Republicans want to talk about abolishing useless government organizations, the first one they should start with is the TSA.
Terrorist.
So probably not all that much, honestly.
(Source: The New York Times, via ohyeahfacts)
CHART: Taxes Soaring Past Highest Level Ever.
Well! There are a number of problems with this chart, so let’s tackle them in order.
1. The Y axis is tax revenue as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product, right? In truth, I don’t know. “Tax Burden” seems to be a wholly made-up term with no basis in reality. But it’s at least partially based on revenue, which is the most illogical possible methodology for determining the relative rate of taxation because it incorporates the distorting impact of economic performance.
The Heritage Foundation understands this, and also how to lie with statistics. The problem is that they aren’t nearly as good at lying with statistics as I am.
2. Nominal tax rates at a fixed percentage will necessarily generate more revenue in positive economic periods. This is because bad economic times trigger a variety of tax breaks, most notably loss carry-forwards, and typically come coupled with a precipitous decline in capital gains revenues as markets crash. That’s why there’s a big collapse in the 2005-2010 frame.
3. Note how the chart begins in 1975? This is because it marked the end of large declines in nominal tax rates for high-wage-earners as the post-WWII, post-Great-Society tax rates were rolled back. I’m sure whatever fantastical composite “Tax Burden” represents, but I’m sure it was larger “in US history” when top wage-earners were paying 80-90% of gross income.
4. Why no annotation for that bump in 85-90 from the Reagan tax increases?
LG (by dmd.hashw)
[video]
Twin Cities Daily Planet: OPINION | Cutting the Census, impairing our democracy -
If legislators, or even the entire voting public, want to blind themselves to the realities of the social and economic trends which influence our lives, if legislators want to inhibit businesses from understanding their markets, serving their customers optimally, and creating the jobs that our…
(Source: tcdailyplanet.net)
“The importance of learning to code isn’t so that everyone will write code, and bury the world under billions of lines of badly conceived Python, Java, and Ruby. The importance of code is that it’s a part of the world we live in. I’ve had enough of legislators who think the Internet is about tubes, who haven’t the slightest idea about legitimate uses for file transfer utilities, and no concept at all about what privacy (and the invasion of privacy) might mean in an online space. I’ve had enough of patent inspectors who approve patents for which prior art has existed for decades. And I’ve had enough of judges making rulings after listening to lawyers arguing about technologies they don’t understand. Learning to code won’t solve these problems, but coding does force engagement with technology on a level other than pure ignorance. Coding is a part of cultural competence, even if you never do it professionally. Alsup is a modern hero.” —
A federal judge learned to code - O’Reilly Radar (via everythingisdisrupted)
(via moorewr)
“
Rep. Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, for example, saw the open purse as a chance to grab some money for the poor, requesting $400 million in bonding to fix up public housing “creating the same number of [construction] jobs as the stadium, coincidentally.”
Or not coincidentally.
Rep. Morrie Lanning R-Moorhead, sponsor of the stadium bill, called Clark’s amendment “not germane” and “another attempt to spend money we don’t have.”
I swear, he did this with a straight face.
” — Vikings stadium sausage making. (via edkohler)
I don’t understand how the Star Tribune can justify publishing their most recent editorial, Strong Leadership Leads to Stadium Deal.
While it is true that our state and city leaders were the ones who crafted and negotiated what will eventually be a stadium, the process does not suggest “strength” anywhere:
- Strong leaders are willing to make choices for the advantage of their followers, not for the advantage of a few billionaires who don’t really need their help to get something accomplished.
- Strong leaders think of the future as opportunity for the children they lead, not as an unlimited gold-filled purse that some one else can fill.
- Strong leaders do whatever they can to help us all, not knowingly sacrifice a percentage of us with gambling addiction to “get it done.”
- Strong leaders understand priorities and that our love of a game should never have precedence over our ability to educate, house, clothe, feed each other, or go to the doctor.
- Strong leaders seek guidance from their followers, don’t hide from them behind closed doors and talk between offices to ensure they don’t violate pesky transparency rules.
- Strong leaders don’t let their morals and beliefs be hijacked by the wealthy, corporate America, or labor unions.
- Strong leaders don’t push green, just because they want to be able to say “I told you so” in 10 years.
- Strong leaders lead, they don’t follow their caucus when they know it is just wrong.
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong by Jared Chan on Flickr.
GAY MARRIAGE IS COMMUNISM.
(Source: alexblagg)
Buy more memory cards?Well, according to my math, I can take about 3,000 pictures if I shoot in RAW mode with the memory cards I have now. 13,000 if I shoot in JPG. Now the question is: will I be taking 3k pictures during this trip?
I took ~2000 on my PR trip, and that was a week. You could shoot in RAW and see how it goes. I’m sure you’d have no issue buying another while you’re there if you get low.
Hennepin Island (by dmd.hashw)