Category: Uncategorized

Millionaire tax migration is a myth!

Millionaire tax migration is a myth!

Those echoing Cuomo’s tax migration myth defend their argument by citing a decline in the number of New York millionaires from 2007 to 2009 after the state passed a tax surcharge. Yet, the real story is what Crain’s Business reports: “New York lost millionaires (between 2007 and 2009) primarily because New Yorkers made less money and saw their property values drop during the recession, not because they moved to other states.”

If you compare median incomes by zip code with property taxes by zip code you’ll see that the wealthy seem to live in places with significantly higher tax burdens. By choice.

Obamacare part-timism: A myth debunked.

Obamacare part-timism: A myth debunked.

My strong suspicion is that if the ACA has an impact on the labor force (which it probably will) it will be through a different mechanism. Right now “in order to qualify for health benefits” is a very good reason to work full-time, even if you’d rather have more free time and less money at your current wage level. The Affordable Care Act will make this benefit qualification rationale less compelling,

The changes to part time employment in the past few years has almost nothing to do with Obamacare and everything to do with improved scheduling and time management systems in retail, hospitality and fast food sectors.

CDC official: we’ve reached “the end of antibiotics”

CDC official: we’ve reached “the end of antibiotics”

You know how when you first hear a joke it’s the funniest thing ever and then you hear it a second time and it’s less funny and then a third, fourth, and fifth times and it just keeps getting less and less funny until you’re not laughing at all and it actually becomes annoying? That’s how antibiotics work across the entire human population.

Brilliant description. 

Conspiracy theories explain the right

Conspiracy theories explain the right

The conservative mindset is in decline. Stories of cabals and secret plots provide comfort as its power wanes

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If I were to tell you that a cabal of Congressional Republicans had been quietly working with a roster of little-known political organizations since the last election, many of them funded by a pair of shadowy billionaire brothers, to bring the country to the brink of financial ruin, I’d understand it if you thought I was talking about a conspiracy theory. But really I’d be describing the sausage making that goes on in politics today and the blurry lines between lobbying and influence peddling

Right wing politics is a racket, not a political philosophy. 

Ultra-Orthodox Jew beats boy, 7, for riding bicycle close to Shabbat

Ultra-Orthodox Jew beats boy, 7, for riding bicycle close to Shabbat

The man, who erroneously believed that the boy is desecrating Shabbat, began shouting Shabbat, hit the child in the head and pushed the child. The boy fell off his bike and was injured.

The problem is fundamentalism, not any particular fundamentalist belief. Even if the child had been desecrating Shabbat, that would not have justified the attack to anyone but a fundamentalist.

Flim Flam Forever

Flim Flam Forever

the really crucial thing for the WH is a matter of principle: no deal unless the extortion ends. And Rs just can’t or won’t give up the idea that they deserve to be rewarded for not blowing up the world.

Krugman nails it. Obama was too easy on the GOP early on thinking they would reward his cooperation. He let think this as a valuable tactic. And now it has to end.

The Tea Party thinks it hates Wall Street. It doesn’t.

The Tea Party thinks it hates Wall Street. It doesn’t.

many Tea Party Republicans are in favor of the same bills favored by the financial industry. Take the Financial Takeover Repeal Act of 2013, a one-line bill sponsored by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) that repeals Dodd-Frank and replaces it with nothing. This bill has 22 co-sponsors this year, including notable Tea Party senators such Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.

The best way to explain the Tea Party and Wall Street is The enemy of my imaginary enemy is my imaginary friend. The Tea Party is in favor of imaginary Randian makers and opposed to imaginary Randian looters. Wall Street thinks the same. The only rift is who they imagine the looters and makers are. This is the problem with Randian thinking. 

Were the First Artists Mostly Women?

Were the First Artists Mostly Women?

I find the counter argument pretty interesting:

For adults, caves would have been dangerous and uninteresting, but young boys would have explored them for adventure, said Guthrie, an emeritus professor at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. “They drew what was on their mind, which is mainly two things: naked women and large, frightening mammals.”

That makes sense to me. Put the raw data makes sense too. This study does seem to end the idea that these were done by the hunters. 

Is Dr. Ben Carson unaware how women seeking abortions got pregnant?

Is Dr. Ben Carson unaware how women seeking abortions got pregnant?

Newly hired Fox News contributor Dr. Ben Carson proposed on Friday to “re-educate the women” so that they would stop having abortions. 

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He added there was obviously not a “war on women” because men give up their seats to pregnant women.

Giving women a seat _voluntarily_ somehow trumps government actions that deny women autonomy over their bodies? This guy is nuts.