Some time ago, policymakers decided that the way to increase investment was to cut taxes for wealthy investors, then to cut taxes again, and again, and ... well you know the story. It actually began before the Reagan years, but accelerated in the 1980s and continued to the present.

The idea is that investors create jobs, while workers just use them up. So we tax investors at a maximum rate of 15%. Top wage earners, those earning the very tip-top brackets, can get taxed up to 35%. President Obama wants to increase the very top to 39%, a little less than it was under President Reagan. This makes him a socialist, or a Muslim, or something. Christians know Jesus would never do that to rich folk.

But investors will remain at the head of the line when it comes to tax breaks. Some of us may disagree with the policy, but it does have a rationale. We want more jobs, so we'll try to encourage investment with tax breaks.

Which brings us to the long time dirty little Democratic secret. It concerns hedge funds, the exotic slice-and-dice-recombinant-mix-master-financial-gamble-from-college-calculus-Hell products that pretty much brought the economy to a grinding halt, threw millions of working people into unemployment lines, and came pretty close to putting all of us on the street selling apples to each other.

You see, there is a tax loophole that applies to hedge fund managers who remix other people's money. Extremely successful stockbrokers pay income tax, up to 35%. Extremely successful CEOs pay income tax on their salaries, up to 35%. Extremely successful sales people pay income tax on their commissions, up to 35%. Extremely successful lawyers pay income tax, up to 35%. The President pays income tax of 35%. All God's children pay up to 35% if they make a ton of money, except 15% rated investors.

And hedge fund managers.

Yup. Hedge fund managers have the same tax break for pushing around other people's money, taking risks with other people's money, losing other people's money, as the investors who gamble with them. They pay 15%. That's it. A hedge fund manager can make a gazillion dollars and still pay a lower rate in taxes than the secretary who works extra hours, then risks getting fired for refusing to serve coffee at business meetings.

Democrats have let this go on because hedge fund managers have donated a lot to Democratic campaigns. At least up to recently. You see, candidate Obama ran, like all good Democrats, on reforming the system. Everyone snickered because, of course, he didn't really mean it. Except he did.

The President insists hedge fund managers pay the same as everyone else. One hedge fund manager compares this new persecution to the Nazi invasion of Poland. Republicans grin at the sputtering rage and promise to keep treating hedge fund managers as a protected class.

So now hedge fund managers donate heavily to Republican candidates. Politicians come and go. Corruption is eternal.

That one person's religion is another person's belly laugh is a thought variously ascribed to:

• science fiction writer and perpetual crank, Robert Heinlein
• science fiction writer and perpetual genius, Isaac Asimov
• perpetual crank and perpetual genius, H.L. Mencken

Internet friend JMyste enjoys a good laugh at my expense, usually regarding spiritual beliefs. He has a keen wit and I enjoy laughing along (pretty much).

I especially enjoy living in a society in which such differences are more often a punchline than a threat. More often, but not always.

Among theocrats, religious disagreements can be deadly serious. Their joyless regard of theological differences is, in a way, understandable. To those who believe that America is, or at least should be, a Christian nation, religious beliefs are not merely expressions of opinion. A different view of the spiritual universe that might provide insights to a thoughtful person takes on a sinister tone for one who sees religion as part of government. Enforcing biblical ritual under the force of law is not a practice to be taken lightly.

Thus, one activist group warns against Glenn Beck. Beck would impose many things that sound pretty good, but the religion he would force on us is not real Christianity. "Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Mormonism is not a Christian denomination but a cult of Christianity... The country needs to get back to the simplicity of the Bible."

Beck, in turn, apologizes (sort of) for suggesting that the President hates white people. He now realizes the problem is that Barack Obama is not a real Christian. "I don't know what that is, other than it's not Muslim, it's not Christian. It's a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ as most Christians know it." The President refuses to impose real Christian law on the nation.

Muslim Imam Abdul Rauf defines the issue of the Islamic Center in Manhattan accurately enough. But his words apply as well to the broader struggle for freedom as "not between Muslims and non-Muslims, but between moderates of all the faith traditions and the radicals of all the faith traditions."

Those who condemn Islam, with its varying factions, are not concerned with evidence and nuance. The idea that a group of believers want nothing more than to worship in peace is contrary to all they know. That Muslims want to impose Islamic law is obvious. The only evidence bigots need is found in their own hearts. They know what they would do if they could take control.

Theocrats in this country are not against sharia law.
It just has to be the right sort of Christian sharia law.

The radicals feed of each other and need each other to sustain themselves. So we need right now to combat radical voices, that's the only we way we can win this struggle...

They want us to turn ourselves into enemies of the United States. So we wanted to tell them that "we don't listen to you, we're here in the very place you attacked, we're there to rebuild it and to build bridges of understanding."

 - - Imam Shamsi Ali, of Islamic Cultural Center of NY, August 30, 2010

On September 25, 2005, Michael Brown, "Brownie" as he was by then known, was asked the most obvious question in the known universe. Why in the world did the Bush/Cheney administration sit by and watch while area after coastal area of Louisiana went below the waters and people died.

The question took the form of a technical inquiry. Why were three coastal parishes ignored in the emergency proclamation President Bush had issued in response to hurricane Katrina? Actually, the administration had not included ANY coastal parishes, the ones in ... you know ... the most danger. The answer might have gone unnoticed had it not been directly contradicted by available documentation. Michael Brown, Brownie, responded in congressional testimony by passing the buck to the Governor of Louisiana. It was shocking, he said. That's the word he used. Shocking. The Governor had not included those areas in her request for aid.

Except she had. The office of the Governor produced the written request (pdf). And there it was. The request included "all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area and the mid state Interstate I-49 corridor and northern parishes along the I-20 corridor." The administration had not noticed that as help went out, excluding only those at death's door.

The testimony was, in all probability, not a lie. It was one more bit of evidence that an incompetent administration put little value on performance. Nobody knows if Nero really fiddled while Rome burned. Marie Antoinette probably never giggled her famous "Let them eat cake" when talking about starving masses in France. But America had actual photos. President Bush eating cake with Senator John McCain. The President looking out in mild curiosity from his aircraft as it circled New Orleans, his I-can-see-my-house moment. And his horrible heck-of-a-job-Brownie speech.

And there was Brownie himself, later revealed in the emails he sent to cronies, desperately begging for advice as thousands died. What shirts should he wear for television interviews? Should he roll up his sleeves? What restaurants would serve a cuisine suitable for his high rank? It was a natural consequence of an administration exclusively concerned with public relations and electoral response. Karl Rove, in a policy discussion, explained that deficits don't matter because his polling showed voters were unconcerned.

Last week Michael Brown had an epiphany. He had figured out what he called a fatal mistake concerning Katrina. While he and others appeared in television interviews, presumably wearing presentable cuff links, boasting about all that was being done, they forgot to include in their talking points all the obstacles they were facing. Without those excuses, the public turned against them. "One of the fatal mistakes I made was not making it clear."

In Michael Brown's wonderful world of interviews and proper shirts, even five years later, getting life-saving help to those at the edge of death remains a minor issue. The fatal mistake was one of incomplete public relations.

Again, I want to thank you all for -- and, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. The FEMA Director is working 24 -- (applause) -- they're working 24 hours a day.

 - - George W. Bush, President of the United States, September 2, 2005