http://www.happybullshit.com by Michael Baumer Fri, 07 May 2010 14:47:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There are a lot of Wall Street types, and D.C. types, and talking heads out there who are claiming that we have "turned the corner" on the employment/unemployment problem in America. These people are smoking crack. We had a good month in March for new hiring, but those numbers are ... http://www.happybullshit.com/?p=81 The U.S. misadventure in Afghanistan started in 2001 because Islamic militant training camps supported the 9/11 attacks. Assuming this was a legitimate purpose, we made only a half-assed commitment to the Afghan war for all of the Bush 43 presidency. (Iraq, which played no demonstrable role in the attacks, moved ... http://www.happybullshit.com/?p=79 In this silly season of the hearings on confirmation of Sonya Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, many Republicans have raised questions and criticisms of her judicial philosophy. Republicans (claiming to be conservatives) generally lament "judicial activism" in favor of honoring the "original intent" of the Founding Fathers. (And they ... http://www.happybullshit.com/?p=76 The official unemployment numbers released by the U.S. Department of Labor are a lie and the government knows they are a lie, but they tell the lie anyway because they want to avoid mass hysteria. These are the numbers for June, 2009:  An additional 467,000 jobs were lost in June. (This ... http://www.happybullshit.com/?p=61 The current U.S. federal gasoline tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. The diesel tax is 24.4. States add varying amounts. (Texas adds 20 cents. New York is highest at 41.3 cents.) In most of the rest of the industrialized world, the gas tax is MUCH higher. The reality is that ... http://www.happybullshit.com/?p=57 Just a stray thought on President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotamayor to the Supreme Court. Senator Lindsey Graham has been making the rounds on the political talk shows where he has conceded that she is “qualified” to sit on the court. Qualified is, after all, the appropriate standard. (Isn’t it? ... http://www.happybullshit.com/?p=54 I was watching the news night before last, and in another attempt to criticize the Obama healthcare plan, Rep Boehner said “If you like the lines at the DMV, if you like the post office, you are going to love public healthcare.” Let’s start by inquiring when was the last time ... http://www.happybullshit.com/?p=49 Congress passed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. It provided a tax credit up to $7500 for homes purchased between April 8, 2008 and July 1, 2009. If you purchased the home in 2008, you can take the credit on your 2008 tax return. If you purchased the ... http://www.happybullshit.com/?p=44 John Boehner, Republican Representative from Ohio and House Minority Leader, appeared on one of the Sunday morning news talk shows a couple of weeks ago to start the pre-emptive attacks on President Obama’s as yet incompletely articulated health care plan. President Obama has set out several issues that need to ... http://www.happybullshit.com/?p=25 On April 29, 2009, the US Senate, by a vote of 51 to 45, blocked passage of bill that would have allowed bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages in two important ways. First, Judges could lower and fix interest rates. Many borrowers with subprime loans started out with low "teaser" rates for ... http://www.happybullshit.com/?p=3