STACY MCCAIN: “I’m a victim, too! Where’s my money?”

UNCLE SAM SAYS NO, you absolutely can’t have these cars.

A CAR I’LL NEVER OWN: Test-Driving The Aston-Martin V8 Vantage.

IN TOMORROW’S WALL STREET JOURNAL, I argue for scrapping the 21-year-old drinking age.

UP TO 74% OFF ON car electronics.

ROGER KIMBALL: The “Fairness” Meme:

Here’s my bet: the operative word in Obama’s speech tomorrow night, the mantra that will be repeated endlessly, not only by O but also by the left-wing commentariat, is “fairness.” You remember his campaign shtick: the Saddleback Church event, for example, when Rick Warren asked candidates John McCain and B.O. about taxes. “Define rich,” he asked. McCain tossed out an income of $5 million, which elicited derision. But the gravamen of his response came in the elaboration: ““I don’t want to take any money from the rich. I want everybody to get rich.”

How different was B.O.’s response: What he was looking for, he said, was “a sense of balance, and fairness in our tax code. It is time for folks like me who make more than $250,000 to pay our fair share.”

“Our fair share.” That, as I noted at the time, is B.O.’s refrain. “[W]e will save Social Security for future generations by asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share.” It’s a small step from the invocation of “our fair share” to Obama’s call for a tax on “the windfall profits of oil companies,” a tax increase on capitals gains, elimination of the tax on Social Security tax, etc., etc.

The crucial point here is that what Obama is interested in is not increasing revenue but in promulgating redistributionist policies that make it harder for people to prosper economically. William McGurn, writing in The Wall Street Journal back then, recalled Obama’s response to ABC’s Charlie Gibson when Gibson observed that raising taxes led to decreased revenues: “Well, Charlie,” Obama replied, “what I’ve said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.”

“For purposes of fairness”: that means, “for purposes of economic egalitarianism.”

Or, more accurately, for purposes of control. The one fairness-tax he won’t propose, I feel sure, is my proposed 5-year 50% surtax on the earnings of former government officials. But that tax seems fair to me. After all, the private-sector is only willing to pay those inflated salaries because of the time the officials spent on the taxpayers’ dime. Why not let the taxpayers get some back? Fair is fair.

I really hope that some Republican — or Democrat! — in Congress will attach this to the Obama tax increase package. As Roger Kimball notes, it won’t raise much revenue, but that doesn’t distinguish it from Obama’s other “fairness” oriented taxes.

My only question is whether a mere 50% is fair enough. Roger Kimball thinks we should go higher, to 75%, or 90%. In the interest of “compromise,” I’m willing to go along. Just to show that I’m not one of E.J. Dionne’s crazed tax-hating “fire eaters.” After all, from reading Dionne over the years, I know that there’s nothing more moderate than agreeing to a big tax increase for other people!

UPDATE: A reader emails:

Would you extend this 5 year limit to state officials/employees? including higher ed employees such as law professors? :)

I joke a little but being a federal employee (so please leave my name out this time if you quote anything) I’m disheartened by the revolving door I see among the high end GS, military ranks, SES, political appointees, and former members of Congress to places such as Goldman Sachs and hate being lumped in with them. I doubt I have an opportunity to make $450K much less $250K. So for the “little guys”how about set the limit to the the top of the regular federal employment schedule? That gives folks like me a chance to earn more (up to $130K for a GS 15 step 10) and cuts the other folks off at the knees.

Well, I was really only thinking about political appointees here. That’s why I said government officials rather than employees, but I guess that wasn’t really clear.

COMPARISON TEST: Which String Trimmer Is Best? I think it’s the one in the hands of the guy you’ve hired to do your lawn . . . .

THE “CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY MOVEMENT:” You want sustainability on campus? Try offering value for tuition.

‘TIS THE SEASON: Amazon introduces the Swim Shop. It was 86 in Knoxville this weekend. Not so summery today, but the warm weather will be back!

SANDY SPRINGS, GEORGIA: The City That Outsourced Everything: “Since incorporating in 2005, Sandy Springs has improved its services, invested tens of millions of dollars in infrastructure and kept taxes flat. And get this: Sandy Springs has no long-term liabilities.” As public-employee unions get more expensive and entitled, we’re likely to see a lot more of this.

CHINA WILL USE MORE OIL THAN THE U.S. BY 2018: “Steve Kopits says oil demand from China will surpass that of the United in just 7 years. To translate that into practical matters: Your price for gasoline will be a lot higher. You need to use something else to power your car (natural gas in his view) or use gasoline far more efficiently.” Alternatively, China’s economy might collapse by then. You can place your bets — and, one way or another, you will be.

CISCO KILLS THE FLIP CAMERA because smartphones are taking its place. Well, if I were covering a demonstration, say, I’d probably rather use a Flip — so if somebody tried to grab it away from me, as has happened, the most they’d get is a cheap Flipcam, rather than my phone, with its contact list, etc. But you can still get one of these. Or there’s the cheap, rugged, and waterproof Kodak Playsport.

CARRIE LUKAS IN THE WSJ: There Is No Male-Female Wage Gap.

KEVIN WILLIAMSON: “As predicted, the recent budget deal and the Ryan plan have the Democrats wishing in the direst way they’d hopped on Simpson-Bowles.”

Plus this: “The Democrats want 2012 to be about anything other than deficit-reduction. Expect an onslaught on the social-issues front, from abortion subsidies to gay marriage. Conservatives should not let them change the subject.”

MORE ON THAT Widener Law School scandal.

AS THE LIBYAN STALEMATE GETS STALE: “The NY Times reports that France and Britain want NATO to bomb more and faster in Libya. They also shock us with the news that Obama’s lack of a plan has caused strains in Washington. . . . Hope is not a strategy? Now they tell us.”

ARE GRAINS making us fat?

RESET YOUR SHUTDOWN CLOCKS! Plus this: “Only in Washington can a budget that spends more than it did the year before, with a larger deficit, be portrayed as ‘cutting.’”

GREEN SNOOPS: The Fourth Amendment and Boston’s City-Wide Infrared Imaging Project to Show Heat Loss of Homes.

SUING ARIANNA: “Huffington Post bloggers who think they ought to get paid for their volunteer writing have been litigating their case in the court of public opinion. Now they’re taking it to a real one.”

SCIENCE: Nature’s Viagra: Saffron, Ginseng Named Best Natural Aphrodisiacs. I’m skeptical.

CONGRESS’S cottage retirement industry.

PAUL HSIEH: The Homer Simpson Approach To Social Security.

MARK LEVIN: “Trump is NOT the real deal. He will get Obama re-elected. . . . He sounds more & more like Ross Perot. If he runs as an Independent, Obama wins. We should not encourage this.”

IN THE MAIL: The Breath of God: A Novel of Suspense.