Are Capital Gains Double Taxed?

... any discussion of efforts to increase progressivity -- such as President Obama's so-called Buffett rule -- must include raising the current preferential 15 percent rate. This is anathema to Republicans. Consequently they have counterpunched by asserting that capital gains a …

Frontline: The Real CSI

Motivated by the recent NAS report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward Some areas covered in "The Real CSI": No Forensic Background? No Problem - April 17, 2012 Can Unconscious Bias Undermine Fingerprint Analysis? - April 16, 2012 It should be  …

USPS, some observations from a UK customer

Email received from one of our Brit customers. I've removed direct references to individuals, or to our company, because I don't want to be accused of promotion. Note, this is in reverse order, as in an email record.

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Cletus' Grandkids

My new granddaughter, and a bit older grandson.

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How Can the Architects of Crisis Investigate It?

Guest Author: William K. Black is Associate professor of Economics at University of Missouri, Kamsas City.

Antonin Scalia, Judicial Activist - Reason Magazine

How the conservative justice legislates from the bench.

Counterinsurgency Strategy revisited

I recently heard a soldier on PBS saying that half of the military doesn't believe in the strategy. I was reminded of replies to my old article What's Your Strategy?, on the Coin strategy outlined by Patreaus. Some disagreed with my hypothesis that our initial actions in Iraq bel …

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1968 - $500 MILLION OF FOREIGN AID ALLOCATED FOR BIRTH CONTROL

U.S. taxpayers have been paying for birth control, in third world countries, since the Kennedy Administration. Catholic leadership has never liked it, so their complaining about providing birth control to women in the U.S. is consistent. But, the hysterics by some accusing this  …

SVP Dispatch: Dinosaurs and the Proofs of Evolution

So what do dinosaurs have to do with the fact of evolution? Horner outlined five different proofs of evolution: three proofs that Darwin cited, a “test” proof, and what Horner called the ultimate proof. The first on the list was simply descent with modification.

musicians cannot tell from sound alone whether they are playing an old classic instrument or one made last week

... Writing in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Fritz and her co-authors describe their findings as a "striking challenge to conventional wisdom". ...

When a confession isn't. Michael Crowe's statements.

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT - CROWE v.

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Victory and Honor by W.E.B Griffin - A review

 Victory and Honor by W.E.B Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV, published by G.P. Putnam's Sons, is the sixth book in the Honor Bound series.

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Trent Franks on the balanced budget amendment, House Session, Part 3 - C-SPAN Video Library

Franks spoke again on similar topics today, as I saw on CSPAN.  Gold markets would crash? No, they would zoom if the gold in Fort Knox were stolen. Whatever.   In today's speech, he talked about T. Jefferson being opposed to deficit spending.

Rove-linked group already spending big on ads - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

It starts. Just saw this ad, watching Fox News at the time.

Washington, a life. by Ron Chernow. A review.

This book is so awesome. Consider the length, over 800 pages. And these are not the wimpy pages we see in so many books. Here we have over 15 words per line and 39 lines per page.   Chernow clearly has read much, if not all, of Washington's own writings.

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President Lincoln and Emancipation - C-SPAN Video Library

Michael Burlingame talked about Abraham Lincoln's pre-presidential dealings with slavery and his abolitionist tendencies. "Abraham Lincoln: Reluctant Emancipator?"" was part of the U.S.

Unauthorized Charges on Telephone Bills - Senate hearing, July 13, 2011

I'm watching this on CSPAN now. Amazing lies told by many companies since 1997. How these guys weren't prosecuted for fraud is indicative of what's wrong with our 'buyer beware' system.

Underage driver crash victim an extraordinary physicist

At 77, he attended church three times a week, saved piles of newspapers, was in his 54th year working for the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command.

Naked in Public? What Your Dream Means

I just happened upon this one, thought it of interest. Usually I find psychology majors make much ado about nothing, but this one does seem to make sense.    When I was in my teens I frequently had the 'Naked in Public Dream', of the embarrassment type.

Richard Widmark Salutes Sidney Poitier

The movie 'The Bedford Incident' is on TCM tonight. In the introduction to the movie, Robert Osborn quotes Sidney Poitier as saying that  Richard Widmark was the first fellow actor who invited him to his house.

What the CIA needs from David Petraeus - The Washington Post

The best thing, from the CIA’s standpoint, is that Petraeus really wants the job. When he talked about his future with Defense Secretary Bob Gates last November, he said he wasn’t captivated by book offers and business proposals, however lucrative.

Q&A with Author Scott Miller | C-SPAN - The President and the Assassin

Some interesting stuff in that interview. I'm watching it on C-Span as I write this. The similarity between the Tea Party and the Anarchists circa 1900 becomes apparent. Another interesting part is the surprise attack on the Spanish at the beginning of the Spanish-American War.

Paul Ryan's budget

I'm surprised no one has seeded this previously.

Secrets From Inside the Obama War Room - Print - Newsweek

Nov 29, 2009 Meeting re' the '30,000 Surge' in Afghanistan: "Inside the Oval Office, Obama asked Petraeus, “David, tell me now. I want you to be honest with me.

Stockman and Reich debate the U.S. economy; Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs

ZAKARIA: ... Wouldn't it be sensible, if the great problem is jobs and the large part of that problem is in the construction industry, wouldn't it be sensible for the government to simply try to employ these people directly? I don't mean the government employing them, but do r …

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