Is the tide finally turning on it? It sure should be. This smiley-face fascism has gone on far too long.
Category Archives: Business
The Corporate Tax Rate Arms Race
A https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/12/21/ladies-gentlemen-take-places/ is good for all of us.
As I noted on Twitter, many people, ignorant of economics, are going to be surprised at how little reducing corporate tax rates will have on government revenue. Because corporations don’t pay taxes; they only collect them.
Corporations will “pay” less tax, but shareholders and employees will end up paying more, because their income will go up, and the increased economic growth from reduced prices will result in additional revenue as well.
TaxCutMageddon
Sarah Hoyt has the grim tale.
My New Computer
Regular readers are aware of my recent travails (no, I’m not going to search for links). As an experiment this fall, I’ve been using an ASUS tablet and bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I won’t go into all of the frustration and screaming I’ve gone through to make this work, but it just. doesn’t.
I finally broke down and went out shopping at Best Buy near our place in Golden, CO (that’s where we are until the trip back next weekend). They had a fantastic deal on an HP AMD laptop for $229. Two problems with it: its 4G RAM isn’t expandable, and it has a 15″ screen. Why is the latter a problem, you ask? And well you may. It’s a problem because in addition to my old laptop needing replacement, seat pitch has gotten to a state at which you cannot use a laptop that size on a seatback table. I needed a smaller machine.
So I looked some more, and I found a 2-in-1 HP with a much smaller footprint, and a touchscreen. It also has a pen, in theory, but I don’t give a rat’s tuchus about that because the whole reason that I love computers is that I no longer have to drag something across something to communicate my thoughts. God’s gift to me, despite the fact that I don’t believe in Him/Her is the keyboard.
Its memory is also not expandable, but I’ve given up on that; these new machines are so thin that the RAM has to be soldered to the board. For $350 plus tax, it’s good enough. And so far it has been.
Next step is to see if I can install a good OS on it…
Bridenstine Update
Now he’ll have to wait until January to be confirmed as NASA administrator, and it will be a squeaker because politics. And WTF is wrong with Rubio?
Trump’s Space Policy
I haven’t seen everything, so I can’t say for sure that this is the stupidest, most ignorant take on it, but it will do until something dumber comes along.
[Update a few minutes later]
Meanwhile, a much smarter take from Sarah Cruddas.
[Monday-morning update]
Aaaaand here’s a rewriting of space history from Jason Rhian. Too busy with conference to fisk it, but it needs it badly.
[Bumped]
SpaceX
Another successful launch today, historic in that it’s the first reuse of the vehicle for a NASA payload, and the 20th successful landing. It also indicates that LC-40 is back in business after the explosion last year, and it’s the 17th launch of the year for them, a new record. There will probably be one more this year, the Iridium Next flight out of Vandenberg in a few days. And yesterday, they opened up applications for media credential for the Falcon Heavy launch out of LC-39A, next month.
[Update a few minutes later]
As for Blue Origin, get a dummy’s-eye view of this week’s flight of Mannequin Skywalker.
The “Clean Power” Plan
It’s long past time to review the “Endangerment Finding.”
The Higher Education Bubble
Is it about to pop? It’s going to be very ugly.
The Nutrition Coalition
Nina Teichholz has started a new organization to restore sanity to government dietary guidelines.
Dr. Sarah Hallberg and I are reaching out to you to ask you to support a group called The Nutrition Coalition, a non-profit based in Washington, DC, which has the sole of aim of reforming the decades-old Dietary Guidelines for Americans so that they are evidence-based, i.e., based on rigorous clinical trial science.
That’s why we are asking for an Inaugural Gift, to help our fundraising launch: a tax-deductible gift of $5, $10, $50 or whatever you can afford. DONATE HERE.
We need your support to educate policy makers, influencers and the public about the problems with the guidelines, so that people suffering from obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, among other nutrition-related diseases, get the sound nutritional advice that they need to become healthy.
The current guidelines have long been based upon weak science that has since been contradicted in large, government-funded clinical trials. Some of that original bad advice has been overturned: e.g., the caps on cholesterol were finally dropped in 2015.
These recommendations do not just lack a foundation in rigorous evidence. In some cases, they have been demonstrated to cause actual harm, particularly for those with metabolic diseases.
Will you make a tax-deductible gift of just $5 to reform the Guidelines?Although you may think that no one relies on the government for their dietary advice, the reality is that the Guidelines are taught to/by nearly all healthcare practitioners—dieticians, nutritionists, doctors—working on the front line with patients. The Guidelines reach you, your family and your colleagues.
That’s why we need the Nutrition Coalition, and why our accomplishments are so important:
- In 2015, we proposed to the U.S. Congress that it mandate the first-ever outside peer-review of the Guidelines, by the National Academy of Medicine. Congress not only passed this mandate but also allocated $1 million for the study.
- That National Academy study came out just recently, with very strong language about how the Guidelines “lack scientific rigor” and fail to use a state-of the art systematic review methodology.
- Congressman Andy Harris wrote an op-ed on the Academy report, with the headline: “Mandate is clear: Flawed dietary guidelines process must be reformed.”
Americans follow the Guidelines, but their health has not improved. The process of drafting the Guidelines needs reform — but we need your help to support the sustained campaign this effort will require.
If you would like to DONATE to our worthy cause, so that ALL people have the chance to be healthy again, please CLICK HERE to make your tax-deductible donation!!!
Check out our website, along with our extremely strong Board of Directors and Scientific Council. We are launching with a serious team, and we aim for real reform. If you would like to make a significant contribution or have questions, please contact our Executive Director, Christina Hartman, at chartman@nutritioncoalition.us
Seems like a very worthy cause.