sethgodin.typepad.com
(Is it that you can't do it or perhaps you don't want to do the work?) When I was in college, I took a ton of advanced math courses, three or four of them, until one day I hit the...
Saturday, October 22, 2011
www.realclearpolitics.com
They're getting on my last nerve," he told CNN's Carol Costello after opponents criticized his "9-9-9" tax reform plan.
www.philly.com
AN 84-YEAR-OLD ex-university official savagely attacked by four young punks during a walk in Wissahickon Valley Park earlier this week theorizes that the beating he endured was a cruel game of "get the old geezer."
www.newschannel5.com
Tennessee is now the first state ever to work with the TSA to deploy a simultaneous counter-terrorism operation statewide.
www.huffingtonpost.com
In one of the most hotly-anticipated biographies of the year, "Steve Jobs," author Walter Isaacson reveals that the Apple CEO offered to design political ads for President Obama's 2012 campaign despite being highly critical of the administration's policies and that Jobs refused potentially life-savi...
Graham Cooke
"It is much better to try and to fail than never have the courage to go after something. Too many missed opportunities lead us into the valley of shadow, where we are a pale version of what we could have been. Passivity, procrastination and caution are all forms of regret. It is where we look back at our fainthearted approach to life and discover how timid we have become. It is vital that our past does not become our future or regret will shadow us all our lives."
"It is much better to try and to fail than never have the courage to go after something. Too many missed opportunities lead us into the valley of shadow, where we are a pale version of what we could have been. Passivity, procrastination and caution are all forms of regret. It is where we look back at our fainthearted approach to life and discover how timid we have become. It is vital that our past does not become our future or regret will shadow us all our lives."
www.theblaze.com
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett — the man who thinks the “super-rich“ need to ”stop being coddled” and, in turn, taxed at a higher rate than they currently are taxed — has joined forces with rapper Jay-Z on an animated show for Hub TV intended to teach children about investing called “The Secret...
www.politico.com
The former W.H. adviser said if given a second chance he wouldn’t have backed the program.
LOOK at the camels first and then read the message below.
This is a picture tak...en from directly above these camels in the desert at sunset. It is considered to be one of the best pictures of the year. When you look closely, you can see that the camels are the little white lines in the picture.
The black images you see are just the shadows!
Sometimes, our "problems" seem to be as big as the shadows...but they are little. Have a lovely day!
LOOK ONCE MORE. YOU CANNOT BELIEVE IT, RIGHT?
This is a picture tak...en from directly above these camels in the desert at sunset. It is considered to be one of the best pictures of the year. When you look closely, you can see that the camels are the little white lines in the picture.
The black images you see are just the shadows!
Sometimes, our "problems" seem to be as big as the shadows...but they are little. Have a lovely day!
LOOK ONCE MORE. YOU CANNOT BELIEVE IT, RIGHT?
www.washingtontimes.com
The good news continued for Herman Cain Friday, as the former Godfather’s Pizza CEO won the Western Republican Leadership Conference straw poll of GOP presidential contenders, edging out former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — and leaving Texas Gov. Rick Perry .
www.chicagotribune.com
Two lobbyists with no prior teaching experience were allowed to count their years as union employees toward a state teacher pension once they served a single day of subbing in 2007, a Tribune/WGN-TV investigation has found.
www.theroot.com
RightWatch: He's been transformed from courageous journalist to apologist for Clarence Thomas
The $1 Trillion Student Loan Rip-Off: How an Entire Generation Was Tricked into Taking on Crushing D
www.alternet.orgYoung people accepted a home mortgage worth of debt before they ever even had a regular income based on phony promises.
townhall.com
If you live in a middle-class household, you generally expect your needs to be met through the marketplace. You buy or rent housing in the real estate market. When you aren't driving your own car, you catch a taxicab or maybe even hire a limo. You or your employer buy health insurance, and you choos...
www.doingbusiness.org
Economies are ranked on their ease of doing business. A high ranking on the ease of doing business index means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm.
www.theblaze.com
NEW YORK (The Blaze/AP) — Someone with a gun opened fire on a street as students were let out of school Friday afternoon, killing one parent who had tried to shield children from harm and injuring an 11-year-old girl and another parent, police and school officials said.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
www.nationalreview.com
Charles C. W. Cooke writes on NRO: The number of people participating in the Occupy Wall Street sit-ins because they are angry that their education has not yielded the fruits that they hoped it would becomes more apparent by the day. Many of the protesters I have met are understandably ruffled that ...
www.patheos.com
I have to see more. I am waiting to see someone I really want to vote for, and that hasn’t happened yet, but Cain is certainly interesting and he deserves to be noticed. A pizza box may be flat and square, but Herman Cain does not appear to be.
