Irony: Impossible

His Obamaness  this morning will propose new common-sense tax laws to ensure that businesses make smaller profits and keep a smaller proportion of what they do make.

That seems reasonable enough to me and all of my like-minded colleagues who correctly  understand  business as the natural enemy of the noble poor as well as of decent, compassionate citizens everywhere.

Just one little thing, though. Obama's designated leakers tell AP:

"...Under Obama's proposal, Americans would have to prove they were not breaking U.S. tax laws by sending money to banks that don't cooperate with tax officials. It essentially would reverse the long-held assumption of innocence in U.S. courts."

You may recall the President last week vowed to replace Souter with someone sharing Obama's "core Constitutional values."

A Moment of Moderation

She shuffled around in in the road, eyeballing both my cabins, copying the  number of my single mail  box, and generally looking too interested in the  acre that is Camp J. Finally she came to the door to ask my address. Public information, so I told her. Then she asked the address of the other cabin. "The same, why do you ask?"

"I'm with the government. I'm mapping for the census." She showed me a badge-like gizmo.

I nodded, gave it some thought, and permitted her to leave uninjured., badge, data, authoritarian demeanor and all.

Back to the Future, Part 3

You should go meet Xavier if you haven't already. There are simply too few humans of such  impeccable taste and sensitivity.

Item:  He understands the sublime qualities of the 1911 (and the closer to JMB's original the better).  Not too uncommon among the bangnoscenti, but still praiseworthy. 

Item:  More important, he is installing a what he calls a "split prism" focusing screen in his electrical Nikon. In my day we called it a split-image screen, but who can get  hair-splittingly picky about minor matters of nomenclature when a certified  technocratic competent decides he will, by gawd, sometimes focus his  nukey image zapper MANUALLY!?

There is hope for America.

This paean was partially  conceived as an excuse for me to tell you all about the glorious Nikon F, but a couple of posts down from his split-image entry, X  already did that. He omitted only the truth that the Nikon F,  loaded  with Tri-X, marked the point at which photographic technology could have stopped dead  without the slightest disadvantage to the visual arts and sciences. And if that ain't solid-gold truth I'll kiss your butt  in front of   George Eastman's statue and give you an hour to conjure up the ghost of  Weegee. 

 

The Language of Leadership

His Obamaness says this morning: "...the threat of spreading swine flu infections is matter of concern but 'not a cause for alarm.' (AP)

Taking us back to the Clintonian conundrum of the meaning of "is."