Regressive tax break
One of the most regressive "tax breaks" in history has expired. Effective Jan. 1, 2013, the amount withheld from everyone's paycheck for Social Security went up from 4.2 percent to 6.2 percent.
Even fact checkers didn't get it right when they called out the president for failing to mention this. For those who make $40,000 per year, their take-home pay will be $800 less this year, or about $66 per month. For those who make $20,000 per year, their take-home will be $400 less. However, for those who make $110,100, which is the maximum on which Social Security is withheld, their take-home pay will be $2,202 less.
Turn that around and two years ago those making $100,000 got a $2,000 tax cut. Those making minimum wage, or $15,000 if they work full time, got a $300 tax cut. And this was President Obama's idea. Now, tell me: Who favors tax cuts for the rich? Not that $100,000 is all that much, but it is a lot more than $15,000.
So much for the middle class avoiding a tax increase. Despite all the protestations to the contrary, a middle-class family earning $100,000 will experience a $2,000 tax increase. It is just a payroll-tax increase as opposed to an income-tax increase.
I don’t get the difference. It is still less money in my paycheck every month.
ALLEN DANIEL
Clemmons
Harmful myths
I believe the writer of the Jan. 7 letter “Reflections” is sincere and probably a good person. But he’s passing along harmful myths, as he attempts to define equality, freedom and other moral principles as the results of acceptance of a supernatural “creator” while defining immoral practices, including suppression of females, slavery and deadly violence as the results of rejection of that creator.
History (and current events) shows us that suppression of females, slavery and deadly violence, along with other moral ills, have been and still are to some extent practiced by people who believe in the creator-god. In fact, those behaviors have often been practiced in the name of their god. Conversely, people without such a god often reject such practices. There’s no moral basis for them outside of religion.
He writes, “… our laws establish political equality because of faith in a Lord of all ...” Does that political equality include people who have no “faith in a Lord of all?” If so, then why is it needed? If not, then how can it be fair?
Equality of political standing and representation is a moral good. No god is needed, though, to provide it, and a god can hinder it.
People can be, and are, good without a god.
GENE SPRINGER
Winston-Salem
Sum It Up:
The Sum It Up question from Sunday was:
Are you confident that the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board can find a good successor for Superintendent Don Martin?
Confident that the current school board can find a “good successor” for retiring Superintendent Don Martin? I wonder how anyone could have such confidence. Martin’s legacy is deeply and darkly tarnished by the facts of his tenure: multiple teacher-student sexual liaisons, convicted felons hired to teach young people, the school system’s counsel resigns under a cloud cast by law enforcement officials who doubted the procedures and the actions taken during what can only be called scandals.
There’s plenty more: virtual silence from the administration on the hotly-contested issue of building an expensive high-school sports stadium near Hanes Park; the tragedy of Winston-Salem’s drop-out rate, our mediocre test scores, violence and firearms in our schools, the confusing matter of policemen or sheriff’s deputies in our schools.
These matters unfolded under Martin’s watch, yet our school board continued to let him serve.
“The buck stops here” was once an American motto. Has it become instead an American myth? Confidence in choosing a successor? I’m far more confident that the tooth fairy will slip those dentures I need under my pillow. Tonight .
GUY NEAL WILLIAMS
It's crucial that we have a superintendent who strongly supports public schools, and does not support using public money for charter schools or religious schools.
HELEN ETTERS
Asking if I am confident the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board can find a good successor for Superintendent Don Martin is a very complex question. I am confident the members of the board will not select a superintendent that meets my expectations, even though they will undoubtedly select someone they consider qualified. The board is still composed of people with a vision of public schools that is so ideologically motivated that a real progressive educator has little chance of getting the job.
CHARLES FRANCIS WILSON
Yes; if they will avoid the pressure put upon them by various interest groups and individuals!
TOM WILLIAMS
In a word - NO! Republicans have manipulated and gerrymandered the school board to a 7 to 2 Republican advantage. How does this happen in a county that went 53 to 46 percent for President Obama in 2012? Forsyth County is not 78 percent Republican. This board is so skewed to the far right (especially now with Irene May on board) that any hope of a reasonable appointment is toast. Look for someone from Liberty University, Regent University, Bob Jones University or Piedmont Bible College to get the nod.
KAM BENFIELD
Liberals don't want religion involved in government. Yet they are perfectly willing to force their irrational, ideological beliefs on religious people through government.
ReplyDeleteMakes perfect sense to a liberal.
___________
Hobby Lobby and Mardel Inc., a religious book seller owned by the same conservative Christian family, plan to defy the federal health care law that requires employee health care plans to provide insurance coverage for the morning-after pill and similar emergency contraception. The company risks fines up to $1.3 million a day.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/11/va-ag-prescribes-jail-as-contraception-protest/#ixzz2Hfk6IlDn
"By me monarchs rule and princes decree what is right; by me rulers govern, so do nobles, the lawful authorities"
DeleteProverbs 8:15-16
"1 Everyone is to obey the governing authorities, because there is no authority except from God and so whatever authorities exist have been appointed by God. 2 So anyone who disobeys an authority is rebelling against God's ordinance; and rebels must expect to receive the condemnation they deserve. 3 Magistrates bring fear not to those who do good, but to those who do evil. So if you want to live with no fear of authority, live honestly and you will have its approval; 4 it is there to serve God for you and for your good. But if you do what is wrong, then you may well be afraid; because it is not for nothing that the symbol of authority is the sword: it is there to serve God, too, as his avenger, to bring retribution to wrongdoers. 5 You must be obedient, therefore, not only because of this retribution, but also for conscience's sake. 6 And this is why you should pay taxes, too, because the authorities are all serving God as his agents, even while they are busily occupied with that particular task. 7 Pay to each one what is due to each: taxes to the one to whom tax is due, tolls (literal = tribute) to the one to whom tolls are due, respect to the one to whom respect is due, honor to the one to whom honor is due."
Romans 13:1-7
It is difficult for me to imagine what it must be like to go to bed stupid every night, then wake up still stupid the next morning.
That's was back when the government knew a good end from a bad end.
DeleteRomans was written sometime between 55 and 58 CE, during the rule of the Romans. Of course, one would never guess that from the title of the book, would they?
DeleteThe Romans were very much into buggery...you would have fit right in.
"Three men in bed together: two are sinning, two are sinned against."
"Doesn't that make four men?"
"You're mistaken: the man on either end is implicated once, but the one in the middle does double duty."
___Ausonius, Roman poet, 4CE
What does it feel like to be terminally stupid?
King James translation of Leviticus 18:22, a translation which reads, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it [is] abomination.”
DeleteThe government has now fallen for the PC scenario, and the badend is more accepted.
DeleteFor me, it still stinks.
That's the problem with your earlier nitwitted statement.
Some cowboys get on horses they shouldn't try to ride.
Delete-Bucky
This thread is a perfect example of your pathetic claims to "argument" so let's break it down:
Delete1. You posted a story about some Christians who are planning on defying the law.
2. I posted two quotes from the Bible pointing out that if they did so they would be defying God.
3. Your response was "That's was back when the government knew a good end from a bad end."
4. My response was that buggery was commonplace during Roman rule.
5. Your response was to quote Leviticus, which has nothing to do with the thread.
6. Your next response was some bullshit about today's government. The Bible does not place time limits on God's law.
7. Your next response was one of your typically bigoted irrelevances. I'm sure that you think it was clever, but it is not…just more typical middle school "humor". Maybe you should move on to a forum where most people live at your uneducated level.
I ask again…what does it feel like to be terminally stupid?
You tell me, it seems like you've had a lot of experience with it.
DeleteBefore our favorite NW brings this up. I want to point out that both GHW Bush and B Clinton both used executive orders regarding guns. However, they both used executive orders regarding a previous law in existence and established in 1968 as a basis. They did not make gun law through executive order(s) as the Obama is proposing.
ReplyDeleteThe bizarre notion that a president can override a provision of the Constitution is truly unprecedented. Especially when the provision explicitly says, "shall not be infringed."
You would think that liberals would know better. But you know how they are. They'll try to do anything if they think they can get away with it.
I hope Stab helps me out with that wacky, forum fool Rush today. I've got a whole box of gold stars I'm prepared to give out.
Delete47% of American household have or have access to a gun.
DeleteRamming unconstitutional regulations through may be a little tougher than Obama thinks.
I'd also like to add: Regarding the use of executive orders by previous presidents, they were used regarding the importation of guns, not domestic regulations.
Delete"The bizarre notion that a president can override a provision of the Constitution is truly unprecedented."
DeleteYes, unprecedented except for Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, J.Q. Adams, Jackson, Tyler, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Cleveland, T. Roosevelt, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, GHW Bush, Clinton, and W. Bush and maybe a few more...these are just the ones that come instantly to mind.
It is difficult for me to imagine what it must be like to go to bed ignorant every night, then wake up still ignorant the next morning.
I noticed that you didn't cite any 'gun' provisions/laws/constitutional right(s) that the above presidents overrode.
DeleteOf course you're so stupid as to believe that people would accept you at your word.
Please!
Yet another foolish attempt to avoid the truth...see above.
DeleteYour statement: "The bizarre notion that a president can override a provision of the Constitution is truly unprecedented."
Your statement does not mention any specific subject, such as guns.
My response was to list some presidents who have attempted or been accused of attempting, as you are doing in the present case, to subvert the Constitution, thus totally refuting your uninformed statement.
Your response was an attempt to avoid the fact that you have been caught once again making an egregiously false and ignorant statement.
I don't care whether people accept me at my word. If they, like you, are so ignorant of American history that they do not know that many Presidents have attempted to make end runs around various aspects of the Constitution, then I feel sorry for them.
I used to feel sorry for you, but anyone who exhibits such an obdurate determination to remain ignorant of the truth deserves no pity, nor any quarter.
I don't want a quarter from you Rush. I'm perfectly happy with the amount of money I have.
DeleteGold stars: my constellations are fully staffed at the moment, but if I see an argument that needs supporting or opposing, well, that's what the site is for.
DeleteBucky to keep Obama from getting your guns you had better bury them in the sand right next to the place you buried your head.
DeleteGoogle is trying out a new service called iG-mail, for interuniverse mail. I just got an iG-mail from my doppleganger in the next universe over. He said that the constellations were fully stocked over there as well and wished us all a Happy New Year.
DeleteUnlike dotnet, he has no concerns with winter. The temperature there is always about 70 and the sun shines most of the time, even when needed rain is falling. It seems that Adam and Eve behaved immaculately over there, so they just lie around naked eating grapes and fresh baked bread and drinking good beer and discussing why there is something rather than nothing and how lucky they are that they don't live in our universe.
In Sunday school, we got a blue star for every five Bible verses that we could memorize. Five blue stars got you a red one, five red ones a silver one, five silver ones a gold and five gold ones got you a Bible with your name stamped on the cover in gold.
The presentation came when you were baptized at age 12. Everybody got a Bible at my church, although I suspect that some star fudging was involved in a couple of cases. A couple of the girls got three Bibles.
I have stated many times that I got five, but my friend Fam reminded me (in a reasonably "Christian" tone) that it was him who got five, while I received only four and had three gold stars left over to stick on them. Indeed, the only one still in my possession has a gold star on the cover, right next to my name, which is now more a faded, flaked orange than gold.
Ha, ha, Wordly...GOOOALLLL!
DeleteThat is exactly what the "insurgents" in Iraq and Afghanistan have done to hide their weapons. In Viet Nam, the VC worked the rice paddies during the day and fought at night, so they buried their guns too, except in mud in our area of endless rice swamp.
Since they were Kalashnikovs, all they had to do was wipe them off and go at it. Wouldn't want to try that with our very expensive high tech M-16s or today's M-4s...you'd spend a day or two just scrubbing them clean before they would even consider firing.
We tried training dogs to sniff out the VC's hidden guns, but since everything in the South Delta smelled like water buffalo dung, they would just lead us to the nearest water buffalo. Magnificent animals!
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete@wordly: :D
DeleteMitt says the weather on Kolob is lovely this time of year.
DeleteAnd yeah, Wordly. I think that sleazy lunatic's head got lost up his bad end a loooooong time ago.
OT, I thought you non-theists didn't believe in Heaven. You appear to be in communication with an approximation. :)
DeleteBut, I would like a little snow.
Me too! Since, as dotnet points out, there are still a few weeks of winter left, there is still hope.
DeleteI cannot imagine a winter without snow, although endured two in Viet Nam with tropical bliss (?)
Missed a few winter snows in my southern CA days, but every so often we'd drive up to Lake Arrowhead or Big Bear to see the stuff. We got caught in a snow storm up that way in late April, once.
DeleteOne of the things I love about the Southwest.
DeleteYou are standing in Death Valley and the temp is around 120 and you look up on a clear day and there is snow capped Mount Whitney to the west. Huh?
One of the best things about living on earth is the wild contradictions of nature.
Regressive tax breaks. Take heart, AARP wanted this return of the normal SS deduction to make themselves happy. AARP is happy which means seniors are happy which means Democrats are happy. That is all that matters. Younger people voted in overwhelming numbers for Democrats in the last two elections so they too are happy. I am also happy that I have so many indentured supporters out there among the young and in the spirit of mutual respect and bipartisanship--I will let them be happy.
ReplyDeleteWW: Seniors traditionally vote conservatively; why would that make Democrats happy?
DeleteRomney won the senior citizen vote by 56-44%. The only demographic in which he did better was "white people", where he won by 59-39% Of course, there is no hint of racism.
DeleteAhh, I gave up on the forum this afternoon. LaSombra, seniors populate AARP and AARP support Dems. Your question however was one that perplexed John Kenneth Galbraith to no end.
Delete"white people", where he won by 59-39% Of course, there is no hint of racism.
DeleteRush, the infamous forum fool
__________
Of course, Obama carried the black vote by over 95%, but there was no hint of racism.
Actually, AARP, like any other special interest group, supports whatever politicians support their interests. If there are senior citizens who don't get what is going on, that is their problem.
DeleteHarmful myths. People can be good without a God. True. And if they vote for the right people, apparently they can be almost saintly.
ReplyDeleteAre you confident that the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board can find a good successor for Superintendent Don Martin? To teach what...more of this "self esteem" crap?
ReplyDeleteLTE #1 - So complain to those responsible, the Tea party fools in Congress.
ReplyDeleteLTE #2 - "With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil—that takes religion. "
___Steven Weinberg
Sum It Up: I am not confident that the school board, considering its most recent appointee, will be able to find the place designated for their meetings.
We're waiting to find out if Pelosi put any gun restrictions in Obamacare.
DeleteThe NRA put restrictions in the law to prevent doctors from documenting their discussions regarding gun safety with their patients.
DeleteNothing would surprise me with liberals involved. I'm looking forward to when we have to carry bags around to capture any gases we might emit.
DeleteYou've got to give the NRA credit for making a lot of pie from 6 apples.
DeleteIt is difficult to know how many people are actually members of the NRA. In the last year alone, they have stated their membership as 4.3 million, and "about" 4 million, but when they did an ad promotion to members which was subject to documentation, they claimed only 2 million.
If we generously give them their highest "claim", they amount to barely 1.3% of the US population. Yet they have Congress on their knees year in and year out.
In the 1924 Reichstag elections, the NAZIs received 3% of the votes. Look at what that became 14 years later.
And ask yourself this. In what other advanced nation are doctors expected to give advice on gun safety?
As for Congress, see WW's post below.
Weinberg: interesting quote from the author of "The First Three Minutes," the nucleosynthesis that created the stuff of which we are made.
DeleteWeinburg is a very interesting person. He is hardcore science in most areas, yet also has supported at times the seeming insanity of the "principle of fecundity". Who knows? Not me.
DeleteHe has nearly a whole chapter in a book that I and several of my friends are currently reading. We are not a "book club", but we try to schedule certain books so that we can discuss them as we read them.
Why Does The World Exist
___Jim Holt
Holt is a brilliant non-scientist, at least by academic standards, who traveled the world asking the best known proponents about being and nothingness.
Just ordered and downloaded. Will have to look into Weinberg's "fecundity" thoughts.
DeleteExcellent. You will find two things:
Delete1. Although Holt is merely a writer and not a scientist, per se, he holds his own with all the top thinkers.
2. He has, thank goodness, a sense of humor.
It appears the economy is so weak, Exxon-Mobil is laying off 25 Congressmen. Invest accordingly.
ReplyDeleteOK WW, you've got my attention now.
DeleteI don't care about the riff raff, they can always go dumpster diving. But when it comes to our selfless Congressmen having to worry about where their next seven course meal is going to come from...well, that's enough.
Revolution! Secession! To the battlements men!
(For purposes of political correctness, that would include women as well...what the hell, children, too. If they're old enough to die by the gun, they're old enough to kill by the gun)
I'll join you as soon as the bank opens on Monday so I can get my grandfather's antique shotgun out of the vault. I'll bet if I had been at Newtown, things would have turned out differently.
How about a rebirth of Federalism?
DeleteAny minute now. I can't wait.
DeleteGood afternoon folks! 3 weeks of winter (such as it is) down, 10 weeks until spring. Of course, it may soon come a time when it will be like AZ where we counted the days until summer was over.
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: Neither party in the House or Senate seemed interested in keeping the 2% FICA reduction, so away it went. The reduction was Obama's idea which is why the House and the Senate R's had no interest in extending it.
LTE 2: Theological argument continued. Yes, there have been some literalists who believed and still believe the same social rules governing the roles of women and the keeping of slaves that existed 2000 years ago should still prevail for no other reason other than being mentioned in the Bible.
Sum it up: My confidence in the school board to make any sound decision is quite low at this point. The needs of US employers today and in the future will require educated workers capable of analytical and critical thought which leaves out high school dropouts. It will also require the ability to work well with others who will most likely be of different races and hold different views which leaves out the home schooled and on-liners (valid option for college students, but horrible idea for HS). The R's have demonstrated an alarming disdain for public education with a few calling for an end to public education in favor of private and home schooling which would result in a virtual caste system where one's lot in life is determined at birth by the family one is born into.
On the 2%, that needed to end, but to sound like a broken record, the cap should have been raised, perhaps up to where the increased tax rates start?
ReplyDeleteActually agree with on you on that. The integrity of the trust fund must be maintained...and it's totally doable with common sense changes.
DeleteThere are many broken records playing today, Stab. Unfortunately, no one is listening to them.
DeleteWhy is the cap so inviolable? As explained to me in this forum and in the former WSJ free-for-all, high marginal tax rates were intended in part to suppress excessive executive compensation in favor of higher pay for lower ranks. Raising the cap would be be a 6.2% hit on employers and higher paid employees, which might not carry over a kto middle management types like me, but wouldn't hurt the trust fund any. So why do we not raise it. We raised other taxes on the well compensated.
DeletePoor Rush took a beatiing, today. It was ugly. I hated to do it to him. But he's like a little boy that doesn't believe the fire is hot until he touches it.
DeleteActually, there is no reason why raising the cap would have to affect employers at all. Keep the cap where it is for them and make the raised cap apply only to the employee.
DeleteOne of the biggest problems that we have had with nearly everything is that thinking is somehow locked in by years of "this is the way we do it". Daniel Kahneman would call that "fast thinking" rather than "slow thinking".
Believe me, if done right, it would have zero effect on you or I or 90% of all others.
sissssssss.......that's HOT! I told you so Rush!
DeleteRemove the employer side of the cap . . . Or perhaps make a phased reduction. That'll work. I plead guilty to slow thinking in this instance.
DeleteActually, it is the reverse...you were guilty of fast thinking. I plead guilty to having spent much of my life doing the same thing, as clearly we all do.
DeleteAccording to Kahneman,"fast thinking" is our knee jerk reaction to any problem, and is astonishingly "right" more often than we have a right to expect.
"Slow thinking" on the other hand, is extremely difficult, in fact, almost impossible for most people, but is required to solve most real problems.
His book Thinking Fast and Slow is highly recommended.
American Express to cut 5,400 jobs. I love how Obama just keeps this economy just purrrring along.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnbc.com/id/100371012/AmEx_Announces_5400_Layoffs_Big_Q4_Charge
AmEx's CEO, whom I have met and respect, says this is a result of a reduced need for customer service reps as consumers use the Interet in prefer to calling customer service. I use my iPhone to conduct online business with AmEx, have no need for either the 800 number or even my laptop.
DeleteI have a list of issues on which I disagree with President Obama, but we cannot hang this one on him. CSR's in some industries are becoming buggy whip factory employees.
Ha, ha. This got me thinking.
DeleteWhen was the last time that I was actually in a bank? Answer: Seven years ago to sign a document having to do with a fairly complicated direct deposit of funds. The bank has since figured out how to do that without a physical presence. I miss some of my old bank friends, but not enough to go there.
When was the last time that I called an 800 number? That is lost in the reaches of time. I did get a query from the IRS a few years ago, suggesting that I call an 800 number. But that is only for fools. Instead, I went to the local IRS office and the question was cleared up in a matter of minutes...in my favor, I might add, and cheerfully at that. The IRS is not your enemy unless you consider them to be your enemy.
Indeed, when was the last time that I wrote a check? Unknown. I have a box of brand new checks that the bank sent me about ten years ago. They have never actually been inserted into a "checkbook". I just opened the box and looked at them. The number on top ends with 001.
For that matter, when was I last in a stockbroker's office? Long ago. I recall that the broker looked to be about a sixth grader and had no idea what I wanted to do. A few weeks ago I bought a few more shares of Apple stock because the price had descended to ridiculously low levels. That required about three clicks, which I dictated by voice to my Mac.
Some of us live in the 21st century. Others are still living in the 20th. And there are still a few, like Tiny, living in the 19th. When all you can read is headlines, you are doomed to eternal ignorance.
Democrat gets shot by an armed female gun owner protecting her children.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cnn.com/2013/01/10/us/home-invasion-gun-rights/index.html?hpt=hp_c1
Ha, ha. Parrotboy keeps repeating the same story about what happened in Loganville, GA, as if this happens every day, which it does not.
ReplyDeleteSecond, he ignores the simple facts. Had the woman called 911, she would have gotten serious tried and true advice from police professionals. Instead, she called her gun nut husband, who told her everything that she should not have done.
She and her children were very lucky in this instance. Let's hope that the next person this happens to has enough sense to call 911.
Otherwise, they would be just as well off calling Tiny, who hasn't got a clue about anything.
As usual, the forum fool attempts argue gun regulations through the lense of a person that's 20/200 on the issue.
ReplyDeleteThe lady did precisely the right thing. When confronted with a man in your house, that has broken in, and armed with a crow bar. You use deadly force to defend your life, as well as the lives of your children.
You don't wait around chit chatting on the phone with the police or liberal NWs, such as Rush. You take action.
Wonder what happened to 'ol Bob today? I guess he didn't want to put up the daily LTEs for some reason.
Booooooooooooooooooooooooob.....! Where are yooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou?
ReplyDeleteLooks like we need to pull 'ol Wordly out of retirement.
ReplyDeleteIn Marathon FL and can't copy and paste letters either. I don,t think.
ReplyDeleteBought iPad just for this trip. Looking online it does not appear letters we're portable.
ReplyDeleteManaged to load iPad JournalNow app and I did get to read today's LTEs. Shame they were not available on the regular online site.
ReplyDeleteThe first one I wanted to respond to......the NRA a tyrant? It has little direct power compared to Obama's. What a ridiculous statement by another obvious far-left liberal.
ReplyDeleteHave fun in Marathon. Go all the way down to Sloppy Joe's. Read 'The Old Man and the Sea' while you're there.
Sloppy Joe's is in Key West and is nothing more than a tourist trap.
DeleteIt is not in the original building, nor is it owned by the original owners. In fact, it is now a chain, with locations in Treasure Island and Daytona, for christ's sake. You might as well go have a drink at Wal*Mart or hang out at Disney World and pretend that Hemingway drank there.
Captain Tony's is in the original building, and they try to cash in as well. Disgusting.
The real Sloppy Joe's, in Havana, burned in the 1960s. A scene in the movie "Our Man in Havana", based on a Graham Greene novel and starring Alec Guinness, was shot there is 1958-59.
As to The old Man and the Sea (1952), the last book that Hemingway wrote that is worth reading was For Whom the Bell Tolls in 1940. In fact, by far his best writing was all either journalism or short stories, such as "Big Two-Hearted River", which is just about the only one of his works still taught in college.
As somebody once said, "there's a sucker born every minute".
Le Bec-Fin