So LaHood wants to track my driving, the gas tax just isn’t enough.

Unbelieveable…

Say goodbye to America.  For me, the most laughable quote from this whole story is this one.

“Privacy concerns are based more on perception than any actual risk, Atkinson said. The satellite information would be beamed one way to the car and driving information would be contained within the device on the car, with the amount of the tax due the only information that’s downloaded, he said.”

As if I am supposed to believe that the government won’t use this to intrude on my privacy.

Would you want to join his “Chicago Tea Party?”

There is a lesson to be learned from a statement made by New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg.  Think about it, do the math.  Less than one percent of the population of New York pay FIFTY PERCENT of the tax.  This is how it works for all Federal taxes.

READ it very carefully. FIFTY PERCENT of the people DO NOT PAY taxes.  To make it even worse, THIRTY PERCENT get money FROM the government.  Where does the government get that money from?  The ONE PERCENT that is PAYING taxes.

The government does not produce.  The government only consumes.  The government can not give anything to anyone that it does not first TAKE from someone else.

“One percent of the people that live in the city, the households that file in the city pay something like 50% of the taxes. In a city that’s about 40,000 people so, you know, a handful left, any raise would make it revenue neutral.  The question is, “What’s fair?” If one percent are paying 50% of the taxes, you want to make it even more? A little over half the people, half the households who file tax returns don’t pay any taxes.  And about 30% of the households that file get a credit from the government. The government sends them a check. That’s the Earned Income Tax Credit.”  – Mayor Bloomberg

What traders really think about Obama’s plan

CNBC video

Materials Lab

The UT Materials Lab

Proposal:

The UT Materials Lab is a research center where academia and industry meet. Along with the collection of building and design material samples, the UT Materials Lab will offer information on material composition, manufacturing, fabrication and emerging materials. The Materials Lab web site will show a virtual sampling of the collection and links to resources for research. Architecture and design requires a broad synthesis of knowledge and disciplines: design, construction, sociology, science, and engineering. It is important to build bridges and to recognize that it takes a variety of disciplines and experience to push a material forward. The Materials Lab will seek to understand what can increase a material’s availability to the end user. It is important to be aware of a material’s inherent characteristics and know its potential as well as its limitations. The UT Materials Lab will provide information on a material’s ability and functionality, as well as its strengths and weaknesses.

via: Treehugger

FTA: “It is an old architectural trick used since the invention of mirrored glass: covering buildings with the reflective material and declaring that they blend in with the surroundings. Most architects use it to convince wary citizens that it is OK if their building is tall because it will reflect the sky and nature. The rendering always makes the building disappear, and the reality is always a big clunky mirrored box.”

Most topping up on rooftops is done for two reasons: a need for additional space and the desire to live or work high above the city rooftops, closer to heaven than to other people. Dutch architecture firm designed an extension for the Didden family on top of an existing monumental house and atelier. The attic storey of the house below is extended by a sky-blue parapet. Behind it two gables of the same colour can be seen. It creates a crown on top of the monument. The extension is an example of the growing trend to exploit the urban roofscape for new living and working spaces.

via: arch|daily

Let’s hope our President gets it together soon.

Team Obama demonstrated remarkable discipline during the presidential campaign. From raising an unprecedented amount of money to milking every advantage from the Internet to grabbing lots of delegates from inexpensive caucus states, they left nothing to chance.

And now the administration has scored a major legislative victory in an extraordinarily short period of time. Less than 700 hours after taking the oath of office, President Barack Obama signed the largest spending bill in American history.

Nevertheless, this fast start can’t overcome a growing sense the administration is winging it on issues large and small.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123500260310017735.html

President Obama’s Spendathon

Perhaps it is difficult for people to understand just how colossal this new welfare/spending/pork bill is.  I try not to sound alarmist but it is amazing when you stop and think how much money really is being printed.  By far the largest vote buying bill ever.

FTA: Robert Rector, a prominent welfare researcher who was one of the architects of Clinton’s 1996 reform bill, warned last week that Obama’s stimulus plan was a “welfare spendathon” that would amount to the largest one-year increase in government handouts in American history.

That is one very large screw…