My brother points out an article over at Bloomberg that gets to the bottom of the arrow thing.
Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — Rose City Archery Inc., an Oregon company that makes arrows used by children, hit a bull’s-eye with Senate legislation that would rescue Wall Street banks.
From page 300 of the senate draft of the “EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION ACT OF 2008“:
SEC. 503. EXEMPTION FROM EXCISE TAX FOR CERTAIN
WOODEN ARROWS DESIGNED FOR USE BY CHILDREN.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (2) of section 4161(b)
is amended by redesignating subparagraph (B) as sub-
paragraph (C) and by inserting after subparagraph (A)
the following new subparagraph:
‘‘(B) EXEMPTION FOR CERTAIN WOODEN
ARROW SHAFTS.—Subparagraph (A) shall not
apply to any shaft consisting of all natural
wood with no laminations or artificial means of
enhancing the spine of such shaft (whether sold
separately or incorporated as part of a finished
or unfinished product) of a type used in the
manufacture of any arrow which after its as-
sembly—
(i) measures 5/16 of an inch or less in
diameter, and
(ii) is not suitable for use with a bow
described in paragraph (1)(A).’’.
Yep. Rome is burning and someone thought it a good time to help out the toy arrow manufacturer in his district. It’s selfish stunts like that that got us into this mess in the first place. I really, really wish there were a requirement for every line in an act to have a sponsor. It’d be nice to see who’s being such a bastard…
And people think I’m a cynic for no reason.
It’s System Administrator Appreciation Day!
It’s time for the yrealy reading of the Monkeybagel Document. Every word is true.
On a lighter note, it’s not uncommon to see comments like this about Obama:
also Barry you need to start dressing less like a 35-year-old midlevel IT supervisor
My first thought? “Hey, what are you talking about, he dresses just like me…. oh.” (I do not, however, have as cute a butt as he does. Vote for Obama! He’s got a cute butt! And can sink 3-pointers on the first try.)
We all know the joke about lawyers being first up against the wall, but it seems to be scarily close to true in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, up to 500 people had been arrested so far in a roundup of judges, lawyers and political activists
I admire people willing to put their corpus on the line for what they believe.
I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I’m proud of it.
Thanks to Jeff for the meme.