Six banks – Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley together paid income tax at an approximate rate of 11% of their pre-tax US earnings in 2009 and 2010. Had they paid at 35%, what they are legally mandated to pay, the federal government would have received an additional $13 billion in tax revenue. This would cover more than two years of salaries for the 132,000 teacher jobs lost since the economic crisis began in 2008.
I’ve added a button to ‘like’ any entry next to the heading for that particular entry. I’ve also added Facebook based comments. (I don’t access your Facebook data.)
Ultimately, the code is easy.
PC Training & Consulting Weblog » Improving Comments Across The Web – Facebook Developers
The Saga of Number Nine Ends
On December 16, 2009, I had one of my front teeth extracted, #9 to be exact. Ole Number Nine bore the brunt of my collision with a brick wall while riding a bike at age 7. The accident was caused by my pant leg getting caught in the bike chain – I’ve been very careful to avoid that since the day I staggered home, blood pouring from my mouth. It’s hard to say when #9 actually died, but it was dead by the time I turned 40 and had a root canal on it. That sufficed for more than 10 years, until the bone around the tooth eroded, requiring a bone graft, then an implant, with many months of healing in between. So, for the first half of 2010 I had a gap-toothed smile. I was only self-conscious around some strangers, in particular, when I was teaching a class. Eventually, I got a mis-named “flipper,” a temporary denture, something I would have done sooner had I realized it was more than cosmetic and actually preserved the space between my teeth. More than a year after the extraction, I got a temporary crown. And as of 3/4/11, I have my permanent crown.
In those 14 and a half months, we went to Guatemala, got a new dog (Luke!), drove from Miami Beach to Albuquerque, camped in Colorado, travelled to DC. And I wrote a book. An eventful year, in which I saw one dentist or another more times than in the 10 years before.
Runaway Car (a dream)
I was driving a car, possibly a convertible, at night, with Merri. We were crossing a big bridge when the car spun 180 degrees and I was driving backward. I had a moment of fear that the car would go off either side of the bridge. Mer said something and I responded that I was just trying to slow down without spinning again (foot off the gas and brake). We crested the bridge and picked up speed. I continued to hold the wheel steady, moving it just enough to keep in the lane. I can’t recall if I was looking in the rearview mirrors or over my shoulder. I yelled, “Lew, pull the emergency brake.” (Apparently both Lew and the emergency brake were in the backseat.) Lew didn’t hear me (maybe he wasn’t there), so Mer reached over the back of her seat and pulled the brake. It didn’t seem to have any immediate effect. We were driving downhill on an urban street reminiscent of Georgetown but without any traffic or pedestrians. We entered an intersection and suddenly the brake took effect and the car turned 90 degrees, but then moved forward on the next street. From an elevated distance, I could see the car was now on fire. Fortunately, the street we were now on was full of firefighters and fire trucks. The car stopped. I got out and staggered past a firefighter and said something to him (thank you?). I fell to my knees on the sidewalk, my face in my hands as I sobbed heavily.
Scrapbook Photos
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Album for scrapbook photos Date: Mar 2, 2011 |
Indoor Downpour (a dream)
I had a dream in the middle of the night. I was suggesting to Mer that she needed an audit report that would display in columns rec #, name, previous data, new data, and who made the change. I think I saw the report. I don’t know if it was for Probate Court or Abogada Press or something else. We were in my office. I crossed the room for some reason and returned. In the NW corner of the room, milk crates were stacked. At the top, was a plant. Water started dripping, as if the plant had been over-watered. Suddenly, more water gushed from the ceiling itself. As we started to panic, water poured down like rain from the entire ceiling – a downpour indoors. (My observer-self wondered if recent construction nearby had damaged the roof, although there hasn’t been any recent construction nearby.) We ran to the hallway and I said, “Call Joe and Sally.” (My observer-self thought it was unfair to bring the 80-year-old neighbors into the mess.) There was a phone hanging on the wall in the hallway, where there is none in reality. I woke up, marveling at the vividness of the report, the rain, and the phantom phone.
Raygun Was No Tea Bagger (but bad enough)
Former GOP Sen. Bob Bennett (UT), who lost his seat to a far-right primary challenger after holding it for over a decade, slammed the tea party in an interview with Fox News host Greta Van Susteren Friday. Saying the tea party movement “cost the Republicans control of the Senate,” Bennett warned Republicans to “be careful” about kowtowing to the narrow demands of the hard right when nominating a presidential candidate. Bennett went on to note that the GOP has shifted far to the right from previous Republican presidential candidates like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
“Ronald Reagan would probably not recognize the description of Ronald Regan that is coming out of a lot of the tea party blogs. … [H]e said something that would be absolutely anathema to many of the tea party people when he said it’s better to get 80 percent of what you want than zero. And Reagan would compromise, Reagan would make deals.”
Indeed, as ThinkProgress has noted, the image of Reagan that many conservatives hold dear bears little resemblance to the actual man, who did many things these self-professed Reaganites would not like. Reagan raised taxes, increased government spending, and ballooned the size of government. And Reagan was a staunch defender of unions.