Who wins in elections?
During the recent presidential elections in the U.S., the big winner was not President Obama but the infrastructure of Super-PACs, political consultants and television/radio outlets. They made the real money.
The election of the person who will be Pope has a different set of winners. They are the owners of businesses that are housing and feeding the tourists and crush of media who have descended on Vatican City like a pack of wolves. They will snarl and gnash at one another in the struggle to be the very first to report that a whiff of white smoke is ascending the chimney; informing the world that a new Pope has been selected.
I tried to imagine how it would work if Judaism had an equivalent to the Pope, the Super-Rabbi. First off, the various sects of the faith would be battling constantly to decide which faith's representative would occupy the office. Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis would be joined by Hascidics in conflict, rather than conclave.
Evangelicals would probably have a contest. Whoever raised the most money or performed the most miracles on a weekend would win.
Rastafarians would have a much simpler method. Whoever brought the most ganja would get the crown.
Ok, enough about faiths that don't have a chief officiant. There are other things to ponder.
People in New York City won't be forced to buy two 16 ounce sodas in order to get the 32 ounce soda they want, thanks to a judge.
The key test of "Obamacare" will come in the next year, when we see if the level of participation in the healthcare purchase exchanges is high enough to make the program viable. If the vast majority of healthy people don't take advantage of the low-premium healthcare made available to them with subsidized, lower costs; the program won't work. It requires healthy people who aren't using a lot of benefit dollars to make the concept of shared risk viable. Time will tell.
With all of the articles out there from CPAs and other "experts" describing the most-often overlooked tax deductions, no one is talking about one that could be huge for some people. Imagine for a moment that your child is now an adult and has moved back home with you because they aren't earning enough money to be self-sufficient. So you are providing them with food and shelter. However, you can't claim them as a dependent, because they earn more than $3,800 per year and thusly fail the "income test". You can still claim a deduction for medical expenses that you pay on their behalf. This can be huge for a small group of taxpayers, but most of these so-called experts aren't aware of it.
If the students taking part in a foreign-student work-study program at a Harrisburg, PA McDonald's franchise are to be believed (and there's no reason not to believe them), they were horribly exploited by the franchise owner. Made to pay $300 per month for child-sized bunk beds, as many as eight of them in a single basement apartment that just happened to be owned by the franchisee. The working conditions were even worse. Why is this allowed to happen?
There's a reason gatorade baths for winning coaches are limited to football. A basketball coach at the community college level got one recently and the very predictable happened. He fell flat on his face. Liquid makes highly polished floors very slippery.
This Date in History:
On this date in 1622, Francis Xavier and Ignatius of Loyola, founders of the Jesuits were canonized by the Catholic Church. (no, they weren't cannonized)
On this date in 1894, Coca-Cola is bottled and sold for the first time in Vicksburg, MS
On this date in 1912, the Girl Guides (later the Girl Scouts) were founded in the U.S.
On this date in 1918, Moscow again becomes capital of Russia after a 215 year period that the capital was St. Petersburg.
On this date in 1933, FDR holds his first "fireside chat".
On this date in 1993, Janet Reno was sworn in as Attorney General. Also on that date, North Korea announced it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Also on that date, several bombs explode in Mumbai.
Famous Folk Born today:
Clement Studebaker
Jack Kerouac
Edward Albee
Andrew Young
Barbara Feldon (no, it didn't take 99 hours)
Eddie Sutton
Liza Minelli
Mitt Romney
Rob Cohen
Courtney B. Vance
Darryl Strawberry
Aaron Eckhart
The election of the person who will be Pope has a different set of winners. They are the owners of businesses that are housing and feeding the tourists and crush of media who have descended on Vatican City like a pack of wolves. They will snarl and gnash at one another in the struggle to be the very first to report that a whiff of white smoke is ascending the chimney; informing the world that a new Pope has been selected.
I tried to imagine how it would work if Judaism had an equivalent to the Pope, the Super-Rabbi. First off, the various sects of the faith would be battling constantly to decide which faith's representative would occupy the office. Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis would be joined by Hascidics in conflict, rather than conclave.
Evangelicals would probably have a contest. Whoever raised the most money or performed the most miracles on a weekend would win.
Rastafarians would have a much simpler method. Whoever brought the most ganja would get the crown.
Ok, enough about faiths that don't have a chief officiant. There are other things to ponder.
People in New York City won't be forced to buy two 16 ounce sodas in order to get the 32 ounce soda they want, thanks to a judge.
The key test of "Obamacare" will come in the next year, when we see if the level of participation in the healthcare purchase exchanges is high enough to make the program viable. If the vast majority of healthy people don't take advantage of the low-premium healthcare made available to them with subsidized, lower costs; the program won't work. It requires healthy people who aren't using a lot of benefit dollars to make the concept of shared risk viable. Time will tell.
With all of the articles out there from CPAs and other "experts" describing the most-often overlooked tax deductions, no one is talking about one that could be huge for some people. Imagine for a moment that your child is now an adult and has moved back home with you because they aren't earning enough money to be self-sufficient. So you are providing them with food and shelter. However, you can't claim them as a dependent, because they earn more than $3,800 per year and thusly fail the "income test". You can still claim a deduction for medical expenses that you pay on their behalf. This can be huge for a small group of taxpayers, but most of these so-called experts aren't aware of it.
If the students taking part in a foreign-student work-study program at a Harrisburg, PA McDonald's franchise are to be believed (and there's no reason not to believe them), they were horribly exploited by the franchise owner. Made to pay $300 per month for child-sized bunk beds, as many as eight of them in a single basement apartment that just happened to be owned by the franchisee. The working conditions were even worse. Why is this allowed to happen?
There's a reason gatorade baths for winning coaches are limited to football. A basketball coach at the community college level got one recently and the very predictable happened. He fell flat on his face. Liquid makes highly polished floors very slippery.
This Date in History:
On this date in 1622, Francis Xavier and Ignatius of Loyola, founders of the Jesuits were canonized by the Catholic Church. (no, they weren't cannonized)
On this date in 1894, Coca-Cola is bottled and sold for the first time in Vicksburg, MS
On this date in 1912, the Girl Guides (later the Girl Scouts) were founded in the U.S.
On this date in 1918, Moscow again becomes capital of Russia after a 215 year period that the capital was St. Petersburg.
On this date in 1933, FDR holds his first "fireside chat".
On this date in 1993, Janet Reno was sworn in as Attorney General. Also on that date, North Korea announced it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Also on that date, several bombs explode in Mumbai.
Famous Folk Born today:
Clement Studebaker
Jack Kerouac
Edward Albee
Andrew Young
Barbara Feldon (no, it didn't take 99 hours)
Eddie Sutton
Liza Minelli
Mitt Romney
Rob Cohen
Courtney B. Vance
Darryl Strawberry
Aaron Eckhart
posted by me at 4:47 PM
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