Michael Tanner of the Cato Institute recaps last night’s State of the Union address.

The things Obama would do:

Junk sequester caps that have been largely responsible for reducing our estimated deficit from $1 trillion a year to a more manageable but still sizable $469 billion this year.

End the tax deductibility of earnings in the highly popular 529 College Plans, which allows families to save for their children’s educations rather than rely on government largesse.

Institute a massive tax hike on small businesses and capital investment, which would come on top of the nearly $2 trillion in tax increases during Obama’s first six years in office.

Riding the class-warfare horse, Barack Obama is selling this under the guise of making the rich pay their fair share, reducing inequality, and rewarding the middle class. But as Mr. Tanner notes, “…America already has one of the most progressive tax systems in the industrialized world, far more so than most countries in Europe, which rely heavily on regressive value-added taxes.”

Full State of the Union Speech:

Beggar websites, I call them, exist by hounding the reader for constant donations. These sites are clogged with off-the-mark advertising promoting themes such as plastic surgery run amok (you know, the sausage-sized-lip thing), scantily clad women, and the latest roster of top 10 hottest one thing or another.

Debbie and I fund richardcyoung.com in the entirety. We do not seek donations, accept any advertising, bombard readers with popups, and, under no condition, make our roster of respondents available to others. We, along with our son-in-law E.J. Smith (Richard C. Young & Co. Ltd.), provide most of the content, with occasional guest contributors.

Debbie and I are independent of either the Republican or Democrat parties. We are benefactors of the Cato Institute, life NRA members, and holders of Florida Concealed Weapons Licenses. We believe in a strict interpretation of America’s Constitution and would welcome a national discourse on the merits of proportional government as practiced in the Scandinavian countries, Switzerland and Hong Kong, to name a few.

Our research is founded on inference reading and anecdotal evidence obtained in over 10,000 miles a year on the road, including twice annual trips from our home base in Key West to Newport and traveling on our Harleys (over 100,000 miles). Our roadwork also includes several lengthy stays in France each year.

We are suspicious of an America’s foreign policy built on nation building as promoted by America’s neo-conservative cheerleaders.

Debbie and I have been researching, writing and editing together for over four decades with the goal of helping to make our country a model for the concepts of Founders Thomas Jefferson, Sam Adams, Patrick Henry, John Randolph, John Hancock, John Dickinson, Richard Henry Lee, and John Taylor of Caroline.

From “American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. History” (2012), by the late Chris Kyle, with Jim DeFelice and Scott McEwen :

Savage, despicable evil. That’s what we were fighting in Iraq. That’s why a lot of people, myself included, called the enemy “savages.” There was no other way to describe what we encountered there.

People ask me all the time, “How many people have you killed?” My standard response is, “Does the answer make me less, or more, of a man?”

The number is not important to me. I only wish I had killed more. Not for bragging rights, but because I believe the world is a better place without savages out there taking American lives. Everyone I shot in Iraq was trying to harm Americans or Iraqis loyal to the new government.

I had a job to do as a SEAL. I killed the enemy—an enemy I saw day in and day out plotting to kill my fellow Americans. I’m haunted by the enemy’s successes. They were few, but even a single American life is one too many lost.

I don’t worry about what other people think of me. It’s one of the things I most admired about my dad growing up. He didn’t give a hoot what others thought. He was who he was. It’s one of the qualities that has kept me most sane.

Related video:

In the State of the Union address, President Obama put forth new tax proposals and entitlements he knew would not sit well with Republicans and would put them on the defensive. Hear from Charles Krauthammer how Mr. Obama used Tuesday night to pretend he is still in charge.

You are polishing off the final episode of Breaking Bad, ready to cry because one of the coolest series ever filmed was minutes from its end. Then comes on the finale music that would really finish you off.

The perfect music to sound the closing notes for Breaking Bad was Badfinger’s “Baby Blue,” written by the group’s guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist, Pete Ham, produced by Todd Rundgren, and recorded in 1971. Ham wrote the song for a girl he had met on the band’s 1971 U.S. tour. The Beatles signed Badfinger to Apple Records and produced some of the group’s early records. For more from Badfinger, check out The Very Best of Badfinger.

