Tax Returns
    President Obama and VP Biden released their tax returns on Wednesday.  President Obama showed a net income of more than $2.5 million, while Biden's was just over $200,000.   VP Joe had to be a little red faced when it was revealed that, although he's been earning more than $200,000 for the past decade, the most he ever contributed to charity, in a single year, was $900.  In fact, in some years, he gave as little as $120.  
    Biden's been chastising the high earning Americans for not being "patriotic enough" to not want to pay more taxes.  I wonder what he would call someone that gives 6/100ths of 1% of their net income to charity?
    Finally, my wife raised an interesting point.  She said that so many of the liberal democrats have little appreciation for small business owners and the contributions they make to the economy.  On hearing about the Obama's earnings, Audra observed that many leading liberals have made their money in quick fashion; via book royalties (Obama), speaking fees (Clinton), Inheritance (Kennedy) or quick stock gains (Gore).  Few, if any, had lots of direct employees to whom they were responsible.  As a result, from their earnings experience, these liberal leaders don't tie the capture of wealth to hard work or sweat of the brow.  In fact, quite likely, they may feel that their success was due to either high intelligence or being lucky.  
    Nearly all successful business people achieved their success through hard work and determination.  Many were not the smartest people.  Rare is the business owner that achieved their success in a few short years.  Finally, nearly everyone required the hiring (and worry and frustration) of multiple employees, something that few wealthy liberals have had to endure. 
    This may explain the huge disconnect that exists between leading liberals and small business owners in the US.


Lessons of Piracy and Gun Control
(Thanks to Republican Reporter Dick Rhodes for this idea)
Everyone is wringing their hands over the piracy problems off the coast of Kenya.  What do we do?



The solution is pretty simple.  Currently, due to maritime restrictions, ships are forbidden from carrying weapons on board their vessels.  In fact, several ports forbid ships from entering their harbor, if the vessel has defensive weapons on board. 

Knowing this, African pirates realize they have nearly free rein to go after the ships for the slow moving (but rich) targets that they are.
Simply allowing the crews to be armed would end this illegality, overnight.

But what about the ports restrictions?  If the shipping firms collectively agreed that they would no longer service a port that refused to allow them to have defensive weapons aboard, I think the ports would reverse their position immediately.  Standing on principal wouldn't seem quite so noble when they effectively shut off all economic activity in their ports. 

The lessons of piracy can be carried over to America's continual debate on gun control.  While limiting some weapons is prudent, removing all guns from society can be viewed through the experience of having removed all guns from shipping vessel's.  It opens the floodgates for the criminals and makes all law abiding citizens vulnerable.