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POPSObama's Tax Redistribution ...Obama's plan would greatly accelerate the decades-long trend toward a federal government that depends for tax revenue almost exclusively on a few high-income people. I guess you can call greatly accelerating in the same direction, "change". Hodge acknowledges that some Americans may cheer this dramatic dependence on the highest earners, but he says the shift should be part of a larger national discussion asking questions such as: * What is the long-term effect on the economy if so few households shoulder such a large share of the tax burden? * When a majority of Americans are paying so little for government, will that majority then demand even more services than they would have otherwise? * Can a tax system so focused on redistribution be compatible with economic growth? The new study, "Hard Numbers on Obama's Redistribution Plan," is available online at www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/23319.html.
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POPSBaltimore's Capital Punishment Policies Back in the good old days, Baltimore had a smaller percentage of residents living in poverty (22.7%) than the nation as a whole (27.8%), and a greater percentage of families (23.1%) earning a middle-class income of at least $44,600 in today's dollars than the rest of the country (19.1%). Today, the city has a population that is almost 50% smaller, and about 40% of families with children live at or near the federal poverty line. Among the country's 100 most populous cities, Baltimore ranks a shameful 87th on median household income. There are now at least 30,000 housing units in Baltimore that are abandoned and waiting to be demolished, while even old, upper-crust neighborhoods now have a seedy look. Property taxes are so high – as well as the strong likelihood they will soar even higher in the future – that even maintenance, no less capital improvements, are a losing proposition.
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POPSHow Is a Hurricane Like Christmas? From the comments: Your home is left in ruins by unexpected company. You spend a lot of time getting your house ready, and then you spend a lot of time getting your house back to normal. You spend more money than you plan to. You pray. People are incredibly kind and generous to one another. The spirit of giving is alive and well for both *Seasons*. And how about... You might have a tree in your living room, and end up discarding it afterwards.
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POPSClimate of the Carboniferous Period Earth's atmosphere today contains about 380 ppm CO2 (0.038%). Compared to former geologic times, our present atmosphere, like the Late Carboniferous atmosphere, is CO2- impoverished! Understanding Earth's geologic and climate past is important for understanding why our present Earth is the way it is, and what Earth may look like in the future.
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POPSAirman May Receive Medal of Honor The 2009 defense authorization bill contains a section that would authorize Etchberger’s Medal of Honor. It passed in the House of Representatives in May, but still must be passed by the Senate before Bush can sign it into law. This September a monument will be dedicated at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., to Etchberger and the 13 other men who died at Lima Site 85 in Laos.
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POPSIroquois Blueprint for the U.S. Our constitution has many Iroquois features. Iroquois lawmakers didn't go to war. Civilian and military rule was separate. The Iroquois had no royalty -- no hereditary rule. Their nations could naturalize new citizens. The League didn't just conquer other nations. It could also admit them to membership. We didn't adopt the Iroquois unicameral system. They had only one council. Franklin fought for that. Because he lost, we have both the senate and the house. Franklin also wanted to let soldiers elect their own officers. That's what the Iroquois did. He lost on that one, too. Still, our constitution is a fine piece of engineering design. We looked at the European kingdoms we'd left behind. And we looked at these people who'd governed themselves so well for so long. In the end Canassatego and the Iroquois tipped the scales in shaping our way of life. And we can be very glad they did.
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POPSPerspective on Temperature Many questions remain to be answered regarding the real significance of anthropogenic carbon dioxide as a climate forcing factor and related rising sea level consequences projected by the I.P.C.C. First, there is no incontrovertible evidence to support contentions that pre-industrial carbon dioxide levels were consistently lower than the 380 ppm recorded now. More than 90,000 published measurements carried out between 1812 and 1961 indicate that atmospheric levels were actually rising before the Industrial Revolution. They reached about 440 ppm in 1820, dropped to about 390 ppm by 1855, and rose back to about 440 ppm by 1940.
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POPSRich Dictator, Poor People Chávez imposes his Bolivarian curriculum, which intends to promote Chavista ideology and eliminate the democratic history of Venezuela. Instead of focusing on educational standards, schools today are becoming miniature military boot camps. It is no surprise that literacy rates are dropping.Children with green uniforms and red berets are handling guns and shouting, “Fatherland, Socialism or Death.” This horrifying phenomenon is fueled by Chávez’s determination to condition the Venezuelan youth into believing his own skewed interpretation of history, through which they will likely become little soldiers for his cause.
