CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY
Religion, grrrr
Rachel Aviv: BuyThe Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion by Hugh Urban; Princeton, 268 pp, £19.95, September 2011, ISBN 978 0 691 14608 9
Analysis: Wall Street puzzles over Google's new direction
Analysis: Wall Street puzzles over Google's new direction
CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS:
WHO'S GREEDY? Obama Gave 1% to Charity, Romney Gave 15%
Mitt Romney gave millions to charity. Joe Biden gave $369.
AP File
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle gave $10,772 of the $1.2 million they earned from 2000 through 2004 to charities, or less than 1 percent, according to tax returns for those years released today by his campaign.
The Obamas increased the amount they gave to charity when their income rose in 2005 and 2006 after the Illinois senator published a bestselling book. The $137,622 they gave over those two years amounted to more than 5 percent of their $2.6 million income.
Romney charitable contributions
Tax year Taxable income Charitable donations Donations as % of income
2010 $21.7 million $2.98 million 13.73%
2011 (est) $20.9 million $4 million 19.14%
CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS:
WHO'S GREEDY? Obama Gave 1% to Charity, Romney Gave 15%
Mitt Romney gave millions to charity. Joe Biden gave $369.
AP File
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle gave $10,772 of the $1.2 million they earned from 2000 through 2004 to charities, or less than 1 percent, according to tax returns for those years released today by his campaign.
The Obamas increased the amount they gave to charity when their income rose in 2005 and 2006 after the Illinois senator published a bestselling book. The $137,622 they gave over those two years amounted to more than 5 percent of their $2.6 million income.
Romney charitable contributions
Tax year Taxable income Charitable donations Donations as % of income
2010 $21.7 million $2.98 million 13.73%
2011 (est) $20.9 million $4 million 19.14%
CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS:
WHO'S GREEDY? Obama Gave 1% to Charity, Romney Gave 15%
Mitt Romney gave millions to charity. Joe Biden gave $369.
AP File
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle gave $10,772 of the $1.2 million they earned from 2000 through 2004 to charities, or less than 1 percent, according to tax returns for those years released today by his campaign.
The Obamas increased the amount they gave to charity when their income rose in 2005 and 2006 after the Illinois senator published a bestselling book. The $137,622 they gave over those two years amounted to more than 5 percent of their $2.6 million income.
Romney charitable contributions
Tax year Taxable income Charitable donations Donations as % of income
2010 $21.7 million $2.98 million 13.73%
2011 (est) $20.9 million $4 million 19.14%
AMERICA VS EUROPE: DELEVERAGING
America overcomes the debt crisis
Britain sinks deeper into the swamp
Britain has sunk deeper into debt. Three years after bubble burst, the UK has barely begun to tackle the crushing burden left by Gordon Brown. The contrast with the United States is frankly shocking.
As recently as 1990 Britain’s debts were still just 220pc of GDP.
DR EVIL: MEGA UPLOAD - INTERNNET
Internet's Dr Evil
sprang electronic locks in his 'Bond villain lair'; retreated to safe room as police swooped
- Kim Dotcom one of four men arrested as part of investigation into Megaupload website
- 'It was definitely not as simple as knocking at the front door' says police chief
this is such a facinating story that i had to save it. the power of the internet
AN EXAMPLE OF RACISM, WHERE IT DOES NOT EXIST
Science and Prejudice The NIH may be biased in ways that harm not only African-American researchers but any whose ideas fall outside the mainstream.
HOW POLITICIANS LIE
Lying can be analyzed in game theory. To be an effective liar, one must engage in self-deception to mask or eliminate the behavioral clues or cues that will arouse suspicion in one’s opponent, or adversary, or consitituency, etc. So one ends up deceiving oneself - and becomes arrogant and deceitful.
Lies We Tell Ourselves
How deception leads to self-deception
In Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1970 rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar, a skeptical Judas Iscariot questions with faux innocence (“Don’t you get me wrong, l only want to know”) the messiah’s deific nature: “Jesus Christ Superstar/Do you think you’re what they say you are?”
Although I am skeptical of Jesus’ divine parentage, I believe he would have answered Judas’s query in the affirmative.
OBSERVATIONS ABOUT HEALTH CARE - USA, ENGLAND, CANADA
There are actually two messages here.
The first is very interesting, but the second is absolutely astounding - and explains a lot.
A recent “Investor’s Business Daily” article provided very interesting statistics from a survey by the United Nations International Health Organization.
Saint Thomas Aquinas - quotation
St. Thomas Aquinas: A government which governs least, governs best. But a government can only govern least if the laws of God are daily impressed upon it.
