Torture and Other Suggestions for Tea Baggers

The Torture Part
When I first heard the term "waterboarding" I thought it referred to some sort of fun, outdoor water sport. I figured it was like water skiing or something. Then I heard it associated with torture and Dick Cheney and I got a bit confused. Torture is bad and Dick Cheney is very bad, but water skiing seems fun. I mean, if you've never done it before, it could probably be a bit embarrassing and maybe even bruise-making, but still.

Anyway, I recently saw the movie "Salt" with Angelina Jolie and I now understand that waterboarding is no walk in the park. It looks pretty darn unpleasant. Worse even than water tubing with a hell-spirited speedboat driver. Mystery solved.

Anyone? Anyone?
It's been around 25 years since "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" came out, and I finally decided that I needed to know what Ben Stein's monotone lecture was all about. Last night I googled "Laffer Curve" and "Voodoo Economics".

I didn't research Supply Side Economics/Reaganomics/Voodoo Economics thoroughly enough to go into here, lest some Econ nerd comment to me about how I got it all wrong. Although I did find it interesting how G HW Bush was so critical of Reagan's plan in 1980 and then ended up being his VP for 8 years. Suck it, Bush.

Anyway, the Laffer Curve I get. I'm not saying I necessarily agree with such a simplistic model of taxation; I'm a bleeding heart liberal democrat. I think we should all pay 70% taxes so the government can provide every man, woman and child with a Coke and a smile.

My point is, rather than criticizing every move the democrats make and calling Obama the anti-Christ in an attempt to sway people to the Dark Side, why don't those Tea Bagging GOP blowhards fancy themselves up a Laffer Curve showing that our optimal tax rate is actually lower than our current tax rate? If they could prove that lowering taxes would actually increase government revenue, wouldn't that force people to pay attention? Even I would look twice if there were hard data to show that creating tax breaks for the wealthy would ultimately generate more government revenue to fund social programs. (Actually, probably not because I would assume they falsified their data. But I'm sure there are some chumps out there who would buy it.)

Or we could go with my original plan and just gather up all the Republicans and start waterboarding them until they swear allegiance to Allah. Let's start with Michele Bachmann and Phil Jensen!