Simple, Really
The Lawrence County commissioners opted this week to discontinue the county’s needle exchange program.
A commissioner named Rodney Fish offered this alternative solution to the urgent public health problem caused by people using dirty needles:
If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
It’s a quote from that revered public health manual-cum-social policy handbook, the Holy Bible, specifically, Chronicles, 7:14.
Phew. At long last. I expect a drastic, dramatic plunge in the rates of Hepatitis C and heroin overdose deaths in Lawrence County over the next few months.
See? Governing isn’t all that hard.
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And The Band Played “Hail To The Chief”
The other day Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton posted a picture of his bride, law professor Dawn Johnsen, riding in a red convertible in last weekend’s Indiana University homecoming parade.
He referred to her as the First Lady. In fact, the sign on the car also tabbed her as such.
Kneejerk reaction: Really, Mayor? First Lady? You’re really diggin’ this pomp and circumstance thing, no?
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A Strange Consistency
One of the members of Pussy Riot, apparently, is romantically entangled with a leader of the Far Right, gay-bashing, Putin-and-fascism-loving God’s Will organization.
More evidence that we — all of us — easily can be hero-worshipping saps. Even — dare I say it? — we well-educated progressives.
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The Grateful Dead
Re-reading the late columnist Mike Royko’s very first collection, Up Against It.
I can only wonder what Royko would have thought about the lunkhead we’ve elected president. For that matter, what would the likes of Mort Sahl or even Lenny Bruce have had to say about it all. At least Royko and Bruce are dead and don’t have to suffer through our collective indignity. Sahl is still breathing at the age of 90, residing in the San Francisco Bay Area. I suppose he can say, truthfully, he’s seen it all now.
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Brushing Up On Big Talk
Hood, Today At 5
Housepainter Brandon Hood joined me in the WFHB studios yesterday to record today’s edition of Big Talk. Hood has decided to run for Congress, hoping eventually to challenge Republican Trey Hollingsworth for his Indiana 9th District seat.
Hood’s entry into the race now makes it two working class people hoping to go to Washington. He joins long-haul trucker Rob Chatlos as candidates who get their hands dirty in their day jobs. Lawyer and activist Liz Watson and Louisville-area civil rights attorney Dan Canon round out the the Democratic hopefuls for the May, 2018, primary. And now, all four of them have appeared on Big Talk.
Tune in to WFHB, 91.3FM this afternoon at 5:00 for my chat with Hood. If you miss it, I’ll post podcast links tomorrow AM.
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Who Pays?
This question hit me the other day: How many federal taxpayers are there in the United States?
Search me as to why this popped into my head. These things seem to have a genesis of their own — like maggots or internet memes.
Anyway, I thought it’d be easy to get a hard figure and so I went googling for one. A-a-a-and, there isn’t a single number. The numbers, essentially, range from 35 percent of the adult population to every single one of us.
The only real truth I gleaned from my search was whoever publishers a figure, whoever says, breathlessly, “Only so-and-so percentage of the people pay taxes!” are cherry-picking their figures. They’re bluffers trying to get you to believe some specious POV they have a vested interest in pushing.
So I didn’t learn anything new; only something I knew already.
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This would be a great time to have the commentary of Mike Royko, or the late Molly Ivins. Or H. L. Mencken: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” Or, on the lofty ideal of democracy: “All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre.”
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From IRS Statistics of Income, Table 3.4 from 2013: 77% of American households are in the 15% tax bracket or below. Are you Progressives sure the “1%” have enough money that can be taxed to fund all your programs?