WUI (Writing under the influence)

Drinking a lot of Polish beer, mostly pilsner, and watching some great European soccer.

Poland's out so now we pull for Italy. After Italy is out, we will be cheering against the French, Germans, Spaniards, and Portuguese (although it may be difficult to take sides when Germany plays Portugal.)

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Holland or Croatia won. We will drink some Żywiec (a decent Polish lager) for that.

That's more or less one of the most famous line from Sainfield. There is a rumor that Obama may be considering Sen. Patty Murray from Washington to be her running mate.

It makes sense. You want to be the more intelligent on the ticket. So it's either Murray or Boxer for Obama. Or am I missing somebody?

This short news clip is very interesting on many levels.

Football team loses, but Kubica makes history

The Polish national soccer team lost 2:0 to Germany in the first round of games in the Euro 2008 soccer championship.

The Polish side was thoroughly outplayed by the Germans. Interestingly, Lukasz Podolski a Polish-born German national scored both goals for the German side. There have to be some mixed emotions there.

On a more positive note, Robert Kubica won the Montreal Grand Prix in Formula 1 racing on Sunday. This was a first for Kubica and for a Pole. Kubica had a spectacular crash in Montreal last year, but broke through any psychological barriers in 2008. He is now the points leader in Formula 1.

First, as far as I remember, Poland has not won any important match against Germany since the loss in 1974 when Poland placed 3rd in the World Cup. Second, I wonder how Mexicans feel when one of "theirs" scores a goal against Mexico while playing on the US national team. The article talks about some mixed emotions but doesn't elaborate. Third, I didn't even know Poland was competitive in Formula 1.

I will be going to Poland this summer. I hope I will be able to watch some good soccer and Formula 1 when I'm there.

I have to follow this closely because I know that again people who say that cutting marginal tax rates lowers revenues will be proven wrong. I don't understand why they don't get it after it has been shown to be true so many times. This is why after Bush's tax cuts the government is receiving more money than ever. And spending even more, unfortunately...

Personal income tax reform to cost budget PLN 8 bln in revenues

Poland's budget is likely to record a revenue decline of no more than PLN 8 bln in 2009 as a result of its pending personal income tax (PIT) reform as GDP and labor market growth outperform estimates from the start of talk on changes in PIT back in 2006, deputy Finance Minister Katarzyna Zajdel-Kurowska said.

As of January 1, 2009, Poland is bound to change its current three- rate PIT of 19, 30 and 40% into a two-rate tax system with 18% and 32% rates.

"We estimate the change would result in a decline in revenues for the whole public finance sector . . . this effect will be PLN 8 bln," Zajdel-Kurowska told TOK FM in an interview.

"How much it will really be, we do not know . . . it should not be more for a simple reason," she said, elaborating that "in 2006 we had estimated different GDP and labour market growth."

"It turns out that growth is faster and there is more people at work and paying taxes," Zajdel-Kurowska said.

The tendency is clearly visible in the structure of budget revenues from the first four months of 2008, the deputy FinMin indicated.

"[In PIT we have] 46% of the annual plan [done] after four months," Zajdel-Kurowska said.

I was forced to talk to my children's (private school) principal today. Normally, I only complain that the math level is low. But I understand because K-12 education in this country sucks no matter where one sends his children. This time tough, I didn't complain. I gave the principal an ultimatum: if my children are subjected to the humans-are-causing-global-warming propaganda I may as well send them to public schools to be exposed to the same for free.

One of my sons told me yesterday that his computer class teacher had shown them a movie in which Co2 was called a pollutant causing the green-house effect and global warming and that humans were the major culprits.

Then she administered a test in which she required the children to answer 'Yes' to the question whether humans cause global warming by producing Co2. He answered 'Yes' as directed but he felt bad about it and that's why he talked to me.

I told the principal that I don't really care what the official position of the school is on the issue. The children are simply not equipped with enough knowledge to understand the topic and argue intelligently about it. Why is Co2 considered a green0house gas? Does it get warmer because there is more of it? Or, is there more of it because it's geting warmer? Is it really getting warmer? How have we been measuring global temperatures over the years? How precise have been the measuring instruments? Hell, how is Co2 capable of trapping light if at all?

Those are perfect topics for discussions in graduate school.

But the teacher simply chose to indoctrinate my children. For her human-caused global warming is as certain as 2 and 2 is 5 I mean 4.

We will see what the outcome of the conversation will be. But at least I know I get my money's worth when I can talk to the principal as a customer who can take his business elsewhere. I bet I couldn't do it if my children were forced to attend government schools.

"Some will say Mrs. Clinton is being disloyal to her party if she undermines Obama's chances of winning in November. But maybe she just practices a different kind of party loyalty. After all, if you can be a patriot while hoping your country loses a war, why can't you be a loyal Democrat while hoping your party loses an election?"

-- James Taranto, Best of the Web

NYT is saying that something has changed for the worse in the country because we don't treat immigrants very well. NYT is right. It is the welfare industrial complex making people resentful.

Also, I don't agree with the premise. Immigrants have always been treated badly. However, what's happening right now is probably provoked by many so called immigrants (they are illegal immigrants to be precise.) For the first time in the history of this nation time many of them insist on preserving their identity to the point of forcing it on the rest of us. At the same time, many are taking advantage of our current (socialistic) system.

Some of us think changing the system is impossible at this point so we are taking it out on the illegals. I can guarantee that the moment all social programs are abolished including government education, we will not care about illegals as much.

Once a year children and parents from Forest Grove public schools call residents asking for even more money. I never give anything thinking that what I pay for my children's private schools is already high enough. But even if I wanted to donate some money and attach some strings to it, I might be told to go to hell.

Earlier this month NMSI announced that a $13.2 million grant slated for Washington state was being scrapped. Why? The contract ran afoul of the union's collective bargaining agreement. NMSI wanted to compensate teachers directly and include extra pay based on how well students performed on AP exams. But under the teacher contracts, the union is the exclusive agent for negotiating teacher pay and union officials refused to compromise. They were willing to turn away free money for their teacher members rather than abide this kind of merit pay.

"The identity politics that Democrats love to use against Republicans has now come back to haunt them."

-- WSJ

"As in the case of Jeremiah Wright, Obama has known Pfleger for years, yet he's claiming to be shocked, shocked to learn what he stands for. People who made fun of President Bush for his naiveté in sizing up Vladimir Putin ain't seen nothing yet."

-- James Taranto, Best of the Web

"La Scala officials say the Italian composer Giorgio Battistelli has been commissioned to produce an opera on the international multiformat hit for the 2011 season at the Milan opera house. The composer is currently artistic director of the Arena in Verona."

I bet this moron will never do anything like this to warn us of the Muslim danger.

This is why I don't travel to West Europe anymore. These people are nuts!

To keep up with news from Poland, I read a short newsletter everyday. It's mostly about Poland. But sometimes it's implicitly about other countries. For example, the other day I learned that the US economy is still the most competitive.

"Poland rose by eight positions, from 52 to 44 in the most competitive world economies ranking. For the 15th consecutive time, the USA topped the list.

"The first three places of the ranking, compiled by the World Competitiveness Yearbook, again have been taken by the USA, Singapore and Hong Kong. According to the information on www.pb.pl it is worth noting that Australia took off and entered the group of the ten top competitive economies this year.

"From among the former Eastern Bloc countries the Czech Republic ranked highest (28). Poland was surpassed, among others, by Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia and followed by Romania, Italy, Russia and Turkey."

I wish our media outlets were more forthcoming when it comes to good news about the US.

By nominating Obama, Democrats decided to turn America into a fascist country. And if the media were fair, Obama would probably lose even Illinois. Because they are not fair, he will just lose but it might be close. But even though half of Americans' intelligence is below the average, they will still vote for McCain. After all, we want our thermostat to be on 72 degrees. And we want to kick some serious (extremist) Muslim ass.