If you’ve had enough of our President acting like a King then read my friend Gene Healy’s book The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power. The book was written in 2008 but reads as if the ink is still wet. Healy gives the reader a Constitutional schooling on how far we’ve come from our Founding document.  If more Americans understood Healy’s spot on analysis then our infatuation with treating Presidents like Kings would be history. No longer would the State of the Union be a prime time event. Watch this video from an All Star lineup of Cato experts’ on Obama’s SOTU. And be sure to tune in at the 4:25 minutes section for Healy’s show stealing quote “when exactly” and his advice to President Obama for next year’s SOTU: Mail it in.

One second your family home has power. The next second—click—the power is out and could stay out for days, weeks or longer. Sound impossible? Not at all. How do you rate the worldwide radical Muslim security risk today? I research and write about risk weekly and today rate our risk at maximum. The media plays down the risk because 99% of Americans are completely unprepared for an extended power outage. I have written for years about the savage effects of a terrorist-led EMP attack. If EMP is a subject that is foreign to you, you need to read the material I have provided for you on this site.

Losing power is no joke and quite possibly life-threatening. A few days ago the juice clicked off here in Key West. This time our battery-backed solar had to keep Debbie and me up and running for only a half hour or so (past outages have been longer). Key West is a tropical island 150 miles from Miami and only 90 miles from Cuba. so it makes sense to be prepared at all times. And yes, I may be much more paranoid than you. Most people, however, have a vested interest in a lack of paranoia theme as they have done squat about emergency preparation. Hunkered down in a 50^th floor co-op in Manhattan (what mind-blowing vulnerability), sequestered in a manicured suburban enclave, or simply mindlessly isolated in some impossible to defend (24/7) rural setting, the results would be the same. No water for six days, and the whole crowd will not have to worry about anything ever again.

Picture this. Your spouse is beavering away on Wall Street in some high-rise glass office building when your phone clicks off, the giant Sub Zero refrigerator and wine cooler crank down along with all the lights and air conditioning. The Suburban sits in the driveway with the gas gauge probably near zero because you have been too lazy to keep the beast filled. And the kids? All at school. Just great! What’s your move now?

Your goose is cooked. You had better drop to your knees and pray that the juice is out because some neighbor has lost attention and driven into a power pole. Any extended outage and you are an ill-prepared sitting duck.

Our recent power outage put us into game-day mode and Debbie and I hit our local ACE hardware store (Strunk’s) on a mission. We had become too lax, but now our preparation list is up to speed. Our satellite phone is on full charge. Our giant rain barrels are tested and full.  Our CC Solar Observer AM/FM weather solar emergency radio, Bearcat portable scanner, and the solar powered Powermonkey (charge your iPad, smartphone, and GPS) are good to go.

Next up was an emergency drill with our five shot (with integrated red dot laser) Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 38 revolvers. Doesn’t a 9mm or a 45 Caliber handgun offer more fire and stopping power? Of course. That is why the military and local law enforcement team choose such weapons. Debbie and I are well-educated, self- defense-oriented homeowners in a tight setting. We are not day in and day out gun professionals. As such, we both prefer the simplicity of a no-safety, non-jamming revolver over a semi-automatic handgun.

Finally, check on our Lifestraw. Lifestraw is perfect for creating potable water.

Now you have a little KISS emergency prep guide that could help your family ride out a threatening situation caused by an extended electrical outage. I have just scratched the surface for you here and have not even touched upon rifles, ammo, food supplies etc. You can find all you need here at richardcyoung.com. After you have met the basic requirements I have provided, click to my posts on Navy Seals survival packs (Debbie and I carry two packs on the road), head to your grocery store for a small mountain of 24 packs of bottled water, gas up the beast, top off your supply of toilet paper and village Burgundy, and give a call to your local NRA outpost. Sign up your whole family for NRA’s great handgun safety course. Debbie and I are Florida Concealed Weapons License holders and the NRA course was a worthy prerequisite.

My best luck to you and your now enlightened and prepared suburban family. And oh yes, the ATMs, your local pharmacy (prescriptions) along with your gas station will likely be among the first casualties of a terrorist electric grid attack.