World weather

What a system!  The earth spins from left to right.  Relative to the earth’s surface, weather at the equator backslides while weather at the poles advances in opposite rotations, and the whole thing balances out.  That’s so cool!

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

(more…)

Commissioner Shipper presented and end-of-year report from the Elbert County Commissioners.  See video of his presentation here.

Senior fellow at the Cato Institute Randal O’Toole gave a thorough presentation on transportation, public planning and government intervention issues.  See complete video of his presentation here.

The Federal Estate Tax (aka, death tax) is currently repealed, due to a provision in the 2001 Economic Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act (EGTRRA). However, on January 1, 2011, the tax comes back at the rate of 55 percent on all estates above $1 million.

Estate tax advocates often portray their fight as a struggle for fairness against greedy billionaires and spoiled heiresses, but as this American Family Business Foundation Issue Brief documents, it’s the multi-billion-dollar life-insurance industry who profits handsomely from the tax at the expense of family business owners and farmers, to whom they sell estate tax-related products. (more…)

Oklahoma citizens had it right when they voted to prevent Oklahoma judges from using Sharia law to decide Oklahoma cases.  Sharia law contradicts rights granted to Americans in the Declaration of Independence and rights protected from government encroachment in the Constitution.  When Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange grants CAIR’s claim that the practice of Sharia law is a constitutional right, she demonstrates ignorance of either the Constitution or Sharia law or both.

The Closing of the Muslim Mind (Robert Reilly) (more…)

The Walking Death Tax

Republican Jon Kyl of Arizona and Democrat Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas are pushing a compromise that would lower the top rate to 35% with a $5 million deduction.

Current death tax rate is ZERO.  In what universe is a  “top rate to 35% with a $5 million deduction”  LOWER THAN ZERO?

Senate Republicans who vote to close debate on, or who vote in favor of reinstating the Estate Tax must be shown the door in 2012. The message of last November was to stand up to Democrat taxers, not cave in to them.

The Closing of the Muslim Mind (Robert Reilly)
- Highlight Loc. 2001-83
Dehellenization of Islam

The “intruding sciences” would intrude in Islam no more. They were expelled. As a result, notes Professor Joel Kraemer of the University of Chicago, “the assimilation of the Greek heritage in the Orient may be termed a ‘tragic sterility.’”10 professor of Arabic and Near Eastern studies G. E. von Grunebaum stated, “The far-reaching importance of the Greek contribution to Islamic cultures should not lead one to suppose that it effected a fundamental change in its vitality or its concept of man. There are few traces of the Greek spirit in the human ideal within even those sects which, like the [Shiite] Isma’iliyya, were most open to the influence of the Greek element in the interest of its own theologico-philosophic system.” Thus, he concluded, “The fundamental structure of Islamic thinking has been left untouched by Hellenistic influence.”11 (more…)

WikiLeaks and a fragile community - David Brooks NYT Opinion

Consider the effect computers have had on the insurance industry, and consequentially, on all of the risks (health, life, fire, accident, loss) funded by the insurance industry.  Prior to computers, the historical price for an insurance provider to cover a beneficiary was the product of static market conditions.  Insurance is a financial service product based on knowledge of risk, and the knowledge of various risks to beneficiaries had been stable for many years.  With the advent of computerization, beneficiaries and risk could be correlated in the machine so that insurers could now choose which beneficiaries were least likely to cost them benefits.  Computer correlation of beneficiary data fundamentally shifted the bargaining power between insurers and beneficiaries, and as we can see with health insurance, the consequences to this radical shift are still playing out in a myriad of market and government reactions. (more…)