What a strange illusion it is to suppose that beauty is goodness. --Tolstoy
Finishing my taxes in the next two days. The complexity of the tax code is seen by most as a nasty quirk of nature, like mosquitoes or winter, when actually each idiotic complexity is a sop to some special interest who has, in some way, influenced the tax code writer.
Bell is now winning the baseball stupidity race, edging out Marte since Polanco is out. He had a good game at the plate yesterday, though.
The Pens backed in to third place. They look ok, Murray looks really good. playoffs are weird but they will need a lot of expansion if they are to advance.
Profits demand a constant contraction of costs. Water and paper restrictions in bathrooms, shrinking sizes of chocolate bars as if people wanted that. Dunkin' has downsized their napkins and now has switched out their insulated cups to non-insulated. The entire country is turning into the Dollar Store.
The RESA confiscation of stretch IRAs will revolutionize inheritance, forcing a confiscation of retirement plans over 5 years. A new bill called, insincerely, SECURE stretches out the time of confiscation over ten years. This is another example of these people changing the rules--including Roth IRAs. They suck you in to a system, get you to change what you do, then change the rules at the end. In Pennsylvania, an IRA could last 60-80 years; if this law passes, taxes will be about 50% on all inheritance in 5 to 10 years. As Willy Sutton said, "That's where the money is." These people are just awful. One wonders why anybody would trust these people to do anything.
Hong Kong is one of the world's wealthiest places despite having no real natural resources. Venezuela has extraordinary natural resources yet is destitute. What do you suppose explains that?
National Beer Day. The number of US breweries last year reached a new record high of 7,450, the greatest number of American beer makers going back to 1873 when the Brewers Association’s records start and there were 4,131 domestic breweries (see chart above). Amazingly, the record brewery count in 2018 is a near doubling of US breweries in just the last four years since 2014 when there were fewer than 4,000 breweries, and almost four times the brewery count seven years ago of 2,047 in 2011. US breweries have increased at a rate of more than two per day during each of the last five years starting in 2014.
A modest question: There is discussion as if "reparations" paid to Black Americans in payment for the Americans' inheriting slavery from the British Empire is reasonable. Say you are a naturalized American from Iraq. Your family was destroyed because of the decision to invade Iraq, a decision everyone recognizes as a mistake---would you have a legitimate argument for "Reparations?"
Recent evidence from Seattle’s minimum wage increases show that it’s precisely the most inexperienced workers who struggle the most in the face of high minimum wages. And another finds that minimum wage increases cause employers shift towards workers with more credentials.
On this day in 1994, violence fuels the launch of what would become the worst episode of genocide since World War II: the massacre of an estimated 500,000 to 1 million innocent civilian Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
First Stone
Today's is the "Cast the first stone" gospel where the scribes bring an adulteress to Christ and ask for justice before the law. Apparently there is some debate over the author of this passage, but whoever he was, he brought a lot to it. It opens with a pun; the Greek word for "Olive" is close to "Mercy." Then the story becomes a conflict of religious law, sociology, civil intrigue and morality.
The woman brought before Christ is in the wrong: Adultery was a serious offense in the tribal and family oriented Middle East. Indeed both parties were usually killed. But the scribes were merely disguised as moral justice seekers; they wanted Christ to misstep with the law. They were using the woman to squeeze a blasphemy out of Christ. Justice was upfront, but it was not the point.
Christ responds with what has become a cliche, but it was very new when he said it. The law was literal and there was no nuance. Christ's perspective was unique.
But it was more. The first stone would be the tipping point, the change that would precipitate an avalanche of stones. The responsible stone. And those stones that would follow would be the stones of the mob. The two characteristically human acts, defined and highlighted.
Then the Temple room, the Woman's Room supposedly, begins to empty. Everyone leaves. As if embarrassed. Even the guys who were there to trap Christ melt away as if there was within, even them, some light. And then Christ himself says He forgives her.
