Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.--Thacher
Went to Mary's Vines last night, a strange little place in a redone Croatian church in Rankin, with Amy, Jeff, and Thomas. Very interesting looking place with the entire life savings of the family that bought it invested in it. One of those places you think is interesting and you hope it does well but probably would not go back. Bumbling service, $22 a glass chardonnays, and only adequate food. One of those small plate places. Earnest. And doomed.
We went to Jeff's after and watched Michigan play surprisingly well against Penn State.
I returned well past my bedtime but stayed up to the Yankees thrilling comeback and Altuve's heroics.
The Brexit mess continues to advertise direct democracy in action.
Here is an interesting explanation of the Saez-Zucman thesis that states the sales tax has a gigantic impact on low-income people. (It is pretty outrageous--to the point of insincerity.): "The eye-catching result here is they have consumption taxes being *sharply* regressive, e.g. 12% for the lowest income group. I’m not aware of any US state that has state + average local sales rates tax that high. And lots of goods are exempt from sales tax. So how do they get this? Well, suppose someone earns $1k in labor earnings and gets $9k in transfers, and consumes it all paying a 5% sales tax = $500 in tax. What sales tax rate have they paid (as a % of their income)? The method Treasury uses says 500/(1k+9k) = 5% (this is also what Auten-Splinter do). Saez-Zucman exclude transfers from the denominator, and thus say 500/1k = 50%. This is a matter of definition, so it’s hard to call it right or wrong, but it does seem misleading and yield some rather nonsensical implications. For example, it means that if welfare to the poor is increased, this will be measured as an increased tax rate." (from a letter to Cowen)
“Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age.”--Richard Lindzen
There are 40 churches in Wilkinsburg.
Would the two percent wealth tax apply to muni bonds?
How would a wealth tax impact the fat civil service defined benefit pension plans? Public pensions have values in the 3 million+ range.
“In the closet of the Vatican,” a newly released book by the French author and LGBT activist Frederic Martel, is generating global media attention and discussion among Vatican figures in Rome. The general thesis of the book is that the Vatican is among the most active hotbeds of homosexuality in the world. Martel has said in interviews that his goal is to shed light on the hypocrisy of those officials in the Vatican who, he says, practice homosexuality and then condemn it. One Catholic reviewer called it gossip and innuendo. A more favorable review said this: "It is not quite a homage, but Martel seems to admire the evolved culture of homosexuality (not my preferred word, but appropriate in this context) in the Vatican."
"We came, we saw, he died." On October 20, 2011, Moammar Gadhafi, the longest-serving leader in Africa and the Arab world, was captured and killed by rebel forces near his hometown of Sirte.
Physical Fatigue in the Spiritual World
In today's reading from the Old Testament, Joshua battles the Philistines with the help of Moses, who when he raises his sacred staff on the hill overlooking the battle, the battle goes to Israel, and when he lowers it, to the Philistine. So he is helped to hold the sacred staff aloft and Israel triumphs.
This magical event is always explained as a metaphor for human virtues like persistence and community unity. But there is something more important here, the limits of the individual human in spite of the obvious and dire consequences should his efforts fail. Moses as a divine conduit is limited by his human nature. Even with a sacred artifact that guarantees the survival of his people, he is physically unable to wield it. And the artifact seems to have some dependence upon other factors. (One is never a prophet in one's own land?)
God does not seem to be willing to be imposed. And, in our growing understanding of interactive physics, this is very strange stuff indeed.
Went to Mary's Vines last night, a strange little place in a redone Croatian church in Rankin, with Amy, Jeff, and Thomas. Very interesting looking place with the entire life savings of the family that bought it invested in it. One of those places you think is interesting and you hope it does well but probably would not go back. Bumbling service, $22 a glass chardonnays, and only adequate food. One of those small plate places. Earnest. And doomed.
We went to Jeff's after and watched Michigan play surprisingly well against Penn State.
I returned well past my bedtime but stayed up to the Yankees thrilling comeback and Altuve's heroics.
The Brexit mess continues to advertise direct democracy in action.
Here is an interesting explanation of the Saez-Zucman thesis that states the sales tax has a gigantic impact on low-income people. (It is pretty outrageous--to the point of insincerity.): "The eye-catching result here is they have consumption taxes being *sharply* regressive, e.g. 12% for the lowest income group. I’m not aware of any US state that has state + average local sales rates tax that high. And lots of goods are exempt from sales tax. So how do they get this? Well, suppose someone earns $1k in labor earnings and gets $9k in transfers, and consumes it all paying a 5% sales tax = $500 in tax. What sales tax rate have they paid (as a % of their income)? The method Treasury uses says 500/(1k+9k) = 5% (this is also what Auten-Splinter do). Saez-Zucman exclude transfers from the denominator, and thus say 500/1k = 50%. This is a matter of definition, so it’s hard to call it right or wrong, but it does seem misleading and yield some rather nonsensical implications. For example, it means that if welfare to the poor is increased, this will be measured as an increased tax rate." (from a letter to Cowen)
“Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century’s developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer projections combined into implausible chains of inference, proceeded to contemplate a roll-back of the industrial age.”--Richard Lindzen
There are 40 churches in Wilkinsburg.
Would the two percent wealth tax apply to muni bonds?
How would a wealth tax impact the fat civil service defined benefit pension plans? Public pensions have values in the 3 million+ range.
“In the closet of the Vatican,” a newly released book by the French author and LGBT activist Frederic Martel, is generating global media attention and discussion among Vatican figures in Rome. The general thesis of the book is that the Vatican is among the most active hotbeds of homosexuality in the world. Martel has said in interviews that his goal is to shed light on the hypocrisy of those officials in the Vatican who, he says, practice homosexuality and then condemn it. One Catholic reviewer called it gossip and innuendo. A more favorable review said this: "It is not quite a homage, but Martel seems to admire the evolved culture of homosexuality (not my preferred word, but appropriate in this context) in the Vatican."
"We came, we saw, he died." On October 20, 2011, Moammar Gadhafi, the longest-serving leader in Africa and the Arab world, was captured and killed by rebel forces near his hometown of Sirte.
Physical Fatigue in the Spiritual World
In today's reading from the Old Testament, Joshua battles the Philistines with the help of Moses, who when he raises his sacred staff on the hill overlooking the battle, the battle goes to Israel, and when he lowers it, to the Philistine. So he is helped to hold the sacred staff aloft and Israel triumphs.
This magical event is always explained as a metaphor for human virtues like persistence and community unity. But there is something more important here, the limits of the individual human in spite of the obvious and dire consequences should his efforts fail. Moses as a divine conduit is limited by his human nature. Even with a sacred artifact that guarantees the survival of his people, he is physically unable to wield it. And the artifact seems to have some dependence upon other factors. (One is never a prophet in one's own land?)
God does not seem to be willing to be imposed. And, in our growing understanding of interactive physics, this is very strange stuff indeed.
No comments:
Post a Comment