The Wine Commonsewer™

Dick Cheney Hunting Club

Gentle Readers,

The Dick Cheney Hunting Club is a proud sponsor of TWC.

And in other news Dick Cheney extended a hunting invitation to the shunned Jack Abram off saying that he just wants to help him get away from things.

As Ever,

TWC

tip of the glass to Chuck for the Tee Shirt

Good Night Harry Browne

Gentle Readers,

The obit flu strikes again and this time the Reaper has claimed Harry Browne author of such classics as How I Found Freedom In An Unfree World (apparently this is a collectors item; my copy is in excellent condition), Why Government Doesn't Work, and his 1970's investment opus You Can Profit From the Coming Monetary Crises.

UPDATE: A sample from some of the emails I got yesterday.

I will always be proud to have personally known him. To say he was an inspiration would be an understatement.--Gene Trosper

Didn't know him personally, met him once in '96.   He seemed like nothing but a class act.--Kos

Government still doesn't work, dammit.--Mark Kilmer

Llewellyn Rockwell at the Mises Blog explains that.....

He was a man of great principle who courageously and consistently stood up for liberty even when his position clashed with mainstream political culture and public opinion. He was a great writer who worked hard to turn a phrase in a way that would serve to educate people about free markets and the free society. He was a supremely thoughtful man, who read voraciously to educate himself, was not adverse to admitting error, and constantly struggled to say what was true as he understood it.

My favorite uncle introduced me to Harry Browne by telling me to go pick up the book (along with the Bourne Identity) thirty some years ago.

Brian Doherty's remarks and links here.

As Ever,

TWC

tip of the glass to Lisa

States That Are Unfriendly To Business

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

It may come as little surprise that New York is still the worst place in the country to do business but it surprises TWC that Californicate only ranks 40th in the latest Tax Foundation ranking of state business climates. I would have expected 49th.

Oh, and taking private property so Costco can build a new store or building a railroad siding for Boeing isn't what we mean by being friendly to business. I think that's called Corporate Welfare.

1. Taxes matter to business. Taxes affect business decisions, job creation and retention, plant location, competitiveness, and the long-term health of a state’s economy. Most importantly, taxes diminish profits. If taxes take a larger portion of profits, that cost is passed along to either consumers (through higher prices), workers (through lower wages or fewer jobs), or shareholders (through lower dividends or share value). Thus a state with lower tax costs will be more attractive to business investment.

2. States do not enact tax changes (increases or cuts) in a vacuum. Every tax law will in some way change a state’s competitive position relative to its immediate neighbors, its geographic region, and even globally. Ultimately it will affect the state’s national standing as a place to live and to do business. Entrepreneurial states can take advantage of the tax increases of their neighbors to lure businesses out of high tax states.

Clearly, there are many non-tax factors that affect a state’s business climate: its proximity to raw materials or transportation centers, its regulatory or legal structures, the quality of its education system and the skill of its workforce, not to mention the intangible perception of a state’s “quality of life.” Some of these factors are, of course, outside of the control of elected officials. Montana lawmakers cannot change the fact that Montana’s businesses have no immediate access to deepwater ports. Lawmakers do, however, have direct control over how friendly their tax system is to business.

Best place to do business? Wyoming. Hey Scott! You cold?

Whole study here in .PDF (3.9 mb dl)

News Release and comprehensive ranking schedule here.

The ten best states in the Tax Foundation’s 2006 State Business Tax Climate Index are as follows:

1. Wyoming
2. South Dakota
3. Alaska
4. Florida
5. Nevada
6. New Hampshire
7. Texas
8. Delaware
9. Montana
10. Oregon

The ten worst states in the SBTCI are as follows:

41. Arkansas
42. Iowa
43. Nebraska
44. Kentucky
45. Maine
46. Vermont
47. Ohio
48. Rhode Island
49. New Jersey
50. New York

As Ever,

TWC

So Long Jim

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Funny the things you remember about people. I was out like trout, crashed in my banana chair near the water's edge. Flat worn out, beered out, just done. It was a hot sultry Colorado River night a long dang time ago when some jackass shined (shone?) a ten D-Cell blast of white light in my face. I was about to be all kinds of PO'd until I noticed the glint of the badge. Face in twilight, badge clear.

Badge: Know this guy? Says he knows you.

TWC: Yeah, I know him. Why?

Badge: Well, we found him out on Rice Road past Vidal Junction. Refused medical attention. Asked us to take him here. He's yours.

Jim was a mess. A little delirious from dehydration and his face had the perfect impression of the bottom of a Bud can circling his left eye, giving him the appearance of a raccoon pirate. Some bonehead thought it was a great idea to toss him a beer at 70 miles per. Hanging out the window...hey man, you look hot, have a beer. Laughing all the way to Vidal Junction, never realizing they hit him in the face. Hard to figure how long Jim lay by the side of the road before somebody reported it (no cell phones in those days). And here he was. Got dang, Jim, get yourself some ice. Drink some water. Stretch out. Sleep it off.

I don't know, the memory is kind of fuzzy. It was a guys-only weekend trip and some of the guys got his dander up over something. Anyway, he decided he was going to hitchhike home. Problem was that all the traffic heading back to the big city was absent on Saturday night. Sunday woulda been a piece of cake. Of course we tried to talk him out of it, but he was proud.

Jim was an eclectic sort of guy who once introduced me to Robert, a stoner hippie-artist Eastern-religion drop-out who needed a bath and once painted a picture of a Peterbilt for Jimmy Hoffa.  I mean, how cool is that?

But I suppose I owe him the most for that one night at the gas station. Lawdy I was pissed off. Pretty sure it was a Texaco station at Goldenwest and Garden Grove Blvd at, like, 3:00 am. Jim was fond of the middle of the night for some reason. It was fate or coincidence or karma or whatever. Jim was big on karma. Mike, everything is happening just the way it's supposed to be happening. I awoke alone sometime after midnight and realized that skank Ruth Ann (hope she's reading this) was naked in somebody's bed besides mine. Somehow, I found myself filling the tank with hi-test with a loaded 7.35 mauser tucked behind the bench seat of that hopped up El Camino I used to have (that's now worth $15,000.00). 350 with an Offy hi-rise, four speed, dah, dah, dah, dah.......but I digress. It never was fast enough to beat Jeffie-Pooh's Duster. More digression.

So I look up and there's Jim, lit cigarette, Cheshire grin, hanging out the window of his green Camaro with a hey, what the heck are you doing out at this time of night?

TWC: I'm going to kill that b**ch.

He thinks I'm kidding. Then I show him the rifle. He wonders out loud if maybe a handgun would be better and asks where the .357 is. I don't answer because I'm an idiot.

Then, without thinking twice.......

Jim: Glad you're going to kill her. She deserves it. Tell you what, I'll help you do it. Let's go across the street to Spires, have some coffee, maybe some breakfast, and we'll plan it out so you won't get caught.

Now I'm not saying that anything might have happened, but the point is that Jim never missed a beat. We had our coffee and eggs, didn't talk much about the slut, and that was that.

And now, apparently everything has happened just the way it was supposed to and Jim's gone. He'd moved off to New Mexico with wife number one. Then there was Michelle and her daughter Allisha (thanks, Sean). Anyway the important thing is that he loved that little girl (although she's not little any more), that much was pretty clear.

We hadn't seen much of each other in the ensuing years but, damn, thirty some-odd years is a long time to know anybody. Got dang, has it really been that long?

At the rate things are going I'm going to be out of friends by 2011. Don't much pay to be friends with TWC lately.

Happy Mundane.

As Ever,

TWC