Horsing Around With Tax Preparers
Emmett Harris
2013-10-02 07:01
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
The Obama administration is filled with dreadful little sycophants who manely specialize in finding rationalizations for regulatory overreach. Because of this, when an opportunity to saddle the populous with a more burdensome government comes along, we would never expect them to look a gift horse in the mouth. Their latest chestnut, however, is about a...
Limbic Linguistics
Emmett Harris
2013-07-11 06:18
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
Earlier this year, legislators in Washington state engaged in an emotional orgy of fatuity by passing a bill to erase 40,000 words from the overstuffed bindings of their state statutes. Given the sacrosanct pronouncements that, among other things, forbid the use of x-rays in the realm of shoe fitting, one might find it shocking that any of the verbiage...
The Neocon Yawp
Emmett Harris
2013-05-30 07:05
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
The neocon hawks are squawking again. But perhaps that's a mischaracterization. The word “again” implies there had been a cessation in their lustful exhortations for ever-increasing levels of death and destruction to be wrought by United States government military power. There hasn't been. Instead, their latest screed cable news...
A Cold Day in April
Emmett Harris
2013-04-15 06:52
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
The prior day's clinging dampness had given way to clear yet cool conditions by the pre-dawn hours of April 19, 1775. Gusts of wind came from the west and the temperature felt colder and rawer than the 46 degrees showing on local thermometers. A robust fire kept the chill away inside Buckman Tavern, but the atmosphere stubbornly maintained an unseen,...
The Supreme Court Vents
Emmett Harris
2013-02-26 08:00
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
In a surprise move following their recent decision to hear the case of Salinas vs. Texas later this year, the Supreme Court has opted to address a silent, but deadly serious issue that has been percolating for some time. While the Salinas case will determine whether the refusal to answer police questions or to show sufficient verbal shock at police...
Tragedy Leeches Suck Again
Emmett Harris
2013-01-30 07:36
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
Senator Diane Feinstein is once again pimping a ban on so-called assault weapons. The defining characteristic that makes a gun an “assault weapon” is its appearance. To her, a menacing facade makes a gun bad. She should be careful because by that criterion, she would most certainly be classified as among the bad.
Weapons, regardless of...
Dictates to the Union
Emmett Harris
2012-01-27 00:00
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
The other night, President Obama continued the modern tradition whereby the current White House denizen annually assaults the airwaves with a stream of teleprompter words that rival Lunesta in their ability to induce drowsiness. I’m referring, of course, to the State of the Union Address.
It was a long, boring, and typically...
Ten Years and Counting
Emmett Harris
2011-08-08 23:00
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
Ten years ago the United States government was a poorly restrained leviathan, consuming vast amounts of wealth at home and meddling higgledy-piggledy in the affairs of others around the world. While the size of the state loomed large, the voices sincerely espousing liberty were few and, amid the burning debris of September 11th, they...
Clearing the Throne for a New King
Emmett Harris
2011-07-04 23:00
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
July Fourth represents a day off from work, cookouts in the back yard, singed arm hair from the over exuberant use of lighter fluid, the overindulgence of heady quaffs, and the cause of post traumatic stress in canines everywhere. Oh, and like all other holidays in our brave new America, endless paeans to the military, especially emanating from those...
Juiced for Privatization
Emmett Harris
2011-04-18 02:00
Column by Emmett Harris.
Exclusive to STR
Like the Susquehannah’s meandering waters slowly cutting through the heart of Pennsylvania, a high-proof stream of privatization is threatening to plunge the Commonwealth’s populace into a drunken stupor of Ted Kennedy proportions. This, according to the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, would be the nightmare outcome of...
Hocus Pocus Among Us
Emmett Harris
2008-09-25 15:00
Exclusive to STR
September 26, 2008
The magical money machine in Washington has produced yet another wonder of fiduciary slight of hand. This time it was Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson taking his turn in front of the crowd, inspiring awe as he pulled close to a trillion dollars out of his hat.
Allegations Hound the Administration
Emmett Harris
2004-03-22 16:00
Generally accepted wisdom tends to support the conclusion that if the words 'politician' and 'liar' aren't synonymous, then they sure are close cousins--etymologically speaking, of course. With that said, it still comes as a modest shock when a politician and his entourage try to perpetrate mass fraud. We saw it with Clinton and company. And now we're seeing it again with Bush and his band of...
Tagging the Curs
Emmett Harris
2003-05-01 15:00
The Crown Prince of Homeland Security and Animal Husbandry, Tom Ridge , addressed a domesticated pack of reporters Monday to voice his support of a national identification system for livestock. This, claimed Ridge as he stood atop a regal podium bathed in the amber hue denoting the current 'Elevated' threat level, was to be yet another piece in the Bush administration's ongoing efforts to corral...
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