How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics
Andrew Sullivan: How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics
Jan 16, 2012 12:00 AM ESTThe right calls him a socialist, the left says he sucks up to Wall Street, and independents think he's a wimp. Andrew Sullivan on how the president may just end up outsmarting them all.
Costa Concordia Hits Rocks Very Close to Shore
Here are good pictures of the shipwreck. Notice how close the mammoth ship is to shore.Costa Concordia Hits Rocks Very Close to Shore
Here are good pictures of the shipwreck. Notice how close the mammoth ship is to shore.Global Economy Could Endure Disaster For a Week
Global Economy Could Endure Disaster For a Week
The global economy could withstand widespread disruption from a natural disaster or attack by militants for only a week as governments and businesses are not sufficiently prepared to deal with unexpected events, a report by a respected think-tank said.
Global Economy Could Endure Disaster For a Week
Global Economy Could Endure Disaster For a Week
The global economy could withstand widespread disruption from a natural disaster or attack by militants for only a week as governments and businesses are not sufficiently prepared to deal with unexpected events, a report by a respected think-tank said.
Global Economy Could Endure Disaster For a Week
Global Economy Could Endure Disaster For a Week
The global economy could withstand widespread disruption from a natural disaster or attack by militants for only a week as governments and businesses are not sufficiently prepared to deal with unexpected events, a report by a respected think-tank said.
Global Economy Could Endure Disaster For a Week
Global Economy Could Endure Disaster For a Week
The global economy could withstand widespread disruption from a natural disaster or attack by militants for only a week as governments and businesses are not sufficiently prepared to deal with unexpected events, a report by a respected think-tank said.
Obamas Parents
Obama’s Parents
To those of us who hoped that Barack Obama’s election marked a departure from right-wing rule, the president’s failure of leadership has been stunning. Seldom have insurgent expectations – even sceptical, guarded ones – been deflated so swiftly. From the moment he announced his staff and cabinet appointments (Rahm Emanuel, Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers, Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates et al) it was clear that Obama meant to play by the same Washington rules that created the policy disasters he inherited from George W. Bush. Obama had retreated into politics as usual. He never looked back. One did not have to be a sentimental utopian to be disappointed.
DEBT MATTERS: $7.6 TRILLION OF DEBT MATURING
World’s Biggest Economies Face $7.6 Trillion Bond Tab as Rally Seen FadingHere are some interesting numbers to digest. Wow???
tom:thanx for a great response; informed and well thought out. I plan to include it on my blog when I flesh out my entire thoughts. BUT, I disagree with your conclusions.
debt matters:
1. how does the debt compare with income? and our ability to pay it down. to maintain liquidity, debt must be paid down.
2. when debt exceeds GDP, as we are faced with at this instant, one becomes vulnerable to the equilibrium trap which the euro is facing and japan faces in spades!! we are all lucky now because interest rates are suppressed at give/take 1%. but excessive debt eventually leads to inflation because that is the only way to get rid of excessive debt liabilities like social security.
3. how does the rate of debt interest compare with the rate of gdp growth; and all the permutations and combinations of such a rate analysis?
4. what is the rate of population growth? this is critically important for the euro and japan where fertility rates have plunged. fortunately the usa is growing because of legal and illegal immigration; and someday will reach 500 million, perhaps before 2050; at which time the USA will be totally bilingual with spanish the dominant language and english the univeral business language.
5. how will the debt be repaid? either by (1) cutting spending; (2) default; (3) contrived inflation. Economist Klugman (sic) favors (2) and (3) in a recent article, which will piss off the chinese but will particularly hurt seniors in the USA; and that is when political alignments will be realigned for a long time. Unfortunately raising taxes cannot solved the debt problem; why? not enough of a tax base. the top 10% are already paying 75% of the taxes. and when people en masse start to really cheat and avoid taxes, the government is held hostage, (like Greece and Italy). Our jails are already too crowded.
6. what is the rate of growth of the debt
7. and ad nauseum!
The Japanese culture is among the finest on the planet. Homogeneous, tough minded and hard working people with the tightest of all cultures on the planet. [thank God and HST, we did not invade Japan. We would have had to kill off all 100 million Japanese men, women and children.] Their economy was recently crippled with the worst natural disaster [quake and tsunami] in decades and they did not blink nor whine or play the blame game like the democrats and the N'orleaners; they pull together and rebuild. Yes, they have self-financed and own their enormous debt per capita. BUT THEY ALSO KNOW their culture will be crippled because their fertility rate is only 1.39 causing their population to rapidly decrease as it doing right now as we talk; and when they decide to take action (not sure how?) it may take 100 years to recover. so they are leaving a massive debt per capital problem for their children.
Tom's original reply on next page. NOTE: I probably missed an important point: Ask a mortgage holder who is underwater whether debt matters.
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