorial Fiasco…

We’ve all seen it before: Obama & Co warns that your failure to fully fund the Government will result in plagues and pestilence and then, when you have failed to heed his dire warnings, he tries to ensure you feel the pain as personally as is possible.

Yes, despite his Chicken Little act, nothing bad actually happens, other than what he choreographs for maximum effect.

Case in point: do you recall all the ‘Mad Max’-type horrors across the country, which came about as a direct result of the Sequester?

No?

My point exactly…

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But that was a mere warm-up of sorts, an apéritif for the larger meal that is the Great And Terrible Government Shutdown of 2013.

This has been going on for the last 24 hours, with WWII vets initially denied access to their own Memorial:

Remember “Buckyballs”? Well, they’re out of business, thx to our Govt… and THAT’s not the WORST part

We’ve mentioned plenty of examples of insane Federal overreach in the past, and maybe none so chilling as what happened to inventor Krister Evertson, or the stultifying case of Steven Lathrop. In both instances, the Government seemed to take peculiar glee in bullying and punishing these men for doing nothing more than legally pursuing their dreams.

Well, we can now add another victim of the Obama Administration’s regulatory Insane Asylum: Craig Zucker.

Zucker, as you may or may not recall, is the former CEO of Maxfield & Oberton, the small company behind “Buckyballs”, a desk toy for adults which became amazingly popular back in 2009. Unfortunately, the company ran afoul of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which held that the toy was inherently dangerous to children, …even though it was marketed exclusively to ages 14-and-up.

Here’s an interview which aired last year covering the dispute: