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By Elton Beard There are two kinds of people in the world, those who divide people into two kinds and those who don't. I don't. |
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| ARCHIVE | ARCHIVE | ARCHIVE |
| Sunday, January 12, 2003 |
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| Senator Bill Frist |
Tim Russert conducted a wide-ranging interview with Senator Bill Frist (R-Tenn) on NBC's Meet The Press this morning. Of all the matters discussed, however, only one issue struck a deep moral chord in the new Senate Majority Leader.
Here is what they first discussed.
- The nomination of Judge Pickering.
- The "F" rating from the NAACP for Frist's voting record.
- Race and the University of Michigan affirmative action case.
- Governor Ryan's blanket commutation of death penalties.
- The right of women to choose abortion.
- Whether to attack Iraq, absent evidence of WMD.
- What to do about North Korea.
- The provision of Medicare drug prescription benefits.
- The plight of 40 million Americans without health insurance
From the dividend exclusion, it's a moral issue, principally, I believe. You shouldn't be taxed twice.And:
... my reasons for supporting the dividend exclusion in addition to what old Dick Bailey told me when I was buying the car yesterday is that morally something bothers me-not something, it bothers me tremendously that you have income that's traveling through the system that's taxed fairly heavily, say at 30 percent or 40 percent, and that same income when it comes to an individual is taxed again, again very heavily. That double taxation is to me morally wrong and, therefore, why you would start cutting it in half or a quarter or a fourth. And that's what I believe.And:
... I am going to start with what's principle, what I feel is morally right and that is that you should do away with double taxation of all the viewers who are listening to us right now.It's double taxation, the collection of a tax in two stages, that is a sin in Dr. Frist's moral calculus. Maybe the only sin, given that during a discussion of subjects ranging from abortion and the death penalty to Medicare and war, double taxation was the only issue that Frist viewed through a moral lens. And on this he absolutely knows what's moral and what's immoral - if you disagree, if you think that two-stage taxation of corporate income is fine then you are, perforce, immoral. That's what the Senator from Tennessee says he believes.
The identification of Frist's theology is left as an exercise for the reader.
| Tuesday, January 7, 2003 |
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FBI analysts were stumped. How to evaluate a vague, unsubstantiated story told by a smuggling suspect held in custody by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police? A story of five Middle Eastern men, who may have been terrorists, and who might have bought forged British passports, and could have entered the U.S., possibly from Canada, either by using the forged passports or by sneaking across the border. Or maybe not.
The Mounties didn't have much confidence in the suspect's tale, but had passed it on to the FBI just in case. What was the FBI to do? In the J. Edgar Hoover Building, meetings were held but nobody knew.
There was no choice. The case had to be escalated right up to the top. Only one man, a man at the pinnacle of wisdom and power, a man who combined a deep insight into human nature and a brilliant analytical mind with knowledge broad and deep, could fully evaluate the nature of the threat and formulate an appropriate response. In the Oval Office, top FBI terrorism experts huddled with this man, cycling endlessly through slides of the men who might or might not be terror suspects, zooming in for deep close-up looks into the eyes of each one. Finally, the Commander In Chief stepped off the Stairmaster to announce his decision. He later told reporters:
I have authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, to put out an all-points bulletin for five individuals who we believe have been smuggled into the country. We need to know why they have been smuggled into the country, what they're doing in the country. And if anybody has any information about the five, I would hope they would contact their local authorities.
 |
Reporters approaching the While House for a reaction to the latest developments were asked to wait. Mr. Bush, it seems, was busy. Huddled in the Oval Office with top Defense Department and CIA officials, the Chief Executive was assimilating and analyzing detailed intelligence information from voice and data intercepts, satellite photos, inspection reports and other, secret sources, in order to conclusively evaluate the necessity, feasibility and geopolitical impact of a war with Iraq, as well as the moral and humanitarian implications of such a war.
His decision, which may determine the course of world events for the next century, was expected shortly.
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Busy, busy, busy. What bokononists whisper whenever they think of how complicated and unpredictable the machinery of life really is. |
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