The revolutionary triumph of mercy over justice.
Finishing my taxes in the next two days. The complexity of the tax code is seen by most as a nasty quirk of nature, like mosquitoes or winter, when actually each idiotic complexity is a sop to some special interest who has, in some way, influenced the tax code writer.
Bell is now winning the baseball stupidity race, edging out Marte since Polanco is out. He had a good game at the plate yesterday, though.
The Pens backed in to third place. They look ok, Murray looks really good. playoffs are weird but they will need a lot of expansion if they are to advance.
Profits demand a constant contraction of costs. Water and paper restrictions in bathrooms, shrinking sizes of chocolate bars as if people wanted that. Dunkin' has downsized their napkins and now has switched out their insulated cups to non-insulated. The entire country is turning into the Dollar Store.
The RESA confiscation of stretch IRAs will revolutionize inheritance, forcing a confiscation of retirement plans over 5 years. A new bill called, insincerely, SECURE stretches out the time of confiscation over ten years. This is another example of these people changing the rules--including Roth IRAs. They suck you in to a system, get you to change what you do, then change the rules at the end. In Pennsylvania, an IRA could last 60-80 years; if this law passes, taxes will be about 50% on all inheritance in 5 to 10 years. As Willy Sutton said, "That's where the money is." These people are just awful. One wonders why anybody would trust these people to do anything.
Hong Kong is one of the world's wealthiest places despite having no real natural resources. Venezuela has extraordinary natural resources yet is destitute. What do you suppose explains that?
National Beer Day. The number of US breweries last year reached a new record high of 7,450, the greatest number of American beer makers going back to 1873 when the Brewers Association’s records start and there were 4,131 domestic breweries (see chart above). Amazingly, the record brewery count in 2018 is a near doubling of US breweries in just the last four years since 2014 when there were fewer than 4,000 breweries, and almost four times the brewery count seven years ago of 2,047 in 2011. US breweries have increased at a rate of more than two per day during each of the last five years starting in 2014.
A modest question: There is discussion as if "reparations" paid to Black Americans in payment for the Americans' inheriting slavery from the British Empire is reasonable. Say you are a naturalized American from Iraq. Your family was destroyed because of the decision to invade Iraq, a decision everyone recognizes as a mistake---would you have a legitimate argument for "Reparations?"
Recent evidence from Seattle’s minimum wage increases show that it’s precisely the most inexperienced workers who struggle the most in the face of high minimum wages. And another finds that minimum wage increases cause employers shift towards workers with more credentials.
On this day in 1994, violence fuels the launch of what would become the worst episode of genocide since World War II: the massacre of an estimated 500,000 to 1 million innocent civilian Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
First Stone
Today's is the "Cast the first stone" gospel where the scribes bring an adulteress to Christ and ask for justice before the law. Apparently there is some debate over the author of this passage, but whoever he was, he brought a lot to it. It opens with a pun; the Greek word for "Olive" is close to "Mercy." Then the story becomes a conflict of religious law, sociology, civil intrigue and morality.
The woman brought before Christ is in the wrong: Adultery was a serious offense in the tribal and family oriented Middle East. Indeed both parties were usually killed. But the scribes were merely disguised as moral justice seekers; they wanted Christ to misstep with the law. They were using the woman to squeeze a blasphemy out of Christ. Justice was upfront, but it was not the point.
Christ responds with what has become a cliche, but it was very new when he said it. The law was literal and there was no nuance. Christ's perspective was unique.
But it was more. The first stone would be the tipping point, the change that would precipitate an avalanche of stones. The responsible stone. And those stones that would follow would be the stones of the mob. The two characteristically human acts, defined and highlighted.
Then the Temple room, the Woman's Room supposedly, begins to empty. Everyone leaves. As if embarrassed. Even the guys who were there to trap Christ melt away as if there was within, even them, some light. And then Christ himself says He forgives her.
The revolutionary triumph of mercy over justice.
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