Wednesday (Mild) Rants

• Jamie Dimon is whining again.  Take that as a clue that whatever he is whining about is a good thing.  I'll start feeling a little sorry for these bankers when a couple of them are in prison.
• I have a mental list of words and phrases that--if they appear in an article or opinion piece--will cause me to stop reading immediately.  The reason is that they indicate the writer's lack of an actual argument, so he/she reverts to cliches that trigger emotion but no real fact.  Among these are things like "politically correct" or "Al Gore invented the internet".  They are an indication of intellectual laziness.  Well, after the State of the Union last night, here's a new one to add to the list.  It was brought to my mind by Diana Furchtgott-Roth's (entirely predictable and tiresome) article today in which she invoked the phrase "class warfare".  Sorry, but your article is disqualified.  I can't read every article, so I will spend my time reading those that might contain actual worthwhile arguments.  And "class warfare" is officially added to my list of disqualifying phrases.
• I am amazed at how the MSM has dismissed the Occupy movement.  We can quibble around the edges, but does anyone think that the State of the Union would have dwelt so heavily on income inequality issues if the Occupy movement never existed?  The Zuccotti Park encampment closed down over two years ago but the issue is still reverberating.
• This means absolutely nothing that is statistically significant but I will say it anyway...Among my circle of friends and acquaintances, most of the veterans I know are liberal.
• A reminder:  the Dow has increased by about 110% since Obama took office.  The Dow decreased by more than 20% during the George W. Bush tenure.  Hmmm.
• I am happy about the last point because it's good for my finances, too.  But don't you think the 1% could afford a few more bucks in taxes without the world collapsing?
• I could never run for public office because I will never wear a flag lapel pin.