Saturday, September 22, 2012

Gaffe = when politicians tell the truth

Mitt now confirmed that he is not qualified for the presidency and that we don't want him as the candidate. How so, you ask?

I don't think using the Friday news dump will work to avoid his own words:
Romney only reached the 14.1 percent mark by limiting deductions taken from his considerable charitable giving. Had the Romneys taken all of the deductions made available by their $4.02 million in 2011 donations, his effective tax rate could have been as low as 10.4 percent.

By not using all the available deductions, he paid an additional $500,000 to the federal government. 

That decision contradicts a pledge Romney made during an interview in July, when he told ABC News he would not pay more in taxes "than are legally due. And, frankly, if I had paid more than are legally due I don't think I'd be qualified to become president. I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires."

Romney made a similar remark in January during a GOP primary debate, when he said, "I pay all the taxes that are legally required and not a dollar more. I don't think you want someone as the candidate for president who pays more taxes than he owes."
 (emphasis mine) 
So the guy who used Swiss bank accounts and Cayman Island accounts to avoid paying taxes for years is now paying $500,000 more in taxes than he should have just because he didn't want people to see that he's paying 10% in taxes on over $10 million in income. But in so doing he both makes an obvious political play and contradicts his earlier quotes about how such an action would "disqualify him" from the presidency...

Lol.

See also for reference: NYT

Sunday, September 2, 2012

The Ethics of David Foster Wallace

I found this old article by David Foster Wallace and wanted to repost it as a rich resource: here