Replicating Al Gore’s Climate 101 video experiment shows that his “high school physics” could never.
wattsupwiththat.comReaders may recall my previous essay where I pointed out how Mr. Gore's Climate 101 Video, used in his "24 hours of climate reality", had some serious credibility issues with editing things to make...
The New Reality For U.S. Cities: No Money For Street Lights, Roving Packs Of Wild Dogs And Open-Air.
theeconomiccollapseblog.comIf you want to know what the early stages of an economic collapse look like, just walk around some of the downtown areas of our major cities.
FAILURE IS A PART OF LEARNING
As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not. He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood ther...e and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were. Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something, simply because we failed at it once before? Failure is part of learning; we should never give up the struggle in life.
www.klfy.com
House bill 195 basically says those who buy and sell second hand goods cannot use cash to make those transactions.
www.washingtontimes.com
Herman Cain’s “9-9-9” tax plan has been attacked and denigrated by his conservative opponents. Liberals are having a cow. The media is up in arms. It seems everyone is upset. But the reality is, it was a great start. The only way you know something works in Washington is when all sides are angry.
www.cnbc.com
Think life is not as good as it used to be, at least in terms of your wallet? You'd be right about that. The standard of living for Americans has fallen longer and more steeply over the past three years than at any time since the US government began recording it five decades ago.
josephmattera.orgThese protestors are ultimately modeling Marxist strategies (The Communist Manifesto) and Saul Alinsky (Rules for Radicals) in which they take advantage of any political or economic unrest by starting riots to create anarchy which lead to destabilizing and ultimately toppling a government
www.businessinsider.com
Everyone should be angry at the way deficits are destroying our standard of living, he says.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard on Faith and Reason
It is in the interest of faith to make a final, absolute decision. It is in the interest of the understanding to keep "deliberation" alive. Just as the police would be embarrassed if there were no crimes, so the understanding is embarrassed... if deliberation were completed. Faith wants the absolute; the understanding wants prolongation of thought.
There is only one proof--that of faith. It is impossible for a person to hold back his conviction and push ahead with reasons. If I actually have a firm conviction, then it is higher than reasons; it is actually the conviction that sustains the reasons, not the reasons which sustain the conviction. "Reasons" can lay an egg no more than a rooster can, at most a wind egg, and no matter how much intercourse they have with each other they never beget or bear a conviction. A conviction arises elsewhere.
There is only one proof for the truth of Christianity--the inward proof, argumentum spiritus sancti (the argument of the Holy Spirit). The Apostle John intimates this: "If we receive the testimony of men" (this is all the historical proofs and considerations), "the testimony of God is greater" --that is, the inward testimony is greater. And then, "He who believes the Son of God has the testimony in himself" (1 John 5:9,10).
It is not reasons that justify faith in God's son. Just the opposite--faith in God's Son is the testimony. Faith is the movement of infinity within itself, and it cannot be otherwise. Everything previous is preparatory, preliminary, something which disappears as soon as the conviction arrives. Otherwise there would be no resting in a conviction, for then to have conviction would mean to perpetually repeat the reasons. Faith itself is the testimony. Faith is the justification.
There is only one proof--that of faith. It is impossible for a person to hold back his conviction and push ahead with reasons. If I actually have a firm conviction, then it is higher than reasons; it is actually the conviction that sustains the reasons, not the reasons which sustain the conviction. "Reasons" can lay an egg no more than a rooster can, at most a wind egg, and no matter how much intercourse they have with each other they never beget or bear a conviction. A conviction arises elsewhere.
There is only one proof for the truth of Christianity--the inward proof, argumentum spiritus sancti (the argument of the Holy Spirit). The Apostle John intimates this: "If we receive the testimony of men" (this is all the historical proofs and considerations), "the testimony of God is greater" --that is, the inward testimony is greater. And then, "He who believes the Son of God has the testimony in himself" (1 John 5:9,10).
