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Small business owners are responsible for creating the vast number of jobs in America but their average income of just over $100,000 falls far below any proposal to increase the top marginal tax rate on incomes over $500,000. Contrary to high pitched rhetoric, increasing the top marginal individual income tax rate will not adversely impact … More “Job Creators” unaffected by increasing top personal tax rate
People and their priorities are often a curiosity to me. I always have struggled to understand the popularity of selected, tragic current events. How can anyone forget the heart wrenching stories of Natalie Holloway or Elizabeth Smart? The riveting story of the day is the Casey Anthony trial and the untimely loss of her young … More People, Priorities and Casey Anthony
A recent article by Andrew Leonard titled “Why do liberals hate freedom so much” caught my attention. (http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2011/06/15/why_do_liberals_hate_freedom) It’s an interesting discussion focusing on a document recently published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University: “Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom.” As one might expect from the Koch … More Index of Personal Freedom – when good statistics go bad.
People formulate opinions based on either emotion or reason. It might be helpful to use the following terms to describe the phenomenon of emotion superseding reason in the process of formulating opinions. Emotagogue (‘imoʊtəgɒg): A leader who exploits the tendency for people to embrace arguments and formulate opinions based on emotions rather than on facts … More Emotagogues, emotagogery and emotaticians
While there may be emotional appeal to chants of “Drill baby Drill” and “American oil for Americans” the reality is that oil taken from beneath American soil simply does not belong to America. It belongs to the oil companies that drilled it and not to Americans. It’s not that way in most of the world … More Is it time to consider nationalizing the US oil industry?
Answer: Mosquitoes The answer to this question had eluded me especially in light of the increasing income disparity between the wealthy and the rest of us. I don’t think there is much controversy that ever since the Regan years (see previous post) more income shares have been going to the wealthy. This has created a … More If you make less than $250k why are you a Republican?
Call me stupid but when I step on a 757 I want to know that the pilot is smarter than me, at least about flying an airliner. If I need to have surgery I kind of want to know that the surgeon knows more about the procedure than do I. If I have to choose … More Call me stupid but I want someone smarter than me.
For better or worse, and sometimes both, the lens of the media can distort our perception of reality. The events unfolding in Egypt are undoubtedly of historic proportions and Tahrir Square is the epicenter of change. The intensive media coverage focused on Tahrir has made the square seem larger than life and while that may … More Tahrir Square and the Dallas Cowboys
There’s abundant discussion of what caused the tragedy in Tucson but it’s not one of the following. It’s not Sarah Palin It’s not Ed Schultz It’s not Glen Beck It’s not Rush Limbaugh It’s not Fox “news” It’s not MSNBC It’s not that there are more guns per capita in the US than any other … More What didn’t cause the tragedy in Tucson
OK, so that’s a shameless, attention seeking title that’s not exactly true. What is true is that the median Grade Point Average (GPA) is higher at the University of Florida (UF) than it is at the University of Central Florida (UCF). This GPA differential is indicative of a greater rate of grade inflation – not … More UF students are smarter than UCF students…
Confronting Mediocrity 