Bill-O'-Notes® » Economics

FLATUS TAXUS! $700K Taxes to Study Cow Burps?

Bill O'Neill — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:48:51 +0000

Oh, waiter? Belching bovines, Batman! Seven hundred thousand dollars in federal tax money to study burping cattle? Really? As a friend of mine just remarked, “Meanwhile back at the ranch I am looking for loans to send my kid to school.” Couldn’t have said it better myself. “Cows emit most of their methane through belching, only a small fraction from flatulence,” said the project’s principal investigator, Ruth Varner of UNH’s Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space. Pass the Lea & Perrons. Instead. The Manchester Union Leader reports that we are going to fund nearly three quarters of a million dollars in research to the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH to study burping cattle. While I enjoy a belching bovine as much as the next guy, would we not be better off putting a cork in that project for a decade or so just to see how it all, well, works out in the end? Oh, I can hear the naysayers: “How many more must perish before this great nation of ours recognizes our grievous irresponsibility in this matter as we pass gas to the generation of our great grandchildren?” Pass the Lea & Perrons. Indeed.

If the gulf oil spill keeps disappearing, then what?

Bill O'Neill — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:56:57 +0000

You gotta love those who love “the Mother.” When the planet is doing what God intended it to do and that is seen as a good thing, then it’s “Mother Earth…

Daniel Hannan at International Leaders Summit in Brussels

Bill O'Neill — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:15:12 +0000

“Almost nobody now argues for the inevitability of socialism for the desirability of state planning…and yet the percentage of wealth taken by governments continues to grow.” If you have ten minutes, grab a cup of coffee and check this out. Even if you are apolitical. The courage of this British member of Parliament could teach us something about standing firm. www.youtube.com/watch?v=boMTNjj-YfE “Just as the Asian powers are learning the benefits of decentralization, of devolution, of competition, we are adopting our own version of the Ming, Mogul, and Ottoman path towards ever closer union, harmonization, more bureaucracy, more rules, higher taxes.”