It is not reasons that justify faith in God's son. Just the opposite--faith in God's Son is the testimony. Faith is the movement of infinity within itself, and it cannot be otherwise. Everything previous is preparatory, preliminary, something which disappears as soon as the conviction arrives. Otherwise there would be no resting in a conviction, for then to have conviction would mean to perpetually repeat the reasons. Faith itself is the testimony. Faith is the justification.
Understanding 9-9-9
Let's talk about 9-9-9 as I understand it. The biggest hit against the plan from Herman Cain is that the 9% sales tax is 1. Regressive, 2. Lead to double taxation and 3. Give a "new tax" to congress. The second major complaint is that the 9% Corporate tax will amount to a VAT tax or "Value Added Tax" similar to the one they have in Europe. First to the idea that a "Sales tax" is the same as a VAT ...tax is a mis-conception. We have a distinction with a difference in the definition of the two: (from wikipedia.com): The "value added" to a product by a business is the sale price charged to its customer, minus the cost of materials and other taxable inputs. A VAT is like a sales tax in that ultimately only the end consumer is taxed.( Please pay attention to this line:)
"It differs from the sales tax in that, with the latter, the tax is collected and remitted to the government only once, at the point of purchase by the end consumer. With the VAT, collections, remittances to the government, and credits for taxes already paid occur each time a business in the supply chain purchases products."
This is a subtle yet huge difference between a VAT and a Sales tax! If you listen to what Herman Cain is saying, He is making the point that the sales tax is not the same as the VAT. He has said on several occasions that the sales tax will only be applied once: at the point of sale to the consumer. It will not be applied throughout the entire production chain. Many of the detractors know this and yet they continue to act like they do not. Either they are being disingenuous or they are ignorant of the differences. Either way they are wrong.
The complaint that the sales tax is double taxation is another attack. Let's consider the facts. If there were no national sales tax would there be state sales tax? Answer: Yes. If there were a Flat tax would there be state sales taxes in states that impose them? Answer: Yes. Is there currently taxes on goods and services under the current tax code that are imposed on states that do not have sales taxes? Answer: Yes. This is what Cain means by people are mixing "apples and oranges." In fact the Federal government currently imposes taxes that amount to on average 35% on all the goods and services produced in the United States is a fact. One of the reasons that Chinese goods are cheaper than those produced in the US is the fact that the imports taxes are lower than the taxes imposed by those produced here. Add to that the fact that in addition to the cost of corporate taxes at on average 35% and the fact that the payroll taxes are also factored into the goods we purchase and it is very easy to see that the current tax system is far more regressive than it appears. The problem is the current taxes that are paid on goods and services produced here are hidden in the cost of the goods themselves. On average the tax built into the cost of goods averages about 22% according to reliable sources. Removing these hidden taxes of about 22% and replacing them with a transparent 9% tax would actually make the cost of the goods less expensive. Couple this with the removal of the 15.3% payroll tax and the average American family is going to pay less in over-all tax burden no matter what their current tax rate is. Now will some people be paying taxes who do not pay taxes now? Yes. But shouldn't everyone who benefits from the services supplied by the Federal government pay something. Currently 53% of Americans pay all the taxes. Moving this from 53% to over 70% will lessen the tax burden on everyone and make taxes fair, flatter and more transparent. In addition it will simplify the tax code and reduce the need for a large bloated and out of control IRS.
Will this help create jobs in the US? Without a doubt. By radically changing the way government is funded, taking out the influence that is exercised by lobbyist and special interest groups, it will free up capital in the economic system and allow for more investment in innovative production.
So why all the fuss and why all the attacks on Herman Cain? Well lets follow the money. Both the left and the right use the current tax code system to reward or punish those who benefit them or who they don't like. It only makes sense that if you are attacking their golden "fleece", they are going to fight you tooth and nail to prevent you from changing this. They have a vested interest in keeping things just like they are. The Republicans like it this way and the Democrats like it this way because they both get to play the game and make us think they care about us. The reality is they only care about themselves and doing whatever it takes to hold onto their power and money base.
Folks it is time for REAL CHANGE! Not the phony hope and change that was promised by President Obama. Let's stand with Herman Cain and fight for real change in 2012. Change that makes a difference for US Americans!
