Hasn’t anyone noticed that 999 is just 666 inverted?
Sure, Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and Mormons are a cult who believe that the Garden of Eden was in Missouri rather than in the geographically impossible location described in Genesis.
But at least he’s not the Anti-Christ.
Update Ooops! I’d missed Michelle Bachmann’s comment, which some RBC commenters had obviously seen:
“One thing I would say is, when you take the 9-9-9 plan and you turn it upside down, I think the devil’s in the details.”
Somehow I think The Onion won’t be able to stay in business long if people can’t tell it stories from actual news. Will Rogers said that he didn’t make jokes: he just reported on politics.
Mrs. Bachmann, please stop hacking into Mr. Kleiman’s account.
Yeah, Bachmann has this territory pretty well covered. Given how bad the 9-9-9 plan is, though, a 6-6-6 plan would be even worse.
I’m surprised Bachmann wasn’t more widely mocked for that stupid remark. It has the same intellectual stature as “God is just dog spelled backwards. THINK about it.”
I am that last person who would defend Bachmann, but I thought “the devil’s in the details” was a clever double entendre, and her smile when she said it suggested that she meant it as a joke. I don’t deny that she might have also been communicating her religious nuttery with the religious nuts who would vote for her.
I think she was indeed joking here. But that does not change the fact that fundamentally, she is a chimichanga short of a combination plate.
“she is a chimichanga short of a combination plate.”
Well played. Next iconic metaphor includes a barbecue fence!
I heard her on the radio; didn’t see the smirk. So, a joke and a dog whistle.
Spot on.
“God is just dog spelled backwards. THINK about it.”
Is that where the notion that Elvis lives comes from? (Does he wear Levis?)
Have the foot soldiers in the War on Christmas noted the similarity between Santa and Satan?
Yes, some of them have.
Yes. Those are the ones who keep admonishing us to “remember the reason for the season”. As if Christians hadn’t just co-opted earlier traditions like the Saturnalia.
Hate to nitpick but Mormons do not believe that the Garden of Eden was in Missouri. Or did you mean that as parody?
Better check your LDS histories, Benny. Joseph Smith received a prophecy that the actual site of the Garden of Eden lies in Independence, Missouri. He purchased the property intending to establish the New Zion there, but was chased out of Missouri before they could build their city.
The property (or some piece of it) was inherited by Emma Smith after Joseph’s lynching, and she passed it on to the Reorganized CLDS (now the Community of Christ). The property is apparently a sticking between the two churches.
I’d like to see some evidence for this claim. Joseph Smith claimed that New Zion would be founded in Independence Missouri (Pearl of Great Price), and the LDS tried to purchase large parcels for the establishment of an LDS Vatican, however that never came to fruition as the LDS escaped west of the Mississippi.
Ask, and you shall receive: From The Ensign (January 1994, in a section called, “I have a question.” The Ensign of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is a magazine published by the LDS Church.
The question asked was, “What do we know about the location of the garden of Eden?” I’m reproducing the answer in full below:
That seems pretty clear. A prominent Mormon scholar at the Church’s University believes the Garden was located near Independence, and the Church authorized its publication in a quasi-official Church periodical.
Thank you.
Wouldn’t it be great if Michael Steele and Sarah Palin were on that stage too?
Really, Mark? The 999 tax is awfulness and regressiveness defined, and you choose to make a cheap (and unoriginal) joke about the number of the beast?
For those of you who haven’t seen the details, Cain’s plan would scrap the payroll tax (15% on the first 100k or so of income, really quite regressive, dedicated to Social Security and Medicare) and the current income and corporate taxes. He’d kill the capital gains tax. I’m not sure what his position is on the estate tax; my guess is, he’d kill it, too.
He’d replace all these taxes with a national 9% sales tax, apparently on everything; a 9% flat tax on earned income; and a 9% tax on corporate profits. But these last would be redefined: at present, corporations deduct wage costs and other business expenses from their gross revenue to determine taxable net profit; under Cain’s 999 tax, the wages aren’t deductible. You just became 9% more expensive to employ - which is inevitably a second flat 9% income tax. So, now you’re paying a flat 18% on your income, and 9% on all purchases. If you’re in the bottom half of society, you probably spend most every penny you earn, so that’s a flat 27% tax. Add in some sales tax earlier in the supply chain of the goods you buy, and it may crest over 30%.
For comparison, half of all wage-earning households pay no income tax, and pay only the 15% payroll tax. These people - the working poor - would see their federal taxes double. A family earning the median wage of $50,000 - very middle-class - would see their taxes rise by almost $5,000. The working wealthy would see huge tax cuts; their heirs and those people already wealthy would see their taxes almost disappear, paying only the sales tax.
In short, the 999 plan is diabolical - but that’s not a matter for cheap jokes.
Krugman quotes a summary at his blog:
A middle income household making between about $64,000 and $110,000 would get hit with an average tax increase of about $4,300, lowering its after-tax income by more than 6 percent and increasing its average federal tax rate (including income, payroll, estate and its share of the corporate income tax) from 18.8 percent to 23.7 percent. By contrast, a taxpayer in the top 0.1% (who makes more than $2.7 million) would enjoy an average tax cut of nearly $1.4 million, increasing his after-tax income by nearly 27 percent. His average effective tax rate would be cut almost in half to 17.9 percent. In Cain’s world, a typical household making more than $2.7 million would pay a smaller share of its income in federal taxes than one making less than $18,000. This would give Warren Buffet severe heartburn.
Wait, really? The 999 plan is terrible? All I’d read about it anywhere was 666 jokes. Thank god for this comment on RBC or I’d have had no idea.
Man, she looks good in that clip. She’s hired herself one hell of a make-up artist.
Actually, I think Michelle Bachmann was making a joke … and a rather good one at that.
[...] Lively Santorum throws book at Romney, still doesn’t know his campaing is dead. 999=666. Ba dump bump. Bachmann gets louder and louder. Gingrich still a grinch. Huntsman MIA. Share this: This entry [...]
666, plus the mark of Cain. no way he can continue.