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POPSHappy 233rd Army! The picture shows Fort Riley Soldiers representing the Army from the Revolutionary War to Operation Iraqi Freedom. On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress authorized the enlistment of 10 companies of riflemen in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The next day, George Washington was appointed commander in chief of this “grand American army.” And thus the U.S. Army was born.
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POPSReason to Panic? The supply of oil is also related to the amount it sells for. It's not getting easier to find new reserves, but at $130 a barrel, a lot of companies are going to be looking really, really hard. They will also be reevaluating fields that couldn't be profitably tapped at $60 a barrel. The federal Energy Information Administration projects that U.S. production will rise 24 percent in the next decade. I actually have to somewhat disagree with that second statement that it's not getting easier to find new reserves. I'd offer that it actually is getting easier...satellite imaging, resonance mapping, new theories for oil location, and a whole host of technologies being applied, not to mention the cumulative experience of generations of drillers, all increase the likelihood of finding new reserves. Of course getting through bureaucracies isn't getting easier. So essentially it's a valid statement anyways
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POPSMargaret Corbin - Soldier for Liberty Life was difficult because of her injury, and in 1779 she received aid from the government...the first woman in the United States to receive pension from Congress. After Congress’s decision, Margaret was included on military rolls until the end of the war. After being discharged, Margaret remained near West Point, known to officials and acquaintances as “Captain Molly”. In 1926, the Daughters of the American Revolution had Margaret’s remains reburied in the West Point military cemetery, becoming the only Revolutionary War soldier to be buried there.
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POPSThe Hopeless Press Network news shows have been delivering overly negative reports since 2003. This was standard operating procedure, just more horrific than usual. In 2006, 17 network stories drew comparisons with the Great Depression, from U.S. savings rates to climate change.
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POPSAncient Greek Music Theory - Modes The Greeks had developed a complex system of relating particular emotional and spiritual characteristics to certain modes (scales). The names for the various modes derived from the names of Greek tribes and peoples, the temperament and emotions of which were said to be characterized by the unique sound of each mode, which included the Ancient Greek subgroups (Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians), one small region in central Greece (Locris), and certain neighboring (non-Greek) peoples from Asia Minor (Lydia, Phrygia). Thus, Dorian modes were "harsh", Phrygian modes "sensual", and so forth.
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POPSCapitalism - The Only Possible Choice There is scarcely anything so absurd as the fundamental principle of Marx's materialist interpretation of history: "The hand mill made feudal society; the steam mill, capitalist society." It was precisely capitalist society that was needed to create the necessary conditions for the original conception of the steam mill to be developed and put into effect. It was capitalism that created the technology, and not the other way round. Liberalism - In the Classical Tradition Ludwig von Mises, 1927
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POPSHow Anti-Matter Propulsion Works It's not rocket science...at least rockets as we know them. :) So, why haven't we built a matter-antimatter reaction engine? The problem with developing antimatter propulsion is that there is a lack of antimatter existing in the universe. For now, we will have to create our own antimatter. Luckily, there is technology available to create antimatter through the use of high-energy particle colliders, also called "atom smashers." But these high-energy particle accelerators only produce one or two picograms of antiprotons each year. A picogram is a trillionth of a gram. It states that anti-matter propulsion is the most energy efficient propulsion. I suspect that will be true as long as the process of making the anti-matter is itself efficient enough to make it feasible.
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POPSThe First American Patent - Turning Ash Into Gold We don't get the potassium salts we need from wood anymore. But for a long time, Hopkins had put us at the center of a great chemical process industry. So our first patent was one of the great American patents after all.
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POPSThe Incredible Flying Monk Given the geography of the abbey, his landing site, and the account of his flight, to travel for "more than a furlong" (220 yards, 201 metres) he would have had to have been airborne for about 15 seconds.
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POPSWhy Doctors Have "GTT" This has allowed doctors and hospitals to cut costs and even increase the resources devoted to charity care. Take Christus Health, a nonprofit Catholic health system across the state. Thanks to tort reform, over the past four years Christus saved $100 million that it otherwise would have spent fending off bogus lawsuits or paying higher insurance premiums. Every dollar saved was reinvested in helping poor patients. Texas recently became home to more Fortune 500 companies than New York and California. Things are trending well for the Lone Star State. Anecdotally, we can see that while doctors are moving in, trial lawyers are packing up and heading west. They're GTC -- Gone to California.
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