Fiddlers Three

Powderfinger
RedStateVT has been keeping its powder dry while Republicans have been debating internally the path forward. Hold fast? Bend? From a strategy standpoint, we have concluded the following. Obama won and he won by promising tax increases. So rather than another six weeks of mind-numbing debates and brinksmanship (enough already!) Republicans would do wise to simply step out of the way. They don't have to vote for tax increases. They can simply vote "present" (much as Obama did throughout his brief Senate career). All the while, they can make it clear that they do not agree. The "wealthy" are not going to perish if their taxes are raised and - as Obama proved in rescinding Clinton's welfare reform - nothing is forever in politics. If taxes go up and the economy roars, then Obama was right, Republicans were wrong and we can all move on. If the economy takes a nosedive, Obama and his party are roadkill, Republicans will be swept into office in 2014 and 2016 and taxes can then be lowered. Call it Republican rope-a-dope.


Avoidance
At an ocher-color preschool along a lane in Stockholm’s Old Town, the teachers avoid the pronouns “him” and “her,” instead calling their 115 toddlers simply “friends.” Masculine and feminine references are taboo, often replaced by the pronoun “hen,” an artificial and genderless word that most Swedes avoid but is popular in some gay and feminist circles. (NYT, 11/13/2012)

Coming soon to America!


Strike Out
Stryker Corporation has announced that it will close its facility in Orchard Park, New York, eliminating 96 jobs next month. It will also counter the medical device tax in Obamacare by eliminating 5% of their global workforce, an estimated 1,170 positions.

Jon Stryker is heir to the Stryker Corporation, one of the largest medical device and equipment manufacturers in the world. Stryker’s grandfather was the surgeon who invented the mobile hospital bed. The company now sells $8.3 billion worth of hospital beds, artificial joints, medical cameras, and medical software every year. Stryker, a member of the Forbes 400 list, was one of the top five donors to the Obama campaign. Having donated $2 million to the Priorities USA Action super PAC, Stryker also gave $66,000 in contributions to Obama and the Democrat Party. (Breitbart.com, 11/13/2012)

We are sorry for Stryker's employees, but why should we feel bad for Stryker himself? Like Goldman Sachs, he put his money on the Democrats and they screwed him.