"It differs from the sales tax in that, with the latter, the tax is collected and remitted to the government only once, at the point of purchase by the end consumer. With the VAT, collections, remittances to the government, and credits for taxes already paid occur each time a business in the supply chain purchases products."
This is a subtle yet huge difference between a VAT and a Sales tax! If you listen to what Herman Cain is saying, He is making the point that the sales tax is not the same as the VAT. He has said on several occasions that the sales tax will only be applied once: at the point of sale to the consumer. It will not be applied throughout the entire production chain. Many of the detractors know this and yet they continue to act like they do not. Either they are being disingenuous or they are ignorant of the differences. Either way they are wrong.
The complaint that the sales tax is double taxation is another attack. Let's consider the facts. If there were no national sales tax would there be state sales tax? Answer: Yes. If there were a Flat tax would there be state sales taxes in states that impose them? Answer: Yes. Is there currently taxes on goods and services under the current tax code that are imposed on states that do not have sales taxes? Answer: Yes. This is what Cain means by people are mixing "apples and oranges." In fact the Federal government currently imposes taxes that amount to on average 35% on all the goods and services produced in the United States is a fact. One of the reasons that Chinese goods are cheaper than those produced in the US is the fact that the imports taxes are lower than the taxes imposed by those produced here. Add to that the fact that in addition to the cost of corporate taxes at on average 35% and the fact that the payroll taxes are also factored into the goods we purchase and it is very easy to see that the current tax system is far more regressive than it appears. The problem is the current taxes that are paid on goods and services produced here are hidden in the cost of the goods themselves. On average the tax built into the cost of goods averages about 22% according to reliable sources. Removing these hidden taxes of about 22% and replacing them with a transparent 9% tax would actually make the cost of the goods less expensive. Couple this with the removal of the 15.3% payroll tax and the average American family is going to pay less in over-all tax burden no matter what their current tax rate is. Now will some people be paying taxes who do not pay taxes now? Yes. But shouldn't everyone who benefits from the services supplied by the Federal government pay something. Currently 53% of Americans pay all the taxes. Moving this from 53% to over 70% will lessen the tax burden on everyone and make taxes fair, flatter and more transparent. In addition it will simplify the tax code and reduce the need for a large bloated and out of control IRS.
Will this help create jobs in the US? Without a doubt. By radically changing the way government is funded, taking out the influence that is exercised by lobbyist and special interest groups, it will free up capital in the economic system and allow for more investment in innovative production.
So why all the fuss and why all the attacks on Herman Cain? Well lets follow the money. Both the left and the right use the current tax code system to reward or punish those who benefit them or who they don't like. It only makes sense that if you are attacking their golden "fleece", they are going to fight you tooth and nail to prevent you from changing this. They have a vested interest in keeping things just like they are. The Republicans like it this way and the Democrats like it this way because they both get to play the game and make us think they care about us. The reality is they only care about themselves and doing whatever it takes to hold onto their power and money base.
Folks it is time for REAL CHANGE! Not the phony hope and change that was promised by President Obama. Let's stand with Herman Cain and fight for real change in 2012. Change that makes a difference for US Americans!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The Class Difference
George W. Bush speech after capture of Saddam Hussein:
The success of yesterday's mission is a tribute to our men and women now serving in Iraq. The operation was based on the superb work of intelligence analysts who found the dictator's footprints in a vast country. The operation was carried out with skill and precision by a brave fighting force. Our servicemen and women and our coalition allies have faced many dangers in the hunt for members of the fallen regime, and in their effort to bring hope and freedom to the Iraqi people. Their work continues, and so do the risks. Today, on behalf of the nation, I thank the members of our Armed Forces and I congratulate 'them.
Barack Hussein Obama speech, Sunday, May 1, 2011:
And so shortly after taking office, I directed Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, to make the killing or capture of bin Laden the top priority of my war against al Qaeda, even as I continued our broader efforts to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat his network. Then, last August, after years of painstaking work by my intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead to bin Laden. It was far from certain, and it took many months to run this thread to ground. I met repeatedly with my national security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside of Pakistan. And finally, last week, I determined that I had enough intelligence to take action, and I authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice. Today, at my direction, the United states launched a targeted operation against that compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.
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