"Fukushima 50" Team Working to Avoid Nuclear Meltdown

I think these workers are such heroes. How many of us would go to work if it meant you have a good chance of dying? I know most of us would like to think we would be heroic but the truth is they are actually doing it. They are truly heroes. I bow to you Fukushima 50 (there are actually 180 of them)

Static Versus Dynamic Scoring

I get tired of hearing people people say this or that tax cut is for the rich. The following is taken verbatim from Freedomworks they explain it more concisely than I could:

Static Versus Dynamic Scoring

When tax cuts are proposed, government economists calculate how much they will "cost" the government--"cost" being the expected decrease in tax revenue for the state as a result of the tax cut--to inform legislators before they vote. Two very different types of calculations exist, "static scoring" and "dynamic scoring."

Static scoring assumes the tax cuts will have no change on the economic behavior of the individuals that are effected. For example, it assumes that if $100 is taxed at 50%, producing $50 in revenue, then a lowering the tax rate to 25% on $100 will produce $25 of revenue, "costing" the government $25 in lost revenue. It assumes the lower tax rate won't encourage anyone to behave any differently than they currently do.

Dynamic scoring ads to the calculations the predictable changes tax cuts have on economic behavior. For example, it assumes that if a 50% tax on $100 produces $50 in revenue, then lowering the tax rate to 25% will produce $25 in revenue, as static scoring predicts, but also that individuals will work more (if it's an income tax cut) or realize more capital gains (if it's a capital gains tax cut, etc.) because they will get to keep more of their money. This changed behavior will produce an extra $100, for example, which is also taxed at $25, resulting in a total of $50 in revenue, and no loss for the state.

The history of economic growth following tax cuts, from the Kennedy tax cuts to the Reagan tax cuts to the Bush tax cuts, repeatedly shows that the static score predictions have been way off the mark (overestimating the "cost") while the dynamic score predictions have been much closer to accurate.

Issa pledges probe into ATF “gun walking” operation

Issa revealed his plans during an interview Wednesday evening on the Roger Hedgecock Show, saying it would be one of his “primary investigations.”

According to Issa, the official announcement will “come out in the next day or two.” He said that although he normally investigates “waste, fraud, and abuse in government that leads to loss of money,” in this case, two individuals — a Border Patrol Agent and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent – “lost their lives needlessly because AK-47’s got over the border — not by accident — they got their as part of a plot by the very people that should be protecting them…”

“We’re going to get to the bottom of it … we’re going to hold those who lied to us early on accountable,” Issa promised Hedgecock.

Hat Tip: Daily Caller and Hot Air

British Teacher Saved 42 Teens From Tsunami | Orange UK

Quite a hero.

British Teacher Saved 42 Teens From Tsunami | Orange UK

A British teacher has been dubbed a hero after he led his students to higher ground just moments before their school was obliterated by a tsunami in Japan.

Robert Bailey, 27, told how he was "terrified" but had a duty to keep the teenagers safe.

He had just eight minutes to get the class of 42 students to safety.

"We first heard a weird cracking noise, then came the violent shaking," he said, describing the moment the earthquake struck on March 11.

"I ushered the students outside on to the baseball field so they wouldn't be hit by falling debris...Read More"

Hat Tip: Orange

John Stossel - Green Jobs